Greeting from Selb, Germany

Greeting from Selb in the "German Siberia" about 5 miles from the Czech border, east of Frankfurt and north of Munich. It's not the end of the world but you can clearly see it from here!

As you can see from this photo made through a train window, the countryside here looks much like Alleghany County but the weather is a little colder. The forecast is for -12 C tomorrow.

The ride over from the Frankfurt airport was about 4 hours in duration. The trains are all electric, clean, quiet, spacious, and on time. What an enjoyable way to travel after being cramped in a flying sardine can for 7 hours.

Just outside Frankfurt, the landscape is dominated by wheat fields. The train often follows rivers, all of which were frozen over. Further along, a number of south-facing hillsides were covered by ancient vineyards. In the valleys along the tracks could be seen what were called "Victory Gardens" in WWII. These are groups of small plots of land for vegetable gardens, separated by fences and typically with a small garden shed and an outdoor fireplace. You will find very similar gardens even today in Fenway Park in Boston.

The further east (and higher) we went, the whiter it got. The forecast is for snow, snow and more snow!

Germany runs on electricity with power lines everywhere you look. We passed a number of nuclear plants along the way and, as we got into the mountains, many huge, 3-bladed windmills used for power generation.

Perhaps the most impressive thing I saw on the train ride, however, was the number of people walking about the countryside. They outnumbered cars on the road at least 5 to 1.

All in all, however, I'll still take Alleghany County.