Sunday, February 27, 2011

Building with the heads

This weekend has been a bit busy with work seeing our customer is coming into town this coming week and I am trying to soak in 6 months worth of information in 4 weeks.  So I had to work most of the weekend and didn’t get to travel too far away from the hotel.  I did manage to get my walks in.  My walks take about an hour to complete and the place where I turn around in Bietigheim there is an unique building.  I know I am suppose to be admiring the old buildings and the history but, this building was built in 2002.  It’s a restaurant on the bottom and I think they are apartments on the top.  I guess I never really looked at what was inside the upper four floors.  The outside of the building is built in common brown brick but what makes it unique is that they have these heads of people and animals that stick out of the building.  I thought it was neat.  It took a few times by it to find out that there was a write-up about it and they are heads of famous people.  There are Mother Teresa, Tokyo Rose, and Albert Einstein to name a few.





Then I went by it at night and it really caught my eye.  They have lights on the outside that are positioned in such a way that it looks like it’s just the heads being light up and coming out of the building. 




Hopefully I will have more time next week to do something fun.

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Observations in Germany

I have been in Germany for four weeks now and have noticed a few things that are interesting and different than the United States:
  1. Pretty much everyone greets each other in the morning with a handshake and saying  Guten Morgen (good morning)
  2. Most of the Germans do not come to work early.  I have seen people show up as late as 9, 9:30, and 10:00.
  3. Most all the works take a couple breaks during the day and meet in either lounge area or a gathering place and have a snack,  a drink, and chat for 15 to 20 minutes.  From the way they are talking I don’t think its about work.
  4. The Germans tend to be pushy when getting on to and off planes and trains.
  5. The beer taste better over here.  Don’t know what it is but it is better. 
  6. Most of the Germans do not work late.  I stay until 6:30 and there isn’t very many people in the office at that time.
  7. The traffic lights go from green, yellow, then red like ours but at the end of the red light the yellow comes on at the same time to let you know its going to turn green.
  8. The floors of the building start with the ground floor being 0 and one story up is the 1st floor, and the next is the 2nd.  This makes scene when you think of it unlike our that start with the 1st floor and you go up one floor and your on the 2nd floor.
  9. They eat a lot of breads.  I see at breakfast many people take three and four rolls for themselves along with the rest of there breakfast food.  The bread has a hard crust on it.  Like it has bake a few minutes too long but its like this everyday.
  10. The stores are only open until 8 pm Monday thru Friday and only until 1 pm on Saturday.  They are closed on Sundays.  This even goes for there malls.  The mall is open until 10pm but only on Thursday. The restaurants are open later and grocery stores are open later on Saturday but closed on Sunday.
  11. In restaurants they charge for a glass of tap water.  The one place I went to was 1.45 Euro.  The McDonalds charged for ketchup for French fries.  In the coffee machines they charge extra for cream.  All of the grocery stores charge for bags and you have to bag them yourself (Not just at Aldi’s).
  12. The Germans go for walks.  On Sunday I though I was in a protest march there was so many people.  Turns out the were just out for a walk on a nice sunny Sunday.
  13. The beer taste better over here.
  14. Things that are not old in Germany are old compared to the US.  I was in a restaurant that was built in 1552 but the town was founded in 800.  Yes over 1200 years ago.
  15. The radio stations play English songs in English but the radio announcers talk in German.
  16. The currency has coins for the one and two euro denomination unlike us who has the paper dollar.  Everyone has a change holder as part of there wallet.
  17. The cost of gas is 1.37 euro per liter or $7.00 per gallon.  So quite complaining.
  18.  Did I say the beer it better over here.   

That’s it for now but I will keep my eyes and ear open and let you know of any other differences.

Sunday, February 20, 2011

Brass Band

This weekend turned out to be gray and lazy so I didn’t do any traveling.  I did talk to one of my coworkers (Diana) and she said if I wasn’t doing anything to go to downtown Bietigheim-Bissingen and that they were having a 90th year celebration of the brass band and that she was in it.  She told me roughly where it was going to be. The building was interesting; it looked to me like an old barn with the rounded doors and big wooden beams inside.




 Well I didn’t plan on going to it but during my 2nd hour long walk of the day I happened to run across where it was at but everyone was all dressed up in suits and ties.  I wasn’t going to go until I was spotted by Diana.  She came outside and said that it was no problem for me to be dressed in jeans and a sweatshirt  and I figured it would be good to get culture in lieu of watching tv that I can’t understand. 

So I went in and they played a few songs then they gave some speeches and presentations (all in German of course)  but I could follow along that they were going through the history of the band and where they had been.  They actually have performed in New York in a parade and in Toronto to name a few of the places that I could recognize.  After that they played a few more songs and then they had an elementary band come in and play a few songs.  They were pretty good to if you ignored a few of the squeaks and out of tune notes. Then the fun began for me.  The music quite and the food and drinks came out.  They had a lot of pastries and everything to drink from champagne, beer, wine, juice, and pop.  Actually there was another person from Durr there so I talked to him, his friend, and Diana who shared there stories about going to Florida and California.  This whole thing lasted about 2 ½ hours.  So I had a good evening out that started out as just a stroll through the town.  

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Poland

I have been a bit busy at work so I don’t have a lot to talk about in way of what I have been up to but I do have a few things that I did before I started the blog so I will discuss these.  After about 5 days in Germany I had to travel to Poland to visit one of our divisions.   This took place February 1st through the 4th. To get there we had to fly from Stuttgart to Zurich, Switzerland then to Warsaw, Poland.  From Warsaw we had an hour drive south to a town called Rodom.  I had been to this town about 4 years ago.  Let me tell you things have changed a lot in the 4 years.  When I was there I didn’t see McDonalds, Burger King, and IKEA stores.  The road to Rodom was now a two lane divided highway.  The last time I was on it there was parts that were done but no overpasses or gas stations or restaurants. There use to be parts of it that weren’t even paved.  Now it’s has gas stations, hotels, houses, business’s  and restaurants every couple of miles.  Once in Rodom the hotel that we stayed at 4 years ago didn’t have a television in it and it was so small that when you opened up the door you almost hit the bed.  Now the rooms were very updated and looked like one you would find in the United States.  They had wireless internet which worked in the room unlike at the hotel I am living at in Germany. 

 The one thing that I was looking forward to at work in Poland was the lunch.  Last time I was there we had pirogues each of the three days that I was there along with water down potato soup, mash potato’s, and water downed grape juice.  This time it still had the water down potato soup, grape juice, and mash potato’s but we had stuffed cabbage wrapped around hamburger and rice one day and meat gravy over buckwheat the other day.  Granted they were ok just not the pirogues that I was looking for.  I did get some pirogues at the hotel for dinner one night and they were very good. The landscape in Poland is very similar to Michigan.  That must be why there is such a large number of Polish people in Bay City.  They came over to America and said hey this looks like home lets live here.  We left for the airport early in the morning so I didn’t get to many good pictures but you can get the drift.




On the flight back I took a few pictures of Zurich and found the river to lake that we walked to on our vacation a few years ago to Switzerland.


From the air you can see how the cities in Germany are grouped together and then lots of hills and or farm land around it.  Kind of neat to see it from the air.

Saturday, February 12, 2011

Ludwigsburg

Today’s adventure was a trip to a town called Ludwigsburg.  It is about 3 stops and about 15 minutes away by train.  This town had quite a bit more hustle and bustle  that my town.  The architecture was quite different also.



There was even a McDonalds in a non typical building for a McDonalds.


There was a walking area that had shopping and a market square where they were selling fruits and vegetables.  I was told there are a few of these market squares in the city and each has a different type of thing they are selling.  Along with this one with fruits and vegetables there is one that just has kids toys.  I didn’t see that one.

The main purpose of the trip was to go to the Palace Ludwigsburg.  This palace started in 1704 and was the residence of Eberhard Ludwig.  The grounds are probably about 15 acres with manicured trees and hedges.  They had planted some pansy’s but from the pictures it will be very pretty in the spring and summer time.



The residence itself was a square and now has 4 or 5 different museum’s in it.  I didn’t go to any of these but  the thing that caught my attention was all the statues and figurines that were in, on, and around the house.   They had a lot of detail on it and some quite interesting combinations


 

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Bietigheim-Bissingen


In my new life in Germany my home city is Bietigheim-Bissinen.  This city is the last stop on the S-5 train so this means its one of the furthest outlying suburbs.  Its about a 20 minute train ride from the center of Stuttgart.  The so called suburbs here are all built or at least seem to be built around some sort of train stop.  You go from one city to another and there is farms, fields, and woods between then.  A lot of the towns have an old city portion to them and then they have expanded outward as the years go on.  From my hotel which is in the new city it is about a 30 minute walk to the old city.  Along the way there is a nice paved bike/walking trail that goes along the river and heads to the old city.  Along the way there is a bridge that is used for trains.  I think its quite neat in it architecture

Then you walk past a indoor water park, a few shops and you get to the entrance of the old city.
Inside this entrance there is for the most part only people and bikes with the occasional dog.  It has the old feel to it but most of the shops are modern.  Some of the buildings you can tell have been updated but they kept the original old world feel to them.  There is everything from restaurants, drug stores, jewelry stores, and ice cream shops.  They are all closed during the week by 8 pm and on Saturday by 1pm except for the restaurants.  Sunday not much moves in Germany on that day with even a lot of the restaurants are closed.  The inner city has quite a few statues.  It seems like on every cross road there is one.


This whole old city is maybe a quarter of a mile long.  So its not that big but entertaining to see.  On the walk back to the hotel you can keep going along the water and it has a very up north Michigan feel to it.  Without the snow of course.

I have been told that a town two train stops away is a lot better to visit.  That might be is weekends trip or I might go to Stuttgart.  We'll have to see...






Sunday, February 6, 2011

Mercedes Benz Museum Outting

Today myself and Garry (another US guy that has been here in Germany since October of last year) decided to visit the Mercedes Benz Museum.  Garry had been there before but decided it was better to go again than to sit in his apartment on a nice (~50 Deg) day.  The trip there as most trips in Germany begin with a train ride.  The train system in Germany is pretty efficient with trains coming just about every 15 minutes.  That is except for Sunday where it is every half hour.  This trip we had to go from our stop to the main train station and catch another train.  On Sundays you just cant be in a rush with a limited train schedule.   It took us a little over and hour to get to our location.  Then from the train stop at NeckarPark it was only a 15 minute walk to the museum.
Once inside you can get an earphones and a device so you can hear all about each area in the museum.  This was nice but could be overwhelming due to the fact that each car you could listen to the technical aspect, the cultural aspect, or they had a section for children which was the simple message.  Then you got in an elevator and it took you to the top floor
and from there you walked along the outer portion of the building in a spiral until you were back at ground level.  At the top they started you off from the beginning showing all the old inventions that they had done from a motorcycle, to propelling a blimp, to a train trolley type thing, and then to the car.



Then you spiraled around from time period to time period and they showed what cars were build and what in the world was happening at the time.  Then they had a few rooms that had some different vehicles in them and they were named things like the car carrier room where they had big trucks in it that, you guessed it carried cars, the one room that I found my favorite truck was the "helper" room.  It is a snow blowing truck.
Then another cool room was the celebrity room.  In there they had cars from the German chancellor, a bus that the German soccor team the won the world cup or something rode in, and these two: the first is from the Jerasic park move and the next is the Pope mobile.


Then the next room was all about race cars.  A lot to see in here.


Then there was a few areas about alternative fuel, concept cars, and technology.  Nothing to exciting in these areas so no pictures.  This whole walk in the museum took us 2 1/2 to 3 hours and we by no means looked and listened to everything but we were pretty much Mercedes-Benzed out for the day.  As we walked back to the train station we saw a train leave the station meaning that we had 30 minutes before the next one would arrive again.  I should of been smarter from my other travels in Europe to always check the train schedule when you get off so you can plan better.  It was ok we just took in the warm weather and sunshine and looked around at the hillside with the vineyards and old buildings.  The train ride back to the hotel was uneventful but the whole trip was a good way to spend a Sunday.  This whole excursion took us from start to finish about 7 hours.  Now I am going to take it easy and hope that I can find a channel on TV that will show the Superbowl even if it does start here at 12:30 at night.  I have a feeling I might be a little tired tomorrow at work.

Saturday, February 5, 2011

The First Blog

Hello all.  I have decided to try to write a blog instead of trying to remember who I have said what to and to whom I have forgot to tell things to.  In other words this will make it easy for me not to have to repeat myself so much and try to share with you my travels and adventures.   As you all are aware I am in Germany right now for work and am staying in a town call Bietigheim-Bissingen.   I will in the next couple of days try to catch everyone up to what I have done and seen in the last week.