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Location:Stuttgart,Germany
Monday, June 28, 2010
International Food
Shanna and I hit the Real today...Germany's version of Walmart. Sometimes it's easy to forget you're in a foreign country. Then you see something like this. I took this picture in their "International Foods" section...do the brands or pictures above them look familiar? :)
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone 4
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone 4
Thursday, June 24, 2010
The Internet Saga continues
As most of you know it's been a painful process to try and get Internet & phone access in our house. We started off with a company that advertises on base called TKS. They rescheduled our appointment 3 times without telling us, so for three separate days I sat at the house waiting and no one showed up. I canceled with them and checked out Vodafone. I'd heard good things about them, and they offered cheaper rates then TKS and MUCH faster speeds. I signed up with them exactly 4 weeks ago tomorrow. They said it would take 2-3 weeks to activate (which seems to be standard around here). After 2 1/2 weeks, I noticed my account said it should be activated and working now, but it wasn't. I went down to their store, talked with them, and it turns out they said everything is set up on their end, but since Deustch Telekom owns all the phone lines, Vodafone had to wait until they switched over the line from them to Vodafone, which could take 1 to 4 weeks.
Today I received a letter from Vodafone saying that the speeds I had signed up for were actually not available where we lived. I had signed up for 50MB/s download speeds, but all they could offer us was 1MB/s download speeds. That's even slower then what TKS had originally offered. So I went downtown today, canceled our contract, and started looking around. The Cable company in Stuttgart doesn't have service in our neighborhood. That blew me away since we are in downtown Stuttgart. Next up was T-Mobile. I did a search on their site this time, instead of talking with a person, and according to their site our address qualifies for their top speed 50MB/s download speeds. So we'll see...finger's are crossed. I signed up online, and now we wait 2 -3 more weeks. Hopefully by the end of the summer we'll have high speed internet & phones in the house...this has become a real nightmare.
At least we have TV though...the satellite guy came out a few days ago and hooked us up with AFN (Armed Forces Network). It's nice to finally have American TV to watch...
Today I received a letter from Vodafone saying that the speeds I had signed up for were actually not available where we lived. I had signed up for 50MB/s download speeds, but all they could offer us was 1MB/s download speeds. That's even slower then what TKS had originally offered. So I went downtown today, canceled our contract, and started looking around. The Cable company in Stuttgart doesn't have service in our neighborhood. That blew me away since we are in downtown Stuttgart. Next up was T-Mobile. I did a search on their site this time, instead of talking with a person, and according to their site our address qualifies for their top speed 50MB/s download speeds. So we'll see...finger's are crossed. I signed up online, and now we wait 2 -3 more weeks. Hopefully by the end of the summer we'll have high speed internet & phones in the house...this has become a real nightmare.
At least we have TV though...the satellite guy came out a few days ago and hooked us up with AFN (Armed Forces Network). It's nice to finally have American TV to watch...
Monday, June 21, 2010
Weekend Recap
This past weekend was a fairly busy one. On Friday there were three World Cup games playing I wanted to watch, Germany Vs. Serbia, the U.S. Vs. Slovenia, and England Vs. Algeria. For the first game the downtown cafe/bar/restauarant I went to was pretty packed, but it was fun watching it with a big group. Once that game ended with the German loss, the whole place cleared out. For the U.S. game a friend I'd met in a recent Stuttgart Orientation class met me, and an hour later, Shanna met us down there too. It was fun to watch, even if the U.S. was robbed of a victory.
When that game was over my friend had to leave, so Shanna & I ate dinner there, then walked up to Biddy Early's in Stuttgart. It's an Irish bar, and a co-worker of Shanna's was meeting us up there. It was fun...there were a lot of people from the U.K. there, so it *almost* felt like a bar back home. The England/Algeria game was on by the time we got there, and the place was packed. We were able to get a table & watch the game though. Next to our table a guy was there with friends for his birthday. One of the gifts he got was a huge 3 liter Paulaner glass with candy & other assorted goodies inside. I had to laugh when he took them all out, then asked the waitress if she could fill it up with Guiness. Yup, THREE LITERS of Guiness. That's a heavy beer to drink in a regular 12-16oz pint glass...I can't imagine 3L worth. I had to get a picture when the waitress came back.
After that we headed over to The Classic Rock bar, but I wasn't too impressed with it. The music they played was a big mix, and I think only 1 song would actually qualify as classic rock (Steppenwolf's Born to be Wild).
Saturday was an interesting day. When we moved over here Shanna had brought up that she wanted to get a camera that was a little nicer then your standard "point & shoot" for all the pictures we'd be taking over here. After talking with some friends who were photography enthusiasts we settled on the Nikkon D40. It's a GREAT camera, but the problem is we didn't know how to use most of the features beyond the "point & shoot" part. This class was put on in the Arts & Crafts building (Shanna made a note of the location...she'll be back) by a contractor from MCdean. Talk about a small world...he works with the daughter of a guy my Dad worked with in the Navy for years. I've emailed her several times with questions both before we moved and after.
Once we got signed in we found out that the one other person who was supposed to take the class had to drop out at the last minute. Apparently (we over heard this part) she had severely twisted her ankle while shopping in the P/X. How a person does that, I have no idea. The benefit was we then got a 5 hour class with just us and the instructor...we progressed at our pace and didn't have to worry about other people moving at a slower pace, or getting concepts faster then we did. It was definitely well worth the money...I know all about Aperture, Shutter Speed, and ISO settings now. We're by no means experts, but we know a lot more then we did before.
Sunday was more of a "stay at home & work" day. That morning we drove over to one of the bases to check out the discount floor rugs they had, but were not impressed with the selection. Then I went to another base to do some shopping for things we needed while Shanna stayed home and continued to unpack and organize things.
That's it for the weekend! We're both excited because tonight a guy is coming out to set up our TV for us. It requires mounting a satellite and the only way to do it and have it face the right direction is to get on the roof. It's at a 45 degree angle, so I'll leave that to the experts. :)
When that game was over my friend had to leave, so Shanna & I ate dinner there, then walked up to Biddy Early's in Stuttgart. It's an Irish bar, and a co-worker of Shanna's was meeting us up there. It was fun...there were a lot of people from the U.K. there, so it *almost* felt like a bar back home. The England/Algeria game was on by the time we got there, and the place was packed. We were able to get a table & watch the game though. Next to our table a guy was there with friends for his birthday. One of the gifts he got was a huge 3 liter Paulaner glass with candy & other assorted goodies inside. I had to laugh when he took them all out, then asked the waitress if she could fill it up with Guiness. Yup, THREE LITERS of Guiness. That's a heavy beer to drink in a regular 12-16oz pint glass...I can't imagine 3L worth. I had to get a picture when the waitress came back.
After that we headed over to The Classic Rock bar, but I wasn't too impressed with it. The music they played was a big mix, and I think only 1 song would actually qualify as classic rock (Steppenwolf's Born to be Wild).
Saturday was an interesting day. When we moved over here Shanna had brought up that she wanted to get a camera that was a little nicer then your standard "point & shoot" for all the pictures we'd be taking over here. After talking with some friends who were photography enthusiasts we settled on the Nikkon D40. It's a GREAT camera, but the problem is we didn't know how to use most of the features beyond the "point & shoot" part. This class was put on in the Arts & Crafts building (Shanna made a note of the location...she'll be back) by a contractor from MCdean. Talk about a small world...he works with the daughter of a guy my Dad worked with in the Navy for years. I've emailed her several times with questions both before we moved and after.
Once we got signed in we found out that the one other person who was supposed to take the class had to drop out at the last minute. Apparently (we over heard this part) she had severely twisted her ankle while shopping in the P/X. How a person does that, I have no idea. The benefit was we then got a 5 hour class with just us and the instructor...we progressed at our pace and didn't have to worry about other people moving at a slower pace, or getting concepts faster then we did. It was definitely well worth the money...I know all about Aperture, Shutter Speed, and ISO settings now. We're by no means experts, but we know a lot more then we did before.
Sunday was more of a "stay at home & work" day. That morning we drove over to one of the bases to check out the discount floor rugs they had, but were not impressed with the selection. Then I went to another base to do some shopping for things we needed while Shanna stayed home and continued to unpack and organize things.
That's it for the weekend! We're both excited because tonight a guy is coming out to set up our TV for us. It requires mounting a satellite and the only way to do it and have it face the right direction is to get on the roof. It's at a 45 degree angle, so I'll leave that to the experts. :)
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Luxembourg & Stuttgart
A good friend of Shanna & mine, Patrick, was in Luxembourg city, Luxembourg, from Wednesday June 9th to Friday June 11th. Shanna couldn't get that much time off work, so I decided to take the train to spend a few days there, then Friday Shanna would take a half day and drive up. The train ride was beautiful. I walked out of the house at 0545 and took the Ubahn to the Hauptbahnhof (Main Train Station). From there I went straight to Luxembourg (had to change trains 4 times though). Since I booked early, first class was only 10 Euros more then regular, so I decided to upgrade. I'm glad I did...the 2nd class cabins were packed, but there was almost no one in first class. The train ride went through some beautiful scenery...I wish I could have taken pictures, but we moved way too fast and the glass was highly reflective. Below is a picture I took of the first class cabin on the first train (the subsequent trains weren't nearly as nice).
When I got to Luxembourg I walked about 2km to the hotel and waited for Patrick to finish his first meeting of the trip. Talk about a rough start...he flew from Dulles to Luxembourg, took a bus to the hotel, changed, showered, and went straight to a meeting.
Luxembourg was a lot of fun. It's a beautiful city, and the people there were friendly. On the walk to the hotel I walked over a large bridge. Underneath, instead of water, was a huge valley of trees, and it was set up like a large park. There were walking & biking paths, a mini-golf place, and benches to sit & relax. It was tiered, so you could walk around at different levels. Below is a picture of the bridge, and the trees underneath.
Patrick & I walked around there, as well as the main city streets with more shops then I could count. That night we met up with his co-worker, Ben, and went to a place he'd been to before that he recommended. It was pretty good...I normally wouldn't have ordered Italian, but he said the Pizza was great, and it was. While the weather had been beautiful that afternoon, that evening it started to rain. We were under an awning, but it was just my luck that part of it split right next to me and a flood of water came down, soaking my legs. After we finished up, we were all tired so we headed back to the hotel for an early night.
The next morning Patrick went off to his meetings and I started to explore. We'd seen a lot of the city the day before, and I'd heard from Ben that there was an amazing History Museum in the nearby town of Diekirch. I got the address, then took a bus out there. The ride itself wouldn't have been long if I'd been driving myself, but this bus stopped at every village along the way. I can't even call them towns, they literally consisted of maybe 20 houses and occasionally a school or restaurant...these were definitely villages. But the country side was beautiful, so I didn't mind the hour & 15 minute drive. Once we arrived it didn't take long to find the museum, thanks to the plethora of open wifi networks in the town. I haven't seen that many unsecured open networks in a long time. I hopped on one, pulled up a map, and quickly located the museum.
The Museum itself was amazing...when I first walked in I thought it was kind of neat, but nothing too special. Then I saw the stairs. When I finished walking around the second floor, I saw more stairs. This museum, which looked small from the outside, was four stories. They did something neat that I'd never seen before...they put up a picture that a photographer took, then they recreated it in Diorama form. One particular one stood out (and I didn't think to take a picture). It was a picture of 2 US Soldiers in a fox hole in the blistering cold & snow looking out. The Diorama was also there of the event, then it had a letter written by one of the soldiers in the picture. Apparently the Museum had tracked him down in 1982, and he wrote back about what he remembered about that day. They also had an interesting souvenir donated by a US soldier. It was a Nazi flag which he had sewn on the Unit badges of all the Army Units that had fought at the Battle of the Bulge.
Once I finished there I grabbed a bite to eat and headed to the bus stop. Once back in Luxembourg I met up with Patrick, and also met a guy who lived in Frankfurt who had come later to work them. We headed out to dinner at this place called L'Attrium. The food was amazing...Ravioli stuffed with Swordfish, as well as little pieces of Swordfish on top. Or, as the English Menu put it, Ravioli stuffed with Wordfish.
There wasn't too much left to do on Friday...I walked around town and explored areas I hadn't been to yet, and eventually met up with Patrick that afternoon. Shanna got there around 6 and we grabbed a bite in town, then drove home to Stuttgart.
Patrick had mentioned wanting to see either the Porsche or Mercedes Benz museum while he was here, so we headed to the Porsche museum on Saturday. It was interesting, they had all sorts of Porsches there, including a tractor, a Polizie car, and a Pig Racing car. You'll have to see the pictures to see what I mean about the Pig Car. It wasn't too big of a museum, but there was a wealth of information, so we were there for most of the afternoon. Once you left the museum area you walked by the gift shop. It had some interesting things in it, but the "real" gift shop was across the street when you walked out of the door...a Porsche dealership. I wonder how many people have walked out of the museum and gone over to buy a car.
That evening we headed down to the Marienplatz, which is about a 5-10 minute walk from our house, to watch the US/England World Cup game. It's definitely a completely different experience watching Fußball in Europe then in the US. It was a lot of fun, and the crowd definitely got into the game. An England loss would benefit Germany, so it was us, a few Americans, and a lot of Germans packed in this bar all cheering for the US...I almost felt bad for the one British couple there. :)
The next day Shanna wasn't feeling well, so she stayed home while Patrick & I headed to Ludwigsburg. There's a castle out there, and Patrick had never been to a real castle before, so he wanted to visit. When we got there I was disappointed...it was more like a palace then a true Medieval Castle. As we walked in, though, we found out that there was a classic car competition being held there that day. There were all kinds of cars on display, then at the end of the day they award the winners of each category, as well as Best in Show. The way they presented the tours was confusing...instead of just paying a general admission fee, they broke the Palace into sections and charged for each section. As a result, Patrick & I accidentally ended up paying to view the Ceramics museum part of the Palace. We tried to be enthusiastic about it since we'd just paid 7 Euros to get in, but we couldn't do it...especially when we walked by a window and saw that in the back part of the Palace was a ton more cars on display. We left that part, but big surprise, had to pay 7 more Euros to visit the "Garden" where the cars were. The first part had been in the courtyard area that was open to the public for free. So we paid and headed in. They had some neat cars on display, and even had a 12 cylinder engine block that had been converted into a Wine Rack. And big surprise, a Mercedes won Best in Show. It WAS a nice car though, from 1929.
That night Shanna made her famous Buffalo Chicken Dip and I grilled out burgers & brots. We still don't have TV service (long story) but we didn't need it to know how the German World Cup game was going...you could hear the horns, cheering, and even car horns blaring every time they scored. By the time the game was over, just based on the cheering, we figured the score was 4-0, and sure enough it was. They even launched fireworks over Stuttgart after the game. The next morning we got up early and took Patrick to the airport. The rest of the day was spent unpacking and waiting for the loaner furniture office to come by and get the furniture we had borrowed while waiting for our household goods.
Over all it was a great 5 days...Shanna & I had a great time, and hope Patrick did too. Coming up we have two more trips planned. First is a trip on July 4th to see King Ludwig's castles in Bavaria, and in August we're heading to Berchtesgaden to see the town and Hitler's Eagle's Nest.
To see the pictures from the trip, either click here or click the train picture at the top of the post.
When I got to Luxembourg I walked about 2km to the hotel and waited for Patrick to finish his first meeting of the trip. Talk about a rough start...he flew from Dulles to Luxembourg, took a bus to the hotel, changed, showered, and went straight to a meeting.
Luxembourg was a lot of fun. It's a beautiful city, and the people there were friendly. On the walk to the hotel I walked over a large bridge. Underneath, instead of water, was a huge valley of trees, and it was set up like a large park. There were walking & biking paths, a mini-golf place, and benches to sit & relax. It was tiered, so you could walk around at different levels. Below is a picture of the bridge, and the trees underneath.
Patrick & I walked around there, as well as the main city streets with more shops then I could count. That night we met up with his co-worker, Ben, and went to a place he'd been to before that he recommended. It was pretty good...I normally wouldn't have ordered Italian, but he said the Pizza was great, and it was. While the weather had been beautiful that afternoon, that evening it started to rain. We were under an awning, but it was just my luck that part of it split right next to me and a flood of water came down, soaking my legs. After we finished up, we were all tired so we headed back to the hotel for an early night.
The next morning Patrick went off to his meetings and I started to explore. We'd seen a lot of the city the day before, and I'd heard from Ben that there was an amazing History Museum in the nearby town of Diekirch. I got the address, then took a bus out there. The ride itself wouldn't have been long if I'd been driving myself, but this bus stopped at every village along the way. I can't even call them towns, they literally consisted of maybe 20 houses and occasionally a school or restaurant...these were definitely villages. But the country side was beautiful, so I didn't mind the hour & 15 minute drive. Once we arrived it didn't take long to find the museum, thanks to the plethora of open wifi networks in the town. I haven't seen that many unsecured open networks in a long time. I hopped on one, pulled up a map, and quickly located the museum.
The Museum itself was amazing...when I first walked in I thought it was kind of neat, but nothing too special. Then I saw the stairs. When I finished walking around the second floor, I saw more stairs. This museum, which looked small from the outside, was four stories. They did something neat that I'd never seen before...they put up a picture that a photographer took, then they recreated it in Diorama form. One particular one stood out (and I didn't think to take a picture). It was a picture of 2 US Soldiers in a fox hole in the blistering cold & snow looking out. The Diorama was also there of the event, then it had a letter written by one of the soldiers in the picture. Apparently the Museum had tracked him down in 1982, and he wrote back about what he remembered about that day. They also had an interesting souvenir donated by a US soldier. It was a Nazi flag which he had sewn on the Unit badges of all the Army Units that had fought at the Battle of the Bulge.
Once I finished there I grabbed a bite to eat and headed to the bus stop. Once back in Luxembourg I met up with Patrick, and also met a guy who lived in Frankfurt who had come later to work them. We headed out to dinner at this place called L'Attrium. The food was amazing...Ravioli stuffed with Swordfish, as well as little pieces of Swordfish on top. Or, as the English Menu put it, Ravioli stuffed with Wordfish.
There wasn't too much left to do on Friday...I walked around town and explored areas I hadn't been to yet, and eventually met up with Patrick that afternoon. Shanna got there around 6 and we grabbed a bite in town, then drove home to Stuttgart.
Patrick had mentioned wanting to see either the Porsche or Mercedes Benz museum while he was here, so we headed to the Porsche museum on Saturday. It was interesting, they had all sorts of Porsches there, including a tractor, a Polizie car, and a Pig Racing car. You'll have to see the pictures to see what I mean about the Pig Car. It wasn't too big of a museum, but there was a wealth of information, so we were there for most of the afternoon. Once you left the museum area you walked by the gift shop. It had some interesting things in it, but the "real" gift shop was across the street when you walked out of the door...a Porsche dealership. I wonder how many people have walked out of the museum and gone over to buy a car.
That evening we headed down to the Marienplatz, which is about a 5-10 minute walk from our house, to watch the US/England World Cup game. It's definitely a completely different experience watching Fußball in Europe then in the US. It was a lot of fun, and the crowd definitely got into the game. An England loss would benefit Germany, so it was us, a few Americans, and a lot of Germans packed in this bar all cheering for the US...I almost felt bad for the one British couple there. :)
The next day Shanna wasn't feeling well, so she stayed home while Patrick & I headed to Ludwigsburg. There's a castle out there, and Patrick had never been to a real castle before, so he wanted to visit. When we got there I was disappointed...it was more like a palace then a true Medieval Castle. As we walked in, though, we found out that there was a classic car competition being held there that day. There were all kinds of cars on display, then at the end of the day they award the winners of each category, as well as Best in Show. The way they presented the tours was confusing...instead of just paying a general admission fee, they broke the Palace into sections and charged for each section. As a result, Patrick & I accidentally ended up paying to view the Ceramics museum part of the Palace. We tried to be enthusiastic about it since we'd just paid 7 Euros to get in, but we couldn't do it...especially when we walked by a window and saw that in the back part of the Palace was a ton more cars on display. We left that part, but big surprise, had to pay 7 more Euros to visit the "Garden" where the cars were. The first part had been in the courtyard area that was open to the public for free. So we paid and headed in. They had some neat cars on display, and even had a 12 cylinder engine block that had been converted into a Wine Rack. And big surprise, a Mercedes won Best in Show. It WAS a nice car though, from 1929.
That night Shanna made her famous Buffalo Chicken Dip and I grilled out burgers & brots. We still don't have TV service (long story) but we didn't need it to know how the German World Cup game was going...you could hear the horns, cheering, and even car horns blaring every time they scored. By the time the game was over, just based on the cheering, we figured the score was 4-0, and sure enough it was. They even launched fireworks over Stuttgart after the game. The next morning we got up early and took Patrick to the airport. The rest of the day was spent unpacking and waiting for the loaner furniture office to come by and get the furniture we had borrowed while waiting for our household goods.
Over all it was a great 5 days...Shanna & I had a great time, and hope Patrick did too. Coming up we have two more trips planned. First is a trip on July 4th to see King Ludwig's castles in Bavaria, and in August we're heading to Berchtesgaden to see the town and Hitler's Eagle's Nest.
To see the pictures from the trip, either click here or click the train picture at the top of the post.
Friday, June 11, 2010
Luxembourg (brief)
This is just a brief update...the full update will come next week once I'm back in Stuttgart and the pictures are uploaded. Shanna is driving here now, and our friend Patrick is in meetings, so I'm sitting at a cafe in one of the many squares in Luxembourg waiting for the first World Cup game to start in 40 minutes. This town is BEAUTIFUL and the weather today has just added to it. This city has been a lot of fun...Shanna & I will definitely have to come back so she can enjoy it.
Well more to come later, including details of the amazing Miltary History Museum in Diekirch, a 30 min train/bus ride from here.
For now I'll leave you with a picture of the square I just took.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
Well more to come later, including details of the amazing Miltary History Museum in Diekirch, a 30 min train/bus ride from here.
For now I'll leave you with a picture of the square I just took.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
Just arrived
Just a quick update while I wait for Patrick to get to the hotel. I had forgotten how early I'd booked my ticket due to the drastic price difference between a decent hour and 0630. It wasn't too bad though. I woke up at 0430 and was walking to the Ubahn by 0545 and was at the Hauptbahnhof, sitting on the train, by 0610. There were several train changes, but I didn't mind...for most of the trip I had a car to myself and the German countryside was beautiful. There was one section of track that ran along a river that was amazing. I wish I could have taken a picture, but the train was moving too fast and the window was highly reflective. There were tons of campers and tents pitched along the river bank...while I'm not a big fan of camping, this looked like it would have been nice. Right behind the campers was a quiet German town.
I eventually got to the Luxembourg train station and walked about 2km to the hotel. I was hesitant to do so since I had no back up Internet or GPS but the Google Maps directions worked.
That's about it. I'm in the lobby of the Hotel Le Royal now. It's a nice hotel and I'm looking forward to seeing the city. Shanna is driving up Friday, so next week I'll post plenty of pictures!
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
I eventually got to the Luxembourg train station and walked about 2km to the hotel. I was hesitant to do so since I had no back up Internet or GPS but the Google Maps directions worked.
That's about it. I'm in the lobby of the Hotel Le Royal now. It's a nice hotel and I'm looking forward to seeing the city. Shanna is driving up Friday, so next week I'll post plenty of pictures!
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
Monday, June 7, 2010
Unpacking
This past weekend wasn't supposed to be a busy one, which is why I'd planned on posting about the new comer's orientation classes I took, but then we got a nice surprise mid week that our house hold goods would be delivered on Friday! That added a little bit of stress because we were also prepping for my Dad's visit. He was in France for the week for work, and delayed his connecting flight from Münich to Dulles by a day so he could drive to Stuttgart, see the place, have dinner, stay the night, and fly out the next morning. It was great having him come by, even if it was only for the night. We ate dinner at Zum Paulener in downtown Stuttgart, and walked around for a bit afterwards, and eventually headed home. He took off at the crack of dawn the next day, but we were up early enough to say goodbye before he did.
Before he got here on Friday evening Shanna & I spent all day with the movers telling them where to put things. We had a pretty efficient system set up...we taped pieces of paper up on all the rooms, numbered them, then created a legend of what numbers went to what rooms for our reference. So as the movers took boxes out of the crates, all we had to say was "1", "2", "3", etc.. If the guy who was unloading had stacked multiple boxes before the other guys came back, I just marked the number on the boxes with a sharpee. They arrived about 9:30am, were done with the first truck by 1:30pm or so, then they left to get lunch & the 2nd truck. They came back around 4 and were done by 6. We had kept a steady supply of water ready available to them all day, but now it was time for a beer. I asked them "Drei Bier"? Two of the guys said yes, but the third guy said "No, I have to drive". One of the guys said something to him in German and he stopped for a second, then said "Ok, ok, drei bier". The 5 of us then sat around drinking good German beer and just talking. As we've found with most Germans, they were incredibly curious about things they've seen in movies or heard about America, and whether it was true or not. One of the guys said he'd seen movies where Americans were drinking beer in public out of a paper bag, and he didn't know why. We told him if you are walking out the on street it's illegal to consume, or even have, and open beer. They were incredulous...their exact response was "But why? It's just beer"! One of the guys brought up a good point. He said, "Wait, so in America it's legal to carry a gun, but not a beer"? I never thought about it like that...while it's not legal to carry a gun everywhere, or even in all states, the point is still a valid one. One of the guys cracked me up when he grabbed some of the brown paper used to wrap our furniture, cut a piece off, and wrapped it around his bottle, then said "There we go! Now it's like I'm in America".
The next morning, after Dad left, we got to work unpacking. The new camera we ordered came in, so I took a few pictures which I'll put up here later, of what the rooms looked like with all the boxes. We worked all day Saturday and all day Sunday. By the time we went to bed, all the boxes on the top two floors and most of the boxes on main floor were unpacked. The kitchen was good to go, our beds were all put together, and the living room was in it's first stage of where we think we'll want things. There's still a ways to go, but we knocked a lot out. The basement is the last major area that needs unpacking, but there isn't as much a rush on that.
This week will be spent unpacking every night as well until Wednesday. A friend of ours from DC will be in Luxembourg for the week, so Wednesday I'll be taking a train there to meet up with him. Friday Shanna will be coming up, then we'll all be driving back to Stuttgart so he can see the city for the weekend.
It should be fun!
Before he got here on Friday evening Shanna & I spent all day with the movers telling them where to put things. We had a pretty efficient system set up...we taped pieces of paper up on all the rooms, numbered them, then created a legend of what numbers went to what rooms for our reference. So as the movers took boxes out of the crates, all we had to say was "1", "2", "3", etc.. If the guy who was unloading had stacked multiple boxes before the other guys came back, I just marked the number on the boxes with a sharpee. They arrived about 9:30am, were done with the first truck by 1:30pm or so, then they left to get lunch & the 2nd truck. They came back around 4 and were done by 6. We had kept a steady supply of water ready available to them all day, but now it was time for a beer. I asked them "Drei Bier"? Two of the guys said yes, but the third guy said "No, I have to drive". One of the guys said something to him in German and he stopped for a second, then said "Ok, ok, drei bier". The 5 of us then sat around drinking good German beer and just talking. As we've found with most Germans, they were incredibly curious about things they've seen in movies or heard about America, and whether it was true or not. One of the guys said he'd seen movies where Americans were drinking beer in public out of a paper bag, and he didn't know why. We told him if you are walking out the on street it's illegal to consume, or even have, and open beer. They were incredulous...their exact response was "But why? It's just beer"! One of the guys brought up a good point. He said, "Wait, so in America it's legal to carry a gun, but not a beer"? I never thought about it like that...while it's not legal to carry a gun everywhere, or even in all states, the point is still a valid one. One of the guys cracked me up when he grabbed some of the brown paper used to wrap our furniture, cut a piece off, and wrapped it around his bottle, then said "There we go! Now it's like I'm in America".
The next morning, after Dad left, we got to work unpacking. The new camera we ordered came in, so I took a few pictures which I'll put up here later, of what the rooms looked like with all the boxes. We worked all day Saturday and all day Sunday. By the time we went to bed, all the boxes on the top two floors and most of the boxes on main floor were unpacked. The kitchen was good to go, our beds were all put together, and the living room was in it's first stage of where we think we'll want things. There's still a ways to go, but we knocked a lot out. The basement is the last major area that needs unpacking, but there isn't as much a rush on that.
This week will be spent unpacking every night as well until Wednesday. A friend of ours from DC will be in Luxembourg for the week, so Wednesday I'll be taking a train there to meet up with him. Friday Shanna will be coming up, then we'll all be driving back to Stuttgart so he can see the city for the weekend.
It should be fun!
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
Memorial Day Weekend
I'll put up another post in a bit about the orientation classes here, but while it's still fresh in my mind I wanted to post about Memorial Day Weekend. One of the things about living in Europe that excited me the most was the ability to plan weekend trips to all sorts of different countries. The last time Shanna & I visited Europe 2 years ago we spent a day & a half in Brussels. When we got there, Shanna wanted to take a day trip to Brugge, I wanted to take a day trip to Bastogne, so we compromised and toured Brussels, and said the next time we were in Europe we'd visit both places.
Earlier this week Shanna suggested we take a weekend trip to both Bastogne & Brugge. The original plan was to put the dogs in a local kennel and get away with just the two of us, but what we didn't know was not only was this a holiday weekend for Americans (in an area heavily populated with Americans), but it was also the beginning of summer vacation for German schools. Because of this, every kennel within a 2 hour radius was fully booked. The Europeans are much more pet friendly (especially to dogs) then in America, so we weren't too concerned...we just packed up their stuff with ours and took them with us.
Saturday morning we hit the road about 8:30. It was a 5 hour drive to Bastogne, then a 2 hour drive from there to Brugge. I was a little nervous about the trip for a few reasons. One, this was my first time driving outside of Germany. I'm comfortable with all the German road signs, and while I knew the signs were standardized throughout the EU, I was still worried there might be a sign or signs in Luxembourg or Belgium that I wouldn't understand. Those fears turned out to be unfounded...from the German signs in Germany to the French signs in Luxembourg and parts of Belgium to the Dutch signs around Brugge, they all used the same colors & shapes, so you always knew what meant what. We had the GPS for a backup in case we weren't sure, and it was a breeze driving back & forth. The other concern was the last time we stayed in Brussels it was mostly French speaking, and there were a good deal of people that either couldn't or didn't want to speak English. While I've certainly run in to people here who can't speak English, I usually can throw out enough German to get by, but I don't know any French. Thankfully it was no big deal...Brugge is a Dutch speaking part of Belgium, and we learned when we were in the Netherlands that the Dutch all speak perfect English. We also learned on a city tour in Brugge that due to how close it is, they've had a good trade relationship with England for hundreds of years, so everyone in the town spoke English.
We got to Bastogne around 2 and quickly found the memorial. It was an impressive site...you walk through an area with lots of trees, then come out the other side and see this huge memorial in the shape of a star. All along the top of the star, as well as along the ring inside the star, are the names of the 48 states (remember, this was 1944, before Alaska & Hawaii joined the US). They had columns along the outside that listed all the American Military Units that participated in the battle for all the Armed Forces. Inside the center of the star, on the ground level, was a wreathe & plaque. Underground, beneath the memorial, were three altars for Protestants, Christians (didn't know there was a difference) and Jews. You could also climb stairs to the top of the memorial where you had an amazing view of the small city of Bastogne as well as the surrounding Ardennes forest, where most of The Battle of the Bulge was fought. It was very impressive, and just felt like an appropriate place to visit on Memorial Day weekend.
After we were done we headed to Brugge. We arrived around 6 and headed into the hotel. It was located around a square that had at least 15 taverns & restaurants. One thing we noticed through out the weekend was how nice everyone was...not just the people working, but the people walking around as well. When we got into the hotel there was a huge group that was obviously together in front of us. While one person checked them in, another person yelled to us asking if we were the Norton's (how he knew that, I have no idea). We said yes, and he directed us over to the elevator. He handed us our keys, and told us to quickly get on the elevator so we could get to our room before the huge group got in front of us. He told us to get settled, unpacked, and when we were ready, head downstairs and they'd complete they check in process. He definitely didn't have to do any of that, but it immediately made us feel at ease and comfortable in the hotel.
After check-in we took the dogs for a walk to the main Market Square, a 5 min walk from our hotel. We found a place to sit & have a drink and sat down outside with the dogs. There was a four year old girl sitting outside with her Dad and she kept pointing at the dogs and laughing. It was obvious she wanted to play with them, and finally her Dad asked us if she could pet them. While she was playing with them, we started talking. It turns out they live right outside of London, and were here on vacation. His wife is working to be a school teacher, so he volunteered to take the kids to Brugge for the long weekend so she could get some work done. Outside of town there's a big amusement park, so him, the kids, a friend of his, and his parents all rented a house nearby. We had a great time, and ended up sitting there talking with him & his family all night. We wanted to know all about life in the UK, and they wanted to know all about life in the US. They told us all they really know about Americans is what they see on TV, which is the same for us with the British people. We talked about everything, from simple things like "Is it confusing driving from England to Brugge and back, having to remember which side of the road to drive on" to politics to what types of beer we like to drink. When they found out that one of my favorite styles is an IPA, which originated in England, they said if we ever found ourselves in London to look them up, and they'd love to show us around Kent where they grow the hops used in English Pale Ales. We swapped email addresses and have been in contact since we got back. I am definitely going to take them up on that, I'd love to see that. At one point it got cold outside, so we moved inside the tavern, with the dogs in tow. The entire family could not have been nicer...they bought a round, then we bought a round and so on. When they were ready to call it a night we walked over to a place nearby that was still open and enjoyed Mussels & Frites on the Market Square.
The next day was dreary out...it kept alternating between cloudy & rain, so we decided to take a bus tour of the city with an audio guide. It was interesting...they took us all over, to see the Windmills on the outskirts of town, the brewery inside town, the various statues and churches, including one that contained a statue from Michelangelo, the only work of his to have left Italy while he was still alive. After the tour it was cloudy, but no longer raining, so we headed over to the brewery to have lunch and take the tour. Lunch was great...I had beef kabob in a peppercorn sauce with croquettes, and Shanna had a dish with Salmon. The tour was interesting...not much different from other brewery tours I've been on, but they did have section of the brewery where they had collections of glassware and beer cans/bottles from breweries all over the world...they even had a few bottles from US breweries like Bells and Yuengling. After the tour we walked out and the sun was shining bright. We got a free beer with admission, so we sat outside in the sun and enjoyed it. Next up was the Frite museum...that's right, a museum dedicated to Belgian Fries. It was mostly reading, but at the end of the museum they had all the stuff they use to make fries, as well as pictures and even an old Fry vending machine. It was interesting, but the best part was the fries you got at the end, freshly cooked.
That evening we got back to the hotel and got the dogs, then headed to a restaurant near our hotel. We sat outside because we had the dogs, but they only served drinks outside. The waiter petted the dogs, saw they were quiet & friendly, and invited us in with them. They sat under the table patiently (for the most part) while we had dinner. The waiter took a liking to them, and asked if he could give them slices of bread. We said sure, and he made them sit, then gave them bread. For the rest of the night, every time he walked by their eyes were glued on him...their heads slowly turned as he walked by, no matter which direction.
We got a good night's sleep, and got ready the next morning to check out. I took the dogs out to go to the bathroom, and as I was walking back to the hotel I heard someone say Good Morning. I look up and it was our waiter from the night before. He shook my hand, then the dogs went nuts when they recognized who it was...he didn't have bread this time though. :) He played with them for a minute, then said he hoped we had fun in Brugge and the next time we're in town to come back to the restaurant.
We hit the road about 10:30, but had one more stop. Belgian beer is impossible to find in Germany, so I wanted to stock up. We could have done that in downtown Brugge, but they know that's what tourists want and the prices are high. Some of the specialty beers were worth it, but not buying in bulk like I wanted to. So we got near Gent, Belgium, and used the GPS to find the closest grocery store. It took us a few tries...one store was closed, one was a Bio store (like Trader Joes) and only had a few organic beers, and other only sold (ironically) German beers. The last store we tried we hit the jackpot...we loaded up with enough Belgian beer to last awhile, and it was DIRT cheap. As an example, a single 11.2 oz bottle of Orval Trappist Ale in the States would cost about $7. Here we got a four pack for €4. The beer aisle in this large supermarket chain was better then most specialty beer stores in the States.
We got back to our house in Stuttgart around 7pm. A friend of ours from the US moved to Heidelberg 2 weeks after we landed here, and happened to be visiting Münich for the weekend. He told us he was stopping in Stuttgart on the way home to visit some friends and wanted to meet up. On Friday I bought some burgers & brots, so we invited them all over to the house for a cookout. We all sat around catching up and reminiscing about good times in DC (one of his friends had moved here from there as well).
That's about it...there are way too many pictures to post here, so I uploaded them all to a site which you can get to by clicking the picture at the top of the post or clicking here. Enjoy!
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
Internet is finally up (sort of)
We finally have internet at the house, but we ended up switching to another company. Originally we signed up with this company that had an exclusive deal with the military called TKS. If you live on base, you are stuck with them. If you live off base, they are the only company allowed on base to have a shop & advertise. Their biggest selling point (in my opinion, their only selling point) is they do everything in English, from your bill to their customer service & tech support. I went in on May 9th to sign up, and was told they could come out on May 17th, 2 days after we moved in. A few days later I got a confirmation letter stating that they'd be out May 24th. Not great, but it was only a week. May 24 rolled around, and their stated hours of possibly arriving were from 9am - 4pm. I waited the entire day and no one showed up...without internet or TV, it was a LONG day. I called them the next day to see what happened. Apparently May 24 was a German holiday (their third holiday of the month) so they were closed. She said when this has happened in the past the customer was automatically re-scheduled for the day after, but our confirmation never made it in to the system for some reason. I was already having heart burn over paying 55 Euros a month for extremely slow internet and unlimited phone calls to Germany & the US, and this was just making it worse. The customer service rep said it would probably be another week before they could get out there, but she'd see what she could do and call me back. 4 hours later I get a call back stating the could come out Friday, May 28th.
On Thursday I happened to be on base for a new comers orientation class (more on that in a future post) so I swung by the TKS shop to confirm that everything was still on for Friday. The guy there told me there was no appointment in the system so he took my number so he could call me when it was all sorted out. I left and walked right over to the USO office to use their computers. I had heard by now what a nightmare TKS was (and experienced it) and how Vodaphone & O2 were much better providers to go with. While I was researching, the guy called me and said they could confirm an appointment for June 1. I told him OK, and continued my research. I eventually found a plan with Vodaphone that gave us 8 times the download speed and 20 times the upload speed, as well as unlimited calls to the US and the EU (instead of just Germany like with TKS) for 45 Euros a month...10 Euros less then what we would have paid with TKS. The next day I went to the Vodaphone shop in the Schloss Platz area downtown and signed up. Apparently it's standard fare w/ ISP's here that it takes them 2-3 weeks to activate your connection. What Vodaphone did to make that easier, though, was give me a USB stick that uses a 3G cellular connection for internet access to tide us over until we have our normal internet connection...something TKS did not offer. They did something interesting too, something I've never seen in the US. It's not uncommon for a company to request a security deposit, then give it back when your contract is over. Vodaphone does that, but when they give it back, they also give back %5 interest. Once that was done, I went to TKS, canceled our contract with no fee, and was good to go.
So for now we probably can't video chat with anyone due to the connection speed, but we can at least use Skype to call people and of course, I can continue with regular blog posts again. :)
There's a lot to post about...these past 2 weeks have been busy, with things ranging from multiple new comer classes taken to our impromptu trip to Brugge and Bastogne this past weekend. More to come later this week!
On Thursday I happened to be on base for a new comers orientation class (more on that in a future post) so I swung by the TKS shop to confirm that everything was still on for Friday. The guy there told me there was no appointment in the system so he took my number so he could call me when it was all sorted out. I left and walked right over to the USO office to use their computers. I had heard by now what a nightmare TKS was (and experienced it) and how Vodaphone & O2 were much better providers to go with. While I was researching, the guy called me and said they could confirm an appointment for June 1. I told him OK, and continued my research. I eventually found a plan with Vodaphone that gave us 8 times the download speed and 20 times the upload speed, as well as unlimited calls to the US and the EU (instead of just Germany like with TKS) for 45 Euros a month...10 Euros less then what we would have paid with TKS. The next day I went to the Vodaphone shop in the Schloss Platz area downtown and signed up. Apparently it's standard fare w/ ISP's here that it takes them 2-3 weeks to activate your connection. What Vodaphone did to make that easier, though, was give me a USB stick that uses a 3G cellular connection for internet access to tide us over until we have our normal internet connection...something TKS did not offer. They did something interesting too, something I've never seen in the US. It's not uncommon for a company to request a security deposit, then give it back when your contract is over. Vodaphone does that, but when they give it back, they also give back %5 interest. Once that was done, I went to TKS, canceled our contract with no fee, and was good to go.
So for now we probably can't video chat with anyone due to the connection speed, but we can at least use Skype to call people and of course, I can continue with regular blog posts again. :)
There's a lot to post about...these past 2 weeks have been busy, with things ranging from multiple new comer classes taken to our impromptu trip to Brugge and Bastogne this past weekend. More to come later this week!
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