Meeting me at the Zurich train station on a Saturday afternoon several weeks ago, college friend Carrie said “welcome to Disneyland.” That was interesting, since Mom had commented that perhaps the French were unwelcoming of Eurodisney because, after all, pretty much the entire city of Paris is “Main Street, France.” That said, it’s true: Switzterland is almost too good, too beautiful, too clean, to be true. Great place to live, if you can get a job or afford it otherwise!

Yes, the town church where they live has settled into the ground unevenly. Picturesque, no?

After Switzerland came sections of the north-sea coastal zones in Germany and Holland, where Jens (exchange student chez moi in HS, with whose family I then lived for a year post-HS) and his family now live. The region (like a county) in Germany is east Frisia; in Holland it’s Frisia. They have a lot in common, historically, geographically and linguistically. Flat green fields and fresh sea breezes everywhere, canals dotted with little boats, modern and classical windmills all around – these can be counted on in this part of the world. Highlights: overnight camping in Groningen, Holland; overnight camping in the fields behind a friend’s house after a party and campfire to celebrate his 50th birthday.

What did we do in Groningen? Camp, eat “Mexican” (it tried, really it did) food in a really fun restaurant and finish the evening by playing dopplekopf (German card game that’s easier to learn than bridge, but probably harder to play well than bridge) together; began the day by drinking tea outside our tent, then sat in the main town square eating sandwiches, drinking more tea…and playing more dopplekopf. Now that’s my kind of weekend!

Although I spent a year living in an outer suburb of Hamburg after high school, and have visited that village many times in the intervening decades (gotta get used to viewing my life in terms of intervening decades…no sense beating around the bush on that one…), I really hardly know the city and have spent little time there. This was the first time that I went into the city with the sole intention of simply exploring it, and I found it utterly delightful. (In the past, there had always been a purpose: a movie, a concert, the art museum; this time the agenda was “explore the city.” It has not only a very busy and beautiful harbor front along the Elbe River and the Alster, a series of lakes that feed (I assume) into the Elbe, but also some beautiful old town squares, a gorgeous and beautifully-landscaped city park in the heart of downtown, and, oh yeah, one of the largest gay communities in Europe. Gotta like a city with those attributes.

Hamburg is the largest harbor in Germany, and what’s cool about it – compared, say, to LA and Long Beach, the largest and second-largest harbors in the US, is that it’s on a river which is also actively used for commuter and other transport. All of these pictures of the harbor were taken from a ferry trip I took on a one-day Hamburg transit pass, which also took care of my subway and streetcar rides, everywhere in the city.

The final stage of my swing through Switzerland, Germany & Holland was based in a small town north of Hamburg, not far from the historically-important city of Luebeck, a major player in the Hanseatic League that dominated Baltic trade for a long time. Luebeck held the salt monopoly, and is also famous as the home town of marzipan. (In the picture of the Holsten Tor – city gate – below, you can see the old salt cellars to at the bottom left of the picture, by the river. Their marzipan is both differnet and much better than the nasty fake fruits you get in many places.) As usual, a visit with my host family involved a glorious trip to see the many churches of Luebeck, and a beautiful bike ride through the yellow fields of … well, its real name in English is rape, but they’re now calling the oil that comes from its seeds canola. So you can think of the bright yellow stuff as canola flowers, or rape flowers. Up to you. Either way, here they are again many miles from Chartres, and still beautiful.

As my six weeks in Europe began, so they ended: in Paris. So we’re ending our photo-tour with a display of something that captivated me and reminded me of many of the good achievements of European civilization. (There are, after all, a few…however far we’ve strayed from some of the higher aspirations of our earlier thinkers and researchers.) I approached churches on this trip much as I approached the temples I visited around Asia: with interest, with respect for the beliefs of those who visited them and also a strong protective distance from the rich institutionalized religious orders to which they often belong. As artistic achievements, so many of the churches in Europe truly are spectacular…as in other parts of the world, it seems religion is able to call forth some of humankinds most beautiful impulses (in this case, artistic) – not just our most angry and base. Trivial fact: this church, and I think other national-monument-level churches around France (e.g. Chartres, probably Notre Dame as well) is physically owned and maintained or restored by the French state. Religious services and religious workers attached to it, naturally, belong (argue the verb if you wish) to the Vatican. Made it easier for me to pay admission, knowing it went to the state; I simply hope the church isn’t profiting too much by my visit in any other way.