Got a great nights sleep last night, back in London, where things are familiar.
It took a bit getting here, our train from Germany to Paris was smooth, it had a cool speed that was in each cabin and you could see how fast it was going, for a while it was going 320KPH! Crazy fast, it was fun to watch the speeds go up and down.
Otherwise not major drama on that train, of course when we get to Paris it's a MESS! The Euro star signage is kind of crap and figuring out where to retrieve our reserved tickets took a bit, then we had a quick lunch, and got ourselves to the area our train was to leave from.
For some reason earlier that day all the trains were behind a little because there had been a power failure in the English Channel (scary idea to be on a train in the Channel and have no lights!) So there was a mess of madness, and people who were antsy and impatient.
After a long wait (about a 40 minute delay) we got on the train, and then got back to London, the ride was uneventful. In London we had to take the underground to meet my Aunt at the station close to their house, so we got in line to buy a ticket for the underground.
Sweet victory was when the person in front of us was French, and got to the ticket counter and asked the attendant if she spoke French, the attendant looked at her like YOUR NUTS!!!
We got our tickets and made it to the right station, got picked up, and came back, vegged and ate dinner.
The entertainment for the night was watching the Euro 2008 final game, Turkey vs Spain.
I was rooting for Spain as the underdog, and they WON! 1-0. I guess Germany didn't play so well. It was fun watching with English announcers!
Today we're heading to another relatives to hang out, and then tomorrow we're going to explore some more of the city, and do a little bit of shopping. Then Wednesday will be a relax day before we head to Silverstone.
Still waiting to hear from Prodrive if we can make it to them from Oxford (where our hotel is) to Banbury (where they are) about 35 minutes apart, via public transport since we won't have a car. If we can we'll head there on Thursday, and then spend Friday/Saturday & Sunday F1'ing it!
Monday, June 30, 2008
Sunday, June 29, 2008
Sunday June 29th the beginning of the end.
Sunday June 29th the beginning of the end.
Sitting on the first class train from Mannheim to Paris this morning, it’s about 10am, and we took a small regional train from Heidelberg to Mannheim, got some breakfast, a latte, peach iced tea and a shared blue berry muffin.
There’s a feeling of sadness, like this is the beginning of the end of the journey, but at the same time looking forward to it a little, looking forward to going back to English speaking places where we understand signs, and menus and people. And even past that, a feeling of going back to the country where our currency doesn’t have to be converted, and where we know where things are, and don’t need adapters and converters to plug in electronics. I can’t wait to go home and drink milk, and veg on the couch, and relax. I figure that won’t happen for a few days, we’ll get back to the states on Monday the 7th of July after a LONG day travel and hopefully just pass out, then we’ll head to work, and probably suffer through the day, and THEN we’ll get home from work and hopefully just relax… that sounds fun, that’s Tuesday, Wednesday night after work we have an auto-x board meeting, so life won’t be slow getting back into our routine at all, just jumping right back in and hopefully not being too far behind!
Aaron in his boredom figured out that our train will travel 157.5 miles per hour! Cool!
Sitting on the first class train from Mannheim to Paris this morning, it’s about 10am, and we took a small regional train from Heidelberg to Mannheim, got some breakfast, a latte, peach iced tea and a shared blue berry muffin.
There’s a feeling of sadness, like this is the beginning of the end of the journey, but at the same time looking forward to it a little, looking forward to going back to English speaking places where we understand signs, and menus and people. And even past that, a feeling of going back to the country where our currency doesn’t have to be converted, and where we know where things are, and don’t need adapters and converters to plug in electronics. I can’t wait to go home and drink milk, and veg on the couch, and relax. I figure that won’t happen for a few days, we’ll get back to the states on Monday the 7th of July after a LONG day travel and hopefully just pass out, then we’ll head to work, and probably suffer through the day, and THEN we’ll get home from work and hopefully just relax… that sounds fun, that’s Tuesday, Wednesday night after work we have an auto-x board meeting, so life won’t be slow getting back into our routine at all, just jumping right back in and hopefully not being too far behind!
Aaron in his boredom figured out that our train will travel 157.5 miles per hour! Cool!
Saturday, June 29th
Saturday, June 29th we spent the day at Stuttgart, we took the train to and from Heidelberg (40 minutes) and had a day trip, it was nice since we didn’t have to cart around luggage, just our back pack with camera and other basics. We took the bus from near our hotel to train station, missed the 10am train by about 2 seconds, it was leaving as we got to the platform, had about an hour to kill, got cash for the first time on our trip (so far we’d managed to just use funds we’d converted in Ohio!), and then got some breakfast. Breakfast consisted of a fresh baked pastry, and an apple, a Latte Machiato, and some form of Orange juice/drink that Aaron didn’t favor. We also during this time found a little shop called “Piccadilly: an English Shop” where they sold souvenirs of London and books in English, along with basic English staples, one of which was naan (too funny). The owners spoke proper English as well; we bought Jeremy Clarkson’s “Don’t Stop Me Now” from there and headed back to the station. The train we took was a high speed train, to the point where our ears were popping like we were on a plane! Weird, but a very effective way of travel. After we got to Stuttgart we went to the information station outside of the train station, figured out how to get to the Mercedes and Porsche museums using the local subway. We decided to hit the Porsche museum first because it was smaller and closed earlier.
We arrived at Porsche Place (yup that was what the stop was called off the subway!) and walked outside the dilapidated under construction station to Porsche heaven, there was a HUGE dealership, with about 60 cars, all makes, models, colors. We oogled it from the outside and headed towards the museum, it was all very nicely laid out, and very nice new buildings. The “museum” was free admittance, it was only about 20 cars, but it had some very cool history in those 20 cars, they had a black carrera GT, right next to it the had the 1998 24 hours of Le Mans winner, which I think was the high light of the whole day for Aaron to see. They had lots of cool stuff to buy as well. Aaron settled for some posters that came in a cool carrying box, we figure it evens out what would have been the cost of admission. They also had Porsche rally cars, and Indy Cars, and Indy car engines. Just a lot of history, right there for you take in.
There was also an area (off limits to us of course) where you design your own car, and then probably 3 months later get it in real life! Very cool, and very exclusive.
After we left the museum and walked past numerous factory gates headed back to the train station we realized that the construction that was occurring was a super pimp Porsche Museum, we took pix of the construction and maybe some day we can do a before and after compare.
We headed into the dealership that we passed on our way to the museum, and I find something I really liked, it was a little Porsche tea set, very cool, different, and a neat decorative item. When asking to buy it I was told they weren’t sold after 1:00PM on a Saturday but that I could come back on Monday. L I told the guy I was going to be in London on Monday and thanks anyway, figures, something I really like, I can see, and see the price tag for, but can’t buy!
After we got the train back to the main station, had a lunch of Pringles (we had been carrying with us) and sprite, we transferred lines to go to the Mercedes Museum, I had second thoughts about this one because I figured I would be overloaded by Lewis Hamilton stuff! The area of the Mercedes museum is what I can see Porsche is trying to go for with their new museum and construction, very neat sleek contemporary buildings, with a lot of presence. We got to the museum, got some lunch from the café, Aaron got steak with some type of fruity sauce, and I got Asian glass noodles with vegetables (thinking it would be a safe choice). Neither of our choices were too good, I should have done what I thought about doing which was order pasta with tomatoes sauce off the kids menu! The glass noodles were cool to look at they were like transparent headphone wires, but they were super doused or immersed in soy sauce, and just not very good.
After the sub par but needed meal we started to the museum, the museum is set up like the Guggenheim, where the whole building spirals, they send you by elevator to the tip of it and then you spiral your way down, it was about 8 floors. The top started with the beginning of the car, and you worked your way down the floors through the evolution of the automobile with significant historical markers to show the progress. We found out that antilock brakes were introduced/developed in 1978 (Aaron’s birth year) and Airbags in 1981 (my birth year)! Neat little facts like that all the way down 8 stories. On the second to last level we found the entire “shrine” to racing memorabilia, Formula 1 cars, Indy cars, rally cars, racing trucks, very neat! We took lots of pictures, to the point where about ½ way through the tour we had to go back to the coat check and get new batteries out of the backpack for the camera!
After the museum, we headed back to the main station, and got our signals crossed, we were both tired, but there was a desire to go “shopping” and a desire to get on a train and safely back to Heidelberg, it was about 6:15 when we got to the train station, and there was one leaving at 6:19, so we got on it. It wasn’t like the morning train a high speed straight to Heidelberg train, this was a regional one, where we would have to get off and make a connection. We ended up making it to the station we were to make the connection, but due to not knowing exactly what was going on, we missed our connection, and had to wait an hour for another one. That really sucked! We were both tired, hungry, and patience was low. We survived though, and figured after everything we’ve seen and done if that was as “off course” as we were going to get, not a bad deal.
We finally got on the right train, got to Heidelberg, took a cab to Liberty Pizza (near our hotel), which served “American style pizza” (mind you this is the only real meal we’ve had all day) it’s like your basic carry out papa johns or dominos and there happens to be a bench out side, we sit on the bench, watch the sun go down, and wait for our pizza.
This pizza shop happens to use Smart Cars for its delivery vehicles, which I thought was pretty cool, they were all white smarts about 4 of them, which would come and go with pizza. We sat through about 3-4 different runs from each of the cars because after the pizza was done, we sat on the bench and ate. We were happy, fed, and together, what more could we ask for? It was a pretty great last meal in Germany, thank you very much.
The funny part while we were sitting there was the reactions of the delivery people, like, uh, you’re sitting there eating pizza? : ) One of the drivers came out to get to his smart, and since they all look the same, he didn’t recall which one was his, so he stood there for a minute, puzzled, and finally just got out his key fob and used the remote to figure out which was his. It was amusing. Or maybe we were just loopy after a long day.
After dinner, we walked back to the hotel, it was about 10:30 and we knew we were in for a long day today so we called it a night. All packed, and ready to head back to English speaking London, through un English speaking France, on super high speed trains!
We arrived at Porsche Place (yup that was what the stop was called off the subway!) and walked outside the dilapidated under construction station to Porsche heaven, there was a HUGE dealership, with about 60 cars, all makes, models, colors. We oogled it from the outside and headed towards the museum, it was all very nicely laid out, and very nice new buildings. The “museum” was free admittance, it was only about 20 cars, but it had some very cool history in those 20 cars, they had a black carrera GT, right next to it the had the 1998 24 hours of Le Mans winner, which I think was the high light of the whole day for Aaron to see. They had lots of cool stuff to buy as well. Aaron settled for some posters that came in a cool carrying box, we figure it evens out what would have been the cost of admission. They also had Porsche rally cars, and Indy Cars, and Indy car engines. Just a lot of history, right there for you take in.
There was also an area (off limits to us of course) where you design your own car, and then probably 3 months later get it in real life! Very cool, and very exclusive.
After we left the museum and walked past numerous factory gates headed back to the train station we realized that the construction that was occurring was a super pimp Porsche Museum, we took pix of the construction and maybe some day we can do a before and after compare.
We headed into the dealership that we passed on our way to the museum, and I find something I really liked, it was a little Porsche tea set, very cool, different, and a neat decorative item. When asking to buy it I was told they weren’t sold after 1:00PM on a Saturday but that I could come back on Monday. L I told the guy I was going to be in London on Monday and thanks anyway, figures, something I really like, I can see, and see the price tag for, but can’t buy!
After we got the train back to the main station, had a lunch of Pringles (we had been carrying with us) and sprite, we transferred lines to go to the Mercedes Museum, I had second thoughts about this one because I figured I would be overloaded by Lewis Hamilton stuff! The area of the Mercedes museum is what I can see Porsche is trying to go for with their new museum and construction, very neat sleek contemporary buildings, with a lot of presence. We got to the museum, got some lunch from the café, Aaron got steak with some type of fruity sauce, and I got Asian glass noodles with vegetables (thinking it would be a safe choice). Neither of our choices were too good, I should have done what I thought about doing which was order pasta with tomatoes sauce off the kids menu! The glass noodles were cool to look at they were like transparent headphone wires, but they were super doused or immersed in soy sauce, and just not very good.
After the sub par but needed meal we started to the museum, the museum is set up like the Guggenheim, where the whole building spirals, they send you by elevator to the tip of it and then you spiral your way down, it was about 8 floors. The top started with the beginning of the car, and you worked your way down the floors through the evolution of the automobile with significant historical markers to show the progress. We found out that antilock brakes were introduced/developed in 1978 (Aaron’s birth year) and Airbags in 1981 (my birth year)! Neat little facts like that all the way down 8 stories. On the second to last level we found the entire “shrine” to racing memorabilia, Formula 1 cars, Indy cars, rally cars, racing trucks, very neat! We took lots of pictures, to the point where about ½ way through the tour we had to go back to the coat check and get new batteries out of the backpack for the camera!
After the museum, we headed back to the main station, and got our signals crossed, we were both tired, but there was a desire to go “shopping” and a desire to get on a train and safely back to Heidelberg, it was about 6:15 when we got to the train station, and there was one leaving at 6:19, so we got on it. It wasn’t like the morning train a high speed straight to Heidelberg train, this was a regional one, where we would have to get off and make a connection. We ended up making it to the station we were to make the connection, but due to not knowing exactly what was going on, we missed our connection, and had to wait an hour for another one. That really sucked! We were both tired, hungry, and patience was low. We survived though, and figured after everything we’ve seen and done if that was as “off course” as we were going to get, not a bad deal.
We finally got on the right train, got to Heidelberg, took a cab to Liberty Pizza (near our hotel), which served “American style pizza” (mind you this is the only real meal we’ve had all day) it’s like your basic carry out papa johns or dominos and there happens to be a bench out side, we sit on the bench, watch the sun go down, and wait for our pizza.
This pizza shop happens to use Smart Cars for its delivery vehicles, which I thought was pretty cool, they were all white smarts about 4 of them, which would come and go with pizza. We sat through about 3-4 different runs from each of the cars because after the pizza was done, we sat on the bench and ate. We were happy, fed, and together, what more could we ask for? It was a pretty great last meal in Germany, thank you very much.
The funny part while we were sitting there was the reactions of the delivery people, like, uh, you’re sitting there eating pizza? : ) One of the drivers came out to get to his smart, and since they all look the same, he didn’t recall which one was his, so he stood there for a minute, puzzled, and finally just got out his key fob and used the remote to figure out which was his. It was amusing. Or maybe we were just loopy after a long day.
After dinner, we walked back to the hotel, it was about 10:30 and we knew we were in for a long day today so we called it a night. All packed, and ready to head back to English speaking London, through un English speaking France, on super high speed trains!
Friday evening, June 27th.
Today was our day of exploration in Heidelberg, we’ve walked likely over 20,000 steps, and I didn’t wear the pedo cause I got out of the habit for some reason.
We went to a local bus stop, which happened to have super market by it, we got orange juice and a fresh baked good (German pastries are actually pretty good, and more recognizable then the French ones). We hopped on the bus, rode it around some of the city and ended up by the specialized train station that would get us to the castle. We took it up and instead of getting off at the middle of the mountain where the castle was we took it all the way to the top of the mountain for a view of the city. It was very pretty, peaceful too if not for the rock cover band that was blaring out music when it was barley noon! People had their drink on as well; I’m amazed at how early the beer guzzling begins!
We walked around, enjoyed the scenery and then took the train down to the castle. It was very neat and HUGE, basically a whole city could exist within the walls of a castle and that was quite evident from the grand size of this castle. We explored it and took lots of pix and then about 2:30 decided we were well over due for lunch. We went down to the main city level and made our way to Kornplatz Marketplace, which was full of shops, very Easton style, but just one very very long narrow street lined with shops and restaurants. We did some browsing and enjoyed a meal, Aaron had Schnitzel (breaded chicken breast) and fries, and I had veggie lasagna. We did at least persue some of the regional menu, but we weren’t brave enough to try it all out. We found all kinds of cool shops and even found a Subway! Where the mascot was Sub Wayne! Lol, American Subways aren’t that cool. We planned to catch the last boat trip of the day on the Solar Boat of Heidelberg, which let us see Heidelberg from the Neckar River. About half an hour from the last boat leaving we arrived at the dock to buy tickets only to find out it had been rented out for a private party for the last trip of the day, and that we weren’t going to be able to make it… L.
After that disappointment we made our way to the train station to ensure that we would be able to go to Stuttgart to hit up the Porsche and Mercedes museums. For the first time during the whole trip we saw a Eurrail Counter (the train passes we had bought and had been using since the beginning of the trip, I think the pass is more widely used in Germany hence why there was a desk there and actual information, rather then stumbling around, trying to figure it out). After getting the details we needed we got some dinner at a place we had seen half way between our hotel and the train station. It was called Mandy’s fast food, and they have a Grilled Pollo section in the restaurant. I got a grilled chicken sandwich with corn on the cob, and Aaron got wings and rings. Nothing like a place that caters to the U.S. Army Airfield less then 2 miles away!
After we had our meal, we continued out walk to the hotel, and have come back, done laundry and are ready to pass out.
Tomorrow is Stuttgart, and Sunday is a huge travel day, going on two high speed trains from Manheim to Paris, and then from Paris to London. With little connections and the beginning, middle and end of our trips. By the time we get picked up from the final station in London we’ll have ridden the inter city train from Heidelberg to Manheim, then the high speed train from Manheim to Paris, then the metro from one Paris station to another, then the Euro Star from Paris to London, and then the London Underground from our station to the one close to the house! Quite a trip, but at the end of it we’ll be back in English speaking-ville!
No more from here for now; Aaron’s watching South Park in German, and I have to go make fun of him for it!
We went to a local bus stop, which happened to have super market by it, we got orange juice and a fresh baked good (German pastries are actually pretty good, and more recognizable then the French ones). We hopped on the bus, rode it around some of the city and ended up by the specialized train station that would get us to the castle. We took it up and instead of getting off at the middle of the mountain where the castle was we took it all the way to the top of the mountain for a view of the city. It was very pretty, peaceful too if not for the rock cover band that was blaring out music when it was barley noon! People had their drink on as well; I’m amazed at how early the beer guzzling begins!
We walked around, enjoyed the scenery and then took the train down to the castle. It was very neat and HUGE, basically a whole city could exist within the walls of a castle and that was quite evident from the grand size of this castle. We explored it and took lots of pix and then about 2:30 decided we were well over due for lunch. We went down to the main city level and made our way to Kornplatz Marketplace, which was full of shops, very Easton style, but just one very very long narrow street lined with shops and restaurants. We did some browsing and enjoyed a meal, Aaron had Schnitzel (breaded chicken breast) and fries, and I had veggie lasagna. We did at least persue some of the regional menu, but we weren’t brave enough to try it all out. We found all kinds of cool shops and even found a Subway! Where the mascot was Sub Wayne! Lol, American Subways aren’t that cool. We planned to catch the last boat trip of the day on the Solar Boat of Heidelberg, which let us see Heidelberg from the Neckar River. About half an hour from the last boat leaving we arrived at the dock to buy tickets only to find out it had been rented out for a private party for the last trip of the day, and that we weren’t going to be able to make it… L.
After that disappointment we made our way to the train station to ensure that we would be able to go to Stuttgart to hit up the Porsche and Mercedes museums. For the first time during the whole trip we saw a Eurrail Counter (the train passes we had bought and had been using since the beginning of the trip, I think the pass is more widely used in Germany hence why there was a desk there and actual information, rather then stumbling around, trying to figure it out). After getting the details we needed we got some dinner at a place we had seen half way between our hotel and the train station. It was called Mandy’s fast food, and they have a Grilled Pollo section in the restaurant. I got a grilled chicken sandwich with corn on the cob, and Aaron got wings and rings. Nothing like a place that caters to the U.S. Army Airfield less then 2 miles away!
After we had our meal, we continued out walk to the hotel, and have come back, done laundry and are ready to pass out.
Tomorrow is Stuttgart, and Sunday is a huge travel day, going on two high speed trains from Manheim to Paris, and then from Paris to London. With little connections and the beginning, middle and end of our trips. By the time we get picked up from the final station in London we’ll have ridden the inter city train from Heidelberg to Manheim, then the high speed train from Manheim to Paris, then the metro from one Paris station to another, then the Euro Star from Paris to London, and then the London Underground from our station to the one close to the house! Quite a trip, but at the end of it we’ll be back in English speaking-ville!
No more from here for now; Aaron’s watching South Park in German, and I have to go make fun of him for it!
Friday June 27, 2008
Friday June 27, 2008
Air conditioning is nice, but so is a free breakfast, so far most of the places we have stayed at have been an option of the two. We’re in Heidelberg now, at the Holiday Inn (yeah how much more touristy can I get), and we’ve had a GREAT nights sleep, cool and quiet. But if we were to get breakfast at the hotel we’d be paying 20 euros each, yeah really? Most of our lunch’s and dinners have not cost that much.
The opposite end of the spectrum was the hotel in Nurburg, great place, clean, compact, not super touristy, really great breakfast included in the stay. But wow was it hot, our room was on the side the sun came op on, and we would wake up sticky, and seemingly spend the day that way, no matter how many showers we each took in a day.
I gotta say I am willing to find my own breakfast if it’s in exchange for a good refreshing night of sleep. I’m sure normally air isn’t needed in these parts be cause the weather people keep saying what a rare heat wave Europe has been experiencing ever since we got here, so likely when we leave, all will go back to normal and it’ll be 100 and humid in Columbus!
So since it’s only 8am here and Aaron’s still kind of sleeping I’ll recap yesterday.
It was June 26, we woke up at the Blaue Ecke Hotel, showered, got breakfast, packed all our stuff (it’s amazing how our things keep accumulating, should have probably gone to the post office and mailed a package home, but instead we had packed an extra bag within our bags, which has now come out and is full), got in the car, drove to Frankfurt, spent 3 Euros and about 20 minute trying to figure out how to get into the rental car return parking lot, got lunch and then explored Frankfurt. We used the car (which we returned a few hours early) as our locker for the luggage and just walked around downtown Frankfurt, took pictures of cool stuff, and just soaked in some of the surroundings. It’s a very diverse area, but as we had been told not very touristy. We spent about 3 hours this way and then caught our train to Heidelberg.
We were in first class, and it is a little cabin with storage for luggage and air and lots of leg room, sadly the ride was barley an hour long. We both were kind of tired from the travel, and so got to the hotel and took naps. When we woke up it was because we were hungry and it was dinner time. We decided to walk around the area of our hotel, it’s not a very touristy area, but there are a LOT of U.S. service men staying in our hotel, haven’t yet found out why, assuming this is a connection point from one place to another for them. We walked about a mile one way, found nothing but cute homes and lots and lots of closed shops with barely any of them having English menus, the only places that seemed open were carry out pizza shops, and there was a ton of them. We headed back to the hotel, went to the restaurant there, got a cheese burger and pizza. Neither tasted quite like what we expected, but they took care of our hunger and that was all we needed.
We went back to the room, watched Russia vs Spain (Spain won 3 goals to 0) and then proceeded to pass out happily in the cool quiet room. Spain will now play Germany; I’m just not sure what day.
We have today and tomorrow in Heidelberg and then back to English speaking Britain!
A few things about Germany that surprise me:
Smoking, very very prevalent, for a society that is so health and earth conscious I am amazed at how many people smoke and that cigarette vending machines line almost every street corner.
Germany is very organized, unlike Paris or other parts of France, there is a way in which things are done, and you do them that way, not just anyway you feel like it.
English is pretty widely spoken and 1 out of 5 menus can be found in English.
German people are very helpful, again this might be in comparison to Parisians but we’ve had very good interactions, even in little cities and big ones with all the folks we have encountered in Germany.
The roads and driving is AWESOME; the highways don’t have a set speed limit, except in certain zones, where they reduce speeds due to intersections or heavy traffic. We saw a Ferrari come up to us on the highway yesterday and pass us like we weren’t even moving and we were going about 130kph. And it was all 100% legal. People don’t talk on cell phones and all pay attention while driving, and the system works. We tried to keep up with some fast moving traffic but our base level Peugeot didn’t have anything to offer in terms of go potential so we happily stayed with the pack of average speed traffic.
Dubbed TV in French or German is hilarious, really the only thing we’ve gotten in English since we’ve been gone from London (since June 11th) is CNN at any of the locations we’ve been at, so we’ve been watching lots of sports on mute when we’re having down time, and during channel flipping will find the likes of sponge bob, scrubs, grays anatomy or married with children on in German or French, it’s quite a hoot.
People in Europe seem to have no hang ups about personal space, not sure why, everyone who knows me knows I’m all about it, and the more the better :p A little uncomfortable when I’m used to that and here even random strangers have no qualms with getting up close and personal in lobbies of places, or on trains and such!
Chicken isn’t as widely eaten as in America, it seems like you can ALWAYS find chicken on the menu in the states, and here, it’s pretty rare, instead it’s liver, and rabbit, and duck… uh yeah, not good for a person who is not a fan of steak, and really doesn’t do seafood, and like mushy vegetables (the only veggies I really like are Indian Sabji’s and such).
Train Stations charge fees (have ranged from 50 eurocents to 1 euro) to use the restroom, it seems like a good way of keeping the riff raff out and making sure they stay in good shape. It’s bad when you drank too much, left your husband with the luggage, don’t have any money and have to travel up about 30 steps back to get some change!
Air conditioning is nice, but so is a free breakfast, so far most of the places we have stayed at have been an option of the two. We’re in Heidelberg now, at the Holiday Inn (yeah how much more touristy can I get), and we’ve had a GREAT nights sleep, cool and quiet. But if we were to get breakfast at the hotel we’d be paying 20 euros each, yeah really? Most of our lunch’s and dinners have not cost that much.
The opposite end of the spectrum was the hotel in Nurburg, great place, clean, compact, not super touristy, really great breakfast included in the stay. But wow was it hot, our room was on the side the sun came op on, and we would wake up sticky, and seemingly spend the day that way, no matter how many showers we each took in a day.
I gotta say I am willing to find my own breakfast if it’s in exchange for a good refreshing night of sleep. I’m sure normally air isn’t needed in these parts be cause the weather people keep saying what a rare heat wave Europe has been experiencing ever since we got here, so likely when we leave, all will go back to normal and it’ll be 100 and humid in Columbus!
So since it’s only 8am here and Aaron’s still kind of sleeping I’ll recap yesterday.
It was June 26, we woke up at the Blaue Ecke Hotel, showered, got breakfast, packed all our stuff (it’s amazing how our things keep accumulating, should have probably gone to the post office and mailed a package home, but instead we had packed an extra bag within our bags, which has now come out and is full), got in the car, drove to Frankfurt, spent 3 Euros and about 20 minute trying to figure out how to get into the rental car return parking lot, got lunch and then explored Frankfurt. We used the car (which we returned a few hours early) as our locker for the luggage and just walked around downtown Frankfurt, took pictures of cool stuff, and just soaked in some of the surroundings. It’s a very diverse area, but as we had been told not very touristy. We spent about 3 hours this way and then caught our train to Heidelberg.
We were in first class, and it is a little cabin with storage for luggage and air and lots of leg room, sadly the ride was barley an hour long. We both were kind of tired from the travel, and so got to the hotel and took naps. When we woke up it was because we were hungry and it was dinner time. We decided to walk around the area of our hotel, it’s not a very touristy area, but there are a LOT of U.S. service men staying in our hotel, haven’t yet found out why, assuming this is a connection point from one place to another for them. We walked about a mile one way, found nothing but cute homes and lots and lots of closed shops with barely any of them having English menus, the only places that seemed open were carry out pizza shops, and there was a ton of them. We headed back to the hotel, went to the restaurant there, got a cheese burger and pizza. Neither tasted quite like what we expected, but they took care of our hunger and that was all we needed.
We went back to the room, watched Russia vs Spain (Spain won 3 goals to 0) and then proceeded to pass out happily in the cool quiet room. Spain will now play Germany; I’m just not sure what day.
We have today and tomorrow in Heidelberg and then back to English speaking Britain!
A few things about Germany that surprise me:
Smoking, very very prevalent, for a society that is so health and earth conscious I am amazed at how many people smoke and that cigarette vending machines line almost every street corner.
Germany is very organized, unlike Paris or other parts of France, there is a way in which things are done, and you do them that way, not just anyway you feel like it.
English is pretty widely spoken and 1 out of 5 menus can be found in English.
German people are very helpful, again this might be in comparison to Parisians but we’ve had very good interactions, even in little cities and big ones with all the folks we have encountered in Germany.
The roads and driving is AWESOME; the highways don’t have a set speed limit, except in certain zones, where they reduce speeds due to intersections or heavy traffic. We saw a Ferrari come up to us on the highway yesterday and pass us like we weren’t even moving and we were going about 130kph. And it was all 100% legal. People don’t talk on cell phones and all pay attention while driving, and the system works. We tried to keep up with some fast moving traffic but our base level Peugeot didn’t have anything to offer in terms of go potential so we happily stayed with the pack of average speed traffic.
Dubbed TV in French or German is hilarious, really the only thing we’ve gotten in English since we’ve been gone from London (since June 11th) is CNN at any of the locations we’ve been at, so we’ve been watching lots of sports on mute when we’re having down time, and during channel flipping will find the likes of sponge bob, scrubs, grays anatomy or married with children on in German or French, it’s quite a hoot.
People in Europe seem to have no hang ups about personal space, not sure why, everyone who knows me knows I’m all about it, and the more the better :p A little uncomfortable when I’m used to that and here even random strangers have no qualms with getting up close and personal in lobbies of places, or on trains and such!
Chicken isn’t as widely eaten as in America, it seems like you can ALWAYS find chicken on the menu in the states, and here, it’s pretty rare, instead it’s liver, and rabbit, and duck… uh yeah, not good for a person who is not a fan of steak, and really doesn’t do seafood, and like mushy vegetables (the only veggies I really like are Indian Sabji’s and such).
Train Stations charge fees (have ranged from 50 eurocents to 1 euro) to use the restroom, it seems like a good way of keeping the riff raff out and making sure they stay in good shape. It’s bad when you drank too much, left your husband with the luggage, don’t have any money and have to travel up about 30 steps back to get some change!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)