The 'Whale' a the Porsche Museum outside of Stuttgart

When I was younger I had a unhealthy fascination with Porsche automobiles. I don't know if it was the snob appeal, the speed, or the pure engineering that inspired it. I would like to think it was the idea of the high tech engineering since that was the discipline I choose to study in college.

For the longest time I used to spend hours in my basement as a kid meticulously constructing and painting small models of the Porsche classics. The 356, the 304, the 935, the 959, and the classic 911.

So when we were in Stuttgart for the Christmas markets I couldn't help but make a trip to my personal mecca and visit the Porsche production facility and museum just outside of Stuttgart in Zuffenhausen.

Porsche is in the processes of opening a new, huge museum that was supposed to be open in 2007. Unfortunately it is still in progress. So, we only got to visit the previous, and much smaller museum that only houses about 15 vehicles.

Of course the vehicles that are on display are all the most amazing models. All the ones that I have at home, just in 1:16 scale.

For the enthusiast the museum was great. The new larger museum is set to open January 31st 2009. So not to much longer to wait. Guess I'll have to schedule another trip to Stuttgart next year for the Christmas markets.

Watch For Falling Glass

Sign in Esslinger, Germany

The world has come to a sad state when we have to post signs asking people not to through glass bottles on the heads of others. That was my first thought when I saw this sign posted in Esslinger, Germany where we spent some time visiting a Christmas market this weekend.

What kind of behavior would warrant posting such a sign. Secondly, how often must this have been a real problem before the community requested, or the authorities decided that such a sign was necessary.

It is obviously a problem of epic proportions in Esslinger because even the man who is the target of the apparent bottle attack is depicted with one arm. He must have lost the other the last time he walked along the wall.

I was also thinking what would it be like to be the graphic designer responsible for designing this sign. Your boss comes in and says, "Hey, I have someone asking to make a sign to stop people from throwing bottles on people, can you put something together for me?"

As much as it is funny, it really is a bit sad.

Am I A Beer Snob?

One of Many Recently Sampled German Beers

So last week to celebrate the US election I bought a round of MGDs for some friends at work. I thought the imported American beer would be a fine way to celebrate the first tangible signal of the passing of the Bush era. Although the celebration in itself was good, the beer was terrible. This leads me to the question.....

Have I become a beer snob?

I remember when I was living the US and I was a genuine Miller man. Miller Light actually. Loved it. Much better than Bud. Yeah, I would really reach out once in a while and have a Michelob, or a Pabst Blue Ribbon if I was really feeling wild but I never understood all those Heineken types.

Why the heck would someone pay a couple of bucks more for that stuff from Europe. Beer is beer.

After moving to Europe I discovered the beer section at some of the big stores in Germany. Aisle upon aisle of half liter bottles in neatly stacked plastic crates. One can roam the halls and pick up a case, or if you so choose a single bottle from any case. And that is how it all began.

I took to the habit of grabbing a bottle here, and a bottle there. Always taking one bottle of something that I knew I liked, and a few others because the bottles looked pretty, or had funny names, or were from a region I had not heard of. This habit lead me on a path to try many different styles of beer over the last two years.

With all that experimentation I have found my preferred bouquet. I prefer beers in the Hefewiezen (Wheat Beer) style. Something like a Schneiderweiss or a Paulaner Hefe-Weissbier.

There is a bit of an art to pouring a good Weiss beer. There is a Spanish woman at a local tapas bar in in Baden that pours quite possibly the best weiss beer this side of the Rhine. It his difficult to explain the process but lets just say she puts every once of her concentration and effort into ensuring that you get the optimal pour if you so desire. When she serves you she asks you if you would liketo pour it, or if you would rather have her pour it for you. Only a fool would pass up the opportunity to have this seasoned veteran who has undoubtedly served hundreds of thousands of beers in her lifetime not pour you the most perfect, tall, cool, glass of weiss beer you have ever tasted. I found a fitting website that illustrates the practice. The best part about the site is it has pictures, and of course, the guy doing the pouring is wearing Lederhosen. (Note to those less informed, the part about rolling the bottle between your hands is key.)

I diverge briefly to speak fo Lederhosen. What a disappointing word once you learn German. I thought it would have some kind of great transaltion, like 'little funny pants that fat old beer drinking men wear on Tuesdays at Octoberfest.' Instead it just translates to 'leather pants' What a let down.

So after my continued sampling of some of those God awful 'European Beers' that I once despised I now begin to understand those guys. The beers here are a hell of a lot better than MGD, Coors, and I hate to say it, Old Style (sorry Mom). Ah, I fear it has happened, I have been transformed into a bit of a beer snob.

More on German Certification

This morning I am headed to the first class of my new German course. The objective on the new course is to learn German to a sufficient level to first pass the Geothe Institie B2 exam and then the C1 exam. The course I just completed a few weeks ago prepared me for the B1 exam.

To explain the levels a bit the B1 exam means you can comprehend general conversation and make some small talk. It by no means assumes you are fluent. The next level B2 I understand is sufficient proof for most businesses that you could work in in German. C1 means you are allowed to take University courses in German. I find it amusing that you need a higher level of German to study than take a job, although I assume you don't need too much German to be successful at a fast food restaurant.

Which leads nicely to a recent experience at a Subway. There aren't many Subway sandwich shops in Europe, or at least Switzerland. There aren't many places you can get what I would deem an American style sub sandwich really. So when we are traveling if we see a Subway sandwich shop we will often stop in for a lunch.

I was in Berlin traveling and we spotted a Subway, it was lunch time so of course we stopped in. It was Bizarre to see that despite being in a German speaking country the entire menu was in English. Despite the fact that the Menu was in English I still felt like I should order in German. So my order came out as "Ich Möchte Turkey und Ham auf Honey Oat." My travel partners started laughing behind my back because it was more English that German, but regardless for the rest of the order we communicated only in German as she asked me what I wanted on my sandwich.

This leads to another topic of tag lines for the Olympics. I have been watching the Olympics on Europsport and German sports channel. They have a couple of evening Olympics news magazine TV shows. The tag line for the shows is "News, Interviews, und highlights."

I find it funny that things are going in such a direction that often there is more English in German TV that German. When I was watching rowing the German commentator was going on about all the starters in the rowing race, naming each country in German and some background on the participants. When he got to lane 6 he says in clear English 'Last but not least......,' and then breaks back into German.

If regular Germans speak like this, then I have now doubt I'll pass my C1 certificate exam and be ready to take a few University level courses. I'm thinking of starting with 'English as a second language'.

Reichstag Dome

Dome At the Reichstag in Berlin, Germany

I was working on some of my photographs this week and came across a picture that I really liked from the dome of the Riechstag. I liked the composition but when viewed in color it just didn't seem to really stand out.

I spent a bit of time to crop it and convert to a high contrast black and white. I think in turned out much better this way.

Just for comparison, below is the original, as shot image.

Backerei Wehrle, Waldshut Germay

Yesterday was a Swiss national holiday. So for the day we took a trip to Waldshut Germany just across the boarder to do some shopping. We primarily went to get some things for our annual Erste August party. While we were there we also did some shopping for clothes and had some lunch.

When we spend any time in Waldshut we usually try to find a good loaf of nusszopf, a traditional German sweet bread that goes great with coffee or tea. You can't find it in Switzerland for some reason.

We have tried several different backeries in Waldshut but my new favorite has to be Backerei Wehrle located at the west end of the old town. It is a small shop, with three or four women behind the counter, and it is always crowded. All the the backed goods there look fantastic. Although I haven't tired anything other than their nusszopf, if there other goods are as good as the nusszopf I would recommend it to anyone.

Reichstag Am Abend

Reichstag Building, Berlin Germany

Conceptually I go the picture I wanted. Not quite as sharp of an image as I would have liked though.

I blame the sharpness problem on using Canon's liveview feature which lets you use the screen on the back of the Canon 40D SLR like a point and shoot to frame your shot. Only problem is when you use the Liveview feature in disables the autofocus. The way around that is to be sure to focus on your subject before you enable live view, or manually focus while live view is enabled. I forgot to check the focus because I was lazy, tired and it was dark.

Still in turned out good enough for a blog post.

To Spain Go The Spoils

Zürich Main Station UEFA Cup Decorations

For the last day of the UEFA Cup I made it down to Zürich to enjoy the lake. I met some friends at one of the parks called Zürihorn, not far from the Fan Zone where there is a large collection of outdoor screens and vendors. I had not yet been in Zürich since the beginning of the tournament so I was surprised to find a huge bunch of soccer players standing in the train station.

The huddled players were enormous. The faces where actually modeled after real players too. In the smaller picture you might recognize Ballack from the German team.

I went down not for the game, but to do some grilling on the lakefront and just visit. It was extremely hot, but pleasant to sit on the lake. The crowds were incredible. Almost every conceivable piece of grass in the park was taken by someone.

The game was set to start at 8:45 PM. I didn't want to stay downtown and get stuck in the mess after the game so my plan was to take the train home in time for the start of the game. I decided to leave the park about 7:30, giving me a little over 30 minutes to get to the station by tram. Little did I know that all the trams in central Zürich stopped running around 7:30 because all the streets were filled with people. This apparently is normal procedure during UEFA cup games.

I had to run to the train station, took a later train home, and managed to only miss the first 15 minutes of the game so it wasn't too bad.

Congratulations to Spain, it was a nice victory for them, the first one in a long, long time.

Outdoor Television on Your Balcony

Using a projector to create an outdoor TV on a window

As my wife might tell you, I have a bit of a McGuyver complex. I'll like to build things. Specifically, I like to build things on the cheap whenever possible. So Yesterday I was presented with a challenge.

It was hot, too hot in the apartment. Outside was cooler, and I wanted to watch the UEFA semi final game on TV. How can I watch it outside?

• 1 projector
• 1 computer with TV card
  
• 1 paper table cloth
• A roll of transparent tape
  

I managed to hang a thin paper table cloth in the window to the balcony with some transparent tape. I set up the projector inside the apartment on a small table and projected my Computers screen onto the table cloth.

A few minutes spent with the projector to change the settings for rear projection so the text would be readable outside and I was set.

A 52 inch TV on my balcony for the Germany Turkey game.

Good thing there are two more games left. Tonight is Spain vs. Russia and then there will be the final this weekend.

Another Slow Up Ride in Switzerland

Slow Up Ride in Schaffhausen

I just wanted to post a picture from last weeks Slow Up ride through Switzerland and Germany. The ride started in Schaffhausen which is a town along the Rhine river. We crossed the border several times. I believe this section of the ride was actually in Germany. Don't tell anyone, but I didn't have my passport with me.

I always hear a lot of English at these Slow Up rides. It seems to be fairly popular with the expats. Well, either that, or its just the fact that something like 20% of the population here is foreigners.

Sewing Beets

Feat of German Engineering

Over the weekend we rode our bikes in another Slow-Up event. One of the many weekend events where cities close their streets to traffic and allow bikers and rollerbladers to enjoy the open road.

This weeks route wound through towns in both Germany and Switzerland along the Rhine river. At one stop in Germany we found a nice festival going and decided to stop for lunch. One of the highlights, besides the Drum and Bugle core was the man sewing his beets.

No, I did not misspell sewing. This ingenious German engineer/inventor hadobviously not yet been introduced to some of the wonders of the modern world. Particularly the food processor. He had somehow rigged a sewing machine with a knife blade so that it would cut vegetables for the food they were preparing. The contraption definitely drew a crowd as I was not the only one taking pictures.

This one is a tough one to explain so I'll just let the pictures do the talking.

A Deutsch Meal

Very German Looking Dinner

Last weekend we raided German to take advantage of some of the lower food costs. We usually tend to interlace the lower cost German foods in our meals, not to use it all at once. Saturday night was a different story. We went full on Deutschland.

The first course started with a nice Fürstenberg Weizen beer. Which of course had to be enjoyed while I was preparing the second course.

The second course being various grilled sausages, chicken and boiled potatoes. I widened my horizons this time and choose a nice paprika wurst. I had hoped the flavor would match well with the weizen beer, I was not disappointed.

The other sausage that has been growing on me is käsewurst, cheese sausage. I remember this being introduced in the US just around the time I left. In the US it was billed as Brats with Cheese. The European version actually tastes somewhat like a US cheese dog with the cheese on the inside.

All in all, it was a satisfying meal. I'll definitely have to pick up a few more bottles of Fürstenberg next time I'm in Waldshut.

Shopping in Germany

We made a quick trip to Germany to do some grocery shopping today. It had been a while since we went and we had a craving for tortilla chips. Here was the final list

• beer
• tortilla chips
• onions
• green peppers
• Sausage for grilling
• Spare ribs for grilling
• ice cream
  
• garbage bags
• liquid soap
• Q-tips
• turkey fillets
• chocolate chip cookies
• a loaf of nut bread

We generally stick to things that are either a lot cheaper, or just not available in Switzerland. On the way back on the train I was listening in on the conversation in the next seat. I am getting to a point with the German now where I don't just tune out others. I actually pick up on things that are being said. Anyway, the two old women in the next seat were commenting on how something things were 50% cheaper in Germany. Very true, very true indeed.

Passports for Q-Tips

Gingerbread Cookies and the Chirstmas Market

We were running low on Q-Tips and liquid handsoap so it was time to cross the boarder and head to Germany. Prices for somethings can be half as much in Germany. We made the 30 minute train trip to Waldshut not knowing if anything good would be going on, but we figured it was close to Christmas so we might find a Christmas market.

We made the decision to go to Germany just after we made the rounds at the Baden Advent market. It is a 1 day event with crafts and some food. We went to get some Knoblibrot (garlic bread), but the machine was Kaputt. So we ended up getting some mulled cider and a servelat (grilled sausage).

Sure enough when we arrived in the Waldshut old town there was a small Christmas market. It wasn't too big, maybe about 20 to 30 booths. Even smaller than the Baden market. There were the traditional wooden crafts and candles. There were also plenty of food booths as well. There was raclette, and flamekuchen, a form of white pizza with a cream sauce instead of tomato sauce. I was disappointed that we ate in Baden because the food in Waldshut looked, and smelled much better.

We did stop for a little gluhwein while we were there. This traditional hot, spiced wine is perfect for the cold weather. Every market serves it, and everyone stands around holding their little mugs keeping there hands warm and chatting.

Close to the gluhwein stand was a stand selling cookies and candy. This is were I took the photograph above of the two gingerbread cookies. After I got home I looked up the German word on the second cookie as I was not familiar with it. It turns out that the two cookies next to each other say "Scrubby Cowboy."

Hofbrauhaus

Rick Steves recommeded that we visit Hofbrauhaus in Munich. I was amused by his description. He noted that locals visit the brew pub to watch the tourists, the tourists go to watch the Um-pa-pa band, and everybody goes to see the poor chap who had too many beers and is bent over the vomitorium.

So what is the vomitorium? Sit back for a tale my readers, and you shall soon know.

When we arrived we were expecting that all beers sold at the Hofbrauhaus would only come in 1 liter glasses. Some of our travel guides suggested that it was a one size fits all kind of pub. Luckily as we entered and looked at some of the tables they did have a few half liter mugs so I was confident we could get a more reasonable sized mug of beer.

We sat down and were immediately greeted by a waiter and handed menus. We order our beers and began to survey the menu. After about 10 minutes of analysing all of the various hunks of meat on the menu I had decided on a plate of grilled sausages. I placed my order and decided this would be a good opportunity for a quick tour.

I excused myself from the table and headed to the bathroom to see the 'vomitorium.' I walked into the bathroom and there it was next to the 20 urinals just like the guidebook had said. A gleaming, shining, chrome plated funnel. It was about 18 inches in diameter, and had an enormous drain. The drain trap on this thing was made of a pipe that had a diameter of about 3 inches. You could puke up a softball and it would have easily gone down the drain. I have to admit it was very impressive.

I headed back to my table to report back on my findings and was immediately confronted by the waiter. He informed me that they no longer had any grilled sausage and I would have to order something else. What!? How could they be out of sausage?! This is like bizzaro world, the German resturant with no wurst, that is the worst.

I quickly scanned the menu and ordered the meatloaf. I thought this was a safe bet.

Boy was I wrong. My plate came out and there in the middle of the plate was something that losely resembled a brick. It was smooth, with a burnt umber color. Almost to a point where is was glistening. I'm sorry I didn't take a picture because I just can't describe this thing. And sure enought it was about the size of a brick.

This did not look like any meatloaf I had seen before. It did not look like ground beef or pork. It did not appear to contain any oatmeal, rice, spice, or vegtable fillers. There was no ketchup on the side. I was really confused.

I poked at the brick a few times and decided to cut into it. What is this, I thought to myself. The inside almost looks like hotdog meat. I take a bite. Holy cow, it is a brick of hot dog! I can't believe this. What did I order!?! This brick was essentially the size of an Oscar Meyer 8 pack and I'm sure it had about the same nutritional value.

In all fairness to the Hofbrauhaus the food that was ordered by my wife and my sister-in-law was quite good. I just got the oddball plate I guess.

Needless to say, I don't think the beer is the reason for the vomitorium.

To Germany

Our guests have arrived. We will be 'entertaining' constantly now until the Monday after Thanksgiving.

My sister-in-law has joined us for an extended stay just prior to her taking a new job in Atlanta. I'm glad she could come because I can remember how nice it was to have a friend in London a few years back. It makes the travel costs much cheaper when you have a free place to stay.

We are planning to go to Waldshut Germany today to do some shopping. The women are looking for clothes, and I'm just looking to get out of the house. We are also going to try to find some Christmas lights for our tree this year. We realized that all of our Christmas lights are basically useless because of the plugs so we'll have to get a few sets.

It is amazing how early the Christmas decorations go up here. The stores had started to put up there window display around the 1st of November. I think this is large part because there is no major milestone like Thanksgiving to identify the start of the season.

Finally I wanted to add a link to a small video that struck me as funny. A friend from work had it on his blog and I think it is quite accurate in reflecting some of my days around here.