However, we live on the outskirts of this little town and they haven't yet put our utility lines under ground, so there is that one wire.
One thing that you'll notice about America after living here - wires everywhere, ruining perfectly good photos.
This is just another absurd fence with no reason.
Our post office! We're lucky to have one, since this is such a small town. It has ridiculous open hours, like many businesses - closed in the afternoons on Wednesday, closed every day between noon and 1, I can never keep it straight, I often drive away sadly. This is where I go every time I mail a package home. The one counter is handled by our neighbor lady.
The building that houses the post office is Denkmal geschutzt. That means it is a historically relevant/protected building that may not be altered architecturally. It is considered to be in the realm of "Cultural Heritage Management". J just told me that it has to do with the building method of the structure. It was made in such a way that is no longer done.
The shield logo is the Nordrhein Westfalen state seal/flag. California has a bear, we got a horse.
Getting into the downtown of the village. That's a restaurant on the left but I haven't been there since the one time it was full of people eating and smoking cigarettes.
This is the church fountain. I don't like forsythia.
The protestant church. We went in one Sunday for a sermon. Our neighbors were surprised to see us. J is a registered protestant, meaning he pays a church tax to the state. I don't pay this, because I align myself with the free churches.
You're driving along the main street and then suddenly the road closes in on you and there is no room if another car is coming toward you. One of you will have to back up sheepishly. There is no sign warning of this tight spot. Note that the sidewalk on both sides narrows to near impossibility on both sides. Not wheelchair accessible. Many streets in Germany have homes built too close because he roads were made without cars in mind.
This is cute, but tricksy. It says "Hotel zur Post" on the sign (with horses pulling a carriage, see it?) but it is certainly not a hotel. I've gone up and tried to enter but the door is locked and no one seems to be in there. Karneval celebrations are hosted here, that's it, I think. Strangely, my favorite Thai restaurant says HOTEL on the side, but it is also not a hotel. How mean to trick people like this!
I promised you whimsy. This yard is full of little characters, and my first time here one of them moved. They keep tame rabbits among the fake stuff. I love it, and I have no idea who does it, but if I did, I'd tell him or her. You can't quite see it but there is a big nativity scene in the "barn" back there on the left. Once I saw a live pig in there.
I was hungry by this time and wanted to go to my favorite Turkish shop for a snack but as you can see by the rolling shutters (?) it's not open. When my friend Tami from WA visited me last year, I took her here to experience her first currywurst, a German fast food. I like this place cuz the Turkish guy who works here SMILES at me.
That is a cigarette machine on the sidewalk. J and I never call this place by its name, we call it "The Disaster Burger place" because they make the world's messiest burger.
Our town has not 1, not 2, but 3 little horsey shops. I get my cat litter here, horse vitamin snacks, and my hay nets. Often I suffer from not understanding their open hours, closed midday.
Our town's gas station, Aral. Tiny and on the side of a hill so be careful how you pull in. Our unleaded is 1.33 E per liter, which makes it 5.79$ per gallon. What bothers me about buying gas - there is no pay-at-the-pump. You must go inside and wait in line. It's one of the things I enjoy most about visiting America, paying right there at my car.
Our bank. Again it's just an addition to a residential building, but it's nice to have a bank in our town. BTW, there are no drive-up ATMs in Germany, no checks, and most restaurants and bakeries only accept cash, so we spend a lot of time here. There is a machine next to the ATMs that prints out account statements. J goes in regularly to print out the stack. It seems to be a normal thing to do.
Since my favorite Turkish shop was closed, I stopped in at the next little Imbiss (snack bar?) for a currywurst. To my disappointment when first moving to Germany, I learned that a currywurst is not a curry infused wurst, it's simply a bratwurst with turmeric-flavored ketchup on top, and some turmeric powder as garnish. But they're not bad. I ask for extra spicy. They chop it up in a machine designed for this sole purpose, and I cut them smaller. Normally they don't give you a currywurst in a bowl, but I didn't mind.
This little Imbiss offers catering "we will do our magic and you will shine." They will bring food to your wedding, birthday, baptism, communion..
Wait.
Communion? HUH!?
Not long ago another blogger went to Germany and it was questioned whether Schnitzel is the hamburger of Germany. I think their menu proves that true. Schnitzel comes before Hamburger in the menu. There are not many burgers to be had here, and although the image on the menu clearly has bacon on it, this Imbiss did not offer bacon at all.
Not that anyone would care, bacon is an American thing. I wonder what would happen if I pointed to the image and said, "I want that." Hm. I see there is an Imbiss section to this Imbiss's menu. That confuses me.
I turned around in my seat and quickly got a shot of the interior.
I noticed this newspaper, our local, on the next table.
Next door to the Imbiss is Edeka, the "fancy" grocery store in our town of two grocery stores. I say fancy because they actually have:
- Soy sauce
- Ginger
- Worchestershire sauce (little tiny bottle that I cannot live without)
- Spices (Aldi just has salt, pepper, garlic, and turmeric)
- Laundry soap
- Glade candles
- Jalepenos (jarred, for fresh I have to drive to the big city and find a Palestinian shop)
Shopping in Germany is about going to a series of shops to get what you need. The bank first if you need bread. The bakery for the bread. The drink shop for my man's Coke Zero (there are shops that only sell drinks). The Aldi for cheap basics. The pharmacy for aspirin. The Edeka for a rare Asian specialty, soy sauce.
The best thing about Edeka is that they do not follow the typical German policy of herding people through the shop with rail guards that prevent you from actually leaving the store without purchase.
Many German supermarkets make it difficult to leave the store if you are not actually buying. You must squeeze through the narrow checkout line, asking each annoyed person to make room.
Except at Edeka, where I can skip happily out of the store from the same door that allowed me in. At Aldi there is an in door and an out door. If you suddenly realize you need a cart, you have to either squeeze through the angry line, or wait by the in door for someone to enter, and rush through. Then you'd better have your coin for the cart, or else you'll have to go in the store, wait in line, get change, and go back out. Once I got caught by an automated security system as I tried to leave through an in door. A loudspeaker started shouting at me!
However, Edeka has one very bad quality - the employees smoke cigarettes IN THE STORE (in a break room with no door). Before Edeka I'd never experienced that, cigarette smoke hanging in certain locations of a grocery store.
Although I have mixed feelings about Edeka, I appreciate the way the employees are trained differently. They are actually allowed to talk to customers. They will actually slow down or stop what they're doing if you ask a question. At Aldi, you'd better be moving your items back into your cart at light speed and not talking or else you get appalled looks from the people in line. And the employees are so fast you can't possibly move as fast as they can scan items. They are obviously given more work than they can actually accomplish in their shifts (they alternate stocking and checking based on how many people are in line and how many times someone yells "Open another checkout!"). The employees are under tremendous stress and they rush around the store full tilt, you'd better get out of their way. Yesterday J asked Mr Friendly, "Does this item have a description or label?" and the guy did not even slow down in his rush by us, he just said, "Nope, nope!" I laughed and said, "That's him on a good day!" (That guy scares me too much, I'd never have the nerve to say anything to him.)
Aldi is perfect for customers whose homes are actually on fire. For me, it's just stress. Of course, even at Edeka the employees are surprised if you try to make small talk with them.
But there's this...
Edeka has a community board and you can put stuff up for sale. In this horsey community, our board had four horsey items. This is an endurance saddle. Very nice.
This is an offer to lease a Haflinger. I've seen many signs here like this.
You can't quite see it but the sign said "For SELF-CARE-ONLY! 2 stalls available with pasture access." Wish I knew which barn this was, it seems to be in our town, from the telephone prefix.
This is the entirety of the produce section. The levitating fake plants disturb me. If you arrive near closing time (9PM) you won't find any produce - they will have taken it all away to store it in a cool area. Lots of work every day putting it in and out again.
Apples. None are Red Delicious as you can see, but 8 other types.
White asparagus is a thing in Germany, but only in May. With Hollandaise. It's expensive, and tastes all right. I'll happily eat the white if someone goes to the expense and trouble (it must be skinned) to make it for me. But the green, I love the green ---- oh, look, it's only 1.99 E per tiny bunch. I bought two. YUMMY! Most German groceries are cheaper than in America, but I'm not sure about asparagus and avocado. Anyway, for less than 2E, I'll take it!
On my way home from the grocery store, I came to our town's only traffic circle. As you can see there is nothing substantial in the middle (like the fancy art in most of them). So I cannot help but drive straight over the middle of it sometimes.
I've seen the public busses do it too.
This "Dragon-scaled" house is built below the sidewalk, as so many are, just like downtown Seattle, where the streets were installed way later than the homes. So you have to go down to get to your front door.
This house has, what, 4 doorbells, so it hosts 4 families. But note the 4 catholic Star Singer Epiphany stickers above the door. Our house had one too but I took it down.
Oh, look, a new house is being built. My husband wanted me to mention that the new houses are made of brick and mortar, and not Fachwerk and Schiefer. This is one of those new manufactured homes that pop up everywhere, made for only one family.
I was leading Bellis by this house and went, "What...."
Exactly as they intended.
You are so cool, whoever lives here. That little string with the red tip hanging down at the elephant's head is part of the mural. And all the stuff in the garage behind the elephant, it's not really there either!
This is an awesome flower that I have only a few of in my yard, it's called Adam and Eve here, Pulmonaria in English, because it's got a very unique flowering pattern - each stalk has both a blue and a pink flower. What other flower does this?
I had to take a photo of the local driving school. Did you know, in Germany, you don't learn to drive a car in high school? You have to pay over a thousand Euros, at age 18, to an independent company like this to pass your test. I'm so thankful that Washington state has an agreement with Germany so I did not have to go back to school to get my International driver's license. WHEW. However I am not allowed to pull even the tiniest of horse trailers.
I included this photo cuz you can see the disappearing sidewalk thing happening, you're just walking along and then suddenly, no more sidewalk. It makes me laugh. But this house on the right is not built straight. Many, many homes here are crooked, including our own. If you were to go upstairs in our house you'd be shocked at how it was apparently built by 1. Drunken carpenters or 2. Children. Even our bathroom, which was added in the 30s, is not square, so the tiles along one wall are cut at an angle, and the shower doors had to be custom ordered to fit the not-square corner of the room.
I don't get it, why people in Germany are allowed to live in scarily listing homes. The mail lady lives in a house listing so badly I don't now how she sleeps at night. We have crooked ceilings that waver up and down and I must duck - the ceilings are all too short for modern humans. I brain myself from time to time upstairs on the exposed beams. People were small back then, as recently as 1890 when our home was built.
I like this photo cuz it's a house saying, "Yes, darn it, I have a front yard!"
Almost back at the church, I saw this lovely example of a front yard.
As I was typing this an elderly couple drove by in a carriage with two dark grey ponies pulling it at a trot. So classy!
Next, the church closer-up, a little park with unattended graves, and the situation of graves in Germany.
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11 comments:
I love seeing the differences in Germany vs America. Thank you for sharing!! I do wonder why you are not allowed to pull a horse trailer though?
Loving the tour of your little town. We'
A new Aldi just opened in the town nearest us. We love it. Though I do not always have the prerequisite quarter for a cart. I hang out at the door with my two dimes and nickel to trade when someone returns their cart.
Appy, drivers licenses in Germany have a list of vehicles on them with a little X by the ones you are allowed to drive. In Germany you have to take a separate driving class for trailers. Since my Washington drivers' license was translated to the German, and accepted, I had no problem...except that in Washington we do not have a list of permitted vehicles on the license itself. In all my research on this subject, and I even contacted the WA state patrol! - I discovered that what we have in Washington for trailers is "An exception to the commercial driver license requirement." An EXCEPTION is not exactly a permission. In WA we don't have to have a CDL to pull a recreational trailer, boat, or horse trailer. But it doesn't work both ways, it doesn't say I can, if that makes sense. In Germany there is nothing so vague as an exception to a CDL requirement. It sounds to me like some sort of loophole that people in America benefit from. If I want to pull a horse here I will have to take a class, which sucks. But where would I pull a horse here? I have no idea of any destinations.
Camryn, do you have those little chips that simulate a quarter? We have them and I keep one in my car, one in my purse. I imagine the employees at an American Aldi are quite different than the ones here.
I love the way the businesses just look like homes. As far as cosmetics go, I think the care that is put into the exterior of the buildings makes up for no yards. That doesn't help the lack of outdoor space, though. Do many people own dogs? Do they take them for walks when they need to go? I suspect the pointless fences are more a warning to tell people to stay off the grass or out of the garden. I once worked a booth at a fair and no one would come in to view our goods. I had a theory that the red tape laid on the ground to mark off the space of our booth was keeping people out, so we tore up the tape, and people came flooding in. Your stores sound like the way people have described Ikea to me. I've never been there, but I was told you are routed through a maze, so you have to look at the whole store, even if you need just one item. I go nuts at the market when I need to pull one thing off the shelf and there's someone who is standing in my way just staring at the items on the self like they can't make up their mind on what to get. If you say, "Excuse me," they rarely hear you, because a lot of people in my community are deaf, so you have to tap them on the shoulder to get them to step aside for a second. Then there's the people who block doorways and aisles chatting with friends and neighbors. I suspect none of that happens in Germany. The market I used in NV always asked if we found everything we were looking for, and if not, the cashier would fill our a request slip and the item would be on the shelf the following week. Here in AZ they ask if we found everything we were looking for, and then they direct us to stand in line at a customer service center to fill out a form. I've never bothered, especially when I was on my way out of the store with groceries that needed to get into the freezer and fridge ASAP.
NM, even before I came to Germany, I was told "It's a dog's country." Indeed, dogs rule here. There are way fewer cats, but almost all my neighbors have a dog. And you never hear barking. Because ??? The dogs are allowed in the mall, in restaurants, it's really strange. Where do they poop? In the back yard I think. Or along my pasture fence: ) You've never been to IKEA? You have to go! Just don't eat the horse flesh meat balls. I didn't realize IKEA was also a maze. I'm so used to it now. If you block an aisle here, you will get in trouble. It doesn't happen. Funnily, in Seattle on a recent visit I was asked if I found everything and I was honest and said no. The entire line was held up as the checker called someone to help me, and then sent him on that mission to find that thing. I was so embarrassed I won't do that again!
love the photos and the commentary and the DRAGON scale exterior! The "whimsy" looks like a mini-golf course (except for the bunnies!)
The meat ball containing horse flesh were shipped to Czech Rep. The meat used for the meatballs in America are formed from USA and Canada beef and pork. USDA Checked the products from many batches and did not fine any trace of horse flesh so they said. I have worked under USDA and know they are very strick with there testing. The last cases they found in European countries was 2013. We have a real problem in south Florida with mexican slaughter houses that only slaughter horses, these are illegal but when one is closed down another pops up. There is a big market ammong the Hispanic population there for the meat. I am really enjoying you tour of your town. I loved visiting Germany but will not get to come again, My family will be moving to Dubai.
Love these posts! It's fascinating to me.
Also...
You. Me. Care package exchange?
Funny you say about having to pay inside at gas stations, that is one thing I hate is pay at the pump.
I too am thoroughly enjoying these posts it is so different and neat to see how they are over there.
Oh! It was great walking down memory lane of our visit to your home a year ago on your birthday. You did a great job of picturing a lot of what I remember. What about that American built home though that gave us such a laugh?
Love you!
There are so many things I don't even know what to comment on!! Everything is so bizarre there!
I would definitely miss outside ATMs and pay at the pump.....
They still smoke inside over there??? Ick! I couldn't stand that. One of my favorite laws ever passed here is that smoking isn't allowed inside. It's such a relief! I get an immediate headache (migraines sometimes) just walking past someone who has smoked a cigarette. They don't even have to have one lit!!
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