super busy day here in munich.. so much going on.. so many late nights,  so many people visiting, so many  deadlines.. my head is spinning….  at least it was until something funny and amazing happened. 

just an hour ago I was sitting in the dull hotel bar/restaurant next door  with my friend Alecio who’s here visiting from Brazil.. we had just sat down to talk around 11pm.. we were starting to  talk  about our pasts.. I was trying to listen to him..  as hard  as I listened.. all I could hear was the noise in my own head.. all those thoughts swirling around.. 

then ….. all of a sudden….

there was this huge bang.. . an explosion really….   a tempered glass door near us spontaneously cracked into a million pieces.. no one was anywhere near it… 

everyone jumped.. the place got very quite…. 

then I realized the noise in my head had completely stopped.. so had all the racing thoughts..

I was quiet  and calm.. and got to listen to my friend’s very interesting story of travel. family and reinvention 

we enjoyed our meal and our conversation whiel the managment tried to figure out what the hell had happened to the door..

I knew what had happened, but I just didn’t  feel like explaining it to anyone 🙂

nite all, nite sam

-me

Oh man.. I realized my epiuc post from yesterday didn’t go out.. just sent it.. please see it for some cool cemetery pics. 

 

today was a great day in Karlsruhe.. ancestral home of my great grandfather. ..   I left ettingen abotu 9 am.. and took the tram back into the city.. I walked to the University just to soke up the spring weather.. it took me by the zoo.. whcih ertainly smelled less than spring like 🙂 

 

 

I spent a very excellent day with Prof Gerhart Satzger and team at the Sugar project reviews.. It haas aspects of my current job and my next job.. Student from all over the world showed where they were on soem design callenges for industrial clients.. it was fun and inspiring !

 

there was one group doing blockchain.. they had a book that referenced one of my papers.. which was cool !

 

the day went by quickly.. I was so impressed with both students and faculty. I have to come back !

=

 

ah.. trains coming.. gotta run

nite all, nite sam

-me

mishpokhe means ‘my people’ in yiddish.. I’m in Ettlingen right now.. where many of my relatives on my dad’s mom side came from. My grandfather her was an Ettilinger.  (one who comes from Ettlingen ) it was my mom’s maiden name and my brothers middle name.. it’s also been my email password a few times (but not now :0)

Ettlingen  is  a suburb of Karlsruhe. and that was my first stop today./ I took the train from Munich and got to Karlsruhe about 1. Here’s the train-station 

 

 

id use the train ride to reasearch the area and a few family trees. I left the trainstation and headed to Kriegestrasse (war streees).. to see what was still tehre.. on the way I went throught he Karlsruhe zoo.. includng the exhibit they have of very old elepants. 

 

 

Karlsruhe is a pretty enough city.. but it’s much more urban than Munich.. the ink on the walls was pretty much everywhere 

 

my first stop was the old Hebrew cemetery and our old family homestead.. there’s now a tattoo place right between those two . 

 

I had found the cemetery online .. but didn’t expect it to be accessible.. I was right .. it was heavily locked

I walked around the place a couple of times .. looking at how far i’d have ot climb.. and the state of the barbed wire.. 

I was able to slip into a small paring lot for a party equip,ent place thaht backed up to the cemetary.. wouldn’t you kwo.. they had a stacl of pallets in the corner.. that al.lowed me to scale the fence.. and there was a broke gravestone on the other that allowed me to sort of jump down wiht out hurting myself.. andwthout getting locked in. 

 

 

it looked liek no one had been there in soemtime.. I took my time checkign out the residents. 

 

most of them had   .. po nikbar.. ‘here lies’ .. 

 

I started finding soem family names… I remember on fa,ily member marrying a ‘siegelman’ 

 

among other thigns it says that men have ot have their heads cover4d to vist.. I found a scarf and complied.

 

the p;ace was really still and beautiful despite being in the middle of a largish city /

 

I read online that the ancient cemetery had been dug up to make room for building.. and many of the buried had been brought there.. and their gravestones lined up by the wall. 

 

 

erosion had done a number here. 

 

 

these hands mean this was a Cohan./. the same prest cast that I am. 

 

at last.. our last name ‘ Ettlinger’.. 

 

antoehr \

 

and another.. .. thos guy ws defintely related t me. 

 

afterwards I was on a geneology website.. and soemone was lookign for a picture of this gravestone. I logged in and posted it !

]]

 

a little irony here. .. it says my unforgettable… ” .. who  ? 

 

 

I put a samstone on sigmonds. grave.. 

 

here’s me .. I have my head cover4d as they requst. 

 

ok.. back over the fence and out.. .. 

 

I was heading back to the address where great great unce moritz lived.. and came across the tablet.. iut says this is the site of the old cemetayr]]]]]]]]].

now htheres a middle eastern food, shisha place where g 

 

here’s uncle moritz’s house.. .. (about 100 years after he wrote this note to my grandfather)

 

 

 

its now a couputer store with apartments upstairs 

 

here’s the vie my great great uncle might have seen 

 

and here’s our family name all over everythign !

 

here’s the house form across the streent 

 

from there I grabbed a strassenbahn and headed out to the suburb of Ettlingen.. where we must have originates. 

 

ettlingen. it turns out is really beautiful.. !n here are some views of it 

 

 

thsi was the old jewish quarter of twon.. no jes left here since the holocost.. .. hard to imagine.. but true 

 

here’s hebrew id’s on teh houses. 

 

I saught out these ‘stuble stones’ to mark a family murdered in the holocaust.. its near the site of the old synagogue that was destryed in the Kristal Nackt pograms in  1938

 

 

I chec ked nto my nice hotel..then spent the evening walkign around town.. there was a little festival going which cherred the place up even more 

 

even ettlinger bratwurst !

 

here’s ettlingen castle.. note all the details are tromp d ouile .. 

 

 

see ? 

 

 

I ended up in a very weird.. but tasty Mexican restaurant.. it was just what I needed.. jalapeños and all 

 

then a sow pleasant walk bacl to the hotel 

\]\]

 

it was amazing to think that an importnatn part of family lived here less than 100 years ago.. 

it’s chillign to know that many of them di d not get out.. 

 

I can say.. that time can give distance.. and I’m happy to be here now

 

nite all. nite sam

-me

 

Greetings from Munich . Had a very quiet, slow day here.. went for a good run.. then at 3  my very good friend Rafe came by with his former post-grad Tatiana. Rafe ..who was my college suite-mate.. and one of my oldest and closest friends.. is visiting for a math conference.. and Tatiana came up from Austria to spend a few hours with him. 

I took them by t see my work.. 

 

we got Tatiana to her train..t he rae and I spent the rest of the day hangin out in bars, eating and drinking..   it was so good catching up 

 

we ended up downtown strolling around Mariensplatz

 

last stop was the Hoffbrau house… it was so humid in there. that our glasses instantly fogged.. up

just dropped  rafe of at his hotel.. he leaves for the  US early tomorrow morning.. I e;ave for Karlshwru tomorrow as well

more from there !

 

nite all. nite sam

-me