In less than 24 hours, we went from being in New York to Dusseldorf to Berlin, and finally to Hamburg. That translates to one cab, two planes, one local bus, and one high-speed Intercity-Express Way (ICE) train. We are exhausted to say the least.

We still trekked along, though, and after getting to Hamburg at about 2pm local time (or 14 hours, since everyone speaks in 24-hour-clock-time-language here. That takes some getting used to for me), we kept moving along to see as much of the city as we could given our limited daylight hours.

Neither of us knows German. Knowing how to say “hello” and “thank you” do not constitute knowing a language. So in our first several hours in Germany, we guessed what things meant and hoped that the few people we spoke with understood English. It worked out pretty well.

Ed took two years of German in high school. If I remember correctly, someone had told him that German would be helpful to him if he ever decided to go into business. I think that statement is questionable now, but either way, Ed took German anyway, and he absolutely hated it. He basically did as little work as possible to pass those courses and quit right away. I wonder what he would say if he knew I was in Germany right now. Would he have retained any of his German, would he be happy to know that I am here now?