I am at Frankfurt Airport. I checked into an airport hotel on Monday night. My flight to Paris is early Tuesday morning, and there I will catch the Air France flight to Cape Town, South Africa.
Early Tuesday/ to Paris, then Cape Town
Monday/ Galleria Kaufhof
My movements on Monday were curtailed by persistent, soaking rain! I postponed my trips to the Geldmuseum (money museum) and Schloss Höchst (castle Höchst) until my return stop here, and spent some time in the Galleria Kaufhof, a classic department store with seven floors.
It seems the ravages of Amazon has not yet hit Germany, or at least not this store in particular. The store is a great experience, and besides – total square footage of department stores in Europe is roughly half that of the square footage in the United States. So: they may be safe for now.
Sunday/ Weihnachtsmarkt, Frankfurt
I made it to the Frankfurt Christmas market on Sunday night. The biggest one in the city is at the Römerberg, the public square in the old town, and seat of the Frankfurt city administration since the 15th century.
It was cold! .. but by evening the snow had stopped. Later, when I was already back in the hotel, a heavy downpour of rain later washed away just about all of the snow on the ground. I hope the stalls for the Römerberg vendors stayed dry inside!
Sunday/ arrival in Frankfurt
I arrived in Frankfurt without incident. I had a short connection stop in Reykjavik (clear, 26°F/ -3°C). On the plane, we waited just a little bit for other connecting passengers, and to get the all-clear from Frankfurt. Snow was starting to fall as we arrived in Frankfurt at noon (32°F/ 0°C).
Saturday/ at the airport
I’m at Seattle-Tacoma airport .. boarding my Iceland Air flight now.
Friday/ my bags are packed
My bags are packed – more or less – for my departure on Saturday, for my journey down south to South Africa. I am making a two-night stop in Frankfurt on the way, and will end up in Cape Town by Tuesday night. Weather permitting (there is snow in the forecast for Frankfurt on Sunday), I will go to the Christmas market there on the Roemerberg, the old town square.
Thursday/ a little Danish for you?
.. no, not a pastry that you can eat – the kind you can read. I got this little first-grade reader book at a second-hand bookstore for a few dollars. For now, I don’t intend to learn Danish. I just like the o with the streg (ø) and the a with the overring (å). So foreign.
‘Søren and Mette’ was first published in 1954. The authors were teacher Knud Hermansen and psychologist Ejvind Jensen. The artist was Kirsten Jensenius. An updated version of the book is still in use today.
Wednesday/ Prost! with a Helmut
We went to a pub called ‘Standard Brewing’ tonight, in Seattle’s Central District. It’s been there a few years, but it was my first visit.
The beers on offer are brewed on site, and I had a Helmut: a Munich ‘Helles’, a medium- bodied lager with a full malt presence and a clean finish.
Tuesday/ ‘The President Stole Your Land’
‘I have a bone to pick with your President Trump’ said my friend from South Africa on the phone today. (She is an enthusiastic outdoors person). Yes, I said: I think I know what you mean.
From the New York Times: Trump sharply reduced the size of two national monuments* in Utah on Monday by some two million acres, the largest rollback of federal land protection in the nation’s history. The administration shrank Bears Ears National Monument, a sprawling region of red rock canyons, by 85 percent, and cut another monument, Grand Staircase-Escalante, to about half its current size.
*National monuments are lands that are protected from development by law. They are roughly analogous to national parks, but while national parks are created by Congress, national monuments are created by presidents through the Antiquities Act.
Observers say this order by Trump will precipitate a legal battle that could have far-reaching implications for the course of American land conservation, and for national monuments.
Monday/ fog, then sun
There was a thick fog hanging in the city this morning, but it was dry, and the sun came out later.
Sunday/ the construction goes on
Deadlines have to be met, and time costs money – so construction on the new downtown Seattle buildings soldiers on, regardless of the season. The crews do take a break on Sundays, and then I can go check on their progress. Here are two buildings near Westlake Avenue and Denny Way.
Saturday/ strange currencies
You know with love comes strange currencies -from the song ‘Strange Currencies’, R.E.M. (1995)
Also: with travel comes strange currencies. I sorted through my stash of foreign banknotes today, keeping the crisp new ones for my little amateur collection. I will exchange the others for Euros or US dollars at the airport, during my upcoming trip to South Africa.
I thought for sure, that by now the Hungarian forints that I got in Budapest in 2008, would be of no use – replaced by Euros – but no: they’re still good. The Hungarian government is in no hurry to adopt the Euro, apparently. I have Danish, Swedish and Icelandic krona notes as well, to exchange.
Friday/ Michael Flynn pleads guilty
Today, Michael Flynn* pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI in January (about meeting with the Russians). Doesn’t sound like a big deal? It’s a very big deal: a felony, a serious crime that can send the offender to jail for 5 years. Flynn will be a convicted felon, after all is said and done. Harry Litman writes in an opinion piece in the New York Times that Flynn will testify as a witness for special investigator Mueller, and that this ‘portends the likelihood of impeachable charges being brought against the president of the United States’.
*Former Director of the Defence Intelligence Agency (2012-2014), former National Security Advisor to President Trump, resigned after just 26 days in this role on February 13.
Thursday/ Senate Republicans at it: beggaring for special interest donations
Here we are again, watching the Senate Republicans doing their best to press into law, as quick as they can, without proper debate and hearings, an immoral law that will touch every American. (The Republican House had done their part already). The monstrous tax-cut bill that takes money away from students, teachers, hard-working middle-class people – and healthcare from sick people – is about to get voted into law. At the 11th hour on Thursday night, a few Republicans balked at the $1 trillion (at least) that it will add to the budget deficit, but it will probably pass on Friday.
As Republican strategist Steve Schmidt says in his tweets (below): if you are a generation X-er, you should be aghast at what the Republican septuagenarians and octogenarians in Congress are doing in the name of politics. They are beggars for donations from corporations and billionaires, and they are making all of us pay for it.
Wednesday/ cooler Christmas lights
I replaced just about all the light bulbs inside my house with light-emitting diode (LED) bulbs this year. It’s amazing: a tungsten-filament bulb that used to run at 60 Watt, can now be replaced with one that run only at 9 W! This is much better still, than the 13 W for compact fluorescent light (CFL) bulbs. General Electric is now stopping production of domestic CFL lamps in favor of LEDs.
So for Christmas lights, many home-owners can now install strings of LED lights as well. Yes, these cost more to purchase, but a lot less to operate. (Every year we see reports of home-owners that set up displays with 100,000 bulbs or more, and that ‘borrow’ electricity from their neighbors to power it all up). LEDs also last longer than traditional incandescent glass lights, and are a safer light source since the bulbs do not get as hot, and are made of epoxy, not glass.
Tuesday/ Rain City
I wish I could send some of the rain water from here, all the way down to Cape Town, South Africa. (The city of Cape Town is experiencing the worst drought in its recorded history).
Here is the Seattle area forecast for the next seven days.
Monday/ a ‘dim-witted, mush-mouthed fool’
President Trump made many Native Americans very angry today – at the annual ceremony meant to honor the Navajo Code Talkers . It’s a long story, but in a side comment, he again resorted to his standard derogatory reference ‘Pocahontas’ to describe Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren.
Here’s the reaction of Gyasi Ross, interviewed by Chris Hayes on MSNBC today: ‘The two groups that we revere are veterans and elders. Somehow this dim-witted, completely mush-mouthed fool managed to offend the two groups which he said he was honoring at this time, in front of a portrait of Andrew Jackson, who .. signed the Indian Removal Act that killed thousands of native people’.
Sunday/ Macy’s Christmas star
It was rainy today, and so I limited my Sunday walkabout to downtown. I did manage to snap a better picture of the Macy’s Christmas star!
Saturday/ no ‘shop till I drop’
Black Friday has some and come, and Small Business Saturday – but I still have not done any shopping. I guess I will venture out to downtown Seattle soon to go check on the merchandise (it’s still nice to go out to the store and look at stuff) .. and I will pull the trigger on a few books, and other items, that I let lie in my Amazon cart for several days now.
Bloomberg Businessweek says the single biggest mistake a department store such as Macy’s had made, was to buy up all the other failing department stores over the years. Macy’s have now had sales declines for the last 11 quarters. Management knows they have to train sales staff better, and improve in other ways the in-store experience for the 41 million shoppers that still come into their stores every year.
Friday/ hello Seattle
I made it back to Seattle late on Thursday night, courtesy of Alaska Airlines.
