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speaks excellent Danish and recognized his accent in German (which he also speaks very well) - to me, an incredible accomplishment. So he said to this student - in Danish - that he was glad to see that it wasn't only Americans who made fools of themselves in Heidelberg restaurants.

The other interesting place was a simple working man's restaurant in Wiesbaden, in the heart of the old section, which is still full of ruins from the war. I had a thick slice of ham with real German sauerkraut - very different from the French cuisine. Everyone was drinking huge glasses of apple wine and feeling very gay. There was loud talk all around. Then someone started playing an accordion and everyone threw an arm around his neighbor and started swaying from side to side in time with the music and singing. It was incredible. Something like that is absolutely unimaginable in France. There, even in a working man's restaurant (we go to one from time to time) the conversation is lively but muted, even if the beer and wine is very much in evidence, and a man's privacy is absolutely respected.

The Germans seem to like to do things in groups. The French avoid groups like poison. Which reminds me of a very odd thing we saw today at lunch time, while we were having coffee on the porch. There were six sailplanes (or gliders) circling around together in the same current of air. They must have come from the other side of the Rhine. The Germans go in