Ist Deutschland mein Vaterland?

This upcoming trip is a lifetime in the making. I have long had a fondness and longing to visit Germany. In high school and college I studied German because my family has strong connections with the country. And the culture is so unique and beautiful.

My paternal grandfather may or may not have been German ... I am not clear on the subject after many attempts to talk to him about it ... at this point, he's moved past the place where I can speak with him, so perhaps the matter will continue to be a mystery. I believe that he was born as a native German (Herr Schmidt) and then adopted by a French family at some point.

That aside, the HS German studies led us into a foreign student exchange program that had a young man named Ingo Lob staying in my families house for a very long time. In this period (at the tender age of 14), I fell desperately in "love" with one of the German students named Silke Aussmus. Silke, Ingo and I would remain friends for quite a while, but have not exchanged messages in a couple of decades now :(

Part of the plan with the exchange program was that we (the Amerikaners) would travel to Koln and visit our host families for an extended summer vacation. I spent a lot of time planning a bicycle tour for 3 of us that would have us flying to London, riding to Paris and then up to Koln via Amsterdam ... an epic journey for young men.

But, it was not to be. Berlin got bombed. Khadafi declared that entire families would be sent to heaven for the killing of an American, and the trip was over.

I've never quite gotten over it.

And, to bring it all full circle, I had the opportunity while in college to interview my Grossvater about his time of duty in WWII. The result is a stirring Q&A with both meine Grossmutter und meine Grossvater about his job as base commander in Germany directly following the end of the war. The job that he had to do is not appropriate for discussion here ... suffice it to say that humans should not have to take on such jobs, or command other men to do so. The tale told on that day snapped me out of youth and into pure admiration for my grandparents and all WWII veterans for the intense sacrifices they experienced so that we can experience the world as we know it today.

Now, what to do and see? Do I visit Koln after all these years? Take the new car to the Nurburgring and risk it all? Am I strong enough to visit the Dachau site and Museum?

It's a daunting challenge to be given a car and all of Europe to visit. Did I mention that I spent the last two years studying Spanish off and on? Spain would be cool to practice that skill ... I'm hitting the German studies hard, now though. Currently planning to confine myself to der Deutschland.

Aufweidersehen.