July 7, 2003

Monday. Monday in any country is sometimes just another Monday. Here in Oberursel today was no different. Spent the day working. Waiting for something to come from our client so we could proceed forward with our work, which is why I’m here. Today is a reminder that I’m here to work. Yucky. So, spent the day working, worked 10 hours, and then went to dinner in a nearby village, Stierstat, at the Zum Hirsch. Again, typical German food, Wiebelschnitzel (breaded and fried port with caramelized onions) with Bratkartoffeln (homestyle potatoes). Decided I’d had enough beer and apple wine, today I ordered a Johnny Walker and Sprite. It was no replacement for my usual 7&7 with lemon, especially the 4 ice cubes they gave me, but it was a pleasant change over the usual German options.

Since I didn’t take any pictures today, really wasn’t in the mood, I would like to comment on some of my German observations. Maybe I’m merely complaining, some of it I can simply laugh about, but this is definitely NOT a capitalistic country.

1. The Germans work 9 to 5 with an hour for lunch. Many of the stores are legally only open from 9 am until 6 pm, oftentimes closed from 1 pm to 3 pm for lunch. So, if you have errands to do, they must happen during the work day on your own lunch hour, coinciding with some places being closed down. Does that make any sense?

2. The Germans really aren’t that friendly. In one town I was told that I should drink the “normal coffee” that the locals drink when I requested a café au lait. The lady told my colleague, “We are only a café, people drink normal coffee here because we serve normal coffee.” Somehow I was under the impression that a café was a place that served coffee, but what the hell do I know, I’m merely a “stooooooopid American.”

3. Yes, they do think we are “stoooopid” here. They would say it’s because they are superior to us. I say let them think what they want. It’s all a silly battle that I’m not going to get involved in. I enjoy laughing about it, and mocking myself for my stupidity.

4. Germany is a beautiful country, and they are very neat, clean and environmentally friendly here. It’s a very admirable quality nationwide, and even at the office we have paper, glass, and plastic bins, plus composting. Germany is also very agricultural and the produce here is amazingly fresh and organic, much better than the genetically altered stuff we get in the States.

5. The German’s have a funny habit of serving particular beers and wines in certain glasses. Seems silly, but they are very adamant that a Pilsner goes in a pilsner glass, and apple wine goes in an apple wine glass. So ordering is always a treat because the glass varies with the beverage. However, you cannot get a glass of water here. A simple glass of water, no bubbles, no minerals, nothing special. You can always get bubbly, carbonated, mineral water. They have convinced themselves this mineral water is the best thing since sliced bread. Again, not a battle I’m going to fight, but something to complain about when you really just want a simple glass of water.

6. The gasthaus’ (bed and breakfast) here must serve you, by law, breakfast. So every morning we have a family style breakfast with the rest of the guests in the place, and the family that runs it. Typical meal includes coffee, tea or juice, fresh rolls, butter, jam, soft boiled eggs, cheese (kase) and of course wurst. The German’s love their wurst (liverwurst, bloodwurst, bratwurst), you name it, they serve it. I’ve actually enjoyed our gasthaus. It’s in a quiet residential neighborhood of single family homes and duplexes, has a biergarten (meaning it serves food and alcohol in the evening), and the rooms are neat, clean, and comfortable.

7. The Germans, and I’m told Europeans, do a lot of walking. I like it. We walk everywhere here, even though we have a car. It’s a very pedestrian friendly place, but not in the “People’s Republic of Boulder” sort of way, but in a “this is just how it’s done” sort of way. The trains are very user friendly, and it’s faster to get into Frankfurt, 15km south of here, via train, than it is to drive. Plus, you again get to walk, which is always beautiful (and good for you!).

8. Finally, I just have to say, I miss seafood and fish. The Germans do eat trout, mostly farm raised, and I’ve seen some shrimp on a few menus, but for the most part you eat schnitzel (pork). You can have it breaded and fried with onions, or with brown gravy and mushroom sauce, or plain, or with green sauce. You rarely find chicken on a menu, or if you do, say in the Chicken Burrito at the Mexican restaurant, it’s really turkey. You also eat a lot of potatoes (I think I’ve seen rice on one menu) and you can get those pomme frittes (fried), salted, baked, or bratkartoffeln (sautéed). The salads are great due to the fresh produce, and I enjoy the yogurt dressing that comes with all salads, its very fresh and tasty with different herbs.

Outside Bernkastel

July 6, 2003

When we woke up in Bernkastel we did the touristy thing after breakfast, buying souvenirs, gifts for friends, and postcards. We then headed out of town and drove through some of the vineyard roads, enjoying the miles and miles of grapevines.

We drove up and over the hills, through Graach, to bypass one of the meandering curves of the Mosel River and ended up in Wolf, and then Traben-Trarbach. The hill we crawled over had beautiful meadows and a spectacular view.

We continued driving, occasionally stopping in some quaint town, or crossing the river to view castle ruins. Finally around lunch time it was decided that we needed cheese cubes and wine, and so we stopped in Beilstein and hiked up to the castle ruins to have lunch at the restaurant there. The Ruine Metternich had a beautiful view of the Mosel River and the town below, and the restaurant there, the Burg Metternich, was decent and inexpensive.

We then headed up the Mosel and in the early afternoon and stopped in the city of Treis to purchase some wine from the Mosel Valley before heading back out of the valley to the Rhein River and then on into Oberursel via the autobahn and back to our gasthaus for dinner.

July 5, 2003

Today, after a morning of work, I wandered around the Taunus (town) of Oberursel to see their weekly Saturday outdoor market with all the fresh fruits, vegetables, flowers, baked goods, and wursts from the local farmers. They’ve apparently been holding this little market in the center of town for hundreds of years. People wander around with their baskets, buying the freshest ingredients. Apparently the Germans are a very self-sufficient country, importing very little from outside their own borders. This is where I’d like to comment on the socialistic nature of Germany, but I’m going to bite my tongue at the moment.

We headed out of town around 2:00 pm and hit the autobahn outside Weisbaden towards the Rhein River. We headed back down the Rheingau (vineyards) we had visited yesterday and went to Johannisburg, which is a very famous Riesling wine region. We stopped at this beautiful weingut (winery) to taste, buy, and wander around this beautiful estate established in the late 1800’s.

After we left Johannisburg, we headed around the Rhein River towards other smaller villages, including a stop at Bacharach, a cute village with castle ruins overhead and vineyards all around. The cobblestone streets and flower boxed windows were precious, and after stopping myself from taking hundreds of photos, we wandered around and enjoyed the many wine and tourist shops.

From Bacharach we headed out of the Rhein Valley and over to the Mosel River, traveling through numerous quaint villages and passing many castles and castle ruins. One of the more memorable ones was the castle and village of Cochem. Simply a spectacular little town sitting on the Mosel River.

From Cochem we headed straight to our final destination for the day, Bernkastel-Kues, another quaint village and castle on the Mosel. We arrived into town around 8 pm, with enough time to find a gasthaus with an available room and a great place for dinner with an enclosed patio overlooking the Mosel.

Happy Independence Day to my fellow Americans. Hmmmm, doesn’t really mean much over here in Germany. We had to explain to our German colleagues what the fuss was all about. One of them, Stefan, asked if it all started with the Boston Tea Party. That gave us Americans a good laugh.

We left the office this afternoon early, around 3 pm. Two German men, three American women. We headed off to German wine country, the Rheingau, in Stefan’s van, singing American music on the German radio station. We drove through some beautiful forest land here in Hussen to pick up a third German, Konstantin, who lived in a cute little old German house.

After that we were driving on the famous autobahn, over 100 kilometers per hour, to two little towns, Oestrich and Winkel, both on the Rhein River. We stopped at a little wine shop for a single tasting of a dry Riesling, and then went to the Josef Spreitzer winery to sample several styles of Riesling, including troken (dry), intertroken (semidry) and mild (sweet). We also tried the Kabinatt, Spatlese, and Doosberg, which has to do with the slope of the grapevines. All very complicated stuff, but in the end some very good wines were purchased by all. The red wines, however, the Spatbugunder Rotwein (or Pinot Noir), were not very tasty. A little too oakey, a little too smokey, a little too sherry-like. The German’s definitely make great white wines and have a lot to learn about red wines.

After the wine tastings we had dinner at a little biergarten and then headed back to Oberursel on the late side. All in all a great day with too much wine.

I enjoy my quiet morning walk to work through the cemetery. It’s actually quite a beautiful place, as strange as that sounds. It’s so over grown, green and lush,and so well cared for. I allowed myself to get a little lost today because I wanted to see how old some of the headstones were. Not too old, 1855 was the oldest I encountered. I sort of hoped for something really old. But then I remembered the 20 year limit and realized that you’d really have to be tracking your ancestors for there to be any really old gravesites that had survived that long.

At lunch I decided to go with my colleague Ann to run some errands. You have to take care of business here between 9 am and 6 pm because everything closes at 6 pm due to Government law except the restaurants, beer gardens, and pubs. We decided to grab a bite at a cheese shop, Kase Kracht, and ordered a glass of wine and a cheese sampler plate. What a good choice that was, our French waiter picked some awesome French cheeses from Normandy and we had 2 glasses of Pinot Grigio. Two hours later we headed back to work. This is the life. I may be moving to Europe soon. The Europeans know how to enjoy life, take things slower, and still be productive.

After work I sat on my balcony and wrote some postcards to friends and family and then napped to the sounds of a wonderful thunderstorm. Afterwards I went for a half hour walk to the next town over, Stierstadt, for dinner at Zur Sonne, a quaint old restaurant (known as a Gaststaette) with a fantastic view of downtown Frankfurt. I had a very traditional dish called Zwiebelschnitzel with Bratkartoffeln (breaded port cutlets with carmelized onions and home fries) and a salad with the house dressing, which is typically an herbed yogurt dressing. All very tasty, but enough to feed three people. I’m learning to divide and conquer on the food (and they say Americans serve too large portions).

view from my balcony

Woke up to a cool rainy morning and enjoyed a nice walk through a beautiful old cemetery to get to work. Apparently when you are buried, it’s for 20 years, and when your time is up, if someone doesn’t pay up, you are dug up and removed. How’s that for a restful life after death?

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My favorite part of the walk to work was the fact that on many residential corners you can buy cigarettes from one of these Tabaccoland machines. No need to run to the local convenience store, you can walk half way down the block, and the cigarettes are cheaper too, $3 Euros (pronounced Oy-roes in Germany). If the pack costs less that $3 Euros, than you’ll probably find change (10 or 20 cents) in your cigarettes when you get them out of the machine.

We decided to go hunt down Thai food for lunch, which led us on a beautiful walk through one of the villages. I was able to take some fun local photos of parks, one of the train station, and a SMART car, designed to fit into very small spaces at no more than . I don’t think my legs would fit inside, but I’m sure someone enjoys driving these little toys.

After work I had an exciting adventure getting some medicine for a heat rash I’ve developed on my stomach. Here you have to go to the pharmacist and tell them your symptoms and then they sell you very cheap prescriptions. Try talking to the so-called English-speaking pharmacists, three in all, explaining that your skin is bumpy, itchy and red, only to have them be clueless about what the word “rash” means. I was asked if I had a heart condition, or high blood pressure. Finally my colleague had to dig out her German dictionary and look up the word rash, aus schlag, to which the older male pharmacist finally smiled knowingly and gave me 7 days worth of pills (like I’m taking those things) and a gel to cool the skin. It was a very humorous, entertaining, and yet frustrating trip. I can’t wait to run out of Advil and have to go ask for more from the pharmacist with the explanation that I drink too much every night and need the ibuprofen for my daily hangovers.

Dinner was another local beer garden a few blocks from our hotel called Zum Groenen Baum. I had the traditional bratwurst with salted potatoes and a hefeweizen in a very large glass. Very good food so far, but very different from how I normally eat. Its all very heavy, meaty, and oftentimes contains some sort of organ meat (like the bone marrow soup – now that’s disgusting). The stroll back to the house was brief but entertaining, and included sighting this cute billboard and taking a picture of our gasthaus, the Zum Schoetzenhof (translation: at the protective yard).

July 1, 2003

After finally leaving work around 6:30 pm my colleague Ann and I took a train into Frankfurt. We wandered around downtown Frankfurt on foot and passed through this square that had been destroyed during WWII and rebuilt. Definitely a little hokey, but it was quaint and pretty.

We then headed across a steg or footbridge over the Main (pronounced Mine) River to an area called Sachsenhausen, an old part of Frankfurt not destroyed in WWII. The view as we crossed was awesome both ways because of the storm brewing in the background and the beautiful old buildings we were approaching.

It was really cool to sit in a local apple wine garden called Appelwoi Dauth-Schneider, eat traditional German food (fried breaded pork topped with mushroom sauce and served with spaetzle), and drink the local specialty, German apple wine. It was quiet for a Tuesday night, but I’m told that on the weekends all the tables at the local apple and beer gardens are crowded and noisy. I’m looking forward to returning some weekend to rub shoulders with the Frankfurters.

June 30, 2003

Left Denver yesterday at 9:15 am. Three day notice to pack and get to Germany for work. Not a bad place to be sent to “work.” Arrived in Frankfurt about 5:45 am and was picked up by an American named Kim. We were two tall blondes searching for each other in the airport, our paths crossing like ships in the night, totally clueless!. I of course forgot where she said to meet her, she picked the wrong terminal. In the end we actually found each other in a random hallway.

Kim drove me through rural, agricultural Germany to get to Oberursel (www.oberursel.de), the small village 15 km north of Frankfurt where I’m staying and working. It was not what I expected. Not sure what I expected, but this wasn’t it. Oberursel is part of Hessen, the northern part of Germany known for its forests, lakes, and rural villages. The Green Gate to the Taunus Region - that’s how the city of Oberursel likes to call itself. The forests of the Hochtaunus region reach the northern residential areas, and the western side of the city is surrounded by meadows.

Once in Oberurse, I happily got a shower and a nap at Kim’s apartment before going to eat lunch at a local beer garden, where I had sausage and red cabbage (big surprise). A short walk through Oberursel and I was back in medieval times with cobblestone streets, such a different feel than the States. Very quaint.

Finally went to Kim’s workplace to meet up with my colleagues. Spent the afternoon adjusting and getting settled into work. As you can see, we also spend the better part of the afternoon sampling white German wines. Very traditional here to have the fridge stocked with beer or wine and for drinking to commence around 4:30 pm. Not everyday, but often enough.

Monday night had dinner at a beergarten called Zum Schwanen, including traditional apple wine and a fantastic dish with home fried potatoes, hard boiled eggs, yogurt and sour cream sauce with fresh herbs, and a salad. The patio was lovely, with large cypress trees overhead, sheltering us from the rain. Finally stumbled home around 11 pm for my first “night’s sleep.