Senckenberg Frankfurt – More Dinosaurs!

On April 4, 2013May 30, 2020 By StevenIn International Travel - Inside Germany7 Comments

I’m really not much of a museum-goer. I like some of them, to be sure, but not all of them. I’ve talked before about the Deutches Museum before, and I probably mentioned the local historical museum here in Regensburg, but that’s likely it.

That being said, one surefire way for a museum to entice me to come inside is to put giant dinosaurs out front. For example, the Senckenberg in Frankfurt. Across the street from the front door, helping you find the way, is this fellow:

…and in front of the main building is this friendly critter:

Once inside, the style settles down a bit, but this is the sort of museum that has skeletons of things and has various animals represented. There’s a giant hall with a T-Rex, a Triceratops, and some other well known dinos.

The amount of animal life represented in the museum is staggering, and I could easily have posted a gallery of dozens of pictures, but I decided to represent the museum with three dinosaurs and an ancestor of man. There’s a very nice area about the evolution of hominids with various hominidae skulls, and at the center, a rather nice display of Lucy the Australopithecus.

You might consider this a small amendment to the ‘killing time in Frankfurt‘ post. The museum is easily reachable by public transportation, and it’s a great way to kill a few hours in the city.

What type of museum do you like the most? What’s your favorite museum?

Q&A Time, Part 3!

On April 1, 2013July 7, 2014 By StevenIn Life In Germany3 Comments

A short while back, I posted an ‘Ask Me Anything’ post. Some folks used that as a chance to ask for advice in advance of their upcoming travels to the area, and I tried to answer what I could of those in regular e-mail. Some of the remaining questions are really interesting, so I’ve decided to do a series of “You asked, I answer” posts. Let’s get started!

Here’s a question from Rarasaur: Is there any object (not food related, that’s too easy) that can make you homesick?

I thought about this one for a while, and my answer is no, not really. I put very little personal investment into things. Everything I own right now is either in a 5×10 storage unit in Florida, or in my 45 square meter apartment here, and neither one of those locations is anywhere near full. People can make me homesick. Flavors can make me homesick. Sometimes even smells or songs or the memory of what something feels like can make me homesick.

But an object? No. Just no.

Here’s another question from Rarasaur: Is there a habit or custom that you’ve picked up in Germany that you’d take home with you forever when you come back to the States?

There are a few, I think.

I suspect that my consumption of consumer goods and my handling of trash and waste will be forever altered by my time here.

I take my shoes off at the door of my apartment now. That’s not specifically a German custom, but I didn’t do it before I moved here and I’ll probably keep doing that.

I carry canvas bags to the grocery store with me now because you pay for the plastic bags you need at the grocery here. I’ll probably keep doing the canvas bag thing when I’m back in the states. I also buy a lot less food here because I have to carry it all home with me on foot.

I’m sure there’s more, but that’s all I can think of off the top of my head.

Here’s yet another question from Rarasaur: Have you learned about any particularly interesting German artist/cook/painter/writer/politician/whoever that Americans never really speak about, but all Germans know? If so, pass on the knowledge, por favor. 🙂

Before living in Germany,I didn’t know about Karl May, the author of the Winnetou novels. I didn’t know about “Dinner For One.” I didn’t know about German media folks who are household names here like Michael “Bully” Herbig or Stefan Raab.

Beyond that, I’ve mostly just learned a great deal more about names that are not completely unknown to me as I travel to the places that were part of their lives, because I research the hell out of everything I see and everything I write about. Living in Europe puts me in a fantastic position to learn about these names, because the signs and history are all around me. Johannes Kepler lived here in Regensburg. Napoleon was here for a time, after he was wounded in the Battle of Regensburg. Albrecht Dürer lived in nearby Nürnberg. I learned more about Falco when I went to Vienna, and somehow missed seeing his gravesite when I was walking around Vienna Zentralfriedhof. (And I learned more about that Mozart guy, too.)

Do you have anything you’d like to ask? The Ask Me Anything post is still open!

Living On The 49th Parallel

On March 28, 2013May 30, 2020 By StevenIn Life In Germany9 Comments

We’re a few days into Spring now, according to the calendar, but the temperatures outside still scream WINTER to me. The sunlight, though, is definitely springtime sun. Ever since this winter was declared the darkest on record since records began, I’ve been feeling the darkness much more acutely. A few weeks ago, we had about one week of warmer temperatures and sunlight- a Spring tease, if you will.

This week, it snowed again. And it got cold, damned cold.

The problem is that Germany pretty far north. Bavaria, where I live, is on the 49th Parallel. In North America, the 49th Parallel roughly describes the border between the US and Canada. For someone who spent most of his life up until 2011 in Florida, this takes some getting used to.

During the core part of Winter, the days are much shorter than anything I’m used to. This is especially true in late November and December- it’s night-time dark by the time I leave the office at the end of the day. Last year, I actually bought one of those sun lamps that people use to combat Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD). I used that lamp almost every day last winter, and I barely noticed the omnipresent gloom. This year, I mostly didn’t pay attention to the lamp, and the end result was I didn’t leave my apartment as much, I didn’t travel as much, and I was generally less interested in doing much of anything. My friends noticed I was especially grumpy for about two months, and that it was obvious that I was super cranky and unhappy.

Lesson learned.

The trade-off is in the summer months, though. I was astonished last year while visiting Amsterdam to note that it was still basically daylight after 10pm, and didn’t start to get dark until close to 11. When we switch to daylight savings time this weekend, that will put sunset at close to 8pm. I’m really looking forward to it. (The switch for Germany is on the 31st of March, if you’re wondering.)

As usual, Itchy Feet nails what we’re all thinking:

Summer time is coming. Do you prefer longer or shorter days?

How To Kill 22 Hours In The Frankfurt Flughafen

On March 25, 2013May 30, 2020 By StevenIn Life In Germany9 Comments

Editor’s Note: This was originally posted on March 25th, but a WordPress app issue (damn you, iOS!) caused it to revert to an ancient draft version and it vanished from published status. I’m pretty annoyed that the WordPress app can no longer be trusted to ever edit or view a post ever again. On with the original (republished) post:

The week before last, I got to spend a little bit of extra time in Frankfurt, somewhat against my will. On Tuesday the 12th of March, a large snowstorm caused the Frankfurt Airport to close for several hours. Hundreds of flights were cancelled and still more were delayed. My flights to Orlando were on Wednesday the 13th, one day later. The Munich to Frankfurt flight was delayed, but the Frankfurt to Orlando leg was not, resulting in me getting stuck.

Lufthansa strove mightily to get me to my destination. The woman at the service counter checked other flights- everything going into the US was booked solid. The one possible route she found for me was from Frankfurt to Heathrow in London, and from there to JFK in New York. From JFK, I would have had to driveto Newark to get the last flight down to Orlando. This was, naturally, not a very good solution and I begrudgingly accepted a Lufthansa rebooking the following morning to get in via an extra stop in Chicago. I spent more than a half hour in line for the service desk, and another twenty minutes standing at the counter while the service desk was trying to help me. When I was done, this was the line for that service desk. The actual desk is off to the left there, just past the hanging yellow sign:

Because of the resultant delays and cancellations, I was not the only traveler getting stuck in Frankfurt. Every hotel room in the city center was booked solid. This meant I was well and truly stuck. until 10:45 the following morning. (That flight was also delayed, but that’s not the point here.) With that much time to kill, I needed to come up with fun things to do. My extra time in the Frankfurt airport was not fun, but I have some ideas for future travelers in this position to help pass the time.

Go to every restaurant on the terminal map. Order only a large ice water and a packet of sugar.
Get a haircut. (There are at least two places you can do this without leaving the airport complex.)
Befriend other stranded travelers, and create a review board to compare light levels in the various terminals.
Chart the persistence of aroma by distance from the duty free shops. (Seriously, those places are intensely aromatic. People with headaches triggered by strong smells should beware.)
Take a tour of the airport.
Buy a bunch of postcards in the duty free shop, and then fill them out with “I’m trapped in Frankfurt. Send help!” messages. Use the Deutsche Post shop in Terminal 1 to mail them to all your friends.
Find innovative ways to use the meal vouchers that the airline gave you for stranding you overnight in an unexpected city.
Walk by Erster Wiener in Terminal 1, pointing and laughing. (“LOL, he said Wiener.”)
Some of the stores in the terminal have mannequins. Pose with them. Hold out until a tourist snaps your picture with an iPhone.
Talk back to the gate change announcements. Loudly.
Get a massage.
Go to Euroclean in Terminal 1 and ask them to press your underwear.
Go to one of the book stores in the airport and reorganize the news magazines in reverse alphabetical order.
Go to Flowerterminal (also in terminal 1) and send flowers to your mother.

As it turns out, I didn’t have to spend the entire time in the airport terminal, because I have really great friends. My usual partner-in-crime, Jenny, was at her computer at home, and was able to locate a still-available hotel room about 18 kilometers from the airport. It took me an hour to get there, via two trains and a brisk walk in the snow, but I made it just in time to snag the very last room in the hotel.

Let’s face it, sleeping in a hotel is much more relaxing than trying to sleep in an airport terminal.

Have you ever been stranded in an airport or train station? How did you pass the time?

Last Weekend, In A Photo Gallery Nutshell

On March 20, 2013July 23, 2014 By StevenIn The U.S.5 Comments

While my inbox was exploding with new friends from being Freshly Pressed and listed in Friday Faves, I was out of the country, and mildly out of my mind. I’m planning on going back through all the comments and likes and follows from the Sci-Fi Expatriates post, but I just haven’t had the time yet. I got stuck for an extra night in Frankfurt last week because of flight delays, but that’s another post. That’s probably Monday’s post, actually.

The reason that I was in Frankfurt in the first place is that I was on my way to Orlando to hang out with some friends at Megacon, a pretty nifty convention for sci-fi, anime, gaming, and so forth. The big highlight of this year’s Megacon was a panel with the entire original cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation- Patrick Stewart, Jonathan Frakes, Brent Spiner, Michael Dorn, Levar Burton, Gates McFadden, Marina Sirtis, Wil Wheaton, Denise Crosby, and even John DeLancie. Much fun was had by all.

Panels and friends are only part of the fun at conventions though- one of my favorite things about cons is all the people in costumes! People in fandom can be so creative, and I love to see what people get into. Generally speaking, I don’t get the anime and video game based costumes, but the stuff from comics, movies, and television I usually get right away because that’s my particular geekiness.

Since I only have two days between getting back from Florida and heading off to Frankfurt again (but planned, this time!) I’m going to cheat a bit and just show you guys a gallery of my some of my favorite costumes from the weekend. Make with the clicky to see captions!