We've been here for not quite half of our total time, but it feels like the time in Duisburg is almost up. We leave on Friday (a day and a half away) for a weekend in Bruges, Belgium, then the next day (Monday) I go visit a friend in Krakow, Poland for 3 days, return for 2, then we go for 2 days in Dresden, 4 in Berlin, one night in Frankfurt and then home. So while this isn't the normal type of vacationing we do in Europe, it's going to feel like we are on some sort of tour from now on.
I'm somewhat settled in the apartment, as much as you can be in a place you know is only for a short time. I know where to get groceries, fresh bread and good produce. I've been able to get most everything I need to cook/eat here. I 90% understand the washing machine and dryer available to me. My days are just packed (as Calvin and Hobbes would say) with my German studies, shopping of various types (we just got a printer, so I don't need to go all the way to the Bahnhof twice a week to get train tickets for the next adventure. Oh, the joys of the internet), and enjoying the local woods. But because it's routine, it is getting a little old. If I weren't about to end it, I would want to kick it up a notch.
There are two things I would do differently, perhaps for the next trip. First, I would like to have found some sort of activity that would put me into contact with locals, both to get me to speak more German and to have more human contact. I'm able to communicate pretty well with the grocer, baker, and cleaning lady, and with random Germans who ask me for directions(!), but that's not really improving my speaking skills. And it would be nice to have people to talk to.
Second, I would have liked to figure out a way to have done some biking. There are some nice long distance biking trails around here, I understand. I could easily have rented a bike, but biking on the local streets just looks boring, biking on the walking trails (some are designated bike paths) would require a mountain bike -- or at least one with fatter tires than I usually use -- and some skills for riding on unpaved roads. Mostly, I just couldn't find enough information about where to go to be convinced it was worth my time. Plus it's rained or come close to raining nearly every day we've been here, and riding in the rain is not my thing. I suspect there may be useful maps at the bike store (they don't seem to exist on the internet), but the rain has de-motivated me from finding out.
But all in all, this idea of spending enough time in a single location in a foreign country is a great one. I understand differently a non-American way of living (it's not like this is a third-world country, just that we Americans have some pretty unique ways of interacting in the world). I have and will have visited several "second tier" sightseeing places that I would not have made the effort to go to during one of our regular vacations. When you are living out of a suitcase, making a detour to some place 'minor' feels like effort, whereas here, where I have some place to go back to, do laundry, research the next trip on the internet, etc., it's more like a weekend away than just another stop on the whirlwind tour.
My goals for "travelling in retirement" are broader than what we have done here, but I've definitely accomplished one of them -- live in a place where I don't feel like a tourist all the time. And it's got me thinking about how and when to work on some of the other ones.
Wednesday, September 18, 2013
Wednesday, September 11, 2013
Shopping
There's always something new to learn about shopping, even in a new city in the same country. Here in Germany shopping has been an interesting window to the culture.
First, grocery shopping. Between our tiny, dorm-sized refrigerator and my frequent discovery of things we need to survive (today it was a sponge with a scrubbing surface), I seem to go to the grocery store every day. My first cultural lesson was about shopping carts. If you want to use a shopping cart, you need to put a coin -- euro or half euro -- in a slot on the handle. This pushes out a piece of metal that connects the cart to the next cart. When you finish with your cart, you replace the metal piece and get your coin back. That means you always need a supply of coins with you (or only shop for what you can carry in a hand basket). Oh, and when you get to the checkout line, you provide your own bag (or pay for one -- which we have in Palo Alto already) and you bag things yourself.
Initially I thought this was a theft deterrent, but after pondering for a bit, this wouldn't deter the typical homeless person looking for something to hold their belongings. They can easily find a coin, and if they need the money more than the cart, they can just return the cart and get the money back. (Not that I've seen any homeless looking people here yet) The point of this device is to get people to return carts to the cart stands, rather than leave them randomly in the parking lot. Seems to work well for that purpose -- there never seems to be a shortage of carts by the door, as there often is in US markets. Interesting use of technology to replace employees (I suspect the Germans think of it as a way to get people to do the socially responsible thing).
The place I have been shopping (an Edeka store) is definitely a well supplied market. Lots of lovely looking fruit -- not everything I would expect in near-tropical California, but blueberries, strawberries (the baby ones we never get in the US), bananas, apples, plums, figs and more. My surprise was the selection of vegetables. Lots of potatoes, onions, garlic, and cabbage. No surprise there. And a reasonable selection of winter veges -- carrots, rutabagas, tunips, kohlrabi. brusell spouts, cauliflower. But not the veges I depend on. No asparagus, snap peas (did find some high priced snow peas), kale or other cookable greens, limited beans and brocolli. Those are the easy to cook veges that we eat on a daily basis. Even the salad veges were limited -- much more limited selection of greens (I found the salad mix I typically use in a package under the label "California mix"), plenty of tomatoes, some peppers, found cucumbers once. Even the mushrooms are just boring button mushrooms (I did score a box of chanterelles, which I think of as the national mushroom of Germany, but they aren't there regularly), I'm having to rethink how we get our vegetables.
This store has a fresh meat counter, but it's easier for me to deal with the packaged meats, since the fresh ones are still in large pieces and my German isn't good enough to explain how I want them cut. Chicken seems only to come in packages. There is a larger selection of turkey than chicken. Lots of processed meats in the fresh meat counter (sort of like an upscale deli). The store has a fresh fish section; the fish is all very inexpensive (less than $5/pound), but it's perch and farmed salmon, and others that I can't translate, not the tuna, wild salmon, halibut and swordfish we get regularly at home (at much higher prices).
Interesting factoids: they sell wine as in California, but it's all very low end; the candy/cookies section is at least as large as it would be in the US; healthy cereal is on an aisle called 'Cerealen', but the sort of thing we call kids' cereals is on the 'Cornflakes' aisle; frozen pizza is very popular. As near as I can tell, almost everything is cheaper than it would be in California (discounting the occasional avocado or artichoke that I come across that is probably imported from far away). Things are somewhat more local, which maybe accounts for what is available. I do see labels on fruits that say they are from Spain or Turkey, so it's not all from farms down the road
I have also found a separate bakery (Sliced bread in the grocery store is sold as 'toast') German bread is
too good to waste calories on commercial stuff. And a fruit and vegetable market, though he has no better selection than the grocery store. There is also a butcher, who sells only red meat and sausages of various types, but I haven't ventured in there yet. All of these are on a street of little shops, including jewlery stores, droggeries (for the random stuff you get in drug stores in the US, like tooth paste and makeup), apotheke (for things with medicinal effect, such as aspirin and anti-itch creme), a variety store, etc.
I recently discovered a farmer's market-like setup available most mornings. I came upon it as it was closing up, so I haven't actually made use of it yet
The wine store is worth a separate mention. It has wines from reasonable price (5€ on up) to very fancy wines. The biggest surprise is that you are allowed to taste many of them, at least the mid-priced ones, kind of like a winery tasting. We go once a week (remember, we are only here 4 days of the week), try 3 or 4 and buy a couple bottles. It's a great idea and I wonder why US stores don't do this. I suppose there would be enough freeloaders they would have to charge for it, and that would in some way defeat the purpose.
This place reminds me a lot of when we lived in Pittsburgh (PA). A similar lifestyle of many small stores with somewhat personal service. I am loving it, while I hated the setup in Pittsburgh. To be fair, at the time, I said that if I didn't have an infant to truck around, I'd love this kind of shopping, and now that I am child-free and have more time, I do like it.
First, grocery shopping. Between our tiny, dorm-sized refrigerator and my frequent discovery of things we need to survive (today it was a sponge with a scrubbing surface), I seem to go to the grocery store every day. My first cultural lesson was about shopping carts. If you want to use a shopping cart, you need to put a coin -- euro or half euro -- in a slot on the handle. This pushes out a piece of metal that connects the cart to the next cart. When you finish with your cart, you replace the metal piece and get your coin back. That means you always need a supply of coins with you (or only shop for what you can carry in a hand basket). Oh, and when you get to the checkout line, you provide your own bag (or pay for one -- which we have in Palo Alto already) and you bag things yourself.
Initially I thought this was a theft deterrent, but after pondering for a bit, this wouldn't deter the typical homeless person looking for something to hold their belongings. They can easily find a coin, and if they need the money more than the cart, they can just return the cart and get the money back. (Not that I've seen any homeless looking people here yet) The point of this device is to get people to return carts to the cart stands, rather than leave them randomly in the parking lot. Seems to work well for that purpose -- there never seems to be a shortage of carts by the door, as there often is in US markets. Interesting use of technology to replace employees (I suspect the Germans think of it as a way to get people to do the socially responsible thing).
The place I have been shopping (an Edeka store) is definitely a well supplied market. Lots of lovely looking fruit -- not everything I would expect in near-tropical California, but blueberries, strawberries (the baby ones we never get in the US), bananas, apples, plums, figs and more. My surprise was the selection of vegetables. Lots of potatoes, onions, garlic, and cabbage. No surprise there. And a reasonable selection of winter veges -- carrots, rutabagas, tunips, kohlrabi. brusell spouts, cauliflower. But not the veges I depend on. No asparagus, snap peas (did find some high priced snow peas), kale or other cookable greens, limited beans and brocolli. Those are the easy to cook veges that we eat on a daily basis. Even the salad veges were limited -- much more limited selection of greens (I found the salad mix I typically use in a package under the label "California mix"), plenty of tomatoes, some peppers, found cucumbers once. Even the mushrooms are just boring button mushrooms (I did score a box of chanterelles, which I think of as the national mushroom of Germany, but they aren't there regularly), I'm having to rethink how we get our vegetables.
This store has a fresh meat counter, but it's easier for me to deal with the packaged meats, since the fresh ones are still in large pieces and my German isn't good enough to explain how I want them cut. Chicken seems only to come in packages. There is a larger selection of turkey than chicken. Lots of processed meats in the fresh meat counter (sort of like an upscale deli). The store has a fresh fish section; the fish is all very inexpensive (less than $5/pound), but it's perch and farmed salmon, and others that I can't translate, not the tuna, wild salmon, halibut and swordfish we get regularly at home (at much higher prices).
Interesting factoids: they sell wine as in California, but it's all very low end; the candy/cookies section is at least as large as it would be in the US; healthy cereal is on an aisle called 'Cerealen', but the sort of thing we call kids' cereals is on the 'Cornflakes' aisle; frozen pizza is very popular. As near as I can tell, almost everything is cheaper than it would be in California (discounting the occasional avocado or artichoke that I come across that is probably imported from far away). Things are somewhat more local, which maybe accounts for what is available. I do see labels on fruits that say they are from Spain or Turkey, so it's not all from farms down the road
I have also found a separate bakery (Sliced bread in the grocery store is sold as 'toast') German bread is too good to waste calories on commercial stuff. And a fruit and vegetable market, though he has no better selection than the grocery store. There is also a butcher, who sells only red meat and sausages of various types, but I haven't ventured in there yet. All of these are on a street of little shops, including jewlery stores, droggeries (for the random stuff you get in drug stores in the US, like tooth paste and makeup), apotheke (for things with medicinal effect, such as aspirin and anti-itch creme), a variety store, etc.
I recently discovered a farmer's market-like setup available most mornings. I came upon it as it was closing up, so I haven't actually made use of it yet
The wine store is worth a separate mention. It has wines from reasonable price (5€ on up) to very fancy wines. The biggest surprise is that you are allowed to taste many of them, at least the mid-priced ones, kind of like a winery tasting. We go once a week (remember, we are only here 4 days of the week), try 3 or 4 and buy a couple bottles. It's a great idea and I wonder why US stores don't do this. I suppose there would be enough freeloaders they would have to charge for it, and that would in some way defeat the purpose.
This place reminds me a lot of when we lived in Pittsburgh (PA). A similar lifestyle of many small stores with somewhat personal service. I am loving it, while I hated the setup in Pittsburgh. To be fair, at the time, I said that if I didn't have an infant to truck around, I'd love this kind of shopping, and now that I am child-free and have more time, I do like it.
Monday, September 9, 2013
Amsterdam
This past weekend was our first mini-vacation on this trip. We left on Friday morning around 9:30am, were in Amsterdam before noon. I found a great B&B via TripAdvisor (the Tulipa -- definitely recommend it), which was convenient to everything, and just headed all over town. Unfortunately, while I've figured out how to get pictures off my phone, I took this weekend's pictures with my 'real' camera, not my phone, and I don't have the right cable to pull those off.
We visited the Van Gogh museum (more than I ever wanted to know about his life, and lots of his best paintings), the Rijksmuseum -- full of paintings from the "Dutch Golden Age" (17th century), especially Rembrant, but also Vermeer, Hals, Steen and others. In that area there is also the Stedelijk museum, Amsterdam's modern art museum. The impressionists and early 20th century paintings were quite minor and not impressive (a couple of good Mondrians, though), and the design section was quite local and of the sort that makes me think "form over function". Cute but who would ever use those objects?
There is a branch of the Russian Hermitage museum in Amsterdam (which I didn't know before researching this trip), but with all the fantastic stuff they could have sent from the Hermitage, right now there is an exhibit about Peter the Great, who spent quite a bit of time in Amsterdam learning various types of engineering, from shipbuilding to tooth pulling. Sort of boring artifacts from his life. Not what we were hoping for.
We did miss probably the best known Amsterdam site -- the Anne Frank House. I had advance tickets, but I managed to get them for the wrong day, so we couldn't use them. There's definitely a usability problem with their web site, probably at least in part because I'm not used to reading dates in the European style.
We also hit several old sites, the best of which was the Beguinhof, a courtyard of old houses (leaning, as many Amsterdam houses do) that was originally a place for widowed and unmarried women to live -- they owned their own houses -- and to work as lay sisters with the poor. Eventually, this became less of a desirable option for unmarried women, and in this century, a non-profit bought the courtyard and rents the houses to poor women. The place is still lived in only by women. Even though these are private residences, tourists are allowed into the gardens. The courtyard contains the oldest remaining house in Amsterdam -- one of the few wooden houses left standing after a disastrous fire.
We, of course, had to try the local herring from a kiosk. Tasted about how lightly pickled herring tastes in the US, but much fresher. We wandered in the Jordaan area, an upscale residential and shopping district. Overall, we covered enough of the inner city and canals that I think I could give directions to tourists.
We headed back to Duisburg about 4pm Sunday, returning tired but having thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. This coming weekend we visit our host here, whose home is in Köln, 40 minutes away. These trips are definitely the high point of this visit.
We visited the Van Gogh museum (more than I ever wanted to know about his life, and lots of his best paintings), the Rijksmuseum -- full of paintings from the "Dutch Golden Age" (17th century), especially Rembrant, but also Vermeer, Hals, Steen and others. In that area there is also the Stedelijk museum, Amsterdam's modern art museum. The impressionists and early 20th century paintings were quite minor and not impressive (a couple of good Mondrians, though), and the design section was quite local and of the sort that makes me think "form over function". Cute but who would ever use those objects?
There is a branch of the Russian Hermitage museum in Amsterdam (which I didn't know before researching this trip), but with all the fantastic stuff they could have sent from the Hermitage, right now there is an exhibit about Peter the Great, who spent quite a bit of time in Amsterdam learning various types of engineering, from shipbuilding to tooth pulling. Sort of boring artifacts from his life. Not what we were hoping for.
We did miss probably the best known Amsterdam site -- the Anne Frank House. I had advance tickets, but I managed to get them for the wrong day, so we couldn't use them. There's definitely a usability problem with their web site, probably at least in part because I'm not used to reading dates in the European style.
We also hit several old sites, the best of which was the Beguinhof, a courtyard of old houses (leaning, as many Amsterdam houses do) that was originally a place for widowed and unmarried women to live -- they owned their own houses -- and to work as lay sisters with the poor. Eventually, this became less of a desirable option for unmarried women, and in this century, a non-profit bought the courtyard and rents the houses to poor women. The place is still lived in only by women. Even though these are private residences, tourists are allowed into the gardens. The courtyard contains the oldest remaining house in Amsterdam -- one of the few wooden houses left standing after a disastrous fire. We, of course, had to try the local herring from a kiosk. Tasted about how lightly pickled herring tastes in the US, but much fresher. We wandered in the Jordaan area, an upscale residential and shopping district. Overall, we covered enough of the inner city and canals that I think I could give directions to tourists.
We headed back to Duisburg about 4pm Sunday, returning tired but having thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. This coming weekend we visit our host here, whose home is in Köln, 40 minutes away. These trips are definitely the high point of this visit.
Thursday, September 5, 2013
Laundry and Hiking
Definitely on a learning adventure. It's Thursday. I decided that I needed to do some laundry and I wanted to find time for a hike. First, the laundry adventure.
There is both a washer and a dryer in the common room of our guest house. They are each about half the size of an American appliance. And they are full of incomprehensible options, some that even Google Translate does not understand. The main choice you get is the temperature, with options of 30°, 40°, and 50° (Celsius, of course). There are other things like "Automatic", "gentle care", etc that seem to control washing times. And there are two soap dispensers labeled I and 11 (yes, a capital I, and then eleven, though I think the right interpretation is one and two). I found a reasonable wash cycle, at least by the second load, and apparently I am pretty close on the amount and selection of soap additions, as the clothes seem to be clean but not overly soapy. However, the clothes come out closer to soaking wet than spun dry. Some extended work with Google Translate helped me find a 6 minute spin cycle that runs separate from all the other cycles. You wash the clothes on whatever cycle you like, and then reset the dial and run the spin cycle.
There is a drying rack in the common room, and after taking to a Canadian who had more experience than I did with the appliances, I decided to use that for at least the simple things, but I thought our pants and Mr. R-T's polo shirts would look better from the dryer. Even with them spun dry, I could not find a cycle that would dry them. It would run for about 25 minutes, declare victory with items too wet even to iron dry. I did one pair of jeans on the 'jeans' cycle for 5 iterations and now it is hanging up to finish drying. It being a hot day and the common room having direct sun, I think most of this will dry by nightfall, but just barely. It's clear that doing laundry is going to require a bit of planning, and we shouldn't launder anything we are going to need to wear in the next 48 hours. (Maybe more if we get a rainy streak. I have no idea how that impacts the drying, but it can't help.)
An interesting wrinkle. German washers and dryers don't turn themselves off at the end of the cycle. You have to do it manually.
Next the hiking. It was lovely. I was worried about my late start, as the high today is predicted to be 86°; but it was easily 10 degrees colder in the woods. What was billed as a 6.6km (4 mile) hike ended up as 6 miles, in part because I found the hike startpoint in a very roundabout way. I have a page called "Wanderwege in Duisburg" (Hiking paths in Duisburg) where this was very loosely described. Once I found the path (it sent me to the zoo parking lot, of which there are several. It was the third one I encountered. They don't show up in Google Maps satellite view, because they are all completely tree-lined.) The trail was on lovely wide tree-filled paths (see picture right), except for when it took bike paths and a few times a sidewalk. Maybe half of it was close to the highway or railroad tracks. A few hills (fitbit gives me 200ft of vertical), but mostly just lovely, well marked trails. This one was called the A2, and every time I was concerned I was on the wrong path, an A2 sign came to my rescue (see below). There are lots of other paths marked on the trees, so next time I'll try something new, not covered on my sheet. But I'll bring a peanut butter sandwich or something -- I was relieved to recross my steps about 1pm, as I was getting hungry.
We are heading for Amsterdam in the morning, so no more news till Monday.
(Oh, and as you can see, I have figured out how to get pictures off my phone, but I haven't completely mastered getting them positioned in Blogger yet.)
There is both a washer and a dryer in the common room of our guest house. They are each about half the size of an American appliance. And they are full of incomprehensible options, some that even Google Translate does not understand. The main choice you get is the temperature, with options of 30°, 40°, and 50° (Celsius, of course). There are other things like "Automatic", "gentle care", etc that seem to control washing times. And there are two soap dispensers labeled I and 11 (yes, a capital I, and then eleven, though I think the right interpretation is one and two). I found a reasonable wash cycle, at least by the second load, and apparently I am pretty close on the amount and selection of soap additions, as the clothes seem to be clean but not overly soapy. However, the clothes come out closer to soaking wet than spun dry. Some extended work with Google Translate helped me find a 6 minute spin cycle that runs separate from all the other cycles. You wash the clothes on whatever cycle you like, and then reset the dial and run the spin cycle.
There is a drying rack in the common room, and after taking to a Canadian who had more experience than I did with the appliances, I decided to use that for at least the simple things, but I thought our pants and Mr. R-T's polo shirts would look better from the dryer. Even with them spun dry, I could not find a cycle that would dry them. It would run for about 25 minutes, declare victory with items too wet even to iron dry. I did one pair of jeans on the 'jeans' cycle for 5 iterations and now it is hanging up to finish drying. It being a hot day and the common room having direct sun, I think most of this will dry by nightfall, but just barely. It's clear that doing laundry is going to require a bit of planning, and we shouldn't launder anything we are going to need to wear in the next 48 hours. (Maybe more if we get a rainy streak. I have no idea how that impacts the drying, but it can't help.)
An interesting wrinkle. German washers and dryers don't turn themselves off at the end of the cycle. You have to do it manually.
Next the hiking. It was lovely. I was worried about my late start, as the high today is predicted to be 86°; but it was easily 10 degrees colder in the woods. What was billed as a 6.6km (4 mile) hike ended up as 6 miles, in part because I found the hike startpoint in a very roundabout way. I have a page called "Wanderwege in Duisburg" (Hiking paths in Duisburg) where this was very loosely described. Once I found the path (it sent me to the zoo parking lot, of which there are several. It was the third one I encountered. They don't show up in Google Maps satellite view, because they are all completely tree-lined.) The trail was on lovely wide tree-filled paths (see picture right), except for when it took bike paths and a few times a sidewalk. Maybe half of it was close to the highway or railroad tracks. A few hills (fitbit gives me 200ft of vertical), but mostly just lovely, well marked trails. This one was called the A2, and every time I was concerned I was on the wrong path, an A2 sign came to my rescue (see below). There are lots of other paths marked on the trees, so next time I'll try something new, not covered on my sheet. But I'll bring a peanut butter sandwich or something -- I was relieved to recross my steps about 1pm, as I was getting hungry.We are heading for Amsterdam in the morning, so no more news till Monday.(Oh, and as you can see, I have figured out how to get pictures off my phone, but I haven't completely mastered getting them positioned in Blogger yet.)
Observations on German Life
Whew! What a day. I just had a few things to do, but between forgetting things, getting lost, and not understanding the culture around me, I ended up walking 10 miles. I had to go to the train station to get tickets for our visit to Amsterdam this weekend, then to the main shopping district to buy some real coffee mugs (the dainty tea cups we have in our apartment aren't good for anything), then go to the grocery store to get supplies for tonight's dinner. Despite the very good map I now have, I got lost (including walking through the train tunnel multiple times to find a bathroom and to find my way under the freeway). It was partly construction, and partly my confusion that I knew I wanted to go west, but I thought the train tunnel was going north. Ah, some day I will develop a sense of direction.
At least the weather was beautiful. In the mid 80s, very sunny. In stark contrast to the earlier weather. Tuesday was overcast all day. I understand morning fog and incipient rain, but the idea of a day that is just dreary gray all day -- apparently I am too much of a Californian to remember that these days are common in most of the world.
In any case, here are my very random observations about the people here:
At least the weather was beautiful. In the mid 80s, very sunny. In stark contrast to the earlier weather. Tuesday was overcast all day. I understand morning fog and incipient rain, but the idea of a day that is just dreary gray all day -- apparently I am too much of a Californian to remember that these days are common in most of the world.
In any case, here are my very random observations about the people here:
- There are a lot of Muslim women (probably Muslim men too, but they aren't as identifiable). Maybe as many as 1 in 10 of the women I saw were wearing head scarves, more near the university
- Probably related to that -- the vast majority of restaurants around here are Mediterranean or Middle Eastern; Turkish, Lebanese, etc. I thought Germans liked German food, but apparently they have become more open minded.
- I've seen a few Africans, but other than that and the Middle Easterners, the rest of the people seem to be classic Germans: stout, especially if they are middle aged or older, often blond.
- Lots of cyclists doing errands, very few with helmets, many with babies in carriers
- Bathrooms in train stations cost money (1€)
- Lots more smokers than I am used to. I thought I would sit outside a Backerei (bakery) and enjoy tea and a pastry, but the seats are full of smokers (they cannot smoke at the tables in the buildings, but I wanted to enjoy the sun). The smokers mostly seemed older, so I hope the new generation has not taken up nicotine. Cigarettes are sold from vending machines in the street, so there is less effort to keep them out of the hands of teens, I think.
- Germans apparently don't like vegetables, at least the ones I am used to. I stopped at several produce stands to get a vege for dinner, and all I could find were cabbage, cauliflower, potatoes and onions. No broccoli, no green beans, no snap peas, no asparagus (I suspect the last has to do with seasonality, but not the others. Though I have lost most sense of when vegetables are in season in the temperate climates, since we can get most anything from Mexico)
- Lots of places sell french fries, here called "Hollandischer Pommes" (Dutch potatoes, in a bit of a linguistic hodgepodge). Again, I didn't think the Germans ate fries
- They have human streetsweepers. When is the last time you saw that in the US? The people doing it looked ethnically German, from which I infer it is a reasonable paying job, not one that is left to immigrants.
- There must be quite an elderly population in this town. I counted four hearing aid shops in my travels today
- While lots of people live very densely packed into apartments, at least in the part of town I was in, there is a lot more green space -- small and large parks and hiking areas -- than you would see in a similar town in the US.
- Oh, and it's green -- looks sort of like California in the dead of winter ::)
- And just like the US, everyone seems to have their head in their mobile device, or at least using it with headphones.
Tuesday, September 3, 2013
Yes, This is Going to be an Adventure
Well, we made it to Germany. The flight was uneventful, as was the train trip. We even managed to get our Bahn Cards successfully (cards that let us ride the trains for a discount. The senior rate makes it well worth it.) We are settled in our new apartment, which is less than a block from Mr. R-T's office (he's not going to get much exercise this month. I, on the other hand...). Now come the challenges:
Internet connections. Everyone at this end believed that we would be able to use the university wireless network. Afterall, it's "everywhere" on campus. Turns out that our guesthouse has wired connections, but not wireless, and both of us have computers that only accept wireless connections. I started the day by calling the university IT support, who asked me to bring my computer to the e-desk in the library. They set me up so that both my chromebook and my phone work on the wireless, but when I returned to my apartment -- no go. That led to a number of phone calls by our host's admin to discover that the wireless really doesn't work there. I spent several hours in the library catching up on email and related things, but am feeling very frustrated that I might only have internet after a morning stroll.
The current plan is for our host to find a wireless accesspoint lying around unused, and we will connect that to the wire. My fingers are crossed that this will work.
Laundry: we have a communal washer and dryer (and hanging rack). However, looking at the size of the washer, I'm going to be doing laundry every 3-4 days, not once a week as I expected. One more way to fill my time (how do working people find time to get all their housework done in this country?)
I'll talk more about the challenges of grocery shopping. how Germans furnish apartments. and cooking in a minimally furnished apartment in later posts. Tomorrow I hope to find time to visit a bit of the area.
Oh, we did find a lovely wine shop that even lets you sample the wine before you buy. Anyone experience something similar in the U-S- ?
Internet connections. Everyone at this end believed that we would be able to use the university wireless network. Afterall, it's "everywhere" on campus. Turns out that our guesthouse has wired connections, but not wireless, and both of us have computers that only accept wireless connections. I started the day by calling the university IT support, who asked me to bring my computer to the e-desk in the library. They set me up so that both my chromebook and my phone work on the wireless, but when I returned to my apartment -- no go. That led to a number of phone calls by our host's admin to discover that the wireless really doesn't work there. I spent several hours in the library catching up on email and related things, but am feeling very frustrated that I might only have internet after a morning stroll.
The current plan is for our host to find a wireless accesspoint lying around unused, and we will connect that to the wire. My fingers are crossed that this will work.
Laundry: we have a communal washer and dryer (and hanging rack). However, looking at the size of the washer, I'm going to be doing laundry every 3-4 days, not once a week as I expected. One more way to fill my time (how do working people find time to get all their housework done in this country?)
I'll talk more about the challenges of grocery shopping. how Germans furnish apartments. and cooking in a minimally furnished apartment in later posts. Tomorrow I hope to find time to visit a bit of the area.
Oh, we did find a lovely wine shop that even lets you sample the wine before you buy. Anyone experience something similar in the U-S- ?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)