We’ve learned so much about Germany over the past seven months and we’ve picked up a few strange habits along the way. Here are some things that we’ve observed to be true about life in Germany. You might live in Germany if: You know that the autobahn is not as much fun as most foreigners think it is. You have lots of insurance policies. You have very little patience. Maybe none at all. You’re a boss at conserving electricity. And […]
Category: Germany
Street Art / Graffiti in Germany.
I expected to see strange things during our life in Germany, but I can’t say that prolific graffiti was one of them. At first it was startling to see street art and/or graffiti on nearly every surface. The paint isn’t just on the buildings and walls, it’s on the streetlights, the electrical boxes, even the commuter trains. According to the The German Way, the issue of graffiti in Berlin alone causes 35-50 million euros of property damage annually. Some cities actually provide […]
Our Impromptu Trip to Gemünden am Main.
We woke up early on Sunday morning excited about our plans to visit Erlangen. The Deutsche Bahn had other plans for us, however; plans that included taking a train to Bamberg, boarding a bus for an hour or so to another train stop, and then taking a train to Erlangen. This train-bus-train thing didn’t really float our boat so we decided to try again next week since the issue probably won’t last long (we think that the train tracks were […]
Worms, Germany: Proof That Smaller Cities Can Be Full of History, Too.
One of the most interesting things about Worms, Germany, is that the Diet of Worms was held there. The Diet was an assembly held in 1521 that addressed Martin Luther’s revolutionary works (such as ‘The 95 Theses’, ‘On the Papacy at Rome’, and ‘On the Freedom of a Christian’, to name a few). After being questioned by the assembly and given a day to consider his response, Luther gave his famous “Here I Stand” speech that resulted in his excommunication […]
Visiting Karlsruhe, Germany.
Visiting Karlsruhe was the driving force behind our three city weekend tour (see our first stop in Mannheim). Mr. Meena has been excited for several months about a new American Western film called ‘The Hateful Eight’. It’s special because the producer used 70 mm film and cinematography equipment from the 1960s called Ultra Panavision. Due to the equipment used and the wider than usual screen image (2.76:1 aspect ratio as opposed to 1.33:1), this is a film that must be […]
Lunch Break in Mannheim, Germany.
Mannheim was a convenient layover on our weekend train journey to Karlsruhe. We had just enough time for lunch, so we decided to head to one of the coolest lunch spots in the city. Enter the Fernmedleturm Tower – a telecommunication tower that stands over 700 feet tall. It was built in the 1970s and sits on the banks of the Neckar river. We took the lift up to the Skyline restaurant, which is a revolving restaurant that sits at 400 […]
American Food According to Germany.
I often wander around my local German supermarkets struggling to remember what the German words are for the foods I need. I stand in the aisles trying to use my translator app on words that don’t always translate and usually end up confused. But every once in a while I’ll see a food with “American” splattered across the packaging and I’ve just got to try it. Not only do I miss American food items that we can’t find in Germany, […]
The 9 Worst Things About Neuschwanstein Castle.
Note: This post has become quite popular lately and I feel that it is necessary to state that this is my opinion. I’m sharing it on my blog because there isn’t very much negative information out there about Neuschwanstein Castle and I think that people should have both sides of the story when planning a visit. If this castle is near and dear to your heart, perhaps you should skip this post (because I will not be bothering with any […]
The 6 Best Things About Our Trip to Stuttgart.
Like most of our journeys, this one started at the train station. Instead of purchasing our usual Bavarian regional train ticket we bought the Quer-durchs-Land one that lets us travel anywhere in Germany for a flat rate. Although there are 16 German states we’ve only managed to visit the one that we live in so far (aside from when we’ve flown in and out of Frankfurt). This was our first trip to Baden-Württemberg and it was fitting that we were […]
12 Facts about Christmas in Germany.
I shared one fact about Christmas in Germany on my Facebook page for each of the 12 Days of Christmas. Here you can see the compiled list. Day 1/12 In Germany, especially in the Bavarian region, St. Nicholas Day (the 6th of December) is celebrated with a visit from St Nick. Children will put their clean shoes out the night before so that old St. Nick can fill them with goodies like gingerbread (lebkuchen) and chocolate. According to the story, […]