Saving energy

Though I have always leaned towards the conservative side of things (ok, more than leaned...), I have certainly noticed a large shift left over the last 5 years in my political and personal views. As part of that, I have found myself making more of an effort to conserve energy and recycle, especially here in Germany where recycling is a big deal and everyone has several sets of trash that only certain products may be thrown away in. However, there are times I don't make the effort, largely when the effort inconveniences me. For example, we were in France this weekend and had to replace the batteries in my kids Leapsters. Rebecca insisted on bringing all the batteries back home (in addition to already having more than we really needed for an overnight) to recycle them there instead of throwing them away in the hotel. I would have thrown them away in the hotel. And there are some times when the effort to conserve energy seems to go just a bit too far here. In particular, lights in certain rooms and bathrooms are programmed to shut off if no motion is detected in a certain amount of time. And that time is WAY TOO SHORT. When you end up using the bathroom and are there for greater than 3 minutes, it is quite an issue to be stuck in an unfamiliar stall in pitch darkness with the motion sensor near the doorway. Absolutely ridiculous.

Closed Sundays

I may have written a bit about this before but the whole issue arose once again in our weekend trip last weekend. When we first arrived in Germany, the concept that all stores (except restaurants, bars and gas stations) were closed on Sundays was very difficult to get used to. It meant that all shopping for the weekend (and school lunches on Monday) had to be completed before the stores closed Saturday. And since Germans shop daily typically (as they cannot fit anything more than a days worth of food in their tiny refrigerators and there are not preservatives in food), everyone else was at the stores on Saturday too. (It actually has gotten alot better since I lived here in 1989 when stores were open once or twice a month on Saturdays and only until lunch time).
As time went by and we got used to getting the shopping completed and spending Sundays as Germans truly intend - united as a family, not distracted by mundane household stuff - and actually liked the idea of not shopping Sundays. Rebecca went so far as saying that she wanted to bring the concept back to the US with us when we moved back. I am not quite convinced but understand why she likes it.
However, this weekend we went to Strasbourg, France and Baden-Baden, Germany for the weekend just to see the cities as we had heard positive comments. We had a great day in Strasbourg, only to find that when we wanted to grab dinner at 5:30 (the kids go to bed at 7, especially after an afternoon of swimming like Saturday). Nothing opened prior to 7 pm and even that would have been hard to find according to the hotelier. So...off to McDonald's we went, not happily but far better than experiencing the meltdown of going to a French restaurant 90 minutes later, not finding anything our picky kids would eat and enjoying the meltdowns of the kids....
The next morning we got up, me out the hotel door to find a bakery for something to eat. And, alas, according to the hotel, absolutely nothing is open on Sundays except restaurants later in the day. So frustrating...especially for those of us being used to being able to run out at whatever whim we have to eat, shop, anything....so we ended up at a below average buffet at the hotel for only $27 per person...I am no cheapskate, but this just seemed to ridiculous to me when a $2 croissant would have sufficed.
People ask me why I like the US better and what I won't miss about Europe and this is a huge one - what I perceive as better customer service and availability of things when I want them. That is all so restricted around here...

Catching Up

I can't believe it has been 8 months since I wrote. Alot has happened in that time - nothing big but just fun moments while living in Germany. To catch you up before I complain about the cost of living here..

February - a fantastic 12 day cruise preceded by 3 days in Barcelona. Cruise went from Barcelona to Rome to Athens to Turkey to Egypt to Malta and back to Barcelona. This was cruise number 30 for me but the first for the kids and was fantastic. It was tough to get them out of the Kids' Club.

April - Made our extension to stay in Germany through June 2011 official. Who knows where we will end up thereafter but I will be pushing hard for Cleveland...unless they have some other wonderful place for us to spend some time.

May - Rebecca and I went on our first trip alone to celebrate our 10 year anniversary. We flew our babysitter (and essentially one of the family since she has been with us since Kate was little) from the US. She came a week early to "learn the ropes" - driving, taking the kids to school, meals, etc. The trip was fantastic. We drove first to Venice, then Florence, Pisa and then to the Cinque Terre, 5 gorgeous cities on the Italian Riviera. The first 5 days were full of museums and we were quite tired of museums by then. The last 4 days were relaxing - some hiking along the coast and sitting on the beach for the day. We even decided to come home a say early as we missed the girls. All was wonderful, Natalie did a fantastic job. Aside from my leaving $1,500 in cash in a safe in Florence...got it back but a few panicy hours.

May - My sister Becca, her husband Bryan and 2 year old son Ben (the B's) came over for 10 days. We had so much fun sharing with them where we lived, exploring the local area (castles, Frankfurt, etc) and they had a few day jaunt to Munich to check it out. Glad they could make it over before baby number 2 joins us in the next week or so!

June - Went to Berlin for a 4-day weekend. My firs trip back since January 1990, just after the wall came down and so much has changed. Construction everywhere and really a big city, cosmopolitan feel. Such fun to show Rebecca (a European history major) the wall, museum of the SS, Brandenburg Gate and many other very historical sites. We stayed in an apartment hotel that worked out well.

July - The family few home to Cleveland on the 2nd, originally staying for 5 weeks, though we extended it to 6 before we even left. Ended up changing it to 7 near the end of the trip. We had a great time seeing family in Cleveland, staying with Mimi, a week at the cottage swimming, jet skiing, etc. and just visiting with everyone. I flew home the 17th and the family stayed through August 16th. However, I was able to work on a project in Toronto, Canada so was in North America for the next month and got to visit every weekend. Not ideal but better than spending the summer in Germany alone! Kate and Lauren spent 4 hours a day in the pool at Rebecca's parents house and are swimming so well. Kate dove to the bottom of the 10 foot pool to fetch rings and Lauren is swimming all alone with no flotation devices. Really proud of them!

August/September - Back to school! Kate came home and discovered she had "two wobbly teeth" and the first fell out yesterday! She was sooooo excited. Kids enjoy their classes and it is nice to get back into the swing of things.

We are now gearing up for a trip to the Canary Islands in about 3 weeks for a week. We have rented a villa with a pool near the beach and expect a Florida-like atmosphere and weather. It is hard to find warmth in Europe after September but the Canary Islands are quite far south, off the Atlantic coast of Morocco. They are owned by Spain...though are about as far from Spain as Puerto Rico is from the US.

On to cost of living. We get a decent cost of living allowance to account for the difference between living in Cleveland and Frankfurt. And frankly, I believe it covers us pretty well as Rebecca and I are relatively frugal except for our wonderful travels. However it is times like yesterday that just blow my mind...

I took my car to the car dealer for the 65,000 mile check up and the cost was...$1,900. And that was without anything broken....just to change oils, lubricants, filters, general check up. The oil is about $40 a liter...so changing my oil was $200. With all other lubricants and filters, just the oil change was about $400. Compared with $20 in the US? Good fricking god. And every two years, cars must be inspected to allow them to remain driving. The findings on mine?

1. A small nick in the windshield, causing the ENTIRE windshield to have to be replaced.

2. A fog light was out

3. The light in the glove box was not working and needed to be replaced

4. The first aid kit that is mandatory in every car in Germany was missing.

5. A small piece that is part of the windshield wiper was missing and had to be replaced. But they don't have that piece separately so I needed entirely new wipers. Which, I had just replaced in May prior to our anniversary trip. Only $80. What a bargain.

And, of course, they couldn't fix any of these things as they don't carry the inventory of ANY of them so I had to make another appointment. Oh...and then ANOTHER appointment for a reinspection.

No wonder Germany has such a high GDP and strong economy. Their processes and laws ensure that so much money is spent on maintaining one's vehicle (and property - get this, you MUST pull your weeds in the sidewalk every 7 days or face a ticket, you MUST have all snow shoveled each morning by 7 am or be cited), therefore boosting the economy.

So for all the times I think we are saving some money on the cost of living increase, I have to be reminded of times like these. Car maintenance and housing....so expensive.

Christmas in Germany

The people of Germany get very "Christmas happy." Stores are filled with Xmas items and decorations in early October, the Christmas festivals (mentioned previously) are highly attended and (just like the US) people take the time off between Xmas and New Year's to recharge. However, the one thing that is sorely missed by my family are the Christmas lights and decorations. While driving at night, you might see a house with a few white or blue lights or a decorative Santa out front. But nothing like the US. Rebecca has always loved driving around and pointing out the lights to the kids and the kids have always been fascinated. So when we heard about a house in our town (that has been on the news and in the newspaper) that was highly decorated, we had to venture out to see it, though had quite low expectations as what the Germans call highly decorated we figured would be normal in the US. Quite wrong. We went to the house last night and were very surprised. The foot and car traffic was amazing - cars parked on all sides of the street for a few blocks and difficult to navigate and at least 50 people in front of the house looking at it. You could see the glow a few blocks away! Apparently, the male (60-70ish) owner of the house is a doctor and he and his wife have decorated the house (with much assistance, I imagine!) for a long time. He serves punch and hot drinks, she gives the kids little balls like those in ball pits at adventure parks. And they ask that you make a small donation that goes to the local children's hospital. Pretty neat and glad we made the effort for the trip!

Christmas Markets

One of the really historic and cool things about Germany is the Christmas markets. Most small towns (and some large) erect hundreds of stands in the central market area and every Saturday and Sunday in December these stands are filled with crafts, merchants, and things to eat. The markets are absolutely packed with people, but very cool. People standing around eating bratwurst, drinking gluhwein and beer and having a good time. There are some very famous ones in some of the medieval towns like Rottenburg ob der Tauber that have been going on for hundreds of years.

We decided to walk down to the one in our town today, about a 15 minute walk. It was about 40, but quite chilly. We got there and it was quite a small version with only about 50 stands, half of which were dedicated to eating and drinking. Germans love their sweets, so some cool stands selling chocolates, nuts, etc. Walking through with 2 strollers was quite tough as it was wall to wall people. Rebecca got her love - cotton candy.

In the center of all this was a carousel upon which kids could ride. There were about 15 places on the carousel, some on individual horses or motorcycles and some in cars that held four kids sitting. Tickets were required and had to be purchased at the ticket booth. There was quite a crowd around the carousel, which should have been my first sign to ensure the kids didn't see it. Too late. So I went up to get tickets and you could purchase 1 ticket, 5, 10, 20 or 50. Which seemed odd to me because this was the only ride there (should have been my second sign). I bought two for the girls and go back to Rebecca who appears wide eyed with fear. She quickly describes to me what happened when the carousel stopped - only about 2 of the 15 seats became vacated. And when you have 20 or so parents and kids waiting (not in a line, mind you, but just everywhere around the carousel) for those seats, mass chaos and anarchy prevailed. People and kids pushed and shoved to get their kids into those seats. And 18 of the 20 kids who tried to get the seats would come off the merry-go-round crying.

This happened several times and I stood there with Kate's hand in mine trying not to feel like a helpless, cowardly, meek father who didn't have the balls to push through the hordes of future carouselers to get his kid a spot. Finally we were able to get the girls on, both on the same ride even. And as we watched the goings-on for a bit longer, what apparently happens is that parents buy large amounts of these tickets, stand aside or in the drinking tents and drink beer and gluhwein. And each time the carousel starts, they run out and give their kid another ticket so they don't have to dismount.

Absolute insanity. I have grown accustomed to the European way of getting bumped into, people not saying excuse me and being a little more pushy. But I was astounded that any true civilized person would set the carousel up this way. Though, when I think about it, the ride was full every time and they were getting paid. So what did they care? And parents don't have much of a choice once their kids see the carousel. Oh, and there was this little 7 year old gypsy kid with earrings collecting the tickets each time. Quite a sight...Pictures to be attached soon.

And the kids got to meet St Nikolaus, who comes on the night of the 4th of December and fills up boots or slippers that kids place by their doors with candy.

Car buying and weather related observations

I was over here in Germany a few weeks before the family, back and forth for a project. We were selling our cars in the US and needed to buy two new ones here. I wanted to fit in as well as to drive a nice car so planned on getting a small Mercedes, Audi or BMW sedan like my Camry. I did a little research, knew about what I wanted, went to Mercedes and found a used one with 40,000 miles on it and bought it. Didn't shop around, didn't try BMW or Audi. It was about what I wanted to saw so need to go out and try to find something that might be a small improvement (in contrast to Rebecca, see comment below).

So...the trip to work this morning took an hour, much longer than the usual 20-25 minutes, due to a large quantity of snow that had fallen and continued to fall. We had been told there would be no snow here and have been quite surprised. How does this tie into the car conversation? Mercedes and BMWs have rear wheel drive and are absolutely shit in the snow. And it is even worse as I live up some pretty steep hills that are difficult to traverse in rear wheel drive. As I was rather indifferent between the 3 car manufacturers, had I known that this would be a problem, I would have gone straight to Audi and not looked back. Oh well...live and learn. Next time I move to a foreign country I will be more prepared.

Rebecca on the other hand had to essentially go look at, sit in and drive (where possible) every possible car that might be in contention for her driving pleasure. A painful two day process but ended up with a VW Passat wagon and we both love it. It actually won out over Audi, BMW and Mercedes.

And, by the way, I never saw one salt truck or snow plow on the way to work this morning.

Southern Trip

Just back from a driving tour of southern Germany, some of Switzerland, Austria and Liechtenstein. My mom, aunt and uncle came over for 9 days and leave today...:( It will be tough to see them go but my father is now planning on coming for 4 weeks (some work, some play) beginning Dec. 23.

There was alot of driving on the trip and the kids were fantastic. About 20 hours in 5 days, some through blinding snow storms but most through the most gorgeous scenery in the world. Both Rebecca and my uncle had not traveled in the area so the goal was primarily to give them a good flavor. We initially drove to Lucerne, Swtizerland, a gorgeous old town on a lake with old covered bridges crossing the lake. The next day we drove to Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany, home of the largest mountain in Germany at about 10,000 feet. We took a train up the inside of the mountain to the first plateau at 9,000 feet and a cable car to the top. The view was gorgeous (pics to follow soon). We then took a cable car to the bottom.

The next day we went to Castle Neuschwanstein, an unbelievable castle that Walt Disney modeled his castle in Disney World after. Kate was in heaven! We then drove to Salzburg, Austria for two nights. A wonderful city with great walking through the old town and stores. An incredible christmas market was set up that was quite fun to walk through. On our drive home we stopped in Rothenburg, considered by many to be the most charming medieval town in Germany. Fun to walk around and shop.

A great trip and fun to spend time with everybody. They will be sorely missed (especially over the holidays).

Odd names

I drove up to a city called Grevenbroich yesterday to spend the day at a new client to attend some meetings. Most Germans would have taken the train system as it is economical and easy to use. But I haven't done so yet and didn't want to do it early on a morning when I HAD to be there for a 10 am meeting. So I drove, which resulted in my windshield getting cracked by a damn rock. But that is not the story here. As I approached Köln (Cologne to Americans), I passed a bus (see picture above). It just made me laugh...It is indeed a true bus company and has been around for many years...