I believe it was from the east.  The more I think about it, the more certain I am. As a matter of fact, I came twice.  The last time was in 1993 when I left the city of Reading, Berks County, Pennsylvania.  The slogan out there was "You can't top Berks County." As least not by much. Reading is the home of the Reading Railroad of Monopoly fame. It is also quite famous for pretzels. Have you heard of the Pretzel Bowl?  When offered a position there as a Member of Technical Staff at Bell Labs , I had no idea where the place was.  But I ended up staying for 30+ years.  We lived at the base of Mount Neversink for many years. Neat place. It is also a rather historic area. In the immediate vicinity are the Daniel Boone homestead, the Conrad Weiser homestead (Indian fighter and peace maker), and the Appalachian Trail.  There are many venerable family names like Muhlenberg which produced a lineage of pastors, physicians and even a Revolutionary War general.  Within 50 miles of Reading you can go to Independence Hall, the Liberty Bell (both in Philadelphia), Hawk Mountain Bird Sanctuary, Hershey Park, and the Valley Forge battlefield. A little further is the Gettysburg battlefield.

Berks County and the adjacent county of Lancaster are home to large settlements of Amish and Mennonites. These are religious denominations that have retained a life style reminiscent of the late 1800 hundreds.  They are divided into many sects and do for the most part stay to themselves and don't interact much with the rest of the world. If you want to see farming done with horse drawn plows, this is the place. Actually, Wisconsin and other states also have very large settlements of Amish. They are very nice people.

Reading, PA was a difficult place to say good-bye to. We are still doing so when my wife and I visit every year.

My family originated in and around the town of Husum, Germany, referred to by the German poet Theodor Storm as the "Gray City by the Sea." The town is on the North Sea (opens into the Atlantic Ocean) on the narrow strip of land in northern Germany that borders on Denmark. The fishing industry was thriving once upon a time but today Husum
is mostly a tourist area. According to an uncle I visited a couple years ago, the land mass around the town has a very distinctive outline from the air and Allied bombers would gather there, coming from different bases, for their bombing raids into the heart of Germany. That explains all the air raid siren activity at the time of THE war. Below are pictures of the harbor and of the woods surrounding a local castle. The harbor is usually empty of water when the tide is out and water occasionally goes over the embankment and floods the shown area when the tide is in. Not as spectacular as the Bay of Fundy, but not bad. The flowers are a vast bed of crocuses. There is also a view of the North Sea when the sea is well behaved.

• Husum harbor
• Crocuses
• North Sea

• Glücksburg castle
• Beach with grass
• Fjord - Germany as seen across the fjord from Denmark

Denmark is the country of Lego blocks and the fairy tales of Hans Christian Andersen.  Despite its present peaceful image it was one of the sources of Viking raiders that were the scourge of Europe at the beginning of the present millennium. At one time Denmark was in control of much of northern Europe, including most of England.  The present royal family dates back to Gorm of Old, approximately a thousand years ago.  I spent many happy summers in Denmark in my early school years, living on a farm outside the city of Viborg.  During the same time period my brother  lived in Esbjerg and later in the the area of Randers.  His farm outside of Randers had a straw roof and the farm dwellings were built in the form of a square, a vestige of the days when you needed to protect yourself from all sides, like a fort.  Living that far north during the summer makes for very long hours of daylight.  Unfortunately, that also results in very long hours of winter darkness.

For a couple of years I spent time in the city of  Stolp in the former German territory of Pommern.  The city is now called Slupsk and is located in the center of Poland (east-west) near the Baltic Sea.  Like the border between Denmark and Germany, the border between Poland and Germany has often shifted, and by huge distances.  You are undoubtedly familiar with the nation of Prussia.  Where do you think that territory was located?  Poland, as a nation at one point totally disappeared.  At other times it was totally landlocked without any access to the Baltic Sea.

• City of Slupsk
• Slupia river near Slupsk

• Mostly marzipan.  The center of the marzipan universe (in my not so humble opinion) is Lubeck, Germany (state of Schleswig-Holstein, like the cow).  Look for the name of Niederegger. Just saying that is a mouthful (of marzipan). At one time I had to resort ot an emergency shipment of marzipan from them.  There is a downside to this marzipan business. Each large bar contains ~5000 calories. Once, I ate ~40 bars in one month. My belt size changed a couple of notches.

• Then there is salmiac. Wonderful stuff. Although one student, perhaps more, described it as foul tasting and spit it out. Can you believe that?