9 January 2011 - Weimar

I had the sudden urge to get out of the house and explore this weekend. As is typical with me, I started with availability of Starwood properties and saw, to my delight, that the Hotel Elephant in Weimar was only €99/night. Deal! For reference purposes, the Hotel Elephant is part of their Luxury Collection and for the most part is either fully booked or up in the €300 range. Yes, I have been stalking it. So anyway, it seemed like an omen and I booked a night. Of course then I had to remember why I wanted to go to Weimar.... Nearly a year ago when a friend and I went to Leipzig (see the 7 March 2010 posting), there was some sort of reference to Weimar, so I assumed there must be something to see, so I bought a train ticket and was off, with no discernible plan.

Weimar is about a 2.5 hour train ride on the IC (Inter City, not to be confused with the higher-speed Inter City Express). I could pick up the train right here at the Südbah

nhof station a couple of blocks from my house, which was an added bonus. I somehow scored a compartment all to myself, so it was quite a pleasant ride. I was a bit disturbed, though, to see what appeared to be quite massive flooding of fields and lowlands, which appears to be the result of the melting of the massive snow that fell on Germany around the holidays. I continued to be amazed both in Weimar with the swollen Ilm River as well as on the way home at the continued high water levels. The picture here is not a great one because the train was going so quickly, but you get the idea with the road disappearing into a giant puddle.

Hotel Elephant is located right on the Marktplatz, so it is in the heart of the old town. I had looked at the hotel's web site and it said that it was about a mile from the train station. I only had a small overnight bag, so when I arrived (without a map), I pretty much just started following people to what I figured must be the main drag of town. With the assistance of my BlackBerry GPS, I made it there in a more or less direct route, to the extent a direct route is ever possible in a small town with twisting, turning streets at not-exactly right angles. I was able to conduct the hotel check-in entirely in German, which always pleases me. Yes, I'm pretty sure they realize I'm not German, but the fact that people don't immediately switch to English always delights me. They gave me a nice suite with a view overlooking the town square. Really nice property if anyone is ever thinking of visiting. I also enjoyed the large and rather heavy brass elephant pendant attached to my old-school key. You know, the type where you leave the key at the front desk when you leave. Love it!

In a nutshell, Weimar has a rich cultural history, hailing as home at one time or another to Goethe, Schiller, Bach and Liszt, among others (Bach being the link I recalled from the Wartburg stop en route to Leipzig). You might also associate Weimar with the Weimar Republic of Germany from 1913-1933, which would not be a misnomer since the republic's constitution was drafted in Weimar since Berlin had a lot of violent demonstrations that caused the National Assembly to consider it (Berlin) not safe for meeting. Hence Weimar. Weimar also was the start of the Bauhaus movement in the late 1910s. Think Walter Gropius and you will be transported to art history as it relates to architecture. It also, unfortunately, has a dark history in that the Buchenwald concentration camp was only about 8 kilometers from Weimar. Weimar was part of East Germany until the fall of the wall.

Weimar today seems to be mostly a tourist destination primarily focused on the intelligentsia who have lived there throughout the years. (For those interested, Liszt's 200th birthday will be celebrated this year!) It is also home to the Onion Festival. Some things I cannot make up. And no, no relation to The Onion.

All in all, it was a delightful old city. I mostly just wandered around. I was particularly intrigued by the ruins of what appears to be a cathedral near the Ilm. The ruins were magnificent. I will have to dig deeper for the rest of the story. But I highly recommend it to others. But I make no promises on either the Onion Festival or the celebration of Liszt's birthday.....

1 January 2011 - Silvester in Frankfurt

Tonight was my first opportunity to celebrate Silvester (New Year's Eve) in Germany. It is a bit different from the parties and other celebrations I have attended in the US, including the ball drop in Times Square in New York in frigid cold weather. Here, or at least in Frankfurt, there is less of a countdown atmosphere and more emphasis on, well, other things.

First, I did a bit of research on why it is called Silvester. I have only come up with a partial answer, which dates back to Pope Sylvester 1 in the 4th century, whose feast day is 31 December. Apparently, the day became associated with New Year's Eve in 1582 when the Gregorian calendar was updated and the last day became 31 December. Or something like that. (This does not, of course, explain the different spelling.) That said, however, some of the traditions celebrated by Germans can apparently be traced back to some pagan practices of Germanic tribes that also occurred at the end of the year. If you want some deep history, there is a pretty good summary at http://www.thelocal.de/society/20091231-16425.html.

One of the traditions I have heard about is not quite so old, but is perhaps even more fascinating than some of the pagan traditions. And that is the viewing of a play titled, "Dinner for One." The play is a British play from the 20s and is apparently not very popular in the UK itself, but has become something of a holiday cult elsewhere. It is one of the few clips that is played without German voiceovers, in fact. A black and white version from the early 1960s appears to be the definitive version and it's relatively short (you can view it on YouTube), only about 10 minutes. As far as I can tell, an old woman invites four of her friends to dinner, but apparently they have all died, so her butler plays their parts, including drinking the wine that comes with each course, so he becomes increasingly inebriated. That's pretty much it. Oh, and references to, "same procedure as last year." What is interesting is that this is not only a German classic now. A Norwegian friend said that it is also popular there, though they watch it on 23 December and stole the tradition from the Swedes. Who knew? Anyway, more information on the play if you're now hopelessly intrigued is available at Wikipedia (where else?) at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dinner_for_one.

Another tradition is fireworks. This dates back to some of the pagan practices and the Teutons freaking out about the sun during the winter and also relates to some pagan practices related to noise. So when my neighbors invited me to dinner (for more than one) and then fireworks at the river, I assumed that the city of Frankfurt had a big fireworks show each year. Not so much. Essentially, it is a free-for-all with people showing up and setting off their fireworks at random. This began a bit before midnight and continued in earnest for a good half hour into the new year. And these were pretty big fireworks, not just sparklers and things like that. I'm not sure where they buy these, but everyone seemed to have them. No regulation whatsoever in the use of said fireworks. We hung back a bit from the river under a tree and were still alarmed at times by what people were doing and how the fireworks were being lit and set off. But it was truly amazing. Something about the randomness and so many people setting off so many fireworks at the same time made for a near continuous "finale" of fireworks.

Of course, no German celebration would be complete without consumption of alcoholic beverages. I'm not sure if I mentioned it or not, but apparently open containers are not an issue here. Sometimes during the summer (especially for things like bachelor parties) you see people wandering around with an entire bottle of wine or prosecco just drinking from it on the streets, and of course consumption of beer from glass bottles. No, not even in a brown paper bag. It takes some getting used to. Tonight was this taken to a higher level, with people really trashed and walking around still drinking and yes, still lighting fireworks. This would be a recipe for disaster and a lot of litigation in the US, but somehow it seems to work here. I should, in all fairness, note that our merry band did bring a bottle of prosecco and some cassis syrup for some New Year's Eve Kir Royale action. But we most assuredly did not drink from the bottle!

A few other minor differences from the US. In the US, there tends to be a bit more sparkling and bling involved, generally and in attire. Um, I was "overblinged" this evening. It is apparently a bit more casual here. Perhaps there are more formal events, though. The other thing that I find extremely charming is the tendency of people to text greetings shortly after the new year. I love this. There is nothing more charming than getting texts from my peeps while standing by the river in the smoke-filled air watching fireworks by drunken strangers. Okay, I guess you have to be there.

Meanwhile, it is past 2:00 AM and people are still setting off fireworks in my neighborhood.

If I haven't said it before, I love Germany. Love it, love it, love it!

5 December 2010 - The Singing Christmas Tree

(O Tannenbaum)

My neighbors and I went to a rather fascinating event last night - The Singing Christmas Tree (see www.singing-christmas-tree.de). This is apparently a long-standing tradition of the German-American Community Choir, which was started back in the early 70s by the U.S. military. The Singing Christmas Tree has been performed on the second weekend of Advent for over 30 years. So it definitely seemed like it was worth a peek.

It was actually quite fascinating. The concert starts in entire darkness with the choir singing "Alleluia" and slowly the Christmas tree lights become visible and then as the lights come up you see that there are also humans in among the tree, as you can see from this picture. But the transformation from darkness to lit Christmas tree to lit tree with beaming faces of singers was really quite striking. It ended in much the same way, with the lights slowly going down as the choir sang "Stille Nacht/Silent Nacht." We were then allowed to take pictures during the encore items. Really an interesting experience.

For those interested, here's the program:

Alleluia

Machet die Tore weit (Psalm 24, 7-10)

A Christmas Celebration (Medley of Silver Bells, The Christmas Song, We Need a Little Christmas)

Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer

Go Tell it on the Mountain

Als ich bei meinen Schafen wacht

Der englische Gruß

Sussex Carol

Carol to the King

Rejoice (from Handel's "Messiah")

God Rest Ye merry Gentlemen

Tochter Zion

Yuletide Americana

Sleigh Ride

Let There Be Peace On Earth

A Christmas Medley

Stille Nacht/Silent Night

4 December 2010 - School spirit

("On Wisconsin" as performed by the University of Wisconsin Marching Band)

While this may be a strange thing to post in December when you might expect more things related to the Christmas season here, the topic happened to come up again today, so it is what it is.

For those of us who grew up in the U.S., college football has been a factor in the lives of most of us or our friends and relatives. Whether you went to a school with a successful team or not, if you live in the Midwest, for example, you cannot escape the coverage of Big 10 football. For many, college football is even more exciting than professional football, though of course college football then gives you some of your favorite players to follow in the pros. And then there are the school rivalries, the tailgating, the mascots, the marching bands, the traditions -- all of it creates a great sense of belonging and community. And we show our school spirit through the sweatshirts, of course, as well as all the other trappings available.

So one of the things I noticed early on over here was that people don't wear college sweatshirts. I thought it was just a different preference in fashion. But then I also noticed almost an entire absence of communication about where one went to university. And then I finally realized that Europe, or at least Germany, doesn't really "do" college athletics like we do in the U.S. I suddenly felt very sad for all of the college students.

But every once in a while, the topic surfaces. For example, a few weeks ago I was speaking on the phone with a student who is attending a certain other Big 10 school and who is interested in doing an internship with us in Germany. While not something I would normally cover in a sort of phone interview, I said, "There's something I need to get out of the way before we take this any further. I'm a Badger." Without missing a beat (and thus confirming that she has become quite Americanized), she responded, "We all make our mistakes." But we then went on to talk about the Badgers beating her university at football, and the recent heroic feats of Bucky Badger during their 83-20 victory over Indiana. One of the traditions at Wisconsin is that when the Badgers score, Bucky does one pushup for each point on the Badger scoreboard at that time. So, 7 points after the first touchdown, 10 points if there is a touchdown followed by a field goal, 17 if another touchdown is scored, etc. Now, it's not often that the score is quite so lopsided as 83-20 (though the score against Northwestern last weekend was 70-23) so that was an awful lot of pushups for poor Bucky. And again, consider that this guy is inside a heavy fur suit with a gigantic head while doing this. Well, it turns out that there are actually three individuals who perform as Bucky, but they must share two Bucky suits between them. So for the 83-20 game, each of them had to take their turns in the heavy, sweaty suit doing the pushups. Anyway, our HR representative was there as I went on at length about this and was looking at me like I was speaking an entirely different language, and not just because this was in English. She clearly also must have thought I was a bit "off" mentally, if she had not already suspected that. So the experience made me realize that I sure probably keep my mouth shut over here about Badgers.

So fast forward to today. I was thinking about the Badgers and went online to see if they had published on iTunes an electronic version of the cassette I had years ago called, "The Fifth Quarter" which was various fight songs, et cetera, of the Badgers as performed by the marching band. I didn't find that, but did find an album with most of the classics. Perfect. Downloaded and started getting all pumped up. I was speaking later with a Canadian and mentioned my success in finding the songs, and there was a long, long pause. "Um, didn't you already graduate? What is this, once a Badger, always a Badger?" Um, YEAH!!!! I was shocked. I mean, Canadians are almost like us, right? Or not.... It was a sad realization. But I am still playing the album over and over again.

On Wisconsin!!

28 November 2011 - Adventskranz

Today marks the first week of Advent. I admit that the concept of the four weeks of Advent is a bit new to me. However, I clearly missed the boat on this here in Germany last year, so I decided to be ready this year.

As background, for both Catholics and Protestants, Advent begins the first Sunday after November 26. In German-speaking Europe, one of the key trappings of Advent celebration is the Adventskranz, which is a wreath you put on the table and to which you somehow associate four candles, one for each week of Advent. Starting the first day of Advent (today, in this case), you begin burning one candle, then you add another candle for each additional week. It is, admittedly, unclear to me if one must dispose of the unburned candles at the end of this festivity, or if somehow you burn them all out on Christmas day itself.

Anyway, I missed this entirely last year. So last week I convinced my neighbors to go Adventskranz and candle shopping with me and got a nice mixed bough kranz and the requisite four candles. Some people are really crafty and somehow situate the candles amongst the boughs, but I just see that as a fire hazard (plus I am not craft enough to figure out how to do that). So my four candles are in the center of the wreath and situated on a non-flammable bowl so that neither the flames nor melting wax will touch the boughs and create a fire hazard. We'll see how this works.

Anyway, happy Advent to the Adventists and all others celebrating the holiday season.

24 May 2010 - Locks

("Love Lockdown" by Kanye West)

Warning - this is generally going to be a very boring, albeit brief, posting for most people. I nevertheless felt compelled to share (even though it took my nearly six months to finish the draft of this posting!).

This weekend the weather was really beautiful and I took advantage of it and spent some time along the mighty Main River (note that the official name of Frankfurt is Frankfurt am Main, meaning Frankfurt located on the Main). Saturday I took a long walk towards Offenbach and discovered that there was a set of locks there alongside, of course, a dam. There was a pedestrian bridge that ran over all of it (with a grated walkway that might make the faint of heart a bit unnerved), so I headed up to take a look. I guess if you've seen one set of locks, perhaps you've seen them all, but I nevertheless enjoy watching the action. This set was quite long and capable of fitting two long barges at a time. There is a surprising amount of commercial traffic on the Main. One sees barges carrying coal, fluids of some sort, and who knows what else. I have heard that much of the traffic is controlled by Deutsche Bahn, which of course also owns the German railway system, which would seem to give them quite a nice control of transit of goods within the country.

There were three sets of locks. The first two appeared to be two separate lanes for commercial purposes. They were each long enough to contain two barges. In addition, there was a set of doors in the center, so if only one barge was present, the entire lane didn't have to be filled or drained (I am sure those are not the technical terms, but you catch my drift (no pun intended), right?).

The third lock appears to be for leisure craft and is more or less a self-serve lock, which I found fascinating. I hung around to watch this in action. It requires at least two individuals to operate this lock. Essentially, the boat must pull into the lane and let out a passenger, who then operates the lock. The pilot of the boat then pulls forward into the lock area. The ousted passenger then goes to a terminal/interface that is about the size of an ATM machine, but doesn't seem to be quite so advanced. I'm not sure what the machine says, but the operator must essentially push a large button to start the filling/draining process. And continue to hold until it is done. So the guy I was watching got pretty tired of pressing the button with his hand and engaged in a variety of positions mostly involving leaning up against the machine. Who says booties aren't useful for things other than sitting? Then, once the proper level is achieved, the doors are opened, the operator goes down to the lower or higher area where the boat is now located and jumps back into the boat. Now, there doesn't appear to be a way to access the leisure locks, if you will, other than from the river itself. So if your buddy pulls out without waiting for you to jump back in, it's a long swim to shore....

The following day I got on my bike and rode the other direction along the Main. Much to my surprise, I encountered another set of locks. It was more or less the same as the other set of locks, but with a slightly more rural flavor. Just as fascinating to watch.

14 November 2010 - Hudson's 20,000 kilometer day!

("Drive" by Vanessa Hudgens)

I think those of you reading this blog realize by now that I have an unusual (I refuse to call it unnatural) bond with my car (codename, Hudson). Under my lease, I am allotted 20,000 kilometers per year, so at 1.5 years into the lease I should have about 30,000 kilometers on him. Alas, as of the beginning of this past week, I was only about to finally (FINALLY!) crack the 20,000 barrier. I had planned a long road trip this summer that would have helped in this regard, but it was scrapped for a variety of reasons. But I thought it would be wrong, just WRONG, for him to hit 20,000 kilometers on something as mundane as the commute to work. No, he needed the wind on his shield, the asphalt of the Autobahn under his summer shoes, the bugs sucked into his grill. We needed, in short, a roadtrip. So a roadtrip we had.

Borrowing from my aborted summer roadtrip playbook, we (yes, I refer to us collectively) headed south. We drove from Frankfurt to Stuttgart on Friday night and stayed at the Le Meridien Stuttgart that is easily one of my favorite SPG properties in Germany (though the ramps to their underground garage are wickedly narrow!). Then on Saturday morning, we went to the Mercedes-Benz Museum in Stuttgart (see separate posting) so Hudson could recall the superiority of his own provenance (why have a three-spoke star when you can have four rings????). And then on we drove to Lenggries, which is in southern Bavaria about an hour out of Munich.

So, why Lenggries? Well, let's be honest, it was only on my not-so-familiar-with-Bavaria radar because it is home to a Starwood property, the Four Points Sheraton Brauneck. Brauneck refers to the nearest mountain, Lenggries being at the foot of an area known both for its skiing and hiking. A very good start. Did a bit more research and it seemed like it might be a nice, restful destination.

The hotel was in "downtown" Lenggries, rather than a bit further out in the wilderness or higher up in the mountains than I had hoped. But it was fine, albeit what I would refer to as a "humble" property - clean with friendly staff but no bells and whistles like an executive lounge or an upgrade to a suite. The proximity to greater metropolitan Lenggries was interesting, though, and I thought a nice wander and perhaps some retail therapy were in order. I arrived around 4 PM, which unfortunately was the time that all the stores in the quaint little town closed. Doh! It was also getting dark, so I only had a little bit of time to wander around. But the next morning I awoke at the crack of dawn as sunlight filtered in over the tops of the mountain peaks and decided to set out for a wander in the town and the woods at the base and leading into the mountains. Both were really, really quite pretty as you can see by the picture posted above.

But after the hike as I headed back from the mountains and was passing by what appeared to be the primary village church, it looked like something was about to happen. There were a few people standing around in Bavarian attire who seemed to be waiting for something. Hmmm... And then I saw a group of guys standing around in a sort of Bavarian uniform -- with drums!! Something certainly was going to happen. I mean, you don't just have a drummer gathering without expecting something to happen, right? So I decided to hang around, even though I didn't have my cool leather coat that I bought in Austria that might allow me to at least kind of blend. My thistle-colored (okay, lilac or light purple) Marmot shell wasn't quite so blending.... But in any event or color, I was not to be disappointed.

After standing quietly and trying not to look too American, the event started. The drummers picked up their drums, as did a Bavarian band with their instruments. And out of the old town church began a very large procession of men in Bavarian attire carrying a

variety of colorful flags and banners. Hmmmm.... The drummers led the band and the rest of the entourage around the small square, stopping in an angled formation around a podium that had been set up and was swathed in the German flag. Next to it was a sort of eternal flame that was burning - not Olympic size, but sufficiently sized for this venue. In the background, the German and Bavarian flags flapped in the crisp breeze. A Catholic priest made a short speech, which was followed by a considerably longer one from a protestant minister, and then the priest led the audience in reciting the Lord's Prayer.

It was all very fascinating and very somber. It clearly related to remembering those who had died. This was a few days after 11 November when Veterans Day and Remembrance Day take place in the US and the UK, respectively, so I assumed that this event was related somehow to that. My nascent German skills picked up quotes on not forgetting the dead, there were some references to World War II, and the names of the eight German soldiers who had perished in Afghanistan this year were also read. Even though I didn't understand everything, I still found the experience very moving, much as my eyes always fill with tears when the US flag is waving and we're singing the national anthem or even saying the pledge of allegiance (the latter of which I can't remember when I participated in that, but it has been far too long).

I did a bit more research when I got home on this celebration and it turns out that it is slightly different than the holidays in the US and UK. Germany does not celebrate the armistice itself, but has a national day of mourning which seems to be more similar to All Saints Day that I celebrated a few years ago in Guatemala. Germany's national day of mourning (Volkstrauertag) has been celebrated since 1952 and is held on the Sunday before the first Sunday of Advent. While it is a secular holiday, churches have their own special take on the holiday, with the Catholic church celebrating All Souls Day and the Lutheran church celebrating Eternity Sunday. So I'm guessing the protestant minister who spoke may have been Lutheran.

All in all, Hudson logged about 1,000 kilometers on this trip. He arrived home dirty with quite a few bugs on the windshield and in the grill (apparently we haven't had cold enough weather to kill them all yet?) but a lovely twinkle in his daytime running lamps.