Re-Visiting Munich ...

Yes, a few years back (I try to forget!), you know, after some surgery of some kind, yeah, I got into "PLAYING WITH PUZZLES" as a way to pretend like i was actually achieving something, you know, like strengthening my mind to some degree ... Or, you know, something like that!

But yeah, since I have been to "MUNCHEN", ahh, that German, for, you know ...But yeah, I tried to get down there as often as I could.

Closer to the mountains! Duh?

In fact, I even remember driving down town, to like, RIGHT HERE, on some motorcycle trip I took back when I did such things, you know, taking pictures and writing articles while "covering" a trip for some touring company, or motorcycle magazine!

Something like that ...

But yeah, I also remember driving through there in our own car (a Japanese Nissan something) back in the day ... But yeah, give me a TRAIN ride anyday!

City traffic over in Europe is ... Well, very European, and I'll just leave it at that!

But yeah, and I can't even remember where this puzzle showed up, maybe my older sister bought it, yeah, her and her husband did come over for a visit on year while we were living over there up in Bremerhaven, while my, then wife, was stationed over there in the mid-1980s ...

No! That was too long ago!

I don't know! But yeah, I'm just trying to remember where it came from!

I'm not a PUZZLE kind of guy ...

But here it is, sitting on the floor, all framed and everything, right here in my living room ... Go figure!

And that is years, and YEARS, after my "FIRST ONE", you know, once I turned, what? Like THIRTEEN, or something?

No, I was in my SIXITIES!

It had to be, like, once I retired, and had all that "work done" on me for being so OLD to be out there running with all those "middle school" kids! Yeah, remember, I signed up for Social Security, on my "lunch hours" (or what we called, "Planning") my last year of teaching!

Yeah, I got "a late start" at this "GAME" I loved!

Anywho ...

Yeah, i was just "sitting around the apartment" after my neck surgery, and yeah, like I said, somehow, a much LARGER puzzle "showed up" ... Oh!

It just hit me!

No, remember that time I was ovr in like, Luxembourg (yeah, that was it!) while on that crazy summer of 2009 when I flew over to visit my friend that served with me over in Germany back in the day!

Yeah, "short version" ... The ONE friend of mine that actually, you know, stayed in the Marine Corps from "back in the day", yeah, and was in my Section over in Japan (I could tell you some STORIES!),well, anyways ...

I get over there, I'm met my two Marines, with a sign ... Say what?

Hey, my buddy was in the hospital, after just having his neck operated on ... WHAT?

Yeah, that was never mentioned in our e-mails' ... Just saying!

Oh! And it gets better!

His sixteen year old son just happened to be over there for the summer as well ... Ha!

The Marine Corps sent my friend home ... His son and I took "daddy's" credit card, some rental car, and yeah, "took off" for a MONTH while his daddy recovered back in "The World", which, yeah, was what we called "The United States", back in The Day (in Japan!).

Hey! Off we went! Like I said, up to where I lived in Germany, then just kept going! Denmark, Sweden, back down into Germany (the Alps!), even drove down into Spain and "kept going"!

Yeah, we parked the car, took a Ferry across the Mediterranean, to, no kidding, North Africa!

Morocco, baby!

That was my "first time" over there ... And did I mention his, much taller than me, SIXTEEN year old son?

What a TRIP!

I couldn't have made it up! But I did.

Made it back to where my friend was stationed (around Frankfurt, I think), and met up with the father!

Oh! And yeah, we even flew over to Ireland for a week, or so, almost forgot about that!

Busy summer.

No harm done! Well, unless you bring up that one time when I had to go park the car in a garage, NOT attached to the hotel we rented ... Yeah, I had no idea where I was! I just "followed the car" I thought I was supposed to follow, but yeah, they drive a "wee-bit" different than I do! Heck, I wasn't even sure if I was following "the right car"!

Are you kidding?

Around, and around I went ... But yeah!

I FOUND IT!

No problem (NOW!).

Oh, those were the days!

Made it back in one piece.

BOTH of us!

Oh! That "boy" is now serving in the Marine Corps, no "harm" done! And his mother, who I had first met over in Japan (she was in the Navy!), didn't "kill me"!

Which reminds me, their daughter is in the Air Force, if I remember correctly! Quite the family!

PERFECT!

What a summer! 2009.

But yeah, GERMANY ...

Love it.

And yeah, putting this puzzle, and the other one, of THE WORLD, which I bought at some HUGE Flea-Market place up in New York, ahh, after my "rotator-cuff" surgery I had, you know, even earlier, yeah, I have that puzzle up-stairs, framed, and sitting on a bookshelf thing with a bunch of cameras piled up around it!

Yeah, love those "Down Times" that I've had over my years! CRAZY.

But hey! Speaking of which ...

Time for my WALK!

I have "things to do, places to go"!

I just wish I knew what they were, and where! Ha!

That's LIFE!

See ya out there!

But yeah, NO PUZZLES!

Not NOW!

Good luck with that!

See ya!