Part 2: SAALBURG, when it Sizzles!...
Going back to one's roots (Europe, of course) is like crackin' out the old vinyl record collection; you find your favorite tracks all scratched to blazes!
Every now and then you want to stomp on the floor to re-invigorate "ye olde stereo".
Similarly with WI-FI today, when your cherished www.myspace.com/davedelacroix jukebox tracks keep "buffering"...
It's enough to piss off the Pope!
Saalburg: A reconstructed Roman frontier castle, or Roman-Vietnam Fire-base. Walls, towers, statues of Emperor Hadrian, drinking wells, gift shops, postcards, etc., surrounded by dense forests and - in its day - the proverbial bogey-man
This time, NOT "Charlie": the Barbarians; probably you and me, actually.
The museum exhibits there are intrinsically spectacular. Planes -for smoothing wood: missed that one in History class. But, yup! -bad English. But our Roman forebears pretty much invented everything we now take for granted: Oysters on the half shell...and the "wunder" Bra!
Germany -post losing at World Cup Soccer (2010) is experiencing a heat wave, so the "Romischer-Kastle", re-created (1897 - 1907) from its ancient ruins, dosent really convey the misery of living in Denver c. AD-150 or Saalburg, Germany.
Like American kids who visit Washington D.C. or English kids with the Tower of London, my host, Count Alex von Ludwigshafen, is familiar with this tourist trap: admission, 5 euros a'pop.
Note: Skip the Castle's "Bier-Haus" (way too tourist!) and, if you HAVE to bring children under the age of FIFTY-FIVE, you're an idiot!
Usingen, July 2010
c 2010. dave delacroix/our man in europe
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