A concert in Germany

(Continuing to post blog entries that I started but never finished.  This was from March 2010).

I went to my first German concert last night. I am a fan of Kevin Costner (the actor) so I thought I would go to see his band, "Kevin Costner and Modern West" since they would be in nearby Nuremberg.

Kevin Costner sings? Yes...

"MODERN WEST GOT ITS START when my wife (Christine) encouraged me to reconnect musically with John Coinman. I wasn’t really sure after all these years how it might work. I wasn’t really sure what to say. But if life has taught me anything it was not be stopped by the question or the unknown. F… it, what do I have to lose but maybe some of the best times of my life? I made the call to Tucson. “John what do you think?” He never hesitated, willing to explore the idea. But it was always more than just an idea for me. It was a feeling that I had been unable to articulate. For a long time now I have felt the need to connect with people in a more meaningful way than just the autograph. I have found myself here and around the world in different situations where the only exchange has been just that…a quick signature on the run usually followed by a “gee, he’s taller than I thought.” I always thought that music could build a stronger, more personal moment for me. It would create the opportunity for a genuine exchange much greater than the movie, TV interview or magazine. It would be real, full of mistakes and without apology. But most of all there would be the chance to have some fun. The question was, would it work? I thought it could but I wasn’t really sure. I had been out on creative limbs before, and this felt familiar. "

A friend of mine and I went to the Meistersingerhalle in Nuremberg for the concert. We got there just at 8:00pm (start time on the tickets) and started to find our seats (no ushers). We were walking up the aisle when the lights went off and the warm up act started. I guess I shouldn't have been surprised that German concerts start exactly on time!  This of course is not the case in the USA.

Kevin Costner entered from the back of the hall and walked up to the stage down the main aisle.

The crowd was on the older side and German...most of them politely sat in their seats the entire concert.


We decided "heck with that" and went up front to the stage!

 

 

Alles in Ordnung?

Alles in Ordnung is a very common phrase you might hear in Germany.  It means "All in Order?" or "All Right?".  Ordnung is very important to Germans! The stereotype of Germans is that they are orderly and efficient...and in general this is very true.

1) Shopping Carts
When I first arrived in Germany I went to the "Rewe" grocery store and I saw the following.  If you can't make it out, it is black accented shopping carts on the left and pink accented carts on the right.

You must realize that by definition all shopping carts in Germany are the kind that you have to put a Euro (or Euro-sized Chip) in to unlock the cart and to get your Euro back you have to return the cart.  In the USA you may remember Costco doing something like this for a while. So that is efficient right there.

My First thought:  Black Carts for boys and Pink Carts for girls?

My Second thought: No way can Germans be that organized to put back the carts by color voluntarily!

My Third thought:  Let's be contrary and try to put a pink cart on the black cart side.

My Fourth thought:  That didn't work!

My conclusion:  Germans are that organized, but in a different way than I thought.  The carts are designed so that only the black can go with black, pink with pink, blue with blue (when you get out farther in the parking lot there are other colors), etc. because that way you can have no more than 20 carts per cart slot.  Also, if you have to put your cart back with its color mates, then if you got a cart close to the shop you have to return a cart close to the shop. If you get a cart in the far reaches of the parking lot, you have to return it there too.  You never end up with too many carts near the store, for example and you don't have to pay someone to move the carts around or round them up.

2) Package Delivery
Package delivery can be like in the USA where somebody knocks on your door and sees if you are home.  If not they may give have the neighbor sign for the package.  If it is mailed you might have to pick it up from the Post Office if you are not home.  But there is another way as well.

You get a postcard in your mailbox.

Then you go down to the nearby Packstation which is just a couple of blocks away from us next to the OBI (Like Home Depot).

You scan in your Postcard and then one of the doors pops open and there is your package!

3) Rathaus  (Town Hall)
When I got my German Driver's License I had to give my NJ driver's license to the town hall for them to hold on to. I guess they would prefer that you only have one license at a time so that you can't get traffic tickets on both of them.  So one time when traveling back to the USA I thought I would swap my German DL for my NJ DL (why I have to pay 10 Euros for that, I don't know!)  Anyway, I think how it worked is you would go to a computery thing that you would indicate what type of service you want and then you would get a number to know when it is your turn.  You sit and you see this:

When your number (Nummer) is called, it shows you what desk (Platz) to go to.  Very efficient!

4) Parking

When you are driving around town and want to park in a parking garage, it is nice to know if a parking lot has free spaces even before you enter.  Even for the Siemens location it will let you know if there are spots available.  This is also at our local Mall... on a busy day it will say "0" and you know that either you should find parking elsewhere or you will have to wait to get in.  It also shows you once you get inside if a given level of the parking garage still has spots.

At indoor airport parking they often have lights above the parking spaces that show green if the spot is empty so you don't even have to drive down a row to see if there is a free spot.  I did learn early on that "Parking Frei" means that there are some free spaces available in the garage, not that you don't have to pay! :-)

 5) Garbage/Recycling Pick-up

At least in our neighborhood they are very efficient about garbage pick up.  They have to be because they pick up Bio-waste once a week, Paper once a month, Garbage every two weeks, and Recylable packaging every two weeks. The sanitation workers come by and take your can (blue in this case, Paper) and wheel it to the curb.  Then the truck comes by and loads it.  THEN THE WORKERS PUT YOUR CAN BACK!

Of course efficiency can be a double-edged sword....This past Christmas we had our mail held while we were in the US. Usually when we hold our mail the day we get back we get a giant envelope full of mail.  This time we didn't...we just got mail starting from the day we got back.  I asked at the post office and called the mail people about our mail...they just couldn't fathom how the system could not work properly.  I asked the postman but he said that his colleague had delivered it...but this was not the case.  We kept calling and I think it turns out that one of the postmen said he tried to deliver it but we weren't home (of course not, we were on vacation) so he sent it back.  I still don't exactly believe that story but we did eventually get it!

Neunhof

(Continuing to catch up on old posts!)

In September my friend L and I went on a close-by adventure in the town of Neunhof.

First we went to the Schloss (Castle) Neunhof. Here are the surrounding gardens.

The Schloss.

The silent guards...

The moat.

Then we walked into town to find the Krafthof (fortified church).

Inside the walls.

Inside the church.

Then we searched for the remains of a nearby Labyrinth. After wandering about and asking for directions, we found it. "Irrhain" (crazy grove) circa 1676.

This is a sign that shows you the current paths (red) and the ruins of the old labyrinth garden.

On the way back we took a short cut through the farms. This is some kind of house in a greenhouse!

Mmmm...cabbage.

Carrots imprisoned.

Dahlias we saw on our walk through town.

Ski Trip to Austria - 2011

Our children's school's PTO organizes a ski trip every year in mid-January. They have off for
"report card preparation" on the Friday. The ski trip is to Filzmoos, Austria where there are many ski resorts to choose from. We stayed at the Hotel Unterhof.

View of the pool...

Collecting the kids and bringing them to ski lessons in the "Schikinder Express" (Ski Kids Express).

View from the bottom of the ski slope across from the hotel.

View from atop the mountain.

The girls looking on.

Everyone is taking a break!

Bunny "mascot" that hangs around the lodge on top of the mountain.

One evening there was an outing where you would eat dinner at the lodge at the top of the mountain and then sled down after. Unfortunately we had to hike up half of the mountain and then a wagon picked us up for the rest of the trip. You ride these sleds down a winding "road" that is covered in snow. It is up to you not to fall off the side or bump into anyone. Not the US fear of lawsuits here.

When you get to the bottom, no more sledding!

At the bottom of the hill there was a cemetary...Evidently this is the tradition of Austria....Wrought iron grave markers.

Cemetary at night...

While walking in the town of Filzmoos...

The weekend we go there is a balloon festival as well.

The peak of "Bischofmutze" (Bishops hat).

See also our 2010 trip to Austria

http://ger-seygirl.blogspot.com/2010/03/austria-2010.html

Seasonal Foods

In Germany I notice more seasonal foods...or maybe I notice them because they are novel to me. There is Spargel (Asparagus) season, Cherry Season, Plum Season, etc.

However, one must be very careful: There is a big difference between

KARPFEN Time

and

KRAPFEN Time.

I much prefer Krapfen time. Krapfen are like jelly donuts, but they can have various fillings such as Baileys Liquor, Eier Liquor (Eggnog Liquor), Nougat (like Nutella) and various jellies as well.

In Bavaria, Krapfen are mainly prepared and eaten during the days and weeks before Ash Wednesday, the beginning of the Christian season of Lent. This period of time is called Mardi Gras or Carnival, and in German, it's known as Fasching.

There are many explanations as to why Krapfen are eaten primarily during this time of year, but most accounts attribute it to diet. As early as the middle ages, these sweet, fat-laden treats were eaten by the faithful in order to bulk up before 40 days of fasting during Lent.

Mmmmm....Donuts!

You know you have been driving too long on Germany when....

1) You forget about Right turns on Red
2) You think people drive too slowly on the NJ Turnpike (80 mph? Is that all?)
3) You keep looking to the right for cars (in Germany, unless posted , cars coming from the right have right of way)
4) You think the gas station attendents are too slow

Our trip to the USA

What was supposed to happen:

The girls didn't get out of school until Dec 23 so we decided not to try to get to the USA for the holidays until Dec 26 so we could spend a quiet Christmas at home without worrying about missing it. Also there were activities we wanted to do the first week of January in the USA so we were going to return Jan 6th. We were supposed to fly from Munich to Newark, NJ on Dec 26, rent a car at the airport, and then drive to our destination.

What really happened:

On the morning of Dec 26, Snowmageddon hit the East Coast of the USA. We had heard whispers of a Nor'Easter so before we left for Munich we checked the status of the flight.
There was a CANCELLED next to our flight to Newark. $#&@. It says contact your carrier.
We contact Lufthansa but they really cannot help us on the phone. Really? In 2010?
We have to go to the airport. But who wants to drive 1.5 hours to Munich in the snow to maybe not be able to do anything? So we decided to drive to the Nuremberg Airport (only 20 minutes away) and see if they can help. We took all our luggage with us in case we could get on some kind of flight somewhere. We were trying to get a flight to an alternate destination on Dec 26 and the lady thought she had gotten us a flight to Boston, but when she printed out the reservations it said Dec 27th. No, that isn't what we wanted. Start over. Eventually we got a flight from Munich to Zurich to Washington DC (Dulles) on Dec 27th. We thought Dulles might end up being south of the storm and we could take the Amtrak train up to New Jersey and if we couldn't, we booked a hotel in Washington just in case. This flight leaves at 9:00am so we decide to drive down to Munich that afternoon directly from the Nuremberg Airport and stay at a hotel at the airport so we wouldn't have to get up at 4:00am.

After a snowy drive we get to the airport and eat at our favorite Airport Thai restaurant. Of course European hotel rooms usually only have one double bed and don't allow 4 people so we have to get two rooms. ($$$) We get up early and get on our flight to Zurich which is less than an hour flight. We have about an hour between flights so we hustle to the next flight and get on with no problem. Then we sit and wait to take off. And wait. Annnnnd wait. It was a 11:15 flight so after 3 hours we are getting bored and hungry. Sorry, the video system only works above 10,000 feet. But they ordered some sandwiches for us. The issue is that there is some de-icing part that isn't working. They are trying to fix it. The hubby reports later (he was upgraded to first class) that the Pilot talked to the first class passengers and said that the airline (United) wanted to wait until the part came (hours later) but the pilot said that he wasn't going to do that to the passengers so he postponed the flight until the next morning. As it was a airline issue they were going to put us up in a hotel and give us food vouchers. We sat and munched on our sandwiches and the economy passengers started to realize that hey, we can get off the plane if we want! So we asked if we can, and then we started deplaning. We picked up our luggage and then made our way to the hotel shuttle vans....There were a few, but each only held 14 passengers and had a little trailer to hold the luggage. We told the girls to get on and save us seats while we put the luggage in the trailer. The girls valiently defended our seats and we squeezed on. We got to the Movenpick hotel and played cards and ate and relaxed. Other people went into Zurich but we just kind of hit the "pause" button on our trip and spent family time together. 6:00 am we were up and at the bus to the airport (fortunately a large bus)...too bad our free breakfast started at 6:00am also! (although there were some coffee and croissants out).

So now it is Dec 28th and we really don't even want to go to Washington anymore! The storm is over. But that is not the airlines problem. We change our Amtrak reservation to the next day, cancel the Wash. hotel, and change our rental car reservation. We fly to Washington....too bad the little one's video screen didn't work and we had no idea what movies were playing as they did not match up with what was in the airline magazine...but we found a couple and shared the video screen. As we land we notice that Washington got no snow at all (there is 30 inches at our destination!). We take the super shuttle ($) to Union Station and catch the Amtrak Acela ($$$). We get a nice four person table and play cards and use the wi-fi. We take the Amtrak to Newark, and get off and then take the NJ Transit train back one stop to the Newark Airport Stop. Then we take the airport monorail to the rental car area. Firnally (around 8:00pm on Dec 28th) we drive down to our destination.

Whew!