Friday, June 6, 2014
Off to France
We leave in the morning for two days in Paris, then our Backroads bike trip in Brittany and Normandy, and then a few more days in Paris. So there will be radio silence here for about ten days. But don't worry, we'll be having fun.
Thursday, June 5, 2014
Travelling around Germany -- Bamberg and Heidelberg
The first half of this week was my adventure with the Deutsche Bahn, the German Railway system. The first week in June turned out to be the best week to visit two friends, Dorothee and Eva. Dorothee is currently in Bamberg and Eva in Heidelberg.
The story starts (as far too many stories do) with cell phone problems. My US cell phone turned into a brick (more accurately, into a land line -- it works fine so long as it is plugged in). Jay had brought an extra cell phone, because he had thought he might sign up for local data on it. He believed that phone was unlocked, so I bought a local SIM card, but it took interactions with ATT (where he bought the cell), Apple (it's an iPhone) and the SIM card provider to get the phone really unlocked and the right kind of plan/money on the card. Since Germans apparently don't believe in using credit cards for things like prepaid phone plans, this was an adventure.
Once I had a working cell with a data plan, not only could I call my hosts to let them know if I was delayed, I could download the deutschebahn app, and track my progress as I traveled. This was a godsend. Using German trains is overall pretty easy, assuming you are OK with lugging suitcases up and down lots of stairs (there are supposed to be elevators or escalators, but in my experience they only work about half the time). The trains consistently show up on the same track every time, and there is a sign telling you if you have the right train. The trains are comfortable, and, as a single traveler, all my seat mates were pleasant.
The problems come when you try to figure which is your stop. On the long distance trains, announcements are often made in English (but not on the local trains), but they are as impossible to understand as the German announcements. There is a sign for each station, but many times there is another train blocking the view of it. The deutschebahn app allowed me to see the list of stations between my starting and ending point, and let me know which station I was at. It would also have allowed me to find an alternative train, if I had missed any of my connections. It turned out that all the trains were on time for me, but especially going from Bamberg to Heidelberg, where I had 4 connections to make, I was panicked that I would miss at least one of them
First Bamberg. I went there to visit Dorothee and her husband Dieter. Dorothee was an exchange student with my family many years ago, but I've never visited her before. She's in the diplomatic corps, and I managed to find out that she was going to be in Germany overlapping my visit. Bamberg is a lovely town, the center of which is a World Heritage site, in the northern end of Bavaria. The old buildings have details like this one
And here is a picture of Dorothee in front of one of the doors to the Dom, the cathedral there (this is a catholic part of Germany).
Obviously, I didn't get close enough on that one for you to really see her, but the church is impressive.
We also visited the Church of the Fourteen Holy Helpers. This is a baroque church, so lots of gold, jewels and curlicues, devoted to fourteen saints that one prayed to for various ailments (headache, fever, childbirth) during the plague years. Absolutely gorgeous, but my camera was not up to the task of taking good pictures of it.
Heidelberg is a university town, and Eva, the daughter of the friends we visited in Oldenburg, is a medical student there. She had a free day that coincided with my availability, so I took the RE train to the ICE train to the RB (really slow train) to the EC train to get to her. She showed me around the town, including the very nice Altstadt (the old city), some parts of the university (the really old parts, which are more picturesque) and the Schloss (remnants of an old castle high on the hill) -- they tell you that's it's 303 steps up there. I did not confirm the count.
Here's the Neckar River that divides the town.
Here is Eva in front of the Schloss
And this is one of the old German fraternities (really drinking societies) that are on the walk up to the Schloss (these guys must have to wait till they sober up to go home. I could never walk up this steep cobblestone path drunk). The pattern of the roof tiles tells you something about the society.
I also got introduced by Eva to "melon shots" (speaking of drinking), which are apparently a Heidelberg specialty. Just what you think -- liqueur made from melon juice. Pretty good, but I'm a bit too old to drink them regularly.
After a leisurely breakfast before Eva's class the next day, I found my way back to the train station and to Duisburg. While I haven't yet experienced having to deal with a missed connection, I feel like a near expert on German trains.
The story starts (as far too many stories do) with cell phone problems. My US cell phone turned into a brick (more accurately, into a land line -- it works fine so long as it is plugged in). Jay had brought an extra cell phone, because he had thought he might sign up for local data on it. He believed that phone was unlocked, so I bought a local SIM card, but it took interactions with ATT (where he bought the cell), Apple (it's an iPhone) and the SIM card provider to get the phone really unlocked and the right kind of plan/money on the card. Since Germans apparently don't believe in using credit cards for things like prepaid phone plans, this was an adventure.
Once I had a working cell with a data plan, not only could I call my hosts to let them know if I was delayed, I could download the deutschebahn app, and track my progress as I traveled. This was a godsend. Using German trains is overall pretty easy, assuming you are OK with lugging suitcases up and down lots of stairs (there are supposed to be elevators or escalators, but in my experience they only work about half the time). The trains consistently show up on the same track every time, and there is a sign telling you if you have the right train. The trains are comfortable, and, as a single traveler, all my seat mates were pleasant.
The problems come when you try to figure which is your stop. On the long distance trains, announcements are often made in English (but not on the local trains), but they are as impossible to understand as the German announcements. There is a sign for each station, but many times there is another train blocking the view of it. The deutschebahn app allowed me to see the list of stations between my starting and ending point, and let me know which station I was at. It would also have allowed me to find an alternative train, if I had missed any of my connections. It turned out that all the trains were on time for me, but especially going from Bamberg to Heidelberg, where I had 4 connections to make, I was panicked that I would miss at least one of them
First Bamberg. I went there to visit Dorothee and her husband Dieter. Dorothee was an exchange student with my family many years ago, but I've never visited her before. She's in the diplomatic corps, and I managed to find out that she was going to be in Germany overlapping my visit. Bamberg is a lovely town, the center of which is a World Heritage site, in the northern end of Bavaria. The old buildings have details like this one
And here is a picture of Dorothee in front of one of the doors to the Dom, the cathedral there (this is a catholic part of Germany).
Obviously, I didn't get close enough on that one for you to really see her, but the church is impressive.
We also visited the Church of the Fourteen Holy Helpers. This is a baroque church, so lots of gold, jewels and curlicues, devoted to fourteen saints that one prayed to for various ailments (headache, fever, childbirth) during the plague years. Absolutely gorgeous, but my camera was not up to the task of taking good pictures of it.
Heidelberg is a university town, and Eva, the daughter of the friends we visited in Oldenburg, is a medical student there. She had a free day that coincided with my availability, so I took the RE train to the ICE train to the RB (really slow train) to the EC train to get to her. She showed me around the town, including the very nice Altstadt (the old city), some parts of the university (the really old parts, which are more picturesque) and the Schloss (remnants of an old castle high on the hill) -- they tell you that's it's 303 steps up there. I did not confirm the count.
Here's the Neckar River that divides the town.
Here is Eva in front of the Schloss
And this is one of the old German fraternities (really drinking societies) that are on the walk up to the Schloss (these guys must have to wait till they sober up to go home. I could never walk up this steep cobblestone path drunk). The pattern of the roof tiles tells you something about the society.
I also got introduced by Eva to "melon shots" (speaking of drinking), which are apparently a Heidelberg specialty. Just what you think -- liqueur made from melon juice. Pretty good, but I'm a bit too old to drink them regularly.
After a leisurely breakfast before Eva's class the next day, I found my way back to the train station and to Duisburg. While I haven't yet experienced having to deal with a missed connection, I feel like a near expert on German trains.
German postal service delivery bikes
While someone had told me about German postal workers delivering mail by bike, I hadn't seen any till yesterday (when I saw four of them). I had a very "American" reaction to them -- or rather to how deliveries are made. First, the bikes look like this
See the kickstand-like apparatus in front (with the tiny wheels) that holds it upright when the rider is off the bike.
They clearly hold a lot of mail and look pretty practical, but I saw the workers going into apartment buildings and office buildings, closing the door such that they couldn't see the bike, and being gone for 3-4 minutes. My immediate reaction was "but someone could steal the mail...". Apparently that doesn't concern the Germans, as these are used everywhere.
I don't think they make the actual delivery any faster, as the worker has to stop at pretty much every address, so it's hardly worth getting on the bike between houses, but it would make the trip back to refill it (which must have to happen several times a day) much faster than walking. And given the narrow streets and alleyways all over Germany, it would be impossible to use the kinds of trucks that are used in the US.
Cultural differences are everywhere, and my reactions are so interesting (at least to the anthropologist in me).
Sunday, June 1, 2014
Biking in Germany.
We decided to rent bikes this weekend and tour the local area, in part because we are going on a Backroads bike trip in 10 days and we wanted to get our legs (and butts) a bit into shape, not having done any biking since we left the US almost a month ago. This was such an interesting cross cultural experience.
The original plan was to bike from Thursday to Sunday. We were surprised to discover there was an official German holiday Thursday -- Ascension Day -- and everyone takes a 4 day weekend, so the lab was empty. By the time we figured it out, Jay had some concalls with the US he couldn't avoid, and it seemed that all the trains and hotels were full. When we say "everyone takes a 4 day weekend", that means everyone. Despite weather predictions that the rain would end Wednesday, it rained all day Thursday, and Friday was a bit too wet to bike comfortably (but we did get a good 6-7 mile hike in).
We rented bikes at a place less than 1km from our guest apartment. They would only rent us "city bikes" -- heavy (maybe 40 or more pounds) very upright bikes, with no cross bar and a fat saddle. Also coaster brakes and a 7 speed shifter. Not quite what we are used to (which are 10 pound bikes with 30 speeds, caliper brakes, drop handlebars, and a racing saddle. ) Some Germans do own "trekking bikes" -- what we would call touring bikes -- but most of what we saw were people on bikes about one step up from what we were pedaling.
The place did not rent helmets, so we biked heads unprotected. This bothered me a lot on both days -- I am so accustomed to riding with a helmet. Most Germans do not wear helmets, as most German bike paths are separated from the traffic (sometimes as part of the sidewalk, with the curb as a barrier, sometimes with another barrier), but there are times when the bikes are adjacent to traffic, as in the US, or that you ride as part of traffic, and there the lack of a helmet bothered me most. The routes we took included such places, and most of the riders we saw on those parts were wearing helmets (these were usually fit young guys who had American style road bikes, spandex clothing and rode like hell), but our route directions didn't warn us that we were going on "helmet advised " parts of the road. Maybe overall 20% of the bike riders we saw wore helmets.
I had brought my new Garmin Edge Touring with a biking map of Europe. We were able to download two 10-12 mile routes that started near us (making it 20-25 miles round trip, for us normally a gentle ride, especially with the flat terrain). Had we not had the Garmin, with its ability to notify me that we were off course, we would probably be still wandering around Duisburg's surroundings, trying to find a route home that didn't involve freeways. The routes we picked didn't always end up on the most scenic route, as we discovered, but having a route on the Garmin helped us know where were we and how to get home. We probably spent 20% of our biking time discovering that we were off course and trying to find the right route (sometimes a bike path hidden in the trees that we never noticed, other times going through something -- e.g., a parking lot, a path that seemed to be limited to pedestrians, a bike lane on the wrong side of the road -- that we would never have thought was the intended route).
Luckily, most German bike routes are relatively flat, since with these heavy bikes and their limited gearing, even going up the short hills we did find was hard. This is not made easier by the German habit of putting some kind of barrier either halfway up the hill or at the top just before it flattens off, forcing you to dismount and walk up the rest of the hill. I think the assumption is that you are walking up the hill anyway, what does the barrier matter? Add to that adventures like bike lanes that require you to go over substantial curbs (and not the rounded curbs we have in California, but right angle curbs), cobblestones, lanes that are paved changing to unpaved and back -- biking here is a much different experience than in California.
People of all ages bike in Germany. We saw lots of people I would put in their 70s and possibly 80s biking (I bike with a bunch of retired people weekday mornings in Palo Alto, but I think that the 30-40 people that come at various times to these rides are likely 50% or more of the entire population of the Peninsula over 65 who bike these kinds of distance.) We saw lots of people -- from age 40 to 80 -- toting panniers; true bike touring, where you ride from point A to point B and stay in a hotel each night, is very popular here, in part because there are so many bike routes that you can more or less traverse the entire country by bike (or at least by bike and train). One of the professors at the lab Jay is visiting goes off about once a month, taking the train to some new starting point, biking for two days, and taking the train back home. He is not unusual. We also saw lots of families biking -- kids from about 3 to 15 with mom and dad (not just dad).
These strange bike routes, with dirt roads, curbs and people going both directions sharing a narrow bike path, are not meant for speed, so everyone tootles along at about 10 miles at hour at best. The bike paths, at least during the sunny weather we had this weekend, are crowded. Other than today while we were on the trail during the normal lunch time, we never went more than about 2 minutes without seeing another biker (which reassured us that even if we were not on the right path, we were on a path that went somewhere).
The scenery was lovely (at least during the time I was able to enjoy it and not preoccupied looking for the next hidden turn) -- along the Ruhr river or through rural fields and woodlands. Very different scenery than we have in California.
German bikes all have bells, and they are used pretty frequently, rather than, say, the US convention of saying "on your left" when you pass someone. But people are quite content to move along at whatever speed the bike traffic is going and not even try to pass. And I found that the heavy bikes with their low center of gravity made it much easier to be stable at low speeds, so I didn't feel I was going to wobble into the person in front of me.
At the end of both of our days, we were exhausted when we got home from what we would normally consider an easy day (and one that included a lunch stop at a restaurant, giving us a good hour to rest up). We lolled around all evening and went to bed exceptionally early, falling asleep as our heads hit the pillow. Not having biked for a month is surely part of it, but I think it was easy to underestimate the effort it takes to pedal these heavy bikes. I hope this does serve as some form of conditioning for our bike trip.
The original plan was to bike from Thursday to Sunday. We were surprised to discover there was an official German holiday Thursday -- Ascension Day -- and everyone takes a 4 day weekend, so the lab was empty. By the time we figured it out, Jay had some concalls with the US he couldn't avoid, and it seemed that all the trains and hotels were full. When we say "everyone takes a 4 day weekend", that means everyone. Despite weather predictions that the rain would end Wednesday, it rained all day Thursday, and Friday was a bit too wet to bike comfortably (but we did get a good 6-7 mile hike in).
We rented bikes at a place less than 1km from our guest apartment. They would only rent us "city bikes" -- heavy (maybe 40 or more pounds) very upright bikes, with no cross bar and a fat saddle. Also coaster brakes and a 7 speed shifter. Not quite what we are used to (which are 10 pound bikes with 30 speeds, caliper brakes, drop handlebars, and a racing saddle. ) Some Germans do own "trekking bikes" -- what we would call touring bikes -- but most of what we saw were people on bikes about one step up from what we were pedaling.
The place did not rent helmets, so we biked heads unprotected. This bothered me a lot on both days -- I am so accustomed to riding with a helmet. Most Germans do not wear helmets, as most German bike paths are separated from the traffic (sometimes as part of the sidewalk, with the curb as a barrier, sometimes with another barrier), but there are times when the bikes are adjacent to traffic, as in the US, or that you ride as part of traffic, and there the lack of a helmet bothered me most. The routes we took included such places, and most of the riders we saw on those parts were wearing helmets (these were usually fit young guys who had American style road bikes, spandex clothing and rode like hell), but our route directions didn't warn us that we were going on "helmet advised " parts of the road. Maybe overall 20% of the bike riders we saw wore helmets.
I had brought my new Garmin Edge Touring with a biking map of Europe. We were able to download two 10-12 mile routes that started near us (making it 20-25 miles round trip, for us normally a gentle ride, especially with the flat terrain). Had we not had the Garmin, with its ability to notify me that we were off course, we would probably be still wandering around Duisburg's surroundings, trying to find a route home that didn't involve freeways. The routes we picked didn't always end up on the most scenic route, as we discovered, but having a route on the Garmin helped us know where were we and how to get home. We probably spent 20% of our biking time discovering that we were off course and trying to find the right route (sometimes a bike path hidden in the trees that we never noticed, other times going through something -- e.g., a parking lot, a path that seemed to be limited to pedestrians, a bike lane on the wrong side of the road -- that we would never have thought was the intended route).
Luckily, most German bike routes are relatively flat, since with these heavy bikes and their limited gearing, even going up the short hills we did find was hard. This is not made easier by the German habit of putting some kind of barrier either halfway up the hill or at the top just before it flattens off, forcing you to dismount and walk up the rest of the hill. I think the assumption is that you are walking up the hill anyway, what does the barrier matter? Add to that adventures like bike lanes that require you to go over substantial curbs (and not the rounded curbs we have in California, but right angle curbs), cobblestones, lanes that are paved changing to unpaved and back -- biking here is a much different experience than in California.
People of all ages bike in Germany. We saw lots of people I would put in their 70s and possibly 80s biking (I bike with a bunch of retired people weekday mornings in Palo Alto, but I think that the 30-40 people that come at various times to these rides are likely 50% or more of the entire population of the Peninsula over 65 who bike these kinds of distance.) We saw lots of people -- from age 40 to 80 -- toting panniers; true bike touring, where you ride from point A to point B and stay in a hotel each night, is very popular here, in part because there are so many bike routes that you can more or less traverse the entire country by bike (or at least by bike and train). One of the professors at the lab Jay is visiting goes off about once a month, taking the train to some new starting point, biking for two days, and taking the train back home. He is not unusual. We also saw lots of families biking -- kids from about 3 to 15 with mom and dad (not just dad).
These strange bike routes, with dirt roads, curbs and people going both directions sharing a narrow bike path, are not meant for speed, so everyone tootles along at about 10 miles at hour at best. The bike paths, at least during the sunny weather we had this weekend, are crowded. Other than today while we were on the trail during the normal lunch time, we never went more than about 2 minutes without seeing another biker (which reassured us that even if we were not on the right path, we were on a path that went somewhere).
The scenery was lovely (at least during the time I was able to enjoy it and not preoccupied looking for the next hidden turn) -- along the Ruhr river or through rural fields and woodlands. Very different scenery than we have in California.
German bikes all have bells, and they are used pretty frequently, rather than, say, the US convention of saying "on your left" when you pass someone. But people are quite content to move along at whatever speed the bike traffic is going and not even try to pass. And I found that the heavy bikes with their low center of gravity made it much easier to be stable at low speeds, so I didn't feel I was going to wobble into the person in front of me.
At the end of both of our days, we were exhausted when we got home from what we would normally consider an easy day (and one that included a lunch stop at a restaurant, giving us a good hour to rest up). We lolled around all evening and went to bed exceptionally early, falling asleep as our heads hit the pillow. Not having biked for a month is surely part of it, but I think it was easy to underestimate the effort it takes to pedal these heavy bikes. I hope this does serve as some form of conditioning for our bike trip.
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