Hello, again, Blogonauts! Germany, from perspectives both long and short, is a paradox. Admittedly this may describe all cultures, but the contradictions before my eyes now belong to Germany. Over the last couple of days, multiple sources have dangled before me the notion that Nürnberg is the "most German" of all the cities in the country. I found that statement almost verbatim in guidebooks, on museum displays, and on podcasts describing the city. Now, if s...

Hello again, Blogonauts! On Sunday you would have found me enjoying the rebuilt remnants of the Holy Roman Empire and the Reformation, alongside a few thousand Nürnberger pedestrians who flocked to the Altstadt to eat ice cream and drink beer...blessedly, not together. Nürnberg was beloved by many Holy Roman Emperors, but by none more than Charles IV. The Kaiserburg (Emperor's Castle) pre-dates him by a couple of centuries, but it looms large over the city ce...

I have only a moment, so let me be brief. After a drive to Nashua, a bus ride, two airplane journeys, and two train rides, I finally landed in Nuremberg. (Here's a quick quirk: Germans spell it "Nürnberg." English-speakers, however, consider an umlaut to be gaudy. So somehow, over the years, the English world decided to spell the city's name like we heard it, which is a surefire formula to create chaos and confusion among those who communicate via text. Let me...

Hello, again, Blogonauts! Testing...1...2...Testing...1...2... Welcome to a renewed attempt to leave some verbal breadcrumbs to show where I've been. In about an hour, I will be off on another transatlantic jaunt, this time mostly to Germany. It will be a chance to take in lots of history, architecture, and art, from medieval times, through World War II, and on to the present day. Plus my language skills (or lack thereof) will be put to the test—decipherin...

Hello, again, Blogonauts! Today we have tales of resilience! Re-emergence! Reconstruction! (OK ... Admittedly, that shows an optimistic spin. Told from another viewpoint, we might conclude instead that humans are too bellicose to have nice things, at least in the long run. I leave it to you to judge.) So on with the narrative: Ancient Greek myths gave us the hope-infused metaphor of the phoenix. The allegorical bird lived allegorically for 500 years before barbec...