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!