Freiburg

So I am collaborating with a German Public Lab in Freiburg. Freiburg is right in the black forest (Schwartzwald) and the city has a lot of history. It apparently was a walled city back in the day and there are still some old gate houses and walls in parts of the old city. We met up with some friends there and they introduced us to a few of their favorite Biergartens where we could get Bier von Flass (from the keg) and the kids could drink cokes in big beer mugs. We stopped downtown and watched some socder in the Eurocup and had beer and ice cream. Ganter Hefe Weissen.

Freiburg is at the base of a hill. It really looks similar to the US Appalachian mountains. One night we went to a Biergarten, walked up the hill to another Biergarten with a veiw of the city, then walked further up the mountain to an observation tower, then back to the Biergarten for another beer (reward for hiking up the hill). Erdinger Hefe Weissen and Erdinger Dunkel Weissen. We did not get the kids home until 10:00 PM and it was still light. We are at the 47th parallel and Northern Michigan is only at 45, so we get a lot of light in the summer.

Made it back to Stuttgart last night and had a Veltins Pilsner.

Unknown Beers-

So last week was a week of illness. After I was sick Sa-Su, my son was out Tu-We and my wife got it Fri-Sa. I am not an epidemiologist, but I see a trend. Hopefully it passes the daughter today...

Last week the students at the underwear factory had a grillfest. Meat on a grill and beer. Classic: The side item: one single bowl of salad for about 25 people. Pork, beef, wurst, chicken with bread. And beer. 2 of the RothHaus, ok but not cold enough.

Thursday: Dinkel Acker Pils. Ok.

Friday I managed to get out at night and catch the new Indiana Jones movie at the English movie theater in Vaihingen. I did not realize they had beer at the movie, so I had a coke. Lame!

Saturday was a rainy train day. While my wife recovered, we took an all-day pass an rode the trains around Stuttgart. We stopped at McDonalds and I had one of their beers. It was a lot better than the one I had at McDonalds 20 years ago when we came over with the band. But they poured in a paper cup! So I don't know what it was.

Sunday we made it to Heidelberg. We stopped at a cafe for lunch and I had my first German schnitzel with a dunkel weiss. Again, it came out in a nondescript glass so I have no idea what it was. Tasty and yummy.

Refrigeration cycles, Part 2-

The wife can't take being in Europe without good old American ice cubes, so we ordered an ice maker off Amazon.de. Crazy Europe. God made ice makers for a reason.

In the grocery stores, sometimes they have cheese, milk, and salami sitting out without refrigeration. Even when they have it refrigerated, you never know what part of the distribution chain let it sit on the loading dock in the sun for a few days. Last week I got some bad salami pizza (peperoni, sorta) that knocked me out for half a day. Then Friday night something got me and I was quite ill. I basically slept for 24 hours and missed taking the family on a trip to Munich. Sunday we managed to get out to the nearly new Mercedes Benz Museum, but I nearly did not make it home. I am still weak, but should be able to get into work tomorrow.

Apparently, in Germany they do not have over the counter drugs. The Apothecary appears to only do real drugs, so I assume you need a prescription. Note to all future world travelers: Before taking over a new country with your family, you may want to find out where the local doctor is located. We have a list of doctors in town, but I doubt they are open on weekends (since pretty much nothing is). We brought some drugs (enough ibuprofin to start a meth lab, if that is what makes meth) but we did not pack enough soap or deodorant to last until we come home. Exploring German brands may be exciting.

No beer Saturday or Sunday...

Update: No beer on Monday or Tuesday, feeling almost human on Wednesday. My students went on to Munich without me, except the train we were going on actually went to Nurnberg, so we will one day make it to Munich...

Refrigeration cycles-

So I am working in two different institutes here. One is located in an old underwear factory. The professor has the entire building with space and staff equivalent to our department of 20 faculty, 20 research staff, and 70 postdocs. His office is the biggest office I have ever seen. My office is probably the biggest office I will ever have with very very high ceilings. When on the tour of the chem labs I was awestruck by the giant windows looking out onto some old old church. My office also has big windows and looks onto this old church. However, the offices don't have AC and it gets warm here. My chairman will love this; I have complained about my limited office AC for years and now I have two more summers without any at all. Three weeks ago it was freezing and we were wearing coats. Now it is in the low 80s with more to come. Doh!

If you know about Europe, you know they don't put ice cubes in their drinks. Even at McDonalds when you get your $3 coke they only put maybe 5 ice cubes in. We are on the lookout for a compact ice machine that runs on 220V. What is it with Germans and lack of cooling? It is bad enough that you have to walk to public transit to get on a bus or train without AC. Then you walk to the fourth floor into your office without any AC and no ice cubes in your drink. At least the beer is usually cold.

But the coffee is amazing! One lab has a totally automated system that grinds and brews and disposes for every cup! They run about $1000 to $1500 here and appear pretty common.

I heard that Coors was the new exciting import in Germany. I have not seen it, but I have not been dragging the family out to a lot of bars. so far.

Thursday: Oxx lager .33 l. Closest thing to American beer I have seen. "Mild hops" so that means weak taste? Sorta like drinking a Bud.

Friday: Dinkel Acker CD-Pils. Good overall. Not too hoppy, tasty, went well with pizza.

I'm Batman!

So I brought my Palm Treo (PDA + Phone + camera) to Germany. I knew it would not work since Verizon does CDMA and not GSM like in Europe. But I need a PDA so I carry it, but I miss more appointments now that I only have maybe one a day...

I found a good deal for a little HD movie camera at Target before we left. 8 MP still and 720 P video on SD card, up to 4 hours. Decent video quality overall.

And I found a prepaid phone here for emergencies. A "Handy". Free incoming calls and Andi can call me for free on weekends. $0.50 per minute otherwise...

So I now have two cases on my utility belt. One case is pretty thick, since it holds the video camera and phone. Very nice! Next I need a battarang and a grappling hook.

We have noticed a lot of old German men wearing brown vests with lots of pockets and zippers. I have wanted one of these for years for camping purposes, but now I may get one for PDA + phone + camera + maps + diapers. Crazy old man!

Monday: Baisinger Spezial. Good, but a little hoppy. Not bitter.

Tuesday: Baisinger Keller Teufel Pils. Very hoppy, not pleasant. Andi said it was like crappy fraternity beer. Note the devil on the bottle. Tuefel=devil, Keller=Cellar. Also, Dinkel Acker Marzen. Good, but a bit hoppy.

Wednesday: Oettinger Hefeweissbier. Pretty good, but not my favorite weissbier. Also Scwaben Brau Das Schwarze. Very tasty and dark

Three hour tour-

So today is Sunday. I figure I should go get some work done, since Monday will be wasted at the foreigner office trying to get a residence permit and Kindergeld (free money handout for having kids and being a resident of Germany). I leave the apartment finally at 8:30 and catch a U-Bahn (city train, slower than the big S-Bahn) toward the University. I figure I will catch the buss up to the University. However, after half an hour on the bus, it stops at a mall (not the University). Apparently, on the weekends the busses don't follow their routes. Half an hour later on the buss I am back at the bus/Ubahn/Sbahn stop. I catch the S-Bahn to the University and finally make it to my office, over 2 hours later. This would have been maybe a 10 minute drive. I love public transit!

So even though it was just over 2 hours to get here, I still call it three. They buried Jesus on a Friday afternoon then opened the tomb on Sunday morning and call that three days. Really it was more like a day-and-a-half, tops. From the book of Ed: "The third hour, he managed to make it four miles to work using public transit." Both are miracles. After an hour on the bus: multiple beers tonight.

Yesterday we toured some old castle. 300 years old, 420 rooms, blah blah. Nice flowers. After the walking tour, we decided to try to get to Ikea. Two stops up the S-Bahn and take a bus. We get to the train station and cannot figure out how to catch the 5 train. It looks like it does not leave Ludwigsburg on the weekend. At least not from the track we were on. We catch a train marked "Stuttgart Hbh" that I think should take us toward the Stuttgart main train station (Hauptbahnhof). It does, but it was an express train, no stops. It probably was DB regional train and we were not supposed to be on it. This time, we read the schedules correctly, and half an hour late we are passing Ludwigsburg on the 5 train on the way out to Tamm and Ikea. We get to the station and the elevator is broken. I carry the stroller down the stairs and the bus rolls off as we approach the parking area. Thanks for waiting! No problem, there are four busses to Ikea. Not on Saturday! That bus we saw was it, and it only leaves every hour. So we hop the train back downtown and finally get home. Luckily, we find a cheap Doner place in Marienplatz with good kebab and Pizza and walking distance. Total transit time from Ludwigsburg to home via Stuttgart Hbh and Ludwigsburg and Tamm and Ludwigsburg and Stuttgart Hbh and Fuersee and Marienplatz and Doner kabab and Marienplatz: way over 2 hours.

Friday night we tried to get to a party by public transit. Train to Hbh then take a bus. How hard could that be? Well, they have two routes for the same bus leaving from the same place, each going a different direction with different stops but both arriving eventually arriving at the same destination. I would give each route a different designation to try and distinguish one route from the other, but not in Deutschland. We head off on the wrong bus (right number) going the wrong way. I get us off at the first stop and we walk down Konigstrasse back to the Hbh and get on the correct bus. This trip was not too bad, but we got to the party 45 minutes late. If you count the U-Bahn trip out to the Aldi and back before we left for the party, this was way over three hours.

Friday I had a Eis Marzen at the party (once we finally got there). My host said it was from a special brewery "owned by the region". I think the word he was looking for was communist, Marxist, socialist, or maybe cooperative. Good beer, not too bitter or hoppy, but not super tasty. I had a nice dunkel weiss for lunch at the castle (very good, better than plain old Heffe Weissen) and a Stuttgarter Marzen Saturday night. The Marzen was hoppy but not too bitter, very good. Sunday night I only had a Schwaban Brau Helle.

Bank Holiday: Wilhelma

Today was the second bank holiday for us in two weeks. We went out to the local zoo, the Wilhelma. We bought an annual pass for 80 Eurobucks (~$120). The really nice thing were the amazing greenhouses. It is not just a zoo, it is a botanical garden and park. The animals were good, and they had cages where you could see the animals. Very nice!

We bought a 2-zone multipass and spent the afternoon on the U-bahn and S-bahn and Bus. The bus stops across from our summer apartment, so it should be nice. But I need the exercise due to the beer. Amazingly, there are 2 trains that stop 3 blocks from our house. One goes to the zoo / main train station and the other goes to the university and the beer festival (stadium fair ground). Crazy.

We ate a late lunch at a chinese place so dinner was wine, gouda, pretzels, and beer. Stuttgarter Hofbrau Export Premium. About the same as the normal Stuttgarter Hoffbrau, but with a nice gold foil top. I guess that makes it taste better? I like the standard tallboy (.5 L).

Showers-

Our show is so small, I can't turn around or bend over. It is one quarter of a circle with about a 36 inch radius. I can stand along the hypotenuse (the sqrt(2 r^2) direction) and nearly extend my elbows, however my elbows touch the corners. It is hard to shower with your arms at your side. I have to squat to wash my legs or feet, I cannot bend over. If I do try to bend over, I usually hit the giant knob that takes up a lot of room and the water either turns off or turns super hot. At least they have high pressure and on-demand hot water so you never run out.

Tonight, Andi made some great pasta and I had a Stuttgarter Hofbrau. After dinner I had some gouda and a Altenmunster brauer bier, (urig vurzig?) This had a very neat bottle and it went pop like a cork when I opened the crazy cap thing. No label but intricate design on the glass. Very tasty, not too bitter, heavier that a wheat beer but tasty.

Quiz at Irish Pub?

Monday was spent getting my students settled in. They have dorm and desks and money now. Andi and I took them downtown for a quick tour and some dinner doner. Another Malteser Weiss for me. Tonight I was invited out to an Irish pub for quiz night... So I assume it will be Guinness or black and tans, my favorite! Today was actually my first real day of work, and we accomplished a lot. It is amazing what you can do without tons of email and people and meetings and more and more and more. Update: Guinness, Black-and-tank, Nukie Brown. No Boddingtons.

Down day-

Sunday is supposed to be family time in Germany. Andi said you can't vacuum or do laundry. And I was just about to do both! HA. We drove around for about 3 hours, just checking out Stuttgart in the rain. After all that driving, I was not up for much excitement, so I just had some pretzels and a Erdinger Weisbier in a .5 l tallboy. Still good.

Day Trip #1

We did our first day trip on Saturday. We have a great book with about 25 german road trips listed. Day trips in the car are great for the kids, they can sleep and they travel well. The problem is gas. It is still $9 / gallon here (1.5 E/L). Crazy. We saw revelers coming home at 7 AM still drinking and a guy getting a pee test at 8 AM by the side of the road. I hear the Germans have harsh DUI rules. Anyway, the high spots of our trip were Burg Trifels (a cool castle where they held Richard the Lionhearted prisoner) and Saarsburg (a neat little wine town on the Saar). Came home, put kids in bed, had a glass of wine and stinky cheese, and a Meister Pils. I think I am not a Pilsner fan, they are a little bitter. I can drink them, but they are not my favorite.

Google Map of day trip #1

Warsteiner-

We picked up keys for my students today. They arrive on Monday and now have a place to sleep. Friday afternoon we went downtown to Konnigstrasse and wandered the full length of it. We are total US tourists in shorts pushing a double stroller. It may get quite hot here, it was pretty warm yesterday. The main square is amazing with the old and new castles and a church almost 1,000 years old. Ate more Donner kebab, that stuff is good. I have not had falafel since I lived in Boston. After walking around pushing that stroller I had a classic Warsteiner, but I should have had three. Ok, a little bitter. I still like the wheat beers most. So far...

Mother Lode-

So we spent hours at the Burgerburo in next to the Rathaus, two German words that I thought I would never use. Thanks Herr G for teaching me this crazy stuff! It is amazing how much comes back, but it is also amazing how little I know. Some people know English very well, some not at all. Sitting in line at Ikea, I bust out the classic: "Sprechen Sie English" and I get "But of course." Sometimes simple things throw me, like numbers. I should know numbers coming and going, but sometimes I can't parse the language quickly enough to figure out how much I owe. American idiot.

We found some good Dooner Kebab today near the Rathaus. Andi usually hates lamb, but our donner pizza was pretty good. I could live on Falafel as well, and only $5 a sandwich! Cheap eats in Stuttgart. had a nice Malteser Weiss on tap (Stuttgarter Berwery I think). Very good and tasty. I love wheat beers, I can drink them like water. I can drink them more than water, I don't like water that much. We saw a nice market on the way in, but by the time we finished up with our paperwork in the early afternoon it was gone! Poof, all the flowers, fruit, and vegetables packed up and out.


We took the rest of the afternoon and found an Ikea. It was the first time for Andi and myself, so it was pretty neat. But they did not take credit cards! I hope our Deutsche Bank card gets here soon, the Germans have not discivered Visa universally yet, just their crazy debit card. We also found another giant Real store, this time near Stuttgart. This one was even bigger than the other one that we thought was a Walmart. The best part was the getrankemarkt. We picked up a empty case of 20 and filled it with random beers, each one costing from 1 to 1.5 Euros (like $1.50 to $2.40 each). We have to return the car Sunday, then we have to go for 6 weeks without one (except for occasional rentals I guess). Then we will be rocking the Peugeuot minivan! I filled up the Scoda yesterday ($75) and Chase shut down my visa (international fraud!). Crazy. I had heard that I should call them, but I never did. We will see if my transfer goes through tomorrow. Tried the Krombacher Pils tallboy tonight. A little bitter, but not bad.

Mexicans of Germany-

Wednesday we needed to work on our Krankenversicherungnachweis but instead we got a Bereiungsbescheinigung. I can't make this stuff up. The former is a health insurance certificate letter, the latter is a statutory proof of health insurance. Hopefully paying tons of the money in the US makes it ok for us here. The university dining hall was the best food we have had in a week and cheapish. We read there was a Walmart, so we went looking. Turns out it was a store named "Real" and we spent a couple of hours shopping. The coolest part was the moving ramp to carry your cart to the second floor; carts had magnetic wheels so your cart would not slip. I told a friend we were like the country folk coming in to town to the Walmart once every month or two, since we walked out with two carts full. She said we were more like Mexicans in her Walmart, wandering around and getting in the way and nobody can understand what you are saying. The Real had a Getrankmarkt with tons of beer and wine. Single beers were less than a $1 (1/3 the usual price) so I got a few. I started out with another Erdinger Weiss, still one of my favorites. They had a variety of mini-kegs and one was priced around $8. Their wine selection was good and reasonably priced.

Setting up in Germany-

So Andi scheduled us to pick up a rental car in Frankfurt, a Golf station wagon. After pushing our kids and bags about 2 miles through customs and the airport and the biggest parking garage in the world, we get to our Scoda, not a VW. We actually got everything in the car! Except for a single bag that got tied on top. We must have looked like fools driving to Stuttgart with a big green duffel on top of the car. We made it and got to our apartment meeting on time.

The apartment is not bad for 500 square feet. Small kitchen, decent bedroom, decent den, balcony. It definitely could have been worse. Andi was very organized, so we were quickly set up and running. We walked around in the afternoon looking for food, but Monday was a bank holiday! Nothing to be found. We eventually got to a small pizza place and made the mistake they always tell you about. Pepperoni means small spicy peppers in Deutschland! Oops. Ellie cried. Andi and I split an Erdinger Weiss and an Erdinger dunkel Weiss, both very good. That night we were all up at midnight, so we drove around town and found a Esso gas station open with some food. Classy!

Tuesday we tried to get internet set up. We drove to Ludwigsburg because the GPS said they had shopping. Ludwigsburg was a very nice little town, but the Vodaphone people were useless. And Deutshe Bank people were not much help either. Eventually we got to the University, met my secretarial contact, and had my orientation meeting. Tuesday afternoon we found a Vodaphone in Stuttgart with a very helpful English speaking man and we were ready to go! Cell phone and data plan with super fast speeds. Now life is getting settled. Wednesday will be spent working on our residence permit... Gutgarter Hofbrau tallboy from the gas station, very good. Correction: Stuttgarter Hofbrau. I cannot read the old fonts. Thanks Sarah!

Get set and go!

Tim managed to get us to CLT successfully. Carry-on, two kids, two car seats, double stroller, and NINE bags. No problem! We filled up Tim's sequoia. We get there nearly three hours early for a flight that ends up being an hour late. Why not have a beer? Carolina Brewing Company, Cottonwood Lowdown Brown, very nice. After the beer, they pulled the usual "we will board in 10 minutes" every ten minutes for 40 minutes. Kids started to melt down before we got on the plane. How bad could eight hours on a plane be?

It turns out, the answer is "pretty bad". Ellie fussed a bit on the plane and Drew had to get up and down over and over. They did not sleep much, so neither did we. Good thing we only have to do this flight three more times. Doh! We learned to take less on the plane and pull out the TV controls so the kids can watch (they were blocked by the car seats). I did manage a Heineken on the plane. They said beer and wine was five dollars or five euros, no free booze on international for US Air. In my stupor, I did the math wrong; I thought five euros was less than five dollars. Cheers to my $8 12 oz Heinie! Idiot...

Get ready...

College ceremony for grads Sat. AM, university graduation at 4:00. Time for beer! Got to have lunch with some of our great friends at Rockaway Athletic Club. We will miss you all! Bags are packed and ready to go. Shiner Bock draft, tasty.

Update: Saw Davis, Sudduth, and Butch at a graduation party. Congrats to all grads! Corona (ok) and New Castle Brown (yummy).

Off to Germany!

So we leave Sunday for Germany! 14 months in Europe will be exciting. Apparently, Germany is known for their beers so I may try a few... I will try to document what beers I drink while there.