Moving Along... Germany

After coming back with the nastiest damn cold I've ever had I haven't felt like doing much, but i am finally going to finish the blog. Although I am going to keep it short.

I got to Germany with Dunja, flew into Dortmund and she drove to her place. The next evening we headed to her parents house to celebrate her Dad's birthday. Had a great time with her family. Her Mom doesn't speak English (which doesn't keep her from talking with Lesley on the phone, who doesn't speak German... we're not quite sure how that all works) And it didn't keep her from being a great hostess, we had tea and cake before heading out to dinner, German pastries make ours look pretty weak here in the US. Her Dad is a character, he speaks English fine and we got along great. He specifically said that unless he says he's being serious, not to take anything completely serious. Then Dunja's brother Alex showed up as well, the man is 25 and a frickin genius, writes music and programs computers as if it were nothing.

We had a great night out, chowed on some excellent Schnitzel and drank some very good beer (Veltins). Dunja's daughter Tara joined us for a while and Dunja's future ex-husband Klaus joined us as well and it was a good time. It was good for me to listen to them speak German and try to pick out phrasing. It's been at least 14 years since I took any German, but I was able to pick up a bit here and there. Fortunately most everyone could speak to me in English "Stevie, birthday order, have another beer" Although I would have loved to drink along with Dad, I would have been face down in Schnitzel if I tried to keep up.

Tuna Pizza
The next evening we went over to Alex's place. He had this amazing studio set up in the basement of the house he rents. I will have a picture or two posted of it shortly. We went out to dinner at a great Italian place and was introduced to something new.... Tuna Pizza! Now, most of you Americans probably had the same reaction... WTF. I couldn't believe it, but I tried it and it wasn't bad, tasted like pizza with meat on it, but I don't see it being a popular item here lol.

Unpleasant Surprise
We packed it in to leave for Cologne the next day (the 12th), that evening I finally checked my cellphone ad was greeted with a message from my Step mom, Kim that my Dad was going to have open heart surgery the next day. I knew he had some irregular readings in a test before I left, but this was a surprise. It wasn't until about 3:30 AM the morning of the 13th that I found out he was ok.. the delay I later found out was that they almost lost Dad on the operating table, he had pretty well bled out and they had to do extensive work on him. ever have I been happier to be ignorant in retrospect.

Cologne
Cologne, seems to be a nice city, but the weather was windy, rainy and cold, so we didn't venture out too much. We did go into Cologne Cathedral, which is one of the great European Cathedrals. We did some shopping then met Alexandra for dinner that evening and later had some ice cream while looking at her great pictures from previous REM shows. All in all we had a nice if short visit. The following day I bid Dunja farewell, unfortunately she wouldn't be able to join me for anymore of the trip, but it was great to spend the time I did with her. I boarded a train and away I wentto Amsterdam...