18Sep / 2014

Halftime = Snacktime

 

 

Pretzels, Beer, and the Foster Trophy in Munich

 

We have officially reached the halfway point in our journey, and we all know what halftime means! SNACKS! (Also a trip to the WC, so I’ll talk about that too.)

But first… Because it needs a mention. KZ-Dachau

It was a horrible, cold, wet, and foggy day when we got to the memorial outside the city of Dachau. I think that was fitting and when the weather changed and got sunny in the afternoon I found it weirdly disrespectful. How dare the sun come out!! This place doesn’t deserve sun.

It was a strange feeling.

I won’t go into great detail because there isn’t anything I can say that’s going to add to the “conversation.” Dachau was the first of the concentration camps (or KZs as they are known in German) and for most of its active life was a work camp, very unlike the camps at Treblinka or Auchwitz which were designed primarily for efficient extermination. Which doesn’t mean that the heinous things which happened elsewhere didn’t happen in Dachau.

 

What made things worse, I think, was the proximity to the city of Dachau. Some accounts on the excellent audio tour we took relayed that the US Army forced the citizens of the city of Dachau to tour the camp within days of liberation, as they almost — to a man — denied knowing what went on, despite seeing some of the evidence firsthand in the city and the environs. Unlike most other camps this was right in the middle of the town, and the Martin Niemöller poem “First they came for the Socialists …” was never made more poignant to me.

As Jim said in his post yesterday, it’s not a thing you can really talk about. Not a thing you want to talk about but this wouldn’t be a fair representation of our trip if I didn’t at least mention it in some measure.

 

A palate cleanser. We came all the way to Germany to take a picture in front of the Grand Canyon. (We left the postcard leaning up against the display. I hope some security guy thought it was funny) (But this is Germany, so probably not.)

 

Today we decided we’d had enough of history and went to the Deutches Museum, the largest science museum in the world. And I will say it is certainly the most comprehensive. For example, in the aeronautics exhibition, we found this:

This is an entire display devoted to aircraft harnesses and harness buckles. There were similar displays for every part of the cockpit from the level flight indicator to the oxygen delivery systems for military aircraft. When I say this was comprehensive I am not kidding. NOTHING was missed. And considering the museum had sections on everything from paper making and printing to glass making, optics, lasers, steam machines, marine navigation and boat building, and even the history and process of welding.

There were lots of buttons to push and lots of stairs to climb and it was a nice break from social history.

And then we went on to the SNACKS!

 

Our first Biergarten experience! Jim got a half liter of the beer that was being poured today (it rotates through the eight breweries daily) and we shared a big pretzel (I swear this whole country is made of carbohydrates, not wood and brick, just carbs.) The Biergarten is in the Viktualienmarkt which I talked about a couple of days ago so I won’t go through it again, just give you a picture.

After the walk around the Victualienmarkt, we went down to check out Dallmayr. Dallmayr was the official victual provider for the Bavarian Kings, and has become the high end market to end all high end markets. Just walking in feels expensive.

 

I don’t even know what half this stuff is. And that’s not because of my crappy German. It’s all aspic and pressed meats I guess? Maybe some mousses? Behind this was a gorgeous fish counter, and I could have lived an entire lifetime at the cheese counter, it was so amazing.

This stuff though, I recognize and Jim and I each got a truffle (just one) before moving on, down to the Hofgarten to see it during the day, then back up to see the Glockenspiel one more time. We took the trip up to the top of the tower at the Rathaus for some amazing pictures of the Munich skyline before heading off to dinner at the Pauliner Haus

I had a salad:

 

Yep that’s what passes for salad in Munich. It’s a sausage (veal and pork) sliced thin and served cold with red onion and sour gherkin. I didn’t know what I was expecting, but it was surprisingly good. Jim had this:

A couple of Wursts and the best sauerkraut we’ve had in all of Germany. Probably due to those little pieces of pork you see in it. But it was, simply, amazing.

On the subject of restrooms (since I said I’d address it) the public facilities are really well done throughout Germany. They are not free, in every public restroom that wasn’t attached to a restaurant or museum (and some that were) you are asked to pay between €0.50 and €1 sometimes to an attendant and sometimes to a machine. What you get for that is a clean restroom that is maintained by an attendant who will also make change for you. Whenever we used a public facility, someone was cleaning it. Also they are everywhere – you don’t have to look far to find a place to go. It’s a good system and one I wish we had in the States. We took a long walk with Gary and Tina in Cleveland that was made longer because I had to take us out of the way to find a restroom.

We leave Munich tomorrow for the rural area between Salzburg and Innsbruck in Austria. We are staying at a bed and breakfast in a small town called Hall in Tirol not far from Wattens, the location of the Swarovski Crystal Worlds, my special place I wanted to see.

Let this be fair warning

From now until we head to Budapest on Tuesday, September 23, I cannot be certain we will have an internet connection good enough or stable enough to post regularly. Mom P and Mommy T this does not mean we have been kidnapped by cannibalistic Bavarians. It means that little bed and breakfasts in tiny towns and small 100 year old hotels in Salzburg are not necessarily up to date on the latest fads. Like internet.

For anyone I email regularly (you know who you are) this goes for you too. Will reconnect once we have some stable internet.

I’ve got no secret message today so I’ll leave you all with something nice for the 3rd quarter.

CAKE!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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17Sep / 2014

German Sensibility

(As Robin noted yesterday, today was our trip out to the Dachau concentration camp memorial. Neither of us is really prepared to talk about that, so instead I’m posting an entry that I started yesterday, but has been percolating for almost a week. Robin should resume her daily posting tomorrow.)

Germans are often stereotyped as cold and efficient, even by the other European nations. Frankly I don’t see this as a bad thing. Things here just work, and their design reflects a significant amount of forethought. For example, take a guess what this is:

Is it an NSA business card?

You might guess from its size and shape that it’s our hotel key, but it’s completely anonymous. Following the repression and surveillance of most of last century — first by the Nazis, and then by the communists — Germany has become a model of protecting privacy. Even something as innocuous as a hotel key could give out personal information that you may not want to share. Of course the hotel name or brand might indicate how well off you are, but it could say more, such as if you were at a hotel that caters to gays. Also, if you lose your key, anyone that finds it would have no chance of finding your hotel where they might otherwise be able to socially engineer their way past the front desk staff.

I didn’t get pictures, but there are a couple of things about the hotels that impressed me. First, both the Hamburg and Berlin hotels had shoeshine machines in each floor’s elevator lobbies, and they included multiple brush types for different shoe types. Additionally, there were shoeshine kits (both brown and black) and brushes in the rooms. No shoe shines in Munich, but the room has a disposable glove for removing lint.

All three hotels had in-room safes, which is becoming standard in the US. What was unusual was the notices that the hotels actually had some liability should the safe’s contents be stolen. Robin and I both thought this was remarkable. In the US if someone manages to steal your valuables from the in-room safe then tough luck, even though it was most likely a hotel staff member that took them.

The Berlin hotel in particular was very space efficient —the whole room looked like it could have come from an IKEA showroom. No bureau, but the alcove between the bathroom and the bedroom had plenty of shelving. (This also makes it harder to accidentally leave something behind because nothing is out of sight.) No nightstand, but instead we had a shelf of appropriate height with a cubby hole underneath. The one bathroom door was hinged in such a way that it could close off the entire bathroom, or just the separate toilet, leaving the sink and bath available for use. Of course this means that the shower/bath would be open to the bedroom, but at least it’s possible to share the bathroom and maintain some privacy.

The wait is almost over...

In the US our pedestrian lights tell people how much time they have left to cross the street. Here they tell people how much longer they have to wait to cross the street. It’s a subtle but important difference — the American version is implying that the pedestrian is interrupting the cars, while the German version is the other way round.

Here’s another example of using technology to enforce courtesy, which anyone who has tried to push their way off a London or New York subway car while everyone else was trying to push themselves on will appreciate: some German subway trains use both sides of the car. You exit to the right and people enter from the left. You even get a few seconds head start when exiting, which subtly encourages you to use the correct side and generally ensures that everyone gets on and off more quickly.

ICE, ICE baby

That's a sleek train

This last item isn’t Germany-specific, but common across Europe. I’m writing this while riding a train at 125mph, which isn’t even as fast as it will go. For some distances this is a very efficient and civilized way to travel. Robin and I are facing each other, with a table in the middle and some leg room. There’s also a dining car we can visit, or we can order food right from our seats from a porter. Either way the prices are reasonable and not the usurious rates charged by most airlines. There’s also wifi onboard. You can pay for internet access, or just use the free info such as the real-time map and updates on arrival times, or read the news and stream free content provided by Deutsches Bahn. I don’t know that I would do this for more than a day at a time, but it would certainly be a great option from Phoenix to Las Vegas.

So there you go. It hasn’t been all beers and brats (though there’s certainly been a fair amount of both). The Germans have a great deal of thoughtful design, which I really appreciate, and I hope I’ve inherited a little of.

Secret message for my parents — they're everywhere!

 

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