Tag: Regensburg

Sunny Sunday Walkabout

On By StevenIn Life In Germany12 Comments

One of my friends mentioned that they wanted to see pictures from around my new town, so I just needed to wait for a rare sunny day, and I was off and strolling with my trusty dSLR.

I’ll start with a carved tree near the bus station.  I haven’t the slightest idea what this is all about.

You can tell it’s a real city because we even have graffiti.

I had no idea this was nearby until I took a slightly different route-  an Important European Golf Museum!  I’m not sure they have the same definition for “Important” that I do.

The street musicians in Germany are a different calibre than those I’ve seen in the US.  For example, here’s a guy with an accordion.

All paths lead to the Dom, the big cathedral.  It’s just an amazing piece of architecture.

Dude needs to mow his roof.

Another view of the Dom from across the Donau (Danube) river.

Doors all over town have this marking on them in white chalk- it’s left over from last Friday’s holiday, Epiphany.  It is customary for the faithful to bless their houses at the Epiphany with blessed chalk. They write over their front door: 20 + C + M + B + 12. The digits, which appear at the beginning and end of the line, designate the new year. ‘CMB’ stands for the traditional names of the Magi (Caspar, Melchior and Balthasar) and also signifies the Latin prayer Christus Mansionem Benedicat or ‘May Christ bless this dwelling.’

Despite the sun, it was quite cold today.  To prove this, I have taken a photograph of a frozen puddle near the curb.

Cool little statue on the Stone Bridge.  I need to find out if there’s a reference to the history of all these little statues.

Charming couple on the stone bridge.

Some buildings along the north bank of the Donau.

The rushing waters of the Donau.

There are a lot of buildings with paintings on their sides in various places around town.  This is on Goliathstrasse.

The next few pictures are fascinating to me.  There’s a pedestrian bridge a little bit upstream from the Stone Bridge, which has a metal latticework covered in padlocks.

The tradition, which is apparently very common in Germany, is for lovers to inscribe their names on the metal locks, sometimes with a personal message but sometimes not, and then attach the padlock to the bridge while declaring their undying love for each over.  Then they kiss and throw the key of the padlock into the river below as a romantic gesture.

Here’s a good article about it:  http://www.pgtraveltips.co.uk/blog/regensburg-germany-sweethearts-cross-the-danube-to-lock-into-love/2827

I’m really curious about the stories behind the locks.  Especially when there’s nothing but a date.  I spent quite a while looking at these padlocks today.

I swear I was not stalking this couple, but the city just isn’t that large.  We crossed paths going in opposite directions at two different points.  I even crossed the Donau twice before running into them again from the other direction.

When my vegetarian friends visit, I’ve got them covered.

The Garbo, one of several movie theatres in town that sometimes plays movies in English.

The bar in the center of this picture, Orkan, has great beer and tasty Schnitzel.  (Although to be fair, I have yet to have a bad beer in this town.

More buildings near the Donau.

This view is actually from the bridge with all the padlocks, but I find it to be pretty spectacularly picturesque.  I can’t wait to see what this place looks like in the Spring and Summertime, when everything is green again.

Ah, Maximilianstrasse.  I tend to think of this as the central corridor of the city, even though its nowhere near the center.

A cop and kebap.  Doner Kebab is a very tasty hand-held food, similar to a gyro.

This statue is near the Dom.  The inscription on the pedestal says, in German, “Ludwig I – King of Bavaria.”

Most of the pictures I’ve posted of the Dom don’t really give you a sense of the size of the thing  Here’s some pictures where you can see just how large it is.

Albert Einstein as a Marionette?  Check.

Someone’s nick-name is “Hempy?!”  I want to meet this individual.

Another high quality street musician.

That sign in the shadowed portion of the picture?  I’ve seen them all over town, pointing in different directions.  I couldn’t figure out what they were pointing to, so I finally asked someone.  It turns out they just say “one way street.”  Oops!

Haidplatz, a triangular plaza with several delicious restaurants, including one of the Thai places I haven’t had a chance to try yet.

Frohes neues Jahr!

On By StevenIn Life In Germany4 Comments

Last night was my first New Year’s Eve in a new country-  it was rainy and overcast and yet somehow still magical to me.  There were fireworks everywhere, even if I couldn’t see them all. I did take a lot of pictures after midnight,and these are three of my favorites.  I especially like the shot with the two girls walking up the sidewalk holding sparklers.

Happy new year, everyone!  May 2012 meet and exceed all your hopes and dreams!

FireworksGirls With SparklersFireworks

It’s The Little Things

On By StevenIn Life In Germany5 Comments

I was talking with my sister yesterday via the miracle of inexpensive international calling that is Skype, and I was telling her about some of the smaller differences between Europe and the US, things that are just interesting to me because they’re different.  To someone who’s been in Germany for more than a year or two, these are the kind of differences that probably don’t get much notice, but to me, they’re huge and fascinating.  Here’s a few of them.Plumbing:

toilet flush
That little button on the right side of the top is the flush control.

Urinals and toilets here are different.  Not so different that it’s difficult to use them, but even just the flush mechanism.  In the US, there’s typically a handle that pulls up a flapper inside a tank.  The mechanics of it may be the same inside the tank, but here the flush button is usually on top for tank styled toilets, and it if you press the button the other way, it will stop the flush.  There are also toilets where the tank is set into the wall, and the flush button is a big panel-  I haven’t the foggiest idea how that works, but I’ve seen it in several places.  Heck, even the stall doors in public restrooms are different here.  They’re more private than in the US, and there’s a little occupied/vacant indicator built into the door handle.  I think that’s kind of nifty.

Phone jacks:

Phone jacks in the US are a tiny little modular affair, less than half an inch wide.   Here’s what they look like here in Germany:

phone jack 1phone jack 2

Door knobs:

doorknobWhile interior doors aren’t much different, front doors here have a tendency to have a knob that does not turn.  The entire purpose of this knob is just to have something to grip in order to open the door.  The actual latch part of the assembly is built right into the keyhole.  The lock is different also-  the normal setting is locked from outside but not from inside.  There’s a keyhole on the inside of the door too, and from either side of the door you can extend the deadbolt halfway with one turn of the key or all the way with a second turn of the key.  I had to go through the settings with the door open so that I could see the deadbolt positions before I fully understood the door lock.

Windows:

This is my favorite difference so far, when it comes to normal house stuff.    The windows here are just cooler, no pun intended.    In the US, windows usually open via an upward or sideways sliding motion, or they can be tilted up with a hand crank.  Not so, here.  The window handle has three positions.  In the downward position, the window is closed.  In the horizontal position, you can open the window inward.  The third position is the one that made me go “Neat!” – when you flip the handle upward, you can tilt the window in so that it pivots on the bottom two hinges.  This gives you ventilation without having the entire house exposed to the rain or wind or snow, not unlike a car sunroof, but done vertically.  From left to right, these pictures are closed, open, slanted open:

window - closedwindow - open

window - slanted

The best part of the windows here though is that it’s very common for there to be external rolldown shutters on very window.  In other words, the windows have built in shutters on the outside of the building that you control from inside.  Here’s the shutter on my bedroom window, and the strap mechanism that’s used to roll it up and down:

Window - shuttershutter strap

Brrr-many

On By StevenIn Life In Germany4 Comments

One of the questions that my friends and family back home have asked me frequently is “Steven, how are you doing with the cold?” To my friends in Chicago, New York, New Hampshire- this is a silly question, because I haven’t seen temperatures here that are colder than what they’re used to seeing.

However, it is important to remember that I’ve lived in South Florida for my entire life until now. Here’s a helpful comparison: Right now, it’s 37 degrees fahrenheit and sunny (yes, sunny!) in Regensburg. Back in my former home of Delray Beach, it’s 66 degrees. For South Florida, 66 degrees is chilly. When I left, it was closer to 80 degrees there.

Editor’s note: I’m talking about the temperature in Farenheit instead of Celcius because nearly of my readers are back in the United States.

Since I arrived, it has been pretty comfortable- the temperature has only rarely dropped below freezing. We’ve had some days that are considered unseasonably warm by the locals with temperatures climbing up into the forties. Although I’ve seen some snow here, it’s never been on the ground. I’ve needed an umbrella more often than I expected for November and December. The Internet says that the weather is pretty moderate here, with temperatures seldom dropping below freezing when the sun is up. Last year was a bad winter, the locals all say, and there was a great deal of snow.

The record lows here in the past have gone to twenty or thirty below 0, but those are extremes. The averages are much more moderate- although it will drop below freezing here, it probably won’t drop below 0 on the fahrenheit scale.

Hedgehog bootsFor this former Florida resident, adjusting to the November and December temperatures has been largely about changing what I think of as “cold.” Before I left for Germany, I tried to outfit myself with a sort of Florida Resident Cold Weather Starter Kit. I went to Burlington Coat Factory and got a big heavy jacket with an inner shell that was removable, one that was moisture and wind resistant. I went to a ski store (after the shock of learning that there was a ski store in Florida) and got some smartwool socks, a scarf, a pair of heavy gloves, and a pair of boots that are designed for snow. I also picked up some thermal inner layers, high tech stuff that wicks moisture and so forth.

 

Stoic underthings.Hot & Chilly's
They kinda look like superhero gear, don't they?

What I am learning is that most of the time, I don’t need the high tech polyester stuff on my torso- a regular long sleeved t-shirt handles the heavy lifting of layering for warmth quite nicely. The Hot & Chilly’s will come in handy when it gets colder, I imagine, but for now they’re not completely needed because it’s not that much colder here than it was in my Boca Raton office, which is always freezing.

After a full month here, I’ve finally sorted out that the whole point of a scarf is to keep your neck warm. I thought it was just to keep wind off the back of your neck, and I started out wearing it draped over the neck with the ends dangling. After watching how other people used them, I started to wrap it around my neck, which led to a few days where I looked truly silly. In the last few days, I finally realized that the closer the scarf is to my skin, the warmer my entire body feels. Don’t understimate the power of the wind to make you feel cold.

I’ve also noticed a lot of people here wear Converse. I decided to try my beloved Chuck Taylors today, and I can now say with certainty that they’re not ideal for this climate. I’ve worn them in New York, Las Vegas, Hong Kong, and many points in between, and they’re just not a cold weather shoe. This fully explains the fur-lined Converse I saw in the shoe store- I thought it was overkill, but I bet it really helps to keep the cold from creeping up into the soles of your feet.

The one thing that I wish I had packed more of before I left the US is long-sleeved cotton t-shirs. I have a half dozen of them, mostly with designs on them. I have a couple of simple cotton long-sleeved t-shirts though, and they’re worth their weight in gold for layering to handle movement between the office and the bus stop, and for walking in and out of buildings when the temperature is hovering around two degrees Celcius.

That’s about 35F for you Florida folk.