Two Months

Well, today marks the two month anniversary of my arrival in Germany so I thought it might be a good time to take inventory of where we are at this point in our adventure.

This could get a bit ramble-y so bear with me:

• I LOVE working from home - no, I do not spend all day in my bath robe. But I do spend it in jeans and socks and a t-shirt.
  

• I LOVE not sitting on the tollway every morning to get downtown

• I love that people seem to be very active here well into their 60's, 70's and on. Obesity is not a problem here.
  

• I love that I have the time to keep us on a healthy diet (yes, we are still doing South Beach and quite successfully I might add)
  

• I love that we have already seen so much of the country in only two months
  

• I love that there is still so much to see. Quite ignorantly, I thought there wouldn't actually be much to see in Germany other than the major points of interest...Berlin, Munich, Frankfurt.....you get the idea. There is so much history and so many wonderfully charming towns. We could spend our whole time here only seeing Germany and still not cover it all.
  

• I love that we have been to France and Luxembourg simply because we were near the border and....why not?
  

• I love that German food is so darn good. These people KNOW how to cook a potato. And while this little indulgence is off limits during the week, all bets are off on the weekends and I savor it like a little piece of heaven.
  

• I love that ice cream is a major food group here - at least on Saturday and Sunday. You have breakfast, lunch, afternoon ice cream, and dinner.
  

• I LOVE Nutella. It's chocolate sauce but that makes it sound so ordinary. You just have to taste it. I don't know why they don't sell it in the U.S. It puts Hershey's to shame. There is Nutella flavored ice cream and it is my new favorite.
  

• I do NOT like dialing the phone. Steve can tell you that if it doesn't go well the first time, I'm in a foul mood for a good 10 minutes afterwards. First, I have to look up the long distance code online, then I have to look up the phone number I want to dial (because no matter how much I love you, I don't know your phone number), then I have to dial the bazillion numbers to make the call go through...whew. And heaven help me if I mis-dial and have to start over.
  

• I find it funny to see people riding their bikes through town (healthy lifestyle) and smoking a cigarette (not so healthy lifestyle). Such a contradiction, not to mention quite a balancing act.
  

• I find it funny that the AFN (Armed Forces radio station) plays music to try to suit the taste of every possible listener....you will hear Kenny Chesney, Gwen Stefani, Hank Williams Jr. and insert hard core rap artist name here, back to back.
  

• I do not enjoy that disposing of trash is such a major undertaking here. Granted, there is a lot of recycling going on which is a good thing. But we have three different types of trash bags - one for biological, one for paper, and one (gelber sack) for plastics, glass, etc. Two of these types of bags we can buy at the local stores, one type is free but has to be picked up at the Burgermeister's (mayor's) office. Biological is picked up once a week, paper is picked up twice a month, gelber sack is picked up every 4th week and there are a couple of other pick ups on the schedule that we don't even understand. Seriously people.....
  

• I do not like seeing McDonald's and Burger King everywhere. I feel like they are more common here than in the U.S. but perhaps they are simply more noticeable. Either way, it's an eyesore. I will humbly admit that if it was Whataburger and Chik-Fil-A I were seeing everywhere, I would probably find these symbols of corporate America much less offensive and in fact, quite appealing. :)
  

• I do not like how many different denominations of coins they have here. In my purse right now I have the following: 1 cent, 2 cent, 5 cent, 10 cent, 20 cent, 50 cent, 1 euro & 2 euro pieces. A little consolidation would be nice.

If you're still reading, I'll end on a positive note. Steve asks me periodically if I am glad we came here. He asked a lot more frequently in the beginning but now and then, he still surprises me with that question as though he is not quite convinced or he's afraid the answer is going to change. Well, it's only been two months, but for now I can say quite confidently that yes, I am so glad we are here.

Mountain Biking In the Odenwald

Jami said I had to blog about this. I'm actually a little embarrassed to admit this, but here goes. I have been doing quite of bit of jogging and mountain biking in the Odenwald (hills and forest) behind our house and thought I am getting in decent shape. So when a friend at worked asked if I wanted to go mountain biking with his biking group, I said sure. I thought at worst, I might be a little behind, but I can hack it. I showed up over at Mile's house at 6 PM where we were going to ride over to where the group meets. The group, by the way, is made up of about 15 German men and a couple of German women, ages ranging from 30-55. As I followed Miles along a trail up the hill behind his house, I started to get worried. I had to stop a couple of times and hike, pushing my bike up the hill. Twenty minutes later we finally got to the meeting point. I was really tired just making it to the meeting point so I asked Miles what the ride was going to be like. He said half uphill, half downhill. I asked him if he thought I could make it and he said he thought I could. The leader of the group, a German man who looked to be about 55 years old, said "Alles auf" and we all took off. I did my best, but quickly fell behind. At the top of the first hill, I finally caught up with the rest of the group who patiently waited for me and I was severely winded and wanted to turn back. No one else seemed to even be breathing hard. I sucked it up and we took off again. By the time we got to the next hill top, I was not doing so good and I offered to let them go on without me. In the end, Miles stayed with me and we took a different, less strenuous path. We rode between rows of grape vines and after a short climb we came to the top of another hill where there was a Biergarten with a spectacular view of the town Bensheim in the valley below. Biergarten is German for a restaurant that you can order drinks and light food entrees. I had heard about Biergartens that you couldn't drive to but had not ever been to one. It was amazing how many people where there, on top of this hill in the middle of no-where. Most had walked, a few had ridden their bikes, but it was several miles from the nearest town or parking lot. Miles and rested there for about 20 minutes and I actually thought we were done for the evening since we had been riding for over an hour to get there. He said "We better get some riding in before dark" so we took off. It was hard to keep going, but we finally made our way back to town and we began to look for the rest of the group who had told Miles where they would be. After riding through Bensheim and finally asking directions from a local, we turned our bikes uphill again and begin riding back up the hill. It got steep and I had to get off and walk. By the time we got to the top, I could barely walk up the hill, much less ride. We stopped at another small Biergarten on the side of the hill that was only accessible via walking/riding. The old German woman who ran the place was not to happy that we were there because she wanted to go to bed, but I think they knew here so she stayed open. It was good getting to practice my broken German with them and I like to think that I earned back a little respect for not giving up and going home, but with my limited German it was hard to tell. To top it all off, we had to ride back to Mile's house, which turned out to be several miles (no pun intended) away and I swear it was uphill the entire way. Even wimping out, we rode a total of 21 kilometers. By the time I got home, I was so tired I practically crawled through our front door and slid down the stairs to the living room. It was the by far the hardest thing I have done in years.
To leave the story on a good note, the experience motivated me to work harder on my mountain biking skills/stamina so today I rode from our house to our local castle, Starkenberg, and back home which is about 12 miles. I had to stop and walk up a couple of the hills, but I'm getting better. I haven't decided if I will try and go out with the biking group again this year or not, but I am determined to be able to keep up next year, especially with the ones that are almost twice my age. By the way, if you want to see what the terrain looks like, check out our pictures of Auerbach castle on www.flickr.com. If you can't see them, send me an email and I'll add you to my friends list.

Unexpected Experiences

We went to the post Sunday night to see the Bourne Ultimatum (excellent movie!). The theater was interesting. The screen was not that big but the place looked like it could have been there since the 40's. There was a ton of seating and it was the older auditorium style. Anyway, we found a good spot and settled in. When they dimmed the lights and the screen came to life, I was expecting the usual 30 minutes worth of commercials/previews that we've come to know and love as a part of today's movie going experience. I was caught off guard when everyone in the room stood up with their hand over their heart and the national anthem began to play. I fumbled to my feet in time to not look completely foolish. I have to say that of all the baseball games and Independence Day celebrations where I've stood for the national anthem, this was one of the more rewarding. I was surrounded by people that are actively serving our country and it was truly humbling.

Berlin - Tale of Two Cities

I thought I would throw my two cents in since I haven't contributed much lately. On our trip to Berlin, we learned why the Germans don't have speed limits on the autobahn. It's because they don't need them. I googled the drive and google said the trip was about 600 km and it would take 5.5 hours from Heppenheim to Berlin. I thought, no problem. If I drive 180 kph (110 mph) most of the way, we'll get there in under 4 hours, easy trip right? Wrong. We arrived in Berlin 6.5 hours later after having stopped in some of the worst staus (german for traffic jam) you have ever seen. Even driving 120 mph between staus and pouring rain, it still took 6.5 hours. I'm convinced that is why they don't have speed limits, they just don't need them. At the end of most of the staus, there wasn't even anything there. Of course, after getting back to work Monday morning, everyone proceeded to inform me why we shouldn't have driven to Berlin. I know everyone is asking themselves "Why didn't you take the train?" Well, it cost over 400 Euros from Frankfurt to Berlin. We spent $100 including parking and gas. Even still, it probably would have been worth it to take the train.

I also thought I would throw in a few pieces of trivia we learned on our walking tour. First, the Brandenburg Gates were enclosed in the "The Wall" so no one could get to it for 28 years. I guess they couldn't agree on whose side it should be on. If you are ever in Berlin, look on the ground near the gates and you will see some bricks in the road. These outline where the wall used to be. They actually go all over the city following the wall. When Mark and I were in Berlin last year, we kept wondering if we were in East Berlin or West and it turns out we were in East Berlin a lot of the time, we just didn't know it. We also saw the location of Hitler's bunker. It was a little anti climatic since there isn't really anything there to look at except a parking lot and a small sign that was put up last year before the World Cup. Our guide said the Germans are afraid that Neo-Nazis might turn it into a memorial to Hitler. An interesting note on Hitler. After his death, his soldiers were instructed to burn his body. Things were a little chaotic at that time, so the soldiers used gasoline which doesn't burn that hot so his body was only partly burned. The Russians got his body and buried it in a secret location. Several years later, the body was dug up and re-burned and the ashes were dumped in a river. They really wanted him gone. They also tried blowing up Hitlers bunker 3 or 4 times, never really succeeding. It is still mostly intact under ground. The ceiling was 40 feet thick reinforced concrete.
While touring the Berlin Cathedral that Jami showed a picture of, our guide told us where the saying "Stinking Rich" came from. Rich people could afford to be buried in cathedrals like this one and when they started decaying you could smell it when you attended mass. Needless to say that didn't go over to well with the peasants.




For those of you that have gone to CheckPoint Charlie and toured the museum there, you might have read about the guy who threw a hammer with a rope attached from atop a building over the wall where friends tied it off on the west side and he and his family slid down to freedom. This is a picture of that building (You can see the wall on the left). Pretty good arm if you ask me.





Another thing I found interesting was how you could see bullet holes/chips everywhere we went in Berlin. Here is a an example of a random building we walked past. There were marks all over it. Our guide told us that after Berlin fell to the Germans in 1945, it was described by reporters as "one big pile of rubble". It is still being rebuilt to this day, especially East Berlin thanks to our communist friends in Russia.

After having toured Berlin on my own and with a knowledgeable tour guide, I definitely recommend shelling out the $20 for the guided tour. Do your homework though and find a reputable tour guide. Rick Steves is a great resource. The only bad thing is every other tourist in Europe has the book too. Oh well.

Berlin

I had big ambitions that I would get up Monday morning and post all about our trip to Berlin. Well, it is Monday morning, just 7 days later than I originally intended. I thought I better get this down while it's still somewhat fresh on the brain. There was so much to see that it was hard to take it all in.
Our first "sight" was well before we reached Berlin's city limits. Steve spotted this monstrosity off the highway as he was enjoying the scenery at 120 mph. I, on the other hand, was watching the road. (yes, Steve was driving) He was so fascinated by it that we had to pull over and stare at it for a few minutes while he considered all of the possibilities of what this might be. We have since asked our neighbor who explained that the East Germans did a lot of mining back in the day just for the sake of mining and they piled the stuff up like this. He said it is not uncommon to see these things here and there. Weird...

A few of the sights within Berlin's city limits.....
Saturday morning, we took a guided walking tour through the city. Since we only had a couple of days, we wanted to get a good overview of the city and see everything even if not always in a lot of depth. We had an excellent tour guide who is also a student working on his PhD in history so he was very informed as you can imagine. The photo above isn't so much a "sight" as it is a small example of the many construction/restoration projects going on around the city. The fall of the wall seems so long ago in my mind (I was 11) but 18 short years later, the process of reunification is still very much a work in progress.
This is the TV Tower where we had dinner Saturday night. It had been recommended to us and it sort of seemed appropriate since it is essentially the Reunion Tower of Berlin. Not so much in a historical sense but in that the restaurant rotates every 20 minutes, providing a wonderful (though fast-paced) view of the city.
The two photos above are a great example of the ongoing restoration of the city. The pillars reflect remaining war damage and the photo below shows where they are slowly filling it in. You can also see at the far end where the ceiling is in the process of being restored, but work has stopped (closer in) due to a lack of funds.

Berlin Cathedral

Neue Wache

Humboldt University

This is a memorial to the 1933 Nazi book burning just outside Humboldt University. It's a little hard to see in the photo but you're standing on the square looking down into an empty library. It is supposedly large enough to hold 20,000 books, the approximate number that were burned here. The plaque above the photo is all in German but includes an 1821 quote from Heinrich Heine, "Where they burn books, they will end in burning human beings." Of all the memorials in the city, I found this to be one of the more profound and moving in its simplicity.

Brandenburg Gate

Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe (completed in 2005)

What remains of the Berlin Wall

Checkpoint Charlie

On the lighter side....

The apparent remains of a movie set? In catching up on some hard news before we left on Friday, I read this on FoxNews.com.....

"And Tom? While he makes "Valkyrie," a movie no one wants to see, in Berlin, he and Katie make regular visits to the Scientology center there, according to reports. Scientology is considered a cult by the Germans, and it’s because of Cruise’s affiliation that the government has forbidden him to shoot the movie in certain locales."

Looks like we just missed our brush with celebrity.....darn.



It rained on us for a bit and we ducked into this chocolate shop to kill some time. The sculptures are of the Brandenburg Gate, the Titanic, and the Reichstag among others that we did not photograph, made entirely of chocolate. I had not had a bit of chocolate in over 5 days (remember, we're SouthBeaching) and I wanted so badly to take a big bite out of the Brandenburg.

The actual Reichstag - not made of chocolate - and that line of people out the front is the line to get in. We passed, even though this is apparently a must-see. Steve's been there, done that (last summer) and I really didn't want to stand in line.

Memorial just outside the Reichstag to the politicians that opposed Hitler. They were among his first victims. Each plate contains a name and cause of death, many of which were in the concentration camps.


3,000 year old bust of Queen Nefertiti - the most prized piece in Berlin's Egyptian art collection. This was inside the Altes Museum.

Part of the original writing of Homer's Iliad or Odyssey (I can't remember now which it was)

Ramblings

Well, I can't stand the thought of going a whole week without writing something for you guys. I know many of you check the blog faithfully and I have been a big disappointment this week. Sorry. There just hasn't been much going on...

You could say I've had my head in the clouds. It got cloudy here on Tuesday, rained all day, and pretty much hasn't stopped all week. It's very foggy, so much so that I can barely see the hills right outside our living room window. This has not been good for getting any respectable exercise and I would be feeling rather slothful at this point if not for the fact that, as of today, Steve & I have successfully completed 5 full days on the South Beach Diet - Phase 1. This means we have not had any bread, pasta, potatoes, rice or fruit for 5 whole days. We tried this back in the fall of last year and failed fairly miserably. I think the only reason we have been so diligent this time is because I have a little extra time on my hands with the whole working part-time from home thing. It definitely requires a lot of planning and time in the kitchen. We are eating lots of lean meat and fresh vegetables and every meal involves some form of a salad. I don't think I have ever had so much produce in my house at one time - or maybe the smaller refrigerator just makes it feel like more?

I don't know if I mentioned that I got my driver's license....barely. I have the basic right-of-way rules down but no, I do not remember how many meters I must be from a stopped bus inside and outside of the city limits. Who knew they were going to get so specific?! Now, I just need a car! We are going to get serious next week about finding one. It's not that we haven't been looking - Steve is indecisive and I don't have much of an opinion so it's made the car-buying experience a little difficult. I still miss my Jetta but we've been told that is not a "respectable" car over here so it's a good thing we didn't ship it. I have yet to see any on the road. The Germans do seems to love their BMWs, Audis and Mercedes.

We are off to Berlin this evening for the weekend. This will be our longest road trip so far and possibly the most exciting. Berlin has been high on my list since I got here. So I am ramping up for some serious historical sights. It's rainy there too so we may find ourselves hanging out in museums all weekend but that's okay.

Have a great weekend!

The Black Forest

Last weekend we took a road trip through the Black Forest hitting the cities of Freudenstadt, Triberg (unofficial capital of the kuckuck uhren or cuckoo clock), Titisee and finally, Freiburg where we stayed the night. We saw lots of cool stuff but quite frankly, the best site was the drive itself. Here are some PHOTOS from our trip.....that's right, we can finally post pictures!!!

Honestly, the camera does not do justice to the scenery...it was nothing short of breathtaking.


Triberg is famous not only for the many cuckoo clock stores but it also claims the largest waterfall in all of Germany, although I read that it is not actually the largest.


We knew this was the most tourist trap of all the clock shops but something about the animated bears on the storefront compelled us to go in. A nice lady who spoke perfect English greeted us at the door....and then NEVER LEFT OUR SIDE. She would pretend to leave us alone to browse but then would appear out of nowhere around every corner. At one point, while she was stalking another helpless victim, one of the other sales people approached us and asked if we needed anything. She quickly appeared out of nowhere, said something in German to the man that I can only assume was "Back off, their MINE!" because he said not another word to us and vanished. If you happen to find yourself in Triberg at some point down the road, DO NOT go in this store....it's creepy.




Freiburg was a cool city. We arrived kind of late so we did a little walking and stopped for coffee. One thing we spotted that left both of us wishing we had not already had dinner was a MEXICAN RESTAURANT just outside our hotel. It was quite busy and judging from appearances, looked promising. So we earmarked it for lunch on Sunday. We didn't anticipate however, that they would be serving a brunch buffet on Sunday, completely devoid of enchiladas, rice or beans. It was still good - just not the Tex-Mex fix we were hoping for.

Here are a couple of historical sites from Freiburg......

Just kidding....we have actually gotten used to seeing McDonald's and Burger King everywhere but this was just sad.

We took a little detour on our way home. Since we were already so close to the French border, we thought it would be fun. We drove across the border into Colmar for no other reason than it was the closest city on the map. We had no idea we were in the birthplace of sculptor Frédéric-Auguste Bartholdi until we started seeing random pictures of the Statue of Liberty around town. Then, on our way out of town, we spotted this.....

Seems so misplaced.....and I thought our's was one-of-kind...