Weekend in France

This is just a quick note to say hello to all and give you some details of our weekend trip to France. Monday was a holiday here in this part of Germany and Carnival is in full swing before the start of Lent on Wednesday, so we did the German thing and went on vacation like many of our neighbors. It’s either that or visit parades and drink for 5 days in a row. If I was 20, I might have stuck around.

This was a quick trip and we drove Sunday morning to a small town in France called Amiens, about 4 hours from our house. It is most famous for its cathedral, which is the largest in France. The building was indeed spectacular. Kira wants to return on June 24th to visit. The cathedral was built after John the Baptist’s head was given to the region in 1209. Every year on Saint John the Baptist Day, they bring out the head on a platter for all to see. It that cool or what? (OK, so it’s weird!). No pictures of the head, so don’t race through this looking for one! We did see a picture (it was actually just the face, and it was rather gruesome. I don’t know what happened to the rest of the head or the body for that matter).

There is nothing much else to Amiens from what we could see. It looks like a very depressed town. Much of the town is built of a white cinder block construction and this looks dismal when dirty and, having a grey sky made it even more depressing. Only a few shops were open Sunday and even many of the restaurants appeared to be closed. Our guide book suggested one of two places; a local and an exotic. The local was closed so we opted for the other, a Tex Mex place in the middle of nowhere. I don’t think I’ve ever had a chicken burrito served with Velveeta cheese melted on top and served with French fries on the side. The beer was good though.

We went looking for breakfast on Monday morning, and again nothing was open, even at 10:00 a.m. We ended up in a little bakery eating croissant type stuff. They didn’t have coffee. We even went to the tourist office, staffed by 5 people, all sitting around talking, and couldn’t get a recommendation for a place to eat at 11:00 am on Monday. Very weird. I know why Starbucks is doing well in France. I only wish they had one in Amiens. As an aside, Starbucks opened last year in Cologne, a nearby city to Bonn. However, as Dianne found out on her first visit there at 7:30 a.m. before a meeting that the place doesn’t open until 9:00. How weird is that!

We all laughed at our ability to completely destroy the French language. For some reason, the couple hundred German words I know keep popping into my head at the most inopportune time. I have no idea how people can manage to speak 3 or 4 languages without mixing them all up. Needless to say, we servived.


Amiens was also near the front lines during the First World War and there are war memorials and grave yards everywhere around. Even the church had several plaques thanking the various Allied troops for helping to defend the church and the town.

We went to visit a famous WW1 battleground at Vimy Ridge, about 20 minutes from Amiens. This was the Germans most heavily fortified hill on the front, which extended down from Belgium to Switzerland. The two sides were stalemated for several years, when the Canadians were given the task to take the hill. The battle was characterized as one of the greatest of the war, in which the Canadians stormed up the hill and took possession of the field.

We walked around some of the trenches. It was amazing that the two sides were literally 100 feet apart. During the summer months you can also go down into some of the tunnels, where they would dig to the other side and set large explosives under the enemy. They will also give personal tours for all Canadians. We also saw one of the grave yards, the huge monument built on the hill to honor all the Canadians lost in the war, and a little museum with pictures and small video clips. Most of the graves were marked only as “Known Only Unto God” as their names were not known. The monument has inscribed the names of all the thousands of Canadians missing and presumed dead during the War. The battleground is filled with huge craters and there are still thousands of unexploded shells around. Don’t leave the designated walking areas! It was very impressive.

A link is included for those Canadians in the e-mail. http://pages.interlog.com/~fatjack/vimybattle.htm
As Dianne says, it definitely makes one proud to be (or have been) Canadian after visiting.

Anyway, if it’s Tuesday, Dianne must be in Moscow! It’s back to daily life.

Tom, Dianne, Kira, Conner

Glynn Germany Update

It’s been a while since the last update, so here goes!

We’ve had new neighbors move in directly across the street from us. They are British but plan to live in Germany for many more years. They have two kids, Eleanor and Ingrid about 2 ½ and 4. Conner is in love with both of them. We are constantly on the lookout to see if they are around. The kids come and visit 3 or 4 times a week to play with Conner’s toys and watch videos. A picture is attached.

Conner is doing well adjusting to his new ½ day program at school. He is in with the “big” kids who are all two years of age.

Kira is plugging along at school, enjoying the social aspects and the fact she gets little, if any, homework on a regular basis. A couple of weeks ago her German teacher encouraged the kids to further develop their language skills by joining a German sports group. German kids go to school from about 8 a.m. to around 1 p.m. and then go to various activities, including these sports clubs. It is kind of like the parks and rec activities in the States. Kira was the only one in her school to sign up.

I took her for her sign up and first practice last Friday. She was pretty nervous and made sure that I notified the person signing everyone up that her German wasn’t that good and she was a native English speaker. After the signup, which went very smoothly (as I am now an expert at filling out standardized forms), we waited for the class to start. Four girls, all obviously friends, came bounding in, dressed in official basket ball gear for Germany (Deutsche Telecom sponsors the big team here) and were loud and boisterous. I think if Kira could have backed out at that moment she would have. At the appropriate time we moved into the gym to start. We introduced ourselves to the coach (he was probably late teens) and let him know that Kira’s German was not at the expert level. He said, in perfect English, “No problem, I speak English”. Kira grew about 2 feet taller and was very relieved. Once the kids were seated, the coach introduced everyone. He was excellent; within 2 minutes he had all the girls names memorized. He explained to everyone that Kira spoke English. One of the girls (in German) said, “but this is a German club”, at which time the coach replied back, “no, it’s a sports club”. Kira, who could understand both, was beaming. Kira fit right in and could do all the drills including dribbling, lay ups, and shooting from various different spots in the court. At one time another one of the girls said to everyone (in German) and to no one in particular, “Why is she so good?” referring to Kira. The coach replied, “She’s American, they are all good at Basket Ball”. Kira, who told no one that she could understand German, smiled for the rest of the class. Halfway through the practice, the girls were split into two groups to play a pick up game. Two of the German girls were told to each pick a person until everyone was assigned to a team. Kira was one of the first picked. Needless to say, Kira is already talking about joining next year. I think she is braver than I ever was (or will be!)

Dianne’s work is picking up at Deutsche Telecom and, as a result, has been traveling a lot less. She has one trip to Moscow planned and a possible trip to Warsaw, but no major events planned.

Unfortunately Dianne had her wallet stolen from her purse at work earlier in the week. She didn’t discover it missing until she was heading home in the evening. After discussing the issue with the internal security she headed home to start canceling credit cards and figuring out how to get all the ID back. Most of the process was surprisingly easy with calls to the US to get new cards sent on the way. The only major issue we had was trying to get hold on the German bank to cancel our ATM card. There is no 24/7 banking here. They had an automated number to call, but as it was all in German, and we were forced to give up pretty quickly. Dianne decided to call the bank directly first thing in the morning. At 8 a.m. she called the branch and explained the issue. She was told there was no one there to help and could she please call back at nine. Very weird. At 9:00 she went over to the branch and explained the problem. They asked if should would mind waiting 5 days before doing anything, because, supposedly in Germany, many wallets are returned in the mail, with only the cash missing. She explained that she used the card everyday and really needed it cancelled and replaced. She was told it would be a 10 day wait. She asked what would happen if she waited for the wallet to come in the mail for a week and then it never appeared. She was told it would take 10 days from then to get another card. All the pleading in the world was wasted; we are now waiting 10 days for her card to arrive. Thank goodness I have my card, or so I thought. I went to the bank the next day (I bank most every day!) and put my card in the machine to check balances and verify transactions. The machine grabbed my card and told me to see someone in the bank. To say that I was stressed was an understatement. How could we get by without access to cash or ATM for the next 10 days! I went into the bank and tried to explain in the best German I could muster that I really needed my card back. I was told that I could get the card back the next day if I brought my passport with me. I left, not quite sure if the card would be any good, and by the way, with about 4 euros to my name. I returned 24 hours later and got my card back. Luckily it was useable at the machines and stores around town. I still have never figured out why they took my card.

My official job is to think about where to travel next. Only a year and a few months to go! We have booked our Easter vacation to the Canary Islands. They are part of Spain and located off the coast of Africa. They are the German version of Hawaii and the Islands are always full of German tourists. We found a nice little apartment on the web and will be staying for 10 days. Temperatures are very nice at that time of year and we plan to make this our sit and relax vacation. No museums, churches or 1000 year old buildings. Kira is thrilled.

We just returned from a weekend in Amsterdam (three hours from here). We had a great time in a really neat city. We saw the Van Gough museum, Anne Frank house, did a canal tour and did a lot of walking. Pictures are on the web and if anyone wants to see what the city looks like. Let me know and I’ll send you a link.

Dianne’s parents along with her brother Brian and his significant other will be joining us in June. Where else to go but Italy? Our favorite spot in the Tuscany region again is on the agenda.

I have also booked a hotel for around a week in early June in Le Bourg D’Oisans in the French Alps at the base of Alpe D’Huez and plan to do some cycling around the legendary Tour de France climbs. I’m in training now. The downhills are easy; just a little fast. It’s the uphills that I’m worried about. I’ll keep practicing and see what happens!

Kira and Conner will probably be off to Canada with Grandma and Grandpa when they finish visiting us. I’ll probably fly back to pick them up and return to Germany. We are still working on details.

The weather has been fantastic lately with temperatures in the 50’s. Next week the temperature should drop again, but we’ll take the good stuff when we can. I’ve attached a picture of Conner preparing for winter weather.

We had a great time in the US and Canada over Xmas and can’t wait to see everyone again.

Tom (Dianne, Kira & Conner too!)