March 30, 1971 #2

Here are the last 9 pictures of this particular group.  the first five, below are the ones I really have been anxious to send you.  My lotus.  I got it to hold still long enough to pose for a formal portrait!

From the Rear

Side view

From above

Front View

With me

This and the rest of these pictures I took in the old part of the city of Nuremberg.  Although Nuremberg isn't a very large dot on the map, it is a very large city.  I haven't gone there too often, mainly because I usually spend most of my time getting lost in its very confusing network of roads.

Since this is a family letter, I can't really tell you what goes on in this block of "houses".  These types of establishments are very common in Germany.

This is the  Nuremberg Baunhauf, or in English, train station.

This last picture is of an interesting looking church in downtown Nuremberg.

Well that's all my pictures for now.  Some more are being developed, and every chance I get, I drive around looking for interesting subjects. Tomorrow night I will try to start work on a letter to you, because I know I am overdue on one, and I've got a lot of news to share.

March 30. 1971

Dear Mom & Dad,

Here are 11 more pictures for you.  these are the last ones I took of Rothenburg.  There is not too much to say about most of these pictures because mainly they are of buildings and things that I just thought were interesting at the time.  Most of my pictures so far, have turned out pretty good I think.  I'm glad I didn't invest a lot of money in an expensive camera.  The one I have, is reliable, takes good clear snap shots and is simple to work, which is about all I ever really wanted in a camera.  OK, now on to the pictures:

 This one above, as well as below are both long shots of the town.  Notice the wall.  the river in the valley is the Tauber.

 This stature of St. George is on an old water fountain, one of two in the city that supplied the town with water from the Tauber River in the old days.

 A picture of the main church in Rothenburg.

Some very old statues at the base of the church.  It was a little too dark in there to get a really good picture of them.

 A close up of one of the statues on the side of the church.

This is just an interesting old building with some interesting sculptures on it's side.

 One of the many very high towers in Rothenburg, which were used to look for enemies in medieval times.

 This is the oldest entrance to the city.  They say it dates back to the 700's

 If you can read the sign on that wall you will know more about this picture than I do!

This picture has no historical significance, but it is kind of funny.  I have no idea what they were looking for in that gutter.

One more envelope to come soon.

March 29, 1971 #2

Dear Mom & Dad,

Here's 12 more pictures.  Most of these were taken in a town about 15 miles from here called Rothenburg.  It's claim to fame is that it is one of the oldest cities in Europe that is still in original condition.  There is a stone wall built completely around the town and many of the buildings date back to the 8th century.  It is a very popular place for tourists, but at this time of year it isn't too crowded. Even though it is kind of a tourist trap, it is very worth seeing.  

if you look closely at the picture above you will see me standing over on the side.  A friend took this one for me.  Believe it or not this is a very famous place in Rothenburg.  Mainly because there must be about a thousand paintings and drawings of this spot.  In fact one of the drawings that I bought myself is of this scene.  Why all these artists picked this spot to draw is kind of a mystery to me.

This is a closer view of the tower in the picture above.

Both this picture above and the one below are of the same building.  You can see by the clock that it was one o'clock.  On the sides of the clock are two windows.  Inside the windows are two figures which are kind of hard to see in theses pictures.  Every hour the windows open and these two figures of men come to the opening.  Their arms raise and they proceed to each "drink" a large mug of beer.  This takes 3 or 4 minutes.  When they are finished they turn around, leave the windows and then the shutters slam shut for another hour.

Above also taken in Rothenburg.  At the time I thought it was kind of an interesting composition for a picture.

This one was taken from the wall around the city I mentioned.  you can walk completely around the town on this wall.

This one was also taken from on the wall.

Here is a picture of a typical store window in Rothenburg.  Too bad there was too much reflection to get a better picture of this.

This is a German police car, with a friend and fellow 2nd Lt. standing by it.

Here is the man who drew the pictures I bought.  He was a very interesting character to talk with and like I said before, he is over 80!

Most people take pictures of their cars after they spend hours shining and polishing them.  I did that too, which you will get later, but I thought I would let you see what it looks like after a little normal use as well.  It is almost impossible to keep a car clean for more than a week on the roads over here.

Don't show this picture to Mike!  (their dog)  It's a dog skin rug.  Wild Chinese dog, or so they told me, but it is really nice to put your feet on in the morning.  I just hung it on the door in order to photograph it.

More to come.....

March 29, 1971

Dear Mom & Dad

Well here are some more pictures.  This envelope holds the first batch of 44 snap-shots, all of which you should be getting at about the same time in several different envelopes.  This is not a letter, just comments on the pictures.  I will try to get out a long letter to you very soon.  These first pictures I would like to call:  Things I would like to show you if you were here....

 This is a new tape recorder and cassette player that I got recently.  You see I still haven't received my baggage that I sent from home, which had my stereo in it, so I had to have something to listen to music on.  If by any chance I ever do get my stereo again I can use it in conjunction with the tape-recorder.
By the way, I made a voice recording to send to you, but I made the mistake of listening to it after I was done.  If you have ever heard yourself talk on a tape-recorder, you will know what I mean.  I still haven't gotten up enough nerve to send it to you.

 This is a new coat that I bought shortly after I first arrived here, made in England, but two of the buttons came off recently, so I haven't been wearing it too much.

 This is one of the licence plates that was on my Lotus when I first picked it up.  Because it was driven from England to Germany it had these British plates on it, and they let me keep them as souvenirs.

This is one of  four drawings that I got from an artist who was selling them at the club.  This guy was over 80 years old, and these pictures were all his own work.  This particular picture is of Rotenburg, a medieval city about 15 miles from here.

 Another one of the drawings that I bought.  This was one of the first ones he did in 1929.  Of course these are lithographs, but he does all the reproductions himself from his original plates.

 My uniform with all my glorious decorations.

This is an ashtray made out of alabaster.  I got this from a guy from Italy who sells these goods at the club every now and then.  This ash tray must weigh at least 10 lbs.

 The keys to my car and the bill of sale!

 One more drawing.  this one is the last one that he ever drew.  he quit drawing because his eyes were getting real bad.  His eyes were bad when he did this one, so he took a picture of it, and then projected it on the wall of his studio and drew it from that.  this one is of a church in Worms Germany.

 Two alabaster bookends, that I got from the same guy that I got the ashtray from.

This is a parka, and cold weather gloves that were issued to me when I got here.  I've never had an opportunity to wear them yet.

That's all for this one:  Next Rotenburg, Nuremberg, and other places.