Friday, July 25, 2008

It's Not Always Murphy

So I've been here for just short of three months now, and my language skills are nowhere near what I'd like them to be.  I'm not even half way through the first level of my Rosy Rock program (and not even using it every night like I should), nor have I signed up for a sprachschule ([shpraH*shoe*la] language school) yet, even though it would cost me nothing.  That being said, yesterday I had a very expensive lesson, all for just one word - schlüsseldienst [shlew*sel*deenst].  The meaning of this word?  Literally it translates to "key service", but it is understood as simply "locksmith".

Yep.  Locked myself out of the apartment.  So if stupid is as stupid does, well we know what that makes me, don't we?  Now in my defense (no I don't believe there is any, but what the hell - gotta keep true to my Devil's Advocate self), it's not as hard as you would think, as the door to my stairwell requires a key to enter.  It's not a knob that locks and unlocks, it's just a door with a lock, and if it shuts behind you and you don't have the key, well you'd be as screwed as I found myself.

Now, being the eternal optimist (don't laugh), I figure that the silver lining to this is that by the time I get back to the States, I'm going to be really good at the game of charades, 'cause that's what you're left with when the answer to your question "Sprechen Sie Englisch?" is "Nein".  I've actually kind of had fun a few times playing this game, but it pretty much sucks when you know that it's the only way you're getting in to your house short of demolishing a door.  And I didn't even want to try that, since it's a pretty solid door and my foot is just now getting better from the earlier incident of me pretending to still be young.

So that was my very expensive language lesson for the day, although it could have been more.  Seems that the price on some services over here goes down when you don't need a receipt or some other form of document that might prove that a transaction occurred.  Ah, good times.

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Home, Sweet Home


Well, it took five offers, four negotiations, three contracts, and two scheduled closings, but finally, after four months on the market, I am now officially homeless (and there was much rejoicing  *yeeeeaaaaaa*).  I don't even know what to tell you at this point, I'm just happy it's over with.  That was a pretty big cloud over my head that I don't have to worry about any more.  So three cheers! to the folks who bought it, and a great big THANK YOU to my real estate dude, who kept me sane through this whole thing.  I'll miss the place a bit (not the landscaping), but I wonder how much of that is just 'cause it was my first.

Friday, July 11, 2008

An Afternoon in Bamberg

So as I mentioned, last weekend I decided that the foot was doing well enough that I could venture out and resume my burgeoning exploration of Bavaria.  Besides going back to Nürnberg or München (that's the real name of Munich) there are three places I really want to see, those being Bamberg, Würzberg, and Regensburg.  All three have huge amounts of history, beautiful architecture and are within a short train-ride of Erlangen.  So since Bamberg covered the smallest area, and would therefore entail the least amount of walking, I decided to start there.

The entire town is listed as a UNE$C0 World Heritage Site.  That's right, the whole place.  Not just a cathedral here, or a castle there - the whole, freaking town.  I won't go into the details, but there's lots of info on the town and its history here.  I also didn't get to cover as much of the town as I wanted, as my feet were killing me after only a few hours.  Not just the damaged one, either.  Cobblestone is not enjoyable to walk on.  So I missed a lot, and I'll just have to add this to the list of places to which I need to return.  I didn't even get to go to any of the nine breweries in town, which was obviously disappointing, but especially so since I'd heard some good things about one of the types of beer distinct to this town call rauchbier (smoked beer).

Some of the highlights of the day included Die Altes Rathaus, or town hall, as pictured below, from upstream, downstream, and a side view.
  
This place was built in 1456 in the middle of the river Regnitz on top of a bridge that was built in the 12th century, with the sides of the building painted in the 1700's (both sides are painted, I just didn't get a good shot of the other side).  Really cool place, and one of the best-known landmarks of the town.

Next up was the Bamberg Cathedral.  The original Dom (that's German for Cathedral) was built in 1007, but was destroyed by fire, so this one is only 750 some-odd years old, as it's the replacement (my apologies for the bad pic - I seem to have a knack for getting shots of things with the sun being in the worst possible position).  The tomb pictured below is inside the cathedral and holds the Holy Roman Emperor Henry II and his wife, who were responsible for the town being what it was back in the day.
I've got lots of other pics of inside the Dom, and I'll try and figure some good way to display them all as well.

Next to the Dom is the Neue Residenz, which housed the city's bishops from the 1700's.  The place is huge, and as you can see, the picture doesn't capture the entire thing.  The accompanying pic is of the Residenz' Rose Garden, a very pretty area with a cafe at one end (gotta get those tourist euros).

One of the really cool things about this town is the river.  Very scenic, to the point that one section (as seen below) is called Little Venice.  That might be a tad presumptuous, I don't know (haven't made it to Italy yet), but it is very pretty, and I would love to live in one of the places right on the river.


And lastly, there is one final place that I did not get    to, as it was further up even higher hills than the ones to get to the Dom and the Residenz, but from afar looked very impressive.  That would be the Michalsberg monastery, as seen below.

So that was my day in Bamberg.  Like I said, I really need to go back, if for no other reason than the brauerei, but of course for more than that.  I find myself doing a lot of the same thing I did when I went to Paris last fall, and that's going to a lot of places, but never really going in them.  You can get a lot of good pictures, sure, but you don't really get the feel for a place and what it's all about.  I need to work on that.  It would probably make these a little more interesting for you, as well.


Thursday, July 10, 2008

Cars

Okay, so I haven't shared anything for a while, but with the foot, there just wasn't that much going on.  For the next couple of weekends after the incident, I pretty much stayed at home and kept off of it as much as possible.  Turns out that there was nothing torn or broken or anything, really - just strained the tendons or whatever those things are in the foot, and it's just been a matter of time for it to heal.  I'm getting around on it pretty well now, and haven't even needed my unterarmkrücken - crutches, but not your normal crutches: they only extend to the forearms - since last Friday.  Saturday, I ventured up to Bamberg (more on that later), but that was probably pushing it  a bit, as was practicing with the team on Monday night.  I'm still mobile and it's getting better every day, but I need to pace myself a bit.  Hey, go figure - me with a pacing problem.  At least this time, it has nothing to do with alcohol consumption.

But the big thing today is this:
                                 
BOO-YAH!  That's right, I finally got a car today.  Pretty, isn't it?  That's a 2007 ßMW 325i right there, and for the next seven months, that baby's mine!  One of the guys at the office who was supposed to be here for two years had to go back to the States early, and he had leased the above car.  So since he had to go back, I was kind enough to take over the lease so he didn't have to pay for a car that was just sitting on another continent (big of me, wasn't it).  So I've got until January to enjoy it.  Heh-heh.  There will be further musings on the Autobahn (surprisingly, not all it's cracked up to be) but for now, let's just say that on the way home from Nürnberg I easily hit 180 kph (about 115 to you and me).

Have I mentioned that I like this place?

Tschüß