20 Jul 2016

Anything on pretzel bread with a little butter is amazing.

In the US, restaurant meals comes with water (with ice), and all almost all soft drinks (sodas, or pop, or soda pop depending on where you live in the US) have free refills.  In Germany, I’ve found myself getting used to having no drinks with a meal (or maybe some still water (non-bubbly), but not much.   I suspect that I’m saving hundreds of calories by not having unlimited sprite refills.

I find that I don’t miss old food favorites much, or I can find something equivalent here.  There are a lot of places that have good hamburgers, and heaven knows that I love sausage, and this is the sausage capital of the world (and by that, I mean ground meat.)  I suppose I miss good Mexican food, and to a degree, Japanese food. 

I certainly have a lot of new favorites:  Goulash, schnitzel (of any kind.) Brotkartoffel (actually, it should be Bratkartoffeln) (like home fries in the US), potato taschen (like filled hash browns), Maultaschen (like ravioli), 

The days are feeling more and more normal.  It no longer bothers me to go out to stores and speak with people.  My German is getting better.  I can say “Ich spreche ein bisschen deutsch” (I speak a little German) to match most Germans who say they speak a little English too.

I’m taking weekly language classes, which are going well, if too slowly for me, but my problem is still in parsing spoken German. It doesn’t help that sometimes you can’t figure out the meaning of a sentence until later in the sentence.

Knoppers are these amazing little treats with sweet cream and wafers.  In theory, I think they’re supposed to be meal replacements, but I can’t eat just one, so I think I eat all my meals in one sitting.

Ok, this is a k

The German medical system, while pretty amazing, has its issues.  Doctor visits seem to have very long delays before you can be seen.  It’s partly endemic to the system, as sick people are allowed to walk in any time (as far as I can tell.)  The best advice I had was to get the first appt of the day if possible. Or go to private insurance, but once you go private, you can’t go back to public insurance.

12 Jul 2016 - Condiments/Sauces edition

There are so many good condiments (Würze) and sauces here in Germany, I thought I'd write a post about it.

1) Mayonnaise - Most of the mayos here taste more like American "Miracle Whip" than "Best foods". They're a little sweet. I don't know the difference between Deli mayo and Salat-mayo.  But if you want the US type mayo, buy the McDonald's brand mayo.

2) Knoblauch sauce - Garlic Sauce.  It's amazing.

3) French Dressing - Of the ones I've tried, they're nothing like the American-style french dressing that I'm used to.

4) Balsamic vinaigrette - Very strong and very good.

5) Sweet and Sour sauce is weak and not very sweet OR sour.

6) The sweet Asian sauces that I'm used to (and the very spicy ones) don't seem to exist in the grocery stores.  No General Tso, Sesame, Schezwan, etc.  I've only experienced Chinese food here in Karlsruhe though.

Yeah, that's the real General Tso (from 1875) set against a backdrop of his chicken

Bonus link

6.5) Soy sauce tastes like I expect, but teriyaki is hard to find.

7) Mustard comes in many styles including american-style Yellow mustard (like french's.)  And I can't find any of the thick brown chunky mustards that I'm used to.  However, there are a ton of sweet (honey?) mustards, and you can get mustards from regular to extra scharf (extra spicy.)

8) Ketchup - There are so many kinds!  Curry flavored is very popular, but I've also seen Mexican ketchup. There is, of course, McDonald's brand ketchup.

9) Rapeseed oil - a disturbing name, but I believe it's Canola oil in the US.

10) Sriracha - This exists, but it's not the brand I'm used to in the states (Rooster). I'm told it tastes the same though, even if it's mascot is a goose.

Bonus Link




11) Peanut sauce - The Chinese food in peanut sauce I get is in a very thin, peanut flavored sauce, rather than the thick sauce I'm used to.  Perhaps if I got Thai peanut sauce it'd be thicker like I remember.

12) Gong Bao - I think this is an analog to Kung Pao, it's a brown, slightly spicy sauce. No peanuts though.

07 Jul 2016

1. They do not celebrate the fourth of July here! Weird, right?  So I wore a T-shirt with an American flag and the words "Independence" and "freedom" on it.  No sparklers either (until New Years.)

2. We made reservations and had dinner at a really good, authentic Chinese restaurant. Here's how the reservation call went:

Beth: Sprechen Sie Englisch?
them: Yes
Beth: We'd like to make a reservation for four at 6:30 please
them: Ok.
Beth: Do you need a name to put it under?
them: No, everyone else is Chinese
Beth: Oh, Ok.
them: Do you know what you want to eat?
Beth: No?  Can we decide when we get there?
them: Sure.

It was largely empty when we got there, but the food was amazing.

3. Renaissance Fairs (or Middle Ages Fairs, as they call them here), are great.  People dress up, but not as elaborately as the ones we went to in the states. And they're held in cities that are actually FROM THE MIDDLE AGES!

Bretton was founded in 1504

We went to a festival called the Peter and Paul festival:

You could buy "Peter and Paul schnitzel".  We did not.

4. Traffic signals are on the near side of the street (or the side on which you stop at red lights), rather than on the far side.  That means that if you're the first at the signal, and you're tall, you have to scrunch down rather a lot to see when the signals change. If you end up out in the intersection a little (past, or next to the light), you're screwed and can't tell when the light changes.

And then there's the funny walking man light

5. Some intersections are crazy complicated.  They have 4 way signals, signs (for when the signals are out), and if there's a tram crossing, there are signs and lights for those, plus signs and lights for pedestrians and bicycles, and then the trams themselves have traffic signals.. It can be VERY confusing.

(look closely, that's really an american intersection)

6. It can be hard to do small things like getting rid of yard clippings. The trash folks won't pick them up.  I think we need to find a recycle station or dump.

7. I've written about the Saturday phenomenon before. Because all stores are closed Sunday, and most people work during the week, MANY people shop on Saturday.  What that seems to mean is that every store is super packed with people, especially grocery stores.  We've taken to going week nights if we can, and ordering some groceries delivered. It seems to be working OK.  Saturday mornings are also generally OK. I guess people sleep in.

8. I don't know why I'm surprised to find Chorizo here. It's a Mexican sausage (Spanish too?). But this is the sausage country.  Of course, they'd have it.

26 June 2016

1) It's been super hot. Granted, it hasn't been Las Vegas hot (115F, 46C), or even LA hot (105F, 40C) but with the humidity, it's been pretty miserable.  However, we've found that when it gets hot, we just move down into the cellar (which is mostly underground, like a US daylight basement.) It's at least 10C cooler down there.

Plus we did a very american thing and I bought two rolling air conditioners. They get here Monday. I'm told that De'Longhi is the Whirlpool of Europe. Maybe since they're Italian they'll come in red.

2) One of the cool things about southern Germany (or at least Karlsruhe) is the absolutely stunning thunder and lightning storms. The other night, it woke us up at around 2:am. There was lightning every 2-3 seconds, and the thunder "rumble" never stopped. It just went on and on for 10 minutes. I sat in front of the back door and watched it.  Amazing.

The downside, of course, is the flash flooding.  I hear the Alb river down in Ettlingen flooded that night, washed out the tram station and flooded part of the city and a bunch of businesses.

If you ever get a chance to come to this part of Germany, Ettlingen is amazing. We lived there for 3 months in a temporary flat. We still go to the Saturday market in the city center when we can.  There's a soup vendor there that makes amazing gulaschsuppe.

3) Germany treats drivers like adults.  Many of the rules/laws/etc. assume that people are rational and can figure out how to do things like enter an intersection with no signage without crashing. In the states, it all seems to be stop signs.  Here, it's all yields.  Then again, where there are stoplights, there are usually also signs, for use when the stoplights are out, and in many places,the stoplights are turned off at a certain hour.

4) I've mentioned the playgrounds here.  They're wonderful.  They remind me of the playgrounds in the US when I was a kid. There, you could CLIMB.  And fall and  break your arm, but you'd be more careful next time.  Now, the playgrounds in the US (at least in my experience) are safe and CRAZY BORING.

5) Lipton onion soup mix is like powdered gold. We're about to run out and we're not sure how we'll survive.

We use it for meatloaf and dips.

6) I've started making my own sausage.  I don't grind it, but it's easy here to get ground pork/beef and then I can season it and make american style sausage for breakfast (and for biscuits and gravy.)

Trying to get my sausage to taste close to this.

7) There are SO MANY eis places here (ice cream.)  Obviously, the lines in the summer are a bit long, but totally worth it.

8) Our company (www.gameforge.com) had our summer party at a lake in Weingarten on Friday.  Being pretty far from the ocean, I gather that the best way to beat the heat here is to go to the lake.

Granted, it didn't look as spectacular as this.

9) I had Käsewurst (cheese sausage) at the party.  It tasted just like Polska Kielbasa (literally "polish sausage") that we could get in the US. Now, I'm desperate to find the German name of the stuff so I can buy it (and it's non-cheese version.)  It might be called Käsekrainer...  If any german/american friends can help me figure out what to buy, I'd appreciate it.

16 Jun 2016: Autobahn Edition

We drove across most of Germany this week, west to east; In total about 800 km. I had a chance to experience quite a lot of southern Germany's autobahn.

I've been told that the autobahn where you can drive fast doesn't really exist anymore.  I'd say that if there wasn't constant construction, well more than half of the drive would have been the "real" autobahn.

Here are my experiences driving cross country in Germany (and accidentally in Austria)

• Amazing roads.  The quality of the roads was impressive.  Rarely did I find anything even as small as an asphalt patch.  Perhaps the constant construction is the reason.

• SO MANY SIGNS.  One of the things that was clear about the autobahn was that it's well regulated.  Within the space of a kilometer, there could be signs limting you to 100 kph, then 80 kph, then 60 kph, then a slightly narrow road, then back to 80, then 100, then unrestricted. And so..

• It takes much more focus than I expected. Trying to maintain the right speed, especially when sharing the road with trucks, slow cars and fast cars is draining.  I drove nearly 5 hours Wednesday.

• Driving here means using the left lane only for passing.  Granted, it is supposed to be that way in most places in the US, but here, it's REALLY important. Mostly because of the > 100k euro cars.

• Cars driving  really fast come upon you very quickly; many going well over 200 kph  (124 kph)  (as far as I could guess) Getting out of the way is pretty imperative.

• High end cars seem to have a built in 'flashing light' circuit. I suspect it's automatic and probably called the "cheap car lights".  Even if I wasn't in the left lane, more than one car just flashed their lights constantly warning me not to move over. As far as I can tell, it's for warning people who drive lowly VWs not to move into the left lane and get in the way of their SL 500s

• There is a general recommended top speed of 130 kph (80mph), but it doesn't seem to be enforced. Having said that, I've read that if you are in an accident faster than 130 kph (like at 200 kph), you could be in really big trouble, legally, financially, and of course, crashing at 200kph is rough.

• Driving fast isn't that awesome, TBH. At a certain point, it just feels normal. Having said that, going 60 kph after 140 kph seems stupid slow.  I can't imagine driving on US roads again.

• I sorta accidentally drove into Austria. Not a big deal, except that you need an 87 euro vignette to drive on the Autobahn in Austria.

Umm.  The road was lined with Austrians.

• Some of the autobahn was controlled by variable speed systems that didn't seem very effective. I'm not sure anyone even paid attention. 

• I didn't see a single highway patrol car (or whatever passes for one  here), but I believe there were lots of speed cameras. I guess I'll find out in a couple of weeks.

11 Jun 2016: Things I expected to find, but haven’t (yet).

1) There are not as many knights walking around as I expected.

2) I have not yet found a werewolf to bite me,

nor have I run across any vampires.

As far as I know. If you know one, let me know.



3) Fairies are much harder to find than you'd expect. I can neither confirm nor deny that I found one in a circle of mushrooms at midnight.

4) So many birds! At any given time, there are maybe 15 or more birds in our yard.  Lots of blackbirds.

5) We have an owl that I hear all the time. It seems to live in the eaves of one of the nearby apartment buildings. It hoots all the time. However, I haven’t yet had an Owl deliver my mail.

6) I have not yet found a Frenchman with a twirly moustache. Not even in France.

7) I grew up watching Pippi Longstocking. I guess I expected to find more red headed Swedish girls with odd side-pony tails.

8) Most disappointing: I have yet to find any huts with chicken legs.

I think Baba Yaga probably isn’t currently touring Europe.











Bonus) Toilet Seat Wall from Bauhaus (local DIY place.)