A German Thaw

After a wet, dark and cold winter, the first signs of spring are starting to slowly creep into our consciousness. Flower stands are selling bulbs and the light arrives at a steeper angle, one we have not seen since the sun deserted us for the southern hemisphere last autumn. It is not yet time for restaurants to start their annual tradition of erecting the mazes of tables and chairs on any outdoor surface that may catch even a sliver of the promised spring sunlight. But it is close. One can feel it.

Nevertheless, the Winter Games continue to play out in Vancouver and also on our TV. It still makes me a bit sad to see the snow start to melt away, because I still have hopes for cross country skiing, tour-skiing, downhill skiing, snow-shoeing and everything that an open snowy meadow has to offer. It will happen and we will for sure make it out at least one more time this year, but the thaw has started. Granted, as soon as I write this we will get hit with a spring blizzard, but no matter how we get there spring is on its way.


This winter we have already had so many good ski days, many more than our count of null last year, I have nothing to complain about. Still, it would be nice to someday have a car with good snow tires, a ski rack and at least a nearby cross country ski area. We will work on that.

Carola and I went out among the hoards of Frankfurters and did some shopping yesterday. The book store was full, particularly with people huddled around the travel guide section. Keenly and methodically, the locals were weighing how to re-balance their endowments of sunlight (too little), warmth (way too little), vacation days (ridiculously too many) and euros (never enough).

Afterward we stopped by the market for some home-made sausages and apple juice. While we were enjoying these culinary arts, we noticed an uncommon sight. An American evangelical missionary was loudly yelling about the Bible in accented German. This is, actually, quite a common sight in downtown Frankfurt. However, some young Muslim women took issue with his characterizations, it seems in particular with the book of Matthew. They got into a heated discussion. It was great to see this intercultural mix embracing freedom of speech and freedom of religion. But I was also left with the feeling that exercising a freedom is a messy process and results squeeze out in so many directions. When the young women withdrew and continued on their way, one had the feeling that the two parties do not really understand each other any better, but perhaps only used the occasion to deepen the suspicions and stereotypes previously held. We wondered a bit more around the market, absorbing all the sights, sounds and delicious smells. Then we got on the train and headed home.