Skip to main content

Cold!

This morning it was -11° Celsius in Munich - that's about 12° F. Other parts of Germany have been much colder - in Saxony temperatures have been as low as -27° C, that's -16.6° F!

No change to this clear, cold weather is in sight. My wife is convinced that the weather will turn nasty as soon as we start our ski vacation the week after next...

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Taxes, taxes

Why don't Germans get as excited about high taxes as Americans? The coalition government in Berlin is increasing the national value-added tax from 16% to 19% on January 1 2007 (imagine paying a hidden sales tax of 19% on nearly everything you buy), gasoline prices, much higher than in the US anyway (how would you like to pay $6 a gallon? We do over here), are going to rise another 6 Euro cents a liter on January 1st (that's $0.27 a gallon), the tax deduction for interest income is being sharply cut - the list goes on and on. And yet no one seems to notice very much. No American politician who voted to increase taxes like that would be re-elected.

Perpetual check

Once upon a time a young boy named Johnny learned how to play chess. He didn't have frequent opportunities to play, but he acquired a few chess books and played occasionally with friends. Once he visited his great-uncle Clark . Clark had a truly remarkable library, the likes of which Johnny had never seen. Johnny hoped to have a library like his great-uncle some day (a wish which has never come quite true). Clark had a number of books about chess, and generously gave several to Johnny. Johnny read the books and practiced the openings and endgames shown in them. Johnny never forgot Great-Uncle Clark! A few years later Johnny's family moved. Across the street lived a family with twin daughters a year younger than Johnny. The girls' father (we'll call him Mr. W) was a good chess player, and Johnny finally had a regular chess partner. Johnny couldn't beat Mr. W in those days; Mr. W was a patient chess partner and gave Johnny valuable pointers about the art of chess. At ...

Vienna

Introduction Instead of a chronological account of our time in Vienna I'm going to organize this by themes, in the hope that it will be more interesting and more useful (should anyone happen to find this blog). We landed at the Vienna airport Friday morning, and flew back out Monday evening, so we had nearly four full days to enjoy. I had only been here for a one-day business trip a year ago; Anja auditioned for some artists' agencies a number of years ago, but was only here for a day or two, and mostly concerned with singing, not with sightseeing. Our previous impressions were thus very limited. Our hotel, the Hotel-Pension Shermin Apartments proved an excellent choice. The room was modern, clean and relatively spacious, and most important – extremely quiet. The personnel was friendly and helpful. It's located only a five-minute walk from the subway station Karlsplatz, and directly next to a tram stop. Before our trip we ordered a Vienna Card for each of us online....