Cologne Germany?

[Rick Lee]

Yup Joe. Her dad is Rainer Buchwalsky and I've been swimming in Bad Laer. Was pretty cool back in the day when you could do that and watch the RAF Tornadoes and Harriers train overhead. Love that area.

[Joeaksa]

Jeez the world is getting real small real fast. I have driven that car years ago.... I worked with Henning Warnecke, the head of the heart section there. Buchwalsky was the head of the hospital.

Did enjoy living there, its nice rural farmland and beautiful year around.

[Rick Lee]

So Mark, maybe you should do a side trip to the area Joe and I are discussing. It's real nice and about 2 hrs. north of Cologne.

[Overpaid Slacker]

LeRoux -
Was a Fulbright Scholar (economics) for a year, studying the Highlands Water Project, the effects on the PWV Region, and specifically the hydropower project being built in Lesotho. I lived primarily in Maseru, Lesotho, but travelled through quite a bit of RSA (except NW). While at Lesotho "home base" Bloemfontein was the closest city, but it was an odd, sometimes eerie place.

I played cricket for the Lesotho Nat'l Team (which means a whole lot less than it sounds like, as you certainly know) and got to travel to and through a lot of dorps in OVS. But I also got to bowl at the Wanderers and Newlands during some tournaments.

I spent 2 weeks down in Kalk Bay/Fish Hoek (with a friend who had been on the OVS Fishing Team...who knew that the OVS had a fishing team. Commuting to practice must've sucked) and travelling around CT area (gorgeous), travelled up through Eastern Cape to Durban (for golf). I went to Pretoria for softball and soccer tournaments and wound up staying a week or so (a friend's parents lived there and I got to know a number of the USMC guards at the embassy). Our softball fields were overlooked by de Klerk's place, up on the hill. I thought Pretoria was a bit dry, compared to other areas.

Coupla roadtrips to Swaziland and Botswana (cricket and soccer, respectively). So I got to see a good deal of RSA. Not everything I'd like to have seen, but I got to meet some interesting folks. Including Kepler Wessels, Allan Donald, Jonty Rhodes and Ian Botham. I also met a guy who implied he was Terre'Blanche... I doubt it, but he was AWB material in any event. I think he was shocked to speak to an American who had studied South African history (undergrad honors thesis).

There are few specific places I remember outside of Lesotho, but I loved Graaff Reinet (stayed at the Drostdy and ate at Caledonia, IIRC). There was a great Greek restaurant in Jo'burg called Delphini. I wasn't a fan of PE (don't remember why) but liked Durban (don't remember why, either).

I can't remember the name of the cafe in Matjiesfontein I loved, but it's on the list of places to return to when I make it back to RSA. It was especially great b/c I'd watched the sun rise over the Karoo a few hours earlier on the drive down to CT.

In a couple of years I'm going to see if there are adjunct/visiting faculty opportunities at UCT or Stellenbosch for a semester (or year)!

Looking at Google Maps right now, I'm surprised how many of the little towns along my routes I can recall (and pronounce in Afrikaans in my head). Now I've got to bust out the photos!

Alright, enough of hijacking this thread.

JP