Look at this:   a full page ad in the Frankfurter Allgemeine, a serious newspaper (i.e. it’s not cheap to place such an ad) for trips to Antarctica.   Antarctica!   Tell me another country where you would see that. Go ahead, I can wait.   You can’t, because Germans go to  the most extreme destinations.

Two blog entries ago I mentioned a biting wind and I can’t let the word “biting” go without thinking of my governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger,   in this unbelievable video “promoting” Rio de Janeiro from long ago.   It is five minutes of not believing your eyes.   I can’t embed the YouTube video, so here is the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pdIjJ8efftk

I hope tomorrow is the last day I need to wear shoes in Europe. I am hitchhiking from Frankfurt to Muenster–again in the rain–but the next day:   Istanbul.