Yes, life is full of stages. Awesome highs and almost unbearable sadness are the signs of a life lived. I hope that many who read these short tales of mine also have stories to tell. Interesting episodes that have occurred in their life, or unusual life styles with stories to accompany. I am telling mine now, here, as a record of a life that I hope was worth living. That my children, and their children can read this thread, and remember me. That is how one is able to live longer than a lifetime. So..... shall I continue?
I think I will. When I just barely turned 16, I took a trip with a couple of close buddies, Giles Daman Willems, and Pieter de Visser van Bloemen. Giles was the son of a Dutch diplomat stationed in Bonn, West Germany, back in those days. His mother British. Pieter was dutch, was from the Philippines, and we all went to Eerde International School, just outside of Ommen, NL. Giles traveled with diplomatic immunity between the Netherlands and Germany. When crossing the border back in the day, all he needed to do was flash his Passport at officials and we were waved through. Many times did we ride the train between Zwolle and Bonn, as I was a good friend of the family I was invited to tag along during our extended school breaks. When I say breaks, there had to enough time generally for some of the students to fly home to Sweden, Brazil , Africa, the US/Canada and many other places, and back. INTERNATIONAL School.
Anyway, one of those longer breaks Giles, Pieter and I decided to hike from near Bonn, to Trier. I can still remember the song 'Horse with no Name' had just come out, being played on the radio over and over. Catchy tune. La La Lalalala...... We hiked through hilly countryside full of farms and areas of trees, forest really. No incredible views, but very Hobbit-ish, if you know what I mean. Dark Forest on occasion. It was much like the LOTR book describes the trip from Hobbiton to Tom Bombadill. The trip was cozy, if I had to describe it.
Part way along we came to the Nürburgring https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N%C3%BCrburgring and spent the evening watching all the cars tearing around the track. Pretty damn cool.
Eventually arriving in Trier to see all the Roman ruins still standing in the city center. Also very awesome. Then it was back to reality and school. But that was OK. School was kind of like Hogwarts a bit, so I didn't mind.
This was short story...my memory is vague about details, but I can still see much of the trip in my minds eye....
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