Another reason to love Germany

I found a story on www.drudgereport.com that I found to be interesting to say the least. But before I get to the story, let me provide some background for you. Germany legalized prostitution in brothels 2 years ago, because “the government believed that this would help to combat trafficking in women and cut links to organized crime.” For the last 11 months unemployment in Germany has been on the rise and is becoming quite a concern throughout the country.

There is a 25-year-old woman who had worked in the Information Technology field has been collecting unemployment. In the paperwork she filled out she said she was willing to bartend and had previous experience as a waitress. “Under Germany's welfare reforms, any woman under 55 who has been out of work for more than a year can be forced to take an available job or lose her unemployment benefit.”

Here’s the kicker… they group brothels and bars in the same category and decided it would be too difficult to distinguish the two. They sent her on an interview at a brothel. So, if she doesn’t become a prostitute, the government will stop her benefits!

Cursed with bad service

Last night we went out to dinner with Ed and Tiffany. I suggested a couple of different restaurants and form those they chose Groucho Grill (Brea). They had been there several times, but it was our first time there. I looked up the menu on their website and everything looked good. First problem – they never brought Ed and Tiffany’s salad. Okay, no big deal.

Second problem, the first 5 cuts of my steak was pure fat. Not cool. When I did finally get to some meat, it was almost raw. Now, I like my steak medium rare, but not raw. I didn’t want to, but they convinced me to call the waiter over. I was so disappointed, I sent the steak back and decided not to eat. I wasn’t in a bad mood, I was just disappointed and didn’t feel like eating anymore.

Third problem - Tiffany had to send her steak back to get reheated since it was so raw. Vanessa’s pork chop was undercooked too, but it was tolerable. When we were done, the waiter offered to wrap Vanessa’s meal to go, but never brought it back for her. After 15 minutes of waiting and after paying the bill (no deductions) I finally had to ask for he leftovers. By the waiter’s reaction, we could tell he forgot.

I ended up walking next door to Cold Stone and had ice cream for dinner. Is it just me or is restaurant service getting worse? I agree with the comment from yesterday. I am going to try and go to smaller restaurants.

So tired…

After leaving work at 4:30 pm yesterday, I got home just in time to do dishes. Oh boy! Once the first load was in, we decided to go to dinner. I’m not sure what it is about us, but bad service seems to be following us from restaurant to restaurant. This time we decided to get bad service at Macaroni Grill. We got there at 6:20, hoping to beat the dinner rush. Wrong. So after waiting for 35 minutes we finally get a table. It took 35 minutes to get the appetizer and our main courses were set down less than a minute later. I think someone else got our appetizer, or something because this one had more on it than we ordered.

By the time we finished eating the appetizer, our dinner was cold. We sent it back to get warmed. After that things got better. The food was good and the waitress took the appetizer off the bill. When we got home at 8:00 pm I had to go straight to bed so could wake up for work at 3:00 am.

So I got to work at 4:50 am. I spent the first 2 hours in the warehouse talking with the supervisors. It is incredibly difficult to have a conversation with them at times because they will talk about a problem that my boss and I already know about. We have it on our project list, but it isn’t vital, so it isn’t scheduled to start for another 6 months. Well, they want to have a detailed discussion about it now. Then when I give in and explain the new process that will be put in place, they don’t like the ideas. They don’t like change. James (my boss) and I know it will work now if the supervisors resist.

We are currently trying some new things and everyone hates it. Judging strictly by their resistance, it should be a home run!

At a loss for words

There hasn’t been much going on with me this week. I have been busy at work creating warehouse layouts and looking at CAD drawings for a project I am working on with my boss. We are redesigning the layout of the warehouse and the way we process orders. A lot of this is brainstorming and bouncing ideas off of each other. Other than that I have just been stuck going to meetings.

Last night I went to James and Steve’s place to hang out and eat BBQ. I always have a good time at the BBQ’s. We spend most of the time eating, drinking, and acting like 16 year olds. I would say 15 year olds, but then we wouldn’t be able to drive. My original plan was to wake up at 3:30 am, so I could get to work by 5:00 am, but I had more wine than I planned (oops!) and didn’t get home until 11:30 pm, so I “slept-in” until 5:15 am.

I’m feeling old today. My left leg (not the broken one) is hurting. I can’t tell if it’s the calf muscle or the bone, but it feels like it’s just going to snap. If I put too much weight on it, it gives. I’m looking forward to going home, relaxing, and just zoning-out on the TV tonight. I will probably end-up doing some dishes too. We haven’t done dishes since before we left for Europe, and we are finally running out of dishes and silverware.

Who’s in Jail?

A couple of years ago a boss of mine told me about a website for the San Diego Sheriff that lists information on who is currently being held in their jails. Somebody didn’t show up for work, so he typed the name of the employee and whala… he discovered the guy was in jail. This was good and all, but it didn’t provide a whole lot of information. Today I found two other sites that have blown this first website away (well, at least one).

The first one I found is for Tampa, Florida. Why is this one better? Because it shows’s their mug shots as well. I found it entertaining to look-up people, see their mug shot, and then try to guess why they were in jail. The best way to look up a range of people is to just put a single letter in the Name field (such as “S”).

Another web site is from Tennessee. It’s a Jail Cam, which shows streaming video of the booking room for the Anderson County Jail. Right now there are two people waiting to be processed. I haven’t seen anything exciting yet, just a guy waiting that keeps picking his nose. Man can that guy dig.

Enjoy!

Pardon me. What's the soup de jour?

Well, I ended up going to work on Saturday. The worst part of the whole thing was waking up at 3:30 am. Yuck! Anyway I went into work and everyone was surprised to see me. They were even more surprised when I strapped on a work belt and started helping in the warehouse. The employees seemed genuinely appreciative of my help and the smiles they were giving me were genuine instead of the fake “here comes a Manager” smiles I would get in the past. I spent 6 hours working with a guy I met (Ignacio) cutting open boxes, hanging clothes on racks, and organizing the clothes into smaller boxes. Unfortunately, after 6 hours my foot started hurting where I broke it and I had to stop. It is still hurting and I am a little concerned. I think I just strained it though.

Afterwards, I drove home and relaxed on the couch watching TV with Vanessa. I was tired and a little crabby, but I tried hard not to show my crabbiness. We decided to go to El Cholo (La Habra location) for dinner. I have heard from several people, including Vanessa, that it is a great Mexican restaurant. Our favorite restaurant, The Cat and the Custard Cup, is right next to it so we always go past it, but never go in. I was expecting a little too much after hearing so many great things, so I was a little disappointed. Overall it was still good, but there was no way it could live up to all of the hype I had heard. Plus my food was cold, so that didn't help.

There was a Mariachi band walking around playing requests. I usually avoid these guys, because I am never quite sure what to do while they are playing. The requests they were getting sucked: La Bamba, La Cucaracha, and Tequila. So when they came over to me I asked them to play an old Mexican ballad. They seemed to wake them up a little and we enjoyed it.

Sunday was full of football. After getting a much-needed haircut I settled in and watched the games. We watched the Eagles and Falcons game at our place and headed over to my dad’s to watch the Patriots and Steelers. I had a great time. But then again, how could I not? Watching the Patriots crush the Steelers after sharing 2 ½ bottles of wine with my dad was great! After the game we ordered pizza and watched some cop movie before turning on Dumb and Dumber. Vanessa and my dad seemed a little taken back with my ability to say the lines with the movie or say them before the next scene even started. I think I have seen that movie 40 times by now.

Work on the weekend?

At my job, I really have the best of both worlds and I have taken advantage of this since I started in March. I work for the Distribution department, but since I am dealing with planning systems and other long-term projects, the day-to-day stuff doesn’t effect me. So when there is tons of work in the warehouse, like this week, my workload is still the same. Actually, my workload is lees since no one has time to stop for meetings. When there is no work in the warehouse, everyone in the department is sent home early. Since the entire department is sent home, I get to go home too.

When I first noticed this, I felt a little guilty. To clear my conscience, I would remind myself of the other places I have worked for the last 10 years and the enormous number of hours I worked (50 to 120 hours a week). It’s about time I worked for a place that allowed me to have a life. After being here for 10 months now, I am finally starting to feel a little guilty. This week the entire department has been starting 2 hours early (5 am) and leaving late. I never know when they will be coming in early, because I am not notified. I still feel a little guiltily though, because I am a part of the department and I am probably working fewer hours than anyone else.

In addition to this, about 4 times during the year they all need to work on a weekend. I have never needed to come in, because there isn’t really a lot I can do with my job on the weekend. I was told today that they would be working Saturday and possibly Sunday. I told my boss that I am willing to come in if they need me. I am willing to come in and do manual labor in the warehouse if they feel I can be of help, but I don’t want come in on my days off just to sit in my office and do nothing. I guess I just don’t want the rest of the department to be upset that they have to come in and I don’t.

What’s in Walla Walla?

Somehow Vanessa has convinced me to fly up to Walla Walla, Washington with her at the end of March. Her Aunt, Uncle, Cousins, and Grandma live there. Now that I think about it that’s kind of strange, since they all grew up in Southern California. It will be her Spring Break, so she is staying for a week, but I will be flying up Friday night and returning Monday. The Attactions page shows the highlights being Historic Homes, Lewis and Clark trail, Main Street (with a department store!), and a Downtown Walking Tour. I can tell I will have a blast!

Last night I went to James’ and Steve’s place to hang out. It’s always nice just to hang out, eat good food, and relax.

"Yellow Megaman" is only $8.95, so maybe your mom can put it on layaway...

It was my birthday on Saturday, so I spent most of the weekend going out to dinner and spending time with my family. Friday night Matt and Steve called to ask if I wanted to meet them for drinks. After going out to dinner with Vanessa I headed down to Newport Beach to meet them at Muldoon’s. Matt and Steve were already drunk by the time I was heading down to meet them (7:30 pm), so it was up to Travis to tell me where they were. I have only been to Muldoon’s once before, but it’s a pretty good Irish Pub. The beer is lousy, but the atmosphere can’t be beat. We hung out there for about an hour before going back to Steve’s place to hang out and have another beer.

The next morning Vanessa and I stopped by Henry’s Market to get a muffin for breakfast before heading to my Mom’s. My mom lives near the Prado Dam, which has been in the news recently for leaking. It was strange seeing the golf course under water and Euclid is now a lake. Anyway, I hadn’t seen my mom since before Christmas, so exchanged Christmas and birthday gifts. As usual she was overly generous. We went out to Johnny Carino’s for lunch and we showed her pictures of our trip to Europe.

When we got back to her house, Vanessa and I set up a new dial-up wireless network I bought her for Christmas. She has two laptops (Windows and Mac), but she is still using dial-up internet service. After a year of searching, I finally found a wireless network that will work for dial-up. Afterwards V and I went home to relax a little before going out for sushi. A lot of our friends were on a cruise and just returned Friday night. It was nice to get calls from everyone wishing me a happy birthday and to hear about the cruise.

Sunday, I hung out with my dad watching the Patriots beat the Colts (yeah!). Vanessa spent the day with her Aunt Beth and Cousin Sarah at Downtown Disney. My dad took us out for dinner at The Blue Agave. Vanessa and I spent the rest of the night watching Tivo and eating the ice-cream cake Vanessa got for me. Overall, it was a nice, relaxing weekend, which is exactly what I wanted it to be.

I can't see, because the wool is still over my eyes.

Last night as I was lounging on the couch watching 24 there was a knock at the door. I always hate knocks at the door, but fortunately it hardly ever happens to us. This particular knock sounded friendly like it might be someone I know stopping by. I opened the door and saw a guy in his early 20’s with gel spiked hair and a leather jacket. He was smiling and introduced himself as being a neighbor of ours. He said we was on the debate team at Cal State Fullerton and that they were invited to Oxford University in England for a debate which would be hosted by the BBC. As his story went on he asked if I knew his mom Linda. He told me she walks their black Labrador retriever by our place. I didn’t.

By that time I had already figured he was selling something. So he was selling books, which I buy, but they are donated to the St. Jude Children’s hospital. He handed me a letter from his mom explaining the program, but I didn’t feel like reading it. He also had some other forms and stuff, which he handed to me. I’m a pushover for buying things for fundraisers, because I have vivid memories of having to sell stuff for little league. I agreed to buy one book.

He asked if he could step inside to use the table to write on, so I had him come in. That’s when I found out each book is $38.00. Ouch. By this point I just wanted to go back to watching 24, so I told him it was fine and I would still do it. He also handed me a form to fill out. That’s when Vanessa appeared on the stairway. She was looking at me and mouthing, “No”. I returned a confused look back at her and that is when she told the guy, “Get out of our house or I am calling the police”. I was a little surprised, but he grabbed his jacket and went straight out the door. She told me it sounded like a scam and reminded me that I should never let anyone inside of our house that we don’t know.

I felt dumb. As I thought about it, it did sound a like a scam. The fact that he never came back with his mother to clear his name really made me believe it probably was. I have always prided myself on being able to spot this thing from a mile away. For the next two hours I couldn’t stop thinking about it and I had to rewind the Tivo to watch the scenes over and over again, because I found myself not listening to the show.

Today I emailed a professor involved with the debate team and asked a couple of questions. Hopefully I will get a reply. In the meantime I bolted and locked all of the windows and doors.

Europe Day 16 – Heading home

I thought this would be an uneventful day with nothing to write about. All we had to do was get on the subway, catch our plane, relax for 12 hours, and get home. It turned out to be a miserable day. We made it to the subway station and had to wait about 15 minutes for the next train, since it was Sunday. The train came, went 4 stops, and then they told everyone to get off the train. I wasn’t listening, so I’m not sure why. After 5 minutes, the next train came and we were back in business.

We reached the station where we needed to switch to another train to go to the airport, so we grabbed our luggage and made our way to another part of the station. Just as we reached the top of the escalator, our train pulled away. Damn. The next train was in 15 minutes. It finally came after 20 minutes and it was a longer ride than either of us first anticipates. We still got to the airport 90 minutes before our flight, so we felt okay. It took us 30 minutes to check our bags and get our tickets. Next we went through security. Okay nothing new here. They did have me open one of my bags, because I had a radio shaped like a beer bottle. They ran it through the machine again and we were on our way.

Next we went through European Union customs. I’m still not sure why we had to go through customs before leaving. I was planning on doing some shopping in the airport. We had 75 Euros ($100.00) left and I still hadn’t found anything for my dad. As we walked away from customs and into the shopping area and announcement was made suggesting anyone traveling to the United States report to their gate immediately. As we approached the gates we had to show our passport and boarding pass again, then go through American security, which was the exact same scrutiny as the European Security. Okay… I had to open my bag again for the radio and they ran it through again. But by time we were done with all of this we only had 10 minutes before they boarded our flight.

I asked to be moved to an exit row, but to no avail. The flight was completely full. Vanessa and I made our way down the aisle of the plane and suddenly I realized what a crappy flight this was going to be. The seats were crammed into the plane. As I took my seat my knees pressed into the back of the seat in front of me and my hips were touching the armrests. The old lady next to Vanessa smelled. The plane took off about 15 minutes late, but at least we were on our way. Once we were up to cruising altitude we broke out the laptop to watch our last movie - Napoleon Dynamite. The guy in front of me leaned his seat back all of the way and his chair was about 3 inches from my face. I had no choice, but to lean my seat back as well. It still didn’t help much. It was uncomfortable. Towards the end of Napoleon Dynamite the lady in front of Vanessa leaned her seat back, which pushed the laptop screen down, and suddenly we couldn’t see the movie anymore. We readjusted and managed to watch the last 10 minutes of the movie in awkward fashion. We were only 2 hours into our 13-hour flight.

The people in front of us only put their seat up when instructed to do so by the stewardess (when meals were served). Even when he got up to walk around or go to the bathroom he left his seat reclined. I was erasing something on a piece of paper using a pencil and the guy leaned his chair back so fast my pencil imbedded in the seat and was stuck in the seat and my tray. Everyone around us was coughing without covering their mouth, the guy next to me (across the aisle) kept hacking luggies into a Kleenex, and the kids behind us were crying. Another thing: There weren’t any air vents for us to blow air on our face to cool down or get some of the germs away from us. MISERABLE.

We were anxious to see the second movie Shark Tale. As the movie started we put on our headset… nothing. No sound. The stewardesses were told and they called for a guy to come back and fix the problem. After a couple of minutes, we had no power in our armrest, so we couldn’t even turn our lights on or off. This went on for 30 minutes, no sound, no power, power, no sound. Finally they restarted the movie. Great! Still no sound. About 45 minutes into the movie we finally got sound back. We started listening to the movie. After about 30 minutes of watching the movie, they turned it off. They tried to make it up to us by showing Jackie Chan in Around the World in 80 Days, but I wasn’t pleased.

After 13 hours of this I couldn’t take anymore. I am promising myself I will never fly over 5 hours in economy again! Luckily our plane landed in LAX right then. After gathering our luggage and going through customs (45 minutes) we were in Los Angeles! My dad was there to pick us up and it was nice to see him. Los Angeles greeted us with nasty rain and humid weather. We were so used to the 40-degree weather that 60 was uncomfortable. It took a long time to get out of the airport, because the 105 freeway was shutdown at Sepulveda due to flooding. That’s always nice to come back to.

It was nice to finally be home. Despite having party while we were gone, Albert and Keith left our place very clean. We went through piles of mail and Mr. Pickles (the cat) was very pleased to see us. I could tell by the way he stretched and yawned. I went to bed about 7:30 pm after being up for 22 hours and slept until 4:30 am. It felt great.

Europe Day 15 – Salzburg, Austria

We got out of bed, had breakfast, and headed for the train station. There are several trains that go from Munich to Salzburg, but I found one that went non-stop so the ride was only 90 minutes instead of the normal 130 minutes. We found a nice first-class cabin to ourselves and played cards for most of the way down. Vanessa took a quick nap for the last half hour of the ride. We walked out of the station and I turned right and started walking down the street in confidence, not because I knew where I was going, but because I felt lucky. I was lucky and it turned out we did go in the right direction.

I found a city map after about a mile and we were right next to the first thing I wanted to show Vanessa. There was an amazing garden just across the street that had statues, fountains, flowers, grass, and the castle (Hohensalzberg) is in the background. We walked into the garden to find dead trees, no flowers, and covered fountains. Oh yeah… winter. Oops. Vanessa did the best to use her imagination. From there we crossed the river on a bridge. Now that I think about it, I don’t even know the name of the river. This is the older part of town with cobblestone streets, churches, fountains, etc. There is a lot of shopping in this area. Vanessa and I walked around doing a little window-shopping and trying to find a place to eat.

In Europe the menu is posted outside of the restaurant 99% of the time, so it’s easy to see if you will like something and how much it will cost. After looking at 150 restaurants, we still weren’t inspired. I walked into an information center and asked if they could recommend a place to eat and the girl responded by handing me a tourism magazine that had some restaurants listed in it. We found one that looked good and walked about 4 blocks to get to it. It was closed until January 10th. We finally gave up and decided to eat at the castle. I read a couple of days ago there was a restaurant up there that was just redone in the summer.

We found our way to the base of the hill that the castle is built on. There is a tram on rails that climbs the side of the hill. We bought tram tickets and up we went. We found the restaurant and it turned out to be a good move. We each ordered a steak, covered with mushrooms. Yummy! Afterwards we walked to the tour entrance for the castle. It was another Audio tour where you hold a little recording up to your ear and walk through in a group. This one wasn’t very good. I’ll give you an example: “You are now in the torture chamber (everyone starts taking pictures). This wasn’t ever actually used as a torture chamber, but this is where the torture camber would have been. Now look at the shackles on the walls (everyone starts taking pictures), these were never used in this room but if this were a torture chamber these are the types of devices which would have been used.”

That’s about the point I stopped listening. The tour was worth the price just so I could get some amazing photos from the top of one of the towers. After the tour we headed back down the hill on the tram. Vanessa had read the oldest documented restaurant in Europe was not far from where we were. We cut through an old graveyard where Mozart’s sister is buried. Oh yeah, Mozart is from Salzburg, so everything in town is about him. His birthplace, his second house, statues, chocolates, etc. We found the restaurant which was founded in 803 AD and no I didn’t forget a “1”. We ordered an Apple Strudel, Cheese Strudel, and two cappuccinos. It was nice just to get off of our feet.

After lunch we went back to the cobblestone shopping area where we purchased some things we had seen earlier, but didn’t want to carry all day. We jumped on a bus back to the train station and made it to our train with only seconds to spare. This was a slower train with many stops. We played cards for most of the trip. We went back to Marienplatz to do some shopping and have dinner. Afterwards we went back to the hotel. We needed to pack and go to sleep.

Tomorrow we will be waking up early 6:00 am to finish packing and catch a subway to the airport. Our plane leaves at 11:30 am and it will be a 12 hour and 30 minute plane ride.

Europe Day 14 – Munich

Blah, blah, blah, German breakfast at the hotel, blah, blah, blah, took the subway to Marienplatz, blah, blah, blah. Our plan was to stop by the Hofbrauhaus to make reservations for dinner. Hofbrauhaus (translation: Main Brewing Station) is a must see for any tourist to Munich. This is where you can buy a liter of beer, a giant pretzel, and sing along with an ump-pah band. They were open, but there weren’t any customers. We walked around a little (it’s a big restaurant) and when it became apparent that no one was going to see if we needed help, I approached a waitress and told her our plans for the night. She said it should be fine and that we should just show up. Okay.

We watched the clock at the Marienplatz at 11:00 am. Twice a day when the bell rings there is a cookcoo clock type of thing that happens, but without a bird. There are knights, kings, and jesters that go around in circles and they move. Afterwards we jumped on the next street train to Dauchau. We wanted to grab lunch before visiting the memorial site, so we walked the streets trying to find good food. We ended up at a bakery where I go a sandwich and Vanessa got a cheese pretzel. Nutritious lunch eh? We found the bus we needed and within 10 minutes we were standing outside the Dauchau Concentration Camp.

This was my second trip here. The first time was 13 years ago with my German class. We were looking forward to a live 2 ½ hour tour that we arrived about an hour early for. We went inside the building where you pay for the tour only to be told by a frustrated German guy that the live tour wasn’t going today. I’m sorry, but being greeted by nd angry German at the Concentration Camp is not a good example of today’s Germany. I think he was a little tired of dealing with stupid American questions. I spoke German to him and it seemed to put him at ease (a little).

Dachau is something I cannot describe here. It is something you need to experience for yourself. To see the cremation ovens and to stand where thousands were killed and tortured brings a reality to the events. You really need a good five hours to see all of the detail the camp has to offer. It is strange to simply walk through the barbed-wire fence where 60 years ago you would have been shot for even trying.

We headed back to Munich and after some window-shopping we headed for the Hofbrauhaus. It was a completely different scene from earlier in the day. It was about 6:30 pm and the place was packed. We found a place to sit without much of a problem. Everyone shares large tables here and since everyone is drinking beer, everyone is friendly. I immediately ordered a liter of beer and Vanessa ordered a Cola-Fanta mix. I’m still not sure what it was, but I think it was half Coca Cola and half Fanta. Sounded gross. The Pretzel girl came around and we bought a large pretzel. It was great to have a big stein of beer in my hand again and the music made the atmosphere perfect.

We ordered dinner and I ordered my second liter stein. Sometime during dinner, an old guy about three tables away got a little belligerent and security came in to haul him away. They grabbed him by the shirt and started to pick him up. Well, he wasn’t going to go quietly, so he kicked his legs up on someone else’s table and knocked over a couple of their beers. Security didn’t seem to like this. They picked him up and rushed him through the doors. I’m sure they set him down gently :) .

I was feeling pretty good after two liters of beer and a good meal. I was feeling a little tired and we had to wake up early the next day, so we went back to the hotel. THE END… of day 14.

I'm back...

Were back from our trip. As nice as it is to go through Europe for a couple of weeks, it's nice to be home. I still have a couple of blogs from Europe to post, but I think I will spead it out over the week. Later...

Europe Day 13 – Munich

Breakfast was included with our room again, so we went downstairs to eat after sleeping in a little. My eyes lit up when I saw waffles, bacon, sausage, and syrup. It was too good to be true. Vanessa and I each took a bite and looked at each other. It looked like waffles, bacon, and sausage, and it was labeled that on the table, but it just didn’t taste right. I learned my lesson and went back for my traditional German breakfast. Yesterday, when I was driving into Munich I suddenly realized that we had an extra day I hadn’t planned on, so we decided to take it really easy today.

We headed out with only one site we wanted to see. Marienplatz is a large open area in front of the large, gothic, city hall that is surrounded by stores. It’s so large, I took six pictures, which I will later overlap to get the whole thing together. It was raining and drizzling, but we were prepared with our new umbrellas. We started walking along the open cobblestone street for about a half-mile until we came to an outside ice-skating rink. Originally we were supposed to go ice-skating, but my broken foot canceled those plans. Usually there is a fountain where the rink was. When I was 16, I had a liter of beer and ran through the fountain with my friends (with our clothes on).

After that, we didn’t have any plans and it was only noon. I made a couple of suggestions and we decided to go to the German Museum. Now all we had to do was find it on the map and figure out how to get there. It took us a couple of minutes, to find it on the map, another couple of minutes to figure out how to get there, and we were off. We had to walk about a mile from the station and the museum was surprisingly busy. We had to wait in line, but once inside it wasn’t bad. I had been to the museum once before, but I didn’t remember much about it other than it had big things like a windmill. Once inside I was a little disappointed (despite the full-size planes hanging from the ceiling). It was just like the Museum of Earth and Science in Los Angeles. The exhibits were extensive, but they focused around things like tunnels, electricity, glass, ceramics, musical instruments, and food science. This, in addition to the many stairs, made me ready to leave in about an hour.

We needed to find lunch, so we started walking towards a busy part of town. Vanessa really wanted Jagerschnitzel, which we first ate in Neuss. It is a deep-fried pork fillet covered with mushrooms in a white sauce. We walked almost all of the way back to the Marienplatz, but we couldn’t find it anywhere. We walked past a window with a conveyor of sushi plates going by, so we stopped to look. It was “all you can eat” for 10.90 Euros, which is about $15.00. We couldn’t resist, plus we were tired of walking, so we went in. It was okay, but definitely nothing special. It was nice to rest our feet.

Afterwards we took the subway back to the hotel. I watched some TV, while surfing the Internet and updating my blog (day 12). Vanessa took a little nap. After having trouble trying to make a decision on where to go for dinner, we ended up at the hotel restaurant again for the second night. We ate way too much, but it was good. I was happy, because the waitress talked to me in German. The previous night the waitress talked to me in English and gave me a menu in English. I can understand they get a lot of Americans in there that don’t speak English, but if I am responding to everything in German, then I appreciate it when they talk to me in German. So, it’s 10:00 pm now, (1:00 pm in Los Angeles) and I’m getting tired. Tomorrow we will be visiting Dachau, the concentration camp, and will have dinner at the Hofbrauhaus (beer hall) to lighten the mood a little.

Hello

All of the pictures below are from yesterday. They are in reverse order, because that's how I felt like posting them. So there! It was a cold day (about 20 degrees Fahrenheit).

I have already taken over 850 pictures, so I may post more after I return.

Enjoy.

Ludwig II bed at Linderhof.

Inside Linderhof.

Linderhof

Linderhof

Crazy German ducks taking a bath at Linderhof.

Icicles on the way to Linderhof.

Lake frozen over on way to Linderhof.

Way to Linderhof.

Snow and ice on the road to Linderhof.

Austrian Border

Etc.

Neuschwanstein

Bridge and waterfall view from Neuschwanstein.

Going through the front gate at Neuschwanstein.

Neuschwanstein

Horse and carriage to Neuschwanstein.

"Mar car" waiting for me to drive to the Castles.

Europe Day 12 – Schwangau to Munich

After another German breakfast we got in the car and drove the full 5 minutes to the parking area for the castles. Vanessa had to scrape the windshield before we left because it was covered with ice. She lived in South Dakota before, so she is an expert. It looked like we would be cutting it too close to see both castles. We jumped onto a horse and cart thingy to catch a ride up the hill. There was a Canadian couple that sat next to us, so I had to scoot over (foreshadowing). About halfway up the hill the horse the Canadians were sitting behind starting farting. It kind of killed the romance of the whole horse-ride-up-the-snowy-mountain-to-the-castle feeling. After another couple of minutes the driver stopped the horses, this time to let the same horse go poop. The Canadian girl was only about two feet from the horse’s butt, so she got a great view. Right about now I was thinking how fortunate we were to move over.

They dropped us off and we had to hike up the last 300 yards to the castle Neuschwanstein. We had to wait about 20 minutes before our tour started so we bought a book about King Ludwig II (who bought the castle). Vanessa read to me from the book. When the tour started it was just the two of us. I was excited. Then we went into the castle and they handed us this prerecorded thing. What? Last time I had a live guided tour (12 years ago). As we waited again, a large group of people came up behind us. Not only was this prerecorded, but we had to walk through the castle with a group of other people that could not speak English or German. The tour really wasn’t that great. There were a ton of stairs and a couple of pretty rooms, but the live tour was better.

On the way out we went to the restroom (yes this is going somewhere). Vanessa sat on the seat and freezer-burned her butt. I’m not kidding. She was in pain for about an hour. After the tour we took the horse ride back to the base of the hill. We stopped for lunch at a place that had terrible service. The only reason we got out of the restaurant within 45 minutes is because people kept getting up and leaving after being ignored for too long.

We got back to the car and found some hand warmers we purchased before we left for Europe. They are little packets and once you expose them to air they heat up to 135 degrees for 7 hours. She slipped them in her back pockets to help warm up her butt, and we were off. We had to go through Austria to get to the next castle. After driving for about 20 minutes, we found ourselves on a ice and snow covered road. We couldn’t see the asphalt. I passed a sign that said something about snow chains, but I ignored it. I figured this is a Mercedes and it has all sorts of safety stuff to keep us from sliding. I was right and the car did save from sliding a couple of times. For a good 45 minutes I didn’t see any cars going the same direction as us. It was a tough road, but we got some amazing roads. The lake was completely frozen over.

We finally reached the next castle Linderhof. This was another castle built by Ludwig II. It is much smaller, but more ornate inside. We drank hot chocolate and a prezel as we hiked for 5 minutes to the castle. Inside the castle was amazing (gold, silver, velvet, marble, etc.). Pictures won’t do it justice, but I took a lot. We didn’t waste any time and we jumped back in the car. We started towards Munich, took a wrong turn and hit some traffic. Everything was fine once the speed limit was lifted, but close to Munich it started raining. It took me about 5 minutes to figure out the windshield wipers. Hey, you try it driving a new car in traffic on the Autobahn!

The navigation did a swell job of getting us to the main train station where we were supposed to drop of the car, but we couldn’t find Avis. After some frustration, we parked the car, went inside the train station, and found Avis. It turns out we were supposed to park the car a couple of blocks away at a hotel. Thanks for telling us that ahead of time! We drove to the hotel and I said my goodbyes to the car. We grabbed our luggage and walked back to the train station. It took a couple of minutes to figure out the subway system in Munich, but I learned if you stand at the ticket machine with a dumb look on your face people will stop to help you. Yes, this happened to me twice. We figured it out and found our hotel without much trouble.

In Munich we are staying at the Renaissance Hotel. It’s a division of Marriott, so it caters to Americans. Vanessa was ecstatic with the toilet paper, toilet, washcloths (the first we’ve seen so far), and regular shaped pillows. I think she likes the hotel better than the castles J. We also have a nice balcony. I purchased a day of Internet use for about $15.00. It’s a little expensive, but has been worth every penny. We checked our email, I updated the blog, and checked the news. We didn’t feel like going out again, so we ate at the Bistro in the hotel.

Quick note...

Sorry for the lack of updates, but hopefully the content makes up for it. We are in Munich now, so it should be much easier to find internet access. Enjoy!

Driving to the hotel from Neuschwanstein. (day 10)

Neuschwanstein Castle in Schwangau. (day 10)

Hohenschwangau Castle in Schwangau. (day 10)

Getting closer to the Austrian border and Schwangau. (day 10)

The wunder car! While sestopped to eat lunch. (day 10)

Me driving a little fast... It is in kilometers, but still. (day 10)

Standing in front of Rheinstein Castle (day 9)

Rheinfels Catle w/ another castle in the background. They're everywhere! (day 9)

Rheinfels Castle along the Rhine (day 9)

A castle on the Rhine River (Day 9)

The bar at Sebastian's parents house (day 7)

Vanessa eating a doughnut (day 7)

Cologne Cathedral (day 6)

Cologne Cathedral (day 6)

Sebastian and the waitress taking a picture with us at the ski hall (day 5).

The ski hall in Neuss (day 5)

Europe Day 11 – Baden-Baden to Schwangau

It was a tough day. I’m being sarcastic. It started with a hearty German breakfast at the hotel. Afterwards we grabbed our stuff and put it in the car. We walked about a block and down some stairs to the Freidrich’s Bad. This is a Roman Bath House (no, not that kind) that was built in the late 1800’s. We said goodbye to each other for a little while as we went to our separate locker rooms. Once you are done with the locker room, everything is completely nude. Yes, nude. They have a recommended plan that everyone seems to follow. The men and women go through the 16 steps individually, except for steps 10 and 11, which they do together.

First you take a shower. It’s one of those with a huge showerhead and tons of water coming down from 10 feet high. That was great. After that you lay on a teak (type of wood) lounge chair in a dry sauna for 15 minutes. Then you move to an even hotter sauna for 5 minutes. Afterwards you take another shower. Step 5 is supposed to be a 30 minute soap and brush massage, but there was a wait, so everyone was waiting in the thermal vapor sauna (which is step 7). It is recommended that you stay in this room for 10 minutes, but since the massages were backed up, I was in there for 45 minutes. Did I mention 45 minutes in a room with 6 or 7 other naked sweating guys? Yuck.

I laid down on a table for my massage and I was in pain. First it was strange to have another guy toughing me while I was naked, but he was pressing really hard. I have decided I don’t like massages. They always press too hard and I leave feeling bruised. I know it didn’t go for 30 minutes (and I was glad), because there were so many people waiting. My skin did feel smooth afterwards. I took a quick shower (Step 6), skipped Step 7 since I was already in there for 45 minutes, spent 2 minutes in Step 8 (another thermal vapor room), and moved on to Step 9. Step 9 was a warm pool. It felt really good, but I was only in there for 15 seconds when I saw Vanessa getting into a pool in the next room.

I decided to skip this wonderful, warm, relaxing pool to spend a couple of minutes with her. The pool she was in was in the middle of the bathhouse and it was under an impressive dome. The whole room was probably 40 feet across. This pool was considerably colder than the one I just came from. After quietly telling Vanessa about my experience, I noticed this was step 11. Wait a minute… What happened to step 10? I saw another pool behind me with the number 10 on it. I swam over to it and stepped in. I waved for Vanessa to join me, but she had already done this step too. Damn! I slowly walked back over the pool she was in (which was probably 65 degrees). By the time I got back in, she was ready to get out. So we walked off back into our separate sides to do step 12.

Sep 12 was another shower. Step 13 was aptly named. Actually it should have been called step 666. It was a small pool that had freezing cold water in it. I walked in and before I knew it my head was under that water and I was back out again standing on the tile shivering and naked. Step 14 was drying-off with warm dry towels. Step 15 was a little strange, but was nice. It consisted of standing in a room… in front of a long mirror… surrounded by lights… while putting on lotion… naked. Did I mention I was naked? Okay, just checking. Step 16 was probably the best. You go into a large room that has 16 beds all of the way around the perimeter and 3 beds in the middle. The guy places a clean sheet on a bed, you lay down, and he wraps you up in the sheet in the blanket like a little baby. You just lay there quietly for 30 minutes. That was nice.

I returned to the locker room, got dressed, and headed back to the entrance to wait for Vanessa. She joined me about 10 minutes later and we headed down to town to grab some lunch. We wanted something to go, so we bought two sandwiches, cherries, and water. Off we went. I stopped for gas before leaving town. Gas is $4.20 per gallon in Europe. That’s nothing new, it was that much when I was here 13 years ago. They tax it heavily to encourage public transportation.

The first hour on the autobahn was full of slow speed limits, but once we got past Stuttgart, it opened up. We stopped at a rest stop for lunch. It’s illegal and dangerous to eat and drive. I kept it under 110 mph and whisked through the black forest towards the German-Austrian border. Vanessa woke up just as the German Alps came into view. There was snow on the ground and on the mountain. Vanessa took some nice pictures. As we pulled into town I drove straight to the castles. The main reason for coming to Schwangau is to see Neuschwanstein. This is the famous castle you see in all of the pictures and the one that the castle at Disneyland is modeled after. The castles were closing in 30 minutes, so we headed to the hotel.

It’s a nice place, and if we lean out of our window, we can see the castle. We decided to get a snack before dinner after getting lost and crossing the Austrian border, once again driving in a walking zone, and heading back to the castles we found a place. You wouldn’t even notice that we crossed over the border except for a small sign. We each ate an apple strudel and went back to the hotel. We ate dinner at the hotel and ended up sitting next to another American couple. I had Venison (Bambi) and Vanessa had pasta and shrimp. It’s a tough life. We talked to the other throughout dinner and talked about some of the differences between the United States and Europe. Not a bad day.

Europe Day 10 – Rudesheim to Baden-Baden

I didn’t sleep well the past two nights, so waking up was especially hard today. Once we got going we packed our luggage and headed downstairs for breakfast. The room was almost completely empty, but they had a pretty good selection for a German breakfast. They had two types of rolls, rye bread, soft-boiled eggs, two types of cheese, six different types of sliced meat, three types of cereal, orange juice, apple juice, and coffee.

We grabbed our stuff and headed to the car. The original plan was to walk around town for an hour or so before heading off to Baden-Baden. Once I was at the car, I decided we should skip it so we would have more time to look around Baden-Baden. We hopped in the car and started looking for a bank. We got frustrated after a couple of minutes and decided having money wasn’t that important. Vanessa entered our destination into the navigation system and we were off. It was a two hour drive and was 95% Autobahn. It was kind of a stressful drive. I was concentrating on the road signs, my speed, the cars around me, the cars coming up fast behind me. Once we got into Baden-Baden things got a little confusing. The navigation system told me to turn down a street that was a walking zone of the city. I found the nearest parking garage and parked the car.

We grabbed our luggage out of the car and started walking in the direction I thought the hotel was in. We got lucky and after climbing up a damn big hill we found the hotel. I noticed they had a small parking lot outside the hotel. I asked and they said could bring the car up. I still wasn’t sure how to get the car up there, but I knew there had to be a way. We headed back down the hill to find lunch and move the car. We wandered around for about 30 minutes until we found a place that looked good. We ate a hearty lunch and Vanessa finally got to taste a German pretzel (same as in America) and Apple Strudel (good!).

We went back to the car and started the challenge of trying to figure out how to drive to the hotel. We had a map of the town that showed the walking zones and driving zones, so we turned down a cobblestone street. Sure it had a sign showing a mother and child walking, but the map said it was okay. After a hundred feet and a left turn, it became apparent that the map was wrong. I snuck past some large planters while people watched, turned, and drove in reverse until I was on a small street. I was able to turn the car around by borrowing someone’s parking spot and headed up the hill to the hotel. Later I realized the navigation was right.

The hotel room did not have a television, but we knew that before we made our reservations. I had a couple of movies saved on the laptop, so we laid on the bed and watched Spiderman 2. I kept dosing-off during the movie, so about halfway through we stopped the movie and took a nap. After an hour we woke up and decided to walk around town again. Baden-Baden is kind of like Aspen (Colorado), but without the skiing. The attraction of Baden-Baden is the hot springs. Baden-Baden translated is Bath Bath. We found an ATM machine and started walking around the small center of town. It’s a really nice little town with small shops and restaurants. I guess it would be like Old Town Pasadena, but with cobblestone streets, no cars, and calmer.
After walking around for ah hour (and getting kinda lost) we found a place to eat… Chinese food. Hey, at least it wasn’t pizza. We were both a little tired of German food. The food was okay, but not great. Germans don’t use spices in their food and most of it is bland. This Chinese food was obviously made to please Germans. We have actually noticed a lot of Chinese food restaurants throughout Germany. After dinner we went back to the hotel and finished watching Spiderman 2. The movie was okay, but I head so many great things about it, I guess I expected more.

A couple of other things about Europe: In Europe the first floor, is our second floor, the second floor is our third floor. The ground level floor is does not count as a floor. In Germany the pillows are square (about 2 feet x 2 feet). This is kind of nice and kind of sucks. It’s nice because you can fold them to get them thicker. It sucks, because they aren’t that thick to start with. All of the comforters are thick down comforters. I guess it’s more mainstream here, because it gets so cold. Last, I have yet to see any bed larger than a double. If you do find a larger bed, it is always two twin bed mattresses put together. I’m not sure why, but I sure would like to know.

Europe Day 9 – Neuss to Rudesheim

Vanessa was feeling much better today. We woke up, showered, and started packing our suitcases. Sebastian’s mom was nice enough to do all of our laundry the night before. We joined them for breakfast and enjoyed a couple of uncomfortable silences until Sebastian showed up (yes, late again). Sebastian’s dad drove us to the train station. Sebastian offered to join us for the ride to Cologne.

Once we arrived in cologne it was very handy having him there, because the Avis rental car place was nowhere to be seen. After asking several people we finally found it. Sebastian was nice enough to let me talk to the guy in German. While it is handy to have someone with you that speaks the language, sometimes it’s nice to put all of those years in German class to use and do it yourself. While the guy behind the counter was looking my information up on the computer I noticed he had pulled out a key with a Mercedes symbol on it. I had reserved an Intermediate size car which on the Internet was supposed to be an Opel (German division of General Motors). The car was supposed to be a simple boring car. When we walked out it was an E-Class. Wow. Not bad. Sebastian decided at this poin that he might come along for a little more of our trip. He grabbed a train schedule and we jumped in the car. It took me about 5 minutes of just sitting in it to get situated.

I was really won over when the seat went back so far that I could barely reach the pedals. For the first time I was more comfortable without the seat pushed all of the way back. To top it off, the car had a GPS navigation system, so I didn’t need my computer. I started the car, put in our first destination, and we were off. It was a little distracting for the first 10 minutes or so. Different car, different street signs, getting directions from the car in German, Vanessa was trying to figure out the radio. Sebastian was in the back seat helping me with the road signs. I had been paying attention when he had been driving for the last couple of days, so I knew most of them.

Within a couple of minutes we figured out how to change the language in the car to English and I was on the Autobahn and cruising along. I was very cautious… at first. The Autobahn has very strict rules. I’m not sue if I already covered this in a previous blog, so if I did, forgive me. Not all of the Autobahn has an open speed limit. Much of it is regulated and depending on where you are and the conditions of the road, it goes from 50 mph, to 60 mph, to 75 mph, to no speed limit. There are speed cameras, and there are huge penalties if you go over the speed limit by a certain percentage.

The Autobahn is nothing more than a 2 or 3 lane highway in America except for a couple of things. The roads are in great condition, it is illegal to pass on the right, and people follow the laws. If you are in the fast lane, people actually move out of your way. If they don’t they can get a huge ticket. Another nice thing, is when there is a speed limit, there is a reason for it. It’s not like in Los Angeles when you approach a curve, the speed limit is reduced to 40 mph, but you can easily go 60. In Germany if there is a curve, and the speed limit is reduced, there is a reason, and you can’t drive faster than that without possibly losing control.

Mom, if you are reading this skip to the next paragraph. Once I was on a part of the Autobahn where the speed limit was lifted, I eased the car to about 100 mph. No problem. The car was smooth, no wind noise, no shaking, just cruising. You don’t realize the speed, because everyone is going 90 mph or faster. Later when the road was flat and straight, I go the car up to 125 mph. That was fast enough for my first day.

Welcome back mom. We spent the day driving to monuments and castles along the Rhine. The first castle we stopped at was Rheinfels. It was from the year 1200. Most of it was ruins, but there was also a small hotel in part of it. There were some beautiful views of the Rhine from the top. This was Vanessa’s first time seeing a real castle. She read information about the castle from a sheet and gave us a little tour. Afterwards we drove back into town and went to lunch. The waiter at the restaurant was a total jerk, so… no tip.

Sebastian was taking the train back to Neuss from there, so we said our goodbyes. I am pretty sure he will be coming to visit us in October. I am looking forward to showing him around again. The last time he came to California was 10 years ago. I continued driving down the Rhine and Vanessa was clicking off pictures of castles faster than the camera could save the images. We ran into some bad luck when we went to see the next to castles. The first one was obviously closed before we even got out of the car. The gates were closed at the entrance. At the second castle we parked the car and walked up a trail which must have gone up about a thousand feet. No kidding. We were a little winded and disappointed when we got to the top and the gates were closed. When we got back to the bottom we noticed at the bottom of the posted hours there was a small thing about the castle being closed until January 10th. That sucked.

I was nice to get to our hotel a little earlier though. We crossed the Rhine on a ferry and after 10 minute for driving though 8-foot wide cobblestone streets I found the hotel. We checked in and relaxed for about an hour before exploring the town. It was 6:00 pm when we left the hotel, but you would have thought it was 4:00 am. The streets were empty and everything was closed. Strange. We did find a little Italian place that was still open. I promised myself before going in that I was not going to order pizza.

This area is famous for it’s white wines (Gewürztraminer and Riesling). This is the place in pictures where you see the vineyards growing on steep hills along the river. The town we are staying in (Rudesheim) is famous for it’s small wine bars, where you can taste the local wines. Naturally when the waiter asked if I would like anything to drink, I asked for a Gewürztraminer. He looked at me dumbfounded. They don’t serve these wines in this restaurant. When I thought about it it kind of made sense, because it was an Italian restaurant. It still seems kind of weird. I ended up ordering a Chianti and for dinner I had a Cordon Bleu (yes, I know it’s French) with some spaghetti. Vanessa had some Penne Pesto.

When we got back to the hotel she started feeling sick again. I think she is dehydrated. It is kind of hard to get regular water in Europe. When you order water in a restaurant you get sparkling water, unless you specify it. Even then you sometimes get lightly carbonated water. And there is no such thing as free refills. Everything, including water, comes in small bottles. If you want more, you pay more (even for water). Tomorrow is an easy day. We are planning on walking around town in the morning and driving to Baden Baden, which is about two hours away.

Europe Day 8 – Neuss

Just before 1:00 pm everyone started waking up. Sebastian called me on the intercom and asked if I wanted to come up for breakfast (bread, coffee, etc). Vanessa wasn’t feeling too well, so she stayed in our room. She spent the rest of the day in bed. I sat through breakfast, but didn’t feel like participating in the conversation. I spent most of the time zoning out and occasionally laughing and nodding.

Sebastian and I decided to head to Dusseldorf for a while. Dusseldorf is a large town directly across the Rhine River from Neuss. We dove across the Rhine, parked the car, and walked around on the promenade. It was a nice area with cobblestone streets, a lot of restaurants, and bars. I stopped at a food stand and picked up some bratwurst and French fries. This is a common thing for Germans to pick up for a quick meal. Instead of catsup, most people in Europe use mayonnaise. Even though they offer catsup, I usually get mayonnaise when I am visiting here. You get used to it.

We walked over to Konigstrasse, which is kind of like the Rodeo Drive of Dusseldorf. We were mostly just walking around and catching up with each other. Until now we had always been around other people, so this was a chance for us to just talk. After a while we headed back to his parents house. When we got there is sister, her husband, and their three kids were there. Vanessa was sleeping, so I went to the living room where everyone was talking and the kids were playing. The oldest (8 years old) Phillip was a little crabby, since he stayed up until 2:00 am or so celebrating New Year’s. Sebastian said several tmes that we should visit his sister’s house over the last couple of days, so when they left we followed them back to their house. It was nice and they had the largest nativity scene I have ever scene in someone’s house. It must have been 3 feet by 5 feet.

The kids each took a turn playing Jingle Bells for us. The oldest boy used his new trumpet, the girl used a song flute, and the youngest, who is 3 years old just banged away on his drum. Afterward the 3 year old took my hand and wanted to show me his room. His bed was tiny. It was probably about half the size of the nativity scene, but it was big enough for him. He said I could take his bed if I wanted to sleep at their house. Afterward he came out with a suitcase and asked me to take him with him to America. Very cute.

While we were at their house, Stefan (my friend who fell and bit his tongue) called to see if we had time to come over. We stopped by for a little bit. I was watching the movie Truman Show in German while they talked. I just didn’t feel like trying to follow the conversation. We walked to a nearby pizza place. Yes, I had pizza AGAIN, but it was not my idea. When I ordered something strange happened. I ordered Pizza Hawaii (ham and pineapple), but the waiter didn’t understand me. I was pronouncing it Hawaii, but I guess the Germans pronounce it Havaii. Oh well.

Quick side note. German toilets. There appears to be two schools of thought when it comes to the German toilet. One is the same as American toilets, but with less water. I can accept that. There seems to be another school of thought that a toilet should be built with a flat shelf and only a small hole filled with water in the front of the toilet. This makes absolutely no since to me. Without getting too graphic, it’s like going on a plate, then when you flush, the water pushes everything forward into the front and down the drain. I asked Sebastian about this and he said he doesn’t like American toilets, because they splash.

Anyway, I said goodbye to Stefan and we headed back to the house. I sat upstairs with Sebastian, his parents, and his grandma. We sat in the living room and drank tea until almost midnight.

Europe Day 7 – Neuss, Germany (New Year’s Eve)

Vanessa and I woke up and the first thing I did was call Sebastian. He was already awake, but he still needed to shower and get dressed. I knew it would be a while, so after we took showers, we decided to cook breakfast for ourselves. One problem - we couldn’t figure out how to work the stove. It seems like it would be simple enough, but it wasn’t. It was one of those electric stovetops with a flat surface. When we turned the knob to control one of the burners, nothing happened. We tried to figure out the stove for about 10 minutes, but still couldn’t get it to turn on. I called Sebastian again to ask him about the stove. It was a childproof stove and evidently, American-proof as well. I guess you have to push in a button and then turn the knob, but this isn’t clear at all. Even once we knew this; it still took another 5 minutes for us to get it right.

We ate our breakfast while we waited for Sebastian. He showed up just as we were finishing our breakfast and we headed out. Our first stop was to get beer for the New Year’s Eve party. There is a small beverage warehouse where you can get whatever you are looking for. While Sebastian drove to the store, I was reading the local newspaper. I jokingly asked Sebastian, “If you are so important, why aren’t you in the newspaper?” Sure enough, there was a picture of him on the next page.

We picked up a 15 liter keg, a 10 liter keg, and two small 5 liter kegs. This is smart, because if you don’t open one, you can return it and get your money back. That wasn’t something we were going to need to worry about. Afterwards, we dropped the car off at his parents’ hair salon, and went around the corner to a small store. We thought Sebastian was telling us he needed to buy “records”, but it turned out he was saying “rackets” which is German for “rockets”. We were getting fireworks. Good ones!

There was an Internet Café across the street, so we each bought 30 minutes worth of time. I uploaded my first 5 days worth of blogs, while Vanessa emailed our parents and family. I hope you had enough to read J

We dropped the fireworks off at the hair salon, and headed out for some lunch. Sebastian took us to one of his favorite bar’s where they also serve great food. We all decided to order the same thing, which was weinerschnitzel made from pig, covered with mushrooms and white sauce, with a side of French fries, and a salad. It was damn good. A quick education about weinerschnitzel: They don’t actually sever weinerschnitzel at the American restaurant Weinerschnitzel. Weinerschnitzel is actually beaded veal (except at lunch today they used pig instead of veal).

After lunch we needed to pick up bread for the party, only all of the shops were closing. It was 2:30 pm. They don’t have a supermarket in Neuss, so we needed to go to the baker. Finding a baker is easy. Within three city blocks we went to 5, but they were all closing, so we couldn’t find the right bread. We bought two loaves of another type of bread and headed off to see more of Neuss by foot. It was drizzling and cold. We stopped in another bar so I could use the restroom. When I came out, Sebastian had bought us each a beer. We relaxed for about 15 minutes before heading out. Sebastian then took us the Quirinus Church, which is the largest church in Neuss. We walked around inside and took pictures next to a statue of St. Quirinus outside. Sebastian headed up the project to have the statue built.

After that we walked some more in the rain to a place called “The Cellar”. This is a small hidden restaurant/bar, which is underground. Some of the walls are hundreds of years old. One of the owners talked to us for a while and told us about the history of the area. I had already heard it several times, but we all just nodded and listened to be polite. He also told us about the time the entire Star Trek crew ate in The Cellar after a convention nearby. After that we started walking back towards Sebastian’s apartment. It was raining a little more now and I was once again only wearing a sweatshirt. We brought tons of raingear and clothes for cold weather, but almost every time it rains or is really cold I am not prepared. We were only at Sebastian’s apartment for about 20 minutes when his mom came by and picked us up.

Sebastian no longer needs a car, because he lives about 3 blocks from the train station in Neuss and works about three blocks from the train station in Cologne. The train ride is only 30 minutes each way and it is only $35 per month for him to take the train. The parents work together, so the whole family only has one car. It actually works very well, because the public transportation system is so good.

Once we got back Sebastian’s mom asked him if he had bought the bread. We showed her what he got and she laughed a little. She knew he would probably mess it up, so she had already bought a loaf. His mom started cooking dinner for him, so he would only need to heat everything up once everyone arrived. Sebastian and I headed downstairs into the bar to set everything up. Dinner started at 8:00 pm, but people started showing up just after 6:00. When some of my old friends started showing up it was a little awkward. I was really excited to see them and was prepared to greet them with hugs, but they approached me with a handshake and were a little standoffish. When we were 16 years old we were all great friends and partied all of the time. I tried to break the ice a couple of times and ask them questions, but it wasn’t really working. Once everyone arrived (13 total) we all headed upstairs for dinner.

Dinner was interesting. There was a lot of discussion on my end of the table about how the children are different today than when we were growing up and the reasons behind it. I found it odd that no one made it a point to include Vanessa or I in the conversation. I translated some of it for Vanessa, but since they understand English so well, I found it would often distract them and they would me more conscience of what they were saying. I guess they felt like they were being observed. I tried to talk to one of my best friends (Stefan) by asking him what he does for a living. I already knew, but I just wanted to start a conversation. He told me it was not appropriate to talk about it at the table. That pissed me off a little, because I thought it was a rude answer. Later I thought about it a little more. He is a paramedic, so I think he meant it wasn’t good to discuss the gory details at the table.

Once dessert was served, a couple of people switched places and Vanessa was now sitting next to Karsten. He is also involved with the politics in Neuss and he speaks English very well. He made it a point to talk to Vanessa and to include her in the conversations. For a couple of minutes everyone on our side of the table started having a conversation in English. It was a little odd hearing them talking to each other in English. After some ice cream we headed back downstairs to the bar to start some serious drinking. Stefan went behind the bar and started serving up some beer. Once he was back there and had some good music going, that’s when everyone started loosening up. Within an hour we were all back to our old selves.

Vanessa ended up being the star of the party. She was drinking Screwdrivers (vodka and orange juice). Stefan was playing some old music from when we were in high school and college and was impressed with Vanessa’s taste in music. Pretty soon, Vanessa was dancing and everyone was having a great time. At midnight we all went outside to set off fireworks. Since I had not done it in so long, everyone let Vanessa and I set off most of them. After setting several off, I understand why it is illegal now in most of Southern California. We were very careful, but the people a couple of houses down were not. They had fireworks going into the trees, on the roof, and shooting in every direction. Almost everyone had rockets. It was wet outside, so there wasn’t any danger of fire, but it was a little nerve-racking watching fireworks getting caught in the trees.

We headed back into the house to keep the party going. Stephan was laying a lot of Ramones, AC/DC and other good stuff. Stefan and Marcos spent most of the night telling me how lucky I am to have Vanessa and wanted to know if I could find them someone like her in America. Vanessa went to bed around 2:30 am. She had quite a bit to drink. An hour later Stefan (completely drunk) slipped on some beer that was spilled behind the bar. He went down hard, hit his head, and bit is tongue. His tongue was bleeding pretty good. I helped him up and he kept telling me he was okay. We took him upstairs and within a couple of minutes he agreed he wasn’t okay and should probably go home. Sebastian and Mrs. Rosen took him home while we went back to the bar. The party was pretty much over by this point. There was only 6 of us left and we started eating and talking. In all we had gone through 25 liters of beer, 6 bottles of wine, and a bottle of vodka. I stayed up until 4:30 am talking, but finally had to go to bed.

Europe Day 6 – Neuss, Germany

We meant to wake up at 8:00 am, but we forgot to change our alarm clock from London time to Western Europe time. There is a one-hour difference, so we actually woke up at 9:00 am. Sebastian told us the night before that he would pick us up between 9:00 and 10:00, so we took a shower and got dressed. I heard the phone ring, but I couldn’t find it, so that didn’t help. We sat around and waited for him until 10:30, when I finally found the phone. I tried to call him several times, but I was having the same success as when I was in Cologne.

At 11:00 am Sebastian finally called and I had the phone nearby. He running late (duh) and said he would be here in 20 minutes. I asked him to confirm his phone number. I didn’t realize I had to add a 0 to the front of the local number. Now I know. Vanessa and I headed over to the kitchen to have breakfast. Mr. And Mrs. Rosen had left at 8:00 am to go to work, but there was a ton of stuff in the refrigerator. Mrs. Rosen had left a Weckmann on the counter. A Weckmann is a large piece of bread you buy at the baker, which is shaped like a man and is holding a little corncob pipe. Vanessa made coffee and I had some orange juice while we waited… and waited… and waited.

Sebastian finally showed up around 12:20 am. Only 3 hours late. Not bad. We jumped in the car and took off for a very fast tour of Neuss. Sebastian knows a lot about the city, because he is on the City Counsel of Neuss. After about 20 minutes of driving around we jumped on the Autobahn heading towards Cologne. Sebastian made it a point to drive fast, and before long we were going about 100 mph. Cologne is only about 30 minutes away by train or car.

Once we were in Cologne, we parked the car and started walking though the streets. Throughout most of Germany, the town is built around the churches. Cologne has an enormous cathedral. It’s amazing. Inside, there is a golden casket, which holds the remains of the Three Kings (Three Wise Men). We walked the streets and went into several churches as we walked through town. In both Cologne and Neuss it is not uncommon to see walls and structures that are over 2000 years old. We stopped for lunch and I finally got to order Schweinshaxe, which is one of my favorite German meals. It is a pig leg, which is deep-fried with the skin on. It came with mashed potatoes and sauerkraut.

After walking through town we crossed the Rhine River and walked along the riverbank on the other side. It was getting cold and started to drizzle, so we headed back to the car. After another quick drive on the Autobahn, we were back in Neuss. We went back to the salon to Sebastian’s grandmothers apartment (next to and above the salon). They were having “Kuechen”, which translates as “Cake”. This is normally done only on Sunday’s but they had it yesterday as well. The family sits down together, has coffee or tea, and eats pastries. Afterwards, Sebastian took us on a walking tour of Neuss. This turn out to be much further than I first expected. We must have walked three miles. Every once in a while we would stop at a bar, have a beer or two, and then continue the walk. At one bar, I noticed they had a lot of stuff (flags, signs, etc.) from my favorite German beer (Diebel’s Alt). I asked Sebastian if there was somewhere I can buy this stuff as well. Sebastian asked the bar owner and within minutes I was given two drink trays from Deibels and a clock shaped like a Diebel’s bottle. All at no cost.

We continued our tour and stopped by one more bar before heading back to Sebastian’s apartment. We hung out there for a while listening to 80’s music and watching TV. Sebastian’s dad came by to pick us up and we headed back to their house. At the Rosen’s house we had a small informal dinner, which consisted of small open-faced finger-sandwiches. One of the presents I gave to Sebastian was a collection of CD’s with 100 American patriotic songs. He loves this stuff and he insisted on playing it on the stereo. I think he played every song, and the one’s he knew he would sing along.

We finished the night by showing them our wedding photos. By then it was 11:30 pm and definitely time to go to bed.