Hier ist die deutsche Fassung
You are welcome to improve on my Kraut English. Send a mail to mail@heinerfischle.de

If you see no thumbnails, this is caused by the privacy settings of your Firewall. Sorry.

My friend Erich Fritz from the LAG Tanz Baden-Württemberg had gathered a tour group of 10 square dancers to enjoy the Fall foliage in the woods of New England.

Monday, September 27, 2004
I started from Hamburg, the others from Stuttgart, to meet at Paris Charles-de-Gaulle. After ninety minutes of stress (run from one terminal to the other, zig-zag queue before the passport control, then the baggage control ...) I arrived in the aircraft when the others already were seated. We intended to start immediately from Logan Airport to Portland with two rented cars; therefore we needed to arrive together.	You can watch the progress of your flight on the screen in the back of the seat ahead.	Shuttlebus to Avis at Logan Airport. Right in front Erich Fritz.

Tuesday, September 28, 2004
Next morning we needed a breakfast.	A short stop in Wiscasset	at the bridge over the Sheepscot River
Here you can rent a husband.	The lighthouse of Port Clyde	At Fairfield Inn Bangor / Maine (Mariott) it smells tasty from homemade cookies, which are offered free at the registration desk. The complimentary continental breakfast is also quite sumptuous; only seats are sparse.

Thunder Hole: When storm drives the waves into the cleft, they somtimes catch a bubble of air and compress it, until it bursts.	The sea wind carried away the feather from my beret.	View from Mt. Cadillac (466 m = 1,530 feet)
The lighthouse of Egg Rock	A flaming sunset compensated for the rather dull weather of the day.	But we still wanted to taste original Maine Lobster.
This still takes some time after ordering ...	and it is tasty but toilsome.	Rounding out the day in the Ground Round near our Hotel. Here Lutz Sommercorn is in the picture.

Thursday, September 30, 2004
A short stop to buy provisions.	Preparations for Halloween	The sky is blue, the leaves turn red.
4 Miles before Bethel ...	a Country Craft Store	Soon afterwards a typical covered bridge over the Bear River.
Since the floor was smooth, we used it for a Square Dance: You circle left	with pretty Red Wing, you promenade her and serenade her	First couple lead right, Circle half, Dip and Dive
Next couple lead right, Circle half, Dip and Dive	... and everybody swing your own.	Dinner break at Bethel
It is past 2pm, but you can get something to eat.		← Obviously, the election campaign between Bush and Kerry went to the head of this scarecrow. Difficile est satiram non scribere. (It is difficult NOT to poke fun on this.)
Stop at the cableway to Wildcat Mountain	Gorge and waterfall at Pinkham Notch	This is the Gorge ...
	... and this the Waterfall	We were rather tired when we found our lodgings in the splendid Mt. Washington Hotel at Bretton Woods.

Friday, October 1st, 2004
Glorious weather for our trip to the Mount Washington	We take the 135 years old cog railway.	For such an attraction there are of course several homepages, e.g. www.mtwashingtoncograilway.com/ (the "offcial" Homepage) www.cog-railway.com/ (History and background) www.cs.dartmouth.edu/whites/cog_rr (more pictures)
The engine is not damaged - the boiler is slanted for a reason.	The couches are a bit oldfashioned ...	but modernized in a modest way.
There are switches in the track, so multiple trains - or rather "pushes" can be underway simultaneously.	The trains run under a white cloud of steam and a black cloud of coal smoke ...	that is, under Prussian colors.
On top of Mt. Washington there may be the worst weather of the world, but we were fortunate.
Soon we must take the ride down.		It looks dramatically, but no need to worry.
	At the upward ride the windows stood straight, but the trees grew absurdly slanted. At the ride down, the trees grow vertically again, but the windows are oblique. At the steepest part, the "Jacob's Ladder"the woman beside me laid her head on their arms and did not raise it before we reached the station.	The brakeman explains his job: The coach is not attached to the engine, but must stay close behind.
Now we understand the clouds on the mountain ridge.	This was the first engine ...	which now is in retirement as a museum exhibit.
On the ride back to the hotel we could fully appreciate the splendor of our domicile.	Other hotels started small and were enlarged by and by. The Mt. Washington Hotel was built all at one go.	Here met in the July of 1944 the World Currency Conference, which determined for the decades to come the economy system of the Western World.
In the afternoon we had a guided tour through the hotel.	If you want to dine here, you must wear Jacket and Tie.	But you may enjoy the beautiful vista in casual clothes.

Saturday, October 2nd, 2004
Breakfast at Mt. Washington? We looked for something mor family friendly	... where you could eat in your shirt sleeves.	Then we wanted to pay a visit to the "Old Man of The Mountain"
Alas, he crashed down two years ago.	It was cold comfort the clouds hung that deep, that we were unable to see him in any case.	After some difficulties to find a lodging, we rode through the night to Nelson. We parked our cars at the central Mail Point ...
and found our way to the Town Hall,	where the evening started	with a lot of cheer.
But the the instruments were made ready	. . . and the dancing starts in a big circle.
	Then a lane is formed.	Old and young dance together.
The alcohol-free beverages are all consumed, therefore I drank a glass of wine. Hence the glow!	After midnight there is more free room on the dance floor.	Finally we took our leave from Nelson.

Sunday, October 3, 2004
From the Comfort Inn in Concord, NH, where we stayed overnight a bit unplanned,	we came to the Shaker Village Canterbury	The Shakers excelled in oldfashioned handcraft, but were open for the new technology of their time.
This is the way to get stripes of wood to weave baskets:	You hammer on a tree-trunk until the wood gives way along the annual rings.	From there we drove to Old Sturbridge Village, a museum village that large, that you are allowed to enter again next day with the same ticket.

Montag, 4. Oktober 2004
Von Sturbridge Village we came to Salem, MS.	Every township in the USA who shows some pride sponsores a Trolley line which looks like an old tramway.	Nevertheless, we footed it to the Salem Witch Museum.
There the Witch Hunt of 1692 is reenacted with life-size Figures, light effects, and a narration.	People acted very dignified in those days.	Rocks were piled on a suspect to press out a confession. Unfortunately, this man died, before he confessed.
Others were brought to death in a more legal way.	Meanwhile this story is a tourist attraction. And it is negligible in comparision to the rage of witchhunting in Europe.	In the evening we went to the contra dance at the Scout House Concord. Unfortunately I have no pictures for this - but on the other hand there would be not enough space on this homepage.

Tuesday, October 5, 2004
After we returned the rented cars in Boston, we went by Underground and Shuttlebus to the Science Park.	There we found out that only the last tour of the planned sight-seeing trip allowed for a group of 10 persons. Until then we explored Boston in our own ways.	Boston Duck Tours uses amphibic trucks which were originally built for the Invasion of the Normany now for amphibic sight-seeing tours.
It goes through the canyons of the City ...	... past the Old State House ...	... accompanied by the commentaries of the driver.
Sometimes we meet another Duck Tour which is greeted with a loud QUACK! QUACK!	A short look at the "Constitution" which fought "Hull's Victory".	Then we take to the water ourself.
The Sun is sinking	From here we started.

Wednesday, October 6, 2004
A small bus took us from the hotel to Logan Air Port. There the driver was kind enough to take the only picture whith all 10 participants of our group.	Airports in the USA have no bagage storage any more. Therefore we hung around for more than two hours, until we could get rid of our bagage at the check-in point.	Then we still had three hours to explore Boston.

But the ladies at the Air France counter were friendly and helpful. They did not ask questions, but wrote me a ticket for a flight 2 hours later. My bagage stayed also in Paris, so it would arrive with the same flight as me. Moreover I got a voucher for lunch and for a phone call home. Merci bien!