Left Paris , In Lahr

Our last exciting thing to do in Paris was to go to the Cabaret. You all know what a Cabaret is, don't you. Well, don't take your kids is all I have to say. We went to a grand ole' place built by the man himself, the creator of the Eiffel tower - Mr. Eiffel. It's the only other thing that he built. It was all metal and lights - just like the tower. We were pretty crammed in but that didn't stop anybody from seeing anything - or rather, everything. Okay, you're wondering about Gerhard aren't you all. As a matter of fact he was caught several times just studying how the stage and the building were put together until he had to be reminded that there were naked women up on stage with no clothes on. The sets, lights, costumes and dancing were just great and that's also true for the women. They were beautiful AND they all had great voices. Ha ha! among oher things...
We subwayed ourselves out of the city to the train station and then took the four hour train ride to Lahr. You'll never guess who we had been surrounded by at our end of the train car - middle school KIDS. AAAAHHHHH!
We are here in Lahr and are quite happy to be on our own again after spending time with so many people on the bus. Walking around Lahr, one of my old home towns, is like walking into the past and getting a second chance to see things all over again. When the Canadians left, Lahr was left in quite a quandry in that there were all these housing units with no renters and there were 10 000 less people in the town who were not putting their money into the economy. As I had mentioned earlier, at that time, the European nations were starting to allow many others countries to move in. The people of Lahr are not happy with the change of the Russians, Turkish and Africans immigrants. They have been putting a drain onto the system because they do not want to work or contribute. So many people have said to us just today that they wish the Canadians were back. We answered by saying that we did too.
Lahr has changed so much but it is still so beautiful. It smells of fresh lawn and flowers and has the beautiful sound of birds constantly in the air. The traffic is quite slow and minimal - even though the city boasts a whole new network of new highways and roundabouts. The core downtown area has been changed totally over into a no-driving zone and has been enlarged to include many more streets which are now permitted to have lane-cafes and restaurants. It knows what it has to do to bring in the tourists and it's on the right track.
We arrived yesterday and after stowing our luggage into our house-size room, we walked the 2.4 kms to the inner city and G had french fries with Lahr special Pommes Frites Powder all over them. We were so tired that we took the bus back - a newly created bus system and a new set of city buses.
Today we got up and walked to the next town, 20 min, and rented two bikes. We spent the day riding around Lahr and adjoining towns. We toured quite carefully the old Kaserne, or shopping and gathering compound for us Canadians when we lived here. It was then walled-in and topped with barbed wire. The buildings looked like old barracks and it was were the kids had school, where we shopped and lunched and where we met for public gatherings. It was our second home away from home and had become very important to the many Cdn families to gather and meet each other and to seem normal in a land that didn't speak English or have the same cultures.
When we left 17 years ago, the base and the airfield had fallen into ruin and had laid vacant for so long that the city kids had turned the compound into a grafitti place and dangerous playground. Finally, today we saw the bulldozers in there taking down the barracks readying the land for new growth. Just two of the old buildings were renovated and are quite beautiful. All the rest were too old to bother with. The kids gathering place which was their drop in, has been totally renovated and is very beautiful.
I took Gerhard around the entire city and he is quite impressed with the place. He now knows why the kids and I talk about it with such love and longing. The people who talked to us today, did so with tears in their eyes about how wonderful their time with the Canadians had been.
Tomorrow, we pick up our rental car - a smart car. Don't laugh - it's all that was left and yes, G does fit into it. We will take it to Germany's largest amusement park - EuropaPark. It's very close to here and the kids and I used to go quite often. I only hope that the school kids are too busy with their work to go too.
We are back to sunny and hot weather.
G is so impressed with being back in Germany again because here in this part of the world, he says, at least they cook their meat. How quickly he forgets that in Dusseldorf they tried to feed him raw pork burgers. I must remind him at his age about everything - at least he hasn't forgotten who I am yet.
Love to all, J and G