Frauenkirche (Church of Our Lady)

 I am barely back from Germany,

and I have already been greeted with a traffic ticket from an overly eager sheriff.

After two long flights and several delays due to failures on the fuel gauge of the machine, we finally arrived in San Francisco early Tuesday morning.

Since we had been being awake for nearly 30 hours, we decided that it was time to find a late night snack. We hopped into my old Mitsubishi Eclipse but in the rush I forgot that I had all my papers, registration and insurance, taken out of the car before we went on vacation. As I was cruising down De Anza Blvd., I noticed a car behind me, just as I was about to switch lanes for a U-turn. I slowed down, but the car matched my speed. I decided to turn right instead, but the car followed me and after another right turn the cop revealed himself by turning on his lights. He seemed surprised to see a seemingly normal person behind the wheel, murmured something about speed although he had no reading on his radar and wrote me a ticket for not having my paperwork and for an allegedly not working brake light. He pointed out the dangers of speeding to me and let me go.

Germany

Being back in Germany for almost 3 weeks, my longest vacation ever, felt pretty good. Although we were visiting family, we found the time to visit some interesting places.

One of the most interesting sights was the Frauenkirche (Church of Our Lady) in Dresden that has finally been restored to its old glory. After being destroyed in the bombing raids of the final days of World War II, the privately financed reconstruction began in the early 1990's. The church is unique in its shape and form and is once again one of the landmarks of Dresden.

Lighthouse of August the Strong with Summer Sky ;-)The weather in Dresden and other parts of the country was quite strange. The image of the Frauenkirche was shot on one of the few clear days. Most of the time the weather was overcast and rain and sun would take turns in a matter of minutes. Everyone was complaining about the rainy summer of 2007 but as far as I can remember not much has changed.

Some things however did change. One is the fact that they now charge you for every public restroom. I couldn't find a single restroom that was free, including those in public places such as airports and train stations. Many of them have turnstiles installed. The common charge for a pi** is 0.50 Euro, a very unpleasant experience.

Despite some unpleasantness and unforeseen expenses, Germany is a wonderful country to visit and other things such as food can be incredibly cheap. One of the most enjoyable experiences was the Autobahn. Being able to completely open up the car and shoot through the landscape at a mind numbing 130mph was worth the trip to me. Dani tends to strongly disagree, but from the back seat things always look worse. If you think that 130mph is fast, just wait for a Porsche or a newly designed Audi R8 to scream past you with 180mph. I can only recommend trying it out and finding out for yourself how relaxing this can be. And next time you are pulled over by a cop for speeding and he goes off into a tirade of how dangerous 80mph is, you can't help but grin.