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Since July 4th, we haven't been many places, as K was studying for mandatory certifications about things that have no direct impact to his job. We did go to the Balloon Festival in Chambley again this year, and for Labor Day, we were in Switzerland, Europe's most expensive country, I swear ( Read more... ) -
Home from Bremerhaven
Our train didn't leave until 10:30, but we managed to catch an earlier one for Bremen and waited there in the much larger Bahnhof - with toilets and cafes and stores, even. The ride home was uneventful, smooth, easy, and the sun came out after we passed through Hannover. By the time we got back to Landstuhl, we were back into summer (it had been ( Read more... ) -
Bremerhaven - Monday
We were all set to attend a Fish Auction at 7 a.m. Bremerhaven has quite the fishing fleet, and I had read that they auction off the fish every morning, starting at 7. We took a taxi to the Auction Hall, since we would have had to get up earlier to take the bus down there, and sadly, the Auction Hall was closed and dark. Our taxi driver ( Read more... ) -
Bremerhaven - Sunday
We spent the morning in the Historischesmuseum to give us an overview of where we are. BH is such a new city, compared to the rest of Germany. It was only started in 1827 as a port for Bremen after the Weser River began to silt up, threatening their shipping economy. BH has always been part of Bremen. Before 1827, it was a marshy area at the ( Read more... ) -
Bremerhaven - getting there
We took the train northward on Saturday to the smallish city of Bremerhaven. On the way, we read that Deutsche Bahn operates 27,000 trains per day and spends more than 1 billion euro annually on maintenance and repair.
The trains were all very crowded and I was glad we had seat reservations. People were standing in the aisle for hours. The 1.50 ( Read more... ) -
Renewing our vehicle registration
OMG, I must rant! Went up last Thursday to renew the registration. Walked in, unbelievably no line, took 10 minutes total. couldn't believe my good luck. Then Friday, dun dun duhn, they called to say we should have gotten a vehicle inspection first, so the new registration is invalid. I promised to come in on Monday to take care of it. Today ( Read more... ) -
Tal ToTAL - biking the Middle Rhine
This past weekend, the roads on either side of the middle Rhine were closed to vehicles and reserved for bicylcles. Hooray! We took the train up to Bingen and biked almost to Koblenz - we did 56k of the 62k journey - on the west side (left as you go downstream). The weather was sunny and HOT. Holy melting mammas, batman, we did sweat. ( Read more... ) -
Shoe shopping
A few years ago, 2004 to be exact, GL and I went on a shoe shopping hunt. I had seen an advertisement for a shoe factory in Hauenstein that sold directly to consumers, so off we went. This might even have been before Googlemaps (at least before I found GM). After much searching, we found the place, on a gravel road in the middle of a run down ( Read more... ) -
Sunday bike ride - Happy Mosel
We spent the day riding along the Mosel River (that's MoSELLE in France, MOsel in Germany). The roads were closed to vehicles for the day and it was delightful to bike along a wide, flat paved road. It rained off and on, but we were prepared, and the rain meant that 10,000 people stayed home, so in that sense it was more pleasant than sun. All ( Read more... )