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All posts for the month July, 2015

Munich

Posted by Jim St. George on July 14, 2015
Posted in: Germany. 1 comment
A highlight of our time in Munich was reconnecting with Sonja & Helmut, Germans who Mark met while studying Spanish together in Barcelona a few years ago. They invited us to dinner and grilled steaks in their beautiful backyard, a pretty nice American touch just a few days after the 4th of July. That and the Aperol Spritzers that were to die for….

A highlight of our time in Munich was reconnecting with Sonja & Helmut, Germans who Mark met while studying Spanish together in Barcelona a few years ago. They invited us to dinner and grilled steaks in their beautiful backyard, a pretty nice American touch just a few days after the 4th of July. That and the Aperol Spritzers that were to die for….

Ahhh, back in Western Europe. There is so much to love abut our time in Asia: the bargains, the beaches, the exotic feel, the climate in what we used to think of as “winter”. But after several months in Asia we’re always ready to think abut Europe again. So here we are again; with a couple weeks between being released from the knee-doctor’s care in Hong Kong and meeting friends in Athens, we looked at flights available with frequent flyer miles and quickly chose Germany as our “shoulder” destination. Our 37th country since leaving the States 26-plus months ago. We’ll start in Munich and then go through Nuremberg, Prague, Dresden, and Berlin before flying to Athens.

(Note: We recognize that Prague is not part of Germany. But if you want to go from Munich to Berlin and have never been to Prague in the summer [me] or haven’t been to Prague in the summer in 30 years [Mark], and it’s kind of on the way and you have the time, why wouldn’t you plan a stop there?)

The Torbräu Hotel, where we stayed in the old city, has been operating as a hotel for 525 years now. So long that it once hosted Mark's parents!

The Torbräu Hotel, where we stayed in the old city, has been operating as a hotel for 525 years now. So long that it once hosted Mark’s parents!

And then, on top of everything else we love about Europe, the exchange rate is fabulous now, nearly 20 percent below what it was when we were here last summer. Imagine getting a 20 percent discount on everything you buy – hotels, meals, clothes, subway & museum tickets. It’s a pretty good time to be here. And the weather! By the time we got out of Honk Kong & Shenzhen the heat was brutal; you just didn’t want to go outside at all after maybe 9:00 AM. We caught Munich at the tail end of a heat wave, but after one day of 90-plus temperatures a nighttime storm moved through and the rest of the time was delightfully cool.

Now, to be certain it’s not perfect here. Perfect would require mouthwash bottles that aren’t child proof, like they have in China. But when that’s your biggest complaint you’re probably doing OK. And when there are so many jokes to make when the town hall is called a rathaus and signs tell you to have “ein guten fahrt”, I mean, can it get better?

There we are, then, in Munich after five months in Asia, most of it in China. What does an adventurous couple do with their limited time? Well, for the most part try to recover. Mark’s knee. Jim’s ongoing tummy troubles. A cold that Mark caught and oh-so-generously shared with Jim. Actually, I was doing pretty well for most of the time in Munich. Well enough that three mornings in a row I was up early to do a five-mile run along the Isar River, along a gorgeous stretch that could have been in the middle of the country. But then, seemingly out of nowhere, the stomach issues returned with a vengeance.

An iconic view in Munich, the Neues Rathaus in Marienplatz

An iconic view in Munich, the Neues Rathaus in Marienplatz

So back I went to a doctor – a sophisticated German doctor this time, not some dubious Chinese doctor – who said … well, pretty much the same as the Chinese doctor. It can take weeks, he assured me, for your stomach bacteria to readjust after a significant disturbance. And you might think it’s doing just fine for a few days but it’s still unsettled. Two amusing things about the visit. One, he prescribed both an antibiotic and a probiotic. Seems counterintuitive, but as he put it we want to kill the bad stuff and support the good stuff. Sort of like our war in Iraq, without, you know, all the bad parts. And then, the part about paying him? I saw the doctor on a Friday afternoon in July when everyone was trying to get the hell out of the office and out to play for the weekend. He took time to talk to me, asking all the right questions, prescribed my competing biotics, and when I went to the front desk they told me they really had no means to collect anything from me.

Stomach problems or not, you have to eat sausages and sauerkraut in Germany. Here's our first lunch, a real treat after all that Chinese food.

Stomach problems or not, you have to eat sausages and sauerkraut in Germany. Here’s our first lunch, a real treat after all that Chinese food.

Yeah, I love health care in Europe. Of course, health care in the U.S. ain’t so bad these days, either. I saw this graph a few days ago and just can’t get over it. Stupid Republicans (redundant, to be sure) say Obamacare is a total failure. Yeah, like a drop of over a third in the share of people without health insurance is just an accident or something.

Photo Jul 13, 6 50 53 PM

OK, so that’s our time in Munich. Beautiful architecture, great sausages, some time with friends, a few fabulous runs, great weather, a couple cool museums, and lots of time doing not much but trying to get healthy. Not a bad start for a few months back in Europe. Now it’s off to Nuremberg.

One of our big tourist outings was the Residenzmuseum, home to Bavaria's ruling family for centuries. It was bombed to smithereens during WWII but has since been rebuilt and is gorgeous, as this view of the Antiquarium only hints at.

One of our big tourist outings was the Residenzmuseum, home to Bavaria’s ruling family for centuries. It was bombed to smithereens during WWII but has since been rebuilt and is gorgeous, as this view of the Antiquarium only hints at.

Another photo from the museum, this time in some gilded, mirrored room

Another photo from the museum, this time in some gilded, mirrored room

Next to the old residence is the Treasury, filled with some remarkable gems and crowns and bibles and all that stuff. These look like glass but they're really clear quartz, rock crystal

Next to the old residence is the Treasury, filled with some remarkable gems and crowns and bibles and all that stuff. These look like glass but they’re really clear quartz, rock crystal

We also went to a great modern art museum and were most amused to see Mark's first computer on display as modern art. This might not have been his actual computer, but he had this model when we were in graduate school. Who knew it would be art someday?

We also went to a great modern art museum and were most amused to see Mark’s first computer on display as modern art. This might not have been his actual computer, but he had this model when we were in graduate school. Who knew it would be art someday?

And finally from great art to … kitch. Across the street from a hotel where Michael Jackson once stayed is a huge tribute to him. I understand that it might have appeared in the hours after he died but that was over six years ago. In Munich, though, they still mourn.

And finally from great art to … kitch. Across the street from a hotel where Michael Jackson once stayed is a huge tribute to him. I understand that it might have appeared in the hours after he died but that was over six years ago. In Munich, though, they still mourn.

Shenzhen

Posted by Jim St. George on July 5, 2015
Posted in: China. Leave a Comment
Other Chinese cities honor Mao. Shenzhen has this huge poster of Deng Xiaoping, their patron saint.

Other Chinese cities honor Mao. Shenzhen has this huge poster of Deng Xiaoping, their patron saint.

Shenzhen? Really?

I first heard of Shenzhen three years ago when I read a fabulous biography of Deng Xiaoping, China’s preeminent leader in the early post-Mao years. He recognized that China needed to introduce market economies into its system and starting in 1980 chose Shenzhen, then a village of about 30,000 people but with close proximity to Hong Kong and a good port, as the first Special Economic Zone. This is where China would experiment with what Deng called “socialism with Chinese characteristics.” Largely, that translates as “capitalism.”

That first experiment was a pretty significant success. In the 35 years since all that started, Shenzhen has grown to a city of some 10.5 million people. If you’re doing the arithmetic, that’s a growth rate of a little 18 percent per year. For 35 years. Pretty unbelievable. To put that in context, it would be like Monroe, Michigan, growing into a city of 7 million by 2050. Heck, if it grew that fast it would warrant a visit from Stephen Colbert or someone like that!

The view from the hotel's 96th floor lobby. That little park way down there is a little over a mile in circumference; gives you a sense of just how high we are.

The view from the hotel’s 96th floor lobby. That little park way down there is a little over a mile in circumference; gives you a sense of just how high we are.

So there we are, in Hong Kong with Mark recovering from knee surgery and me still getting over whatever awfulness I got in my tummy as we were leaving Bhutan. The hotels were way too expensive and we weren’t happy with any of the options when Mark said “Hey, why don’t we catch a train to Shenzhen and see what that’s all about?” Great idea. We could save some money, stay in a very cool hotel where the lobby is on the 96th floor, and see this little slice of Chinese – indeed, world – history in the making. How bad could it be?

Ugh. Turns out there is even less to do in Shenzhen than in Hong Kong, particularly if you’re comparatively immobile. And still hot as hell if you go outside; up to the low-90s pretty much every day by 9:00 AM or so. The food options are pretty grim. The hotel aspires to greatness but they haven’t learned to actually provide decent food or services yet. And when I decided I needed to see a doctor to see what the hell was going on in my tummy (OK, to be honest when Mark decided I was going to see a doctor), it wasn’t at all clear he had much to offer.

The park was very pleasant, if unbearably hot most of the day

The park was very pleasant, if unbearably hot most of the day

So it’s been a pretty grim week here. We went into Hong Kong once to have dinner with Shideh one more time. That process is interesting; even though Hong Kong and Shenzhen are both in China, Hong Kong is treated just like a foreign border. So coming into Hong Kong you go through passport control on the China side of the “border” and then the same on the Hong Kong side. You have to make sure you have both currencies. And then coming back to Shenzhen it’s getting your passport checked twice more, on each side of the border. It’s the only “border” we’ve ever taken the subway to, as far as we can remember.

Drinks with Shideh. Next time we see them it'll be in … London? Stockholm? Who knows; that's the fun of having such interesting friends!

Drinks with Shideh. Next time we see them it’ll be in … London? Stockholm? Who knows; that’s the fun of having such interesting friends!

There’s a nice park a couple blocks from the hotel, and if you get there before 8:00 AM or so it’s merely in the mid- to upper-80s, so you can join hundreds of Chinese getting their morning exercise walking, running, dancing, playing badminton, practicing tai chi, etc., etc., etc. I managed that a few mornings when my stomach was calm, but my recovery has been two steps forward one-and-three-quarters back so it didn’t always work for me.

A couple days after getting here to Shenzhen, though, Mark’s doctor gave him the all-clear to travel by the end of the week. Very quickly, then, we went online to see where we could get frequent flyer tickets to. The winner was Munich, with a connecting flight – again – through Bangkok. I love having this flexibility; we’re free on July 5 and not meeting the Germains in Greece until the last week of July. Pick a place to spend those three weeks. Germany wins, though the Greeks might not be happy with incoming flights from Germany these days.

As we went to get on the subway to go into Hong Kong we saw this vending machine selling … wine. How cool is that? On the topic of weird local flavor, a sign at the hotel gym warns against storing radioactive material in the lockers. It had never occurred to me to do so, but I'll be careful in the future.

As we went to get on the subway to go into Hong Kong we saw this vending machine selling … wine. How cool is that? On the topic of weird local flavor, a sign at the hotel gym warns against storing radioactive material in the lockers. It had never occurred to me to do so, but I’ll be careful in the future.

Our room was on the 88th floor up there, and then we'd go for a drink in the evening at the bar on the 100th floor. Not for those who don't like heights.

Our room was on the 88th floor up there, and then we’d go for a drink in the evening at the bar on the 100th floor. Not for those who don’t like heights.