Germany, May 2004.  A trip to see friends, family and former colleagues… .

We rented a stick-shift, diesel Volvo in Frankfurt and drove first to Albstadt-Ebingen.  Above, we are with Cousin Renate after driving together to rainy Ulm.  Ulm is famous for crooked streets and even more crooked houses.  We looked for, but did not find, an especially crooked row of houses along the banks of the Donau that Rosemarie photographed some years ago.

Left: a tributary of the Donau runs through town to power mills.  Above, Thomas and Renate.

We then drove on to Muenchen where we visited with Paul's colleague, Guido and his wife Christina.  (right) They drove us to the Sternberger See and the Bucheim Museum.  Below (left):  Cousin Dorothee and her daughter, Sibylle, (right).

A mime, pretending to be a statue, entertains … until Rosemarie teased him into moving.  On the right: A detail of the Glockenspiel on the Rathaus at the Marienplatz.

Rosemarie poses with cousins Werner and Heidi.

L-R: Hans, Tilman, Ursula, Rosemarie and Inge, overlooking Wuerzburg

We ran into a four-hour shut down of the Autobahn north of Muenchen as three trucks burned ahead.  The smoke is visible above.

We stayed with Ula in her beautiful home in Niedernhausen, near Frankfurt.

Many fields are planted in rapeseed in Germany.  In the United States, this is known as canola. Rapeseed is the third most important source of vegetable oil in the world, after soybean and palm oil.  In Germany it is used for industrial purposes, not food.  Ula took us to photograph this field, whose yellow flowers are a bit past prime.