Lembach to Erlangen, Bavaria

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  Erlangen, Bavaria, Germany
Thursday, May 11, 2006

      We got up early, had a light breakfast, and took off for Erlangen, Bavaria, Germany, to visit with a former professor of Carol's, Jacques Cabaud and his wife Rosemarie. He is 83 and she is 65. He has been very ill, but perked up when Carol entered the room. He taught at NYU when she was a student (majoring in French, minoring in Italian.) They were close friends, but hadn't seen each other in almost exactly 30 years. He is retired and is writing and translating some of his works into books., which he self-publishes. I bought an autographed copy of is latest, "En Faveur des Apparitials Mariales Contemporaines."   They live on the 2nd and 3rd floors of a plain apartment building in a nice part of Erlangen. Once inside, we found beautifully decorated rooms, with antiques and paintings and just gorgeous furniture. They have a small "salon" (parlor), her office (she teaches singing), a large dining room, a nice-sized bedroom, a lovely little kitchen, and bathroom on the 2nd floor and three rooms of office space for him and a guest room on the 3rd floor. After talking for a while, Rosemarie offered us "tea"-cookies and fresh berries in yogurt (strawberries and black and red raspberries), with tea, of course. She also graciously offered us free use of her phone, on which they have a service with cheap calls to the USA-the better to keep up with their daughter, recently married and living in the USA. I called Steve and Carol called her husband Jack. It was good to talk to Steve-he missed me and I missed him.
      Rosemarie and I left Carol and Jacques to talk over old times and new manuscripts (she took some home with her to work on the English translations), to go sightseeing. Rosemarie showed me the center of town. We saw the palace of the founders of Erlangen and the university. It is a beautiful small city (c. 150,000 people) just a few miles from Nuremberg where some of the WWII war crimes trials were held. I'd hoped to visit Nuremberg, but by the time we got to Erlangen it was mid-afternoon and I was tired from driving in traffic and construction (just like home). Then back to the apartment for a "light" supper of pot roast (cooked in a pressure cooker-just like I do), potatoes, wonderful spargel (white asparagus) with a light sauce, and cookies and ice cream for dessert. It was a very nice visit. We talked and listened to Jacques until about 9:30 p.m., then went back to our hotel (we'd dropped our things there before heading to Jacques and Rosemarie's. It was in the nearby town of Langensendelbach, about 8.5 km northeast. We had a nice, modern room in what seemed like a new hotel: double bed with individual comforters, a small desk, a wardrobe, and a real bathtub! It was wonderful-I hadn't had a bath for 2 weeks, only showers in Lembach.

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