Reply #8: For all the decades I have been working here, believe it or not,

[DFW]

I have never been to Athens or Rome. I haven't even learned Greek yet (I do speak Italian).
Some things, you just don't find time for.

Even though Prague is just a 70 minute flight from here, we never went down
there until last year, and one of the most famous archaeological sites in the
world is a 20 minute drive from our German house, and we didn't go visit it
until visiting friends from Russia expressed an interest in seeing it this
past January.

(For the record--some very important fossils and artifacts were found there in the
19th century. It was in the small valley of a stream called the Neander, and since
"valley" in German is "Tal," the valley is called the Neandertal, and you can guess
what site I am talking about.)

As for the strikes, there are always two sides to a dispute, but I just think the French
one was unjustified. The one here in Germany threatened to get nasty, but it was resolved
quickly. The union claimed that their engineers only earned €1500 month, which is slave wages.
The Railroad pointed out that with bonuses that ALL engineers got, their real monthly salary was
€2750, almost double. Anyway, they both postured, struck for a few days, and then got down to
business and did their deal. Train travelers in Germany are foregoing the high price of train
travel for cheap flights now being offered all over the place, and the Railroad here is having a
problem attracting riders for the high prices they need to charge to pay the costs of running the
operation.