SUMMING UP: (XVII OF ‘A Tale of 2 Continents’) By R.J.Fensterman
XVII
SUMMING UP: A TALE OF 2 CONTINENTS
What are the two continents that are being juxtaposed? First off, Europe v America. Secondly, Europe v Russia. It seems to me that both America and Russia have had this odd love-hate relationship with Europe. Theoretically Russia is part of Europe; but then 2/3 of its land-mass is part of Asia. America broke from Europe 235 years ago, but we continue to be heavily involved with… Read More…
DALLAS am MAIN (XVI of ‘A Tale of 2 Continents’) By R.J.Fensterman
XVI
DALLAS am MAIN
The Romantic Road was far behind us now. Instead, we were on the S2259 highway, heading into the megalopolis of Frankfurt, the center of Germany’s second-largest metropolitan region, and continental Europe’s largest financial center, home to 5-and-a-half million diverse people. We had left in 1964 from a city of 600 thousand still recovering from the devastation of the War. And returning in 2010 to a huge city known as… Read More…
A DIET OF WORMS AND DOCTOR PEPPER (XV of ‘A Tale of 2 Continents’) By R.J.Fensterman
XV
A DIET OF WORMS AND DOCTOR PEPPER
We both had rather fond memories of Heidelberg from back ‘in the day’ – December of 1962, the first snow-fall, our first trip out of Frankfurt on the train. We walked from the train station to a picturesque gasthaus at the foot of the schloss mountain. Inside, were picnic-styled wooden benches in a large hall with wrought-iron chandeliers. We hadn’t eaten at all that morning;… Read More…
JUDGEMENT AT NUREMERG, REDEMPTION AT ROTHENBURG (XIV of ‘A Tale of 2 Continents’) By R.J.Fensterman
XIV
JUDGEMENT AT NUREMBERG, REDEMPTION AT ROTHENBURG
In a sense, Nuremberg had ‘three strikes’ against it when World War II ended. First, it was the site for Richard Wagner’s famous opera Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg; Wagner was Hitler’s favorite composer, and the opera (both the libretto and music written by Wagner) would become a patriotic, symbolic and nationalistic epic for Germany soon after its first performance in 1868.
When the Third… Read More…
THE ROMANTIC ROAD IN REVERSE (XIII of ‘A Tale of 2 Continents’ By R.J.Fensterman)
XIII
THE ROMANTIC ROAD IN REVERSE
Germany’s “Romantic Road” starts in Wurzburg, about 60 miles south of Frankfurt, and terminates in Füssen (or Fuessen – if you can’t find an umlaut on your key-board), just a few miles north of the Austrian border. While the beautiful and historic towns, churches and castles along this old trade route have always been there, the term itself was coined in 1950, to rejuvenate the tourist industry in now-peaceful… Read More…
