REMINDERS OF HOME!

Here are a few reminders of Arizona in Germany!

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Doug's next car...think its a good FIT?

A garage painted with sahuaro just around the corner
from our apartment!

Two cats looking just like my
Itty Bitty and Pretty Girl!
At an antique show.

Check out the painted on "Swinging Saloon Doors" on this
High Noon restaurant - complete with flames!

MORE PHOTOS - COMMENT IF I CAN FIGURE IT OUT!

A FEW MORE CASTLES

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VIEW OF CASTLE FROM CABLE CAR

I think I figured out that I have just so much space for photos per blog.  So this will be it for the castles even though I've got some more interesting stuff...ask me when I get home!

PROMISED CASTLES - NO COMMENTS!

UGH! APPARENTLY I SHOULD NOT HAVE HIT THAT PARTICULAR BUTTON!

Front end of our boat

OK...DUNCE MODE PREVAILS AS DO MY CHUBBY FINGERS ON A LAPTOP KEYBOARD!  HERE (I HOPE WITH LESS FRUSTRATION) ARE THE REST OF THE RHINE RIVER CRUISE PHOTOS!






Back end of boat! Yeah, I
know, there are correct
nautical terms!



Leaving Mainz fairly clear-then we
went around the bend and the
fog bank was across the river!

































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Fog begins to lift!



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Right about here I am
thinking I want my money back
on this scenic tour! No offense
on seeing only Pat!





Typical town along the River - more people
coming onboard



I'm quitting while I'm ahead --its taken an hour to post these photos...check out the next blog section for photos of the actual CASTLES!  I'm going to read a bit more about how to get these photos uploaded and where I want them!





RHINE RIVER TRIP: CASTLES, CASTLES, CASTLES!

This will be a rather short post word-wise, but full of photos.  I've been down and out for a couple of days this week with a cold...not too nasty, but exhausting and not able to figure out the medications we are used to seeing in USA.  I'd love to have cough med, but Doug only went by a photo and brought back more vitamin C and zinc drink...it will do.  I'm better.  The photos are of our trip up the Rhine from Mainz to Koblenz.  You'll see that we started out nice, went almost immediately to fog and couldn't see a thing, but cleared up before the major sites of the castles.  It was a real nice trip with Doug's co-worker Pat from Australia accompanying us.  Nice to converse in English...and I found a family from New Mexico because they had Keens on!  HAHA!  I may not put captions on these photos because it probably doesn't matter much which castle is which...and it will keep my frustration level down!  Most of the photos will be Doug's because his camera has a much better zoom than mine. 

The entire valley is full of grapevines and vineyards and wineries.  Most of the castles that were in ruin are now hotels or wineries or in the process of being renovated.  The castles were one right after the other.  It is not that they were originally built for protection, but since before medieval times the Rhine has been an important avenue of commerce and all these castles were literally "toll booths"...each "lord" of the castle made some of his living from charging a toll to go along the river...who decided who got what is a question no one could answer. 

When we got to Koblenz (the furthest we could go by boat before we would be too far to return in one day), there was a gondola cable car system going across the river to a castle ruin that was being changed into a youth hostel, museum, etc.  It was to be finished next year.  It is vast.  When we got to the top of the hill, a storm began to brew, but we were able to stay about an hour, climbing up a real narrow original stairway to the upper level before taking the cable car back to Koblenz.  Then we finally found the train station and took an Inter City Express (ICE) train back to Mainz.  It was not one of the bullet trains which we want to experience before we leave, but it took only about 45 minutes to return to what took us all day by boat.



GEEZ!  I'M GOING TO TRY ADDING PHOTOS AGAIN...WHY IS THIS SO DIFFICULT FOR ME?  WHY DON'T THEY END UP WHERE I WANT THEM? GRRR! 

front end of our boat

WHAT A FUN DAY!

Market Day in Mainz

 Well, finally!  I feel like my wings have spread.  Finally found the travelers' information booth and was able to buy a month's transit pass.  That will allow me 30 full days of access to the buses and trams in and around Mainz.  And I found the Cathedral...but only got to see a bit this time around because it was Market Day and I was too preoccupied with ooohing and ahhhing over all the fresh fruits and vegetables and oh the cheeses and breads!  Spent nearly the last of my money on bringing some home here.  My "new" shoulder is killing me though, so I'm keying this blog with a heat pack that I brought with me.  Knew some part of me was going to eventually get sore.  Found a great baker who spoke English and was happy to help with a few questions.  I'm planning on visiting the market every week...with the limited kitchen facilities we have, I need to get creative with what I can make that is good for us...like maybe stews or soups.  I'm going to keep this short with just a few more general observations (and hopefully, a couple of photos).

• You don't see a lot of dogs around here.  And certainly no strays.  BUT, the ones on leashes are all obviously purebreds...why no mutts?
• You have to PAY for public toilet use...I think some amendment to our constitution outlawed this along with voting fees!
• Kids are the same everywhere...preteen girls are all giggly and I even recognized a game of "I see something...." on the bus this afternoon.
just in case you want to know which way is the Caribbean!
• There's a lot less baggy-assed pant wearers here among the boys.  But the faux-hawk is in vogue

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HUGE Radishes

I'm getting the beets next week!

There are literally fields of sunflowers
here in the area

OK, I GIVE UP!  FIRST I COULDNT GET
PHOTOS IN, NOW I HAVE NO IDEA
HOW I GOT THE SAME ONES IN MORE
THAN ONCE...AND CAN'T GET THEM
OUT!!!

DRIVING, RIDING, ALL AROUND THE TOWNS

FRUSTRATIONS ABOUND!


Two days ago Doug left me the rental car. I was fairly confident that I knew how to drive a shift since so many of the trucks in my fleet were standard. I did pretty well, except for the narrow streets, not knowing what the street signs meant, and then having some "A-H" behind me overly use their horn! The little villages here are very beautiful, but trying to figure out which of the windy streets you can actually enter is a mystery still. I have found sites that tell me what words mean for various traffic directions, but not one yet that tells me what the-blue-circle-with-the-red-half-cross-through-it-and-two-white-arrows-pointing-in-different-directions(and the myriad of variations thereof) mean. I drove up one street, uphill, because one of those signs seemed to give me no other options. It turned out that strasse (street) was a deadend. I turned around and started down the steep hill. I believe I've noted previously that there are outlined parking spots on either side of the road. Not on both sides opposite each other, just sort of wherever (I'm sure someone figured out where to put them). I started down the hill and a car turned the hairpin turn at the bottom and wanted to come up. I was where there was no place to pull aside. I don't know what the German etiquite is for the up-hill/down-hill pull over ...and I couldn't remember what it was on the backroads of Vermont.  He stopped, so I proceded to ease my way down intending to make that right hand hairpin turn since I figured it was ok to do so....well in the meantime, Mr. Nice is being encroached upon by two others who have made the hairpin turn and instead of waiting are now trying to get around him.  Remember, these streets are at best a car and a half width (and little European cars, not the US honkers).   There were now three cars blocking the entire intersection of four intersecting roads.  I just faced them all down and shrugged my shoulders!  I PERSONALLY DO NOT BACK UP HILLS!  It was finally sorted out.  Unfortunately, I was eventually lost.  I did find a really interesting industrial place; took a nice road that ended up at what looked like either a ferry stop or a bunch of other cars lined up all wondering how they were going to get across the river!  I made a u-turn there and tried to retrace my steps.  I saw on a hill a huge ediface, maybe castle, and found its entrance.  I have a nice photo of it and the very stern looking knight on its gate-post, but haven't yet figured out how to post a photos.  If anyone knows how to do this on blogspot, let me know.

Ultimately, my driving experience ended in frustration big time because I was about a half hour late finding my husband's company building.  I had been there before as a passenger and even noted that the directions that the company gave him were missing one important component...but we didn't write out the correction.  So it took me three tries in rush-hour traffic to finally see him standing in the drizzle curbside!  I'm sorry Doug!  We had a company dinner that evening and I got to meet the team from a number of countries, so everything was good, except I have no desire to drive again.

HAVING NO DESIRE TO DRIVE AGAIN SO SOON,  I decided today to take the public bus into the city of Mainz.  I wanted to check out the main train station since I hope to travel between towns seeing the sites via train.  I also wanted to find out more about their trains that go like 200 miles an hour!  Unfortunely there were very long lines of people who actually knew where they wanted to go...and I decided I could call later.  The train station has a Pizza Hut and a McDonalds....how odd.  They had lots of other shops there too which took a bit of my day up looking through them. 

I was able to find someone to answer some questions for me through an interpreter on which bus to take to see the Dom Cathetral which is like in the center of Mainz and 1,000 years old (I'm sure only parts of it are that old, but still...).  There is a museum attached and it is only a block away from the Guttenheim Museum of the famed printed page.  I was told to take any bus because they all go past the Cathetral.   So I got on the first bus (I had a day long ticket) and asked the driver if he went to the Dom...he said yes.  But he neglected to tell me that the stop would not say "Dom Cathedral" , so I pretty much rode that bus for roughly an hour and a half through Weisbotten (sp?), and several small villages on the opposite of the Rheine River from Mainz, until finally coming back to the same bus stop I started from!  No Cathedral...and he didn't even ask me why I was still on the bus.   By this time it was getting fairly late afternoon, and I didn't think it was worth going site seeing since the Dom would close in a hour or so.  So I got on one of the two buses that pass through Finthen where we are staying.  I passed my stop and went to the end of that line.  That particular driver asked me where I was going!  He and I became fast friends as he spoke enough English to get a kick out of the fact that I pretty much spent the day riding busses around towns. 

I'm back at the apartment now having spent the last two hours trying to figure out how to use the washer and dryer.  I even took photos of the dials and made two trips to the hotel lobby (a couple of blocks from the apartment building) to figure it out.  I'm not sure I've got it right yet...but Mangus (the nice, speaks English desk clerk...whom I think hid his giggle from me when I showed up with photos) drove me back to the apartment building and walked me through the washer-dryer instructions.  Well, we'll see...I understand I should not expect much from the dryers.  That will cause a problem with jeans for sure.

I JUST MIGHT GO BACK INTO MAINZ SINCE THE BUSES RUN LATE AND GET ME SOME DINNER...JUST SO LONG AS I CAN FIGURE OUT HOW TO GET BACK BEFORE THE LAST BUS LEAVES!  I did find out from that second nice bus driver where I needed to get off for the Cathedral...and it is the stop for their pedestrian mall/shopping/restaurant area.  I think I can find it this time.  Dry run for maybe tomorrow's attempt to finally visit the Dom...that is if I have clean underwear!

DUH! and first observations

Well, I guess if I want to be blogging, I need to remember how to get to my blog!  DUH!

Since getting to Germany there have been a few DUH's in my life.  One does not contemplate SO many common things being different than in the US.  Here's a few:

Traffic signs, cars and the cost of gasoline:  Just about all different.  OK, so the octagon red for a stop sign is fairly universal, but there are lots of others that we have to learn.  Speed limits change quickly and are in small circles.  Stop lights show a red-yellow before turning green...don't know exactly what that means. It would be nice if travel books had a section of all the traffic signs pictured and what they mean.  My husband has been doing all the driving so far (although I have the car today...but it is raining, so maybe I won't be attempting to drive into the city) and stick shifts aren't his forte...'nuf said!  By the way, all the cars are smaller (very nice, by the way) and gasoline is equivalent to approximately $7.00 a gallon.  According to a German friend, ours would be too if the government stopped subsidizing...$7.00 a gallon is more of the true costs...hmmm, maybe people would stop driving the big cars!

Grocery Stores - well, nothing exists like what we are used to.  I've been into two REWE stores, one smaller than the other.  The larger one in this village we are living in (Mainz-Kinthen) has just about what we would need, but its primarily for groceries.  No big pharmacy or pharmacy like items, no aisle from which to choose motor oil or pots and pans.  Not a whole lot of pre-packaged stuff in the freezer.  More fish in the freezer and a few frozen veggies.  Stores are about 20 percent of a typical Fry's in Tucson in size.  Good selection of meats and in much smaller packages.  Probably the one outstanding observation to note is that there are no baggers.  You bag your own...and you better bring your own bags because if you don't you have a choice of paying for a paper bag, a reuseable bag, or a very thin (can't possibly hold much) plastic bag which are available at the check out counter BEFORE you check out.  We purchased a paper bag our first go round, then I brought my own reuseable bag which I packed from home!

• The check out clerks must belong to a good labor union. They are seated.  I saw this also in England.  Why do ours stand all day getting swollen ankles?
• At the bigger store I could not figure out how to get a grocery cart.  They were all chained one to another.  I watched one man who seemed to push a button and took his cart.  I pushed anything that looked pushable, to no avail.  I hand signaled my question to the next shopper who spoke to me in German and showed me a small plastic chip that gets inserted into the handle...and voila! she got her cart.  I did not find out, however, where to get one of those chips.  She seemed to tell me that if I waited for her to shop, she'd bring me her cart....hmmm....I just picked up a hand basket since I was walking back to the apartment with only what I could carry in my one bag..There are certainly no abandoned grocery carts broken down on the side of the road or left at bus stops! And they are about half the size of ours.
• There seems to be signs for a farmers market but I can't exactly tell where...I think it happens behind some homes...in looking around town yesterday on foot, the older homes have these driveways that go to the back where there are huge connected barn-like structures.  They are beautiful and certainly speak of a time gone by as far as construction...the roofs are particularly beautiful with all sorts of tiling. My phrase book is not enough...I need to get a small, decent English-German dictionary.

Living in one room - well this is taking a bit of getting used to.  It was the one area I was most concerned about before leaving.  In looking at the website for the hotel, http://www.atrium.de/, I thought we would most be comfortable in a superior apartment.  When Doug asked his company, they said we were registered in a superior apartment.  Apartment at best means studio in our vernacular.   Well, what we got was NOT what was pictured on the website.  When I complained and asked them to pull up the virtual tour of the website, they said "it is a mistake."  Now we aren't paying for this, so I wasn't going to argue about truth in advertising, etc.  But asked for an upgrade to what was depicted.,  One was available the next day (apparently a DELUXE apartment-the difference in upgrade we are paying).  The night we spent in the superior apartment was truly miserable.  Bed sizing in Germany is much smaller than we might be used to in US.  If you know my husband, he is a big guy and anything smaller than a king-sized bed for two of us just does not work.  So unpacking waited a day until we got into our new digs.  The entire room is a bit larger so there is even a window in the bedroom alcove which gives  us lots more air circulation.  And there are two twin beds pushed together which is equal to a king, longs as you don't want to cuddle. 

Bedding is different too.  No shared blankets or sheets.  I guess what each bed section has is a duvet...kind of a feather bed or some sort of fluffy quilt thing that is covered in sheeting.  By the end of the night it gets a bit lumpy since it seems best when its sort of shaken out and laid straight.  But its comfortable.  Doug is getting used to not having his softer side of our select comfort bed and I'm happy I can roll over.  I actually like these duvets because I generally sleep with a pillow between my legs and this duvet is large enough to act as body covering and a pillow between the legs.  So bedding problem settled.

The "kitchen area" is a trip.  A small two-burner cook top that is I think convection.  Only the pots provided can be used.  It took a bit to figure out...I've actually gotten to where I don't want to call the front desk because I think I've done that too often and I'm sure they think us the "dumb Americans." Written instructions would be nice.  No oven, and no toaster, but yes, a microwave.  Only a hotel room sized refrigerator with a tiny six-cube ice tray and no ice machines.  That also seems to be something not common to Germany...ice.  The refrigerator does not seem very cold and there is not adjustment...I'm a bit concerned about food storage temperatures.  But then again, the grocery stores did not refrigerate any of the milk and/or eggs!  This kitchen unit is fairly ingenious though...it looks like a nice cabinet.  Lift the top and there is the cook top and a sink whose faucet is similiar in function to a spray attachment to our sinks...it is flexible and you place it in its holder...and again, voila! a regular faucet.   Things I had to remind Doug of...no garbage disposal, make sure all food off plates, and don't leave counter wet!  Its not a granite top! I would love to find a second-hand store that has a crockpot and an electric skillet...maybe then I could actually cook wholesome real meals!

Germany is a very green country.  Eco-wise, everything is very strict.  All garbage and trash must be separated and each house has several containers that are marked for different recycle options (paper, glass, etc).  this is what I was used to 30 years ago in Massachusetts...why Arizona is still not WITH IT is beyond me!  I've seen no trash in the streets - litter seems to be limited to cigarette butts and gum wrappers which are caught in the bushes by the side of the road or sidewalks.  There are small trash cans attached to street posts at intersections...and they are used.  The door to the apartment patio, when opened, automatically turns off the air conditioner/heater...so no wasted energy.  There are no screens which is odd to me...just about every house I've seen has these rolling shutters which in AZ are used mostly as security for when a snowbird is gone for months.  Even upper floor windows have them.  Aside from a few moths, we haven't been bothered by bugs by using the rolling shutters or leaving them open (which negates any sense of security!)...I just wonder why they are so common.  They are highly expensive in the US.  

What Grosses me Out:  Certain toilet practices, especially when considered in public toilets.  Doug had sent me a YouTube video showing how there are toilet brushes in all toilets.  Go to YouTube and enter German Toilets and see if you can find what I'm talking about.  The fact that these brushes (which in my own home get sanitized after I use them) are in public places just gross me out.  Our hotel apartment is set up this way, and I don't want to touch the thing...we are following the "toilet paper first" suggestion of the video.  There are still cigarette vending machines in public with it seems no age restrictions for access....and smoking sections in restaurants.  We went to a german-food restaurant Sunday night and sat by ourselves in the large non-smoking dining room...the smaller pub room was filled to capacity where smoking was allowed, although I truly did not perceive an air of smoke.

I am Most Envious Of:  People who can ride bicycles.  Due to my artifical hips, I don't ride bicycles.  I can, but I'm afraid of falling...I've been thrown from a horse and broken a hip, so I don't take chances...especially since I have no insurance coverage here.  Anyway, there are bike paths all over the place.  I can't say that you see hoards of people riding bikes, but there are traffic paths, dirt paths just about behind any block, and GLORIOUS paved paths for miles and miles through the vineyards, apple orchards, and rolling fields.  On Sunday (all businesses are closed with exception of maybe gas stations and smaller groceries and a few restaurants), when we took a ride to acquaint ourselves a bit with the area, there were families, single people, elderly people all biking through the fields.  I was SOOOO jealous.  I used to love to ride my bike as a kid, and I never lived where it would have been so enjoyable as these riders have available to them.  There were even people riding horses.  I have to say except for the "aging" pudgyness, I have not seen truly fat people.  They obviously eat better, fresher, and have easy options to keep fit.  Its just a part of their lives.  I could not even find larger, plastic glasses to use since we have only stemware in our abode.  Super-sized does not exist in this country. 

Well, it is raining today.  I will write more again soon.  Now that I've figured out how to get to my own blog!  I haven't yet though figured out how to post photos...one new learning experience at a time! DUH!

Why this Blog and Getting Packed

So here is my first true attempt at blogging.  Wanted to develop a way to keep in touch and record my impressions (filtered though my own perceptions) about life in another country.  Granted my home base will be Germany which being a modern western country isn't too exotic from the USA, but there will be societal differences and certainly different history, etc.

Why Germany?  It was never on my "Bucket List" of places to visit, but my husband is working on a six-week project.  Why would I ever NOT take advantage of this opportunity?!  There's really no obligations holding me in Arizona; besides, our country seems to be having difficulties lately and I want to see how Western Europe is coping with similar difficulties.  Hence my blog name, The World Through My Filters.

Little know fact about Germany.  It has the most baterias outside of Brazil.  For the uninitiated, a bateria is a Brazilian community band...generally mostly percussion instruments and dancers.  I belong to Batucaxe (www.batucaxe.org) in Tucson, and when I found out about the seven baterias within fifteen miles of my apartment in Mainz, I packed my drum mallets and am taking along a few copies of our CD to share with others.   I'm hoping I can sit in on some of their rehearsals...that would be so awesome.

So I am about 95 percent packed.  Its been hard to determine what to pack clothing wise since its a whole lot cooler in Germany and we'll be there across a change of seasons.  Well, as our German dinner guest said this week, we aren't going to a third world country...what we might need we can buy.  So I am happy today that I do not feel stressed and that tomorrow I can concentrate on putting our house in order for our house/cat sitter and tonight enjoy a gathering of family for dinner. 

So, dear friends, and whomever might find this blog, I look forward to keeping in touch, sharing my filtered thoughts and perceptions and hopefully figuring out how to post some photos.  See you in a few days!