Public Restrooms

Public Restrooms may seem an odd topic to blog, but there are some interesting differences between the US and Europe.

In general, German restrooms tend to be cleaner. In most of the big department stores there will be attendants stationed near the restrooms. Also the Germans do not think anything of a woman entering the men’s room to clean while it is occupied and being used. Many restrooms also have self cleaning seats (you find this most at Rästhofs along the autobahn). When the toilet flushes, a squeegee is extended from behind the seat, and a small bit of water is sprayed as the seat is turned and cleaned with the squeegee….I find this very civilized.

In the US, at some time research was done to indicate the minimal size for partitions in restrooms. So, partitions tend to be about 18 inches off of the ground and end just over 6 feet off of the ground. For most Americans, 6 feet or so means that you cannot see over the top. It also means the amount of material used in the construction of the partitions is minimized and therefore is less costly. I am also fairly certain that installing these partitions is a fairly simple job. The larger the construction job in the US, the more cost containment is an issue. If for example you are building a large office building or a stadium where there are lots of stalls, the cost difference can be significant.

In Europe, this is not the case. Even a modern toilet stall tends to come almost to the floor or all the way to the floor. So, being from the US, I have been socialized to be comfortable with stalls that have a gap between the floor and the partition. At times, the stalls in Europe can be so small as to be a little claustrophobic.

Restrooms at Autobahn rest stops are also different. The rest stop itself is usually outsourced by the Gov’t to a company that runs the fuel, food and store and in that regard is very similar to the US. The restrooms though are outsourced to another company. I have identified two companies that do this. One company tends to do the autobahn and some just off of the autobahn and other company that you tend to see off the autobahn and in some of the busier shopping districts. On the autobahn, most of the restrooms are handled by one company. You pay to use the restroom, 50 cent euro, get a coupon good for 50 cents Euro at any of their rest stops. Just as a quick note, these restrooms tend to have very low partitions and not walls.

One of the most interesting things I have seen in a restroom is at a restaurant called Hemingways (in Heidelberg) where they have advertisements that are projected in the mirror. So as you are looking at the mirror, you see an advertisement in the corner and the advertisement changes. I have also recently seen advertisements on the top of urinals and a the ad lights up as you pee.

Construction in Germany

The Germans love construction and will start construction projects at the drop of a hat. Whether it is the autobahn, streets or buildings, there is always construction. Sometimes the construction is minor and at other times it is major and goes on for a long time. When the Berlin Wall came down the City tree became the construction Crane and to this day there is still a good deal of construction. Pam and I were in Berlin in 2006 and right in the center of town on Unter den Linden Str. there is a long term project that is still underway. An old communist era government building has been torn down and is in the process of being replaced. In this case the building was apparently filled with asbestos which needed to be carefully removed.

While the Autobahn has long stretches of unrestricted speeds, those areas are often interrupted by long stretches of construction. Sometimes it is a major planned project where they are adding lanes but there are times that it seems like they are just doing a simple repair. Of course for the Autobahn there is no such thing as a simple repair. In the U.S. a crew will go out and drop a patch in the road and a few hours later it is done. In Germany, a minor repair requires shutting lanes down and redirecting traffic.

Work was done on the A5 where it intersects the A6. One Friday there was no construction and then on Monday the 2 of three south bound lanes were closed and traffic was redirected around the closed lanes. As the construction progressed, they closed the northbound side and again redirected traffic. When the construction was done, they had replaced the road surface but had not changed the layout of the road or the interchange at all. Apparently, all the construction was for repairing cracks in the road….which if it was I-95 in Philly, we would have considered to be in good shape.

Twice I have had runs detoured (umleitung) because they have decided to start a construction project. Once was on a gravel road up in the hills near the Philosphensweg and another on the lanes between Schriesheim and Leutershausen.
Then there is the bridge in the middle of nowhere, between Heidelberg and Schwetzengen (1 town over). As you are driving along, there is a bridge that goes over…well….nothing and it connects…nothing. It is in the middle of a farm field and there is a village not far from the one end and then there is the road you are on that it appears headed towards and underneath there is nothing. They had to build a berm to raise the bridge, and then they had to build the bridge. They just forgot to connect it to other roads and to put a roadway or other natural feature underneath the bridge.

German housing construction is very different than in the U.S. also. Generally, in the U.S. a builder lays down a cement slab to start the foundation and then uses wood to frame out the rest of the house. I have lived in a house where you could have broken in using only a razor blade, there was nothing more substantial than vinyl siding and wall board. This is not the case in Germany where they use a lot of cement block and poured concrete. Generally, the German’s have tougher building codes and tend to build homes to last. The Germans also love to build with cranes.
In the US a builder will hire a mobile crane when they want to lift particularly high or heavy loads, but they will usually use some kind of construction forklift truck to raise things on the job. Not in Germany, they use stationary cranes for even small sites. Many times the first sign of construction is when a crane is delivered to the site. These cranes are probably 50 to 100 feet in height and have some kind of counterweight at the base.

Sidewalks in Germany and most of western Europe are also different than in the US. I have not seen any sidewalk made from concrete. Almost all of the sidewalks are made with pavers. The initial construction of the walks must be considerably more expensive than with concrete, but when they need to get underneath the sidewalk, they lift the pavers dig a hole and fix what needs fixing. Then they replace the pavers. When completed, you have a hard time telling where the pavers were removed and there is no need to patch anything.

Handschuhsheim Weihnacts Markt

The Handschuhsheim Weihnacts Markt was held from Friday Dec. 5 to Sunday Dec. 7 and was inside the Tiefberg. Many of the vendors are local vendors such as Sven and the Tiefburg Bookstore. There was only one stand serving Wursts and 3 places serving Gluwein, plus lots of toys and crafts and such, including the guy who sells honey at the farmers market on Saturdays.

The Markt is much smaller than the Heidelberg Markt and the venue is also different. The Tiefburg is a small fort made from stone and is several centuries old. There is an outer wall made from local stone and on the interior there is a ‘castle’ in the center with a yard all around it. The inside of the wall has a raised walkway and a roof. The ground floor is taken up mostly with food vendors and tables.

Sven had a table set up where he was serving Gluwein and selling wines. He had told me earlier in the week that his Gluwein was going to be better than what you would usually get because he was going to use a nicer wine and his own mixture of spices. I believe that he did an excellent job. The wine was very good and the spices he used were much more subtle and tasty than that which you usually get. Sven has told me that most wine used for Gluwein you would not want to drink on its own, but it needs to be heated and to have sugar added before being palatable. While the wine that Sven uses is not a fine wine, it is good enough that you can drink it on its own. During the 3 day Weihnacts Markt, Sven made over 160 liters of Gluwein.

Pfitzenmeier

This year Pam and I both joined the Pfitzenmeier Fitness Club. In the U.S. I have belonged to a variety of gyms. The year before we left I belonged to the Weston Fitness Center which was on the same block in Philly as my office which made it convenient. From a facilities standpoint though, it was pretty minimalist, but nice. The Pfitzenmeier on the other hand is very well fitted out with some very nice facilities and equipment, but there are some interesting differences.

The Pfitzenmeier is on two floors. When you enter the front door you immediately walk up the stairs to the second floor. On the second floor is weight training equipment and rooms for fitness courses. Downstairs is mostly aerobic equipment, and they have a lot of everything and also a back fitness area that I have not ventured into.

Upstairs the machines are all made in America and are from the manufacturer, Cybex. The interesting thing is while the equipment is made in America, the instructions are in German, the warning labels are in English and the markings are in Pounds and Kilos (on a few pieces just pounds). The equipment is in good repair. There is also a lot of equipment and for some pieces there are up to three units.

There are three course rooms. In the back is the yoga and Pilates room, there is a Spin room and general purpose course room and they have a full schedule of courses. Pam has started taking a Butt, Thighs and Tummy class on Sunday mornings and I have started taking the 90 minute spin class on Tuesday mornings. Pam’s class involves lots of apparatus and moving in the correct direction at the right time. Pam’s class involves a lot of moving in the right direction and use of equipment, I am sure I would turn in the wrong direction and hit someone with something and that would not be good. Spin class is simple…you sit down, you peddle, you sweat and then when you’re done, you clean up the sweat. I am really good at sweating.

One thing I really hated about the Weston was that I needed to have a lock to close the locker. In a year, I lost at least three locks by leaving them on the locker when I left. With Pfitzenmeier, I do not have this problem. The membership card has an RFID tag inside. The card unlocks the gate to let you in and out of the gym and it locks and unlocks the lockers. The locker rooms are brightly lit and clean. The lockers are pretty nice but could be a little larger. In winter the locker gets filled quickly with your coat. In the men’s locker room there are two tanning machines.

Just past the showers (which are….shall I say it, showers), there is an opaque glass door. Through the door is the sauna area. I had not been there until this past Tuesday (12-2). These rooms are indeed coed and Pam and I are unfamiliar with the Rules there. I also had a bad experience when skiing in Switzerland back in 1989, a bunch of us from the ski club and a couple Canadians were wearing swimsuits and we got yelled at….we were not following the rules.

This time I had a sauna mentor….or so I thought. Tom Otter came for the spin class and was going to show me the ropes in the sauna room. In fact it is not that difficult. First you take a shower to rinse off. First was the really hot sauna, I did not see the thermometer, but it was hot and I sweated a lot! After a stay of about 10 or 15 minutes and I showered in cold water – this is supposed to be good for your circulation. Then we went into the steam room…not as hot as the hot sauna and there were already a couple people in there and it is not a big room. I sat across from Tom and looked at the person to my right and realized, yes this is Coed. We stayed in there a little while and then did the shower thing again before going into the not as hot sauna, about 60 Celsius (about 110F). I did not see a whirlpool there. I need to look around the area further because while the heat and steam is nice, I really enjoy the whirlpool.

Our First Thanksgiving in Germany

Thanksgiving preparations started several weeks in advance. We were having anywhere from 20 to 30 people over for an open house on the Friday after Thanksgiving. The Holiday is not a German holiday and nobody was going to have Thursday or Friday off and that just seemed to be appropriate.

We ordered a fresh whole turkey, 3.5 kilos and had purchased some of the ingredients a couple of weeks in advance so that things like cranberry sauce could be prepared. There is no such thing as canned pumpkin here and Pam made the decision to forgo making pumpkin pie from a real pumpkin. We still had a full menu; Turkey, sweet potato pie, stuffing – 2 types, roasted veggies, a roasted pumpkin mix, mashed potatoes and cranberry sauce.

For many of our guests, this would be their first experience with Thanksgiving, while others had spent some time in the US and had celebrated the holiday at least once. All of our guests speak English well except for our Landlords & neighbors, the Bayers.

Pam started cooking in earnest on Monday after we returned from Budapest, making a chocolate cake and sweet potato pie. Thursday morning we woke up and after a little work around the apartment we headed to the farmer’s market in the Weststadt. There we picked up the Turkey and Pam was able to buy fresh veggies and other materiel for cooking. We also picked up two nice turkey breasts to supplement the turkey. Thankfully, it has been cold, this meant that we are able to us the balcony as a refrigerator. Thursday afternoon saw Pam multi-tasking cooking while on conference calls. We also set up the tables with plates and flatware and serving dishes.
Friday morning, Pam continued her multi-tasking and I went out around noon to get last minute stuff including some bier (Dachsenfranz Weihnachts Bier). We were running a tight schedule with cooking and the Turkey was not cooking on the grill like I would have liked it too and I was a little worried, ok, more than a little worried about the turkey…..but we had two nice turkey breasts that I had yet to start.

I cooked the turkey breasts, one at a time and Pam had food on the floor of the oven at the same time. Pam had also made a last minute decision to make a second Sweet Potato pie, and as per the family tradition, it is served topped with marshmallows (baked and gooey!) as part of the main meal.

Our guests started to arrive around 6pm, the first being Kathrin Sobe who lives just a little ways down the road. Most of our guests were somehow connected with SAP except for the Bayers and our Neighbors, Ben and Katharina. Ben and Katherina had spent two years in NC working at Duke Medical Center on an exchange program and returned to Heidelberg just a couple weeks after we arrived. Ben is an anesthesiologist and Katharine is an Oncologist.

The Otter family were the largest group and included three generations, Tom and Charlotte, Charlotte’s Mother (Toni) and their children, Lily, Daisy and Ollie. It was actually a long day for the kids because it was a Friday and their day started with school. Lily also had a party after school and was pretty wiped out by the time she arrived. She took her book and went to lay down on our bed and 30 minutes later she was a slowly breathing lump under the covers. Ollie (he is 3 I think) played shy and also wound up as a sleeping lump in our bed. Daisy on the other hand is a true party girl. She was very well behaved and changed from her boots to her party shoes. She was never far from her Mother or Grandmother, but was not going to miss any of the action!

My biggest fear was that the Bayers would be left on their own, but they frequently engaged in conversation. They have also been to Budapest and spoke at length with Bettina and Kathe.

Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves and they truly enjoyed the holiday. The Holiday fits in well with German Holiday season just as it does in the US as the Weihnacts Markts (Christmas Markets) opened that Saturday and several people will be keeping this tradition in the future. By far the most popular food was the Sweet Potato pies that Pam made, someone even made a point of cleaning out the pan when it was gone!

Budapest - Nov 22-24

German Wings recently started something called Blind Booking. You pick the airport from which you are leaving and the type of city you want to visit, Cultural, Party, or Major metroplis. We, Kathe, Bettina, Pam and I, booked the flight from Stuttgart and away we went to…..Budapest. We left Saturday morning (Nov 25), Pam and I drove to Schwetzingen to Bettina’s and she drove to Stuttgart. There was a little snow on the ground we left and a little more near Bettina’s. This is the first real snow that we have seen in Heidelberg since we arrived in January.

The flight to Budapest was not full and was completely uneventful. The Airport in Budapest is interesting and looks like a remnant from the communist era and in fact the only airlines flying out of this terminal were discount airlines, German Wings, Wizz and Jetair. Across the runways we could see much more activity at the main terminal with mainline carriers. The airport is not far from town and we took a taxi to our hotel.

The hotel was very nice and located right in town. The rooms were modern, clean and fairly large. We had gotten street maps at the front desk and were looking for someplace to have lunch. From the tour book we picked Leroy’s which a small chain of restaurants in Budapest. We left the hotel and started walking. It was getting colder and windier as we walked and after about 15 minutes we realized we were walking in the wrong direction. We walked down to the Danube (the river) and walked back along the river and then headed the few blocks back up to the street that Leroy’s is on.

Along the way we saw the main cathedral in Pest, the cathedral across the river at the top of the hill in Buda, the castle in Buda, the chain bridge connecting Buda and Pest and we walked through the food market in the old train station. We also stopped periodically for shopping purposes as Budapest has excellent shopping. Also, the weather was not getting any better as the nasty wind and cold was punctuated by periods of snow, which the wind would inevitably drive into your face.
Budapest also has a very nice coffee culture. So along the way to Leroy’s we stopped for coffee togo. When we finally made it to Radacy where the restaurant was, we realized that it was no longer here. Later when we saw an ad for Leroy’s in a periodical, we realized that the location there was indeed closed. We picked another local place and had a very nice meal.

We headed back into the center of town again and towards the Christmas Market. Christmas Markets in Germany are a big thing (more later) and almost every small town has some kind of market. We only knew of the one market here in Budapest and we were looking for it.

One thing to know about the people of Budapest, they are exceptionally nice and many if not most speak English fairly well. While looking for the market and studying the map, we were approached by at least two people asking us if we needed help….Yes, we did. We arrived at the Christmas Market to high winds and snow. The first thing we got were glasses of Gluwein, mulled and spiked wine and very seasonal, to warm us.
Most of the stands were fairly typical, but there were two stands serving Hungarian specialty and I am sure seasonal sweet treat. Out front there was a grill with charcoal burning and off to the side was a woman behind a window (protected from the wind and snow) who was rolling out dough. She would roll it into a circle and then cut a loose spiral. Then besides her was a rack where there were spools that were slightly wider at the base than at the tip. She would unwrap the spiral of dough and wind it around the spool so that it was spread over it evenly. Next she would roll the spool back and forth until the dough was spread evenly.

She would then place the spool on a different row of the rack and a guy outside would pick up the spool and pour some combination of sugary stuff on it, vanilla sugar, cinnamon sugar and lemon or some other combination. Then the guy by the fire would place it on the fire where the tip would plug into a rotating fitting that would then turn the spool with dough and sugary substance over the fire. He would move the spools to his left as they would cook and then when a spool was completely cooked and nicely brown, he would hand it to another person who would cool it and then wrap it in clear plastic. In the cold, the finished product looked like a steaming chimney and smelled divine. Pam, Kathe and Bettina shared one Sunday afternoon. I refrained, not being sure whether it was butter or lard they used to make the dough. Either way, this was not included in Weight Watchers, Core or regular program.

After the walking through the market and then listening to some singers singing American songs with Hungarian accents, we walked over to Gebaud, an old café right alongside the Market, to warm up and have some coffee. While sitting there with coffee and looking out the window at all of the cold people, we decided on where we would eat dinner and planned our route. It was going to be a fairly long walk and a cold one. We found the restaurant with little difficulty. It was 8pm on a Saturday and we were the only customers. The cold must have been keeping the regulars inside.
After dinner we walked back to the hotel and exhausted from the travel, the walking and the cold, we all slept well.

Sunday morning dawned, Cold, windy and snowy. Bettina, Kathe and I were going for a run and Pam went to a flea market in another part of town. We ran up along the Danube to an island in the river and then ran around the island. The island is fairly large and we were partially protected from the wind on the way out and were blasted on the way back. The plan was then to run back on the Buda side of the river. I kept watching the horizontally blowing snow thinking, “Do I really want to run across the bridge to the other side with that wind blowing that snow into my face?” We decided to not run on the Buda side of the river and instead ran through the streets of Pest.

We had all enjoyed the run and after showering, I called Pam, who was sitting about a kilometer away enjoying a cup of hot Cocoa. Kathe, Bettina and I walked to the coffee shop to meet Pam. We easily found The Ultimate Coffee and Wine Bar. It was a very nice place and we stayed there to have breakfast which we all enjoyed.

When we finally left the coffee shop we wanted to find the largest Jewish Synagogue in Budapest, The Great Synagogue in Dohány Street. The inside of the Synagogue was amazing and was well worth the visit (see pics). It was already getting late by this time and we wanted to make it across the river to see the castle and walk around the top of the hill in Buda. We found ourselves distracted by both weather and shopping and warming up in a café enjoying hot cocoa or coffee. The weather kept alternating between miserable and not so miserable. None of us was really looking forward to walking across the bridge as we expected it to be a pretty windy nasty walk.

Thankfully, the weather had begun to moderate by this time. We walked across the bridge and then took the funicular (the third funicular I have ridden) to the top of the hill. We walked around the castle grounds (the castle was closed by this time) and then around town. We had been commenting how Pest was so like Paris. Buda on the other hand reminded Kathe of London. Again, we were cold, I was hungry and we found a coffee shop. It was a very nice coffee shop. I ordered a coffee…..and Pomme Frites (French Fries). We learned that while the lights were on, they were having some electrical problems in the shop and the kitchen was closed and the heat was not working, which explained why it was comfortable but not toasty warm inside. Kathe got Hot Cocoa which she described as being like chocolate pudding it was so thick.
I was getting really hungry at this point and started agitating about dinner.

Bettina had a place she wanted to try and we started back to Pest. We took the funicular back down and walked back across the bridge. We did not actually make it to the place Bettina had in mind, instead we found another place called Dio. It is a very upscale restaurant, well decorated and again, empty. We had gotten there fairly early and it did fill up while we were there. We really enjoyed this restaurant.

Monday morning was sunny, cold and much less windy. We checked out, left our luggage with the hotel and found a place for breakfast before heading to the airport for the flight home. Despite the weather we had a very successful weekend and we all enjoyed ourselves!

Buying contact lenses

So buying contact lenses would seem to be fairly straight forward. I started wearing contacts in 1989 and every time I needed to replenish my contacts I would need to go to the Optometrist, get my eyes checked and get a contact lens fitting. Then I would get a prescription and get it filled. When Pam and I were home in October, I did not make it to the Dr.'s office to get new contacts. This meant that I needed to get my contacts in Germany.

When I got a new pair of glasses here in Germany I ran into a small roadblock because I had worn my contacts in and they needed me to have my contacts out for 12 hours before getting them checked. So, when I headed to the eye glass store (Optiker) I went without putting my lenses in.

When I got there I explained that I needed new contacts and they took my glasses, determined my diopter (-3.25) in both eyes as expected. He went into the back and brought out a box of contacts. Just like that I had new contacts. Instead of spending $170 for a years worth of contacts and an eye exam, $36 euro and I had 6 months worth of contacts.