Human bones found in California's remote Death Valley probably belong to four German tourists who disappeared in scorching summer heat 13 years ago, US police announced on Friday.
Hikers discovered the bones in a rugged area of the valley in the Mojave Desert, near California's border with Nevada, according to a report in the Contra Costa Times.
Near the bones, they also found identification belonging to one member of the group from Dresden.
Police spokeswoman Carma Roper said the police were "fairly certain" the remains were of the German tourists, though a proper identification would take time.
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Germany's English-speaking crowd
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Death Valley skeletons solve riddle of missing German tourists
But it was doubtless still declared schön warm up until the bitter end.
What a great comment on the horrible death of a young family with small children. You are the guy who complains that he has no friends? What a big surprise.
Except for you, apparently.
My comment has basis in fact. We once attended a dinner where the german couple on our left described their trip to the Dominican Republic with small children. The flight was cramped and the kids went nuts. They were in a dump of a hotel. The beach had garbage floating in it. The food was crap. Everyone got dysentary and was sick for days. But, at the end of this tale of woe, my wife asked "but at least was it schön warm?" Immediately, both perked up and said "oooh, ja!". Later, I said to her "what kind of idiots would take their kids to the Dominican Republic on vacation? She said "yeah, it was probably because it was cheap." Who on earth takes their kids to (ahem) Death Valley on vacation?
Oblomov, had this been an American family that got lost in the wilds of East Germany 12 years ago whose remains had only now been found, you'd be first in line to post something like "what a bunch of typical american dipsh*ts". So Tou-effen-che.
My comment has basis in fact. We once attended a dinner where the german couple on our left described their trip to the Dominican Republic with small children. The flight was cramped and the kids went nuts. They were in a dump of a hotel. The beach had garbage floating in it. The food was crap. Everyone got dysentary and was sick for days. But, at the end of this tale of woe, my wife asked "but at least was it schön warm?" Immediately, both perked up and said "oooh, ja!". Later, I said to her "what kind of idiots would take their kids to the Dominican Republic on vacation? She said "yeah, it was probably because it was cheap." Who on earth takes their kids to (ahem) Death Valley on vacation?
Oblomov, had this been an American family that got lost in the wilds of East Germany 12 years ago whose remains had only now been found, you'd be first in line to post something like "what a bunch of typical american dipsh*ts". So Tou-effen-che.
Oblomov, had this been an American family that got lost in the wilds of East Germany 12 years ago whose remains hoad only now been found, you'd be first in line to post something like "what a bunch of typical american dipsh*ts". So Tou-effen-che.
You'll have a very hard time to find any post of mine that supports this claim. You have shown your true colours, though. Perhaps this family had underestimated the dangers of getting stranded or lost in Death Valley. However, Death Valley is presented quite as a usual tourist destination in all guide books and a family that travels in the US West would very well be expected to make it part of its tour.
Maybe the guide books should point out that Death Valley National Park closes mid may because it is intensely stupid to go out there in the height of the Summer.
You'll have a very hard time to find any post of mine that supports this claim.
No comment.You have shown your true colours, though. Perhaps this family had underestimated the dangers of getting stranded or lost in Death Valley. However, Death Valley is presented quite as a usual tourist destination in all guide books and a family that travels in the US West would very well be expected to make it part of its tour.
Well, maybe it's put in the tourist guides on purpose to knock off foreigners, the same way all the German tour guides put Dachau on the itinerary [insert flashing "THAT WAS A JOKE" subtitle here].Of course it's tragic when people die unnecessarily ... but please try to appreciate a bit of sardonic humor to try to lighten it up. What else should one say? Dollars to donuts ours will be the only posts on this topic.
You're probably a reasonable guy in real life, but you've been really successful underscoring my contentions on the German humorlessness. If you have a personal gripe with me, then PM me and let's have it out. Hell, I even took you off ignore because I thought you might have something reasonable to say from time to time.
"German humourlessness"? OK, post some comments of that kind about e.g. the people who got shoot in Fort Hood on a talk board frequented by Americans and we´ll see how that sort of humour will go down there.
That's how we roll.
I was sitting on a trading desk in New York on January 28th 1986 when the Challenger blew up. Literally 10 seconds later someone leaned over and asked "What does NASA stand for? ... need another seven astronauts."
I'm sure the Ft. Hood jokes came fast and furious as well. Anglo-American deflate tragedy with humor, and turn funerals and wakes into joyus occasions (and don't feel compelled to prop up cheesy photographs of the person in the box front-and-center as if we'd all forgotten what the person looked like ... or dig up their bones and dump them in a landfill 25 years later).
But when it comes to really remembering the glorious dead, just compare Remebrance Day at the Centopath or Memorial Day to anything here.
I was sitting on a trading desk in New York on January 28th 1986 when the Challenger blew up. Literally 10 seconds later someone leaned over and asked "What does NASA stand for? ... need another seven astronauts."
I'm sure the Ft. Hood jokes came fast and furious as well. Anglo-American deflate tragedy with humor, and turn funerals and wakes into joyus occasions (and don't feel compelled to prop up cheesy photographs of the person in the box front-and-center as if we'd all forgotten what the person looked like ... or dig up their bones and dump them in a landfill 25 years later).
But when it comes to really remembering the glorious dead, just compare Remebrance Day at the Centopath or Memorial Day to anything here.
Well, statistically there are a lot of German tourists and perhaps more per capita than other nations but there seems to be a lot of stories of Germans (and sometimes Japanese) getting into situations like this. Both nations are densely populated with an strong sense of Ordnung. You have to wonder why someone getting robbed at gunpoint in Florida would refuse to give up his wallet and threaten to call the Polizei.
When I was in Oz, we registered with the police before traveling across the desert and had lots of water and extra fuel in the car. We came across some Germans on motorcycles who had no water left and one of the bikes had died. We took them with us to the next station. Apparently Richtig Reisen didn't have the proper instructions for riding a motorcyle in the desert. They really thought it was like driving across the Bayerischewald or something.
When I was in Oz, we registered with the police before traveling across the desert and had lots of water and extra fuel in the car. We came across some Germans on motorcycles who had no water left and one of the bikes had died. We took them with us to the next station. Apparently Richtig Reisen didn't have the proper instructions for riding a motorcyle in the desert. They really thought it was like driving across the Bayerischewald or something.
Whats the statue of limitations on making fun of tragedies? I made my first 9/11 joke on 9/12 so I think 13 years is okay...
What did Christa Macaullife say to her husband before she left that morning? You feed the dog, I'll feed the fish.
I was sitting on a trading desk in New York on January 28th 1986 when the Challenger blew up. Literally 10 seconds later someone leaned over and asked "What does NASA stand for? ... need another seven astronauts."
I was in school but by the end of the day the jokes had circulated. Hadn't thought of the Challenger jokes in forever.What did Christa Macaullife say to her husband before she left that morning? You feed the dog, I'll feed the fish.
What happened to that odd German family cruising the African desert in a fiat panda?
To bad for the family. Second question would be why they didn't backtrack if they thought leaving the minivan was necessary? But hey, were talking about people with a bottle of coke in the desert so I'll just forget that question.
To bad for the family. Second question would be why they didn't backtrack if they thought leaving the minivan was necessary? But hey, were talking about people with a bottle of coke in the desert so I'll just forget that question.
That jogged my memory on yet another example apropos this topic:
There's a family in town the husband of which I met once in a business meeting. It turned out our kids were in the same kindergarten, so we had an "in". We invited them over to dinner, and they showed up in a tropical roof, leaopard-skin-upholstery 109 Land Rover kitted out like it was ready for the Serengeti with their two small children. They were all dressed like Marlin Perkins. They eventually told us that the reason for all this was that they had a "farm" in Namibia.
Then we got to talking. It's a 10-hour one-way flight to Namibia on a 747 that might've been Lufthansa back during the Helmut Kohl administration, but is now duct-taped up and liveried as Air Namibia. Then it's a five-hour car ride to the "farm", which is a stucco shack in the middle of nowhere. It's pestered by nomads and beggars 24/7, none of the locals can be trusted; the neighbor's wife was hacked to death by the locals. The nearest hospital is five hours away in Windhoek. Once, their kid was bitten by a tsetse fly and almost died of a fever. Sometimes, the wife goes there alone and the husband comes down weeks later ... necessitating a 10-hour round-trip pickup after a 10-hour flight!
But they said the mitigating factors were 1) the scenery was magnificient (well, let's face it, so's the moon's) and 2) ... and I almost hesitate to type this ... it was "schön warm." I'm almost tempted to do some research of Afrikakorps letters back home; Liebe Familie ... we're parched and being shot at left and right by Monty and Patton ... but, oooh, it's schön warm!"
These very same people run out and salt the sidewalk if they see the thermometer drop to below 5 degrees C for fear of getting sued, but didn't bat an eyelid at doing the foregoing.
There's a family in town the husband of which I met once in a business meeting. It turned out our kids were in the same kindergarten, so we had an "in". We invited them over to dinner, and they showed up in a tropical roof, leaopard-skin-upholstery 109 Land Rover kitted out like it was ready for the Serengeti with their two small children. They were all dressed like Marlin Perkins. They eventually told us that the reason for all this was that they had a "farm" in Namibia.
Then we got to talking. It's a 10-hour one-way flight to Namibia on a 747 that might've been Lufthansa back during the Helmut Kohl administration, but is now duct-taped up and liveried as Air Namibia. Then it's a five-hour car ride to the "farm", which is a stucco shack in the middle of nowhere. It's pestered by nomads and beggars 24/7, none of the locals can be trusted; the neighbor's wife was hacked to death by the locals. The nearest hospital is five hours away in Windhoek. Once, their kid was bitten by a tsetse fly and almost died of a fever. Sometimes, the wife goes there alone and the husband comes down weeks later ... necessitating a 10-hour round-trip pickup after a 10-hour flight!
But they said the mitigating factors were 1) the scenery was magnificient (well, let's face it, so's the moon's) and 2) ... and I almost hesitate to type this ... it was "schön warm." I'm almost tempted to do some research of Afrikakorps letters back home; Liebe Familie ... we're parched and being shot at left and right by Monty and Patton ... but, oooh, it's schön warm!"
These very same people run out and salt the sidewalk if they see the thermometer drop to below 5 degrees C for fear of getting sued, but didn't bat an eyelid at doing the foregoing.
Maybe the guide books should point out that Death Valley National Park closes mid may because it is intensely stupid to go out there in the height of the Summer.
Or the Valley in South Texas. Its hot there with lots of Coyotes I mean.
Expaticus is right.... as the keynote speaker at my Dad's recent funeral, I made a few jokes about him. He wouldn't have wanted it any other way.
Sorry about the tourists, but Death Valley is not somewhere you just decide to take your family on a long hike, if you are not an experienced outdoorsman.
Didn't they find beer instead of water at the van? Not the best preparation...
Sorry about the tourists, but Death Valley is not somewhere you just decide to take your family on a long hike, if you are not an experienced outdoorsman.
Didn't they find beer instead of water at the van? Not the best preparation...
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