Happy Halloween

Heinrich was out for his evening walk when he came across a frightful sight. He found a Halloween Tree. It's kind of like a Christmas tree only it is populated with Halloween friends. In its branches were lots of flying ghosts and bats.

 

 

Down around the trunk were a scary scarecrow witch, some headstones, and some glowing jack-o-lanterns.

 

 

Smashed into the back of the tree was a scary old witch. She flew her broomstick so fast into the tree that it stuck deep into the trunk when she crashed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Prowling around the side, past one of the jack-o-lanterns, was a hungry black cat. The sneaky cat was trying to catch one of the flying ghosts. Silly cat - doesn't she know that if you try to catch a ghost your paws will just go right through it?

Dangling from one of the gnarly old branches was a gnarly old witch. She was swinging back and forth and cackling away.

On the other side of the Halloween tree trunk was another scary jack-o-lantern. This one seemed to be kind of angry.

 

Even though the Halloween tree seemed a little bit scary, out in front was a group of bowling pin Trick or Treaters. They didn't seem scared at all.

 

Heinrich decided if the little bowling pin kids could be brave, so could he. So he politely got in behind the tree. Then he had his picture taken with all of his new Halloween friends. He did stand away from the spider though. They may have been his new friends, but Heinrich isn't sure if he likes spiders. At least not just yet any ways.

 

 

Afterwards Heinrich went to the local bowling alley to go with the scary Halloween Tree. The alley was having a costume contest for some of the local bowling pins. And since the tree looked like it used to be a bowling pin, it got to join in the contest too. No word yet as to who won the Costume

contest.

Dunkirk Part 2

As Heinrich walked along the shore he saw lots of pretty seashells and stopped to collect a few of them.

On one of the shell he found a small shell that was stuck to the side of the bigger one. When he tried to pull it off, Heinrich realized this sea animal was still alive. So being the good little bear that he is, Heinrich went down to the water to throw the shell back out in the water.

When he got down there, he saw a lady walking around sticking a long pole down in the sand and them pulling it back out.

She did this over and over and every once in a while she would stoop over and pick something up and put it in her bucket.

Out in the water her husband was walking around pushing a huge net along the bottom down in the surf.

Heinrich was curious, so he went over to see what they were doing. The couple said they were catching shrimp. The lady was sucking them out of the sand with her pole and the man was catching them in the net as he waded in the water.

 

They were kind of small and had very soft shells. But it was very interesting to see them wiggle around in the net.

Dunkirk Part 1

On the coast between England and France there is a beach by the city of Dunkirk.

One beautiful Sunday afternoon Heinrich went for a walk on that beach. Along the beach there is a row of houses that look out over the ocean. Some of them look very old and all of them are really pretty.

In front of the houses runs a promenade. That is a place for people to walk and relax but not a place for cars. On the promenade Heinrich saw people walking, jogging and rollerblading. And if they were careful, people could also ride their bikes on the promenade.

Down in the sand people were enjoying themselves in other ways. Families would sit together and enjoy the sun, talk and let the kids play.

Other people were walking in the sand and some were even jogging.

A little way down the beach some people had sand carts that had big kites tied to them. The wind would fill up the kite and pull the cars across the beach. They actually went pretty fast and went for along ways before they had to turn around and come back.

Out on the water there were lots of boats. Some were big shipping boats. But a lot of them were family sailboats enjoying the beautiful Sunday afternoon.

Frites

When Heinrich first got to Germany he learned that the Germans don't eat French Fries with their fingers. They always use a fork or special sticks that they use to spear the fries. He has enjoyed fries or as they are called in Germany frites. They are almost everywhere. One day he was at a Home Improvement store and they even sold them there.

 

It was later that Heinrich learned that they don't call them French Fires in Europe. It seems it wasn't the French that made them famous but the people from Belgium. Here if they are called something more than frites, they are called frites Belges. 

 

In Belgium there are Frites signs everywhere. Some are really fancy; others are just plain signs. But they all mean the same thing. Get your frites here. Heinrich stopped at a frites place in St Vith. He got an order of fries as well as a sandwich called Shinkel Kase. It was just like a chef salad served like a sandwich on a piece of French bread. There was ham and lettuce and carrots and egg and cheese and dressing. And when you ask for dipping sauce they usually give mayonnaise for the fries but will give ketchup if you ask. But instead of little packets, they just squirt it right on top of the fries.

Azincourt

People have lived in Europe for a long, long time. When there are that many people for that long, fights are going to break out. Some of these fights turned into huge wars with big battles.

One of these wars went for a hundred years. It was between the King of England and the King of France. Both of them wanted a piece of country that was on the north side of France. In the hundred years there were several battles. One of the famous battles was at a place called Agincourt. Heinrich was able to go and see the place where all the important fighting took place.

 

On October 25 the King of France thought he had trapped the King of England with all of his English army. And the French King had lots more people coming, so he settled in to wait in a really good fighting place.

The English King realized he was in trouble so he tricked the French King into attacking him. The French were fighting in their homeland and they had lots of supplies and lots of horses and cavalry.

The English were wandering around in the countryside and were running low on supplies. And the English didn't have a lot of Horses. They had lots of archers. And these archers were using the famous English long bows. They could shoot a long way and could even shoot through a knight's armor if he was close enough.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The battle was on a newly plowed field and it rained the night before so it was really slippery. When the French cavalry charged the archers shot them from a long way away.

The mud made it hard for the horse to move and everything got clogged up. Even though the French had lots more men, the English could move easier in the mud because the archers didn't wear armor and they could hurt the French from a lot further away.

 The town has put up a lot of things to remember the famous the battle. There is a nice visitor center. All along the road are cutouts of the soldiers. There are even a couple of soldiers waiting at that town's bus stop.

 

 

Burg Eltz Treasury

During his visit to Burg Eltz, Heinrich was able to visit the castle treasury. To keep the valuables safe the treasury was down deep in the castle, so that it was very well protected.

 

There were some very fancy and very expensive pieces of art. But Heinrich was most impressed by some of the old "kits" that were on display. There was a fancy set of dueling pistols. Besides the pistols there were also all the tools to clean, adjust and repair the pistols. They did shoot bullets but were black powder guns with lead shot. You can see the gunpowder containers, the round shot and the wads that were used to load the guns.

 

Next he saw an old sewing kit in an ivory container. There was a thimble, scissors and hooks.

Finally Heinrich found a kit that he didn't recognize at first. There were all of these colorful and shiny rectangles that looked like polished stones. Then Heinrich noticed there were two rings on display in the front of the case. Then he realized that this was a set of interchangeable ring stones. The person who owned this could pick different stones, hook them in the rings, and have all sorts of choices as to which stone they would wear on any day. It was a very pretty collection.

 

Burg Eltz

Heinrich went to visit a fancy little castle called Burg Eltz. Rick Steves, the travel guide, calls Burg Eltz the best castle in Germany. It is hidden away in a quiet valley and has never been conquered or destroyed.

Crossing the bridge into the castle, Heinrich stopped at one of the openings where the guards could watch for people approaching the castle and could shoot down at the attackers. It was a beautiful sunny day.

Because it had never been destroyed, the castle has kept all of its cool old stuff and has been able to update along the way. At the entrance is a delightful decorated rain spout with the head and body of a dragon. Water comes out of its mouth when it rains.

During the tour of the castle Heinrich got to see the kitchen area. There were old pots and cooking utensils. The big cauldron over the fire could be raised and lowered on the hook above the fire to control the heat.

In the court yard Heinrich found a huge snail crawling on the gravel. If he had been in France, that might have been dinner.

But since he was in Germany he went to the cafe instead. He had a bratwurst and a meat loaf sandwich. There were much tastier that a slimy old snail.