Checking out of my hotel inn Frankfurt, I mentioned to the receptionist that I was headed for Köln. "Ah, Köln is nice," she said. "They talk funny there."

I agreed that they did, and mentioned that someone in Frankfurt had said "Auf wiederschauen" when saying goodbye. "Is that usual here?"

She said no, but from her point of view, it was unusual mostly because it was overly formal. "Usually we'd just say 'Tscha.'" Or at least that's more or less the word she used. The Frankfurt variant of the "Tschüss" which is so prevalent in Berlin and much of Germany apparently.

"Maybe the individual was Bavarian," I suggested.

"Oh, I hope not," she said.

"And do you in Frankfurt also say 'Grüss Gott' instead of 'Guten Tag'?"

"Oh, most certainly not. That's definitely Bavarian. Those Bavarians, they have to drag God into everything. Very Catholic. The Bavarians in Germany are like the Texans in America."

It seems to me possible that in saying "Texans," what she really had in mind was Southern Baptists.

Anyway, now I am in Köln, where people speak the Kölsch dialect of German but at least don't drag God into everything.

Love & kisses,
--Lee