2005 letter about a visit to Leipzig, Germany: In the morning we left Frankfurt and began the long drive to Leipzig. Although we had discussed making it into a two-day trip, it turned out to be only a six hour trip—235 miles. We drove straight through. Somewhere between Frankfurt and Leipzig we crossed over from West Germany to East Germany. We thought that we detected slightly bumpier roads in the part of Germany formally controlled by the Russians. But that is probably unfair because we had to pass many areas in both the West and the East where roads were undergoing repair. Most of the roads we drove on were in very fine shape and pretty new judging by the lack of oil smudge in the center of the lanes. Autobahns in Germany seem to be of concrete rather than asphalt. Where the roads were being replaced, the dug up parts were at least 3-4 feet deeper than the lanes we were driving on. If they fill that with road material the new roads should last a long time.

The drive from Frankfurt took us north and then east. The landscape was quite different from what we saw in other parts of Europe—very large forested areas and when we saw cultivated fields, they were very large. And we noticed an absence of the many villages that turn up every few miles in France and the Netherlands. Of course we were on different roads here—six-lane autobahns, not two lane national roads and that could explain the difference in the landscape. But we used such roads in England and we still think that we encountered many more towns there than here.

There were two similarities to roads in other parts of Europe that we noticed with approval. There were virtually no billboards or advertising of any kind except every once in a while a small sign in the middle of a field would announce that there is a McDonalds in the next town. The second similarity was that the roadsides were very clean. I never noticed the clutter on American highways until we drove over here.

When we got to Leipzig, we found the campground easily. We didn’t try to go into the city because it was already getting late. Instead, we passed a very nice hour or so chatting with one of our campground neighbors – a couple from Nijmegen, Holland. First question to us was "Why are Americans so fat?" Not an auspicious beginning! But conversation soon turned to other subjects and we feel sort of flattered that she asked chubby old Ron and Adelle. Later that night we had a chat with another neighbor. They were from the south of Germany, near Basel. They had taken a bus tour of Liepzig that day. They mentioned their amazement that the tour guide said that unemployment in this former East German city was 20 percent. No wonder things are in some disrepair. And, incidentally, that explains why we saw more beggars in Leipzig than in any other European city.

Both the Dutch and the German couples thought that we could drive to Italy from Basel through Lake Lucerne in Switzerland and use the Goddard tunnel to get through the Alps because it is all pretty flat. We will consider that route because it will get us to Italy much sooner than going into France and then around the Mediterranean coast into Italy.

Which brings us to "A Day in the Life" of the Milavskys in Leipzig. By 9:15 we were out of the campground. The reception desk didn’t have the day pass for public transit. We opted to walk to the tram stop – which was a big mistake. It was far enough to tire us out. We could have taken the bus outside the campground since it goes to the tram, but it didn’t look far on the map and we walked it.

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