Just after the Summer solstice, a post!

On June 23, 2016June 23, 2016 By StevenIn Life At Home9 Comments

I’m borrowing this post idea from Bevchen. I don’t usually do a lot of meme-inspired posts, but lately I haven’t been posting much at all. So here’s the “What’s New With You” format… here’s what I’ve been up to just lately.

Reading. I haven’t had much time for the Kindle lately, but I did start Jen Bradley‘s novel “Virago,” along with the fascinating “Cleaning Up The Kingdom, which is written by people who are former members of the Disneyland custodial staff. Really interesting stuff here!

Watching. Summer is upon us, which means there’s not as much new television to be seen. I’ve nearly completed a re-watch of Star Trek: Enterprise, which I absolutely despised on the first run. I find it considerably less revolting now, and I’m not sure what changed. I’ve also nearly completed a re-watch of Leverage, which was a delightful and fun show that could easily have run another season without losing steam.

I also watched the first episode of the new Dangermouse, and it’s definitely got flavor of the original ones, even though some of the new voices completely take me out of the show. The new Silas Greenback voice is particularly terrible. I’m rather surprised they didn’t try to get Sir David Jason back… after all, he was the original voice of Dangermouse. (And Count Duckula!) Maybe he wants to retire from acting, since he’s 76 now.

It’s also the summer movie season. I haven’t had time to watch everything I want to see, but I can say that “Finding Dory” was exceptionally adorable, and the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie was super entertaining. It was basically a two-hour live-action movie version of an episode of the 90s cartoon.

Fascinated by. This news that the Earth has picked up a second moon. Basically, an asteroid got caught in our gravity about a hundred years ago and it never managed to break free. It’s tiny, about 150 feet by 300 feet, and it has a weird orbit. It’s still technically a moon, though. We have two moons! Next up, Jedi Knights!

Cooking. I’m not much of a cook, but I’ve been using the slow cooker for the occasional moist fall-apart-y chicken breast. (Amelie’s Salsa Chicken recipe: Put a chicken breast in the slow cooker with mild salsa for a bunch of hours, then shred and eat with rice or something. It’s super delicious!)

I’ve also been taking advantage of the meats that they sell which have already been prepped/seasoned/marinated- Target sells a garlic and herb roast that is absolutely amazing after about six hours in the slow cooker. I’ve also been making more easy-prep foods like spaghetti at home. I want to eat out at restaurants less frequently, because I enjoy having money.

Exercising. I’m still probably going to talk about exercise in more detail in another post down the line, but I’ve been trying to go to the gym several times a week. When I lived in Germany, I walked most everywhere, lived upstairs, took the bus to work, and walked all over creation whenever I traveled. My life in Florida is so much more sedentary, and I needed to get up and move. So, the gym. I just use the little gym at my apartment complex, because paying for one that I would never drive to is just a waste of money. I do some of the weight machines, some Couch-to-5K stuff on the treadmill, some time on the bike, and as little time as possible on the Devil’s Elliptical. I hate every second of it, but so far I keep going.

Buying. Since I’ve been doing the gym stuff, I got myself a new Fitbit. The Fitbit Charge HR is a wrist-worn step counter that also checks my heart-rate and tracks my sleep. It’s great for being reassured that I am, in fact, terribly unhealthy and in need of drastic lifestyle change.

I also recently bought an install-it-yourself basic alarm system for my apartment, and the little SD card that activates the maps in my car. The Mazda 3 model that I drive had the GPS built in already, and just needed the maps to activate the navigation. There’s an SD card slot in the console.

Traveling. Not so much lately. I did the Germany/Switzerland trip a little while back, but there’s nothing else on the near horizon, except a planned Disney trip in late August. Orlando is only about a three hour drive from me, so I tend not to think of it as travel.

Thinking about: Speaking of Orlando, I won’t get into the Pulse nightclub shooting very much, except to say: Orlando is my second home city (Regensburg is my third,) and some of the victims were friends of my friends. I love Orlando, and I want to live there again some time in the future. The attack was brutal and insane and it saddens me greatly. It also makes me very angry. I won’t say more about this, because the logical thread here gets into religion and politics, both of which are not topics I can be calm or cheerful about right now.

Listening to. Mostly Pandora at work, but I’ve been working on an upbeat playlist called Jim Rhatt for the iPod while I’m on the aforementioned treadmill or Devil’s Elliptical.

Recent concerts with Amelie have included Florence + The Machine, Panic at the Disco, and Weezer. The Cure is playing Miami early next week, but that’s the last show we’ve got tickets for until October (Sia) and November (the Pet Shop Boys.)

Regretting. That my car has a manual transmission. Almost all of the cars I’ve ever driven have had a stick shift, but this might be the last one before I go automatic. I’ve always enjoyed driving manual because I feel like I have more control. I’ve always preferred cars that were small and quick and maneuverable, like a White Star or the Millennium Falcon. In fact, whenever I downshift in a turn, I feel kind of like Han pulling this lever, which is obviously the Falcon’s shifter:

falcon-flight-smaller

The problem with driving manual is that I live in South Florida again, and I spend most of my drive time on the highway, especially I-95. This means there’s a lot of stop-and-go driving, and I spend a large percentage of my drive with my foot pushing the clutch all the way down while I coast along at eight or ten miles an hour. It’s very annoying, and I often get out of the car with an ache in my clutch foot.

What’s your preference, automatic or stick?

Regensburg Tourism

On September 29, 2014May 30, 2020 By StevenIn Life In Germany5 Comments

Earlier this month, I spent an afternoon checking out a bunch of the touristy things I can do without leaving Regensburg. There’s a lot to see and do right here, and I didn’t want to leave it all unseen before I moved back to the US. I started with a river cruise.

There are many great river cruises on the Donau (Danube) river, but I specifically wanted a short touristy river ride. I found one that runs every hour or so during tourism season and runs about 45 minutes for the cost of eight and a half Euros. At a touch after 11 in the morning, I set sail on the good ship Johannes Kepler.

It’s rather interesting to see the Stone Bridge from this perspective. I’ve been all over the surface and around the temporary construction walkways, but this is the first time I was ever underneath the bridge. By the way, pay attention to that tower with the clock faces on it. We’ll climb that later!

Being on the tiny river cruise showed me things about Regensburg that I had never seen before. For example, I didn’t realize that the villa of King Maximilian II was just walking distance down the river.

I don’t know who Klara is, but I really hope she had a nice birthday.

After we docked, I walked a short distance down the riverfront to the Schiffahrtsmuseum, or shipping museum. Entrance was just three Euros. The museum itself is contained inside two very old and beautifully restored ships. The one pictured here is a paddle steamer.

What would a museum be without tiny models?

This is part of the engine room of the Ruthof, the paddle steamer which houses this part of the museum. This stuff is absolutely huge.

Once back on land, I finally managed to get a photograph of the Boat Captain. I don’t know this gentleman’s story, but I see him walking around town from time to time. He’s usually wearing all white, and he’s always got epaulets on his jacket. I’ve always wanted a photograph of him, but he was always walking in the other direction.

I took a very brief detour at the Historic Wurstkuchl to grab some sustenance before I continued on my tourism day. So tasty!

Next, I went to the museum next to Regensburg’s famous Stone Bridge. Most of this museum is free, but there’s a tower here which can be climbed for another two Euros.

“Historic stairs” means they’re really old and rickety and made of wood, I guess.

The top part of this tower used to be someone’s living quarters. These are the rooms inside.

The benefit to living at the top of the historic stairs is the view- this is looking East from the tower.

This is the view North from the tower. When the bridge is not being renovated, this must be a fantastic people-watching view.

Here’s the Western view. This picture was taken during HerbstDult, hence the ferris wheel visible in the distance.

One of the more interesting things about climbing the tower is seeing the mechanism that drives the clocks. This tower has clock faces on three sides, and they’re all driven by a single mechanism. This amazing little gearbox has long rods which connect to each clock face, and the electric motor beneath. One motor for all three clocks.

After climbing down from the tower, I walked around the free part of this museum for a few more minutes. I’ve always liked that the Wappen, or coat of arms, for Regensburg is a shield with two crossed keys in it.

Next on my tourism day was walk up the street to the Kepler Memorial House. Johannes Kepler lived in Regensburg at the end of his life, and he fell ill and died in this city. His old house is a museum now, with an entrance price of two Euros and twenty cents.

J-Kep says science is cool!

They could probably stand to give his bust a good cleaning.

The entire museum was in German, so I didn’t get much out of the description cards, but I still liked seeing the old equipment in glass cases.

This globe is utterly fantastic. Back in those days, they really took the whole “here be sea monsters” thing very seriously, I think.

After I was done at the Kepler House, I walked over to the Dreieinigkeitskirche, one of Regensburg’s many, many churches.

Here’s that key logo again.

…and again with the keys!

I’m always a little bit fascinated by the incredibly old glass you find in places like this. These windows are not as crystal clear as modern glass, but the effect is kind of charming.

While the inside of this church is nice, that’s not why I was here. I came to the church because for another two Euros, you can climb the tower. I’ve been meaning to do this one for three years. This is another place that wasn’t built for tourism- they actually taped Styrofoam to one of the beams to prevent tourists from knocking their heads.

This is another historical stairway, I think.

Near the top, there’s a sign asking that you don’t touch the bell.

It’s quite tempting, though. This is an amazing old church bell.

Why do I climb all these towers? For the views, of course. This is what the city’s main cathedral and the other clock tower look like from this church tower.

Panning a little bit to the left, you can see another very, very old tower. This city’s full of ’em.

On my walk to the next touristy location in my day, I stumbled across some furries having a date. At least I think that’s what was going on here.

For my last stop of the day, I went to the Regensburg Historisches Museum, for an admission price of five Euros. The last time I was there was the first full day I was in this city, back on November 13, 2011. At the time, I knew absolutely no German at all, so I was completely lost. It turns out that even with some knowledge of the language under my belt, the museum didn’t seem all that different to me.

I didn’t remember seeing these stained glass windows last time, though.

I did remember seeing the Jewish headstones before. There have been several Jewish settlements over the centuries in this city, and most of them have been forced out or simply eradicated. Some of the old headstones survived and were brought to the museum.

A big medieval city demands big medieval swords.

I said before that museums love their models, and this is another fine example of that.

Here’s what I spent on my tourism day, not including food:

€8,50 – River Cruise
€3,00 – Schiffahrtsmuseum
€2,00 – Museum and tower next to the Stone Bridge.
€2,20 – Kepler Memorial House
€2,00 – Dreieinigkeitskirche Tower
€5,00 – Historisches Museum

Grand total: €22,70. Not bad for an entire day out, with sun, boats, stairway climbing, history, and culture.

Have you ever been a tourist in your own town? What did you see?

The Day Elvis Helped Me Find Pluto

On May 8, 2014May 30, 2020 By StevenIn International Travel - Inside Germany11 Comments

Back in October, Germany Ja! posted about a Planetenwanderweg (planet trail) in Bad Nauheim, and I just had to go see it myself. The Planet Walk is a two kilometer long trail with statues representing the planets of our solar system at a 1:2.8 billion scale and informational plaques next to the statues.

It’s a short hop outside of Frankfurt am Main, so I spent a morning over in Bad Nauheim the last time I was in Frankfurt. There are apparently thermal baths in town- Bad is German for Bath, so this is pretty common for towns that have names starting with Bad. I wasn’t there for the thermal baths, though. I wanted to see the Planet Walk.

The first thing I noticed was that there’s lots of art everywhere. For example, this was in the tunnel between the train platforms at the Bahnhof.

In order to do the Planet Walk, first I had to find it. I knew that the center of this solar system was the sun, and that it’s in Goldstein Park, but Google Maps and Apple Maps weren’t terribly helpful in getting me to a starting point, and all the official town tourism site told me was that it started to the East of the city. After a bit of walking around, I was able to find it though.

The Sun, with a representation of Apollo, the sun god:

The first five planets are relatively close together, so following the trail was very easy at this point.

First up for the planets is Mercury, winged messenger and all around swell planet.

Next, we have Venus on the half shell.

Earth was so interesting that I had to take two pictures, one from the side and one from the front. I should have snapped the other side as well, since it had a representation of plant life.

Following Earth is Mars, bringer of war. I think it’s interesting that the coloration of the statue was made to reflect that of the Red Planet.

At the corner of this particular piece of greenery is Jupiter, hurler of jagged lightning. Insert your own gas giant joke here, please.

From Jupiter, you have to leave the park, cross the street, go under the train tracks, and exit the Bahnhof through the front door. There you will find the ringed planet Saturn, embedded in the cobblestone in front of the Bahnhof.

From Saturn, it gets much harder to find the planets. Walk down that street until it ends, cross into the plaza behind the street, go past the very large fountain, and enter the Kurzpark. In this big green space, the walkway continues, and eventually reaches Uranus, the lone Greek in our pantheon of Roman planets.

…and this is where I got lost. From Uranus, I knew that it would be a while before I found the next planet, and I knew also that the trail ended up a hill, but I wasn’t to the hill yet. I walked a very long distance through Kurzpark and wound up on entirely the wrong side of things. I used my phone to point me back in the right direction and walked until I found a normal street again.

And that’s where I found Elvis.

No, Elvis isn’t buried here. That honor still goes to Graceland. However, Elvis lived in Bad Nauheim for 18 months when he was stationed at the nearby American military base, and the town is still pretty jazzed about it. They even renamed a street after him.

Running into Elvis made me realize that I had gone the wrong direction after Uranus, and it wasn’t long before I was back on track, easily finding sea god Neptune with the help of carefully re-reading Germany Ja’s post on my phone.

The last part of this walk was a real treat- the Planetenwanderweg was obviously established before Mike Brown and Neil deGrasse Tyson demoted Pluto to the status of Dwarf Planet. To reach Pluto, you have to go up the hill past Neptune, then jog left a bit, then up some stairs, then cross a street, then up some more stairs, then up an ascending path toward the Johannisberg Cafe and Hotel.

I was out of breath when I reached little Pluto, but the view was completely worth it.

Oh yeah, and there’s this:

After successfully exploring the solar system, I walked back down the hill to head back to Frankfurt. On the way back, I discovered that Bad Nauheim is a pretty little town. This amazing fountain was on my walk back.