De Train Boss, De Train!

Another thing I love about the big older train stations is that where ever you look, someone has done something to beautify the building.


The express trains to Amsterdam however, are modern, snouty-looking things, aren't they?

When we arrived at the Amsterdam end, there were some amazing ceilings and arches.



So why is everything so high and far away, so only those with zoom lenses can fully appreciate it? At least the vandals can't get to it and ruin it for everyone!

Speaking of vandals, every inch of hoarding and fencing along the train tracks is covered with graffiti. The difference here is that it's all in beautiful colors and carefully shaded. It was impossible to get many pictures of it as we were always moving - but you'd be amazed at the colorwork!

Blurry I know - but a lot like a peppermint sundae.


I'll try to do better on the train back to Frankfurt. Kids need LOTS more free art outlets. There must be a ton of time put into these and they go on for miles and miles. If it had been just black spray paint I wouldn't have been impressed but many of them are fabulously detailed. Perhaps there needs to be an exchange program? And then of course a way to channel it into non-defacement projects. Okay, okay - a little more work on Google turns up this interesting background on it in the USA. And Geeze - it appears I don't get out much - Europe has nothing on the USA and it's all discussed even more coherently here. Wikipedia weighs in with its own article and some cool color samples. A good way to see more samples is to go to Google, type in Graffiti, click on "images" and click through the first two pages of samples. Then do it again with "graffiti art" and you get a different set. Amazing! Suddenly this all seems well worth reading about. Looks like I need to do some serious catching up, now that I'm out of my 'hood. Jah?

By the way, if you have a Google log-on, and usually have the Google toolbar up on your Browser, I've just discovered you can have Google remember all your bookmarks, rather than having them stored on any specific machine you use. When you bookmark something from the Google toolbar, it will ask you to sign into your Google account, then you can look at all your bookmarks and add all the new ones you like. Don't forget to sign back out! I'm probably the last to know this but it's awfully swell.

Another subtle surprise at the station. It's so easy to go by these things without noticing.

This I took the night before our trip at dusk near Der Romer. It looks more Santa Fe than Germany to me. I don't know what these trees are, but they are all over the city. You'd think maybe they'd go nuts in the spring and leaf out all over the place. But Mr. Chirpzervant says no - he's been here in late Spring and there are a paltry few leaves but not much in the way of excitement on them. My....so stark!

I meant to mention that one of the great reading experiences I had in India was the Feluda mysteries. Written by a Bengali movie producer in the 60's and 70's for a children's magazine, these stories caught on in a big way with adults too and were much in demand. There are two big volumes of them in this collection - which contains all the Feluda stories. There is very little graphic violence, no sex (or even mention of women characters in the first 10 years) or bad language of any kind. Totally safe to give to kids and teens to read, and a good introduction to another culture - even if you do have to look up a lot of words. Looks like Amazon US carries them.