Street Concert in Munich

The last weekend of Oktoberfest is crazy and a steady stream of beer-fueled attendees makes its way downtown to the pedestrian Marienplatz area afterwards. There was a classical quintet set up in front of a department store and after listening to them for several songs I made my way down the street to where this group was playing.
The local trio, called White, consisted of a guitar-player/singer, a stand-up base player and a drummer playing one of those wooden boxes that you sit on, called a cajon.
They were absolutely incredible, and had a crowd of about 75 dancing, clapping and singing along for an hour. Even though they were German, all of the announcing and singing was done in English and the - even though they were young and mostly German, seemed to know all of the words, even to the older tunes. The lead singer referred to us as "Publico" and often insisted that we join in. At one point the drummer passed out sparklers for us to light for the playing of
"Here Comes the Sun".
Behind them, inside the department store, the cleaning crew was enjoying the music as well. One guy kept driving in circles with a floor-cleaning vehicle and waving his arms over his head. A man and a woman appeared with mops, dancing as they buffed the floor. At the end if the song, we - Publico, that is - and they band advanced to the window and everyone applauded each other.
Someone in the crowd gathered everyone's spent sparklers and lay them neatly on the sidewalk. A group of police advanced during a final song, seeming to enjoy it as much as the rest of us. The front man acknowledged their presence, understanding that it was time to end the concert. Coins were dropped in the open guitar case, a few CD's were sold and everyone left with a smile.

Visiting the Ancestral Home in Germany

Yesterday, I visited the home and inn in Allendorf bei Frankenau Germany that was once owned by my great great grandfather Johann Daniel Krähling. His son, my great grandfather Conrad Krähling, emigrated to the United States in 1865, at the age of 19.
The timing of his emigration was fortunate as the American Civil War had just ended, and Germany was about to go to war with France. Luckily Conrad did not have to be involved in either of these conflicts.
Conrad arrived in Baltimore in September of 1865 and then worked for two years at a bakery in Washington DC in order to repay his uncle for his travel expenses. This must have been a tumultuous time in Washington, as it was only five months after the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. Amazingly, my father - who is still living, spent time with Conrad (his grandfather) who was a contemporary of both the brothers Grimm (who lived in the same part of Germany) and Lincoln.
In the family photo, you can see Conrad Krahling surrounded by his family at their home in Iowa. In the front row on the right (with the stylish striped knickers) is my grandfather, William August Krahling.

Creative Parking

Here's my rental car in the tight parking place at my hotel in Germany. It was my first day in years driving a car with a stick so putting in that spot was a bit of a challenge. It's actually sort of an elevator setup and when I got there, there were no spaces. A German guy driving a Smart Car arrived just after me and started fiddling with the hydraulic controls, trying to raise one if the cars, so he could park his on the platform below. I had visions of crushing someone's $80 K BMW and was all-to-eager to let him be the one to figure it out.
Fortunately for the BMW owners he couldn't get the controls to work and went upstairs to ask for help. He came back, saying that he had to exit the garage, which he accomplished with the kind of speedy U-turn that could only be managed in that space by a Smart Car and go to a different entrance where an even more bewildering car elevator could be used.
I began struggling to make a U-turn with my larger vehicle - usually remembering that I wasn't driving an automatic, when - much to my relief - someone vacated a parking space!
Twenty minutes later, with two or three exits from the car to check my clearance and extricate my suitcase from the trunk, thanking myself for having purchased the comprehensive insurance package, my car was safely and snugly parked.

The Astronomical Clock

A crowd began to gather in front of the Astronomical Clock in Prague's Old Town Square. I positioned myself in the back, just in front of a restaurant, where I would have an unobstructed view when the clock began to chime at 7:00. It turned out to be a prime eavesdropping spot as well.
A tall slim man with greying hair arrived with his blond son, about six years old, and found a spot next to me. We all stared at the clock face in anticipation, although it was very difficult to tell the time from the astronomical clock face with it's bewildering assortment of hands, numbers and symbols for the signs of the zodiac.
The small boy seemed more interested in the restaurant behind us. "Why don't we just eat at that restaurant, Dad?" he asked in American-accented English. The dad didn't reply, so every few minutes, the son would repeat the question, emphasizing the word "that" a little more each time.
The dad would only respond with a dismissive grunt.
Then the son began to ask, every minute or two, how long it would be until the clock chimed. "Five more minutes," the dad would respond in slightly British-accented English. "Four minutes." Each time his answer was a bit more curt.
"How much more time now, Dad?"
"You need only look at the clock on top!" the dad snapped, pointing to a traditional clock high above the astronomical clock which I had not noticed before. It wasn't clear whether the son could read this sort of clock any better than he could the bewildering astronomical one.
"What's it like, Dad?"
"Some figures come out and rotate," the Dad explained in a tired-sounding voice and then switched to what sounded like a Scandanavian language and delivered a livelier explanation.
"No!" the boy responded. Is that true?"
"To tell you the truth it's been so long that I can't remember very well. I just remember that it was a bit of a letdown. My advice is to expect very little so you won't be disappointed."
After hearing this enthusiastic buildup, the son returned his attention to lobbying for dining at the nearby restaurant. The clock explanation seemed to have brought on a didactic chattiness in the father, who perhaps sensed the possibility of delivering a life lesson.
"That's a nice location for a restaurant, don't you think?" They probably have a steady stream of customers, don't you think?" The son responded non-comittally.
"You see," the dad continued. "Every hour of the day, all day, all night, for the entire year, a crowd gathers just like this one. They don't really have to search for their customers, they automatically line up here at their door."
The son was silent, so the dad continued. "Do you think they would serve good food in such a restaurant?"
"Yes?" the son answered tentatively.
"Imagine two restaurants. This one, where the customers line up at the door and another one where the owners have to work very hard to entice customers to come to their restaurant. Which do you think would be more likely to have delicious food with a staff that is always trying very hard to please their customers?"
The son was saved from having to commit to one restaurant philosophy over the other by the sound of a small bell ringing repeatedly, which signaled that the clock was starting it's display.
"Look, the skeleton is pulling the rope!" the father called out in a voice a pitch higher than the voice he had been using pre-skeleton. "I forgot about that!"
The crowd oohed as they watched and filmed. The skeleton, representing death, I suppose, caused a parade of twelve apostles to appear, rotating in two different viewing spots a bit above the skeleton. Their facial expressions were only slightly more life-affirming than that of the skeleton. There were other figures whose heads swiveled in a way that seemed to be saying what we were all thinking - "What just happened here?"
Meanwhile the son beside me was largely silent. The characters stopped their movements and a grander sounding, churchbell-like bell began to chime. The crowd quieted down and began to disburse.
I heard the dad's voice one more time next to me.
"That was better than I remembered!"