Flat Stanley

Last year my niece had a Girl Scout project where she had to send a small paper "doll" out into the world. The idea behind Flat Stanley and Flat Savannah is that kids have a way to have a whole bunch of experiences including visiting friends and family and traveling the world (without the parents having to send their bundle of joy out into the world).

It seems that the original idea was that kids could improve their writing skills during the project by sending letters to each person that Stanley visited. I'm not sure how much a part the letter-writing thing is now. But anyway, I love the idea and I was super happy to participate by taking Flat Savannah with me on a whole bunch of adventures.

This year, my cousin contacted me about my nephew needing to do the same with his Boy Scout group and his Flat Stanley. Woohoo! I couldn't wait to help out again!

Flat Stanley hanging out on the balcony in Barcelona after his arrival from Philadelphia:

Flat Stanley is a based on a book in which a kid gets flattened by a bulletin board. Making the best of his situation, he goes on to have a bunch of adventures.

Flat Stanley waiting for the metro in Barcelona:

I love carrying the Flat kids around with me because it forces me see the things in life that may have become routine from a different perspective. What would Stanley and Savannah find interesting about my life and environment on a daily basis?

Flat Stanley at castellers practice on a Tuesday evening:

I ended up having Stanley for about four weeks but, unlike when I had Savannah, I didn't go on too many trips. Instead, the photos tended to be more "daily life" types of things. It was still fun but would have been even more fun (for me) if I had been able to take him more places.

Flat Stanley trying on Barça uniforms:

Flat Stanley posing in front of the European Union, Catalunya, Spain, Barcelona, and a bank's flags:

Probably the biggest day that Flat Stanley was with me was Diada de Sant Jordi, which is Catalunya's Valentine's day. It's a day that recognizes Saint George, who is the patron saint of both Barcelona and Catalunya.

Flat Stanley checking out some flat relatives during Diada de Sant Jordi on Las Ramblas in Barcelona:

Flat Stanley checking out the Castellers del Poble Sec "performing" in front of the Sagrada Familia. This photo's like a World Heritage advertisement for Barcelona.

I had a great time with Stanley and can't wait until my nieces and nephews are old enough to come visit on their own. Until then, hangin' out with the Flat version will have to do.

Thanks to my cousin and nephew for sharing Stanley with me. I hope that he had a great time! I know that I did!

Anthony Bourdain's Parts Unknown

Writing this blog over the last three years or so has been fun (I can't believe it's been that long!). As you may already know, it's pretty much just a place to write about my experiences and the blog format is a convenient way to share it with family and friends. What I never expected was to get attention from folks that I didn't already know. But I've been fortunate to get to know a bunch of different people through it and even make some good friends.

Most times I hear from people they're looking for information regarding something that I've written about or to request permission to use a photo or two. It's nice to hear from folks who found me through a google search and even better when they say they like my writing and/or photos enough to use them for some other purpose.

It was through something like this when I was recently contacted by a producer of Anthony Bourdain's Parts Unknown. The new CNN travel-food-adventure show airs on Sunday and he's already gone to Myanmar (on my list of places to visit) and Los Angeles (already lived there). The upcoming show is about Colombia and why they contacted me.

When I first heard from them back in the beginning of December, I was, of course, hoping to get to hang out with Anthony on one of his adventures but it didn't happen (maybe next time, right?). The producers wanted to ask me about some of my experiences living and traveling in Colombia. They were particularly interested in the Air Colombia trip when we went to Puerto Inirida a couple of years ago. Since then, I've watched the first two episodes and have seen Bourdain posing in front of the same Air Colombia DC3 that we took.

More recently, CNN's contacted me about using some of my photos on their website (and hopefully during the show too). I sent them a bunch including ones about coffee carts, the Colombia coffee zone, and the Medellin Metrocable. I've always been happy with a lot of my photos and getting to post them on the blog but hearing that they liked them made me particularly proud!

So, if you get a chance at 9pm on Sunday (Note: time is Eastern Standard Time), watch his experience doing what I got to do and, if I'm lucky, to see some of my photos. You can also watch later online (here).

I should also mention that I've been told by my cousin and also by a friend that they think of me whenever they watch a Bourdain show. Who knows, maybe one day I'll have my own show like his. Do you think CNN would go for a show about a regular guy who's gotten to travel a whole bunch???

On The Value Of Time

I haven't been writing as much on this trip to Colombia. Mostly it's due to just not having as many adventures to write about. It's not that we've been lazy (well, maybe sometimes) but rather that we've had to be available for Diana's parents and their medical needs. What the trip lacks in the adventure department has been made up for ten times over by good, old-fashioned, family time (including having my dad come visit last month), which I wouldn't trade.

When we were in Germany and talking about going to Bogota, the decision for me was very easy. Of course we should go. It almost wasn't even a question that needed to be asked. Back about four years ago or so, when my mom was sick with cancer, I watched in awe at how my dad took care of her through it all. He made sure that she got to all her appointments, that she had taken all her meds, and, towards the end, even hand fed and bathed her. It was hard for him much of the time but mostly because he never felt like he was doing a good enough job. He did. More than anyone could have asked. It was inspirational.

My dad took care of my mom almost to her last day. It was only when she needed to be put on a morphine drip for her pain that her 24-hour care had to be done for a day or two at a hospice. Later, while thinking back on everything that my dad did for my mom, I committed to myself that if and when my dad ever needed someone to care for him like he cared for her, I'd be there in a minute to do it. Whatever the cost. So, when the "opportunity" came up for us to help out Diana's folks, like I said, there wasn't even a second thought. We could always go back afterward and pick up where we left off.

One of the things that I've learned, over and over again, in the last few years has been that family, friends, and time are all we got. Everything else, and, by that, every thing is replaceable and not really that important. I've learned that I would trade, and in some ways have traded, the "stuff" for more time. More time to learn. More time for experiences. More time to grow. More time to spend with those I care about. I guess that's what's important.

Apple Replaces No Fear In Quest For Cool

I was once somewhere in China doing a quality-control audit at a belt factory. What I really remember, other than the bathrooms were really grody (free tip: a great test of a company's - as well as a restaurant's - commitment to quality and quality control can be found in how they maintain their bathrooms), is that they were simultaneously producing belts destined for both Walmart and Louis Vuitton on the same production line (no, I'm not sure if they were legit but the factory was very proud). I'm thinking that those belts cost about the same to produce but the LV ones would probably end up going to retail for, what, maybe 100 times more? Who knows.

At another past company, we would ship product to the Japanese that was identical to what we sold in the United States. The only difference was that they "just" doubled the price of everything we shipped there because "the Japanese will pay anything for the [product]". Note that this was during the boom years in Japan and I'm not sure that pricing model would hold up now. (For another fun business-case analysis, check out my surprisingly popular google referral bagged-drink post.)

Aspirational branding, a goal of product managers everywhere, is when a product or service is priced such that a large percentage of potential buyers cannot currently afford it but hope (aspire) to one day. Think TAG Heuer, Coach, Beats Audio, and so on. Related to this is the way people want to be associated with popular brands by being seen with a certain shoe, purse, or even belt. For years, I've seen this brand love displayed on the back of vehicles via logos like Oakley, No Fear, and Nike. (By the way, I'm also guilty of having "logoed" my car at times.)

Love, love, love this Nike-Renault combo logo I spotted in the neighborhood (and yes, these old Renaults, which are everywhere, deserve a story of their own):

I remember growing up that you'd see lots of audiophile cars stickered with Pioneer/Alpine, Oakley/No Fear for the sporty folks, or even the generic powered-by-[name of automaker]. Sometimes, like in the photo below, the owner will put a bunch of stickers from various brands on the car like it's Formula1 or something. I love the combination - Bennigans???

Here in Colombia, Chinese, Korean, and even some Indian car makers are duking it out in the local car market. In an attempt at true aspirational branding, one Korean company, Ssangyong, even goes so far as to put "Powered [or Licensed] By Mercedes Benz" on the back (right-hand lower corner) of their middle-class-aimed small SUVs:

Probably my favorite though is how I've seen a TON of Apple logos. You probably didn't even notice it on the window of the car above. Here's one on a Chevy Aveo at a local shopping center:

Who'd have ever thought that a funky little California computer company would one day replace No Fear and Oakley, also California companies, in the quest for cool?

It really makes me wonder what the next "it" brand will be. I could imagine one day in the future, the cool folks might have some sort of genetic-modification or implantable-device hologram logo on their driverless cars...

Depends On Your Perspective

The neighborhood where we lived in Barcelona, Poble Sec, was amazing. We had everything a person could need within a block or two (at most) and many of the businesses were open until very late. In addition, the whole world lived there. You can stand in front of our old place and, in about 15 minutes or so, hear probably half the languages spoken. Seriously. The downside was that it was busy, really busy, and noisy, all the time. But, to tell you the truth, I can probably count on one hand the number of times that I couldn't sleep or was awoken by noise. My guess is that I just had built up some kind of tolerance.

I can remember being awoken a few times by noise in Stuttgart though. Even though the neighborhood we lived in, Vaihingen, was basically deserted during both the day and night, it wasn't the people (or cars or trains for that matter) that woke us up. It was the damn birds that hung out in the tree outside our window each morning to welcome daylight. Yes, I could sleep through a couple of million people squeezed into a tiny square next to the Mediterranean but I couldn't handle birds.

So now we're in Bogota. And, this time? First, since you can read about the other places we were living in the blog archives, a little background is probably good so that you can have an idea about our current neighborhood.

Diana and her family used to live in another area of Bogota called Kennedy (yes, after JFK) but her parents bought a lot in the northern end of the city in Prado Veraniego a little more than 30 years ago and built a house. The neighborhood grew up around them and is basically now heavily commercial (mainly retail). It's not a bad area though. Mostly it's small, independent, and/or family owned businesses with many of the owners living above the store fronts. It's a mix of mostly car-repair and car-parts shops but there are also a bunch of "neighborhoody" shops like restaurants, bakeries, butchers, salons, etc. Much like Poble Sec, almost everything a person could need is within a couple of blocks

It really comes alive between 7:30 and 8:00 am each morning. This was taken about 3:00 pm on the street that runs in front of their house. In it, you can see a bunch of cars on the street, the businesses open, employees in the streets, a food cart on the corner (look below the no-parking sign to the rear of the red car), and cars being worked on.

The neighborhood is definitely not as quiet as Vaihingen but there's more to offer within a two-or-three minute walk. What's most amazing to me is what happens around 6:30 pm each night. The whole neighborhood shuts down. The cars and people disappear, the metal shop doors are lowered, everything goes silent.

For what it's worth, Prado's much more like Poble Sec during the day and Vaihingen at night. So, what's the problem? Occasionally, during the night, I've been woken up by someone walking through the neighborhood blowing a whistle. Not whistling. Using a whistle like a sports coach would use. A handful of nights went by and I was getting frustrated. One day when I finally remembered, I asked Diana's dad if he knew what was up with the whistle person making noise all night. He looked at me with even more confusion than he normally does with my not-so-good Spanish and asked "what noise?". I tried again and this time he got it. "That's not noise. That's the neighborhood association's security guard. We have him whistle so we know he's there."

Doh! My noise is his sense of security. Learning something new every day.

Germans And Their Bicycles

I'm going to say it.

I believe that every German is issued a bicycle when they're born. They all have them. They use them for everything. They love their bicycles!

"Parking lot" at the local Adventure Playground:

Bicycles are basically kids' toys in the United States. They get one when they're old enough to learn and continue to get new ones pretty much up until around age 16 or so when they finally get their driver's license. At that point, almost no one uses a bicycle other than if they're "into" bicycles or they're trying to impress a first date or something. Contrast that with Germany where bicycles are an accepted, no, the preferred form of transportation for many. Everyone has one and they use them all the time for everything; going to the metro in the morning, to work, the supermarket, school. You get the idea.

The bicycle parking area outside a local shopping center. Note that the bikes aren't locked up to anything!

In the U.S., even if people take mass transit to work, they drive to the local station. In Germany, many stations don't have car-parking lots but they usually have bicycle parking ones. Look at the parking lot for the metro near the Sachsenhausen concentration camp I visited recently. Not only is it covered but there's got to be space for like 300+ bicycles - and it's full!

The best part? Just like most things in Germany, bicycle riding is serious stuff. Germans pretty much have rules for everything, whether they're written or unwritten. Bicycling is the same. One morning I looked out the window of our apartment and there were at least 20 kids with neon vests on their bicycles. According to the Germans I asked, they were school kids learning about bicycling traffic/safety laws.

Honestly, I feel a little left out as I don't have a bicycle...yet. I do want one but haven't been able to decide what to get. Do I go road, mountain, hybrid? Do I need lights? How about a removable basket or rack for trips to the store? Could I join the kids out front one day to learn the rules of the road? Ich möchte jetzt ein Fahrrad! Welche soll ich kaufen und wie kann ich lernen, die Fahrad fahren Regeln?

Where Do You Live?

I read an article a couple of days ago that was written by a woman who has been traveling full-time for a few years. One part of her story was about how she and her husband respond when inevitably asked where they live (as opposed to where they're from). Their response is usually to just say that they live in whatever city they're currently in as everything they own is always with them. I haven't thought about it for a while but I've come to feel that way over the last couple of years. Depending on who asks and the situation, I might answer:

Stuttgart, Baden-Württemburg, Germany (where I'm living now)

Barcelona, Catalunya, Spain (where I'd like home to be)

Oceanside, California, United States (my adopted hometown in the U.S.)

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States (where my family is)

and even Bogota, Cundinamarca, Colombia (where Diana's family is)

That got me to thinking about my family and friends spread out all over the world and how, if I'm with them, and especially if my two bags (airlines allow 2 bags/80-100 pounds) of stuff are with me, that's where I live. I don't want to be a nomad forever, just like the woman who wrote the story, but I have been enjoying the experience so far.

Some of the documents (and bad photos) that I carry around with me (counter-clockwise from the passport): U.S. passport, German residency card, Catalunya socialized-medicine health-insurance card, California driver's license, Spain residency card, Stuttgart public-transit system I.D., Barcelona gym membership card, and a Barcelona metro pass (just because).

Why Germans Are Cleaner Than You: Kehrwoche

If you were to travel across the United States, you'd find some pretty big differences in cultures as you go. Think of the difference, for example, between "deep in the heart of Texas" versus what's in New York City. Those types of differences exist in Spain and Germany as well. Barcelona is culturally different from Madrid and Stuttgart's different from Hamburg. I love looking for and learning about those types of differences and how they represent or even define a culture.

So, you're living in an apartment building in Stuttgart and you come home one day and someone's hung a small sign outside your front door:

You probably'd ask yourself who'd hang decorations by your front door? When you get closer, though, you notice that the sign says Kehrwoche and has a broom on it:

What the hell is Kehrwoche and why has someone hung it outside your door?

Well, it might be helpful to understand a little bit more about the southern Germany area. Stuttgart, as you may already know, is located in the southwestern-most state (Baden Württemburg) of Germany. The people from the area, as well as from a small slice of western Bavaria, are called the Schwaben. Similar to the Catalans in Spain, the Schwaben have a different cultural identity but, unlike the Catalans, they speak the same language as the rest of the country day-to-day (although with a different, sometimes hard to understand, dialect) and are not considering, as far as I know, separatism. The Schwaben have lived in the region for about two thousand years and have been formally recognized since around 500.

Okay, back to Kehrwoche. At some point in the middle ages, someone decided that people weren't doing a good enough job cleaning up after themselves. It was decreed that everyone must toss their crap (sometimes literally) out regularly. Thus began the tradition of Kehrwoche, which can be roughly translated to "sweep week".

Another Kehrwoche sign:

If you've been to Germany, or even know some Germans, you already know that they are an incredibly orderly and clean people. But, I guess weren't always so! So, how does the modern-day Kehrwoche work? There are actually two versions, just to add to the confusion: große ("gross" meaning large) Kehrwoche and kleine (small) Kehrwoche but they are both based on the same idea.

A große Kehrwoche sign:

During kleine Kehrwoche, you're responsible for cleaning the common areas outside your and your neighbors' apartments including any stairways. It's usually limited to your floor and maybe one more below you. When you get große Kehrwoche, you'll have the honor of not only doing your kleine-Kehrwoche inside work, but also for keeping up on the outside cleaning. The term is for one week (the entire week) during which time you must keep everything clean, including shoveling any snow, or suffer the scorn and dirty looks of your beloved neighbors.

Some Kehrwoche signs (photo taken) by my friend Timo at his building:

Not performing your Kehrwoche duties isn't just considered antisocial, it's probably also a violation of your rental agreement since it's written into almost all rental agreements. So, what's the cultural connection, you ask? You'd really have to spend some time here to fully understand but Kehrwoche is such a good metaphor for describing the Schwaben people. They're very orderly, clean, and don't want any problems or misunderstandings. Having personal responsibility documented in the form of Kehrwoche makes them surprisingly happy.

A classy Kehrwoche sign photographed by Timo:

While I was living in Barcelona, I found that the Castellers embodied many parts of Catalan culture. It interested me so much that I ended up joining the Castellers del Poble Sec. In the case of the Schwaben culture, I'm interested in their local wines but not so much in Kehrwoche! I don't think I'll be joining any Kehrwoche groups, in other words, but if I find a wine-drinking group, watch out!

Thanks to Timo for the two photos!

Surfing Munich Style

On our second full day in Munich, we went to the Englische Garten park, which a big park located in the city center. It's partly known for being home to the Chinese (Tower) Beer Garden. We hit up the beer garden and then decided to go back to the old part of the city via a nice walk through the park. About five minutes into our walk, we came to a bridge that crossed over a section of a small river/stream. What I saw was like a human soup of floating Germans going down stream. When you look at the picture, keep in mind that these people are floating towards you at a decent speed:

...and the other direction as they head away from you (Note the Locks of Love attached to this bridge. They're pretty much everywhere I go now.):

If the river of humanity isn't unusual enough, we came to another spot where some creative folk had rigged up a few bungee cords to a tree and were "water skiing" on a small board. The better folks would partly submerge themselves and the board so that they were pulled down the river while still holding onto the cord. Once the cord was fully extended, and using the momentum of the passing water, they popped up out of the water and shot upstream on the board. This photo makes it look like water skiing but they were actually moving from the right to the left at a pretty good speed.

So, human soup and guys river water skiing using bungee cords instead of a boat or jetski? Yep, I guess that's okay. But wait, it gets better. Just two more minutes up the river and we came to this:

Yep. People were SURFING the river! It's was pretty f'ing amazing because I would have never expected to see surfing in the middle of Europe at least a few hundred miles from the closest beach.

Apparently, there's a semi-natural bottom feature that results in a standing wave functioning something like a FlowRider, which are somewhat common at water parks. The surf spot is located just a few feet downstream from a bridge where the water comes out a fairly quick pace.

From what I understand, people have been surfing this spot since the 1970s. They may have been surfers but the scene was much more skateboard style in that everyone waited on one side of the river or the other for their turn. Each person would go until they fell and then the next person would drop in. It was much less aggressive than most of the ocean surfing that I've seen and, therefore, appealed to me more.

A shot of the crowd watching from up on the bridge. My guess is that there were around 200 people or so just hanging out watching. It was pretty cool.

Surfing. Munich style. Whoda' known??? Photoshop out the trees and you could almost believe that this scene is somewhere in the ocean:

John, who's an avid surfer, told me that riding the wave would take a little getting used to for him but that it looked fun. Hell, I wanted to try it but I'm guessing that it'd take a bunch of tries to get decent. First, you'd have to learn how to drop in like a bomb drop into a halfpipe on a skateboard, then you'd have to learn how to keep your balance on the wave, and then you'd have to learn how to make turns. That's a lot, but, with the skateboarding-like vibe of the place, something that I'd probably like to try. How about you? Are you up for a session?

Flat Savannah

When I was back in Philadelphia in mid-January, my niece asked me to help her with a project that she was doing for her Girl Scout troop. This time it didn't involve cookies but it still was something fun. She gave me a piece of paper with a picture of a Girl Scout, called Flat Savannah, that she had colored in with markers. I was going to write about Flat Savannah but I thought that my niece could do a better job so I sent her an email with a few questions and this is what she wrote back [my notes in brackets]:

"We have Flat Savannah to earn a badge. The tradition of Flat Savanna probably came from Flat Stanley, a book about a boy named Flat Stanley and his adventures. The average [number of photos each girl got/had with Flat Savannah] would probably be about one or two. I was one out of two or three people that sent theirs off and no one really got photos. I had the most photos and I had 14. I am almost positive my Flat Savannah was the only one who went out of the country, so I know that mine went the farthest. Flat Savannah is supposed to be back on the date on the instuctions sheet [thanks for the reminder]. And if u need more info just email me again with more Qs and I will give u the As."

She's so cute, isn't she? Based on my best guess, Flat Savannah's: traveled (at least) 15,370 miles via airplane (60% on her way to Silver level on StarAlliance!), crossed the Atlantic Ocean three times, and has been to three countries. So, where has she been? Let's look...

Flat Savannah at Castellers' practice with the Castellers del Poble Sec in Barcelona, Spain:

Flat Savannah waiting for the Metro in Barcelona, Spain:

Flat Savannah back in the United States at a gift shop near New York City:

Flat Savannah visiting distant cousins, the Flat Irons, in Boulder, Colorado (United States):

Flat Savannah back in Europe getting burgers with Pau at Kiosko Burger in Barcelona, Spain:

Flat Savannah picking out some Barça items at the airport gift shop in Barcelona, Spain:

Flat Savannah at the Stuttgart airport arrivals area, Stuttgart, Germany:

Flat Savannah picking out a new car at Meilenwerk, Stuttgart, Germany:

Flat Savannah at the Porsche Museum in Stuttgart, Germany:

Flat Savannah visiting the medieval town of Tübingen, Germany:

My niece may not need any other Flat Savannah photos for her badge but I've got her in my backpack that I take everywhere. My goal is to get her to at least one more country and maybe two more before she goes back home. Who knows where she might pop up next!

By the way, if you'd like to print out, color, and take photos with your own Flat Savannah, you can get one here.

Be Careful What You Ask For

I've been taking German classes for just over a week now and am really enjoying it. It's a tough course but it's sooooo much easier than when I learned Japanese in Spanish and Catalan! But anyway, I've been building up my speaking confidence here and there but something happened today to make sure that I stay humble. Believe it or not, this same exact thing happened when I first moved to Mexico many, many years ago...

Back before the days of whereisdarrennow, I still did a fair amount of travel including living just short of two years in Mexico for work. When I first moved down to Merida in southern Mexico, I had no practical knowledge of Spanish but my job required me to interact starting on day one with employees who only spoke Spanish. Fortunately, I was with a small team that was assigned to the project and at least some of the group spoke the language. Let's put it this way, the project would have never been a success if they weren't there...

Even back then I was interested in learning about the culture and language and tried as much as I could to learn the Spanish. Over the two years I ended up learning a lot, which enabled me to later move to Barcelona with only a few hiccups. But, I remember one night during my first week in Mexico in particular when the group went out to dinner. I always liked horchata, which is a rice-based drink popular in Mexico, so I asked my one of my coworkers how to request an horchata. He told me "me gustaria una horchata, por favor" (I would like an horchata, please) so I repeated to the waiter what I had heard.

About five minutes later, the waiter comes back to the table with drinks for everyone and what looks like a bowl of bean soup for me. Everyone in our group laughed out loud because they knew what I had asked for but what I ended up getting was something called arrachera, which, by the way, was really good. I can understand how horchata and arrachera can be confused -- it makes some sense. Afterwards, my friends were nice enough to order an horchata for me and life went on in Mexico.

Flash forward to today some 15 years later and, during my break from class, I'm in a restaurant in Stuttgart, Germany, trying to buy a sandwich and a pretzel to take back to class with me. My German is probably equally as good as my Spanish was back then but I was on my own and had to try so I said to the woman "eine sandwich und eine bretzel, bitte" (a sandwich and a pretzel, please). I was pointing to the sandwich that I wanted, which, in retrospect, I'm guessing helped me to get the right one. She then proceeds to turn around (I was getting my money ready at this point so I didn't notice) and started making an espresso, which she then handed me. Obviously my German is nowhere near good enough to resolve this one so I took my sandwich and espresso, paid the bill, and headed back to school. Unlike the time in Mexico, I'm not sure I'll ever understand how I messed up "bretzel" enough to get an espresso.

So, what have we learned? First, some mistakes end up being very yummy and good while others leave you with a bitter taste in your mouth. Second, be careful what you ask for. You might just get it!

Springtime For Darren In Germany

I grew up in Philadelphia, moved to southern California a half-lifetime ago, and since have lived in Japan, Colombia, and Spain. One of the great things about San Diego is that the weather's amazing. Compared to most of the rest of the world, it's summer all year long. The downside is that the change of seasons, yes there's a change of seasons there, is subtle. Barcelona, with its Mediterranean climate and almost-exclusively urban terrain, has few dramatic signs of spring. Unfortunately, I didn't get to experience spring in Japan or Colombia but I know that Japan is legendary for its cherry blossoms, which I'd love to see one day. It wasn't until the recent move to Stuttgart that I've had a real opportunity to experience a "real" springtime since I lived in Philadelphia.

In true springtime fashion, during the first three weeks here, it has snowed twice (with no accumulation) and rained a couple of times. The rest of the days have been roughly split between cloudy and sunny with temps that have ranged from right around freezing to nice, warm, "spring-like" days. Over the past week or so I've really started to notice spring literally popping up all around like this magnolia tree in the Schlossplatz in central Stuttgart:

...and these wildflowers in a central Vaihingen park:

...and these on some small trees near the Österfeld S-Bahn stop:

I love how random flowers pop up in the middle of peoples' lawns. These flowers are everywhere and I'm starting to wonder if they're some sort of weed or something...

And a more traditional spring mix:

This bright-red bush with the small yellow flowers reminds me a bit of the red trunks of the manzanita trees that grow in the hills of eastern San Diego county:

Ahhhhh, springtime! It's lovely. I hope you enjoyed a slice of spring from Germany! Oh...and probably only my dad will get the title of this post...