Heidelbergerin

Limburg an der Lahn

noreply@blogger.com (C N Heidelberg) — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 10:29:00 +0000

uite* possibly the best Autobahn view in Germany can be found on the A3. We first saw it in 2007 when we went past on a bus during a two-week tour that was part of my husband's fellowship. We passed it a few more times later, and it never fails to amaze. Most of the town is below you in a valley while you cross a high bridge over the Lahn River. On what seems to be a higher level, floating head and shoulders above all the rest of the town, is the beautifully painted Limburger Dom (Limburg Cathedral). You can't possibly miss it.

But, other than that, we never heard much about Limburg one way or the other, so we never specifically planned to go there. We wondered if no one talked about it because there wasn't anything there but a cathedral. Who knows? But on our trip back from the North, as I followed the map and the clock, it actually started to look like a really good place to stop for dinner.

So, we stopped, followed signs to the Altstadt, and parked right underneath a big hill. It turns out, this hill is covered partially by a beautiful Altstadt filled with narrow streets, half-timber houses, and tons of little shops. It's as lovely as any more-advertised tourist town in Germany - why hadn't we heard more about it before?? I'd recommend it in a second. The hill on which everything sits makes it all the more attractive. We walked up to the cathedral, and wandered around inside as it got dark outside (and inside!). Afterward, we wandered the Altstadt for a cheap restaurant. No Doener joints to be found, but we did find an Italian place that wasn't so bad and got a quick dinner before completing our journey to Heidelberg.

Limburg an der Lahn Okt 11

*I've been wanting to use this Q for a while...so excuse my awkward phrasing! ;)

Electronic Residence Permits!

noreply@blogger.com (C N Heidelberg) — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 17:58:00 +0000

ince last September, Germany has been issuing a new electronic residence permit. Instead of putting big stickers in your passport, they are now making a wallet-sized card for everyone with an electronic chip in it. The chip has all your personal info, including your biometric photo and fingerprints!

We just went in to renew our residence permits today, so we had to do the paperwork and stuff to transition to the electronic permits. Unfortunately, there's some wait time on them. With the old sticker system, we got our permits printed and put in our passports right there, and went home with them. Under the new system, cards are printed centrally in Berlin and mailed to the local office. So, right now we have to wait, and since our old permits have expired (we couldn't get an appointment earlier) we can't leave the country until they come. Apparently in about two weeks the Berlin office will send us a PIN that we can use two weeks thereafter to pick up our cards at the Heidelberg office. (I guess the two week wait is to be sure they've arrived already when we get there - ?)

The fun part about setting up for the electronic permit is fingerprinting! They now have a nifty little finger-sized scanner in the office to take fingerprints. I haven't been fingerprinted since I was a second grader in the days of the mid-80s kidnapping scares. Alas, what I learned is that I have really crappy, shallow fingerprints! She scanned my right pointer finger twice and it was rejected as not good enough both times. My right thumb turned out to be good enough, and then we moved on to my left hand. My pointer finger, thumb, and middle finger all failed to give a strong enough scan and she just gave up. Then my husband did it and the difference in his fingerprints - much clearer than mine - was pretty impressive. I hope nothing in my life ever depends on accurate fingerprinting.

EDIT: Apparently I misunderstood and the fingerprints are for the city's use, not for the residence permit.

Anyone have the electronic permit already? How is it convenience-wise - any noticeable difference?

Unfortunate Choice of Font

noreply@blogger.com (C N Heidelberg) — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 11:44:00 +0000

sk not whether someone pissed in the Cheerios of that grumpy person in your life. They probably just ate Hater Muezli for breakfast.

For our non-German speakers, it's meant to say Hafer Muezli, a brand of oat muesli cereal (Hafer = oat). Although muesli was originally made from oats by definition, you can get it with rye, spelt, and probably some other grains I haven't thought of too.

The Music Post, 2011

noreply@blogger.com (C N Heidelberg) — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 21:05:00 +0000

ou've been waiting for this day, right? ;) Here's my yearly not-at-all-expat-or-travel-related post sharing the songs and albums I enjoyed the most this year. I had a very poppy year this year so there's plenty of really accessible music here that you might enjoy. I'm going to avoid YouTube links as much as I can, but will use them if necessary. If you are using ProxTube for the first time to get around GEMA barriers, you have to click through to YouTube for it to work - it doesn't work on embedded videos. Also note: if you are using a blog reader, you need to click through to the blog itself to see and play embedded songs from Soundcloud.

Albums - Mostly I just want to focus on songs, but some albums were spectacularly even and I don't want to give too much weight to just one song, so I am shouting them out as entire albums.

Cults - Cults
Cults - You Know What I Mean by cultscultscults
This is a new band from the US doing a sort of faux-oldies thing. If you like poppy oldies, you might like it.

Battles - Gloss Drop
Battles - Inchworm by tribes
Another US band, but this one's been around a while. People have been gushing online about them for years, but I never got into them until this album (which was supposedly less good than previous ones). I guess they're considered rock, but I don't find this particularly rock-y - maybe rock with a carousel as a band member? ;)

Plaid - scintilli
Plaid - missing (taken from new album Scintilli) by Warp Records
A British duo that's been around for many years, working in the unfortunately- and unhelpfully-named electronic subgenre IDM. This isn't my favorite track from the album, but it was easily available on Soundcloud and the label seems to think it's a good representation. :) It sounds like the lady robot from Wall-E having a bout of melancholy.

Tune-Yards - whokill
Tune-Yards - Gangsta by The Recommender
Genre: dunno, country: US. I don't love this album the way I loved her last one - but I never mentioned that one on the blog because I didn't discover it until after its year of release. So, this is like one of those after-the-fact make-it-up-to-you Grammys. But actually, this album is amazing on its own merit, too. (My absolute favorite of hers is "Real Live Flesh" if you like this and want to look it up!) I'd love for her to come perform at Karlstor!

Beirut - The Rip Tide
Beirut - Santa Fe (taken from the Album "Riptide") by 247QM
This is Beirut's 3rd full album. I miss the more Eastern European stylings from his first two albums (he himself is from the US), but this one has really grown on me. This is one of the poppier tracks from the album - for something moodier try "Goshen".

Al Lover - Distorted Reverberations (of Reverberating Distortion)

This guy is kind of a remixer - kind of. The original tracks are barely recognizable after he chops them up, distorts them, and puts them back together. Whatever, I can't stop listening to it. And the best part is that the entire album is completely free on his Bandcamp site.

Songs - Most of these are, of course, on great albums.

Cut Copy - "Corner of the Sky" from Zonoscope
Cut Copy - Corner Of The Sky by modularpeople
I remain a sucker for well-used bells, cow or otherwise. This is a synthpop band from Australia. I'm actually surprised I don't hear more of them here in Germany, the country where they still regularly throw Depeche Mode parties at clubs.

Orbital - "Never" (preview from upcoming April 2012 album)
Never by ORBITAL
I've been listening to Orbital (electronica, UK) so long, I'm not sure what low level of crap they'd have to release for me to not like it. They are comfort music. That said, even my husband thought this track was great, with no prodding from me. I can't wait for the album, which will, oddly enough, be produced by Flood. That's not a combination I'd have ever expected. You can download the track free from Soundcloud.

Björk - "Mutual Core" from Biophilia

I recommend headphones for the full effect of this song. (Iceland, in her own genre.)

Veronica Maggio - "Finns det en så finns det flera" from Satan i gatan

This is pure pop from Sweden. When a happy song is needed, look no further. And if you, like me, don't know Swedish, you are free from knowing just how bad the lyrics might be (always a danger with pop...).

Lykke Li - "Youth Knows No Pain" from Wounded Rhymes

I don't know what this song - another pop song by a Swede - is really about. I like to imagine an old fart like myself telling some younguns that they don't know how good they have it. All juxtaposed over a happy beat as if we're trying to be nice instead of passive-aggressively condescending and jealous.
If you like this, also check out Beck's remix of her song "Get Some". Lykke Li has risen from the ashes in my mind. She had a song a few years ago - "Little Bit" I think it was called - that I found so awful I actually deleted it, an exceedingly rare measure of disgust in my little iTunes world.

Honorable Mentions

Albums:
Pearl and the Beard - Killing the Darlings : US, folk pop. Even better is their 2009 album, but this is also quite worthy of a listen if you like this genre.
Patrick Wolf - Lupercalia : British, classic pop. It was the year of Patrick Wolf for me, so I couldn't leave him off even though this year's album is my least favorite of his. (The classic singer-songwriter trap of putting out a jarringly cheesy album during a happy period in one's life.) According to last.fm, Patrick Wolf enjoyed the distinction of making my most-listened-to song this year, but it was a track from his 2009 album.

Songs:
Alexander - "Truth" from Alexander : US, folk pop.
Shabazz Palaces - "Swerve... the reeping of all that is worthwhile" from Black Up : US, hip-hop.
The Vaccines - "Nørgaard" from What Did You Expect from the Vaccines? : British, pop punk. This was my first exposure to this band. The rest of the album was pretty disappointing.
Yellow Ostrich - "Whale" from The Mistress : US, "indie" something. If you like, also check out "Libraries".
Hoots and Hellmouth - "Wizened" from Salt : US, country? I couldn't find a link to play it anywhere.
Oregon Bike Trails - "A Summer Thing" (no album): US, faux-oldie pop.
The Weeknd - "The Birds (Part I)" from Thursday : Canadian, R&B. If you like this and haven't heard about it yet: The Weeknd released three completely free albums online this year. They can all be downloaded from his website. (Note: one of the album covers at that link is NSFW, not safe for work.)
Airlines - "Burial Grounds" from Visions : US, kind of that 80s throwback thing that's going on, but better than most of it.
Peter Bjorn and John - "Tomorrow Has to Wait" from Gimme Some : Swedish, pop rock.

Also Ran

Songs:

The Submarines - "Shoelaces": US, cutesy pop.
TV on the Radio - "Caffeinated Consciousness": US, rock.
Keep Shelly in Athens - "DIY": Greek, electronic.
Future of the Left - "Polymers Are Forever": British, rock?
Nicholas Jaar - "Space Is Only Noise if You Can See": US, minimal electronic.
Dam Mantle - "Movement": British, rather cinematic.
Purity Ring - "Belispeak": US, some newfangled racket.
Panda Bear - "Afterburner": US, do all things Animal Collective have their own genre?
Lana del Rey - "Video Games": US, pop ballad. This song had to come in somewhere because of the fascinating dichotomy. In the US it's a song swooned over all around the internet and indie music blogs, but in Germany it's a #1 pop radio smash hit. I don't see that often!
Glitch Mob - "Warrior Concerto": US, the fine line between awful and amazing electronic.
Fleet Foxes - "Helplessness Blues": US, folk pop. Mostly here on the merit of their first album and the ease with which anyone can relate to this song. This album did not sit well with me; it felt false. I think Fleet Foxes were better off singing less personal songs, like my beloved "Mykonos".
Electric Six - "Psychic Visions": US, goofy-ass rock.

Please share some of your favorites of 2011 in the comments, or thoughts on the ones I posted! I love hearing people chirp about their favorite music, even if it is Lou Reed & Metallica....

ProxTube: Don't let GEMA get you down

noreply@blogger.com (C N Heidelberg) — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 10:50:00 +0000

y yearly music post is underway, and it might involve a few YouTube videos. Over the last couple of years, YouTube has become a minefield of sneery, finger-wagging "YOUUUU can't watch this video" moments for anyone living in Germany. Very frustrating, but I finally found a way to get around it without connecting to a VPN or browsing entirely via an IP-hiding website. There's a free Firefox add-on called ProxTube which automatically uses a proxy only long enough to let you access a video. It's definitely made my usual internet browsing a bit more pleasant and I recommend it for those of you who use Firefox!

Bourtange

noreply@blogger.com (C N Heidelberg) — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 15:52:00 +0000

his was my friend's first time in Europe, so we hoped to nip over the border into the Netherlands on our way back south so she could get at least a tiny taste of another country. We weren't sure where to go, so we brought it up with one of the women working at our hotel. She suggested Bourtange - it's just across the border and conveniently marked on the Autobahn. The name rang a bell - a few months ago, I'd been looking at some town near the German-Dutch border on Google Maps and noticed the border was a bit funny-shaped in that area. Interested, I started following the border and discovered this incredible star-shaped fort thing just inside the Netherlands. It's very impressive on Google Maps but I had managed to forget about it in the meantime, figuring we'd never get somewhere so remote anyway.

View Larger Map

But, now we had a chance! Bourtange was easy to find, just as she said - there's a sign on the Autobahn, then you follow a small road right into the Netherlands. Oddly, it gets even smaller when you cross the border, almost as if they were trying to discourage Germans from coming in! ;) Then Bourtange is only a turn or two down the road.

Visiting Bourtange is free, but if you go through the visitor center, they will try to sell you tickets to see a movie and display about it. It was vague enough that we thought we needed tickets to see Bourtange itself and almost bought some before we figured it out - so be careful. :)

We'd expected a mere cool fort formation with a few neat features, but it turns out there's an entire little village of shops and things inside the fort! Surprise! They were selling standard tourist items and nothing to write home about, but wandering the radiating pattern of cute little streets was worth the quick stop. The whole place has actually been restored in the past 30 years or so - photos in the visitor's center lobby show it looking not unlike any old town in the 60s. We got pannenkoeken for lunch at a little cafe, then crossed the border back into Germany and headed southward toward home again.

Check out the Picasa photos for more details on what's in Bourtange! The windmill photo in this post was taken by my friend, but all Picasa photos were taken by me.

Bourtange Okt 11

DHL made a mess of what should have been awesome

noreply@blogger.com (C N Heidelberg) — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 11:37:00 +0000

Where to begin?

On December 5, my dad & his family mailed us a Christmas package at our Packstation address. My dad called and asked if I would be free on the 17th to open it at the same time as my sisters (one was going to be home that weekend) since we all got something that's the same. I marked my calendar and hoped the package would show up on time. Historically, it seemed that it would. When my other sister's arrived at her house in Seattle, Dad started getting all excited that he was going to "get away with" his plan.

The 17th came and went. Dad called a few times and we checked email obsessively hoping for the little Packstation notification saying it had arrived at the last minute. It didn't arrive. Dad decided to have my youngest sister, the one who was home, open hers and swear secrecy - then my Seattle sister and I could open ours together when mine arrived.

The days went on. No notification from Packstation. We even went there a couple of times and tried our card to see if it was there but the notification didn't go through. It wasn't. On the other end, my dad and his family didn't want to harrass the tiny local post office too much, so they decided to wait until after Christmas to try tracking it down, if it still wasn't here by then.

Christmas came and went. They decided to have Seattle sister open her package and swear secrecy too. Then another week came and went. On Friday around 5pm, my dad emailed me the USPS tracking number for the package. I checked the tracking number. It gave the following result:

December 5: Processed by USPS in Des Moines.
December 6: Left Des Moines.
December 7: Arrived and processed at USPS facility in Chicago.
December 15: Arrived and processed at sort facility in Germany.
December 15: Customs clearance 9:17am, customs clearance 7:05pm, customs clearance processing complete 7:06pm
December 17: Addressee requests own pick-up - Item being held, addressee being notified.

December 17. It arrived on time. But the addressee was NOT notified. Of anything. At all. Ever.

We thought that the tracking information indicated it had passed customs and that "own pick-up" was referring to the Packstation, so we figured they must have it. So, first phone call was to Packstation. They told us to call another number. Called there. After giving them USPS tracking and our Packstation info, they said they had never seen the package and that it must be in customs. Customs didn't pick up the phone. By then it was 6pm and everything was closed for the weekend. So, we had to wait until today.

At this point, Dad sent a scan of the mailing label from the package. It vaguely declares - this was supposed to be a Very Big Deal Secret, of course - that the package contains "Various Christmas Gift, Food, Clothing". I can't read the monetary value on it. Maybe there isn't one. But the idea that customs would stop the package seems likely given the vague declaration.

Monday morning. Customs won't pick up the phone. My husband decides to stop there on the way to work.

Customs informs my husband: "We did have it.* We only hold packages for two weeks. No one came to pick it up, so we sent it back."

They sent. it. back.

And, they blamed the Post for not notifying us, since it's apparently their responsibility, not customs. Of course, how do we know if the Post was ever notified? I can't believe it. I can't believe it!!! They had two weeks and we would have been there to pick it up in a second. And yet we got no information whatsoever from anyone by any means at all.

I don't know. I just need to know: Who the hell is going to make this up to me?? Who do I complain to??

*(It was held because of the vague form and because they wanted us to pay taxes on value over 45 EUR.)

Guten Rutsch!

noreply@blogger.com (C N Heidelberg) — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 17:24:00 +0000

appy new year! The holiday scene in Heidelberg:

This is the end...

noreply@blogger.com (C N Heidelberg) — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 09:21:00 +0000

eidelberg's Christmas market ends today! With the exception of the stands around the skating rink in the Karlsplatz (which will be open until January 8), this is the last night to grab your favorite Weihnachtsmarkt goodies.

If you need some recommendations, let me help:

*Zimtsterne in the Marktplatz - there's a stand that makes them on the spot and cuts up the odd-shaped bits and gives them away. Best Zimtsterne ever.

*Schaumkusse - the best variety is in the back right corner of the Uniplatz, including my favorite, the After Eight (mint) flavor! (Second best: cinnamon!) Hopefully they've not run out yet because I'm stopping there tonight for one!

*Spicy wurst - the Teufelswurst in the Marktplatz from the little food stand next to the giant pyramid. It's spicier than the Feuerwurst at any other stand!

*Kaesespaetzle - same place as the Teufelswurst. It's definitely the fair food version of this, but somehow it's awesome.

*Kartoffelpuffer - I got burned by some really disgusting Kartoffelpuffer in Hassloch this year and have been avoiding them since. But, normally the best of these are also in the Marktplatz, back in the corner near the Marktstube. The same stand also has some local goodies like Germknoedel!

*Feuerzangenbowle - The only place that seems to be doing it this year, unless I have missed something, is in the Uniplatz in the corner closest to the Jesuitenkirche. You don't get your own sugar cube, but you might get to see them make it in a giant vat. Stale Spekulatius included.

*Crepes - Best savory crepes: Marktplatz near the Maxbar. Beware, it's also the healthiest crepe stand so you'll be in line behind a bunch of college girls trying to stay thin. My favorite crepe: After Eight! Only available from the crepe maker that's inside the Langos stand behind the carousel in the Uniplatz. Most generous crepe: the guy on the Karlsplatz. Had one of his overstuffed creations last night and managed to gloop Nutella over pretty much everything I was wearing. It was awesome.

*Cup with your name on it - you know you want one. They're in the Anatomiegarten.

SNOWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW

noreply@blogger.com (C N Heidelberg) — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 11:36:00 +0000

INALLY!!!!!

I want to go tromp around in it, but as this is Heidelberg, it's of course threatening to turn to rain any second. That would be a lot less fun to tromp around in. So for now, these are just pictures from my apartment.

Beware Giant Christmas Cards

noreply@blogger.com (C N Heidelberg) — Sat, 10 Dec 2011 17:37:00 +0000

o, this happened again. Apparently, I am not a quick learner. It seems that at least one side of a letter has to be 11 centimeters or less, or it becomes a "large letter" and costs an additional 2 Euro and 70 cents. Which is a LOT more.

**EDIT!: I misunderstood based on entering a slew of values into the Portokalkulator on the Deutsche Post site. Here is the real info: the long side of the envelope must be between 14 and 23.5 centimeters, and the short side must be between 9 and 12.5 centimeters...BUT, it's not just that, and this is where I goofed in interpreting the results I was getting from the Portokalkulator. The long side must be at least 1.4 times as long as the short side. So, although a 14x12.5-cm envelope is within the dimensions listed, it still would cost 3 Euro and 45 cents to send to the US, because the length isn't long enough given the width. The same rules apply to postcards.
I'm going to see if we can get the money back on the stamps they cancelled on those envelopes, because I'm not willing to pay 3,45 to mail a card, and I didn't get anything for the 75 cents they cancelled...I just want to start over! Hope it works...

But in better Christmas-card-related news, isn't this advent card my friend sent adorable??

I Know You Like Talking About Yourself

noreply@blogger.com (C N Heidelberg) — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 12:57:00 +0000

ow you can enjoy talking about yourself (and you should - you're interesting!) while also helping someone out with a research project! If you are a US citizen living outside the US and 18 or older, please fill out this anonymous survey for a friend of a friend of a friend. It is a bit long but you can save it to return to later, and the questions are interesting. At the end you can enter your email address to get the results of the study when it's over.

Enjoy!

Ostfriesland! (East Frisia!)

noreply@blogger.com (C N Heidelberg) — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 11:41:00 +0000

e drove south from Cuxhaven toward the small town of Midlum, mentioned in my friend's ancestry info. (Language bit: -um is a local equivalent of -heim! Midlum was south of Northum and north of Sorthum!) We were hoping to grab lunch there, too. We briefly admired their windmill and some interesting gravestones in their churchyard, then looked for food. Nothing was open, and some things looked as if they hadn't been open in years. So, onward toward our eventual goal, Greetsiel! Thankfully, we found a great bakery at the side of the highway somewhere south of the Jadebusen. Despite crappy weather, we made a quick sightseeing stop in Jever, home of a well-known (in Germany) beer. It was cute, bricks everywhere, kind of Dutch-looking. See the photos!

Midlum & Jever Okt 11

We arrived at our hotel in Uttum, south of Greetsiel, in early evening. The place was called the Hexenstueberl, or "little witch room". I thought nothing of this name, as there seems to be a lot of witch imagery in Germany and it actually didn't occur to me to think of it as odd. My friend, however, didn't realize what the name meant and thought it was a little creepy to arrive at a hotel decorated top-to-bottom in a witch theme! Everyone there was extremely nice, and the breakfasts were fantastic - one morning there was chocolate mousse - so I'd recommend it to anyone.

We had dinner in Greetsiel at a restaurant where the patrons demonstrated the infamous German staring problem. I haven't actually seen that in a while. The place was really nice, though - my husband forgot something there and when we went back for it the next day they let us use the restrooms even though they weren't open, and gave us lots of tips and information.

The next morning we looked around town. Greetsiel is cute and, like Jever, feels a lot like the Netherlands - it even had a little canal with a cute little bridge right in the center of town, surrounded by brick plazas and little brick buildings full of tea, ice cream, and t-shirt shops. Its most famous attraction is its twin windmills, one of which is still used for milling (grain, I think). The town is definitely a big tourist destination among Germans, but we never noticed any other international tourists there. Greetsiel was in danger of losing its quaintness, however. There were homemade signs hanging everywhere protesting a project called Greetland which would build a massive resort in Greetsiel and, according to locals against it, completely change the character of the town. It looks like there's since been a vote stopping the park (but I can't get the links with details to pull up right now)! Interestingly, many of the people against the building of the resort were actually business owners who make their money from tourism, who were afraid that their usual customers would stop coming and a "different" type of tourist would be attracted.

In the early afternoon, we drove over to the shore near Pilsum to see one of the area's biggest landmarks, the Pilsum Lighthouse, adorably painted in yellow and red. It looked cheery even in the terrible cloudy weather we had during our visit! We also stopped in Pilsum itself, which is supposedly a Runddorf or Rundling - a town built on a round plan. Many towns in the area were built on fake hills (Ostfriesland is flat!). A church was put on top of the hill and then easily used as a fortress if anyone came by to stir up trouble. We didn't notice the roundness of the town, or much of a hill for that matter, although the church was neat from the outside. We did drive through a town called Eilsum a few times where the church-on-a-hill scheme was much more evident.

Greetsiel & Pilsum Okt 11

We couldn't find any lunch in Pilsum, so we went back to Greetsiel and had soup and tea at a bakery there. While Germany is mostly a coffee-drinking nation, Ostfriesen drink tea. It's kind of the Britain of Germany - crappy weather and tea, tea, tea. The tea comes with big pieces of white rock candy called Kluntjes and cream with a very high fat content. First you put the Kluntjes in your cup, then pour the hot tea over them, producing a nice, satisfying crackle. Then you use a tiny ladle, pre-warmed in the tea, to carefully add cream to the top of the tea. Now, supposedly, you drink it without stirring for a three-layer experience - the cream represents the sky, the tea the earth, and the sugar the sea. Or something. I like my dairy cut with something, so I prefer to stir. The cups of tea are small and the Kluntjes are big, so they can be re-used with your next cup. Very delicious. Actually I think all three of us were guilty of just eating the tea-soaked leftover candy... yum.

In early evening the sun started to peek through and we were positively giddy about it, as if we hadn't seen the sun in ages when really it had only been a couple of days. We decided to check out some other towns, finding Norden in a guidebook and stopping there to briefly see their empty Marktplatz and locked church before moving on to Norddeich to find a beach to watch the sun set! The tide was out and the wind was intense. I now see why Germans are known for building holes for themselves to sit in on the northern beaches. It does take a bit to impress an Iowan with windiness, you know. ;) (I remember being barely able to open the car door some days...) There weren't too many people there, and it was gorgeous.

Norden & Norddeich Okt 11

Afterward we had a kind of terrible supper at some tourist joint nearby - everything else had closed - then headed back to Greetsiel just in time to see some guys singing sea shanties at a community center! I cannot pass up old guys singing and this was one of those German experiences like you see on TV - long tables of retirees drinking and swaying back and forth. We decided to go with it and do all the moves and people sort of laughed at us, and it was awesome. Also I think the old guy we sat by was hitting on our friend. :D

Here's a blurry video of the festivities:

<br>P

Photos embedded in this post were taken by my friend. Photos in Picasa albums were taken by me.

#expatweathernetwork

noreply@blogger.com (C N Heidelberg) — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 14:39:00 +0000

oday Heidelberg offers one of its most beloved combinations: blue sky above, eerie fog below. Hurry up and appreciate it, because the sun will be down in an hour or less!

PS. Didn't a hashtag used to represent an IRC channel, or am I thinking of some other symbol?

Patrick Wolf on Heidelberg

noreply@blogger.com (C N Heidelberg) — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 11:55:00 +0000

PW Heidelberg a video by Camillipede on Flickr.

Last night we saw Patrick Wolf play at Karlstorbahnhof. I'm always interested to hear what artists from outside the country say when they play here. I think my favorite was Tunng, who said they all walked up to the castle and promptly fell asleep in the garden for a couple of hours. They had a lot of people in their band so it was a funny public group nap image. I didn't catch his whole story on video, but it began with him asking if anyone had been to his last show in Heidelberg 6 years ago, then saying he wanted to come here because he remembered coming as a little kid, and (then the video picks up). The multi-bus-trip warehouse in the middle of nowhere that he talks about is, amusingly, the Schwimmbad. :D Other Germany-related hijinks: he went to the Christmas market in the afternoon (it opened yesterday) and bought himself one of those flower-and-heart mugs with your name on it that everyone has, and was drinking out of it during the show. And, at some point in a song, he just yelled, "GLUEHWEIN!" Which is funny, and if the Germans I know are to believed, very foreigner-y. (They all claim to think the whole Weihnachtsmarkt thing is bad-kitschy and lame. Sigh, how wrong they are.)

P.S. Happy Thanksgiving, Americans!

Unfortunate Name

noreply@blogger.com (C N Heidelberg) — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 21:28:00 +0000

ctually, it's a pretty good shop for Indian groceries. If you happen to need some pani puri kits or frozen medu vada, you can find this place behind the Bauhaus.

Insel Neuwerk

noreply@blogger.com (C N Heidelberg) — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 15:02:00 +0000

y friend cast a wide net when researching the places she wanted to visit in the north, the ancestral home of several braches of her family tree. She started with Ostfriesland, found in her family records, and discovered the Wattenmeer (Wadden Sea). Intrigued by that, she found a site saying that you can find amber on the beach in the state of Hamburg's little corner of the Wattenmeer! It's not in Ostfriesland, but she liked the amber idea, so I started looking around for more information about it. I managed to figure out that the amber is found in a place called the Kleiner Vogelsand on an island called Neuwerk. And that was the extent of the information.

Insel Neuwerk's main industry must be tourism, but it got surprisingly little attention in all the sources I checked, which mostly focused on the islands west and north of there. I decided we could just figure it out when we got there, and my friend booked rooms in one of the five hotels on the island, Nige Hus.

You can reach Insel Neuwerk by ferry from Cuxhaven when the tide is in, or by foot or horse-drawn carriage from Sahlenburg when the tide is out. Each method only offers one opportunity per day to go to or from the island, and the times vary according to the tides. Based on the schedule, we decided to take the ferry, which would give us the most time on the island. Lucky us, the ferry happened to be departing at its earliest on the day we wanted to go - 9am. We made it easy on ourselves by staying the previous night at a hotel right across from the ferry dock in Cuxhaven. Classily, it was also right across the street from a brothel.

The ferry's route to Neuwerk is not a straight shot, but what feels like a long detour all over the place before reaching the island. It takes well over an hour to get there. From the ferry there's a great view of Cuxhaven harbor, a huge wind farm to the east, and a constant stream of enormous container ships on the Elbe River going to or coming from Hamburg. As we neared the island, we noticed that the boat was closely following a line of what appeared to be besom brooms stuck upside-down in the water!

Upon arrival, we were greeted by tractors - the island is car-free - pulling trailers onto which our luggage was loaded so we could walk to our hotel without the extra burden. So we did. The inner part of the island, where all the buildings are, is surrounded by a dike with a sidewalk on top, so there's definitely no way to get lost. Outside the dike are swampy areas and grazing fields for cows and horses, and beyond that there's either water or seafloor, depending on the time of day!

It was late morning, so after check-in we wandered toward the small town-like section of the island looking for some food that was a little cheaper than the restaurant at Nige Hus. (Note: turns out prices for everything are pretty much the same all over the island.) After a small lunch inside the island's 700-year-old lighthouse, we paid a small fee to climb up to the top for a great view. Then we headed over to the National Park building to get some info on how to find amber.

First, they chastized us for not letting them know in advance that we wanted to do it. Normally, a guide would accompany you on this sort of trip. Why? Well, turns out the amber's not really found on a beach. It's out on the seafloor near the Elbe! This means leaving the island at low tide and crossing the sea floor, then getting back to land before the tide comes in. The tides are incredibly dangerous, rushing in at 1.8 meters per second in some places! Also, the water isn't just knee-deep when it's in. The tidal range near Cuxhaven is nearly 3 meters! (In some spots there are landmarks which double as rescue cages in case you can't get back to shore in time!) But, they said we could do it alone and it was a great day to do it based on the tides and winds, so they told us how to get where we needed to go. The only problem was the possibility of rain. We were instructed to begin crossing the seafloor toward the Elbe, keeping a Neuwerk landmark called the Ostbake (first photo on this post) and a drilling platform beyond the Elbe both in sight. On the line between these two landmarks, on the bank of the Elbe (where the water stays all day - much deeper), you can find amber if you're lucky and know what to look for. We struck out across the fields beyond the dikes, past the Ostbake, through a swamp, and onto the sand.

It had been misting this whole time, but the oil platform was still in sight. We spent a couple of minutes admiring all the shells crunching under our feet and the view back to the island, then looked up to find that the oil platform was gone. The drizzle and mist had gotten too thick, and now we could barely make out the ships passing on the Elbe. (The photo at right was taken while it was still a bit clearer.) Without the landmarks, they told us we shouldn't go out there. It's too easy to get disoriented on the mudflats and not get back to the island in time. We hung around for a while longer getting hit with drizzle that felt like bullets in the cold wind, hoping it would clear a bit, but no such luck. Instead it started to rain more earnestly. So, we sheepishly returned to the hotel - we'd had to tell them where we were going so they could sound the alarm if we weren't back by a certain time, so they knew of our failure - and sat down by the restaurant fireplace for a nice long evening of hot drinks with shots in them. The North Sea does this genre of beverages very, very well.

The wind was unbelievable, and this is coming from Iowa, where we get such great wind they farm it extensively now. At one point I stepped out of the cozy confines of the restaurant to try to get a photo of the green light in the lighthouse and the contrast was astounding. It made it all the more wonderful to be indoors by the fire. Honestly, I don't think we could have asked for better weather - this seemed to be the ideal way to enjoy Insel Neuwerk.

The bad weather continued and we got up for a late-ish breakfast only to discover that the ferry was going to leave 2 hours earlier than planned on account of it. Thus, our time on the island was cut a bit short. This time we got to ride in a covered trailer along with our luggage back to the dock. When the ferry pulled in, there was a massive exchange of mail and goods - water, eggs, all kinds of stuff. Then we had an uneventful return to Cuxhaven.

Insel Neuwerk is inhabited by 30-something people. There's only one school-aged child. There's no grocery store and no doctor. The Wadden Sea is an incredible feature - one that you don't find often. In many places, like Boston, areas like this were filled in with more land so they could be used. It's pretty fascinating and I definitely recommend a trip there - especially in the cold, windy offseason. :) All the photos above were taken by my friend, but the photos in the Picasa album below are mine. Enjoy!

Insel Neuwerk Okt 11

Hildesheim: Not Just a Rosebush

noreply@blogger.com (C N Heidelberg) — Sat, 12 Nov 2011 12:14:00 +0000

ildesheim first entered our radar in the summer of 2009 when we were planning our road trip up through the center of Germany. Due to time constraints and the lure of brown attraction road signs for Goslar, we ended up skipping Hildesheim on that trip.

My visiting friend wanted to go to Ostfriesland on her trip here, as it features heavily in her ancestry. While planning the trip north, I noticed we would be going right past Hildesheim. We didn't make a specific plan to stop there on the way, but I was certainly hoping we'd get the chance - and we did, brief though it may have been!

Hildesheim's 1000-year-old St. Michael's Church and its cathedral are together a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Most famously, there is a rosebush outside the cathedral which is said to be 1000 years old. They say that as long as the bush is flourishing, Hildesheim will prosper. We definitely wanted to check that out - but we were too late. We arrived at the cathedral 5 minutes after closing, and the bush is beyond a locked gate. The cathedral is also under serious construction, so we couldn't walk around it. Bummer! On top of that, we never even made it to see St. Michael's in the brief time we were there. However, it turns out there's a lot more to Hildesheim than these two things.

Prior to the second World War, Hildesheim was considered one of the most beautiful towns in Germany. During the war, they watched as nearby Hannover and Braunschweig were destroyed and knew their time was coming soon, too. They wanted to preserve the beauty of the town however they could. In particular, they were concerned about the Butchers' Guild House, an incredible 7-story half-timber building which was originally built in 1529. Hildesheim wanted to take the building apart and put it somewhere safe to save it, but found this was impossible. Instead, they carefully documented everything about it. They did save parts of other historic buildings where they could - for example, marvelously detailed Renaissance bay windows. (Renaissance architecture is not so easy to come by in Germany.)

On March 23, 1945, so near to the end of the war, their fear came true. Seventy-five percent of Hildesheim was obliterated, including the cathedral, St. Michael's church, and the medieval town center.

The cathedral and St. Michael's church were rebuilt soon after the war, as were the Rathaus and Tempelhaus, two buildings on the historic Marktplatz which were made of sandstone and therefore just severely damaged instead of leveled. However, the half-timber buildings on the Marktplatz were replaced in the 50s with the sort of flat-roofed modern things that were in style at the time.

The Marktplatz remained so until the 1980s, when a couple of the businesses in the buildings there needed to move out for various reasons. Hildesheim had never let go of its dream to restore the original buildings, and they decided to seize the opportunity presented by the businesses moving out. The 1950s-style buildings were destroyed and the Butchers' Guild Hall, Wedekindhaus, and Bakers' Guild Hall were all rebuilt in the original style. Of course, many old buildings in Germany were restored to their original glory after being destroyed in WWII, but there seems to be something extra-special about the towns who restored them later. (See also: Dresden Frauenkirche.) They couldn't restore them right away, but they didn't let the dream die. Later they found the opportunity and the funds and they brought their old towns back. It also proves that the skills to make beautifully detailed buildings are still out there - we think it can't be done, but it can. (It's just really expensive. Together, the restoration of the Butchers' and Bakers' Guild Halls cost about 7 million Euro.) And the details on the Wedekindhaus and the Butchers' Guild Hall are just unbelievable. Amazing. In an interesting twist, the Butchers' Guild Hall has been painted on the front in a traditional style, but on the side with anti-war images and messages. See my photo album below for more! All photos embedded in this post were taken by my friend, but the photos on Picasa were taken by me.

Hildesheim Okt 11

A+++, would visit again!!

Cute Pfaelzisch Town Alert: Deidesheim

noreply@blogger.com (C N Heidelberg) — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 15:03:00 +0000

arlier this summer, a friend mentioned over email that she wanted to visit Germany someday. Everyone says this to me. Everyone who says it is encouraged by me to come over, and I offer them whatever help they need with their planning. This friend actually took me up on it! I was definitely surprised, since I have Extremely Close Family Members who still won't come and therefore have learned to expect disappointment. So...yay!!!

We planned everything via email and she arrived in early October, ready for some adventure. We decided to warm up with something semi-local: my beloved Pfalz! We whipped out a big area map and picked something within our local train network so we could benefit from super-cheap day tickets: Deidesheim. It's a name I'd seen on zillions of wine labels before. We've passed through it a few times on our way to other places, but never stopped. So, I was pretty interested to finally see what's there!

The first sign that we were somewhere awesome came before we even reached the center of town. Two horse-drawn wine-drinking parties went past! As you can see in the photo (click to enlarge), the people at this party were already feeling mighty festive - and it wasn't even lunchtime yet. My new life goal is to rent one of these sometime. Who's in? :)

We wandered around a bit, admiring the cute Marktplatz, pretty church, and grapevines draped all over everything. Around 2pm, we were ready for lunch - and that was a bit of a problem! Few places in town even opened before 5pm, and of those that did, most of them took an afternoon break starting at 2pm. Oops! We eventually settled in at a place near the old Spital which looked a bit institutional. Their menu was pretty limited, but fine for us - we ended up with two delicious Flammkuchen and for me, a big glass of Neuer Wein which made it easier to not be embarrassed about flubbing through German with their Pfaelzisch accents making it scary. My friend had her first Mineralwasser mit Gas because they didn't have still water - and she was not impressed. But, since the food was good it was all generally fine.

Next: my favorite thing - vineyards!! It kept threatening to rain, but we went onward unfazed into the open vineyards just outside of town. There, we just wandered around, checking out the old walls, gates, and stairs, baby vines and old vines, and the occasional garden or statue or bench or other random field oddity. You really can't find things like that back in the Iowa cornfields where we came from. Actually, I don't think you could wander a cornfield without ticking somebody off, but that didn't occur to me in the vineyards, since we wandered around in them at many a wine festival in the past. I guess it probably is trespassing. Fun, wonderful trespassing.

We could see a chapel in the distance, but the sky kept getting darker, so after finding a little grapevine-decorated shed which felt climactic enough, we made our way back to town.

As soon as we got on the train, the rain started. What timing! We had to transfer in Neustadt an der Weinstrasse, where we discovered a festival going on! We took a brief walk through the festival and over to the Marktplatz. I had my first delicious mint Schaumkuss of the season! Man, now that I mention that, I really want one. Less than a month 'til the Christmas markets start.....

All photos in this post were taken by my friend. The Picasa photos below are mine. Enjoy!

Deidesheim & Neustadt an der Weinstrasse Okt 2011

Drinking Festivals 2011

noreply@blogger.com (C N Heidelberg) — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 10:54:00 +0000

o either of these drinking environments appeal to you?:

We did both of these - the Freinsheim Kulinarische Weinwanderung and the great and powerful Oktoberfest - within a week of each other last month! Both involve a lot of merriment, but they're pretty different experiences.

First came the winefest, which is a big favorite of ours that I've written about many times before. The only time we missed it was the year that it came on the same weekend as WEBMU Bremen. This year we took a friend and a friend of a friend. The weather was glorious! The only downside was that the local train track decision-makers decided to close the tracks for maintenance between Heidelberg and Mannheim all weekend, and everything was completely bonkers. On top of the wine fest, which is pretty popular, the huge Heidelberger Herbst festival was also going on over the weekend, so a lot of people were trying to get through the closed area. We spent almost as many hours on trains and buses as we did at the festival - but it was absolutely worth it! We had our yearly favorites - the Semmelknoedel and Pfifferlinge at a particular stand, plenty of neuer Wein and Weinschorle (once we started to feel a little dehydrated - it contains lots of water, but still wine! :D), and Saumagen, although we had to eat it at a different spot than usual this year because the crowds were unusually large and our usual spot ran out. At one stop, we made instant friends with a group of retirees (?) who pretended to find our English beautiful (I mean, they couldn't possibly mean it) and taught us what a Mispel is. (English: common medlar - ever heard of it?) On the way home, we enjoyed the first leg of the ride with a train-carful of pleasantly toasted, jolly people who cheered for some poor sober woman who had to get her bike off the train before we could board. I think there was a much wider age range of people at this festival than at the next one we attended....

Freinsheim Sep 11

....the most famous thing in Germany: Oktoberfest. Despite five years here, we'd never gone - it's expensive to stay in Munich at that time, it's absolutely huge and crowded, and the images on the news our first year here of trashed people having public sex in all kinds of places were sort of unappealing. But, we always figured we should go sometime so we could see what it's all about. Thanks to the Regensbloggers, we got our chance this year when their local branch of Democrats Abroad sold tickets as a fundraiser. They graciously offered to let us stay with them, which brought the cost of attending down to much more reasonable levels and we are forever thankful! :)

We arrived around 10am and wandered around a bit through the mostly-empty Theresienwiese, the big field where the fest is held every year. It was nice to see everything before the big crowds moved in! Our tickets were for 11am, and we had to queue up outside the Schottenhamel tent, where we'd be sitting, before going in. One security guy was a total dick to us, and the line was your standard pushy and confusing German non-line. When we got into the tent the roar of the crowd - 6,000 people fit inside - was unbelievable, and we had to dodge all kinds of obstacles before finding our table on the opposite side. The whole experience was a bit of sensory overload for me and I was actually pretty freaking grumpy when we finally got to sit down at a beer-splashed table. But then the beer came....and we started to get some of the lyrics to the songs the band was playing...and before we knew it, everything was super crazy awesome and we were standing on benches having a great time. The food was better than expected too - although I admit to pretty low expectations considering the mass production that must be involved.

We left the tent in mid-to-late afternoon, and now everything was packed. We managed to stay in a group and checked out some attractions including the Teufelsrad, some kind of slide thing that you have to ride a conveyer belt up to, and a historical section that is supposed to replicate the feeling of Oktoberfests from years past. Check out all of these in the photo album! By dusk, we were beat and headed back to Regensburg. Thanks again for a great experience, Cliff & Sarah! :) (Their coverage of the event is here - including some great photos!)

Oktoberfest Okt 11

Which would you rather attend? :)

Look what my husband found....

noreply@blogger.com (C N Heidelberg) — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 18:21:00 +0000

rom the Edeka in Eppelheim:

He got a hot tip from someone at his lab who heard Americans like root beer! He said it was about 1,50 per can.

Here's a look at Heidelberg earlier today (before the sun went down at an ungodly early time):

A beautiful fall day, coinciding nicely with the four-day weekend a lot of people took on account of Allerheiligen (All Saints' Day) tomorrow. It was almost 20'C! Alas, I was out buying lavender to make sachets for the closet when I took this picture. Over the weekend we suddenly started seeing a LOT of clothes moths. No sign of larvae or cocoons yet, but there are so many they must have come from here somewhere...either that or one of our neighbors must really have a lot of them. Yuck. Recently two friends reported massive kitchen moth infestations so it was only a matter of time until something of the sort hit here. Hope those aren't next...

The Blogroll Grows...Again

noreply@blogger.com (C N Heidelberg) — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 11:13:00 +0000

s the number of expat-in-Germany blogs grows out of control, it's been increasingly difficult for me to keep my blogroll updated! It shows, too, as there are tons of bloggers who won't link to you until you link to them so I'm finding myself out there less and less often. Obviously only some can have the privilege of waiting to be linked to, or no one would have blogrolls at all. ;) Are blogrolls useful anymore, anyway? What's the current thinking on that? Anyway, I hope I've not missed anyone - just let me know if I have.

Actual content coming soon, as I'm nearly finished wading through 2000+ photos from October! :)

Die Mauer ist zurueck!

noreply@blogger.com (C N Heidelberg) — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 11:58:00 +0000

eidelberg's surest sign of the impending arrival of winter came today: the return of the windbreak that goes up every year on the bridge between Neuenheim and the Bismarckplatz.

Here they are, tying it on. I'm happy to see the end of the hot weather, but I feel we've gone a bit too quickly from "gotta walk on the shady side of the street" to "gotta walk on the sunny side of the street"! I could use a few more weeks of that nice in-between weather.

Walking around today, I really had the feeling of impending winter, as there was a cold, hard wind coming out of the valley and there seemed to be a ton of projects going on that people wanted to hurry up and complete before it got too cold. There were workers painting the hideous new railings on the Neuenheimer Landstrasse a slightly darker shade of gray, painting window frames, washing windows, putting up the windbreak, and on our own building, doing a massive outside cleaning that required us to close all our shutters and completely clear our terraces. (I guess it was about time to get all those old beer bottles off the deck anyway...) And, I finally found and wore my gloves for the first time this season.

Soon there will be Gluehwein....

A Very Brief Summary

noreply@blogger.com (C N Heidelberg) — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 08:32:00 +0000

ome stuff we did recently that I haven't blogged about yet:

And what we're about to do:

What the hole? III

noreply@blogger.com (C N Heidelberg) — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 14:25:00 +0000

his was the view yesterday on the Neuenheimer Landstrasse:

A fence on the wall, indeed. But why? Does it convert to a flood barrier? Is Heidelberg preparing for global warming?