Mesa Verde

The road led us further to Cortez. A very nice place in Colorado. Here is also a very beautiful national park called Mesa Verde. An impressive place of early Indian cultures. Since the 6th century, the Anasazi Indians have lived here, who gave up their nomadic life to settle down. They built houses in cliff dwellings. A settlement development from simple earth caves to well thought-out rock niche settlements, explained here very vividly. Progressive ways of life that made rapid progress possible. All over 600 years old and intact. A great national park that shows how little is known about this almost extinct civilization.

We had to let the impressions of the last few days sink in and treated ourselves to a relaxed day of "doing nothing" in a very nice little park in Cortez. We also needed a day in the shade. The sun is constantly shining here and it has been around 40°C for the past few days. We actually yearn for a little bit of rain! But we will probably get plenty of it at some point. So we better not shout too loudly ;-)

But even on this rather quiet day, we encounter odd things. One remarkable person is a shrill American. He himself had German-Polish roots, was a big fan of everything German, only talked about Messerschmidt and Werner von Braun and could talk incessantly! He also spent the day in the park, playing violin in the men's restroom, right behind the urinal. With music stand, chair, and four violin bows, he practiced difficult (German) violin training methods... for hours. And with each trip to the toilet, there were new rocket stories and jokes about the destruction of London by German V2 rockets (which, of course, did not exist). Werner von Braun was apparently his biggest idol.

Well, we're all a little crazy, some more than others.