Never Left Home

One of the interesting things about renting an apartment in Germany is that most places come as a shell. And, when we say “shell”, that’s what we mean.  The only thing that usually comes with the place is the toilet, bathroom sink and shower/bath.  Nothing else.  Not even a toilet paper holder.  Not a kitchen, no light fixtures, no closets, no drapes, nothing, nada, zippo, zilch.  When tenants vacate their apartment, they take everything with them, including tearing out their kitchen and presumably installing it in their next home.  Sometimes they’re able to sell their kitchen, light fixtures, etc. to the next tenant. Closets are not typically built in so places like IKEA do a booming business in selling stand-alone wardrobes, like we have done.

So, it was off to the home improvement store to buy a kitchen.  While not necessarily cheap, the kitchen buying process here is completed with typical German efficiency. You go to the store, where there are several sample kitchens on display in various price ranges.  You sit down with a designer and within two hours you have designed your kitchen, selected appliances and scheduled your installation date.  A few days later, a technician comes out with a high-tech laser system to precision-measure the exact location of outlets and plumbing so any design adjustments can be made. About six weeks later, voila!

Our new kitchen is scheduled to be installed in mid-July, about a month after we actually move in so we’ll post the final result.  Stay tuned.

Two weekends ago, we took a drive south into Baden-Württemberg to stay in the beautiful town of Schwäbisch Hall.  Now, we didn’t realize until just before we headed down here that there really isn’t a Hall in Schwäbisch Hall.  I mean, we thought maybe it was the name of an old beer hall, or maybe a medieval hall where German knights used to hang out.  No, “Hall” means “echo”.  The town lies along a river valley and supposedly, at least in the old days, one could hear the echo of young men calling out for their girlfriends, or maybe their cows or whatever.

Anyway, it’s a charming place, with about 25,000 people and a thriving Goethe Institut which attracts about 2,000 students from around the world.

This is one of several warehouse towers around town, built by wealthy medieval merchants.  It was a real status symbol to have a tower higher than your competitors’.  Big tower, big……….

Here Tanya tries to help a lady pull her donkey up the steps of City Hall.

Whoa!! The Harlem Globetrotters are coming to town!

Some pretty Russian girl I picked up along the way.

The oldest and most famous brew pub in town.

This fanfare band was helping celebrate the birthday of a lady staying in our hotel.  Pretty cool.

A few weekends ago, we took a day trip to Maria Laach Monastery, near Andernach in the Rhineland. This Benedictine Abbey was founded in 1093 and the abbey buildings themselves were built between that year and 1177, then added on to in 1225.  Things just don’t move that fast when dealing with medieval churches.  The church itself is considered to be a masterpiece of German Romanesque architecture and the adjoining building is home to approximately 45 monks. We were fortunate to be there about noon on a Sunday and watched as the monks made their procession into the church and sang their haunting liturgical chants.

The abbey is a working enterprise and the monks sustain themselves through a number of agricultural and horticultural enterprises.  They have a “Gärtnerei” or nursery on the grounds and do a booming business selling plants and organic products.  Oh, and did I mention that there’s also a beautiful hotel on the grounds and an impressive visitor center.  Pretty enterprising, these monks.

Living quarters for the brothers

Church grounds reflect the Moorish style of the Alhambra in Granada, Spain

Tome of King Heinrich II, 1270

Tanya is very excited about the flowers in the nursery

It’s important to pick the perfect plant

This is a beautiful country with a fascinating history and we enjoy every day we are here.  We have already been to most of the major cities and places tourists would normally visit.  So, it’s natural that we keep venturing out to see cities and towns that are not usually listed in guidebooks.  We love uncovering hidden gems.  Very few guidebooks mention Essen as a place to visit so we thought we’d give it a try.  What we realized quickly was that there was a reason Essen is not on the tourist trail.  Essentially, it’s a pretty dismal place.  Normally, we’re not critical of the cities we visit here in Germany but with Essen we’ve made an exception.

Of course, there are reasons Essen is not what you would describe as charming.  From the middle ages, it has been an industrial town and has long been dependent upon coal and steel production.  It was heavily bombed in WWII, primarily because it was the home of the Krupp industrial complex, makers of much of the heavy weaponry used by the Third Reich.  Over 90% of the city was destroyed.  Unfortunately, even though the center of town, located north of the railroad tracks has a pretty good retail base, we found it very depressing.  Graffiti everywhere, even on the sides of the cathedral.  Lots of beggars, downtrodden souls and groups of punks hang around drinking beer in the middle of the day, trash everywhere.  It is as if Essen has become a magnet for everyone who doesn’t necessarily fit in anywhere else.

To its credit however, the re-built part of town south of the tracks was more inviting.  Lots of restaurants and neighborhood shops line the main street and we found a nice little Italian place for dinner.  So, we may give Essen another try to give it a chance to redeem itself in our eyes.

The beauty that we did see though was primarily centered around Villa Hügel, the 269 room, 87,000 square foot mansion built by the Krupp family in 1873.  It was in front of the mansion that Alfried Krupp, was unceremoniously arrested in 1945 by the Allies and then stood trial in Nuremberg for war crimes.  It was estimated that over 100,000 forced laborers were used by Krupp during the Nazi regime.

Goethe Insitut in Frankfurt

It may seem like we live this never-ending jet-set life, spending countless weekends in romantic European cities and towns, sipping wine and munching on schnitzel and bratwurst.  But no, there is another side to our lifestyle here.  For Tanya, it’s work.  For Jay, it’s his three to four days a week in Frankfurt at the Goethe Institut in his never-ending quest to master (or at least communicate in) the German language.  Dativ und akkusativ cases, reflexive pronouns and the various idiosyncrasies of this fascinating language are the opponents he must do battle with each day.  I mean, what other language can come up with such incredible compound words such as        lebensabschnittgefährter or unabhaengigkeitserklaerungen.  Or how about this favorite, Donaudampfschiffahrtsgesellschaftskapitän.  There’s no wonder that at the end of the day, I need a stiff glass of Schnapps.  

Mark Twain once wrote in his piece, “The Awful German Language” that “life is too short to learn German”.  Well, I always enjoy a good challenge and so I keep coming back for more.  Stay tuned for progress reports.

A few of Jay’s Classmates

Jay’s Dedicated German Teacher

Over the MLK, Jr. holiday, we took a train up to Hamburg.  This was our third visit to the city and we’ve concluded that this is a great place, even in the middle of winter.  It’s windy and cold, but seeing the ships docked and knowing the North Sea is so close just makes it fun.  Hamburgers seem to be a special kind of people, fiercely independent and full of fun.

A perfect example of this spirit is the Sunday morning “Fish Market” down by the wharf.  This market is open every Sunday morning from 7:30-10:30am in the winter and from 5:00am in the summer.  Naturally, there’s fresh fish for sale from the local vendors.  But there are also vegetable sellers and sellers of all kinds of stuff.  And, of course there’s live music inside the pavilion with early morning beer flowing.  Some of the folks are still in full swing from Saturday night, having migrated over to the market from nearby Reeperbahn, the hub of Hamburg nighttime entertainment.

We are so fortunate to have our own neighborhood palace within a 30 minute walk from our home in Wiesbaden.  This is the Biebrich Schloss or Palace and its construction began in 1688, when Count Georg August Samuel of Nassau-Idstein, apparently wanted a bit grander chateau overlooking the Rhine than his other palace in Idstein.  It was completed in 1702 and Prince Karl von Nassau-Usingen took over in 1734 ,and expanded it.  Unfortunately, it was heavily damaged by bombing in WW II, but since has been restored and now belongs to the state government of Hesse.  In any case, it’s a wonderful place to enjoy a cappuccino on a crisp winter Sunday morning.  The view overlooking the river traffic on the Rhine is beautiful.