A Wet Welcome

The flight was uneventful, as usually dinner choices were "chicken or pasta", and, before landing, we got a tiny little sandwich. Not a whole lot to drink neither. The entertainment program hasn't changed much since our last flight a couple of weeks ago.

The plane landed about 25 minutes earlier in Newark and in a jiffy we went through immigration - thanks to Global Entry, but, to be honest, even the regular lines were short today, probably because of the time of the day (noon). Same with luggage, we didn't even have enough time to admire the Christmas trees set up at the baggage conveyor belts (see below)!

We were fortunate and got a chance to experience "My Sedan", a car company transporting people in private cars like sedans, SUVs or limousines from the airports into town or vice versa. Good deal for a group of 3 or 4! To our surprise, a young guy was already waiting for us with a name sign (though we were early) and brought us and our luggage to a black sedan, circling around the airport. We were climbing into the car before 1 pm (scheduled landing was 12:45 pm!).
The trip itself was a little bit of an adventure, an introduction to NYC mentality and traffic. Our driver, an elderly (Eastern European?) gentleman, must have been a race car driver before ... later, when I slowly got car-sick,I noticed, that apparently this is the New York style of driving! Well, at least I know now, that the least thing I want to do is driving in New York. Honking, tailgating, immediate lane changes, you call it...Drove into Brooklyn from New England once, long time ago, but that was enough of an experience and Manhattan is even worse.

Arrived in Harlem, at our friends' brownstone, much earlier than we were expected, before 2 pm already! Unfortunately, it was raining heavily and therefore we took our time to catch up on news with them and to get settled in our room before we left again to buy a weekly ticket for the subway at the nearby train station. Took the train to Columbus Circle, where one of many Christmas markets takes place, and went to Time Warner Center's huge Whole Foods Store to get some breakfast items and a bite to eat for dinner. On our feet now for over 20 hours and tired to the bones.

Big Apple Calling

For the 20th time to NYC... it's like "home coming", especially since we are staying with our friends Heidi & Tom in Harlem again!

Cold this morning, about 20 deg F., but at least no ice, snow or fog. We started VERY early this morning: up at 4:30 am, departure at 5:15 am. The 1-hour-drive on the autobahn to MUC was fortunately smooth, parked the car in the garage (considering the possibility of snow) and then had to take the train for one station to Terminal 2. We were checked in at 6:45 am already, boarding should start at 8:30, flight departure is scheduled for 9:15 am.

Airport is eerie today: Lufthansa is on strike and almost all LH flights are cancelled. Not much going on and not too many passengers around, no newspapers neither. Our plane is full now, since some of the LH clients got booked on United.

Back home

After our wonderful four days in Mexico we spent another day, Tuesday, in Scottsdale/AZ, mostly packing and running last "errands". So beautiful weather still, over 80 deg. F. (27 C) - horrified at the thought that we already got snow at home...

Our stay ended on a sad note. Last day in the U.S. the election took place and to our and many other peoples' blank astonishment, Donald Trump won against Hillary Clinton, though not by popular vote, but by electorals. In retrospect, it seems like we were deluded like most intellectuals/liberals/media people/city and coast dwellers. Seems like too many Americans were sick of current politics and economy and a big-mouth like Trump was just the right person at the right time, speaking rudely from the bottom of their hearts without really having a concept or serious proposals. One big question will be now his position towards international politics. Don't think he has too much political expertise, but will see, who he engages for his team and how the relationship among Republicans will work out. It'll become enthralling!

Flight from PHX (picture above shows Phoenix) to Washington/DC and back to Munich on Wednesday/Thursday was uneventful. Plane was packed, food was horrible, service mediocre, but all on time. Sky was gray, it rained and we had about 34 deg. at touch-down in MUC. What a nice welcome to Germany!

Viva Mexico!

Only had spotty internet connection in Mexico, where we stayed from Thursday to Monday, therefore no report and no pics. On our way over to Mexico we passed by Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument - famous for its huge cactii. It was a 3-hour drive in the U.S. and another one hour after having crossed the border at Sonoita (no controls at all!). We arrived to Puerto Penasco or Rocky Point - as the Americans, living or owning here - call it - in the afternoon.


The town (about 45.000 people) is spread out with the main center of activity around Old Port (pics above) and another along Rodeo Drive, both with lots of (souvenir) shops, some really good, some rather kitschy. Originally, it was just a small fishing village located on the Sea of Cortes in Mexico, but grew in the course of time. Still, many of the roads are dirt roads and some of the infrastructure (like the shrimping boats in the harbor) is still pretty rustic.


We were surprised by the size and the attractivity (though a "morbid" one) of the town. Our first stop at a large supermarket showed us how inexpensive food is, whereas in the souvenir shops and many restaurants they charge you in U.S. $, which is, nevertheless, much cheaper than in the U.S.A and in Europe. Right now, in November, the town mostly belongs to the Mexicans, not too many "tourists" around as we noticed on Saturday evening on the main square, where a band was playing and people were dancing and families enjoying themselves.

Above and below: pics of Rodeo Drive with its shops and a "wildwest feeling" with dirt road in the background. Also, Rodeo Drive is becoming famous for its new murals on the walls:


Since Dios de los Muertes is celebrated here for a whole week with parades and colorful altars for the deseased people set up, we also got a little taste of how our "Allerheiligen" in Germany is celebrated otherwise, melting catholic and Aztec traditions.

There are predominantly condos (for rent) and vacation homes (mostly for rent, too) in town, not many hotels. Many Americans (especially from the Phoenix area) have bought property and rent it out part-time. Where we are staying with our friends, in Las Conchas, about ten miles out of town and closeby the nature estuary, there are villas, big mansions, in several sections and in two or three rows along the beach, very luxurious homes, and there is a security control point to enter this part of the beach. On the other end, South of the city, is Sandy Beach, more populated, more infrastructure and mostly condominiums there (see pic below).

Not bad neither, but we prefer our very tastefully designed and perfectly equipped 2 bedroom/2 bathroom house directly on the beach, with a large living room/kitchen and two patio areas, one up, the other down with a fire pit and shower and direct access to the beach. Our view from the bed goes directly towards the blue ocean and the beige sandy beach and in the evening, when we sat around the fire pit, the star-covered sky (with lots of falling stars!) is incredible.


It's pleasantly fresh in the morning, but it warms up quickly to around 80 deg F (27 deg C), and water temperature is slightly lower than that. Since the moon is just starting to increase again, the water level is very low at low tide and serious swimming is just possible at high tide. The water is very clear, sand is clean and it is incredibly nice to be able to swim in the ocean in November!

We walked at different beaches quite a bit (pic from sunset at Cholla Beach) collected magnificent shells, watched egrets, herons, osprey and pelicans - artists when it comes to flying -, we saw dolphins far out and schools of fish jumping up and down. Flounder and shrimps are the two main catches in the area and we had delicious meals of both! Also, found a quaint little restaurant in downtown, a teeny tiny family operation, serving tacos, burritos, quesadillas and such, freshly made from the mother and served by the daughters on three tables in the courtyard (pics). There are, also, vendors on the streets, selling shrimp cocktail (more like gazpacho) or tacos or fruit and all the food was delicious. We have just been told to be careful with veggies and fruit and some vendors not using purified water.


Sunrises and sunsets - aren't they beautiful?


Some of the animals we met:


And some more pics from the town and its colorful shops. Some of the pottery is really nice, wished we would have had capacities in our luggage to bring some over.



Below is a picture of the fish market, where different vendors sell mostly flounder and shrimps. Also, they sell directly from the boats sometimes or from trucks along the streets.

Scottsdale

Pleasantly warm, around 80 deg. F in Scottsdale. In the morning we returned our rental car at PHX's Alamo Station. In total we have driven 4,057 km or 2,536 mi in our comfortable six-seater Hyundai Santa Fe. Our friend Lisa drove us back from the airport and brought us into Old Scottsdale, with a historic mission and blacksmithery (pics below) and many, many shops (mostly jewellery), boutiques and art galleries.

After a brief lunch in downtown we drove to Cosanti in Paradise Valley, the residence and sculpture studios of famous architect Paolo Soleri (1919-2013) and his staff. Soleri began work on the experimental buildings of Cosanti in the mid 1950’s and created a unique bio-climatic architectural environment. He also constructed Arcosanti, an experimental town in the desert of Arizona. Aside from interesting, organic architecture - reminding us of Gaudi or Hundertwasser -, the Cosanti Studios produce windbells and sculptures. We drove through Paradise Valley, where real estate is one of the most expensive in the U.S. and mansions are gorgeous.

After running a couple of errands, we had a manicure/pedicure and, later, supper at home. Got to get ready for our planned excursion to Mexico on Thursday.

Down into the Desert

We still remember that we had fled Flagstaff on a trip in the 1990ies quickly because it had started to snow. We drove down to Sedona, and that's what we did now, too, but not because of the weather, but to get to Scottsdale.

Sedona is a picturesque little town surrounded by an impressive array of red sandstone formations, pinnacles, spires, buttes and domes. The town consists of a vivid main street with little shopping malls, galleries, bougiques etc. and outfitters in abundance. Activities like hiking and mountainbiking, but, also, jeep and helicopter tours and horseback riding are offered. Also, it seems like spiritual/esotheric pursuits, like energy centers, are pretty popular, too. And, judging from the houses (and resort/spa hotels) in the area, it's mostly the high-end part of the society living or visiting here.

Down we drove after our little stroll and some coffee in Sedona, down the Colorado and Mogollon Plateau into the Sonoran Desert, and suddenly the landscape changed and cacti - Saguaros - appeared. Temperatures rose, too, from about 53 deg. F. (12 deg. C) in the morning in Flagstaff to about 85 deg. F. (30 deg. C) in the Phoenix metro area. Traffic was growing as well, and we saw more cars in an hour than we have seen in the whole two weeks before. Up to twelve lanes on the highways in Phoenix - I had to get used to it again, but traffic went smooth (it was not rush-hour yet) and we even had time for a little shopping in the Phoenix Outlet Mall, where we got a couple of great deals at Under Armour, Jockey, Converse and Columbia, before we drove on to our friends' Lisa's and Sara's villa in Scottsdale.

They were still busy accomplishing their very elaborate, frightening Halloween decoration in front of the house, the patio with the pool was already set up as sort of a cave-like horror movie, music included. When it got dark at around 5:30 pm candles were lightened and groups of kids with their parents dropped in to trick-or-treat and get candies and a little toy. Most were in costumes, more or less elaborate, and we had fun watching the little ones, being frightened on one hand side and attracted on the other.

Petrified Stones and Route 66

On Sunday morning we left the Navajo "Rez" after an "Indian brunch" with lamb and blue-corn grits with Donovan and stoped at Ganado, at the Hubbell Trading Post (pic). The last days we have only explored places we had never been to before, and Hubbell was the first one we knew from one of our early trips in the 1990ies. That was where I bought moccasins, which I still wear in the house.

In 1878 Hubbell Trading Post was established by John Lorenzo Hubbell with the help of Navajo leader Ganado Mucho. Hubbell was a well-respected trader and former translator for the U.S. Government before he opened up this oldest operating trading post on the Navajo Nation. Interesting mercantile here: groceries, grain, hardware, horse tack, coffee and Native American Art, like the famous blankets in so-called Ganado Red. 1965 the place was declared a National Historic Site.

We left the reservation afterwards, returning to the "white world" again. We noticed later that the supermarket in Flagstaff, where we stopped, was packed with Indians, and, of course, alcohol was being sold and bought here. So much for the sense of the strict alcohol laws on the reservation... Also, it doesn't make sense, that the Indians pay up to 30 c. more for a gallon of gas than outside the border of the reservation...


Slowly we drove down from an elevation of 7,000/6,000 to 5,000 ft (2.300/1.700 m). Though we were not traveling on an itinerary anymore (just gathering info for our guidebook on the West), we decided to visit the Petrified Forest National Park. It's also called Painted Desert, since many colorful bands of sedimentary rock are exposed as a "landscape of time". But it's not all about rocks and geology, also, ruins of an Ancestral Puebloans' late settlement, Puerco Pueblo, were discovered, as well as many petroglyphs (see pics), e.g. on "Newspaper Rock".


The Grand Logs Trail passes many of the large petrified logs in the park. 260 Mio. years ago, trees died and fell into a river, being buried under sand, mud and volcanic ash, which protected the wood and turned it into stone. Fascinating structures (see pics) lying around, under NPS protection now, but not in the past. Then lots of stones were taken away by souvenir hunters.

Also, famous U.S. Route 66 passed through the park and there was the famous Painted Desert Inn, a hotel for travelers en route (pic above), very meticulously renovated on the grounds of the National Park. We continued on Historic Rte. 66 (of which not a whole lot is still left) to Holbrook, where we stopped at the famous Wigwam Motel (pics), a relict of old Rte. 66. It's still a hotel today and classic cars are parked in front, just for show.


In Windslow we had to visit La Posada, the last and most elegant of the Fred Harvey hotels built by the Santa Fe Railroad; architect was a very talented female architect by name Mary Colter, famous guests were John Wayne, Bob Hope or Albert Einstein in the 1950ies. The hotel was shut in 1957 and reopened again in the 21st century. Railroad tracks - used by heavy, loooong freight trains, are running directly behind the hotel and it is an AMTRAK station still.

Approaching Flagstaff, the Twin Arrows Navajo Casino, is the largest of a hand full of Navajo casinos, again in one little parcel of the Rez, had beautiful glass artwork in the lobby.

Flagstaff (65.000 population) - we couldn't remember anything about this city anymore. It lies high up in the mountains and is a university town with the corresponding infrastructure. Little main street, quirky shops and restaurants, it felt like "back into the hustling and bustling of the world". First used-bookstore on our way and four breweries only in the downtown area! Tried the beer in two of them, had some catching-up to do... and ordered a completely unhealthy meal of cheese fries and chicken wings. Glad that we chose to stay overnight in Flagstaff - in a cheap, but pretty decent Rodeway Inn Motel ($ 45 total/40 Euro, with fridge, microwave and breakfast)- instead of Winslow, where not much was offered besides La Posada Hotel.