< ![CDATA[  The road south from Berlin toward Prague is lovely. We’ve rolled up and down gentle hills, through long kilometers of tree lined country roads; between quaint villages of stuccoed houses with adobe colored tile roofs. It is true that the former East Germany is more antiquated than the West and life seems to move a little slower here. Maybe it just seems that way from the seat of a slow moving bike headed south in sweltering summer heat. It’s true; the weather has been hot. Hot and dry. We have been blessed with four nights camping in a row on lakes for the kids to swim in. We spent two nights at the first place, on a lovely little lake just south of Berlin. It was edged with marsh grass and contained a liberal sprinkling of ducks. The perfect place to celebrate Hannah’s twelfth birthday. She was feted in grand style by all of the children vacationing around us. As news got out that it was “The American Girl’s” birthday the gifts began trickling in, held out generously by the hands of German children who couldn’t say, “Happy Birthday” with anything but their eyes and their big smiles. She got candy of several varieties (candy paper being the most novel to her brothers) as well as hand written notes and a lovely poster of a horse from another girl about her age. We splurged and rented the kids a rowboat for the day to celebrate the occasion. They’ve been missing their “Swan,” the boat Gramps built for them and that has been sitting, forlorn, by the water on Wolfe Island this summer. They rowed all over the lake, to the great concern of the German parents around us, without incident and to the great admiration of the German children around us. After the kids were in bed for the night and the lake was glassy calm Tony rowed me out on the mirror and we counted floating feathers and made friends with a duck we named “Juan” who begged for bits of our chocolate covered coconut candy. Add to the picture a single, white, hot air balloon floating near the clouds and it was as close to perfect as I’m likely to live to see. Tonight we’re camped a day’s ride north of Dresden. Almost half way to Prague, which is our next major stop. We plan to spend three weeks there, in a rented apartment, while Tony does some work. I’m writing from the only place I can find a plug... the kitchen washing area... one step up from my usual bathroom haunt! We were surprised, when we rolled into this campground in east nowhere, to find a veritable city of tents and a population of several hundred college students in various stages of inebriation. I even saw one boy with a bottle attached to a hose before dinner... do they still do that?! The techno music is throbbing its incessant beat and I’m glad that I had my headache last night instead of tonight. I’ll sleep with earplugs. The kids are oblivious to the mayhem. They have had a good time commenting on interesting hair cuts and colors and interesting clothing choices and piercing placements... home schooling at its best! Once they got the tent up they made a bee line for the beach. It’s not much of a beach, really. A small strip of “free” sand (as opposed to the nicer pay beach on the other side of the fence.) No matter, they dove in, screeching at the cold layer of water laid down on top by the afternoon thunderstorm but soon becoming numb enough not to care. I settled myself onto the only available bench, next to the tattooed, pierced, heavily smoking young “men” and stuck my nose in a book. Not before noting the pile of vomit on the ground just to the left of my feet. Ahh the glamour of Euro travel...]]>