Notes from Germany, Vol.16, 5 April 2007

Two things are very clear in my mind at this moment; first of all I recognize that it has been nearly four months since I last provided any commentary about our lives here in Germany, and second that I have been in Germany myself for nearly 2 years. Despite those two facts I am still filled with an unreasonable sense of euphoria anytime I stop to consider the fact that I am living the European life. I may not be writing as well as I have previously, but I am loving life all the same.

I would also like to point out that I begin this particular bit of writing whilst I am riding on a train from Hamburg to Heidelberg. The journey is 6 hours, which should give me plenty of time to write down lots of stuff. I must say that I enjoy travel by train very much. It lacks much of the spectacle and excitement of air travel, but I believe that makes it all the more appealing. Plus there is the fact that every time I look up, I am treated to a delightful view of the German countryside, or a quaint little village, or even the occasional shopping mall. I also like that I can plug in my laptop when the battery runs out.

A Year Without Winter
You may have heard in the news about the unusual winter we enjoyed in Europe this year. In fact there was hardly a winter at all. Looking back I can recall one instance of snow during the season of winter, and that did not last very long. There were very few occasions when the temperature even fell below freezing. The previous winter was considerably different; snow and cold temperatures where the rule, not the exception, and everyone commented on the fact that it was an unusual winter. This winter those who have commented on the weather have all mentioned how very nice it has been.

One result of the balmy winter weather is that the skiing in Europe has been remarkably poor almost everywhere. I take this as a good thing for after a trip home in September, a trip home in November, and then Christmas, we were hardly in a financial position to engage in any kind of winter sports. We have, in fact, not skied at all this year. I suppose I will survive, though this is the first winter in perhaps 12 years that I have not been skiing at least once.

A clear benefit of the warm winter is that several times, beginning in mid-February, the weather has been so nice that I have been able to comfortably put the top down on my little car. I never would have imagined that I would ever be able to drive with the top down during a winter in Germany! Top down weather in February?!? What's Florida got on Germany except DisneyWorld?

As an interesting aside, about the same time that spring arrived, so did the winter weather we had been missing all winter. We had a good week of cold and snow, often mixed with rain. It was miserable for sure, but it was a small price to pay for the incredibly mild winter we had just enjoyed.

More Tooth Fairy Tales
Since my last writing we have had even more adventures with teeth. As for me, I have had a second wisdom tooth pulled and a molar with a cracked filling was refilled. The dentist said I was lucky to not need a root canal with that one and I most certainly agree. Cory has lost his second tooth now and he has demonstrated the most amazing endurance for having things yanked out of his mouth. Mose has always held on to his teeth until the last possible moment; some of them falling out during meals or even while speaking. Cory, we have learned, is more apt to walk up to mom with his mouth open hoping that she will kindly reach into his mouth and pull out his current loose tooth. And Sara, I am happy to say, has finally gotten her braces. She, like Cory, seems to have quite a high pain threshold. She seldom complains and is, in fact, quite proud and happy about the entire experience.

A Trip to Speyer
During the month of February, we took a family trip to a nearby town called Speyer. Speyer is famous for a cathedral of some age at which are buried several kings, Kaisers, emperors, and such. We went with a friend from work, Andy, and also with Eyden, the young daughter of our friends the Mortensens. We found our way to downtown Speyer with little problem. We even found a place to park with relative ease. Finding the famous cathedral, though, proved a little more daunting. We found a large cathedral looking church almost at once, but Andy (who speaks German very well) was able to discern that we were in a Lutheran church, not a Catholic cathedral (the statue of Martin Luther should have been a dead give away, but I never had a clue).

We had been instructed to walk down the street for a ways and we would encounter the famous “Dom” or cathedral. It was easy enough to find, but it was quite a walk to get there. Once we did get there we found that there was an ongoing worship service. A few enquiries by Andy revealed that the current bishop was leaving and that this was a farewell service for him. It seemed rather inappropriate to wander through an active service commenting on sculpture and architecture, so we headed back toward the car instead. Exactly one cup of hot cocoa later, we were back at the car and on our way home.

The Ritter-Sport Factory
One thing that I positively love about Germany are the chocolate bars made by a company called Ritter-Sport. The bars come mostly in a 100g size, which is about a 4 inch square of chocolate. Oh yes, and they are square. Their motto, as I understand it, is “Square. Practical. Good.” I’m not really sure how practical they are, but they are definitely square and definitely good! They come in a variety of flavors, including an extra dark (Edel-Bitter) that is 71% cocoa plus the winter varieties that Mindy loves so very much, such as Blood Orange and Lemon.

Well the Ritter-Sport factory is located about an hour south of our house, near Stuttgart. Given our (my) affinity for Ritter-Sports, a trip to the factory was only logical. Especially since they have an outlet store there that sells their chocolates at greatly reduced prices! I took a Friday off of work on a day that the kids were out of school also and we headed south toward Stuttgart. The factory was a bit tricky to find even with the help of Maggie (our GPS thingy). We finally did find it, piled out of the van, and began looking for someplace that American tourists might be welcomed.

We soon discovered that non-employees are not allowed to actually go into the factory, which was a bit disappointing. What was provided instead was a sort of chocolate museum that spoke about the history of chocolate in general and of Ritter-Sport chocolate in particular. And there was considerable information regarding how cocoa beans are grown and processed in order to make chocolate. I personally found it all to be quite fascinating. I enjoyed it nearly as much as I enjoyed the shopping for chocolates in the outlet shop! Incidentally, we went to the Ritter-Sport factory back in mid-February and I don’t think we have eaten all of that chocolate yet.

Ah, What a Lovely Office/Art Gallery/Nursery
It may be that I have commented on this before, but even if I have I feel I must say that one of the best things about my current job is my office. My experience has been that in government work, as in many other places, there are three distinct office prestige indicators: overall size, doors, and windows. Sometimes I can hardly believe that I have all three! My office is large enough for two comfortable cubicles, maybe even three if they were small; I have a window in the wall behind me and a door for when I feel the need to keep the riffraff out.

It is quite easy to tell that I have become accustomed to such luxury as I have managed over the last two years to make the space wholly my own. I have always enjoyed the privilege of showing off the artwork of my lovely wife, as I am certainly one of her biggest (ahem) fans. Having a large office also means that I have considerable space to hang art. My office has, in fact, become quite the gallery. In addition to the 5 paintings or drawings by Mindy, I also have a Ansel Adams print and the hawk painting presented to me as a gift from a friend now many years ago. Having all of this artwork just hanging about does much, in my opinion, to brighten the room and to make it an interesting place to work.

Another way that I have customized my office is through the addition of numerous plants. Now I have never considered myself a plant person, but that didn’t stop my coworkers from presenting me with a Ficus for my birthday almost two years ago. Since that time I have accumulated one plant after another until I achieved the veritable jungle feeling that my office has today. The amazing thing to me is that I did not buy any of these plants. They are a hodge-podge of gifts and orphans, but now they are almost like pets to me.

Recently I have had the experience of repotting all of my plants. I was only going to do one at the beginning, but I figured as long as I was doing one, I might as well do two. One of my plants was not doing to well and I had been advised by a coworker that it probably had run out of room to grow. This fact was obviated by the roots growing out of the bottom of the pot. My original plan was to do two plants as long as I was at it, but then I decided to do three since putting my largest plant into a new pot would free up a medium sized pot that I could use for one of my smaller plants. I bought some potting soil and a couple of larger pots and did the repotting in just a few moments at home before dinner one night. The impact on those three plants was dramatic and seemingly immediate. It was like they had been holding their breath and had finally been allowed to breath. I was so pleased that I decided to do the other two plants also. Now that all of my plants have been repotted, my office seems to be bursting with life! Who would of thought what a difference a few plants can make?

Luau and Hoola Hoop Madness
With one boy that is now 12 and another that is barely 7, we do not currently have a Cub Scout in the family. Mindy’s good friend Lisa, however, is the Den Mother and that is why I think we were so fortunate as to be invited to the Cub Den’s Blue and Gold Banquet. And why, you might ask, was this so fortunate? Because this year the Cub Den was doing a Luau!

The program was delightful, with the Cubs doing a Hawaiian dance, and the food was wonderful. The highlight of the night for me, though, was the Hoola Hoop contest at the end. During the Hoola Hoop contest each child with any interest was invited to come up a few at a time and try their hands (hips) at Hoola Hooping. In and of itself, this was a very funny thing to watch. Some of the kids had obviously had a bit of practice and were doing quite well. I was shocked, stunned, and amazed, however, when Mose proved to be the most proficient Hoola Hooper of the entire group! I had never before seen my son with a Hoola Hoop, so I was dumbfounded as to how he managed the skill with which he gyrated! I thought for sure that we had discovered some latent gift in him that we had previously been unaware of. Only later did I learn that this was not his first Hoola Hoop experience. Be that as it may, he definitely has a talent for hip-sway.

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Haus Rissen
Some time ago, just shortly after I arrived in Germany, I heard about a seminar called Haus Rissen, called such because the location where it is held is also called Haus Rissen. The seminar is offered to American officers, civilians, and their German counterparts in order to improve understanding between the German people and their American guests. It was recommended to me even then that I should attend this seminar, but things have busy and we have been chronically understaffed. Recently, however, my reasons for not going have dematerialized one after another. On the morning of 25 March, then, I found myself on a train for Hamburg to learn more about this strange and wonderful country where I now live.

The trip to Hamburg was relatively uneventful, at least until I got to the Hamburg train station. I thought that the best way to get from the train station to the location of the event would be by taxi. Under most circumstances, that probably would have been correct, especially since I assumed that a taxi driver would be more familiar with the streets and boroughs of Hamburg. My experience was that my base assumption was incorrect since the taxi driver took me all around the neighborhood called Rissen without actually finding the place where I was supposed to be. I had a number to call at Haus Rissen, so I called. And somehow, seemingly miraculously, the taxi driver found Haus Rissen about the same time I got in touch with the Haus Rissen front desk. I’m still not sure if the driver was really as inept as he seemed, or if I was being bilked for an extra euro or two by him driving around Rissen “lost.” One interesting note, on the way to Haus Rissen, I passed a chinese restaurant with a thatched roof! I never thought I’d see anything like that in real life!

On Sunday evening I took a walk into the neighboring hamlet of Blankenese and then down to the river Elbe. The weather was delightful and the river was a sight to see because of the sometimes HUGE container ships that were making their way into and out of the port at Hamburg. I did an awful lot of walking that evening, which I later came to regret as I was wearing shoes more suited to torture than to a comfortable walk of 10k. I’m afraid I had a bit of a limp for the rest of the week, although I seem fairly well recovered now.

I suppose I could recount the topics and discussions of the seminar, but I doubt that most would find it as fascinating and engaging as I did. I must say that I enjoyed these past five days quite thoroughly! We discussed, and sometimes debated, politics, history, economics, and even culture and education. Being a person who prefers to discuss issues rather than solve them, this was quite enjoyable. Some of our lecturers clearly leaned too far to the left, and others too far to the right, but overall I found the seminar to be enlightening and fun. Oh, and the food they fed us was SUPERB!!! Nothing makes for a good seminar better than good food.

One thing that I should talk about, I suppose, is the city and harbor sightseeing tour that was provided to us on Wednesday afternoon. We left Haus Rissen shortly after lunch on a bus with a tour guide who seemed to know everything about everything and everyone. At one point she said “And on the left, for my German friends, you will see blahblahblah in a black tie. He lives just ahead of us on the left.” The Germans all rushed to that side of the bus and began snapping pictures as fast as they could. It was later explained that blahblahblah (I don’t remember the name actually) was a famous German musician.

We wound our way through the city toward the port hearing, but apparently not remembering, fact after interesting fact about Hamburg, its history, and its interesting people. At the port, we all boarded a tour boat which made a leisurely circuit of the harbor. We saw massive ships, floating dry docks, interesting architecture, and lots of other tourists.

After the harbor tour it was back on the bus and off to Saint Michael’s church. Saint Michael’s is a Lutheran church and, according to our guide, the most beautiful and spectacular Luther church in northern Germany. The church was very beautiful and also very different from the cathedrals we have seen. There was no stained glass and the pews all faced the podium instead of the alter. It was like a cathedral, though, in the design of the high vaulted ceilings and the multiple sculptures both inside and out.

Overall, I'd have to say that my Haus Rissen experience was excellent. I got to see the lovely city of Hamburg, plus I was able to spend the better part of a week discussing history, politics, and economics. The only thing that would have made the week substantially better is if I could have had my family with me.

Upcoming Adventures
I expect that the next time I write it will be to report on our upcoming trip to Holland and perhaps even to report on a bit of fishing.

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