I did my short round cruise on Zürichsee* today. It was nice enough .. no fairy-tale castles to behold from the lake, just the Lindt & Sprüngli Chocolate Factory. The other highlight of my day (believe it or not, and don’t laugh) was my visit to the Zürich main post office. I had to stop myself from buying one each of all the beautiful stamps they had for sale.
*German for Lake Zürich – and meer is actually sea! Here is a little table.
German
English
Zürichsee
Lake Zurich
Rotes Meer
Red Sea
Atlantischer Ozean
Atlantic Ocean
Golf von Mexiko
Gulf of Mexico
Here’s our 300-person passenger ferry Uetliberg, named for a mountain near Zürich. The vessel is 42m (138 ft) long and 7 m (23 ft) wide and has been in service since 1999.The inset shows our 1h 40 min circular trip at the top of the Lake. Some really nice houses are visible from the water. It was a beautiful day, but it’s still very early in the season so only a few paddleboarders, kayakers and sailboats were around.I hopped off at the last stop in the boat cruise, at Willishofen, where I found this giant Lindt Milk Chocolate Gold Bunny at a gas station with a superette. Stores have tiny, regular and giant 1 kg Lindt chocolate bunnies for sale (the 1 kg ones go for SFr. 50 / US$50).Here’s the Zurich Main Post Office building on Kasernenstrasse 97 .... with fine old mosaic tiles on the bottom entrances still intact. But take a look at the blue and red letters visible in the lobby inside. Google has set up shop in the building as well.Here’s my little set of Swiss stamps I bought – just for fun. The bicycle stamps celebrate the 200 year anniversary of the invention of the bicycle (in 1817 by the German Baron Karl von Drais). The flower and butterfly stamps feature a fine laser-cut perforation so that the exact shapes can stay intact. In the middle is a set of three stamps that gives a nod to the Gotthard Base Tunnel for which construction was completed in 2016.This is just a cute jewelry store window display, for jewelry for kids (note that mom or dad would have to be prepared to splurge several hundred SFr.). The display has it all though : castle, princess in distress, knight in shiny armor and the dragon (the dragon looks a little sad – aw).
The Zürchers1 (and I) have had sunny, spring-y weather since Tuesday (but I see our luck is going to run out on Saturday, with a cold front that will bring rain as well). I plan to go on a quicky boat cruise on Lake Zürich tomorrow. Today I took a break from walking all over the city, and – among other things – took care of some laundry at a laundromat on the northern outskirts of the city. The streets are quiet there and it was nice to get away from the all the people in Old Town. (It’s actually not too crowded just yet. I’m sure once summer is here, there will be five times more people).
1A person from Zürich/ that lives in Zürich
Here’s my post-card picture of the Zurich skyline from Wednesday night. This is looking north while on the bridge at Burkliplatz.Newsboard inside Zurich Main Station. It’s 6.40 pm and the temperature outside is still a decent 12°C/ 54°F, down from a high of 18°C/ 64°F (Zurich is in the north on the map).Also at Zurich Main Station, this worker made some heads turn while he was wheeling around this display case marionette.
I finally studied my Zurich street car (tram) map properly – so that I did not have to log 7 miles of walking again on Wednesday! The day’s ‘mission’ also was to get a full set of Swiss Franc coins (I love shiny coins), and just to track down a few other places I could not get to on Tuesday.
This is a little square called Paradeplatz. The building on the left is filled with Credit Suisse offices, and the building on the right has a Hermes store at the ground floor, and a beautiful golden balcony rail at the top.Here’s the entrance to the Swiss National Bank building. They did not sell Swiss coin sets (and the Swiss Mint is in Bern), but the teller was nice enough to change my 20 Franc note into relatively new coins of each denomination.Here’s a few Swiss Franc banknotes and the Swiss Franc coins. The Swiss Franc (SFr.) is just about on par with the US dollar, in value. There is also a SFr. 200 and SFr. 1,000 note. (Would love to get my grubby paws on a stash of SFr. 1,000s to admire! – but my last name is not Rockefeller). The SFr. 50 bill is new, the first of the 9th series of Swiss notes, and said to be the world’s most secure note, with 18 security features. There is no Swiss ‘penny’. (Should the US Federal Reserve take notes? Do away with the US penny, and maybe with the US dollar note as well?).There seems to be a chocolate store on every block in the city of Zurich. This one sells a dozen different kinds of ‘schokolade spröde’ (chocolate sheets). The light brown one in the middle has almonds in.Can life get possibly any sweeter than this little tray of chocolate, custard and jam cookies? This is from the fancy Jelmoli department store on Bahnhofstrasse.The museum for the day that I wanted to go to was the Museum für Gestaltung (Museum of Design), but it unfortunately it was closed for renovation until May. These posters are from the little park across from the Museum.All the street cars (trams) I have seen here in Zurich look like these ones .. two to four cars are connected, and they come by every 10 minutes. Motor cars seem to stay mostly out of the tram lanes, but on occasion they do use it.
Drink your Züri water! This little notice is from my hotel bathroom to say the tap water is absolutely fine to drink.The Landsmuseum (National Museum) is right across the main train station. It is not very big, but the exhibits it has, are nicely presented. The main exhibit right now is of the 1917 Russian Revolution, and the connection between Zürich and Russia. (From Wikipedia : There was significant emigration of Swiss people to the Russian Empire from the late 17th to the late 19th century. Also, Zürich played host to both Lenin and Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn).
Zürich has been around for a long, long time : when the Romans founded it in 15 BC, they called it Turicum. I can tell the German they speak here is different from Germany’s (not that I understand a whole lot of it!). The city has a reputation for its quality of life, but man! you’d better have a good job or have money to spend. My $4 Seattle Starbucks latte (admittedly expensive already) goes for $6.50 here, and I paid $25 for a pretty modest (but very nice) lunch today at seafood franchise Noordsee. The same lunch cost $16 in Germany.
Here’s the quick orientation of Zurich I gave myself, when I started out today. The Marriott hotel (at the top) is at the confluence of the Limmat and Sihl rivers. The blue at the bottom is Lake Zurich. The old town sits all around the Limmat river (the one on the right).The main entrance to the Zürich Hauptbahnhof (main station). It’s early evening and lots of commuters are leaving the station to go home. The blue-and-white flags beside the Swiss flag on the right, are the flags of the City of Zürich.Zürich Altstadt (Old Town) has lots of crooked and cobbled streets, and two and three storey buildings, many of which date back to the 1500s or 1600s. (Renovated many times, I’m sure, though).‘Hier wohnte Johannes Caspar Lavater 1778-1784’ says the words in the panel. I saw several other buildings with names and dates on them.‘Haus Zur Glocke (House of the Bell) dates back to 1357, then owned by bell maker Konad Glogger. The neo-Renaissance facade was added in 1881 architect Adolf Brunner. Finally, in 1925 the art deco ceramic cladding on the ground floor for the cafe-restaurant was added.There are many, many luxury shops and expensive watch stores on Bahnhofstrasse, and they get ever more upmarket the closer one gets to Lake Zurich. Many of the street names here go by ‘gasse’ (alley) and not ‘strasse’ (street). I guess that is correct, given how narrow they are!The Grossmünster (‘great minister’) as seen from the Münsterbrücke (Münster bridge) over the Limmat river. It is a Romanesque-style Protestant church. Construction of the present structure commenced around 1100 and it was inaugurated around 1220.Here’s a panoramic view of Münsterhof square with some of the guild houses (or halls). These are buildings historically used by guilds for meetings and other purposes. Today many of them have been turned into restaurants on the ground floor and office space upstairs.Here’s Lake Zürich by Bellevue platz as the sun set tonight. The swans are squabbling over a little tidbit in the water.
My time in Munich was up on Monday morning. I checked out of my comfy Marriott hotel and made my way to the München Hauptbahnhof once more, same as Sunday, but this time to catch a EuroCity train to Zurich. The train went west and around Lake Constance, making stops at some small train stations with charmingly short names, such as Elgg and Wil. At one station I saw a guy roll himself a cigarette from loose tobacco (have not seen that in a very long time), and at another, a businessman stepped on board using a strange, square-shaped phone : turned out to be a Blackberry Passport.
I love the Süddeutsche Zeitung (even though I understand only every third word ! LOL). This morning’s edition featured Roger Federer on the front page. ‘Triumph and Angst’ : Roger Federer about his secrets for success – how he reconciles the pinnacle of sport and a family rich in children’.Here’s the 4h 34m train ride’s route to Zurich. Will we go north? or will we go south? around Lake Constance, I wondered. (South). There are several stops along the way, and at some stations cars are added or disconnected. No stop at the Swiss border, though – just an announcement ‘Willkommen in der Schweiz/ Welcome to Switzerland’.Here’s a glimpse of Lake Constance, this at the town of Lindau on the eastern edge of the lake.And just a cool barnhouse of sorts (?) shortly after we crossed the Swiss border. I love the giant roof and its overhang, and the siding tiles on the front.This is at Zurich Hauptbahnhof, and we had just disembarked from our train. (Yes, not a very sleek-looking engine car, but hey, it did its job very well for 4 1/2 hours). The upper train station has an older industrial look, but sits on top of a sprawling and modern underground shopping mall.
Here’s the route: Munich main station to Salzburg main station. It’s pretty flat most of the way, and Rosenheim is the biggest town on the way there. The railroad also passes close by a few lakes.
I took the train to Salzburg (just over the border in Austria, birthplace of Mozart*) today. It’s just under two hours one way. I was somewhat surprised not to find U-bahns, nor trams, in Salzburg at my arrival. From the main station, the way to get around is by bus. (The old town is nearby, and a 15 minute walk).
*I did stop at Mozart’s house. It’s now a museum, of course. Classical music barbarian that I am, and pressed for time, I did not go inside, though.
Munich’s Hauptbahnhof (main station) has a low-key main entrance. Smoking is not allowed inside the train station, so this is where all the smokers are!Here’s the Salzburg Hauptbahnhof (main station) platforms. The train station departure hall roof structure were refurbished in 2014.The old entrance to the Salzburg hauptbahnhof. (Hmm. I’m really not sure what the purpose of the gray column is that obstructs the view of the front entrance, and if it really needed to be put right there!).Here’s the Parish Church St. Andrä with its stately and square bell towers at Mirabell Platz in Salzburg old town. This is not the original church, though. The original church was rebuilt and consecrated in 1898. Most of that church was destroyed in WW2 and reconstructed again by 1949. Even after that, in the late 60s/ 1970 the towers were shortened and covered with flat pyramid-shaped roofs to make it fit better into the Salzburg cityscape !This is the Dreifaltigkeitskirche (Church of the Holy Trinity, a Roman Catholic Church), on Makartplatz. It opened in 1702. The big picture is mine, but it was impossible to get a good far-away picture, so I pasted one in on the bottom right that I found on-line.This elaborate metal art sign belongs to the Gablerbräu Restaurant & Beer Inn old city Salzburg.Just a block of apartments off Schallmooser Hauptstrasse (I wandered off in an uncharted non-tourist direction). The building’s straight lines were a welcome relief from the old Gothic and Renaissance buildings in old town.Oh wow! I stumbled on an an art museum, I thought – this is on Schallmooser hauptstrasse. But no, it is an ärtztzentum, meaning a medical (doctors’) center.
Marienplatz has been Munich’s main square since 1158 (whoah). This is the bell tower with the Glockenspiel which is part of the Neues Rathaus (New* Town Hall) *New is relative, in this case meaning since 1874. Is is exactly 12 noon, and soon thereafter the two carousels came to life, with kings and knights and joker characters going around for a few minutes.The view of the Frauenkirche from a street coming out of Marienplatz.This is the Montgelas Memorial (artist Katrin Sander, 2005) at Promenadeplatz square in the old city. Maximilian Josef Garnerin, aka Count von Montgelas (1759–1838) was a Bavarian statesman.
It was a beautiful spring-like day on Saturday, and I spent most it on and around Marienplatz, just doing a random walk around it, with a nice lunch at German seafood franchise Nordsee, and a coffee at Starbucks.
Some men dress up in lederhose, others walk their dogs on Marienplatz .. this pooch must have gotten something caught in its long hair. There was also a ‘women against inequality’ group singing songs and making their case from a podium, with a few policemen at hand to keep an eye on the crowd.This is the view looking eastward from Marienplatz.Inside the department store Galeria Kaufhof, off Marienplatz, this T-Rex is displaying its, um – charming character.Check out these old collectable pictures, part of a large series, of the buildings of Munich in the 50s and 60s (or earlier? I’m not sure). I bought these at the Munich City Museum’s store for a few euros.
I spent much of Friday traversing the city on the U-bahn, stopping at the stations with really nice interiors to take some pictures. It still gets pretty darn cold outside as soon as the sun sets (down to freezing), so it’s good that I packed my scarf and gloves.
These giant domes bathed in purple from the walls and ceiling are at Westfriedhof station all the way north on the U1 line.Sign inside one of the train cars; one of those uniquely German words : ‘Schwarzfahren’ .. traveling without a ticket. (Yes, but will an offender even bother to read the sign?)This badge is painted on the outside of a train car on the U6 line, a symbol to the city’s historic past, but that’s all I know.Many older stations such as Sendlinger Tor (Sendlinger Gate) have older interiors.This beautiful building is right next to my hotel at Berlinerstrasse 95. It belongs to Munich RE Group, a reinsurance company based in Munich.Fridge magnets from a souvenir store. Isn’t the bearded guy in his Bavarian lederhose with his beer and his doggie just utterly charming?This is the underground inside of the large train station at Marienplatz. Five years ago when I was last here it was a big mess with all the renovation going on, and now it’s looking great.And this is a little further down at Marienplatz, by the U-bahn platforms. It’s 10 at night, so no humans around to spoil the clean lines of the tunnel !The station called Münchner Freiheit (Munich’s Freedom) on the U6 line has beautiful blue columns with LED lighting to accent the blue. The walls are yellow, and the ceiling panels a polished metal.This is the street level at Münchner Freiheit station. It is somewhat of a hub since there are connecting bus lines and tram lines here as well. (But certainly the new BMW would be the sweetest mode of transport, right?).
It rained all day long in Munich today (9°C/ 48°F), and I had to buy a cheap €10 umbrella to get around without getting too wet. (One only gets less wet with an umbrella, and completely wet, without one). The other unexpected event of the day was an unspecified problem on the U6 train line at 6 pm as I made my way back to the hotel, that stopped all northbound trains. ‘The U6 line will be closed for a long time’ announced the driver, after it had stopped at Giselastrasse station. We all got out, and ‘What do I do now?, I thought. There is no other U-bahn line that goes to the Norfriedhof station by my hotel. No tram line goes there, either. Maybe a bus did, but I had no bus map. So: taxi. No luck flagging one down by Giselastrasse station, so I took the southbound U6 train two stops down, where I knew there was a taxi stand. Yay! I was so happy to find a taxi waiting, to get off my tired feet and just sit. Ten minutes later, I paid the driver the €15 fare and hopped out at my hotel.
Here’s a wet Odeonsplatz – a large square in central Munich. That’s the Theatine Church in yellow, getting renovated, and a ‘Trump, What Now’? poster in the foreground.The entrance to the Neue Pinakothek, a museum with European works of art from the 18th and 19th century, some four blocks from Odeonsplatz. A student tour group is approaching on the left, umbrellas and all.One of the prize items in the Neue Pinakothek collection is the Van Gogh Sunflowers (Arles F456). Van Gogh painted several similar sunflower stills in two series. This one is the only one with a blue-green background. There are also a few Monets and Gustav Klimts in the museum, and a sculpture by Picasso.Here are the trains on the U3 & U6 lines by Odeonsplatz station. The train on the right is an older model, and the one on the left a brand new train.The rain finally cleared late on Thursday, just as I was getting ready to call it quits and go back to the hotel for dinner. These are the twin dome towers of Munich’s iconic Frauenkirche. The church building was completed in 1488, and the Gothic Renaissance domes in 1524.No, giant aliens have not landed in Munich! This 17 m (54 ft) tall ‘Walking Man’ artwork has actually been here on Leopoldtstrasse since 1995. It was designed by American artist Jonathan Borofsky.
My long overnight flight to London, and the short one to Munich both went smoothly. London was gray and rainy. There was a little turbulence on the flight to Munich, spilling the tea out of my cup and onto the tray (a storm in my teacup?).
This is at the gate at Cape Town airport, and we are just stepping into the Boeing 747 from British Airways. ‘One World’ says the giant letters on the fuselage (the airline alliance BA belongs to).This is at the Heathrow Airport security checkpoint as I went from Terminal 3 to Terminal 5 to catch my flight to Munich. (A little unusual for the Brits to deploy cute little characters such as ‘Mr. Adventure’ on their signage, is it not?)Arrived at Munich Terminal 2, and here making my way to the baggage claim and exit. I like the blue and yellow neon that adds a little color to the grays of the airport terminal.
I made one final excursion today, to Stellenbosch. This is Victoria Street, on the University of Stellenbosch campus. The trees are already shedding their leaves even though autumn has not arrived. Stellenbosch is as dry as the Cape Town area. The blue decorations are for the annual Wordfees (‘Word Festival’), a celebration of Afrikaans with poetry readings, plays, debates and discussions.
Today my time in the Cape Town area, is up (alas). I made one final trip to Stellenbosch.
Tonight I will take British Airways to London Heathrow, and then on to Munich, to spend a few days there.
The M10 and the M12 are two arterial roads running by Cape Town International Airport. I used them to steer clear of the clogged up freeways to drop Marlien at the airport on Monday morning at 7 am.
I’m at a dead stop in Monday morning traffic at the junction of the M10 and the M12, and was just snapping a picture of the traffic sign (I know – I should not mess with my phone while driving), when I lucked out and caught a departing British Airways flight as well in the frame! (Very likely bound for Johannesburg. The flights to Europe leave later in the day and in the evening).
My friends Bryan and Dale and I made a quick run out to the Victoria & Alfred Waterfront today. It was very pleasant outside at the Waterfront (25℃/ 75 ℉).
Cheers! San Marcos at the V&A Waterfront. Our beers are from Namibia, mine a Windhoek Light and Bryan’s a Windhoek Lager. (Thanks for snapping the picture, Dale!).This is one of my favorite buildings in the Waterfront, the Old Port Captain’s Building (1904).The Victorian Gothic-style Clock Tower was the original Port Captain’s Office, built in 1882. The pointed Gothic windows surrounds the structure with a clock, imported from Edinburgh, as a main feature. The red walls are the same color as they were in the 1800’s, the new paint matched with scrapings of the old.
I made it into Cape Town early on Wednesday afternoon. Summer is showing no sign of slowing down here, with a high of 33 °C (91°F) today, and tomorrow’s forecast at 35 °C (95°F). In fact, a severe drought has prompted authorities in the Western Cape to impose water restrictions on residents.
This is the first of my three British Airways flights, boarding the Airbus A319 at Frankfurt’s Terminal 2 for London Heathrow.Flight No 2 – making my way at London Heathrow’s Terminal 5 to the big Airbus A380-800 for the long south-bound flight to Johannesburg. Flight time was 11 hrs and 11 mins.And here is our flying machine for the third and final leg of my journey from Frankfurt to Cape Town, a Boeing 737-800. We had just landed at Cape Town airport. No bus! We had to hoof it over to the arrivals terminal that was close by. I did not mind: it was great to stretch my legs.
Here’s the tram (we call them street cars in the States) that stops in front of the Marriott Hotel where I stay – very convenient. Tram to the Frankfurt Main Station, then the train to Frankfurt Airport.
Alright, on my way to Frankfurt’s Terminal 2. It is British Airways all the way, but I will make two stops on the way to Cape Town, South Africa : one in London Heathrow and one in Johannesburg. Since London is still in Europe for now (in the European Union), I will probably get my European Union passport stamp in London – and not here in Frankfurt.
It takes about 48 minutes on the Stuttgart-bound train from Frankfurt to Heidelberg.
I took a Deutsche Bahn train to Heidelberg today in the morning, returning to Frankfurt some 4 hours later. It’s not the best time of year to visit, of course – but Heidelberg has Heidelberg University, founded in the 14th century. I also wanted to check out Heidelberg Castle, conveniently located on Königstuhl hill right by the Altstadt (old town).
This is Markplatz right next to Heiliggeistkirche (the Holy Ghost Church), off Hauptstrasse. It is chilly – not a lot of people around!This is the Neckar River that runs through Heidelberg. It is a major tributary to the Rhine. To the right of the sluice gates is a set of locks, elevating the river surface upstream by a few feet.This is the entrance to the Institute for Translation and Interpreting at the University of Heidelberg, at 52 Hauptstrasse.This is looking west on Hauptstrasse, with Zum Guldenen Schaf (‘To the Golden Sheep’) tavern on my right.This is an ornate and very beautiful pair of entrance doors on Universitätsplatz (University Square).This little square is called Kornmarkt (I think) .. in the background on Königstuhl hill is the redstone buildings and remains of Heidelberg Castle.Heidelberg has the distinction of having both the oldest and the most modern funicular railways in Germany. The lower portion opened in 1890, and was most recently updated in 2004, giving it the ‘most modern’ title as well. Here’s the little train car on the funicular railway that goes up Königstuhl hill. There is a walkway up the hill as well (but it’s easier and way more fun to take the little train).It’s a quick ride up, through some very old tunnel. I am sitting in the last row at the back, and this is the view down.Alright! Let’s go inside and see what the castle looks like.This is the back of the best-preserved part of the castle. The front overlooking the city, looks similar. The black and yellow flag on the tower on the right is the City of Heidelberg flag.Lion’s head detail on the castle wall from the previous picture. Is this a sad lion? Like the one in the Wizard of Oz?Here’s a zoomed-in view from the city from a vantage point on the castle. The church towers of the Jesuitenkirche (Jesuit Church) on the left, and the Heiliggeistkirche (Holy Ghost Church) on the right, stand out. That’s the Neckar River at the top of the picture.
I had just stepped off the airplane on the tarmac, at a wet Keflavik airport. The last few passengers are making their way to the bus.
There was no snow in sight at Keflavik airport (outside Reykjavik, Iceland) at our arrival there this morning; just a steady rain. We were bussed into the airport terminal and again out to the Iceland Air Boeing 757. It was some 7 hrs into Reykjavik, and 3 more got me to Frankfurt.
Our Iceland Air 757 from Seattle was named after volcano Dyngjufjöll; Aurora Borealis LED light display inside the cabin; Reykjavik to Frankfurt is 3 hrs.This is the train that I took from Frankfurt airport to Frankfurt hauptbahnhof (main train station).
‘Trump against the rest of the world’, says the German magazine Stern. ‘Self-governing, ruthless and unpredictable – how the new US President is fighting democracy’. (This magazine is dated Feb 9 – so well before Trump’s Thursday Feb 16 circus of a press conference and tweets on Friday denouncing all the major newspapers and media outlets as ‘fake news’). Looks like there is no getting away from the Trump coverage .. but at least I will get a break from the barrage of bad news from the cable news channels I watch in the United States (I hope).
I am at Seattle airport, and made it though security into the lounge at the South Terminal. I have a 40-minutes-only layover at Reykjavik airport, so I have to dash for the gate for Frankfurt’s departure as soon as I step off the plane there. Usually the connecting flight’s boarding gate is close by, though.
The same magazine had a spread of Valentine’s Day celebrations from around the world. This cute couple is getting married in red and in the garrison chapel on South Africa’s Robben Island (Robben Island is where Nelson Mandela had spent the larger part of 27 years in jail).
I am starting to make my way to South Africa on Saturday by taking an Iceland Air flight to Frankfurt, with a short stop in Reykjavik. The airline actually called me this morning to inquire if they can change my flight to the direct flight on Lufthansa : the Iceland Air flight was oversold. Sure! I said. Several hours later I finally got the Lufthansa itinerary, and checked in. But no .. back came an e-mail from Iceland Air : Lufthansa needed the seat after all; the Lufthansa web site should not have allowed me to check in. Can I use the original Iceland Air reservation instead? Man! So I finally got my boarding pass on Iceland Air, back where I started.
Here are the two Iceland Air flights that will get me to Frankfurt on the first leg of my trip to South Africa. The big white mass is Greenland. As is sometimes said : Iceland is green and Greenland is ice (at least for another few years, before it thaws).
A selfie from someone at San Francisco International airport, that spotted Google co-founder Sergey Brin there. Brin (on the left in the picture) was there in a personal capacity and did not make public comments, but did tell a reporter that ‘I am here because I am a refugee’. His parents brought him to the United States from Russia, when he was 6 years old, in the wake of anti-Semitism against his family. Brin is the 10th richest man in the USA.
There were protests at Seattle airport and several others on Saturday night, and in downtown Seattle on Sunday, against the ban* for travelers/ refugees/ green card holders of the seven countries in Pres. Trump’s executive order. Lots of confusion.
The Dept of Homeland Security finally clarified that the ban does not apply to green card holders. What was surprising to me is the relatively low number of international travelers impacted on Saturday; from what I read the number for all of the USA seemed to be no more than 200 or so. But it’s the principle that matters. And we don’t know how many people were about to start to travel back and had to cancel their plans at the last minute. (Also : someone on Twitter pointed out that only 0.75% of Germany’s 1933 population were Jews).
*The ban suspends the entry of all refugees to the United States for 120 days, halts the admission of refugees from Syria indefinitely and bars entry for three months to residents from the predominantly Muslim countries of Iraq, Syria, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Somalia and Yemen.
