Queen Mary II

A few photos from our 6-day North Atlantic cruise on the biggest cruise ship in the world. You can see Jim on the upper deck in the first picture, taken at the harbor in Brooklyn. I took the picture from a stairway looking down on the stern and the wake.

We had great dining table company. Dinners are formal, sometimes very formal with tuxes and cocktail dresses. Needless to say, we were flaunting the dress code. Kevin (pictured with Jim)'s wife Min-Hi discovered the back door to the dining room, so we just sneaked in every night. Jim and Kevin didn't have jackets, and Rachel wore shorts and flip-flops on more than one occasion. John (sitting with Rachel) was always impeccably dressed, but he put up with the rest of us anyway. Table 225 was awesome; we had such a great time.

Behind Jim you can see our superb waiter, Joon. He was such a nice guy, didn't seem to care about the dress code thing. Joon and many of the other staff are from the Philippines. They spend months on the boat with little time off to see their families. Joon has a wife and three children back home.

Paris Postcards

Rachel took the photo of the Arc de triomphe from the middle of the street while cars were stopped for pedestrian traffic.


Jim snapped the Eiffel Tower picture during our nighttime walking tour of Paris. Really, these photos aren't too bad when you consider they were all taken with cheap disposable cameras.

Nadia and Rachel

Nadia and Rachel have been friends for years. Nadia spent a year as an exchange student at Marietta High School, where she was the star of the tennis team. She lives in a town outside of Darmstadt. Nadia treated us to a mini-tour of the area: the Waldspiral, Ludwig, Chaos Cafe, and Frankenstein Castle. What a sweet girl!

Visit to Sarre Union: The Schumachers

We had a lovely visit with Jim's good friends the Schumachers. Madame Schumacher prepared an outstanding traditional Alsatian meal for us: Une enorme choucroute garnie. The dish is basically sauerkraut topped with various meats like sausages and ham (both salted and smoked, very tender), plus Madame Schumacher's delicious liver dumplings. What an amazing meal!

The Schumachers "adopted" Jim during his years at medical school in Strasbourg, where he and Catherine were in the same class. Jim spent holidays with the Schumachers in the early 1980s. Armand Schumacher told us stories about his boyhood during the Nazi occupation of Alsace. What a nice visit we had--I wish we could have stayed longer.

Pictured from left to right: Front: Jim, Miraise; Back: Rachel, Regine, Marie Pierre, Lynn, Armand.

More Gothic Cathedrals

John Ruskin considered Gothic cathedrals to be the consummate expression of human architecture because--in contrast to the mass-produced modern buildings of the Victorian era--the Gothic cathedrals bear the marks of human hands. They are irregular, built over a few hundred years by generations of stone cutters and craftsmen. It's pretty incredible to consider contributing to a project that will never be completed in one's lifetime. I was privileged to see three examples of these amazing structures. Above is Notre Dame; below, Westminster Abbey.

Views of Strasbourg

Strasbourg is a lovely city, beautifully preserved and relatively untouched by the destruction of World War II. I envy Catherine and Jean Michel being able to just step out their door and walk around the city at night. The top picture shows where Jim used to live when he was a student. The other photo is a view of the cathedral from the balcony of Jean-Michel's apartment.

Walking Tour of London

Top: View of Parliament from Lambeth Bridge.
Middle: Buckingham Palace.
Below: Trafalgar Square.

Old Friends: Catherine and Claude

It was a pleasure to meet Jim's friends from medical school, Catherine Schumacher and Claude Suss. They are both Alsatian, hence the German surnames. Catherine works at the hospital in Strasbourg, where she treats cancer patients with radiation. Claude is a internist.

We had a lovely dinner in Strasbourg. Claude's Irish friend Mary Ann was also there, as well as Catherine's friend Jean Michel. Great food, great company, although our Alsatian friends complained that the wine was a disappointment. Jim spoke French a mile a minute; not bad since he hasn't been there in over ten years.

Darmstadt from the Waldspiral

Rachel's friend Nadia took us to the Waldspiral, a building designed by an environmentally-minded artist. There's a nice restaurant at the top, near where this picture was taken. Note my vest: Rachel and I had to buy warm clothing in Frankfurt due to the cool, rainy weather. It rained almost every day of our trip.

At the Hauptbahnhof

Traveling by train in Germany, France, and England was interesting and challenging. We learned a lot of things by trial and error. For example, travel in between cities is more economical if you book at least three days in advance. It's also worth spending the extra money for seat assignments in Germany and France. The Paris Metro is user-friendly: Rachel can get anywhere in the city now. The trains in Great Britain were my personal favorite, with clear-as-a-bell connections.

Here is Rachel at the Frankfurt Hauptbahnhof. Photo I wish I had taken: hundreds of commuter bicycles chained up at the Darmstadt Hauptbahnhof. Cars optional.

Strasbourg Cathedral

We saw three Gothic cathedrals on our European trip: Strasbourg, Notre Dame, and Westminster Abbey. The Strasbourg cathedral is made of pink sandstone (not unlike the sandstone in Colorado) with lots of ornate touches on the outside. Someone was playing the organ when we were inside. We lit a candle for Matt.