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Monday June 14, 2004 Germany When we first got to Germany, we were lucky enough to get to drive around Frankfurt for a few hours. My brother-in-law didn't know where the hell he was going, I assumed. It took forever for him to find what he was looking for. I don't recall what it was, but it had to do with his being in the army. He was home because he had recently had his third heat stroke. Iraq heat will cause those. Something you notice fairly quickly is that the overpass doesn't exist there. If you miss your exit or make a wrong turn when on the autobahn, which is Germany version of what we would call a "highway" or "interstate" (not a single stretch of road like I always thought it was), you're going to be going in the wrong direction for quite some time. Then you get to turn around and drive through a town until you find how to get back on going the right direction. There's also no speed limits on the autobahn in some areas. That's some areas, not all. There are also recommended speeds. Unless they're enforced, you won't have to wait long to see a Porsche fly by. Speaking of cars, Audis, BMWs, and Mercedes' are quite common there. They're like Fords and Chevy's here, in fact. They're lucky. Anyway, we eventually made it to my sister's. It was lunchtime so we didn't have to wait long to sample the cuisine. My first German meal was a meatloaf hamburger or something like that. I don't recall exactly. I had been awake for many, many hours at that point. The burger actually wasn't that bad, but it wasn't that good either. Sodas there are expensive, too. And they don't put ice in them. You'd think some might prefer that, since it leaves more room for soda instead of wasting it on ice, but they don't even fill your cup all the way up. On the whole, though, my professional opinion on German food is that it blows... hard. There wasn't really much to see in Germany. From what I saw, the landscape was very hilly and green. My sister told me it's not all like that, though. They're also supposedly very protective of their environment. Mainly trees. There are hefty fines for cutting them down. Even if you own the land, they don't want you to clear it. That's not the case here. That's what my sister says, anyway. I don't know if she's a reliable source. One of the first things we did in Germany was visit a castle. I believe it was known as Sickingen or something like that. I don't know if that's the town it was in or the name of the family it had belonged to or what. The first time we went, it had just closed. We took a photo or two while there, though, then came back a few days later and took more when we got to go inside. That's why the dates on the photos of it are days apart. It was cool, but there's not a lot to say about it. It was just a castle. I'll try to be pretty descriptive in the photos of it. Maybe that'll make up for lack of anything to say about it here. Moving on... We also hit a place known as Rothenburg. Basically, it was just a really old town. Not a lot to say about it either. Maybe the photos will help me out again. In Rothenburg was the Museum of Criminals, which was interesting. You got to see how bad people could be to each other back in the day and it was perfectly acceptable to society. Very weird and unusual punishments and ways of humiliating people. Again, the photos will give a few examples. We also hit a little town called Idar-Oberstein. And I just spelled that correctly on the first try. Awesome. There was absolutely nothing to this place. A little shopping, that's about it. Oh, and my sister made sure to tell us it was "the gym capital of the world." Whatever. Booooriiiiiing. All there was was this church built into the side of a mountain (several pictures of it in the "slide"). My sister claims a man killed his brother then built it in his honor to sort of ease his pain. That is if I'm recalling that correctly and my sister had her facts straight to begin with. I really wanted to see the Black Forest but didn't get to. It's known for its coo-coo clocks, I'm told. I would've bought my mother one since I still haven't given her anything for mother's day, but I didn't have 200 euro (roughly $240 American) to drop on one. And even then, it's doubtful it would make it back to "the states," as they call America over there, without being crushed. OK, so... food: check. Rothenburg: check. Idar-Oberstein: check. Museum of Criminals: check. I think that about covers Germany. Oh, there's not one attractive woman in the entire country. There, that's it.
Click Here To See Germany Photos |
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