We hit the road after a breakfast that included freshly squeezed OJ from Sicilian oranges and fresh cherries from the trees of our landlady. The traffic on the four lane highway was light. We left the highway after Brindisi to have more scenery. We stopped for a cappuccino in San Cataldo, a small seaside village, in a tiny joint that had numerous old photos which seemed to glorify Mussolini. Very bizarre! The Italians have never come to terms with their past as well as the Germans have. We arrived at the Villa Conca Marco around 11:30, the reception was very friendly. A welcome change from Il Casale dei Fornici! After unpacking we headed for the beach. Conca Marco has a semi-private beach with free use of lounge chairs and umbrellas for its guests. Also Heineken on tap (not free, alas). We spent several hours there, swimming, sunning and snorkeling , then came home to shower up. Conca Marco is located in the midst of olive groves and fruit trees; they were just putting the fin...

This was our last day near Polignano a Mare, we wanted to have a quiet day. In the morning we drove to Gioia del Colle, a town of 27,000 to our southwest. It's a charming town with an impressive castello, built by Frederick the II around 1230. Otherwise there wasn't all that much to see, after a cappuccino we returned to Il Casale dei Fornici and spent the afternoon swimming, reading and jogging. We went to Polignano for dinner, and had an excellent pizza al fresco near the church in the old town. They were putting up what looked like a theatrical stage, it turned out to be part of the preparations for the weekend festivities honoring S. Vito Martire. On our return to the albergo we noticed with horror that preparations for a party were underway - buffet tables were being set up around the swimming pool, a sound system was installed. It was 9:30 PM! At first I thought it must be for the next day, but Anja thought we should ask to be safe. Yes indeed, there was to be a wedding...

Most people - even traffic-hardened Europeans - are at first aghast at the driving habits of Italians in the Mezzogiorno. I was. No one seems to obey any traffic laws, in the towns pure chaos seems to reign. At the wheel your blood pressure rises as you look nervously left, right, behind you, ahead of you. But after a while you start to realize that, if not exactly a system, there is some kind of method here. The prime principle seems to be: It's all a game. In Germany or the U.S. tailgating is aggressive, and causes aggressive responses. But in Italy the tailgater is simply getting into position for the next chance to pass, and will happily stay there for miles if necessary, without intending any aggression. In town if you wait passively at a side street to merge into the arterial, you can wait for a long time if you don't take any action. But just start to nose your way into the flowing traffic, and they'll let you in. The same applies to pedestrians. Stand at the side ...

After a pleasant Sunday breakfast on the terrace, a friendly employee (maybe the daughter of the owner - we never found out) showed us how to turn on the air conditioning. I guess understanding how to operate modern air conditioners is a prerequisite for life in Puglia, but this otherwise tech-oriented northerner had a deal of difficulty throughout the trip. We decided we were ready for the beach, so we drove to a beach south of Monopoli. Many of the beaches in Puglia are operated by concessionaires, who operate snack bars and rent umbrellas and lounge chairs. There was a large Sunday crowd at the beach, the atmosphere was friendly and very family-oriented. The actual beach was tiny, not much more than 20-30 yards wide. Only a few feet into the water the bottom was covered with stones and rocks that were slippery and difficult to walk on; at the extreme left of the beach there was an area where the sand extended somewhat farther into the water, everyone used this area to get into the...

We woke to an unpleasant surprise - the toilet wouldn't flush. Hmm - it was one of those modern toilets where the entire works are hidden in the wall. I took off the cover plate, but I couldn't solve the problem - the tank wouldn't fill. We went down to breakfast at 8.45, and found we were the only guests. The owner of Il Casale, a dour, balding, grey-haired man apparently in his fifties, brought us croissants. We told him about the problem in our room. After bringing us our coffee and tea, he disappeared without comment, presumably to fix the toilet. Shortly thereafter he came back down, and to our dismay he started making phone calls - obviously the problem was beyond his ability to fix. Hoping for the best, we drove to Polignano to take the train to Bari. We were in plenty of time, and after deciphering the faded Italian writing on the elderly ticket machines we bought two round trip tickets. Since we still had time, I decided to look for a newspaper - an Italian one ...

Our flight from Munich arrived 15 minutes early in Bari, a good start to the trip. But our suitcase took 45 minutes to show up at sleepy Bari airport. We picked up our Fiat Panda rental car without difficulty at Hertz and hit the road for La Casale dei Fornici, the first albergo we had booked for this trip. We found it without too much trouble thanks to our trusty TomTom 930 PND. The initial impression of the Casale was good, a beautiful, modern hotel with a restaurant and a small number of rooms. We took a dip in the pool, then headed for nearby Polignano a Mare. We couldn't find a place to park in Polignano, so we headed up the road to fishing village San Vito, which according to one of our guide books was "delightful fishing village". "Delightful" is perhaps an exaggeration, "modestly charming" would be more accurate. We were getting hungry, but it was much too early for restaurants to be open in Puglia - except in very touristy areas most restaur...

This was an amazing vacation. For us terra incognita, in our many Italian vacations we'd never gone farther south than Tuscany. How can I tell about this in a way that's not boring for the majority? I kept daily notes while there, I think I'll use them as a basis and tell the story day by day, making a new post for each day. This may also spawn some extra posts, for example about driving in southern Italy. Background For those not familiar with Italian geography, Puglia is the region in the extreme southeast of the country, the heel of the boot. The terrain is mostly flat, save for the last southern extension of the Appenines running down the middle of the region, the Murgia. It's bordered on the east by the Adriatic Sea; Albania is only about 60 miles away. It's a dry region, but not a desert. Along the coast vegetables are produced, and (as in much of Italy) olive trees and grapes seem to be growing everywhere. It's not a famous wine-growing region, but there...

I 've been pretty lazy about writing lately - partly because I haven't had much to say, partly because I've been pretty busy, and partly because I've been intimitaded by the thought of finally starting my massive article about why I love Bavaria. What have I been busy with? Well, besides work and Anja, I've been investing time into physiotherapy for my left shoulder, which has been bothering me for a couple of months. A contributing factor for that may have been all the piano practicing I've been doing - the results of which may be heard here . I will try and start my big Bavaria series before we head for Italy in early June, but after one concert is before the next concert. At least the physiotherapy is working pretty well. (Sigh) We're not getting any younger!

Over on my homepage I posted some mp3s from the dress rehearsal of Beethoven's piano sonata in C major, Op. 2 Nr. 3. This was a "live" dress rehearsal at a retirement home in Munich, the Augustinum on Feb. 18th. The "real" performance is this coming Wednesday, March 18th at the Seidlvilla in Munich (see the Pianistenclub site for more information). Oh, did I mention that I'm the one playing?

" Wie geht es dir ?" "How are you feeling?" These questions are probably heard in every culture. The answers, and how mild illness is dealt with, varies between Germany and America. Mir geht es schlecht - I'm not feeling well. Really. Since Thursday I've been lying in bed with a low fever, racking cough, stuffed up nose and sneezing. A typical February complaint. What do I have? For an American, the answer is probably simple - either a cold or the flu, perhaps with a touch of bronchitis. For a German the answer is not quite so clear cut. The German is aware that real flu (influenza) is characterized by a sudden high fever, chills, and aches and pains - in addition to the typical upper respiratory symptoms. I don't think I have influenza - my fever, at around 100°, just isn't high enough. And I don't have any aches and pains. But a cold? Well, does a cold come with a fever? It might, I guess, in English. But the Germans have a special word fo...

Germany is governed by a coalition of three parties - the CDU/CSU and the SPD (see my previous post ). Depending on the situation, the CDU and CSU like to think of themselves as one political party or as two political parties. When it comes to divvying up the minister positions in the government, then they're two parties. Which party gets which office is set down in the coalition contract; according to this contract, the CSU fills the office of Minister of Economics. So far so good. When the current government took office in November 2005 the Minister of Economics was Michael Glos , an experienced CSU politician from a small town in lower Franconia. Glos has not enjoyed high visibility as Economics Minister, you might say that he hasn't had a good economic crisis. Making his situation worse were the difficulties he had with the head of the CSU, Horst Seehofer . Did I mention that Glos is from a small town in lower Franconia? Foreigners tend to think of Bavaria as one big ho...

Europe has generally been lagging behind the US in supporting and implementing non-smokers' rights. Over the last few years this has started to change - Italy, Ireland, France and the UK have all passed more or less strict laws banning smoking from many public places. Italy is an interesting example - the Italians are generally not known for obeying the law rigorously, but the smoking law (which bans smoking in most public places) has been a general success. I remember well a vacation in Italy soon after the smoking ban went into effect; how pleasant it was to eat dinner in a restaurant without being bothered by clouds of smoke from the next table, or having our clothes stink like smoke after leaving the restaurant. "If only Germany would pass a modern smoking law," I thought. I'm a not smoker. I used to smoke a pipe, but I gave that up about15 years ago. Once in a great while I'll smoke a cigar. Just so you all know where I'm coming from. So in 2007 Germa...

I want to provide a brief primer on the German political system to provide background for a series of articles I'm thinking about. This may not be everyone's cup of beer, but I'll do my best to make it as entertaining as possible. To reward you, dear reader, for your perseverance, there'll be a multiple choice quiz at the end with cash prizes. Ready? Off we go! 1. Representative bodies, elections, etc. Germany is a federal republic; this means that a significant number of powers are delegated to the 16 states (Bundesländer). Each state has its own parliament (generally known as a Landtag, with a few exceptions). The federal government has a main parliamentary body, the Bundestag (known in English as the Federal Diet; this does not imply that government spending is on a diet). In a federal election each citizen has two votes - the first serves to elect a representative directly based on election districts (there are 299), the second vote is directly for a party (more ...

We just got back from our annual ski vacation, this year for the first time in Reit im Winkl . We had stayed there for a weekend in August 2000, the year we moved to Munich. It made a favorable impression on us at the time; back then we weren't thinking in terms of ski vacation. Our first ski vacations were spent in Mittenwald , a town we're very fond of, but the ski area there is just too small and unchallenging. Last year we tried Alpbach in Austria, but we weren't totally convinced. So this year something new! 1. Our Quarters We stayed at Haus Seerose , where we had a two-person apartment. Our hosts were very friendly, the apartment was well-equipped and cozy. Just off the small, serviceable kitchen was a charming breakfast nook with a bay window and a great view: In addition there was a small sitting room which included a flat-screen TV with cable and an L-formed couch with table. The bathroom was modern (with shower, not tub), and a separate bedroom with a very c...

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...

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 ...

Judging by the feedback I had last year, my readership is in the vicinity of a Serbo-Croation translation of the New Testament in Kabul. Undaunted by indifference, here goes the chronicle of 2008 as seen through the lives of John & Anja: January The winter of 2007-2008 was another warm, dry one in Munich, with very little snowfall after a promising start in December. We celebrated Anja's birthday with a fine dinner at a small Munich French restaurant, Atelier Gourmet . The number of years marked by this birthday will be provided upon receipt of a self-addressed, stamped envelope (German stamps only please!) accompanied by a suitable donation. Since my birthday was what is known in German as "round" (not referring to the birthday boy), I threw, uncharacteristically, a small party in our local Bavarian restaurant, the Franziskaner Garten . Just about a mile from our apartment in nearly suburban Munich, we have had many a fine meal here (and a few less memorable ones ala...

Having lived in Germany since 1988, I haven't seen too many football games in past years. Americans may not believe this, but American football games are rarely shown on German TV. Oh, the Super Bowl is usually shown, but since it's usually on at 2 in the morning I haven't bothered watching very often. It's not much fun watching a game alone at 2 AM. Anyone who thinks my dear wife would stay up and watch the Super Bowl with me, raise your hand! You back there? Wrong! Go to the back of the class. Well, a few weeks ago I ordered digital cable and it was activated just in time for the Seattle Seahawks first-round playoff game against the Washington Redskins. I didn't know when I ordered digital cable, but Kabel Deutschland includes NASN, North American Sports Network. And they show all the important games. My wife is sure I ordered digital cable just so I could watch football games, but I really didn't know it would work out that way. Really, I didn't. So I rec...

Everybody is doing Christmas letters. Driven by guilt pangs, I've decided to join the crowd. Not having children, there are fewer events to list here - no PTA meetings, youth baseball games, or, as many of my former classmates report (are we that old?), graduations, weddings, or grandchildren. If this is boring - too bad. Stop reading now. In January Anja & I celebrated our birthdays (inevitably, but as I always say, it beats the alternative). The winter of 2006-2007 saw very little snow, but we were able to spend the first week of February on our traditional winter vacation in Mittenwald, a beautiful town in the Bavarian Alps. Note: this photo is from 2005! This year we had the pleasure of having our nephew Randolf Carr spend the week with us. Randolf proved an accomplished and daring skier, and we very much enjoyed his company during the week. Too bad he doesn't have any winter vacation this year! There was just enough snow to ski, but this year we'll be spending our ...