Checking a box on "Things To Do Before I Die" list.

Great news, everyone!

Like everyone, I have a list titled "things to do before I die" and I am happy to say that this has been a good year.

I got off to a good start on 1/24/09 when I got to check the box titled: "marry the woman of my dreams" (Hi Honey, look, I have a blog). Now, on a good year, you check one box. This year, I also checked the "make an extended visit to Europe" box. However, I recently check a third box, titled "climb to the top of the world's tallest church steeple"

If this is not on your list, it should be. It was really something. However, based on the way I felt after climbing to the top of the world's tallest steeple, I have decided to erase from the list, "climb to the top of Mt. Everest". Turns out that the world's tallest steeple, which I will refer to as "TWTS" from now on, is 530 ft high (161.5 meters) and is reached by climbing 768 steps. The stairway all the way to the top is spiral staircase. So, you have the pleasure of being dizzy, as well as tired, when you get to the top.

Mt. Everest is 29,029 ft above sea level, which is 8,848 meters or 5.5 miles. I decided to sacrifice the last 28,499 ft and scratch it off the list. I will downgrade it on the list to "see Mt. Everest".

I wonder how many "steps" it would be to climb Mt. Everest? Turns out it is 42,064 steps (on TWTS conversion scale), so I am only 41,296 steps away, not to mention oxygen starvation and possible death. Maybe I could climb TWTS 53.7 times and call it a day.

At a cost of Euro $4 per climb, that would run me Euro $216 or USD $302. That is a lot cheaper then the cost to summit Everest, which is around USD $60,000 (fully supported). So, I saved $59,698 going with plan "B". I feel like my net worth just increased. Maybe I will spend the difference on a pre-owned, well cared for, Ferrari but it would have to be an older, more common model as $60K doesn't buy much Ferrari.

/

On a side note (I have lots of those, don't I), I will share an interesting (to me, anyways) story about Ferrari ownership. The house I owned in Denver was only 10 minutes away for the Ferrari dealership. I would wander around the dealership periodically and got to talking to the sales manager about a particular car for sale. It was a 1984 Ferrari 308 (like Magnum PI drove to help the (more seasoned) ladies form a visual). The sale mgr told me that the last time they saw the car was for its 5 year maintence. Every 5 years, a Ferrari has to have all its belts changed. Well, a Ferrari, up until the last 10 years or so, had to have the engine pulled to to this. The cost of a 5 year maintenence was around $8000 assuming nothing else needed to be done. This car was brought in for its 5 year maintenence and then returned to its owner. The car was brought in again, 5 years later for it maintenence, and had been driven only a few hundred miles before being offered for sale. Needless to say, that was a very expensive few hundred miles. A 1984 308 can be had for around $45,000 but who wants to pay for maintenence. Maybe me at some point in the future (its on the list, btw).

On a side, side note, ave mileage for a Ferrari per year is around 1,000 to 1,500 miles. So, you can expect a 10 year old Ferrari to have about 10,000 to 15,000 mile on it. I think 12,000 miles is the average yearly mileage for a car operated in the US so you can see that driving a Ferrari is limited to weekends mostly and not used as a daily driver.

On a side, side, sidenote, I have cars I drive less then that at a rate of only a few hundred miles per year. Probably need to sell those (at least the '91 Toyota MR2 but not my '88 BMW M3, which is considered an entry level collectable).

Now where was I?

The Ulm Cathedral is technically not a cathedral since no Bishop was ever seated there. However, it is the largest Lutheren Church in Germany and the second largest church in Germany overall. This is unusual that the largest Lutheren Church is found in S. Germany since most of S. Germany is Catholic (Lutheren's own N. Germany though).

In 1377, the foudation stone was laid. The steeple had reached a height of 100m in 1543 and construction was halted. In 1817, some 274 years later, work on the final leg of the steeple restarted and was completed in 1890. It was the tallest building in the world for a few years.

The town of Ulm itself is very old as is the case with many cities on the bigger rivers in Europe like the Danube River. It was founded in 850. The city doesn't look very old although there is a fortified wall that is pretty long and has gun ports (slits) in it as well as a fort-like tower overlooking the wall that was built in the 1350's.

Most of the town doesn't look very old because a lot of it has been rebuilt after WWII. Turns out that Ulm was home to a couple of truck factories which were very important to the German war effort (logistics is critical to any campaign). Lacking the ability to produce end items critical for war and/or get them to soldiers was the reason Napoleon and Hitler were defeated.

When the war was all over and the dust settled, 80% of Ulm lay in ruins. It was rebuilt in the plain and simple ways of the '50s and 60's.

Miraculously, the chruch sustained only minor damage. Thankful, there were no military targets close to the chuch (keep in mind that precision bombs did not exit then, job got done using massive quantities of bombs using a drop point determined by the best guess of the bombadier in the lead aircraft). Turns out that the church was used as a navigation point for aircraft as well as the bombing the city. Remember, there was no GPS back then and landmarks that could be identified from 20,000 ft confirmed that an aircraft was where it was suppose to be or if they were off course, the landmark told them where they were, thus, helping them get back on course.

Like every town/city I have been to, this one had a very active town square and on Saturday, the farmers' market was in full swing. Best I can tell, most places which could not really be called a "city" don't have supermarkets like we know them. The farmers' market had everything you would need to prepare meals including butchers, fresh eggs, fresh pasta, spices, all kinds of vegtables, cheese, fresh bread and olive oil.

In fact one booth, which was rather large, sold nothing but cheese. There must have been 100 different kinds available. My Brother In Law, Don, a chef by profession who has spent time learning his trade in Europe, probably wishes something like this could be found in towns across America. The supermarket chain where he is the Executive Chef, Wegman's, works very hard at trying to replicate this vibe in their stores.

When I left for Ulm, about an hour away, it was raining pretty hard in Stuttgart. I wasn't going to sit in my room all day so I left while it was still raining hoping it would break by the time I got to Ulm. Luckily, it did. However, the rest of the day was overcast and it drizzled occasionally which is not very good weather for taking high quality pictures. I apologive in advance that they are probably not what you have come to expect. I hope to get back on a nicer day to better capture what I say. That's it for the world's tallest steeple. Check my flickr page for pics.

Coming up: Strasbourg, France, where I will celebrate the 4th of July. Take that, Frenchie!

Cheers,

Michael

Happy Belated Fathers' Day to all the Dads out there

Last Sunday was Father's Day and I was really happy to get everyone's cards! Even got to webcam a bit with my daughter, Sarah, which was a real treat. Thanks to her, I am an honoree on this special day. Happy Fathers' Day to all the dads out there.

Spent last Saturday doing mundane things that have to get done no matter where you are including grocery shopping and laundry. Chose to do that on Sat, my usual day out, so I could enjoy Fathers' Day chore free.

I found out about a museum about an hour away that sounded promising, The Auto and Technik Museum. This place boasted that largest permanent collection of Formula 1 cars and the only place in the world where examples of the only two supersonic jets were on display and well as countless other vehicles, military equipment, and planes of all kinds. Sounded good....sign me up.

When I first arrived, I was a little surprised at how touristy and commeralized this place was. People were hawking LG cell phones out of nurmous booths which struck me as rather unusual. I walked up to the kiosk selling entrance tickets and said "eins, bitter" ("one please", getting to know that phrase pretty well). The cost of entrance was Eur $13 or about USD $18. Seemed like a lot but it was pay or turn around and go home. I was happy to find out that the admission fee had been waved today. It was a Fathers' Day miracle!

As I wandered around, I determined that this was really just a collection of old stuff and not really a museum. The displays were pretty low budget and most of them had these stupid department store mannequins dressed in period correct clothing in some ridiculous pose trying to "bring the display to life". All it did for me was make what would have been a decent snap shots, no longer worth taking. All the cars in the initial displays were parked on white stone mulch like you might use for landscaping. Seemed like a very odd choice. Probably got a good deal on it somewhere. Additionally, except for what I outline below, there was really nothing noteworthy here. Just old, poorly displayed stuff.

On a positive note, there were a fairly large number to road-going (non-race) Ferraris there. Some were run of the mill street cars (as far as Ferrari goes) but others were very limited production, very special and very expensive models like the F40 and F50 (only 349 produced). They also had a 1963 Ferrari 250 GTO on display. For a Ferrari enthusist, this practically the holy grail of Ferraris. Only 39 were produced (don't know how many are left, many were destroyed in race relatated crashes). The currunt value of a car like this is around USD $4,000,000 to $5,000,000. Examples have sold for as much as $14,000,000 back in the '80 when the Japanese were buying up everything including Peeble Beach. If this one is authentic (wouldn't be surprised to find out it is not), then it was the crown jewel of the collection.

Also on display were a dozen or so Formula 1 cars from over the years including the 1st Ferrari that Michael Schumacher drove for them in '94, the car he drove during his first season in Formula 1, the race suit he wore during the season he won his first world championship, and some other interesting cars from various teams and various years.

On a side note, Germans (and many Formula 1 fans from around the world) are nuts for Michael Schumacher. Schumacher, a German, broke almost every record in Formula 1 history and won a record 7 world champonships. It will be a very long time before that is ecipsed, if ever. He is much loved in both Germany and Italy, the home of Ferrari.

Also on display was the other reason I went to this museum. Examples of the only two supersonic planes were on display, the Air France Concorde and the (Soviet) Tupolex Tu-144 (NATO name: Charger). Both were mounted on a number of steel post and high in the air to give the illusion that they were in flight. I was happy to find out that both were accessable by climbing up a spiral staircase. Both planes were similiar in appearance and size (turns out that the Soviets stole the plans for the Concorde and just replicated it, pretty common MO in the USSR).

I heard the Concorde was pretty small and those reports are correct. There were two seats on each side of the aisle and the aisle was only about 14" wide. It was pretty impressive though to see the large engine bays which seemed a large as the fuselage itself.

The Tu-144 was very similiar to the Concorde and the Tu-144 was the first commercial- like aircraft to exceed Mach 2 (twice the speed of sound) or around 1300 Mph! I say "around" because several factors like air density are involved. 16 Tu-144s were built and 20 Concordes. Pretty neat to see up close.

I was on a plane over twenty years ago and the pilot announced that we would be able to see a Concorde out the right side of our plane's windows. I was lucky enough to have the widow seat on the right side of our plane and saw the Concorde in flight. It passed us like we were moving backwards. It was really something to experience and something you will never see if you have not already (much like the lunch I had in the Widows to the World resturant which was located on the top floor of the World Trade Center, also a very memorable experience).

/

Pictured above: Concorde, Tu-144, Schumacher's first F1 Ferrari, a 1997 Ferrari F50, and a 1963 Ferrari 250 GTO (they crashed a fake one in the move "Ferris Buller's Day Off").

Well, that was about it for this museum/theme park. All and all, it was a worthwhile trip. If you are not crazy for Formula 1, Ferrari, or supersonic jets, you could probably pass on this one. I took lots of pics of the few interesting things I saw and they are on my flickr page.

Cheers,

Michael

Schloss Neuschwanstein (Royal Castle of King Ludwid II)

I will start by wrapping up Sunday's activities which included the BMW Museum in addition to the Deutsches Museum.

Of the three car museums I have gone to (Mercedes, Porsche, and BMW), I would have to say the BMW Musuem was a bit of a disappointment. I got the feeling the marketing department played a bigger role in this museum than the historians.

It seemed like the museum was more about branding than the history of BMW. Very glitzy and really lacked substance. There were many historically significant cars in BMW's history which didn't make the cut like the BMW V12 LMR which scored an outright victory at the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Got some nice snapshots of the museum building itself as well as some of the more interesting cars inside such as the well known (to fans of sports car racing anyways) racing example of the 1988 M3 (I own one of those but not the race version although it is lightly track prepared). Pics, as you probably figured out, are posted on my flickr.com website.

It was actually lucky that a lot of stuff I wanted to do on Monday was closed. Otherwise, I would have never made it to Schloss Neuschwanstein, which was one of the highlights of my visit to Munich.

Before I left for the castle, I wandered through the Deutsches Jagd Und Fischerei Museum (Hunting and Fishing Museum). There was a lot of taxidermy displays which were ok. I really enjoyed the weapons displays which was the entire 3rd floor. I saw cross bows from 1550, blunderbust from 1660, and countless flint lock as well as powderhorns and a collection of spiked collars for hunting dogs (to protect their necks from being bitten by prey they were taking down). The older firearms were really something. All hand made and each one a work of art with inlays and metal carving. I tried to capture some of that in the pics I took but it was hard because everything was in glass cases and reflected natural light as well as the flash. Jodi's Dad, Jerry, would have really enjoyed this museum.

On to the castle. The castle was about 100 km (60 miles) away and my navigation system took me through some winding country roads and small Bavarian towns. As my beautiful wife would say, "stop and smell the roses, slow down and see something besides the highway". I didn't smell any roses but I did see a few (baby steps, right?).

As I approached, you could see the castle off in the distance many miles away up on the mountain side. It was like something out of a fairy tale. In fact, it is said that this castle inspired Walt Disney's design of the Sleeping Beauty castle at Disney World and Disney Land. 1.5 million people visit this castle every year.

Before I go any further, I will tell you that we were asked not to take any pictures inside the castle. To see pics of the inside, click here:

http://www.neuschwanstein.de/englisch/palace/index.htm (I know english is spelled wrong, but that is how it is in the address) and then click on "tour of the castle"

Once again, I was blown away by what I saw and pics cannot capture how incredible this place was. Look at the pics of Ludwig II's bed room. Notice all the elaborate carving of the items in there? The tour guide told us that 14 wood carvers worked for 4 years just on this room alone.

The throne room has an elaborate mosaic tile floor. Each stone tile of the mosaic is about the size of your thumbnail and over 2,000,000 of these little tiles were hand laid. The chandelier found in this room weights 2000 lbs.

The castle itself was built between 1869 through 1886 as America was rebuilding from the Civil War. I parked in the town (Hohenschwangau) at the base of the castle and walked about 3o minutes up a fairly steep road to get to the castle, which overlooks Schwansee (Swan) Lake.

I saw every one of the finished rooms in the castle which is only 1/3 built out inside. Ludwig II died under mysterious conditions before the castle was finished and all construction halted.

Ludwig II was a deeply religious person and this is reflected inside the castle and there are no pictures or references of him in the castle except in one small spot. He wanted the interior of the castle devoted to religious figures. He was also a big fan of Wagner and this is reflected in the "singers' hall".

One thing that struck me was that every wall surface is covered in wood or a very detailed and large mural.

There is actually a lot of technology (for that period) incorporated into the castle. It has running water and central heating as well as a castle sewer system.

I encourage you to go to wikipedia and do a search for more info. There are a lot of details I haven't covered because the blog would get too long.

I finished up my trip with heading out to a concert venue to see one of my favorite bands, Social Distortion. Social D formed in 1979, hailing from Orange County, CA, and has been at it ever since. They are often credited with as one of the leading bands of the 1980's hardcore punk explosion.

They have mellowed a bit over the years and call Johnny Cash and Hank Williams some of the musicians that influence them.

It was a really good show and I got to hear the usual set (seen them about 6-7 times) and was treated to a couple of new songs and a couple of songs I have never heard live.

Well, I think that about does it for my trip to Munich. Hope everyone has a great week.

Finally Caught Up

I got back from Munich on Tuesday morning and then straight into work. I spent a couple of evenings downloading and sorting pics so those would be available before I actually told you about my trip.

I uploaded 130 pictures which are in 9 different sets. If you haven't checked them out pls go to the flickr link I provided earlier. The photos are not available to the public as I have pics of family members and don't want every freak with an internet connection looking at them.

If I haven't sent you an invite (it is a email I send you from the flickr.com website) and you would like one, pls email me at mk1802@yahoo.com

Now...a little bit about Munich, The Capital of Bavaria. Munich is 2 hours away by car from Stuttgart and it was a nice drive, mostly on the Autobahn. Munich is the 3rd largest city in Germany with 1.5 million residents. Only Berlin and Hamburg have larger populations. It is estimated that the city was founded in 1158 by monks of the Benedictine Order. In fact, Munich's native name, Munchen, is derived from an old German word, Monche, which means monk.

Munich is also where Hitler and his supporters staged the Beer Hall Putsch in 1923, shortly after WWI (the Germans suffered a crushing loss to the Allies, complements of the US Marine Corps). This little uprising landed Hitler in prison where he wrote "Mein Kampf"

On a side note, it was the WWI Battle of Belleau Wood where the Marines were given one of their nicknames of "Teufelshunden" or "Devil Dogs" by the Germans because of the ferocity with which they fought. It is also the place where Capt Lloyd Williams (USMC), when told by retreating French soldiers that they should turn around because everyone was pulling back, said "Retreat? Hell, we just got here". Capt Williams died during the battle for Belleau Wood, which historians say was the turning point for the Allies during WWI. He was also a graduate of Virginia Polytechnic Institute (1907) and a member of Virginia Tech Corps of Cadets. Capt Williams is also thought to be the first Virginian to die in WWI (I thought all my readers in Virginia would find this particulary interesting). God rest his soul.

Now where was I? Oh, yes, my trip to Munich.

I booked a room at The Kings Hotel which was very nice. The room was small by American standards but about what you should expect when in Europe. It was located only 5 minutes from the city's central train station and only another 5 minutes to the entrance to "old town Munich" or the city's central square.

This central square area is actually quite large, probably 10 blocks long and 2 or 3 blocks wide. I use blocks just so you can imagine how big it is. Most of the area is all a pedestrian area and it is always fairly crowded as there are many shops and cafes in the area. On Saturday, it was just packed with people. All the shops were open and in the center of the square, many beer gardens had opened and there were several traditional German bands playing music. It was very festive. It seems like Sat is the day when everyone gets out to shop, eat and drink. Most everything in closed on Sun and many of the tourist stuff like museums are closed on Sun and Mon. Most of the Munich picks you see on my flickr site were taken on Sat. The very center of the square is called Neues Rathaus "New Town Hall".

The Neues Rathaus was built b/w the years of 1867-1909 and has a 330 ft facade. The central facade features a 260 ft clock tower known as Glockenspiele. Each day at 11am and 5pm, the bells ring out a carol while mechanical knights fight a tournament and a crowd dances (see pics on flickr). The latter is a reenactment of the first coopers' dance held in 1517. You can search "youtube" and find video. It was ok, just didn't blow me away. It was probably more interesting in 1909.

All within a few blocks are some of the most fantastic churches I have ever seen. I took lots of pics (again, see them at my flickr page), however, I can tell you that no picture can capture what I saw. They are so elaborate and intricate, you could spend hours in each one. The three churches I got pics of are: Michaelskirche (St. Michael's Chruch) built in 1585, Asamkirche (Asam's Church or St Johann-Nepomuk) built in 1750, and Frauenkirche built in the mid 1400s. Each one had something really noteworthy about it such as "the devils foot print" at Frauenkirche, at St. Michael's: the life sized bronze angel that holds the holy water as well as the crypt of Ludwig II (built the big castle I went to Monday known as Royal Castle of Neuschwanstein), and Asam's Church was over the top in every way. There is so much history behind each one of these churches that each one could be its own blog topic. I encourage you to google (or use the search engine of your choice) each one for pics much better then the ones I took.

Also in the town square is Augustinerbrau which is the oldest and most celebrated brewery in Munich which was founded by Augustinian monks in 1328. The Germans take beer very seriously. Beer is consumed daily often with lunch and dinner. It is practically more available then water and the source of much national pride.

On Sunday, I went to the Deutsches Museum which is one of the oldest and largest museums of technology and science. It is Smithsonian in size. It covers all things science. It doesn't have just one or two telescopes, it has 100. It covers, in great depth, the history of printing and paper (my Dad could have spent several hours just in this section). It covers (insert the name of any technology) from the day it was invented to what we use today. Included are such things as the camera, flight, sailing, musical instruments, physics, telecommunications, computers, etc.

Of particular note, they had a life size diorama of Galileos's workshop which featured a large collection of scientific equipment used by the famous astronomer and physicist to establish the basic laws of mechanics. Knowing the achievements of Galileo, it was awe inspiring to be so close to the items in this display. I felt like I was thrown back in history. Stephen Hawkins says, "Galileo Galilei, perhaps more than any other single person, was responsible for the birth of modern science". Truly amazing.

Galileo was found guilty of heresy in 1633 by the Catholic Church because of conclusions he drew from his scientific studies. In 1992, some 350 years later, Pope John Paul II admitted that the Church got this one wrong and declared that Galileo was once again a member in good standing. You go, Galileo.

Tomorrow I will finish up the the BMW Museum and the Royal Castle of Neuschwanstein.

I got distracted by my beautiful wife on yahoo instant messaging. Sorry, she has priority, always . More tomorrow.

Cheers,
Michael

Pics of Munich are posted to Flickr

Hello everyone,

I have spending the last few days getting all my pics sorted and posted to flickr.com. I must have added 10 new sets so pls ckeck them out.

If you would like to see the pics but don't have acces, pls email me at mk1802@yahoo.com and ask me for an invite. The pics are not viewable by the general public. I have pics of Jodi and Sarah and I am leery of thinking that anyone with an internet connection could be looking at pictures of my family.

Will get caught up on my blog this weekend by describing my experiences in Munich. I think it will probably be a multipart blog. I saw a lot and feel like I must have walked 100 miles while I was there.

Hope everyone had a good week and ckeck back in a day or two.

Cheers,
Michael

A weekend in Munich

Greetings from Munich!

What a fantastic city. It took me a couple of hours to get here from Stuttgart and I am staying at a nice hotel close to the center of the city.

I finally got my chance to see what the Autobahn is all about. Previously, I have not been on the parts of the Autobahn that have no speed restrictions.

Now, keep in mind that driving here is different then driving in the US (check my previous blog on driving). Additionally, if you are going to "drop the hammer", you better have all your shit in one bag. By that I mean, stop messing with your coffee, put the phone down, put both hands on the wheel and be completely focused on driving.

As it turns out, the Audi TT I have as a rental tops out around 260 kph (161 mph).

There are not many cars that will hit 300 kph (180) and only a handful of exotic cars that can top 200 mph or 321 kph.

This next part is for my wife, Jodi:

Now Honey, I will admit that this is pretty fast. However, my car was in fine state of tune, traffic was light, and the road was as smooth as a pool table. Additionally, the distance covered by these no speed restrictions is very short. It is much different doing 161 mph then it is in the US. As long as you have an appropriate distance to the car in front of you and are very alert, it is not such a big deal. Cars ahead of me were very observant and moved to the right as I approached.

On a side note, that is the fastest I have ever gone in car.

I will save detailing what I saw today for blog tomorrow. I covered a lot of distance on foot and need to take a shower. I will tell you that I saw some incredible churches. One was built in 1180.

Tomorrow, I plan on seeing the BMW Museum and the Deutsches Museum where some of Galileo's scientific equiment is set up in a mock up of his workshop. How cool is that?

Until tomorrow, signing off from Munich.

Outside the Wire (Part Deux)

ATTENTION: If you already read this and it ended at lunch, pls reread. The server crashed and I just finished the last 2/3 of this blog.

/

If you have accepted my invitation to view my Flickr.com pictures sets, please log in to see all the photos I took. If you would like an invitation, please email me.

/

Double click on pics to expand them.

If the last post encompassed the whole day, that would have been interesting enough in my book. For the second half of the day, I made arrangements with the Civil Affairs Team to drop me off at the US Embassy so I could meet with the Naval Criminal Investigation Service (NCIS, like the television program) Agent who is assigned to the embassy.

We made arrangements to meet at 1330 which is when the CA team said we would be done and I would be at the embassy. Turns out our couple of stops didn't take quite as long and they dropped me off around 1200. I was 1.5 hours early. I went through the very thorough security process and had the security people call the NCIS agent. He was not expecting me for another 90 minutes and was out of the office. Great, I will just stand in this very narrow security area for an hour and a half until he gets here. I finally suggested that they call anyone from the front office to escort me back so I could as least sit down.

Someone came to get me and escorted me back to the reception area. I got to talking with the Chief Liason Officer to Djibouti (US Army Major) and the Station Chief (CIA) and they suggested we go out to lunch. So, we hoped in a Land Cruiser and off we went. It was only a few minutes later that we were downtown (remember, Djibouti City, or Djibouti for that matter is not that big). But wait, I was in my camouflage uniform. The Commandant forbids Marines to go off base in that particular uniform (driving home from work is ok, but no stops that involve getting out of the car). Additonally, it is a camp directive that NO member of any of the armed service branch will go out in town in ANY uniform. Back in the states, the Army and Air Force can be in public wearing a camo uniform (you may have seen them in the airport) but that does not play here. What to do? I was really hungry and didn't want to be rude. I decided to simply remove my blouse (yeah, that is what it is called) and just go with the t-shirt, trousers, and boots combo. I figured I would be less noticeable and just hoped that I didn't run into the Commandant of the Marine Corps.

I don't really see what the big deal is, at least in Djibouti. The French have been here for 120 years haven't had any trouble. In fact, if you go into the clubs on the weekends, I am told that you see plenty of French Foreign Legionaires in uniform. For your first 5 years in the Legion, you are not permitted to own any non-military clothes so you go/do everything in uniform.

We went to a wonderful little Italian joint and were pleasantly greeted. Looking around, the place was filled with mostly non-Djiboutions. In fact, a majority of the customers were French (soldiers I assume as they maintain a fairly larger presence there since colonial times). I had a very tasty, hand made, wood burning oven baked pizza. The ingrediants were really fresh and it was a nice change from the chow hall. Not to mention, I had an interesting conversation with the Station Chief and Major.

Just because this is a 3rd world nation, don't expect 3rd world prices. They charge european prices at this place. 1000 Djiboution Francs equals around USD $6.50. My pizza, as good as it was, cost $2300 DJ Francs or about USD $15. I thought that was a little pricey but the higher prices keeps the locals out, not to mention everything has to be imported. Turns out, Djibouti doesn't produce much of anything and has little to no natural resources. Seems like DJ has a lot in common with Hawaii but DJ doesn't see the tourist dollars like Hawaii. However, I think in DJ, they like people from Mainland US a little more.

Just as we finished lunch, Jim, the NCIS agent, showed up and we were ready to tour the city. Jim is a former Marine Sgt who has been with the NCIS for about 10 years. He has been at the embassy in Djibouti for 2.5 years. He was incredibly knowledgeable on the history of the city, the culture and the region.
/

The first thing I should point out is that driving in Djibouti is much different than Germany. In Germany, there are lots of signs and everyone obeys the rules. In DJ, there are few signs (optional) and no rules. If you think you can pull off a move, go for it.

/
We started with a tour of the port which was very active and pretty important to that region. Ethiopia depends on it almost entirely to get goods into its country. Last week there were 2 Iranian cruisers there and currently there are two Iraqi military vessels there. The port is one of the countries primary income generators along with the airport.

After the port, we headed out to see various sectors of the city. Many of the sectors are off-limits to the coalition forces at Camp Lemonier where I am. These off-limits area are refugee camps camps filled with people from Somalia (border is only 10 miles away), Chad, Sudan, Yeman, and the like. It is really just a matter of there is absolutely no reason to go there. Jim told me that if there is any anti-American sentiment, it would be here. Jim said that if you were to go there, nothing more would happen to you then kids throwing stones at you. He said it was the national sport of the under 18 crowd. Glad we have Play Stations and cable TV in the US.


While Al-Qaeda doesn't have much of a presence here, it appears that they recruit out of these camps. If they could only get to know me as a person, I think they would really like me. Same goes for everyone else out there in America. Are we really "bad" people? I don't think most African Muslims think we are. Seems to be more of a Middle-Eastern Muslim issue. At any rate, there is an organized movement to destroy us and our way of life. Just last week, a British citizen was murdered by these peace loving folks operating in Mali, a particularly violent place. Reports are that he was beheaded. Not the French Revolution type of beheading with a really sharp heavy guillotine, probably not even a really sharp sword. Think more along the lines of a dull knife or rusty saw. Could just as well of been you or me. Enough said, I think.

The question is, do we take the fight to them or let them bring it to us? I respect everyone's opinion and you probably know what mine is.

We also drove through a very picturesque part of the city as we headed out to the beach. It was many acres of undeveloped land that had those trees you always associate with Africa growing there and a small herd of camels roaming around. As you may or may not know, Djibouti has a coast line on two bodies of water: the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea. The beaches of DJ are on the Gulf of Aden and Yemen and the Arabian Peninsula are only 12 miles away. Much like you and I, people in DJ enjoy going to the beach. The water had a fair number of boys and men in it but no women. I think it is a double edged sword for them (no pun intended). They would not wear a bathing suit so they would go in the water covered from head to ankle. When they get wet, the fabric would cling to their bodies which would violate their religious laws of remaining modest. I assume they just don't bother with it. In some bigger Muslim dominated countries, they have separate beaches for men and women, but not here.

Our next stop was a swing through the primary market area of the city. When Jim told me he has been here for two years, I commented that he must have limited opportunites to socialize because the embassy staff is small by embassy staff standards. He went on to tell me he was engaged to a DJ national which I was a little surprised to hear. I didn't have time to get the details of how they met although it is a lot different here then in America. DJ is 94% Muslim and women are not permitted to socialize with men outside of their families. They certainly didn't meet in a nightclub.

Feminists might want to skip this next part. It you are a feminist and decide to continue, you have been forewarned. If you decide to skip this next section, scroll down until you see the "all clear" alert.

Once Jim got engaged, he was required to buy his fiancee. Notice that the word buy is not in quotation marks. It was an actual business transaction which involved the transfer of property. That's right, women are considered the property of their husbands and unmarried women are considered property of their guardian, the eldest male of the household, usually the father. In this girls case, both parents have passed so the eldest brother is her guardian.

I asked how much something like that costs and he told me $125,000 DJ Francs or about USD $8000. I got to thinking....some guys spend that much on an engagement ring and that doesn't even include property rights. A pretty good deal, I guess.

Jim's fiance seems like she comes from a family that is better off then most. Her brother is the Director of Road, Highways, and Transportation (or something like that) and is influential within the city. She has other family members that also work for the city. This is probably a factor in the $8000 cost as you are also buying into the family. If her family were goat herders who lived in a house made of trash, I suspect that she would have fetched a smaller fee.

He joked about not getting a receipt and I didn't ask if she came with a warranty or what the return policy was. Probably a little more complex then returning something at the Wal-Mart.

Jodi's Dad doesn't realize it but he left an awful lot on the table. You see, my wife is priceless (although sometimes I get to thinkin' about that return policy, just kidding, Honey).

Jim went on to tell me that the family spent $2000 on khat (more on this later) and another $500 on cigarettes. It is customary that the neighborhood call on the family to offer congratulations. The family is expected to welcome them and offer small tokens of appreciation.

Ok, ALL CLEAR!

As we drove through the central market place, the number of people there and vendors was overwhelming. The streets were packed and we proceeded very slowly due to pedestrian volume. It was like a really big flea market with everything from clothing, vegetables, food vendors, cokes, you name it. Also a fair number of donkey, goats, and camels.

Of particular note were countless small booths which had something on the table surface that was covered with a burlap sack. Turns out that these are khat vendors (pronouned "cot"). Khat is legal all over Africa but illegal in the US and service members are not permitted to use it wheather it is legal where they are or not.

Read the below link for a primer on khat.

http://www/deadiversion.usdoj.gov/drugs_concern/khat.htm

Since the consumption of alcohol is forbidden in the Muslim culture, as far as I can tell, khat takes its place. I compare its use to that of alcohol in both the social sense as well and the body/mind altering sense.

Some people "khat" only on the Friday or the weekends, just like we might drink beer or whiskey, and some don't khat at all. Some do it daily and some, a couple of times a year. Some are abusers.

/
It is said the the President's wife plays a large role in the safe guarding of daily khat deliveries from Ethiopia. Khat is harvested daily and is best consumed within 12-48 hours of being picked. After that, the potency diminishes quickly. Once the daily shipment reaches the distribution point in the city, it is delivered to vendors by a network of taxis, delivery trucks, and couriers. It is said that this is the most timely and well organized evolution in all of DJ.

Just like whiskey and pot, khat is priced based on its quality. Like anything, the higher the quality, the more you pay. Khat is sold to individuals in quantities of 12-15 sprigs tied in a bunch. The branches with the leaves on them measure 8"-10" long. The leaves are then stripped and put in the mouth much like a plug of tobacco.

Khat can run anywhere from $200-$10,000 DJ Francs. That is roughly USD $1.25 to $70. I suspect that given the high unemployment rate and the fact that 20% of the population makes USD $1.25 or less a day, most buy in the $2-$5 range. However, within their own construct, many are very poor, a fair number do ok, and a few are well off.

The street vendors have different colored kiosks to denote the quality of their khat which makes shopping easy.

All and all, it has been a very good trip. It is really hot here so I will be happy to get back. Heat index on Wed was 124 degrees F which is a new record for me. I fly out around midnight for Paris and will be back in Stuttgart tomorrow morning.

Please take a moment to remember all those who lost their lives on the beaches of Normandy 65 years ago. If they had not been successful, God only knows where the world would be today. May we never have to relive those horrors.

God Bless,
Michael

Outside the Wire (so to speak)

The past few days have been pretty routine which is to say, conducting office calls with the primary staff here and attending various meetings.

I was lucky enough to schedule a couple of events today that would take me to an outlying village and a very thorough tour of the port of Djibouti and the various sectors of the city. I am going to break today into two segments.

For the first part of the day, I was going out on one of the daily missions with a Civil Affairs Team. Civil Affairs teams are small groups of soldiers who work in their assigned areas to identify projects which should be undertaken to improve the quality of the lives of the people who live there. The projects recommended may be well drilling, providing a steady source of electricity, providing for medical/vet/dental/eye care through mobile teams, vaccinations of local populace, building schools, etc. These teams don't actually do the things listed above. They identify the requirement and assist in the execution of those programs. 96% of the Civil Affairs units are found in the reserves for whatever reason and the members of this team were from an Army Reserve unit from Miami, Fl.

So, we load up in 2 separate Toyota Land Cruisers (Land Rover is also a favorite). We don't use HMMWVs because we don't really need them and they are very expensive to maintain. Plus we would tie up maintenance personnel who could otherwise be somewhere else, like Afghanistan. We are armed as a precautionary measure but don't expect any problems. Never hurts to be prepared though. When you really need a gun, it's to late to think about how you really should have brought something but didn't. Jodi would not let me buy a fighting hatchet, so I don't really have anything for the close fight. I will have to find an improvised weapon like a board with a nail in it. Mess with me and I will give you such a case of tetanus.

Once you get outside the city, there is very little infrastructure, so the roads are dirt paths. It is slow going but we reached our destination in about 30 minutes. The village which was our destination is called Nagae. It is really more of permanent squatters camp. There is no electricity or plumbing but they do have a piped in water source (but no internet). It was the water source that fell into a state of disrepair and needed to be addressed. People build a lot of stuff in Africa but never really tell the end user how to maintain it. Additionally, the enduser who is deriving the benefit wants to be compensated to maintain the free stuff they just got. Unless Africans shift their paradigm, I am afraid not much is going to change on this continent which is 3.5 times the size of the continental US.

I would like to say I was surprised at what I saw, but I was not. It was more of the same of what I have seen already. Everyone has shacks made of whatever they could find blowing across the terrain or at the local dump.

There were goats wandering around everywhere (no pens). Goats are a real staple in Africa. They provide milk, meat, low maintenence, robust from a health standpoint, and produce more goats. Goats are found everywhere in Africa. There were even a couple of camels in the village. I found out later in the day that you will find only one type of cow in Africa. It is the one that has a camel-like hump behind its neck. Turns out that this is the only species of cow that has sweat glands which are very important in a land of 115 degree temperatures and little shade. And, where there are goats, there is plenty of goat crap. Nobody really seemed to mind even though most were barefoot.

When we pulled into the village, children started following the vehicles and seemed very interested in us. The few men in the village were sitting in the shade near the mosque and the women went about their business of doing daily chores. There was one man, later described as not right in the head, greeted us and spoke with us briefly through our interpreters. The women are forbidden from speaking with us and would be beaten if they did.

We examined the central water point (see pic) which is nothing more then 26 spigots with an octopus of hoses running off it to everyones "house". It was leaking badly which was wasting a very precious resource, causing low water pressure, and the collecting pools of water are a health concern for malaria.

After we finished up at the water supply point, we need to travel a couple of hundred yards away to take a look at the village school. The Dijiboutian government is making a real effort to ensure that each village has a school and a health clinic. They feel that if people are healthy and educated to some degree, the country will prosper. Makes sense to me.

The school has its own water supply line as well as electricity. The school headmaster lives in the village and is paid by the central government. We were actually there to look at a broken water spigot. It is part of the school toilet structure and kids have been climbing on the concrete latice and using the spigot as a means to boost themselves up. Once the spigot is fixed, a fence will be erected to prevent this from happening again. While we were there, I thought I would take a gander at the toilets. What I found is the type of toilet that is common in Africa and the Middle East. It is really just a hole flanked by two bricks (see pic). That's right ladies, hike up your skirt, put one foot on each brick and....

To finish up, grab a bottle of water (you remembered your bottle of water, right), pour a bit down your backside and scrub a bit with your LEFT hand (never use your right). When you have that "oh so clean" feeling, stand up and stroll out. You may have heard that is impolite (downright nasty) in Muslim dominated regions to eat using your left hand (it is common to eat with only your hands in Africa and the Middle East) and the process I listed above is the very reason why. It also rude to hand something to someone using your left hand. Arguably, this is a better way to finish up then the Western way of using toilet tissue, but I will stick to what I know.

After the visit to the village, it was off to the government research center where we met with the Minister of Hydogeology. The team wanted to introduce themselves (have only been in country a couple of weeks), let them know some aspects of their mission, that they were seeking his support, and to procure a consolidated map of the city water works. He was a polite, well spoken gentleman who was very helpful and looked forward to working with them moving forward.

Tomorrow I will cover the second half of the day which included lunch with the Embassy's Station Chief and a tour of the city with the NCIS Agent assigned to the Embassy.

Another Day in Djibouti, Africa

Sorry I have not posted in a while. The camp has internet but the download speed is really slow. Add 2000 people all fighting for the bandwidth and it can take several minutes for a page to load, if at all. What little bandwidth I had, I used to IM my ever luvin' wife, Jodi (Hi Honey!)

I left Friday evening from Stuttgart for a connection thru Paris and then off to Djibouti. The plane in Stuttgart was "kaput" according to the flight agent and another plane would have to be brought to the gate. This was Air France but it might have well as been US Air. Airlines suck no matter who runs them. We were delayed two hours but I still have plenty of time. I was scheduled for a 5 hour layover in Paris. The flight was short, only 55 min.

It is interesting to note that the boarding process does not involve the announcement of zones or rows. The announcement is made that it is time to board and everyone stands up and starts moving toward the gate. This seemed to work out fine and I didn't notice that it took any longer to board then when we board using one of those egg headed schemes used by US carriers that was created by some math PhD making $250,000 a year. I'm sure they can prove that their system shaves 3 seconds off the "everyone stand up and head towards the gate" method we used in Stuttgart. The Germans are very efficient so I am sure this is the best way. Sorry Brainiac.

And what's up with South West Airlines? That is the worst, most complex system of boarding in the world.

We landed in Paris just before dusk so I never really located the center of the city from the air. I can tell you that Paris is a big, sprawling city. The airport is one of the biggest and nicest that I have seen. Good job, Frenchie.

Because the airport is so big, I didn't have a chance to look around much. It was out the gate, thru the airport, cashed in on a no fee pee, grabbed a horribly overpriced sandwich (remember food is really expensive here and they really stick it to you in the airport no matter where you are), went thru security and off to the gate.

For this little adventure overseas, I got a blue, tourist passport, and a red, official US passport. The difference is that the red passport states that I am traveling on official US gov business. The upside is that the customs people don't ask me a dozen questions about where I am going or how long I will be in the country. I don't like alot of questions from nosey customs people so it really comes in handy. They simply look over my documents and wave me through.

The flight to Djibouti left at midnight which was fine with me. I could sleep as best I could as we would be landing at 0730. As soon as we took off, an honest to goodness meal was served and it wasn't too bad. Also included was a fine selection of beer and wine. All included in the price of the ticket.

We landed at our scheduled time and got off the plane on the tarmac and then into shuttle buses to the terminal. We had our tempertures checked by medical? people (probably didn't hear that swine flu was a little overrated) and then thru customs. The woman at customs wasn't very pleasant. Kind of covertly rude, which I didn't appreciate.

First thing I noticed was that everything was pretty chaotic and in disrepair. I had heard about the aggressive porters and I was in no mood for someone holding my bag hostage. Thankfully, I grabbed my bag and exited the baggage claim area with out causing an international incident, i.e. "Blood thirsty U.S. Marine assaults porter trying to earn a few dollars to move his family out of a house made of garbage" (I'm getting a little ahead of myself so keep reading, it will make sense in a minute). It is not that I refuse to tip. I am a very good tipper and appreciate good service. However, I don't like being taken advantage of and refuse to be preyed on.

The Staff Seregant who was supposed to pick me up was there as scheduled and he was transporting a couple of other Marines. Turns out that these guys were going to be there for 7 mos like I thought I was going to be. They had lots of gear as you can imagine.

The camp is actually right on the other side of the runway but we had to load up in the Land Cruiser (no HMMWVs here) and make a short drive on the surface streets. What I saw on that short drive can only be described as a 3rd world garbage dump. There were piles of trash everywhere. If it was not in piles, it was just blowing around and accumulating in the bushes and fence line. People were living in "houses" that were constructed out of whatever garbage was suitable for building a shelter. If you are not living in a house that you built out of garbage, consider yourself to be very fortunate.

Camp Lemonier, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/camp_lemenier , is a old French Foriegn Legion Post. If you read about it in the above link, you will find that the place was a real dump when we moved in. Up until recently, everyone lived in tents, slept on cots, walked to the shower, didn't have any internet (much less slow internet, boohoo), and ate "tray rations" or MRE's neither of which are very good especially when eaten every meal for 7 mos straight. So, I will say that the place has come a long way.

Here is where we are now: everyone lives in CLUville. CLU stands for Containerized Living Unit. It is basically a 25' or 40' shipping container that is build out with doors, windows and plumbing. I have a small "wet" CLU. The room measures 8'x9' and has a bed, window, sink, and a wall locker. It also has an all important functional air conditioner. I share a shower and toilet with the resident of the other side of the shipping container. It is currently vacant.

Some live in "dry" CLUs which means they have to leave their CLU to use the toilet or shower. Others have a shower in their room. It is all based on rank and availability. I rate a CLU double the size of mine with a private shower. No big deal since I will only be here a week. It has AC and it is not a tent (one of my tenants in life is: no matter how bad things are, they can ALWAYS be worse. Keep in mind that people outside the front gate are living in houses made of garbage. Don't think they have AC or internet either.)

I live in one like the top picture (I have a second deck CLU). The bottom picture is the CLUville expansion.

I had a couple of meals the day I arrived (Sat) at the chowhall (Army calls it a mess hall, and the Air Force probably calls it a dining facility). I was impressed with the selection of food and can see why many gain weight on deployment. Food is available almost 24 hours a day. It is certainly possible to eat healthy here but it is easy not to. There is lots of starch, fried foods, and high calorie sugar and high calorie fatty foods. Take as much as you want, come as often as you please. There is also plenty of coke, a hand dipped ice cream bar with all the fixins, lots of desserts, and items you can grab on your way out like candy bars, pop tarts and potato chips.

On the other hand, they also offer beef tenderloin roast, cornish game hens, baked trout, shrimp scampi, steaks on Sat, and lamb shanks. It is all surprisingly good. However, the meat is not the highest quality and often a little over cooked. Breakfast is standard fare with eggs and omeletes cooked to order. There is also a fresh salad bar for lunch and dinner. I try and have high protein, low fat meals with plenty of fresh veggies. Think I am losing a bit of weight actually.

I can see how it is easy to over eat, however. This is a very austere place with limited resources and recreation. It is not even the "hot" season yet and it is 100 degrees with a heat index of 112 degrees. Most are assigned here for 7-12 months. I was ready to leave after 7-12 hours. Eating a meal is really the only thing to look forward to.

I got an invitation to play Texas Holdem' poker with some of the guys I am peers with (we correspond every day as I assist them in the coordination of events with our higher command in Germany). We got together around 1930 (sun sets around 1830 as we are very close to the equater).

So, there are I am. My first night in Africa sitting around playing cards, smoking cigars, and drinking some very cold beer. Somehow, that just felt right.