Berlin!

OK, time for a long-delayed update...

Emily and I have been VERY busy the last few weeks, packing up our stuff in Parma, going to Berlin for a few days to visit friends, hosting our friend Emma as soon as we got back, and moving to Bologna!

So we'll take it one major event at a time.  Berlin was a very impressive city...both of us had been to Germany before but always to the west, which is very different than the east.  Berlin has so much history behind it that you just can't help but be a little awed.  It's a mix of the classic and the modern, the likes of which we've never seen.  Sleek, ultra-modern steel and glass buildings stand shoulder to shoulder with stone behemoths that still bear the scars of Allied bombing attacks.  It's incredibly sobering to be standing in a modern metropolis, full of people going about their normal daily business, and to look over and see a row of bullet holes at chest level in the facade you're standing in front of.

The city seems to have dealt with its past by erasing some of the more painful reminders, and preserving others so that the lessons of history won't be forgotten.  Construction cranes mark the skyline everywhere you look, raising new developments in a frenzied effort to keep pace with Berlin's booming, youthful population.  There's a thriving artist community, and the whole city has a feeling of youth and energy.  But downtown, you can't go a block without seeing monuments, bronze plaques, or shrapnel-damaged remnants of GDR or National Socialist architecture to remind you of the role this city served not many years ago, within the memories of some of its inhabitants still walking around, in fact.

Typical GDR (German Democratic Republic, the ones who built the wall) architecture:

This one's a bit older...

A perfectly preserved section of the Berlin wall:

Emily and I made a break for the Western side!

Plaque commemorating the spot where the Nazis famously burned the books:

We enjoyed Berlin but to be honest it weighed on us a bit as well. How could it not? As much as it has moved on and revitalized itself, the city is still a reminder of what mankind is capable of. Of how, given the right conditions, people can behave in ways that seem to be sheer lunacy after some perspective is gained. Regardless of whether the creation of Nazi Germany was the result of a "perfect storm" of events that will never again be duplicated, I think it stands as a lesson of the dangers of becoming insular.

Mark and I in front of Checkpoint Charlie, where the US and USSR had a big tank standoff back in the day that could have turned into WWIII in a heartbeat...

The Berlin Cathedral, one of the largest Protestant churches in the world.  Hermann Goring was married there, Hitler was his best man.

It was severely damaged in the war and has been reconstructed, but plenty of evidence of the bombs still remains:

The famous Brandenburg Gate.  Napoleon stole the statue on top but the Germans got it back.

Berlin skyline

The Jewish memorial:

Top of the Reichstag (Bundestag), which is the German parliamentary building.  Mark took us to breakfast up there at a fancy restaurant that is often patronized by politicians.  If you look closely, you can still see the graffiti from the Russian soldiers who overtook Berlin...

There's also a dome up top that is amazing...

Anyways, apologies if I've gotten a little too "heavy" for the ol' blog. I just don't know how to treat the subject matter any other way. We'll just take the warning about being insular and use it as a convenient excuse to do even more travelling while we're here...

And, most importantly, we DID have a fantastic time seeing our friends Mark and Maria, and their two wonderful kids Emily and Anthony! One of my favorite moments was little Emily's 8th birthday party, which had a "Pippi Longstocking" theme. She had a bunch of friends over, and they all came dressed as little Pippis.  The phrase "SOOOOOO cute" was thrown around like it was going out of style.  You have to feel a little sorry for the one boy who attended though...

Poor little dude in the lower right....he was severely outnumbered.  Lucky he came out of there without having to wear an orange wig, I suppose.

Little brother Anthony was the odd man out so we did some coloring.  When the orange wheels fad hits, you saw it here first.

The city definitely has its lighter side too.
The little "walk/don't walk" guy is very unique there, and apparently, inexplicably, very popular as well.

Army-green Porsche with a Ramones sticker?  Yup.  Making a ton of cash is so punk rock.

Seriously, who named this store?  Does he/she have a boss?

And finally, I present to you....the girl with the "wurst" job in the whole city.  HA!

So, that's about it for now, but now that we're in Bologna and have some killer fast internet access (by Italian standards, it's like really fast dialup for everyone back home) we'll be better about posting.  Enjoy a few more pics, and ciao for now!

Beautiful waterway in the city:

A GIANT fish tank in, of all places, the lobby of a Ramada hotel?!?  Yup, that's a scuba diver inside....

Palaces of the Prussian kings, in Potsdam:

White asparagus, stuffed cabbage, and pig's knuckle with potatoes and sauerkraut.  Friends, it doesn't get any  more German than that.

And lastly, the obligatory motorcycle shot.  I know, I know, too bad it's a Kawasaki.  But it's got some tasty parts...I guess sometimes you CAN put lipstick on a pig?

We have not posted because.....

....we are in Berlin right now! Visiting some friends and enjoying the very interesting city. Say what you will about Ryanair but it has been pretty good to us. As soon as we get back, and finish moving to Bologna, we will be sure to put up plenty of pics of our newest adventures...

Adventures by Train

We sure have spent a lot of time on the train recently. The trip from Parma to Verona, where I have started working, is only 1 and a half hours by car. But if you take the train like we do it can take most of the day, depending on when you leave. Last week, travelling by myself, I left at 8am and got there at 2pm, taking 3 trains and a bus with stops in Modena, Mantova, and Suzzara. At a minimum, the commute is 3 hours, and is much more fun when Paul is able to come with me. Moving to Bologna will allow me to just take 1 train and to get there in an hour and 20 minutes.

Going to Verona has been worth it -- I am working with an MD/professor who runs an obesity and diabetes clinic. He and one of the dietitians who works there are willing to help me do a small study in the public schools nearby to answer some of my research questions about the associations between family cooking and shopping habits and obesity prevention. On Tuesday I was able to observe an afternoon of dietary counselling appointments with families at the clinic, which I found facinating. Another post to come on that soon.

The train rides themselves have also provided a different type of opportunity for research. For example, on my way home last week I sat next to Roberto, an engineer from Milan. I was pleased to discover how happy he was to discuss the Italian culinary tradition with me. We were talking about the differences between "fast food" in America and in Italy, and he mentioned that he had brought some artisinal snacks for the train rather than buying McDonalds at the station. Here I am having a taste of the speck, a type of cured, smoked ham, that he offered me.



A few days later, Roberto e-mailed me some information on speck along with the following message, posted with Roberto's permission.

--

Emily,
I enjoyed talking with you for a lot of reasons.

First one: I spoke with a lot of US people, and I noticed that it's very difficult to find out Americans speaking Italian. Probably they are thinking that the world had to learn and speak English.
Like Romans in the past, who introduced Latin everywhere.
But if you speak the language of the nation you are visiting, you will learn a lot more.
It's more difficult, needs a lot of time but demonstrate your interest to a specific culture.
So thanks for your interest to the Latin World (spanish+italian) ! (Now you have to learn Chinese ...)

Second one: Your simplicity. Symptom of a large education and culture. (Sorry, I'm using medical terminology without knowledge).

Third one (last, but not least) : you are brave and a bit greedy, too! In Italy Doctors usually tell you not to eat cheese, not to eat eggs, not to eat ham, etc. And I think that in US it's the same. So I appreciated your dangerous taste test. In Italy I like to eat the same food our Grandfathers eated, like parmesan, maccheroni, ravioli, and to drink red or white wine (like Vernaccia).

Now I have to go to drink a pint of Omega 3 to reduce the damage of cholesterol.

Bye.

Roberto

---

As you can tell, it was an interesting conversation, and we are happy to have Roberto following our blog. I love how Italians of many different ages and many different sectors love to talk about gastronomy and agree upon the importance of eating food that is produced artisanally rather than industrially. Some of the best conversations I have had about food have come about when I least expected it. For instance when I went to buy a plant last week, the florist dictated a recipe for cappelletti. I love Italy!

MotoGP is BACK!!!

Last night's MotoGP season opener...what a race! Go Italy, and go Texas! My prediction is that Spies is gonna be mixing it up with "the aliens" all season, and that Schwantz was right...

Well, it's been a while since our last update, because we've been busy trying to find a new place to live.  It looks like Emily has settled on a project, working with a doctor in Verona (the Romeo and Juliet town).  And since the train schedule to go there from Parma isn't good, we're moving to Bologna! 

Bologna is a very cool town, about twice the size of Parma, the home of the Europe's oldest university, and considered Italy's gastronomic capital.  It's also the home of Ducati, which I'm excited about because I'll have easy access to the museum. 

On the motorcycle front, it's been a little slow lately.  I took the bus to Parma Ducati/KTM/Triumph the other day, it was interesting but a lot of the moto shops here seem to be very small, so it doesn't take long at all to roam around, explain to the salesman that I don't speak much Italian, take some pics, and leave.  To tell the truth it's a bit depressing because we are poor, and motorcycles here are very expensive!

Anyways, at the shop they had some awesome Ducs and Triumphs.  But for me the standouts were definitely these RC8s (which as you may know is my dream bike), check them out...

Buona Pasqua!

Happy Easter everyone!  Along with visits to both Evangelical and Catholic churches, we're celebrating with the traditional Italian Easter sweets, the dove-shaped "La Columba" bread we got from a local bakery, and a chocolate egg.

Hope you're all having a great day!

Moto Madness

Up till now we've been having mostly "Emily days" - food, coffee, talking with the local shopkeepers about health and childhood obesity, etc.

This weekend we had a Paul day - we went to a motorcycle fair in Reggio-Emilia with Vincenzo!

Who is Vincenzo, you ask?  Vincenzo is my new motorcycle friend, who I met in a local Yamaha dealer as I was moseying around.  He's an enthusiast who rides a Honda Transalp, he's very nice, and for bonus points he looks just like Jean Reno in "The Professional":

So early Saturday morning we piled into Vincenzo's van and headed off to the fair.  And oh, what a fair it was. 

I wasn't sure what to expect, and upon entering it quickly became clear that I couldn't have imagined it beforehand.  There were hundreds, maybe even thousands of stalls, selling everything from the most basic parts like pistons and spark plugs, to complete, concours-quality classic race bikes. 



Parts here, getcha parts here....

Sweet old Benelli - check out the pipes

Super clean Duc 

 A Kenny Roberts 250cc race bike!  Vincenzo told the guy I was American, and he started trying REALLY hard to sell it to me....only problem was he wanted about $50,000

Shaft drive, surprising on something from this period!

A typical chaotic transport truck

Oh yeah, there were also things like meat slicers and tools thrown in for good measure.  In short, it was a Man-Fair, the likes of which I have never seen before.  And apparently Man-Fairs over here are cherished, because it was attended not only by people from all over Italy, but from all over the world!  There were Swedes, Germans, Brits, Spaniards, Czechs, you name it, they were there. 

Pictures don't do this old Moto Guzzi justice...it was simply awesome

Some cool Yamaha race bikes

Also, they love Hondas over here, especially old CB500s and 750s!

One other thing about Vincenzo, is that he knows EVERYBODY in the motorcycle community over here.  So of course, we bumped into many of his friends, a few of whom we met up with for lunch.  After gathering at the designated spot, one of them started digging in his backpack....

Next thing we knew he had laid out a feast of salami, cheese, bread, and beer!  It was all delicious.

Our lunch crew....


And of course after lunch there was still a TON more fair to see:

Mechanical art

"I'll take the Moto Guzzi with the matching salami slicer"....where else but in Italia?

Dirt-cati?  Huh?

Speaking of Ducatis, here's one: great shape, slightly used, may need a little polish.

No need for the shirt, you can tell he's a Colorado man....

All told, I noticed a striking difference from any motorcycle gathering I've seen in America.  Many of the parts for sale were rusty, old, obscure, or all of the above.  But most of the attendees had two or three of these found treasures tucked under their arms, ready to take home and install on whatever pet project was incrementally nearing completion.  Parts, engines, and entire bikes that some would deem fit only for the junkyard were eagerly pored over by keen-eyed collectors and restorers, willing to invest the time and effort needed to restore them to glory.

And the finished bikes that had been lovingly removed of rust, painted, polished and pieced together from those found parts were simply amazing.  The small-displacement Italian bikes from the 50s were especially impressive, marques that I had never heard of before like Parilla (which I especially like) and Mondial. 

I've noticed that the Italians seem to have a deep appreciation for a "cosa bella", a beautiful thing.  It doesn't need to have the most current performance, or the newest technology.  But if a motorcycle has exquisite design, if it invokes passion, if it stirs the soul in some way, it will be cherished long past the point of its practicality.   

Anyone want to go in halfsies on an old, obscure, temperamental, beautiful work of mechanical art?

Concours-quality Mondial

Finally, my favorite, a beautiful Parilla:

I took a lot of pics, the rest are here: