Am Ende

Und dann müssen wir zurück nach die U.S.A. fliegen.  Heute unsere letzte Tag in Deutschland zu bleiben.  Morgens werden wir in ein Flugzeug steigen und "Auf Wiedersehen" zu Deutschland sagen. 

Jetzt wir findenuns in der Nähe von München.  Früher sind wir herum die Stadt gegangen.  Wir haben der Münchner Dom, das Großen Stadtpark, und viele andere Besucher gesehen.

It's midnight locally, our plane leaves at 9:50, we're heading to the airport at 7:30 or so.

As a result, this may be quick.

Russ and I made our way from Holzkirchen to Schwaig, the small town adjacent the Munich airport in which we found the Holiday Inn from which I'm currently typing.  We arrived around 1pm and decided that twiddling one's thumbs in a hotel with Munich not far away was unacceptable.  Some clever route interpretation got us into the city center via Bus and S-Bahn in about 90 minutes (The airport is actually about as far from the city center as Holzkirchen was).  Once there, the rain mercifully abated long enough for us to traipse around the touristy city-center, the classicly appointed government district, as well as the city park near the university. 

Several hours later, we had our last taste of legitimate Spatzle in a restaurant in a cellar off of the street in the city center before hooking the S-bahn back home around 8 or so. 

Russ sleeping on the train into Munich this afternoon.  Trains, FYI, are absolute kryptonite if you're the least bit tired.:

Munich Cathedral:

And a creek in the city park during a brief rain shower:

I'll see most of y'all tomorrow or Wednesday!

Full Circle

Let it not be said that I don't occasionally follow through with haphazard crap I type on the internet....and I quote:

" I'm reasonably certain I could jog around the circumference of this "Dorf" in well under an hour (might try that later now that I think about it.)."

To wit:  Circumference of Amriswil

Unfortunately, when I quick-mapped it earlier, I wasn't zoomed in enough to catch the switch-backs at the 3.5 mile marker.  Running up that hill really sucked, so you better believe I was going to take a picture from the top once I got there.  I present the "skyline" of the greater Amriswil metropolitan area:

Also, I'm not sure it was "well under" and hour, but it was less than an hour.

Anyhow, moving right along.

Doing as the trip adviser sites suggested, I went back to St. Gallen yesterday afternoon (or "Sankt Gallen" if you're typing it into a GPS device, as that's how the Swiss spell "Saint").  It's an interesting town of sorts.  Slightly smaller in population than Knoxville I can, regardless, draw some interesting comparisons.  Both are somewhat hilly in parts.  Both have a modern business district and an "old city" area (Grant it, "old" is a relative term here as usual).  Both also sit sort-of in a valley.  The ratio is a bit different.  St. Gallen's "old city" is a pretty significant portion of the land-area of the city, vs. the few blocks of Knoxville that area actually well-kept these days. 

 There are, as usual, some large Cathedrals to see in St. Gallen, as well as some other interesting architecture and interesting art projects, the origins of which I have yet to look up the explanations for.  The red, rubber-coated sections, for instance.

I spent the better part of the afternoon wandering around the city and it was interesting, but something kept nagging at me that I didn't put my finger on until someone mentioned something about living in Switzerland during a dinner conversation.

The old-city areas are clean....too clean.  I don't necessarily mean that in a bad way, or to imply that I'd prefer trash and hobos everywhere, but it's more a lack of "character".  It's so well kept, it almost looks staged.  Yes, you can look closely and tell that the Bauhaus buildings are actually old construction with real wood beams, etc.  Yes, a history book can tell me that the Cathedral was built in the 1700s, but it all seemed a little...."sterile"; is that the word I'm looking for?

I'm sure if I hadn't already been to Garmisch-Partenkirchen or Adenau I would have been utterly impressed with it.  However it's clear, in those other two towns, that people still live & work in their original-construction 400-year-old buildings, they are still well, kept, but functionally-so, as opposed to being deliberately preserved by a municipality. 

Oh well, that's enough critique.  My looking around St.Gallen was mainly a time-killing exercise.  Being a University town, St. Gallen has a pretty good number of restaurants and other establishments in which one can sit and enjoy the evening.  So around 8:30 or so, I met some friends and we went around a few places.  It was nice, in a way.  I wore a pretty "loud" shirt just because it was clean and had a collar, but it didn't matter.  No one was looking at me, I promise.

That's Sara, and Sara (pronounced "Zara").  Valeria also joined us again later.  Let me say, people-watching with three fashionistas is pretty hilarious.  In hindsight, I probably should have taken the opportunity to make my own impromptu episode of "what-not-to-wear".  I might have come back looking sophisticated or something.

Anyhow, I think that's a good place to leave Switzerland for now.  It's been real.

Back to Germany this afternoon I think and then off to Munich tomorrow.

Typing is too easy.

So, since we last figuratively spoke, I've relocated 40 minutes down the road from the bustling seaside of Konstanz, Germany to Oberaach Switzerland.  Oberaach [Ober-aaa-k] is a miniscule "district" of the not-much-larger town of Amriswil [Am-ris-ville].  How small, you ask?  Well, at ~11,000 inhabitants Amriswil is only about 1/3 the size of Maryville, TN.  However, given how compact all of the towns are in Germany/Switzerland vs. in the U.S. it seems physically much smaller than that.  I'm reasonably certain I could jog around the circumference of this "Dorf" in well under an hour (might try that later now that I think about it.).

Speaking of jogging, I went for a run yesterday:  Here's a map

....and here's a picture:

Honestly, barring the tiled roofs everywhere and lack of humidity, I could have been jogging around rural Tennessee somewhere.

On the face of it, it's honestly very pleasant here.  In fact, if one wanted to see the Lake Constance area, Amriswil lies directly between Konstanz and St. Gallen, both of which have decent dining and touristing prospects.  The place I'm staying is somewhere between a Hotel and a Hostel,, but my first impression was that of an immaculately-kept college dorm.  Apparently I'm the first North American to stay here.  Even so, my hosts are both pretty fluent in English....which is good because speaking/understanding German isn't the same as speaking and understanding Swiss-German.

So yes, very quiet and pleasant.

It remained a mystery, then, as to what the folks that were working here had to complain about.  Then it hit me, one of them is from Milan, one of them is from Rome by way of Munich, and the other originally from Korea, but also by way of several large cities.  To confirm my suspicion, I then googled, "Things to do in Ariswil, Switzerland".  Three out of three travel sites I looked at in the results, basically said, "Go to Sankt Gallen", or "Go to Konstanz".

The proverbial light-bulb now fully lit, what is "just like home" to me (i.e. you need a car to go and do anything), is a foreign and oft-frustrating concept for them.  Where, in their respective home-metropoli, they would at-worst take a bus for 10 minutes to be in the heart of a city with and endless choice of things to do; to get to an evenly slightly large-ish city here (St. Gallen is still slightly smaller than Knoxville, population-wise) requires a half-hour drive....hmm, just like West Knoxville or Maryville....only without the suburban sprawl. 

So....what did we all do last night?  Right: 'went to St. Gallen, lol.

I'm suspecting this will be my last full-day in Switzerland, so hopefully it will be entertaining. Beyond that it's just a question of the particular route to take in getting back to Holzkirchen tomorrow so we can be on our way to Munich on Monday.

A True Diplomat

Today started in typical fashion:  Run-of-the-mill breakfast on the roof of a hotel overlooking an inland coastal town that's older than our entire country....you know, the usual.

Day off to a pedestrian start, I decided to go to church.  I'm not normally one to get in a holier-than-thou mood, but today I went to church 3 times....Where u at?  Ok, "Church" per-se'.  There were no Thursday services, but there are three large classically-built churches in this half of Konstanz.

Church 1:

Church 2:  (I'm working on finding out the significance of the bell, I'm not there yet though.

Church 3.  This was easily the most ornate and spectacular.  I believe it's also on top of Roman-era catacombs.

In between, I also wandered around Konstanz a bit more taking pictures of some other interesting architecture, talked a border guard into putting a Swiss stamp in my passport just for giggles, and ventured back out to the park I'd run though...taking the camera this time.

There is a restaurant/youth-hostel there, that is pretty impressively well-kept.

I also climbed a tower in the park and got a couple of higher-angle pictures of the bay area.

More pictures of the park are in the gallery.  It's pretty immaculately maintained, of course that seems to be par-for-the-course in the Germanic countries from my experiences so far.  Having walked a few miles, I decided to chill, watch some ducks, and cool off in the breeze for a little while.

Chillin'

 Ducks:

So, business as usual to this point right?  At this point you're no-doubt expecting me to report that I ate a pretzel and went to bed without much ado.  

Nope, Chuck Testa (worth a google if you don't already get it).  Richard suddenly developed a social life.

I'm pretty sure every male in Il Bocconi (Italian restaurant/lounge) was probably cursing me at some point as I ended up entertaining basically the entirely-female sales/marketing staff of a Swiss fashion house.  It was a pretty international table with an American, a German, a Swiss, a Korean, and an Italian.  It really is a diplomatic service I perform.  Someone should let the Hilary know I'm doing well for the State Department over here.

Anyway, tomorrow I may end up seeing a little more of Switzerland before I head back to Germany. 

More to come.

The (no-where-near-Jersey) Shore

Driving south today, I made my way past exits for a couple of places we've already ventured.  Note to self, rent car first thing next time.  Finding somewhere to park is still WAY less hassle than wondering if you're going to have to lug all of your crap from the train station to the hotel in the rain.  Use car to go between cities, park car, use public transportation to get around IN the cities.

Sorry, I digress.  I made my way briefly out of Germany, through a corner of Austria (no cranky bus drivers this time), and through a section of Switzerland.  Somewhere in Switzerland, I pulled into a rest stop to grab something to drink, and took this through the fence in the back.  This was my first real view of die Bodensee.  It's definitely pretty picturesque, if somewhat developed.

The atmosphere around Lake Constance aka "die Bodensee" is interesting.  While Germany isn't land-locked, it's ocean coast is on the Baltic Sea.....so not exactly bikini weather for most of the year.  Fortunately, Lake Constance provides an almost-beach atmosphere somewhat closer, and I'd imagine cheaper, than the Mediterranean coast.  Imagine taking one of the smaller great-lakes and dropping it in, say the geographic middle of Colorado.

It's a touristy area....but mainly for German, Swiss, and Austrian tourists, as those three countries border the lake.  Konstanz itself lies on, and slightly across the German/Swiss border, witnessed by the imposing check-point on the border......that's a lie, it's not.  it's a small sign with a camera pointed at it for no real reason.  I walked across the line taking pictures a few times, and then ran back and forth across it later in the evening.  No one cared.  There were no pill-boxes or guard-dogs involved.  Yay EU! (in this case anyway).

Before I got to the whole running thing, I checked into the hotel, parked my car in an underground lot a block away, and then wandered around the waterfront for a couple of hours.

There are several harbors in Konstanz, this is the entrance to one of the larger ones.  You can see a small light-house marking the end of the break-water, and a statue of Imperia across from that.  The statue is really only circa 1993, but commemorates events going back much further.  It was a bit controversial when it was erected for a number of reasons.  Also it rotates.  This last point is key because I can show this view.  The reverse may or may not be work-safe depending on how puritan your HR dept. is.  It's in the gallery if you're curious though.

Konstanz was also home to Graf Zepplin....yeah, that Zepplin guy.  Some of the early prototypes were tested out over the lake.  There's a statue....I'm not sure "of" him, but dedicated to him in the harbor park.

After wandering around a while, having some schnitzel at a cafe on the water, and then dropping a euro on a scoop of the absurdly good/bad-for-you ice cream they sling here, I repaired to the hotel to dodge a brief rain-shower, and then set off on a run to, and then through a couple of different water-front parks in two different countries.  Try that in southern Texas, lol.

In theory, I should be adding one to my party tomorrow.  I suppose when you're meeting someone in Europe it's good to pick a neutral location......(waka waka waka).

On that note, I believe this post has thoroughly run it's course.  More to come from Konstanz tomorrow.

Touching base.

I returned to Holzkirchen from Leipzig yesterday after bidding "Auf Wiedersehen" to Sebastian and Dana.  I found the situation south of Munich much as I'd left it.  Russ going reliably to and from work, and his two Indian roommates being decidedly weird and messy.  No, it's not a cultural thing.  I've known in the past and currently work with plenty of significantly normal folks from the subcontinent.  These are just odd.

Normally, I'm not one to use the internet to make fun of anyone.....but exceptions can be made, and I'm bored.

I'm sure they have names, and I'm equally sure I can't pronounce them.  Thus, we've begun referring to them as "shy" and "bro" when it's necessary to distinguish between the two.  Shy, as his recently and unwittingly bestowed moniker implies, doesn't talk much.  He's also the more industrious of the two.  He's up early, and proceeds to run a track meet between his bedroom and the kitchen for approximately 30 minutes before departing whenever and presumably hitch-hiking to work.  Beyond that, he mostly keeps to himself, watching movies in Indian or English on his computer....sometimes in the bathroom....for 2 hours....while other folks are trying to do laundry.

Bro, is just that, a "bro", sort-of.  For those of you who are no-doubt a little hazy on my terminology here, I should explain that the term "Bro", in the popular lexicon is not an abbreviation of "brother", but rather a term for a recently evolved stereotype.  Think of a cocky college kid who is a little too-well-groomed, wears a flat-brimmed hat sideways, goes to a tanning bed, and for whom conversation topics range from "beer" to "chicks" and not much beyond.  What we have here is an Indian guy doing his best (not-very-good) impersonation of an American "bro".  Unlike his studious compatriot, Bro is rarely out of bed  before 10:30am (it's light here at about 6:30), only occasionally makes it to work, and constantly tells the same story about drinking a beer (singular....it's apparently illegal in his part of India, so it's a big, rebellious thing to do) and approaching random girls in Munich.

Neither of them know how to operate any cleaning implements.  That, or they just lived in mud-shacks outside of Delhi and have really low standards for cleanliness.  In case it's the latter, I won't judge.  Neither of them, certainly not by Southern standards, are very considerate either.  Not outwardly rude but if, say, they are hungry and it's 1am, they're not going to spare a thought for how much noise they make in procuring or manufacturing their food.  They're the type of folks you really want to prank before you leave the country in passive-aggressive revenge.  Tie their doors together, smear vasolene on the toilet seat, put kool-aid in the shower-head....etc.  (EDIT:  No, mom, not really....lol)

My rant at and end, it looks like it may be done raining, so maybe I'll go for a run before dinner.  My boredom has been, in part, due to the spotty weather today.  Sun, drizzle, sun, hail, sun, downpour, overcast, downpour, drizzle, hail again, and now the sun has come back out.  This may be less "running" and more weather roulette.

Tomorrow I'm heading South-West-ish to Konstanz, a border city between Germany and Switzerland on the upper end of lake Constance.where the Rhine river terminates into the same.  I here the scenery there is great.

Highschool reunion...sort of.

I don't have any photos to add with this post honestly.  Well, I might at some point, but I'll need to get them from Sebastian or Dana.  I had a ton of fun today regardless of not carrying a camera or phone around.

Sebastian came up with an interesting way to tour part of the city:  via canoe.  That's right, like with paddles & junk....in the middle of Leipzig.  There are some old canals that run around parts of the city, and there are actually several outfits that rent canoes, kayaks, and row-boats to folks for a few Euros.  So, following breakfast on the balcony of their apartment the three of us set out to find a "Boot".  (No one wanted a camera or smartphone in the drink, hence the lack of pictures.)

We had to check a few places because A) the weather was perfect and B) it's a holiday weekend, but we did eventually find a suitable canoe.  We paddled around for about two hours total, going up and down different canals through some very nice historical neighborhoods as well as new developments.  In spite of paddling for a couple of hours continually, it was actually quite relaxing.  Eventually though, we did decide we'd had enough of a workout and headed back to the take-out.

Following a break for lunch and a quick soccer match on Sebastian's PS3, we grabbed his portable disc-golf basket and went to the park.  Dana's brother stopped by to visit with her, but neither of them came with us.  Apparently, there isn't an actual disc golf park with in something like 150 miles of Leipzig, and this led to the investment in a portable basket.  We set it up in a couple of different places, and then walked a suitable distance away in a few different directions to vary the shots required.  I got the impression that no one else in the park had ever seen someone play disc golf before. Of course, being that the goth-fest was still going on, the people looking at us funny were themselves dressed in black and teal hoop-skirts and/or wearing top-hats in 70+ degree sunny weather sooooo.

Eventually, we repaired to the apartment and followed the real disc golf with video-game disc golf (mainly so Sebastian could win I think, lol).  Dinner followed, and I can report that Dana is quite the cook.  Last night was "french pizza", which is called something else in German that I can't think of right now, but it's thin pizza dough with some type of cheese, bits of ham, garlic, and something else I'm forgetting, but notable for lack of tomato sauce.  Suffice to say it was good.  Tonight we had spaghetti which was also very good.  After dinner, another reminder that board-games are really underrated these days.  This time we played a couple of rounds of Carcassone, a copy of which I may now buy when I get back to the states.

This whole board game thing brings me to another quick point.  Sebastian and Dana crack me up as a couple.  They're both very smart (He's a doctor near the end of residency, she's a law student), and they clearly have their ducks in a row, but they are far from the up-tight Germanic stereotype.  Without waxing philosophical about it, they're just fun folks to be around, and I wish them well.

I'll be departing in the morning to head back south, and I'll be able to do so feeling slightly better about humanity in-general, lol.