The Dom Cathedral, Cologne, Germany

View at walls of the Kremlin, Moscow, USSR

Cologne, West Germany, 3 June, 1986:  Holland was beautiful.  I bicycled from Amsterdam to Bonn via the Hague in 3 days ... 270 miles.  My bags were thoroughly searched and I was asked to strip down to my underwear by German border guards looking for drugs.  The following day, I was almost made to pay a fine for making a right turn on red with my bicycle.

I've been staying the past two nights with SERVAS hosts in Cologne (Koln) -- a psychologist and a social worker.  The next two days I stay in Bonn with another SERVAS host -- a taxi driver.

Today, I had a taste of what it's like in Poland as I stood and waited over three hours to get my visa.  I still don't know when or if I'll get my Soviet visa.  Assuming I do, it may be too late to spend much if any time in Poland.  (Stop the press -- 4 June, 1986 -- I got my Soviet visa today.  I will leave Germany in one week).

Katowice, Poland, 17 June, 1986:  I've seen the Berlin Wall from both sides, and today the Auchwitz fences from both sides.  There are only inadaquate walls to describe either.

I think that the images we've seen in the media of Poland distorted the true picture greatly for me.  People here are not wealthy, but I think they're doing reasonably well for themselves.  Surely, nobody I've seen is visibly impoverished in the manner I've seen in every other western country I've visited.

Warsaw, Poland, 22 June, 1986:  I've been staying with very nice people in Cologne, Bonn, Berlin and, of course, with Gary and Gisela in Bruchkobel (near Frankfurt).  My hosts in Poland have all been wonderfully kind and interesting people.  I have stayed with a doctor, a real estate agent, and a published author and sculpter who has visited over 50 countries.  I will for the next two days be with a person who has crossed the Sahara Desert on his bicycle.

The churches in Krakow, Poland are very ornate.  One host showed me 14 of them.

I also went down into salt mines 700 years old with fantastic wall carvings and sculptures up to 500 years old, including such things as The Last Supper.

Moscow, USSR, 3 July, 1986:  Dobray utra (good morning)!  As the old saying goes, I'd agree with "This is a nice place to visit, but..."   As usual, but perhaps more profound here, I find myself exchanging one set of misconceptions for another.  I wish all Americans could come to see this country for themselves.

"The Ukraine girls really knock me out,
they leave the West behind,
The Moscow girls make me sing and shout,
and Georgia's always on my my my my my my my my my mind..."

...The Beatle's, "Back in the USSR"

"From Russia with love",

Dohsveedahnya (goodbye),

Dean

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