Love locks, wise men, and missed baskets
Jeff is still sick. Kaya is still a terrible walker. So, Breezy and I took a stroll this morning, just the two of us. Like old times.
Here are some snapshots from this beautiful spring day in Cologne/Koeln/Köln.
It all begins with a nice view of the city, just begging us to get our booties outside.
Our first tour stop of the day was the Kolner Dom, the famous Cologne cathedral, which is the largest Gothic church in Northern Europe. Seeing this never gets old to me. And I see it from our hotel room window everyday.
The Kolner Dom.
Some details on the church: Construction of this behemoth began in 1248, and it was left incomplete in 1428. Work recommenced in 1880 to “finish” construction per the original plan. Our new friend, “German Nick” told us on our tour two Sundays ago that the church is never actually finished for fear that Armageddon will come. So, the locals are always finding new renovation projects. WWII definitely helped with that. Fortunately, during the war, some wise soul was smart enough to remove the stained glass to prevent shattering from all the vibrations, and the beautiful windows were re-installed during a more peaceful time.
The Dom is perhaps best well-known for housing the relics of the Three Kings (or Three Wise Men), which were stolen from Italy many hundreds of years ago. Creepy, but cool.
Here’s another shot.
The rear view of the Kolner Dom (and this poor horse).
Breezy and I then waddled along to the riverfront, where we enjoyed some people-watching and springy sights.
Rhine riverfront, Cologne.
Here we are, just chillin'.
Then over to the Hohenzollernbrücke railway bridge, which is adorned with love locks — a symbol of romance and eternal love. This is my favorite shot … these people must have been really in love, and clearly understood that when it comes to padlocks (and ever being able to identify your love lock again), size surely does matter.
I also got a kick out of this strange fence ornament. This fella has padlocks for earrings. I’ve met some people with lobes like these.
I really do love the colors and this description from a much better writer than myself:
“They stretch from one side of the river to the other, as far as the eye can focus, a metallic rainbow of colour in a variety of shapes, encrusted with gems and emblazoned with terms of endearment. Bicycle chains, horseshoes, strings of padlocks, handcuffs the splash of colour contrasting with the sombre materials of the bridge. Fixed there by married couples, single-sex couples, young or old couples, as diverse as the padlocks themselves, an ‘eternal’ testament to their commitment to one another.” — Mallory on Travel
Another view of the love locks.
I’ve only seen this once before — love locks on the Ponte Vecchio bridge in Florence, Italy. I’ll have to dig up some pictures at another time. Apparently, it’s quite European to express your love in this way. For what reason, I know not.
Breezy and I then attempted to cross the bridge over to the slightly “seedier” side of Cologne — at least according to locals. The vibrations were just too much for this sensitive pooch, so we stayed west and snapped a few more pictures.
Spring has finally arrived.
The main train station, HBF.
And then we were greeted with a dose of reality. I’m always surprised seeing garbage in this city, which sits within such an environmentally conscious country.
I'm thinking the Germans aren't very good at basketball.
Breezy and I then made our way back to the hotel room and nursed sick Jeffy with green tea and a sandwich. Beezer is now happily napping, and this is my windowsill view for blogging.
11th floor writing sill. From here, I must suppress my inner spaz. Butt firmly planted.
Medieval Toilets (and the Marskburg Fortress)
It’s true. I am overly fascinated with the johns of the middle ages. It began last summer in Copenhagen and is a trend that has fortunately (or unfortunately) followed me to Germany. Lucky for me, there are lots of old-time dwellings down the Rhine.
We visited one of them — Marksburg Castle in Braubach — last weekend during another pilots’ friends-and-family field trip (also organized by Deb McLauchlin). Marskburg is the only knight’s castle along the Rhine that is still standing in its original form, never having been destroyed by fire or war. After trekking the enormous hill to get there, I wouldn’t be surprised if the enemies just gave up and opted for a castle closer to river-level.
Here it is, the marvel on the hill, with the original part of the tower built in the 1200s. A number of families took ownership of, and subsequently expanded, the original building. For a number of years, the castle served as a state prison.
The castle is actually still home to the head of the German Castles Association today and is complete with modern living quarters, which unfortunately were not a part of our tour. Can you imagine inviting your friends over for a cookout — in a castle!?!
I wonder if they still use this kitchen for their dinner parties. Check out this Gothic Hall fireplace, large enough to accommodate an entire ox on a spit. Those were some hungry knights.
Our English-speaking tour guide explained to us that it was considered rude to excuse yourself from dinner conversation, even to use the latrine. So, the toilet was located right next to the table, and when one had to go, he simply went to the bathroom — with the door WIDE open –and continued on with the dinner conversation. (This strange dinner custom seemed slightly less odd to me after learning on a castle tour in Denmark that during 24-course royal meals, servants would provide buckets — yes, barf buckets — so that diners could make room for additional dishes. It was considered impolite not to finish … but somehow, vomiting at the table was deemed acceptable).
This is me, posing with the toilette.
You might ask, “sans modern-day plumbing, where does ‘it’ flow?” The answer, “to the ground below!” (Actually, kind of into the garden.). Honestly, the servants of the middle ages had it pretty rough. (Another shout-out to Denmark…in some Danish castles, people would just relieve themselves on the floor, and then — like stable hands — housekeepers would quite literally ‘muck’ the castle floors.)
One of my favorite parts of the tour was this enormous wine cellar, with barrel after barrel of vino.
After the toilet, the torture chamber was my next favorite part of the tour — not because of what happened here, but because I consider anything with shock value to be extremely entertaining. Everything from devices that would attach to and squeeze your thumbs (shown below), to tables, ropes and weights that would stretch your body until, well, your bones no longer connected at the joints — they had it all. Terrible. If castle-cleaners had it rough back then, criminals had it even worse!
Breezy and Kaya stayed home for this trip, but in case you were wondering, dogs ARE allowed — so long as they don’t use the trail up to the castle as a “dog toilet.”
Translation: “The way is not a dog toilet.”
Following the tour, we had some local cuisine in the cute town of Braubach, and I had my first wienerschnitzel (basically, a breaded and fried pork cutlet). This of course came with french fries, or “frittes.”
This is one of my favorite shots from town — old socks, and a sneaker, being used as planters.
We ended the trip with gelato that was possibly more delicious than anything I’ve sampled in Italy — and for only 70-cents a scoop! (Compare that to 2.50 Euro for a single scoop in Koeln).
Looking forward to more day trips. We have a lot of castles to check off our list.
Today, we’re off to IKEA (well, maybe, if Jeff feels better). However, at IKEA, we will be searching for furniture that will last us not 800 years, but at least two.
‘flugzeug-in’ around europe
as the title suggests (flugzeug is airplane – auf deutsch) this is mostly about my first work trip around europe.
it all started with a very reasonable 1130pm showtime at the airport for a 1230am departure. i met my captain who then showed me how to actually get to the plane, which is not always obvious for the cargo side. we had the usual pre-flight discussions (which involved me explaining that i’m just legal enough to be dangerous at the wheel). he didn’t seem concerned. to the airplane.
lots of different procedures here in europe compared to the US. but nothing too drastic. the biggest barrier that only gets easier with lots of exposure (i hear) is the strong accents of the air traffic controllers. they say ‘fly direct @$%#! and contact #@#$ on 132.575.’ which leads to me looking at the captain with a question mark on my face. he looks at me, laughs and says, ATKOS and Makadonia. Then I say what the captain said to me back to the controller on the radio. it’s a 3 person loop now, not just 2. and there’s lots of other things that are mostly minor but usually have to do with making a jet-powered airplane as quiet as possible. a challenge for sure. we mostly climb as fast as possible and descend as close to idle power as possible. this involves lots of planning ahead and knowledge of what the airplane can do and cannot do. not that i’m real good at either of those things right now, but i’m new. and i’m getting a little better than i was.
our first night of flying took us all the way to israel with a stop in athens, greece. i’m sure europe is lovely to see from the air, but at 2 am, we could’ve been over colorado or south africa and it wouldn’t have made a difference. and flying into athens is probably amazing but we saw mostly dark, some lights, and some really dark where you could make out the hills and mountains. bummer. i’ll have to see that some other time. and of course, when we got to israel, it was cloudy. oh well, it was approaching 6am and all we wanted was to be on the ground so we could get to the free breakfast at the hotel, and then bed. and we stay at a pretty fantastic hotel in israel that’s right on the water. no complaints at all.
the next day was easy, just deadhead to paris and we’re done. perhaps you have heard that the israeli’s are somewhat security focused? it’s all true. i had the pleasure of getting questioned a lot because my overnight bag is pretty stout with metal rails and a metal frame. it’s a travel bag made for flight crews, and it’s designed to be tough. apparently it also looks highly suspicious if you’ve never seen one. my bag handler had not seen one so he had lots of questions. this also earned me a trip through the ‘you’re suspicious’ security line, which is really, really slow. but, i have no issue with this treatment. i’m pretty sure they have every reason to suspect every single person that shows up at their airport. it’s not every country that gets told daily by their neighbors that they shouldn’t be allowed to exist. my takeaway from this was, bring a different overnight bag to israel.
then on to paris. i was excited because this flight warranted first class, and i love big seats and food. well, only half disappointed. the seats were regular with a little extra leg room and with the middle seat blocked so no one can sit there. but the food was good. first class on air france was a half full experience. i imagine their long-haul stuff is nice though.
paris was good. also a nice hotel in a good location. i didn’t do much there though because i felt compelled to study in anticipation of our 2 flights the next day. there’s lots of information available to us to study in preparation for a flight. so i read that stuff…and watched rugby with french commentating. i don’t get rugby at all but it’s still fun to watch.
then back to israel the next night. this was a long flight from paris but the company was good and we are provided with more food and coffee than we could ever hope to consume. and the food is good too. i was unfamiliar with the food ordering process and just what everything was so i over-ordered (too much food i can handle, too little…).
israel was good again. i wanted to head out and see the sights this time around but i felt a little bit of a cold coming on so i took it easy with water, juice and bed. boring, but hopefully it will keep that cold (which is going strong now) a little shorter than if i had gone out and drank all night. when we left this time, we were operating the flight out so security was less interested in me.
then it was off to munich and back home to cologne. this was daytime flying so i got to see some stuff. we flew between turkey and greece, over macedonia, bosnia, croatia, austria and probably some others as well. it got cloudy after croatia though so i didn’t get to see much of the alps. i took a picture of greece, but it could be any piece of land sticking out in the water. you’ll just have to trust that it’s greece.
then into munich which was nice but only for as long as it takes to unload and re-load the plane. then back to cologne. successful trip with no violations that i’m aware of, and i think the captain would fly with me again if he had to. we just got our schedules for the month of april, and i have some exotic new destinations coming my way including: oslo, norway; helsinki, finland; and stockholm, sweden. should be fun.
Three countries in one daaaaayng
Jeff thinks this headline is cheesy, and ignore the fact that “dang” is spelled wrong. But, seriously, on Saturday, I was in three countries on one day without ever once stepping foot in an airplane. That’s pretty DAYNG cool. (Jeff was busy flying to Israel, Greece and France. Lame.)
Saturday, one of the pilot’s wives (Deb) planned an outing, complete with brown rented minivan, to a glass-blowing exhibit on the outskirts of Aachen. I’m pretty sure “outskirts” meant Holland because we definitely entered a new country — new language, new roadsigns, and a new way to say ‘thank you’ (dank u, as opposed to danke in German). The presentation was in Dutch, but we had a nice bilingual gentleman sitting among us who shouted out quick English translations, much to the dismay of a whiny adolescent in front of us, who just thought we were a bunch of noisy Americans. The one thing that really stuck with me is that once the glass is blown, it cools in a 500-degree oven. Not sure if that’s Fahrenheit or Celsius. Either way, it’s pretty smoky. Oh, and the artisan made a glass horse in about 15 seconds. Incredible.
Here he is, spinning a platter.
The glass work was beautiful, and I bought myself a 35 Euro vase off the clearance rack. It matches the new counter-top in our to-be apartment. I love that on the bottom you can actually see the scar left from the glass-blowing tube. Makes it feel more like art, and less like something I bought from the HomeGoods section of TJ Maxx (called TK Maxx in Deutschland, by the way).
On the way to the “outskirts of Aachen,” I moved from minivan to Mini-Cooper with Nancy, Gail and Zukhra. Our GPS took us off-track about seven times, and I was thrilled to hear one of the FedEx wives say “shit.” License to swear! I’d been worried I was the crude one of the bunch. I didn’t hear too many F-bombs, but I look forward to breaking that ice.
Following Aachen, we made our way to the top of a large hill, from which you can see the Netherlands, Germany and Belgium. On the way, we got lost again (surprise!), and we actually ended up in Belgium. All the road signs turned to French, there were a lot more horses, and of course, thank you is said “merci.” Thanks, Ms. Henderson, for the four years of French.
Here’s another great view — not sure the country — we found along the way to never-Nederland.
We eventually arrived and met up with the other families. From “the hill” was a lookout tower, from which you can see the three countries we’d already been lost in. Snapped this photo with Gail, and behind us is Holland.
We also partook in more meat, french fries and beer, while some of the kiddos got lost in the labyrinth maze, also at the top of this hill.
We loved the beer from lunch so much, we went back to Belgium to a small grocery store, where we bought more Duvel, cookies, and of course, Belgian chocolate.
Then, it was back in the school bus and home to Germany.
That concluded Saturday. More on Sunday later …
I am 173 cm tall.
When you don’t speak the language, everything’s an adventure.
Fortunately, Cologne is American-friendly to the extreme, and even the locals who “don’t speak much English” have been able to offer menu suggestions, lead us to a post office, and help Jeff settle on the right haircut (or, length).
But it’s more than words, it’s also the metric system! Jeff’s hair dresser asked him if “12 millimeters” was the right length for the top of his noggin; we were asked our heights by a “German authority” in centimeters (uhhh…); we order beers by the liter, not the pint; distances are often given in meters, not in fractions of a mile. Forget the speed limit. Let’s just be glad I don’t drive.
All of these differences make even the mundane a bit more interesting. Today, for instance, picking out laundry detergent was an exercise in deciphering laundry soap from fabric softener (and the dish soap threw me a bit, too). This morning, logic told me that “sandwich cream” is, in fact, mayonnaise. And when the German word for “condensed milk” sounds a lot like the English version, that is likely what you’re putting in your coffee.
Regardless, things are going pretty well. I’ve been getting back into the work groove again (not sure if I’m “permitted” appropriately, but that’s a story for another day), and Jeff just left on his first trip (Athens-Tel-Aviv-Paris-Tel-Aviv-Munich-Cologne, I think), so it’s just me, the dogs, and our huge king-sized bed.
The pooches are feeling pretty settled, and they’re loving the Germans’ affinity for dogs. After just 10 short days, they’ve joined us indoors at a Thai restaurant, trotted through an indoor mall, ridden a commuter train, shopped for used appliances, and even gone apartment hunting. Pretty wild.
Speaking of apartments, we’ve settled on a place. It’s in an area called Lindenthal. We’ll be about a block from the main road with lots of shops, restaurants, bars, bakeries, and basic conveniences, and we’ll literally be overlooking a huge park. The place is new — built in 2003 — and is pretty sophisticated, especially for us. It is, of course, expensive. And we need to buy the kitchen (a strange custom here that Jeff mentioned in his post). Fortunately, the asking price is about a third of the value of the kitchen, which is pretty new and modern, and we were able to negotiate down a bit. The goal is to sell it to the next tenant before we leave. We’re pretty happy with our choice — and the pooches will have a fenced-in back yard they can run laps in.
So, once Jeff’s back from his trip, we’ll have some sort of grand outing to IKEA to furnish our new place. I’m so glad IKEA still means “cheap” in German.
Raw Pork and Other German Food Finds
Yep, we ate raw pork. It’s called “mettwurst” in German. Smoked, and often cured, this delicacy was spread on a slab of bread with some salt and onion and chased with a half liter of beer to kill whatever bacteria was not annihilated in the curing process.
I know, you’re probably gagging, but it was actually tasty. We never would have tried this pig-sushi without our new friends, Emily and Nick. Nick is a native, and Emily is his American wife who has lived here for the past six years. (Thanks, Bethany Rock, for the introduction!). Though it was tasty, I convinced myself later in the evening I had a stomach ache. Probably because I’ve been told since childhood that raw meat is a no-no, especially pork!
Here’s a pic of Jeff and I ‘toasting’ to spreadable Wilbur. Prost.
Next, our foursome journeyed to a walk-up, take-out food-stand, where we sampled some other authentic German cuisine — Currywurst. This is essentially a sausage, cut into small pieces, drowning in what I non-eloquently described as “curry ketchup.” We ate it with miniature, two-tined wooden forks. Mmmm…
We followed our pork injection with a short walk down the Rhine to burn some calories. Here are a couple shots. These four homes are very famous, but I don’t recall why.
Slightly off the Rhine path, we found a full moon. In his silent protest for paying high taxes year over year, a local installed this gem facing city hall.
After our 15, maybe 20 minute, walk, we journeyed to our next pub, where we experienced some more local traditions: pig knuckles and Kolsch, a local beer that is served in .21 liter glasses and replaced automatically by the waiter/waitress after one is finished. The wait staff then tallies your consumption on a coaster. We finished 22.
As for dinner, Jeff sampled the pig knuckle. Don’t be fooled by the word knuckle. This thing is HUGE. You can order it either baked or deep fried. In effort to cut back on calories, Jeff opted for the baked version. Here are the before and after shots.
I had mussels. Just a few.
That’s it for the local cuisine. More to come on the other international treats we’ve ingested since our arrival. This is a foodie town, and I couldn’t be happier.
Here’s to vegetables.
Until next time…
apartments and other things
Did some apartment hunting two days ago (thursday). It was a successful trip in that we saw a couple places that we could easily make our home but we didn’t pull the trigger on anything yet. First, a few rules about renting in Germany. unfurnished means something a little different. truly unfurnished means: no kitchen (anything at all kitchen, no appliances, no cabinets) no light fixtures, certainly no dishes or curtains or the like. we only encountered one place like that but it was so far removed from town that it was not much of a concern to us as we didn’t want to be that far out. there’s lots of rules about down payments (usually 3 months rent deposit), cleaning, refurbishing, utilities (usually you prepay an estimate of future expenditures) and some other stuff. the refurbishing was a little intimidating to us when we read about that but we’re pretty sure that won’t apply to us as it is pre-negotiated (by our agent) and we don’t anticipate being in one apartment for that long. so mostly standard stuff but not everything. and thankfully fedex supplies us with an agent to show us around, speak german to the other agents and inform us of all the little things we need to be aware of. our agent’s name is Signe (Zig-nuh) and she’s pretty great. on to the apartments.
the first place was pretty amazing and a tough act to follow for the rest of the day. it was big (150 sq meters i believe), or about that. it had an indoor pool that belonged only to that apartment, an amazing kitchen, big closets, a big sun-room, a private garden, pretty much everything. the base rent was quite reasonable for what you get, but unfortunately, the energy costs were way too high. that pool put everything over the top apparently because it needed to be heated year round (it’s in the ground in the basement) which jacked the elec and heat bills way up. we were told to estimate at least 850-900 euro a month in energy. pass.
the second place was nice also but far outside of town, four floors up with no elevator and completely unfurnished. no go on that one.
the third place was good and we’re still thinking about that one. it’s in an area called nippes (nip-us) which is kind of like virginia highlands in atlanta. cool, young, hip, lots of artists. and turks. not sure why so many turks but there they are. the apartment had a big kitchen, even by american standards with all the fixings. there is a big bed that comes with the place as well as lots of closet storage. it also has a little garden out the back door which is nice. ‘gardens’ are what we call yards. if you rent a place with a garden you typically have to take care of it. this place requires us to take care of it. that’s fine, they provide most of the tools necessary and based on what it looks like right now it shouldn’t be hard. another feature that we’ve seen a couple times are these hardened plastic shutters that can be electrically raised and lowered for theft protection. they are installed on most ground floor windows and you close them in the evening and open them in the morning. this place had those on all ground level windows and doors. they’re very cool and they give me and allison a nice secure feeling. but it makes me wonder a little why the private citizens go to this trouble to protect their goods when more police could be hired to do the same. i’m sure there’s some fine literature out there on the subject but it’s probably in german and we’re only here for two years. we’ll just go with it. good place overall and reasonably priced.
the fourth place had the best location by far. it’s in an area known as the ‘belgian quarter.’ it’s about a 6-7 minute walk from our hotel and is near everything including parks, train stations, bars, food and of course starbucks. unfortunately, it has only one bathroom, the kitchen is not amazing and it’s on the third floor which means stairs everytime the dogs have to pee. but it’s priced well and the location makes us willing to give up some luxuries for the convenience. we’ll see.
we have more places to see on monday including one in an area called lindenthal (linden-tall). that one has some possibilities but it would require us to purchase the existing kitchen for about 4000 euros (another german rental oddity). when we leave the place in 2 years we sell the kitchen to the next person for some rate lower than that if they want it and i don’t know what we do if they don’t want it. maybe we just worry about that problem in two years.
switching gears..
last night (friday) we joined some fedex folks in the downstairs lounge area for the official ‘fedex happy hour.’ not too many people there but they’re pretty much all new faces to us so it’s good to start small. i met several captains that i’m sure i’ll be working with over the next 2 years and everyone was really nice. then allison and i were treated to a tour of some of the cooler parts of the hotel by the manager and the designated fedex handler, Rolf Slickers. now he’s a cool guy. he showed us the restaurant at the top of the hotel which is the only one in town that boasts a completely organic and natural menu. he showed us the restrooms of that restaurant which boast the only urinals that you can ‘use’ while admiring a view of the Dom (sorry ladies, standing room only). he then took us to the rooftop where he has his very own bee population growing. the bee thing is apparently causing quite the stir because honey bees in general are on the decline but his population is doing well. they plan to offer the honey in their restaurant, his wife makes candles from the wax for sale and if they have enough honey left over, they’re going to sell it. pretty darn cool. we ate in that restaurant later that night and very much enjoyed it.
today (saturday), we walked a lot. and we brought the dogs along to see cologne. from the hotel to the Dom, north to the zoo, northwest to nippes where we stopped for lunch. we had thai food that i ordered using the numbers on the menu rather than the labels because i know how to say numbers. it was delicious. the dogs got to join us in the tiny restaurant which was nice. then we caught the train back to our area of town. this was our first attempt at mass transit in cologne and it went well. Breezy was a litte timid about the train so allison carried her onboard (she struggles with openings beneath her feet like train platform gaps, elevator gaps, metal grates on sidewalks. breezy struggles, not allison). once onboard everyone was calm throughout the journey. when we exited the station the only way up was by escalator and we figured that might be too much so we carried the pooches for that ride. successful first train ride and to our knowledge we didn’t break any rules by having the dogs there.
and that’s all for now.
The Ladies who Brunch
Yesterday I had my first meeting with the FedEx wives club. Well, not really a club, but just a group of wives — about 15 — who got together for brunch. It was new for me — first of all, being a wife is still really fresh, and second, hanging out on a “work day” eating pastries and drinking coffee made me feel just a wee bit guilty. Of course, brunch started at 4:30 a.m. ET, so I had plenty of working day left (if I could stay up after the montecristo, cheese, sliced meat, and pastry injection).
In the process, got lots of advice and met a ton of super ladies. Here’s what I walked away with, in no particular order:
- Germans are really good drivers — far superior to Americans or the French.
- The locals prefer structure, and much of what Germans do is in effort to preserve some type of higher order. This is not necessarily government control (well, maybe a little), but they’re wired for organization (I should fit in well … not!).
- Petty crime is an issue. Several of the families have been broken into, apparently because minor theft is not really punished or disciplined here. The polizei are much more concerned with violent crime. So as long as you don’t punch someone out while stealing their TV, you should land nowhere but comfortably on your couch in front of a new plasma after your work is done.
- That said, you can go to jail if you cause an accident by passing a car on the right whilst traveling the autobahn (they take driving seriously).
- When you ride someone’s tail on the highway, it’s called “jostling.”
- It takes up to 10 days to get a bank account set up. Can’t really do anything without one.
- Everything takes a long time here — this all goes back to process and order. Might be two months before I know whether I can even get — or need, for that matter — a work permit.
- If you claim a religion when you register with the officials, the German government could withold a 10% religious tithing. Apparently, no separation of church and state. (Actually, tourists should be pleased; this is how they maintain all their old cathedrals.)
- You can’t watch streaming American TV over the internet because of licensing in Germany. Thanks to Michelle, I now know that I can purchase a VPN token to fool my computer into thinking it’s in NYC. Sweet! A loophole for everything. Excited to get my New Girl back fo’ free.
- Private schools are super expensive — one woman paying upwards of 60 grande (not sure Euros or dollars) for her two kids in international private high school (public schools are somewhat out of the question unless you want to stick your 15-year old in full-immersion German. Probably better for the little tikes). Yikes!
- Home schooling is illegal in Germany, and once you register your kids, the German government is all over you to ensure your children are enrolled in a public or private institution.
Another thing I’ve observed is that while Germans seem to prefer order and discipline, they all wear jeans to work and appear very casual. I’ve hardly seen any business suits in an office setting.
I’m sure I’ll bore you with even more learnings as the days go on.
Thanks to my brunch buddies for all the German deets!
Now to get ready for our first day of apartment hunting.
And a little from me (Jeff)
Where to begin….
I’ll start around about the time we were getting checked in at the airport. I dropped off Allison and bags and pooches and returned the rental car. I got back to my little family to find the dogs were caged, had pee’d and looked sufficiently freaked to begin our journey. Good. To the checkin counter. Lufthansa knew there were two dogs coming that day and when they found out it was us they immediately gave us the paperwork to attach to the dog-crates. But first we were challenged with filling these forms out properly. Nothing too difficult, names, species, address of destination, flight number, etc. All stuff we had dealt with before but somehow, amidst this process, we just couldn’t handle this quickly or even accurately. Forms were filled out wrong, names put in wrong places, phone numbers left out, addresses all wrong. The good folks at Lufthansa took pity on us. “What you have there is fine, just need something on the forms.” All this info could easily be found between the two of us but we just couldn’t quite make it happen. Bear in mind, with my job, stress comes around once in a while and you’re asked to rise to the occasion (mostly in a simulator thankfully). Engines on fire, cargo on fire, explosive decompression, landing gear won’t come down, flaps won’t come down to name a few (again, thankfully all simulator so far). But this…..forms! Too hard. Whatever, we survived the checkin process.
You’ve heard about the doggy transport from Allison. I concur. I wasn’t terribly impressed with their handlers gentleness but to the best of our knowledge he did properly secure the dogs to the pallet. Arrival in Frankfurt was alarmingly simple. Enter terminal, clear passport control, enter baggage claim, meet Manfred (who magically knew who we were without knowing anything other than our names), claim bags and dogs, exit building. Had Manfred not been there to guide us I would’ve thought we were doing something wrong by just leaving. He explained later, Lufthansa does some background work on the dogs to make sure it’s all normal. If you say so Manfred.
Autobahn ride to hotel. Interesting. And fast. Though we still got passed by the bullet train doing the same run from Frankfurt to Cologne. They go real fast.
Hotel arrival. Great place with comfy, American friendly rooms. Big beds, hot showers and delicious espresso.
We did the immigration and work permitting process on Monday. It was a quite comfortable process with our friend from the Frankfurt law firm there to guide us through. We just show up, she expedites us to whatever person we need to talk to, they ask questions and create forms, we sign the forms. She had a cab waiting for us to take us to the next spot, more questions, forms and signatures. And some fingerprints were done too which I had a little trouble with. The nice German lady informed me afterwards that she hadn’t seen anyone have trouble with the fingerprints since they started using the electronic fingerprint scanner. Super. I’m just doing my part to keep the dumb American stereotype alive and well.
Tomorrow (Thursday) we meet with our realtor lady who seems quite nice to show us some apartments. Should be fun.
On a side-note, my first trip has been assigned as part of my European familiarization flights. My overnights will be in Tel-Aviv and Paris. Stopping in Athens and Munich somewhere along the way too. I’m not sure I ever in my life expected to be visiting some of these places, much less in a big ol’ cargo jet. I can’t wait to get started.
Dogs and monuments
Today, we took the dogs for a long walk to explore Cologne. Here are their first tourist stops.
The famous cathedral, called the Dome.
A solo Breezer shot from another cathedral location.
Kaya looking out over the Rhein … and construction.
A European Adventure 