Well I did buy some walking shoes, this time regular short treking shoes not hiking boots as I think the going will be better than it was in France. I ask myself how long I will carry the old boots with me; well certainly long enough for me to feel real sure of these new shoes. Hate the weight though. In my mind I worry about the kilogram kilometers. They add up!
Anyway, to polotics, I have had a number of interesting discussions, but up at Orisson a guy which I took for German asked me what I thought of Bush et al. I expressed my views and then he was quiet as is the usual reaction. Then I asked him what he tought of Merkel (the German chancelor). He then started in on a diatride of how the whole world hates the USA now etc. etc. After a few moments I told him that he was not answering my question about Merkel and then he understood what I had asked and laugh, laugh no he was not German rather Austrian. Ha, Ha. Very interesting to hear such from a man who would be living in either the National Social greater Germany with possibly one of Goebel´s children at the helm or living in the greater Austrial workers paradise if it had not been for the Americans. Particularly for a guy from a country which has never really faced up to their part in the jewish holocost etc. as far as I know. But there you go. The opposite reaction which I liked a whole lot better was from a French man. In the same basic type of conversation he told me that America and France were friends and had been for a long time. Friends disagree sometimes but that doesn´t end the friendship. During the build up to the Iraq war when the talk was at its worst between the USA and France his daughter, who is at the university, got on the anti USA bandwagon. He told me that he took her on a little trip down to Normany. There at the memorial he told her something like,`Look at this and never forget what America has done for us. Your grandparents were right on the edge of the invasion and to this day they get all misty eyed when that time is brought up and they think of all those young men.´ All of us who have been to Normandy know how moving that cemetary is. So, just like humans, you get more than one opinion from different people.
The rain has stopped and I am on my way back to the hotel via the bus. Then tomorrow it is off to the races again with the new shoes. I have hotel reservations through Monday so I am a happy guy. Especially since the weather forcast is for dry clear weather!! Lord only knows when I will find a computer again that is hooked up to the internet and that I can use.
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Hi Dad,
Again, I haven't been on the computer for a while. I've read all your blogs up to this point. It sounds like you are having quite an experience in people, hotels, shoes, isolation and the whole bit. You do feel isolated, uh? It sounded to me that you're able to talk to people a lot, no? I went to that site of the hotel, and that's a cute little hotel. Earnest Hemmingway was there, uh? Are all the hotels kinda little and cute like that one? Are your feet okay? Who is Gordon Lindsey? You almost made him sound like someone famous. Is he? Well, keep on truckin' and I'll keep on written.
Love Joyce
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