Summer Vacation III--Spain Wieder

Valencia and Barcelona were the last planned stops of our Sommerurlaub. Unfortunately, our stop in Valencia was not a pleasant one. Not because Valencia is an awful place. On the contrary, it has everything I like in a city--an old and gritty center, great museums, and restaurants facing clean Mediterranean beaches.

Our stop in Valencia was unpleasant because our car broke down. The car's battery died in an underground parking garage. If there is one thing I truly fear, it is car troubles. Maybe it is because I once owned an old Saab that was constantly breaking down and leaving me stranded. Luckily, Bob joined ADAC, Germany's version of AAA. They were great! First of all, their phones are manned by people who speak English, and when we're stressed, neither one of us can remember a word of Deutsch. Secondly, they took care of everything. They asked to speak to a Valencia native, which was not hard to find since we were next to the Mercado Central. The woman told them our exact location, and they sent a local mechanic to jump the battery. It took him about an hour and a half to get to us, so during that time the kids and I went shopping in the Mercado.


Since our car decided to die on us on the day we were to leave for Barcelona, we couldn't wait for car garages to reopen after lunch. Everything in Valencia closes down from about 1 or 2 until 4 PM. Since Bob couldn't turn the car off, because the battery would die again, we drove straight to Barcelona. Bob didn't even turn the car off when he added gas. The bartender at our hotel in Sant Cugat, a suburb of Barcelona, told Bob how to find a garage and we had a new battery within the time it took the kids to finish their swim in the hotel's pool.

While we were in Valencia, we tried paella, which wasn't very good, but we ate at one of the restaurants along Valencia's immaculate city beaches. Supposedly, Hemingway ate his paella at La Pepica, a couple of doors down. Too bad it was closed that day.


We also saw the Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias, a modern museum complex with an arts center, science museum, IMAX theatre, planetarium and aquarium. The science museum had an exhibit about the Titanic, but we didn't have time to see it. Schade!

Last stop Barcelona! I used to think Paris and Prague were the most beautiful European cities. Now, I'm going to have to add Barcelona to this list. In fact, Paris has been bumped down. After my second visit to Prague (possibly in December), I'll decide which one tops my list. The architecture was mesmerizing, and the locals were very patient with the tourists, almost too patient.



Our first stop, of course, was La Sagrada Família. All I can say is "Hmmm?" I don't know if I liked it. It was not as impressive as I thought it would be, but I didn't hate it. I am glad that we viewed a few of Gaudí's other architectural gems; otherwise, I would have left Barcelona without a positive impression of Gaudí. We saw Palau Güell, which was under scaffolds but the rooftop sculptures were visible, Casa Batlló, and La Pedrera. La Pedrera was especially breathtaking--flowing concrete and metal is the only way I can think of to describe it.



After taking photos of La Sagrada, we stopped at a café across the street for dinner. The food on the menu seemed reasonably priced, and we assumed that beer and Fanta would be only a Euro or two more than in Valencia. We ended up paying almost 7 Euros per beer and almost 5 Euros per Fanta. The waiters said, "It's not us, it's the church."

The next morning, we visited the Barcelona Zoo, home to the only know albino gorilla, Snowflake. What their website neglects to tell you is that he died three years ago. We were all disappointed, but we knew that he was old--he was brought to the zoo in 1966--and he hadn't been in good health since 1996, so we weren't completely surprised. They did have some of the largest pythons we had ever seen, and during our visit we came across a cage of about 50 nutrias. Bob said, "This is why the pythons are so big." I told him to keep his voice down, because Alex was going on about how the nutrias looked like his favorite stuffed animal, Bibery, which is actually a marmot but looks like a beaver.

We spent the afternoon walking through Barri Gótic and along La Rambla. We found a great restaurant in the Barri Gótic called 4 Gats (4 Cats)--Art Nouveau décor and three course meals, including water and wine, for 15 Euros a person. There were too many mimes along the Rambla, in my opinion, but the boys found them interesting, as did the British tourists.

Bob and I will remember the architecture and the food in Barcelona. The boys, on the other hand, will remember the completely naked, old man riding his bike down a busy street. Too bad we didn't get a photo.

Originally, we had planned on camping one more night in either Lyon or Dijon, about half way between Barcelona and Erlangen. But, Bob was anxious to get home, so we drove 14.5 hours home.

Summer Vacation II--Portugal

After five days on the road, we arrived in Portugal. Our first stop was Porto, and when in Porto, one must buy Port wine. Unfortunately, Bob and I know nothing about Ports, so Bob called his friend Mike in Chicago. He told us to look for Churchill or Sandeman Vintage 1995 Ports. Interestingly, the shops we visited recommended the Portuguese Port houses over the British. A little competition? We ended up buying a Borges Vintage 1995 and a Sandeman Founders Reserve. We have yet to try either one.



After Porto, we stopped in Óbidos en route to Lisbon. Touristy, but charming, here we saw our first and best impression of azulejos, decorative tiles often depicting landscapes, historic scenes or the holy family.

That same evening, we arrived in Lisbon. We stayed at the Novotel, a hotel chain belonging to the French Accor hotel group. This may become our default hotel in Europe, because they all allow dogs. Even the Holiday Inns, which allow dogs in Germany and France, don't allow dogs in Portugal or Spain. In six days we had seen so much that we decided to stay in and call room service.


Normally, our first stop when visiting a new city is the historic center, the old city. But in Lisbon, we decided to go to the Oceanário first. It's a modern aquarium somewhat similar in design to the New England Aquarium in Boston with a large central tank and smaller tanks circling the walls. It had your usual collection of sharks, rays, eels plus a huge Ocean Sunfish, which I thought looked prehistoric. The Lisbon Oceanarium is the second largest in Europe, but which is the first? When I did an Internet search, the aquariums in Barcelona, Valencia and Genoa all claim the title.

Before going to the Oceanário, Oscar's leash ripped opened Bob's left index finger at the second knuckle. Oscar lunged at another dog, and since Bob was holding the clasp, which allows you to lengthen or shorten the leash, it somehow snagged the skin on the inside of his index finger and cut it deeply. Because it was still bleeding that morning, we couldn't tell how deep the wound was. But, when we returned to the hotel and took the bandage off, we realized Bob needed stitches. I thought I was going to faint, because I could see the cartilage of his knuckle.

I had seen a sign for a clinic near the hotel, so I told the guy at the desk, who seemed to speak perfect English, that my husband needed a doctor and how do I get to the clinic. He said he was new to this hotel, so he went to ask the manager. I didn't hear their conversation, which was probably in Portuguese anyway, but I think they thought I wanted to buy Clinique cosmetics, because they sent us to El Corte Inglés department store. He said the clinic would be right in front. Later, I realized that cosmetics are usually sold in the front of department stores. Nevertheless, the security guard and the department store nurse helped us by sending us in a taxi to the closest hospital. Luckily, almost everyone in Portugal speaks English, unlike Spain or France. Both the receptionist and doctor who stitched Bob up spoke English.



That evening after Bob returned from the hospital, we decided to see historic Lisbon. The guy at the desk (same one) suggested we take a taxi up to the Castelo de São Jorge and then walk through Alfama. Great idea, because the castle sits on top of a hill overlooking Lisbon, and if we had walked up the hill, we would have heard a lot of whining from Alex. The views from the castle were great--Lisbon has its own versions of SF's Golden Gate Bridge and Rio's Christ the Redeemer. And walking through the winding streets of Alfama was fun, although my outdated guidebook made the Alfama sound like a working class neighborhood with lots of family-friendly restaurants. Instead, it reminded me of Wicker Park during the early stages of gentrification. Finally, we did find a family restaurant that served Cape Verdean food.




The next morning, we drove to the suburb of Belém to see Mosteiro dos Jerónimos. I had read that this monastery had the most beautiful cloisters in Europe, and this time the guidebooks were right on target. The architecture is Manueline Gothic, which is unique to Portugal. Even though I couldn't fine a source confirming a Moorish influence on Manueline architecture, the monastery and its cloisters reminded me of the Alhambra. After the monastery, we were going to walk to the Torre de Belem, which according to Rick Steves is right across the street. Across the street and a kilometer away, which is not far unless it's a hot day and one has two kids in tow. It might as well have been 10 kilometers away. We decided to drive. Since the line to get in was long, we just took photos from the banks of the Tejo River. Besides, the kids were more interested in some jellyfish that had washed ashore.


That evening we drove to Cabo da Roca, Europe's westernmost point. In my mind, I had always pictured Ireland and Great Britain as being much further west than continental Europe, but after this trip and a glance at a globe, I realized that the western coasts of Portugal and Ireland fall approximately on the same longitudinal coordinates. It was beautiful, but very windy and cold.

From Cabo, we drove to Sintra. Originally, I wasn't too excited about visiting Sintra, because it sounded too touristy, but now I regret not seeing more. First of all, the road to Sintra wound, or should I say spiraled, through quaint villages and beautiful mountain forests. The pines don't look like traditional Christmas trees, i.e., triangular. They look like most deciduous trees, with a long trunk and full canopy. We drove past numerous Quintas, or estates, some of which doubled as hotels. I had hoped to see the Castelo dos Mouros, which overlooks Sintra. All we saw was a glimpse of the walls between the trees before the fog rolled in. We never saw any part of Pena Palace, which from the description in the guidebooks sounds like it rivals Neuschwanstein.


After three nights in Lisbon, we spent a week on the Algarve, Portugal's southern coast. We rented an apartment in a house with a swimming pool. We ended up using the swimming pool more often than the beaches, which were about two kilometers away, and like I said before, on a hot day with two kids…



As it turned out, the beaches in our area near the town of Albufeira were very crowded. I had assumed with British and German tourists, but the owner of the neighboring house told us that all of Lisbon comes to Albufeira in August. But we managed to find a less crowded beach in Salema, in the western part of the Algarve. Part of the beach allows dogs, which is not true for Falésia, the beach near our house, and there is a great seafood restaurant, Atlântico, on the beach. This is the beach popular with British and German tourists. We rented kayaks, and Philip paddled quite well. Alex, on the other hand, just wanted to enjoy the ride.

On August 15, we celebrated Alex's 6th birthday. All he wanted to do was swim in the pool and eat Chinese. Luckily, we noticed a Chinese Restaurant near Falésia.




We spent most of the week relaxing by the swimming pool, but we did a little sightseeing. We saw the rock formations of Ponta da Piedade near Lagos, the Moorish fortress in Silves, and the beaches along the barrier islands of Tavira.

First Day of School

I'm interrupting my summer vacation series to announce that yesterday Alex Kozan began first grade at Adalbert Stifter Schule. This is a big deal in Germany. Parents take the day off and grandparents drive in from all over Germany. The first graders arrive at school one hour later than the upper grades and are greeted by the second graders with songs. It's a big deal, because unlike the US, kids don't learn to read and write in kindergarten. Here, kindergarten is like what I remember kindergarten being 40 years ago--a place to learn how to socialize with other children.

The best part of the first day is the Schultüte. This is a cone filled with candy, school supplies and toys. It is meant to make the transition from Kindergarten to Grundshule easier. The children take their Schultüte with them to school, but don't open them until they get home. On the way to school, Alex complained about how heavy his backpack and Schultüte were, but on the way home, he was so excited about being a first grader that neither one seemed heavy anymore.

Summer Vacation I--France and Spain

August is the month when all of Europe goes on vacation and so did we. But unlike most Europeans, we decided to make a "Grand Tour."

Our first stop was in Tours (no pun intended), France. Here, we visited only two of the Loire Valley's countless chateaux--Chambord and Chenonceau. Chenonceau is the more interesting of the two, in my opinion, because its great hall is actually a bridge over the River Cher. We also stopped briefly at Clos Lucé, where Leonardo da Vinci spent the last three years of his life. Clearly, my guidebook was written before "The Da Vinci Code" was published, because it said that not many people know about Leonardo's last home. But, by the number of people lining up to get in, it was obvious that everything about his life has become popular.

I also had my first great French dinner in Tours. We've been to Paris several times, but I've never had a great French meal--African and Italian, yes, but not good French food. If you're ever in Tours, you have to eat at L'Devalière.

The second night of our tour was spent camping at Dune de Pyla, on the Atlantic coast near Bordeaux. I thought I had seen some big dunes at the Indiana Dunes and Warren Dunes in Michigan, but this dune makes those dunes look like babies. Dune de Pyla is three kilometers long! That's almost two miles. And the top of the dune was desolate. With the sand blowing against our legs, I felt like I was in the Sahara. The kids thought it was the end of the world as depicted in "Pirates of the Caribbean 3."


Our third night was spent in a new country, Spain. We camped at Covadanga, at the foot of the Picos de Europa. We had planned to drive up to Lake Enol, but only made it as far as the Mirador de la Reina, because we were low on gas. We thought we would go back into town for fuel, and then finish the drive. Unfortunately, we learned that they close the road from 10 AM to 8 PM to reduce traffic up to the lake. Only bus tours are allowed during the day. Smart! Not only does it reduce car traffic, but crowds too. I'm sure many people are like us, and say, "I'm not paying to take a bus when I have my own car." Instead, we visited a shrine to the Virgin of Covadanga built into the side of a cliff.

The next two nights were spent in Santiago de Compostela. This time we stayed in a hotel, one of the few on the Iberian Peninsula that allows dogs. Many German and French hotels welcome dogs, but Spanish and Portuguese hotels are not so pet-friendly.

In Santiago, we visited the pilgrimage church of St. James the Apostle, who supposedly is buried under the altar. Of course, Bob bought the boys walking sticks from the surrounding souvenir vendors, just to pretend that they walked the Camino de Santiago. We also found a great restaurant, Meia Pataca Meson, away from the touristy parts of Santiago, where Bob tried something that looked like tube worms, and before they were cooked, they would move in and out of their shells. They tasted great!

We made a side trip, while in Santiago, to the Rias Baixas, the Galician estuaries west of Santiago. Specifically, we visited Porto do Son, a fishing village on the Ria de Muros e Noia, and Castro de Baroña, a 2000- or 4000-year old (depending on the source) Celtic ruin. We noticed that the price of food and beer in the Rias was about half that of Santiago.

Coming Soon! Part II--Portugal

Summer Vacation-Intro

We just returned from a three week vacation. We drove through France, Spain and Portugal with stops in the Loire Valley, Dune de Pyla along the Atlantic Coast near Bordeaux, the Picos de Europa in Northern Spain, Santiago de Compostela, Porto, Lisbon, the Algarve (here we rented an apartment and stayed a week), Valencia and Barcelona. I plan to write about our stops in more detail within the next two weeks before the kids return to school.

Although we saw a lot of Western Europe and we had a great time, this vacation was not very relaxing. I've always thought the typical European vacation of renting an apartment or house for two or three weeks and just staying put sounded boring, but now I'm thinking this may be the way to spend the holidays, especially with children. Bob and I love road trips, and before the kids were born, we would drive to Montana to visit Larissa or to Upstate New York to visit Polly when she lived there, and we would make stops along the way and see as much as we could. Even when we lived in Europe before, we were able to tour around and see more since Alex was in a backpack carrier or stroller and Philip was small enough for Bob to carry on his shoulders. But those days are gone forever.

Now, they walk but not quickly or for very long distances. They also have very strong opinions about what they want to see or do. They like museums and I like zoos, so there is quite a bit we enjoy doing together. But Bob and I like just walking around and looking at architecture and trying to find a good restaurant. The boys hate this unless we buy them toys or ice cream, and their idea of fine dining is McDonald's. And they despise driving. "Are we there yet?" and "How much longer now?" are asked at about two-minute intervals.

I think our next vacation will be European-style.

Alex's Birthday and Übernachtungs

Last week we celebrated Alex's birthday. His birthday is actually on August 15, but since we'll be in Portugal, we decided to celebrate now. He had a party at the kindergarten during the week, and on Saturday, we went to Tucherland, an indoor playground. He didn't want a big party--just Philip and his friend, Callum, who's from Boston but was in Erlangen visiting his grandparents. Tucherland has a climbing wall about 20 or 30 feet tall with an automatic rope system, unlike the wall at Dick's, which has a human on belay and supervising your climb. Dick's has a height limit, whereas at Tucherland anything goes. Tucherland also has trampolines, unsupervised. The attitude here in Deutschland seems to be if one hurts himself than it's his or his parents' fault, not the establishment's.

Alex's kindergarten graduation was one week before his birthday celebration, but it was nothing like the graduations in Chicago. They started the day with a field trip to a cave, Binghöhle, in the Fränkische Schweiz. To get there, they had to take two buses and one train. Then they returned to spend the night at the kindergarten. They also had a bonfire that night in the kindergarten's garden. This rite of passage proves to the kids that they can travel and sleep without their parents. Philip's class also had an übernachtung (sleep over) at his school, but their field trip was to the local ice cream shop.

PS The weather has been cold and rainy most of the summer, unlike the southern European countries, which were having a serious heat wave. It feels more like fall to me. We did have a couple of hot days in June and then again in July. On Sunday, July 15, the temperature topped 40 degrees C, or about 104 F. Since very few homes have air-conditioning, everybody was at the outdoor swimming pools, which are not heated.

Sommerfests and Gäste (Guests)

It's been a long time since I've written, but it's been a busy summer, although it feels more like fall--cold and rainy.

The weekend after Philip's birthday was Kindergarten St. Nikolaus's Sommerfest, and Alex played the xylophone during the Vögels Hochzeit (Birds' Wedding). Plus, he had a birthday party to attend and two play dates that week.

During the last week of June, Bob and I made numerous phone calls to hotels in Paris and Strasbourg trying to get a hold of my friend, Darka, who was touring Europe with a Ukrainian Dance Group, Hromovytsia, from Chicago. We finally made contact and met her and her family in München (Munich) for dinner at the world famous Hofbräuhaus, which was packed with American and Asian college students getting drunk on liters of beer.

Saturday, June 30, was Philip's busy day. He had his Sommerfest, during which the students presented projects they had been working on throughout the week. He learned to whittle and worked on the wood decorations that would complement a painting done by another group of students. Later, in the afternoon, he had his piano recital and played "Happy Birthday" almost flawlessly.

The highlight of our busy schedule was the arrival of C.K. (C.K.'s blog) from Chicago en route to India. It was a mini-vacation in Bavaria for us, because instead of doing all the things we normally do with visitors, such as driving out to the Fränkische Schweiz, we did things we hadn't done yet.

On Saturday, we did the underground tour of Nürnberg. We visited the dungeons of the Rathaus, which, of course, the boys loved because they had a torture chamber and instruments of torture. We also visited the Felsengänge, the tunnel system that served for centuries as a natural refrigerator for beer and food, and later, during WWII, as an air-raid shelter. This tour was a little too long for the boys, so Bob left with them early. C.K. and I toughened it out.

On Sunday, we drove to München to meet C.K.'s imaginary friend (C.K.'s friend's blog). First, we had lunch in the Englischer Garten. Bob and I had heard that people sunbathe in the nude here, but we were surprised by how many naked Germans, mostly men, there were sprawled out on the lawn. We were also surprised to see so many people swimming in the fast moving Eisbach river. Later, we met C.K.'s friend for coffee, and the imaginary friend became a real friend.

Before C.K. continued her journey to India, she gave me a much appreciated yoga lesson. She taught me some poses that would help strengthen my arms and stomach and loosen up my back.

Thank you very much, C.K., for a wonderful weekend.

Happy Birthday

Thursday, June 14, was my birthday, and Sunday, June 17, was Philip's. For my birthday, we went to Mekong Vietnamese Restaurant, which was perfect. This was all I wanted. Saturday and Sunday, on the other hand, belonged to Philip. His friend, Jan (pronounced "Yan"), spent the weekend with us from noon on Saturday till 6PM Sunday. We went to a movie, then out for pizza, ate cake, opened presents, and on Sunday, we spent the day at Playmobil Fun Park.

It was fun, but not relaxing. I remember wanting Philip to be born on June 14, so that I could forget my birthday. He was due on June 6, but he was late, and on June 14, I kept wishing that I would go into labor. I never liked my birthday. I just wanted it to be another day like any other day. Now, I miss having my own special day. Instead of spending my birthday thinking of myself, I now spend it planning Philip's parties. This year I baked brownies for Philip's party at school. I want to be selfish on June 14--I want to spend my birthday in Paris or Mexico or New Zealand with my sister and a few friends.

Swinging back into mom-mode, let me add that I'm very proud of my nine-year-old. He has become so independent. He walks to and from school and piano class by himself. He cleans the table after dinner. He does his homework without complaining. He speaks, reads and writes in two languages, everyday. He gets good grades. And, he loves playing with his little brother! Bob and I are very lucky.

Normandy

Another two-week Schulferein (school holiday) comes to an end--this time Pfingsten, also known as Whitsun or Pentecost. We spent the first week of the holiday in Normandy. The weather was awful--lots of wind and rain, but it made the visit to the D-Day Beaches somber, which was appropriate.


We visited the American Military Cemetery at Omaha Beach, where 9386 American soldiers are buried. Some of the headstones have no names on them, because the soldiers' bodies were never identified. We visited on Sunday, the day before Memorial Day, and many of the graves had flowers on them, even the nameless ones.


Walking along Omaha Beach made me think of Saving Private Ryan, the only movie about D-Day that I have ever seen (I've never read or seen The Longest Day). I kept describing to the boys the opening scene of the soldiers climbing out of the amphibious vehicles and running through the surf, up the hills, trying not to get shot. I don't know the exact distance, but the movie made the hills look much closer to the beach than they actually are.

We also visited Arromanches, where the British established an artificial port. Quite a few metal bridges and docks still remain along the beach.

To continue learning about Normandy and its battles, we experienced the Bayeux Tapestry. I say "experienced" because it was like watching a needlepoint film. I was worried that the boys would be bored, but we got them the audio tour and they listened, while walking along the tapestry that wraps around the center of the gallery, to the story of how, in 1066, William the Conqueror defeated King Harold of England. The entire story unfolds with each panel, and near the end, gets graphic. The boys loved the beheaded soldiers and King Harold with an arrow sticking out of his eye.


The rest of the trip we spent at Mont St. Michel, an abbey on top of a pyramid-shaped island that is connected to the mainland by a causeway, which floods when the tides are very, very high. We stayed at the Hotel Le Mouton Blanc, within the medieval walls, which was a great idea, because in the evening, after the tourists had gone back to the touristy villages on the mainland, we had an entire medieval town to ourselves. Well, almost to ourselves--there were, of course, other tourists staying at small hotels within the walls of the Mont. We bought the boys wooden swords (Alex wanted a metal one), and they ran up and down the streets pretending to be knights defending the king and his castle (they didn't want to accept that this was an abbey instead of a castle).

We returned to Erlangen in time to catch the last few days of the Bergkirchweih, the second largest Bierfest, after Oktoberfest in Munich, in Bavaria. It's all about drinking beer served in a keller dug into the side of the Berg, a large hill north of Erlangen. Unlike Oktoberfest, one does not sit in a tent and drink, but on wooden benches set in the forest above the kellers, or in the kellers, which are more like caves than anything else (although some are furnished like restaurants). When the days are hot, the kellers are naturally cool, important in a country where very few places have air-conditioning.

Too Many Holidays

Yesterday was another holiday, Christi Himmelfahrt, also known as the Ascension (the German name literally translates to Christ's Heaven Journey). It was also Vatertag (Father's Day). Mother's Day falls on the second Sunday of May, as it does in most countries, but Father's Day falls on the Ascension. I guess they didn't want to waste another Sunday. Nevertheless, we celebrated at our favorite Brauerei, St. GeorgenBräu. The boys were being extra nice to each other since it was Father's Day.

Next Saturday we leave for Normandy. Just a long weekend. Monday, May 28, is also a holiday, Pfingstmontag, or Pentecost Monday. We'll be in France for only 4 days, but Philip has two weeks off. The kindergarten will still be open.

Before we left Chicago, I looked forward to all the German school holidays. Kids in Bayern (it varies from state to state) begin school in mid-September, and go to school for about six weeks before the one-week Herbstferien at the end of October (Philip calls it Halloween break). Then it's another six or seven weeks before the two-week Christmas break. Before Lent, they get one week off for Fasching (Carnival), and 40 days later, two weeks for Easter. Six weeks after Easter is Pentecost and yet another two weeks off. The school year ends at the end of July, and Sommerferien is about six weeks long. School-aged children (children aged 3 to 5 are in kindergartens, which double as daycare centers, so they have fewer breaks) have just as many days off as kids in the US, but their breaks are spread out throughout the year instead of packed into the summer. The boys and I were always so exhausted by Christmas and Summer break in Chicago. I like having the frequent breaks from getting them ready for school and helping them with homework, but on the other hand, it feels like we've just settled into our weekly routine (all extracurricular activities also follow the school break schedule, as do many businesses and doctors' practices--see the next paragraph) when a new break starts.

Since the kids are off, many parents also take time off from work, including business owners and doctors. It is not uncommon to call your favorite hairdresser, for example, only to find out that the entire shop has closed down for the holidays. Over the Easter break, I made an appointment with my dentist. Thinking since he was open, I would call to set up an appointment for Alex with a speech therapist (he has problems pronouncing "s" and "sh"). I left messages on the answering machines of three different practices, and only one called back before the end of the break. I think I've lived too long in a cultural that never sleeps--I need to learn that it is best to put everything off until after the holidays, and there are so many of them here.

Maifeiertag

Yesterday was May Day, a public holiday in many European countries, and contrary to what many Americans believe, it is not only a Communist holiday. In fact, it also commemorates an important event in Chicago history, the Haymarket Riots.

Since the kids had the day off and Spiderman 3 opened here on Maifeiertag, we went to the movies. Bob refused to go because the Cine-Star Theater was showing the movie only in Deutsch. We could have driven 20 kilometers to Nürnberg and seen it at a theater that shows films in their original language, but it's so much easier to go to the local theaters. I didn't have any problems understanding the movie, but I do have a problem with seeing familiar actors speaking in unfamiliar voices. Let me digress here and say the worse are the dubbed voices of Clint Eastwood and all of the Simpsons--they are not even close!

All movies and TV programs on German channels are dubbed. We have CNN in English, TV Monde in French, and MTV in English with Deutsch subtitles, but all the other channels are in German, regardless of the origins of the film or program. It's not a big surprise that Bob and I love visiting Przemko and Kristin, because the Belgians don't fool around with dubbing. They use subtitles!

Lyme Disease 3

I had a second antibody titer done last week, and on Tuesday of this week, I found out that I was still negative. In other words, no antibodies developed against the Borreliose spirochaetes, and therefore, I am no longer fighting an infection. The itchy rash is gone, and I don't have to take anymore antibiotics!

But, I can't help wondering if the antibody titer had been positive, would I have been immune to further infections? I guess I'll just have to do very careful tick checks after long walks in the Wald (forest).

Skiing in Austria

We spent the second week of Osterferien (Easter Break--kids get two weeks off in Deutschland) skiing in Austria. We stayed in a condo in Radstadt and skied Obertauern. The boys took three days of lessons. Philip took an advanced beginner class (he took his first ski lessons in Obertauern three years ago), and Alex took a beginning class. Philip had a great time skiing both easy (blue piste in Austria, instead of green as in the US) and intermediate (red piste instead of blue) runs. Alex, on the other hand, was not begeistert (enthusiastic) about skiing. He complained that he didn't like falling and getting wet.

On the fourth day, we skied as a family. We stayed on the blue piste because of Alex, and even these were steeper and longer than the runs Alex had been skiing. So, Bob took his ski pole and held one end, while Alex held the other end, and they skied side-by-side. Alex enjoyed this form of skiing more than skiing on his own.

Oscar joined us on our trip, although he didn't do any skiing--he just wore Alex's helmet in our condo. It's easier to take pets with you on vacation in Europe than it is to leave them in a pet hotel. There just aren't that many pet hotels around. In Chicago, when I asked Oscar's vet for a list of boarding kennels, she gave me about 25 names of kennels and in-home services. Our tierärztin in Erlangen gave me a list of three names, one of which was in Munich, two hours away. Thankfully, most hotels and vacation apartments allow pets.

Even though it was a great trip, it wasn't perfect. Unfortunately, our car got towed in Salzburg. We stopped for lunch on our way to Radstadt, and we parked along a busy street, just as we had three years ago. I noticed signs with a drawing of a bus and hours on Werktags (work days) and Samstag (Saturday), but I understood these as the hours when parking is allowed. There was nothing such as "Parken Erlaubt" (Parking Allowed) or "Parken Verboten" on the signs, and other cars were parked as well. Five years ago, I got a ticket in Erlangen for parking on a street without any signs (There were other cars parked there, and they got tickets, too.). I learned to look for signs stating when and where parking is allowed, instead of "No Parking" signs, such as the ones we have in the US. In hindsight, it should have occurred to me that the hours on the sign in Salzburg indicated the hours when the bus was running, since there was a drawing of a bus instead of a car. But, I didn't take the time to think deeply about the sign. I just wanted something to eat.

Lyme Disease 2

The antibody titer came up negative, but the doctor told me that it comes up negative 50% of time even if you have been exposed to the Borrelia bacteria. She also mentioned that it may have been negative because we did catch it early. Nevertheless, I have to continue taking the doxycycline, and next week she will check my titer again. Hopefully, it will remain negative.

Lyme Disease

I may have Lyme Disease. I won't know for sure until Monday, when the antibody test results come back, but my doctor thinks it's Lyme (they call it Borreliose here, after the spirochaete).

I was bitten by a tick three weeks ago, but I didn't think anything of it because I've been bitten before--here in Erlangen in 2004, in Chicago last year, and I don't know how many times when I was a kid. I remember picking ticks off my sister, Larissa, and her picking ticks off of me. Well, the bite wasn't healing, and then last week it turned red and started to itch-A LOT!

I have to take doxycycline for 21 days, and it makes me nauseous.

Ticks are a real problem here, and they probably will be worse this year, because we had only 4 days of real cold weather this winter. Not only do they carry Borreliose, but they also carry a virus that causes encephalitis. We all have been vaccinated against the virus, and Oscar is on flea/tick medicine, Preventic, which is similar to Frontline. It's a good thing he's a light color, because he's a tick magnet.

Little Differences

Sometimes it’s the little differences that can make a transition more difficult, and other times, these differences can help one appreciate their new surroundings. The following is my list of some of these little variations between living in Erlangen and Chicago.

1. Regardless of whether you buy or rent a home, in Germany one has to supply his own kitchen. It’s rare to find an apartment that has a fully equipped kitchen. Usually, people buy their kitchens, and when they move, they take all the cabinets and appliances with them. Sometimes they’re willing to sell their old kitchens to the new tenants. Since our apartment was just built (note that I said apartment, not building—our apartment was built on top of an existing building), we had no choice but to purchase an entire kitchen.

This wouldn’t have been so bad, if it hadn’t taken 10 weeks for our kitchen to be installed. We ordered our kitchen in early August hoping that it would be installed before our furniture and stuff crossed the Atlantic. I guess they don’t believe in warehouses here, because we were told by our Verkäufer (salesman), Roland, at Neubert’s that it would take 10 weeks for our kitchen to be built, delivered and installed. We moved into our apartment on September 7, and our kitchen arrived on October 14. For five weeks, I made soup and spaghetti on a portable electric cook top that we borrowed from a friend and washed dishes in our bathroom sink. We had a coffee maker that we bought while still in our temporary apartment on Innere Brücker Strasse, and we bought a refrigerator two days after we moved into our permanent apartment.

The upside of all of this is that I got a red (ruby red to be exact) kitchen. We had originally ordered a kitchen with birch veneer, but then I saw a cooking show with a red kitchen and mentioned to Bob that someday I would like to have one of those. Bob said this was my chance and called Roland.

2. Apartments and houses also do not have closets. That’s right, no closets. Instead, clothes, toys, and linens are stored in schranks. Schrank is the German word for armoire, cupboard, kitchen cabinet, closet, wardrobe—all of these are simply called Schranks (it’s also a fun word to say). Because nice armoires are expensive and don’t hold enough, most people own large, portable closets, which can be purchased in most furniture stores. IKEA has a huge selection, even in the US, although I don’t know any people in the US who have an IKEA schrank. We don’t need them in the US, because we have closets and small rooms we call walk-in closets. As you can imagine, this limits one’s storage space, and therefore, it is not a good idea to accumulate a lot of clothes, unless you don’t mind a closet so packed that you can’t get anything in or out.

In general, when you move into an apartment, you get the floors, walls, windows, doors, toilets, tubs and bathroom sinks. Things, such as light fixtures, bathroom mirrors, and curtains, you have to supply yourself. On the one hand, this can make moving into a new place very expensive, but, on the other hand, when one moves again, they’re guaranteed a kitchen, schranks and accessories that reflect their personalities instead of the previous tenant’s.

3. Most household appliances in Europe are similar to those in the US, but there are slight evolutionary variances. For instance, refrigerators are smaller, and this is because everyone buys fresh food every few days. Europeans are not into long-term storage of food, hence the lack of preservatives in most food. Fruits and vegetables are sold ripe, so they spoil if not eaten right away. Bread grows stale in one or two days, and mold within a week. Meat turns gray within two days, and ham becomes slimy in less than a week.

Ovens also tend to be smaller. I don’t know the reason for this, but it doesn’t affect me because I don’t have to make large meals.

Washing machines are more complicated. Instead of picking cold, warm or hot water, I need to choose between cold, 30, 40, 50, 60 and 90 degrees C. I also have to choose the spin speed--400, 600, 800, 1000 or 1200 rpm. The dryer also makes me choose between damp, dry or extra dry. The dryers here come in two types—some vent steam like those in the US, and others use condensers similar to those in air-conditioners. The steam from the drying clothes is turned back into water, which is collected in a container that I have dump when full. They’re perfect for places where one may not have an opening to the outside.

My favorite appliance is my vacuum cleaner. I hated my Hoover in Chicago. It was heavy and noisy and had only one suction mode—very, very strong. That thing would suck up small rugs and curtains from two feet away. My vacuum here is light—no more stress on my back. It doesn’t have rotating brushes, which is a marketing rip-off, in my opinion, so it’s quiet and still able to pick up dog hair. Finally, I can adjust the amount of suction, so that I can vacuum thin rugs without having to worry that the entire rug will be eaten.

4. I mentioned in a previous blog that shops are closed on Sundays and holidays. This is not a problem--we don’t starve on Sundays because we do our shopping on Saturday. If a holiday falls on a weekday, we are aware of it because Bob has the day off and the kids have no school. We can plan ahead. But, if a holiday falls on a Saturday, this can be a problem. Twice we’ve been caught by surprise. The first time was in 2003, and All Saints’ Day, November 1, was on a Saturday. We woke up planning to shop for the weekend and realized everything was closed. That meant we had to eat out at least once (most restaurants are open on holidays), and the rest of our meals for the weekend consisted of pasta and canned or frozen vegetables.

The second time was January 6, 2007, the Epiphany (there is no separation of church and state in Germany, so most public holidays are Christian holidays). I realized it was a holiday when I was walking Oscar and heard the church bells ringing on a Saturday. We had already planned to have dinner in Pottenstein (see Bergfeuer), but again we had to be creative on Sunday.

5. No more writing checks! I hated writing checks. I never understood why I had to write out the amount in words. The number should have been enough. Here, they wouldn’t know what to do with a check. Money is transferred directly from our account to the bank account of whomever we need to pay. This can be done in two ways—through an Überweisung or a Dauerauftrag.

The Überweisung is used for one-time payments. For example, if I owe my dentist (just as in the US, dental insurance doesn’t cover everything), he would give me his bank account number and I would fill out an Überweisung from my bank, directing them to transfer the money to his account. All I need other than his bank account number is the code number for his bank. And I can do this online.

A Dauerauftrag, on the other hand, is used to pay monthly bills, such as rent, phone, electric, Alex’s kindergarten and Phil’s piano teacher. We give them our account info, or they give us theirs, and we set it up between our banks. We paid our mortgage this way in Chicago, but with utilities there were fees involved, and I don’t think Phil’s piano teacher would have agreed to give me his bank account number. When we moved to Germany the first time, we were very apprehensive about giving out our account number, but we spoke to some Americans living here and they said they had never heard of anyone using an account number to steal someone’s life savings.

The only thing I have to remember is to reverse the punctuation. In the US, we write 2200 dollars as $2,200.00. Here the comma and period are reversed, so 2200 Euros is written 2.200,00 Euros. I filled out an Ueberweisung to our moving company for 2,200.00 Euros, and ended up paying them 2 Euros and 20 cents.

Rosenmontag

Today is Rosenmontag, and there is a big Karneval parade in Koeln (Cologne in English). But it seems to me that the festivities leading up to Ash Wednesday have been going on since the Epiphany, January 6. They have been broadcasting the Karneval Balls from Cologne on TV, and the peak of all this partying was reached this past weekend, the last weekend of Lent, which started on Thursday, Weiberfastnacht, and ends tomorrow on Faschingsdienstag, also known as Mardi Gras.

In Bavaria, they don't call it Karneval, but Fasching, and although everyone celebrates it and the kids have a week off from school, it is not as important of a holiday as in Cologne, where it is a public holiday. The parades are also bigger and wilder. We celebrated Karneval in Dormagen and Hackenbroich, which lie just north of Cologne. Bob's cousin lives in Hackenbroich, so when we lived in Deutschland before, we would visit during Karneval. Every little town and village in the area has its own Karneval Umzug (parade), and just like in New Orleans, different clubs sponsor floats and throw things at the spectators. In New Orleans they throw beads. Here they throw candy, popcorn, toys, condoms, and sometimes little bottles of liquor.

This year we hit the parade in Dormagen on Saturday and the one in Hackenbroich on Sunday. During Halloween, I told the boys that they would be collecting candy in February instead of October, and they did! They each collected two full shopping bags of candy, chips and popcorn. During Halloween in Chicago, they collected only half a bag each. Next year, I think we'll stay in Erlangen, where the parade is smaller, and therefore, less candy to rot their teeth.

Paranoid American

Last night, as I was walking Oscar, I walked past an open first floor window of an apartment down the street from ours. There were four Arabic-looking men having dinner, and instead of thinking, Four friends enjoying dinner and conversation, I thought, This has to be a terrorist cell planning to blow something up in the US or UK.

Caca's Article

My friend's current post on her blog (click on the title and look for Green, Orange, Whatever, posted on 2-2-2007) is a must read, even if you are already a convert. She's attached an article she wrote about what you can do to keep the planet clean.

Even though I believe Global Warming is a natural phenomenon that is part of our geological timeline, which, by the way, human evolution represents only 20 seconds on this timeline (I read this somewhere. I also read that the planet may have been going through a global warming period 3.5 million years ago, when we first began walking upright.), I still think there is no reason for us to contribute to global warming or pollution or overconsumption.

Unfortunately, American culture makes it difficult for us to be green. In Europe, most people recycle. The waste disposal system is set up so that paper goes into the blue dumpster, plastics into the yellow, biodegradables into green, and all other garbage into the black dumpsters. Even if you don't consider yourself green, there is no reason not to recycle. It's so easy. Every home, apartment building, office building, etc., has four color-coded dumpsters. And multi-bin home garbage cans are sold everywhere, so sorting at home is a no-brainer.

You also have to pay a deposit on most glass (beer) and plastic bottles, so you're motivated to return them. For wine bottles, clear glass and metal cans, there are large bins set up through the cities, and at rest stops along the autobahns. It is truly amazing how much of our garbage is recyclable, but you don't realize it until you start sorting. For example, I was amazed at how much of our garbage is foodstuff, which goes in the green, biodegradable dumpsters (once every two weeks, these are taken to a large compost pile somewhere outside of town). I don't make the kids clean their plates, so back in Chicago I was sending leftovers to the landfill. Even after the kids grow old and pass away, their half eaten sandwiches will be alive and well in a landfill on the outskirts of the city.

Communities in Europe are also designed to make it easier for people to go shopping or to work without having to drive. There are bakeries, butcher shops, grocery stores, hair salons, etc., located within walking or biking distance from residential areas. There are sidewalks and bike lanes leading to these shops. In many of the suburbs surrounding Chicago, shopping areas, i.e., stripmalls, are located a mile or more from housing developments, and even if they are closer, often there are no sidewalks between the two. If you decide to ride your bike, you end up sharing space on roads where the cars are averaging 60 mph. In Europe, people also live closer to their places of employment. They walk or ride their bikes, and save their cars for weekend excursions. They laugh when Bob tells them that he had an hour commute, one-way, and by Chicago standards that's not a long commute.

We complain about soaring gas prices in the US, but is that a bad thing? Benzin here costs about 1 Euro and 20 cents a liter. There are about 4 liters to a gallon, so 4 Euros and 80 cents per gallon. With the exchange rate, it equals about $6.25 per gallon of gas. No wonder Europeans would rather ride their bikes to work. Not only are they NOT adding more hydrocarbons to the atmosphere, they're staying fit.

Unfortunately, this time around we've noticed more SUVs on the road. We've been told that European SUVs have smaller engines than those sold in the US, but I'm sure they consume more energy than the Ford Fiesta or Cooper Mini, which are still more popular. They definitely consume more energy than the Smart car.

Thankfully, most Germans are not building mini-Mansions (also called McMansions) the way they are in the US. A lot more Germans are owning than renting these days, but they seem content with modest houses and small yards. This is a good thing, because more families can live in a smaller space. I can just see some of my friends cringing. Isn't the American dream to own a big house with a big yard and a high privacy fence so that you don't have to know your neighbors? But those big houses and big yards mean more natural spaces have to be destroyed, thus reducing genetic diversity. Regardless of whether or not I believe that we mortals can affect climate change, we mortals do have the power to accelerate or slow down extinction. Remember the Dodo bird?

Batteries, like gasoline, are expensive. This discourages people from buying things, such as toys, that require batteries. In fact, the toy stores here have lots of Legos, Mega Bloks, puzzles, board and card games, etc. They carry very few toys that run on batteries.

Speaking of shopping, there is no shopping on Sunday and Holidays, not yet anyway. When we lived here before, shops were open only until 6 PM on weekdays and 4 PM on Saturdays. Now, they are open until 8 PM, Monday through Saturday, and bakeries are open from 8 AM to 5 PM on Sundays, as well. There is talk about changing the laws so that shop owners, if they desire, can do business on Sundays. I think it will be a sad day, because it is nice to have one day a week for family excursions. Restaurants, museums and zoos remain open, and there's always the long walk with the dog and kids. I do not miss the extra day of spending money on stuff I don't really need but it's on sale.

Which brings me back to garbage. It is not so easy to get rid of stuff you no longer want here. There are drop-off boxes for clothes all over town, so that's easy. I know a place that buys old CDs for 1 Euro each, but I have yet to figure out how to get rid of my old books, other than throwing them into paper recycling, and the kids' old toys. Large items, like furniture, have to be picked up by the city. This requires an appointment, not like in Chicago, where you just put it out on the curb and someone with a pick-up truck will come along and take it. Not only do I have to ask myself, Do I need this?, but I also have to ask, How do I get rid of it later?, whenever I buy something. For example, we were going to buy a new breadbox, but since we don't have a lot of storage space, what do we do with the old one? We decided that the old one was still doing a good job, so it need not be retired.

A German friend of mine, who lived in Houston for five years and whose children were born there, decided to return to Germany to raise her children, because she wanted them to grow up respecting their surroundings. She doesn't blame Americans for their wastefulness, because we live in a country with seemingly limitless space and resources. In a country of 80 million people living in an area the size of Wisconsin, limits are more apparent.

Die Deutsche Schule

There's a scene in an episode of Sex and the City, in which Mikhail Baryshnikov's character corrects Carrie on the pronunciation of his name, and she gives him a quizzical look. I often get that look on my face when people correct me on my German pronunciations. I feel like saying, Isn's that what I said?

Philip has also been giving me that look whenever I say, You should know how to do this. You did this in Mrs. Burks's class last year.

Philip started in third grade this school year, but after one week, he was sent back into second. I was expecting this, because I didn't think his German was good enough for the third grade. But it wasn't his Deutsch, it was his math. He did really well in math last year in Chicago, so I assumed he would have no problems keeping up. Here in Deutschland, or maybe just Bavaria, they are so much further ahead of us in the US when it comes to math. By the beginning of third, the students need to be able to add and subtract two-digit numbers quickly in their heads and have all of the multiplication tables memorized.

To Sauganash School's credit, they did teach him how to add and subtract two-digit numbers, but the presentation was different. In the US, we set up the problems vertically:

53
-28

It's easier to then make the 3 a 13 by superscripting a 1 to the left of the 3, and to change the 5 to a 4 by simply crossing out the 5. And we're allowed to do this on paper.

Here, the problems are presented horizontally: 53-28, and the students have to be able to do the conversions in their heads, not on paper. And absolutely no counting on your fingers (I still use my fingers sometimes).

Philip also started to learn multiplication from Mrs. Burks, but only 0 through 5 and 10. I don't think he had these memorized. Here, he will have to know 0 through 10 by heart before the end of the school year, July 27.

They are also big on cursive writing. By third grade, they need to read and write everything in cursive, using a fountain pen, no less. Philip has the advantage of having learned cursive in second, whereas most US schools don't begin until third. Still, it seems archaic in an era that expects everything written on a computer.

They don't teach spelling the same way either. They have Diktats, or dictations, in which the teacher recites a story using the spelling words they were supposed to have learned. So, not only do they have to remember how to spell their assigned Lernwoerter, but also the other words in the story and to capitalize and punctuate.

On the one hand, I feel guilty putting my son in this strict school system, but, on the other hand, I feel like he's getting a better education. And Philip is the type of kid that needs an extra push to learn something new. As Marge Simpson said of Bart, He needs structure.

German Punctuality

Germans are known for their punctuality, but to me punctual means showing up on time, give or take a few minutes, not 15 minutes earlier.

Today, a plumber came to fix our toilet. German toilets are more complicated than toilets in the US, because the internal workings are inside the wall instead of a tank behind the bowl. This appeals to my sense of minimalism, but it makes it difficult to fix on one's own. Anyway, he was supposed to come between 9 and 9:30, but instead he showed up at 8:45. What if I hadn't returned from dropping off Alex at Kindergarten? Would he have just left?

This is not the first time this has happened. Our building has a new heating system, so for a while the installers kept calling to set up appointments to check the heating in each apartment. They always showed up 15 to 30 minutes early. The same with deliveries. Our washer and dryer arrived 30 minutes early too.

But our schranks (portable closets--German homes do not have closets) arrived a whole hour earlier. I was expecting the delivery guys at noon and they showed up at 11. When I said You're early, they responded Yes, we hope you don't mind (in Deutsche, of course). I did mind, but I didn't say it. What if I hadn't been home? Would they have returned or left me a note telling me to reschedule?

Nevertheless, I now know to be home at least a half-hour before the predetermined time.

Snow, Finally

It started snowing last night and it's still snowing! It's been so warm around here that I forgot it was winter. The snow is light, but it can be packed into snowballs. It's not like the wet, heavy snow that comes down in Chicago, and it hasn't been coming down fast like in Chicago. It's just slowly dropping from the sky, so although it's been snowing for over 12 hours, we have only about 15 cm (6 inches) on the ground. In Chicago, an overnight snowfall would have resulted in a foot, or more.

They don't use salt to melt the snow, so even though they have plowed the streets, the snow is beginning to accumulate again. This makes driving hard, but Germans aren't as dependent on their cars as we Americans are. People are taking the bus, walking, riding their bikes (it is so much fun to ride a bike in the snow!), or pulling their kids on sleds. Philip walked to school with his friend, Jan, and Alex and I went by bike and anhanger (Burley trailer). I actually enjoyed it!

Orkan Kyrill

We survived Orkan Kyrill on Thursday, January 18. For a good description of what an orkan is, click on the title, but in general it's hurricane-force winds that on Thursday swept through Europe. At first, Bob and I didn't think much of the storm, because we get strong winds in Chicago. But that night, each gust of wind that hit our apartment sounded like a car, or some other large, heavy object, slamming into our walls and windows. By the next morning, the winds had died down and we were left with some heavy rain, but schools were canceled anyway. We've had some pretty good snowstorms in Chicago, and still had to get the kids to school. Not much happened in Erlangen, except for a few trees blew over. According to a CNN article our friend Orest from Seattle sent us (by early Friday morning!), 25 people had lost their lives in the storm, two of them toddlers, and Great Britain suffered the most damage.

Thankfully, we were all home during this orkan. In October 2002, Philip and I were a train from Munich when an orkan hit. What should have been a two-hour train ride turned into eight hours because of trees that had fallen on the tracks around Nuernberg. Philip and I spent most the night in the Ansbach train station waiting for the tracks to clear. Luckily, we met a teenager on the train who spoke perfect English, and he translated the messages being broadcast over the intercom system. He also lent me his handy (cell phone) when mine died. Around midnight, our train arrived in Nuernberg, but could not proceed to Erlangen because they were still trying to clear the tracks. So, Bob came (Nuernberg is only a 20 minute drive from Erlangen) to pick us up. The storm in 2002 was not as bad as Kyrill on Thursday. Kyrill shut down the entire German train system.

Levi Strauss Museum

Sorry, I could find only the German version. For more on Mr. Strauss, see wikipedia.org/wiki/Levi_Strauss.

St. Georgen and Levi Strauss

Last weekend, we made our fourth annual trip to St. Georgen Braeu in Buttenheim. Actually, it should have been our sixth, but since we couldn't make the trip in 2005 or 2006 because we were back in Chicago, it will be known as our fourth.

While we were living in Erlangen before, on the second Saturday of the new year, we would drive to Buttenheim to have dinner at St. Georgen Brewery. The first time we made the trip, was in 2002, about three weeks after we arrived in Erlangen. Bob had been to Erlangen several times before on business, so he wanted to take me to the places he thought were memorable. We had already been to Nuernberg and Bamberg, and now it was Buttenheim's turn. Buttenheim is a small village about 25 kilometers north of Erlangen. It is home to St. Georgen and Lowenbrau (not the same Lowenbrau as in the US) breweries--both owned by brothers as are Puma and Adidas, also headquartered near Erlangen. Bob had been to St. Georgen before, so that was where we went, and I loved it. I loved the beer. All of them--Pils, Dunkels (dark), and Keller. And I loved the atmosphere. It looks just like a Bavarian restaurant from the movies. It has lots of wood--paneling on the walls, beams on the ceilings, long tables and benches--and the beer is served in large ceramic mugs. It's also kid friendly, although compared to the US, most places in Europe are. And, it's cheap. Our current trip only cost us 40 Euros for two kids' schnitzels with pommes (French fries), Schauferla (pork shoulder--a local delicacy) for Bob, Hirschbraten (roasted venison--another local delicacy) for me, two sodas, and four beers. Our last dinner outing in Chicago cost us over $100. We went to Frontera Grill, which, outside of McD's and the corner diner, is kid-friendly. The kids split a taco plate, and Bob and I each had only one Margarita.

Let me digress here, and say that I miss Frontera Grill, Tecalitlan on Chicago Ave., and La Pasadita Tacos on Ashland. We have yet to find a decent Mexican restaurant, but you can buy tortillas, salsa and taco seasonings in the supermarkets, so we make our own tacos. Unfortunately, we can't find fresh cilantro, and what's a taco without cilantro?

Buttenheim is also the birthplace and childhood home of Levi Strauss, the inventor of jeans. His blue Fachwerk (half-timbered) home now houses a museum that does a very good job of telling his story. Briefly, Levi left Europe for NY when he was 18, and eventually made his way to SF during the gold rush. There he made pants out of a tough French fabric, serge de Nimes (the word denim is derived from de Nimes). He later started using copper rivets to hold his jeans together. This was not his idea, but since he put the money up for the patent, I guess that's why only his name appears on the label.

Before coming to Buttenheim, I never stopped to think that someone had to invent jeans, and I always thought Levi Strauss was the combined names of the company's founders--Mr. Levi and Mr. Strauss. It never occurred to me that Levi was a first name, although he changed it from Loeb.

Now, if only I could figure out how to add links within my text instead of just the title, you, my dear readers, would be able to check out the Levi Strauss Museum site.

Bergfeuer

Yesterday, was an official German holiday, Heiligen Drei Konige, the Three Holy Kings or the Epiphany, and the end of the Christmas season. We celebrated by going to a town in the Frankisches Schweiz called Pottenstein to see the Bergfeuer--a thousand bonfires on the hills surrounding the town. It was like nothing I have ever seen before. There was a procession shortly after dark, and during this parade, the bonfires were lit. Crackling fires then overlooked all sides of the town. There was even a burning cross, which resulted in us having to explain to the boys why we both said, "the KKK is here."

Thankfully, Christmas was very quiet this year. In the two years we were back in Chicago, I dreaded Christmas, because it meant we had to drive to Bob's sister's house in Michigan. We compromised by spending Christmas Eve at home and then driving for three hours the next morning after the kids opened their presents. This did not sit well with the boys, since they couldn't take all of their new toys with them. This year we stayed home on all three days (December 26, the second day of Christmas, is also a holiday), baked cookies, ate turkey and sweet potato pie, opened presents, watched Christmas videos, and on the 25th, we stayed in our pajamas all day.

New Year's Eve, on the other hand, was like a war zone. Instead of having one big fireworks display, the city allows people to shoot off their own fireworks, and these are nothing like the bottle rockets back home. These rockets are about a foot long and as thick as soup cans. In my opinion, one should be trained and licensed before putting a match to the wick. Alex and I watched through our kitchen window as the sky lit up over Erlangen, whereas Bob and Philip added their own rockets to the display from our 4th floor terrace. Poor Oscar sat in the corner of his cage, shaking, until about 1:30 AM, when the noise finally subsided.

American Toast

We finally bought a toaster. I know this doesn't seem like a big deal, but we hadn't had toast since mid-July. Bob's parents don't own a toaster, so for the two weeks we lived there, between the packing of our container and our flying out of O'Hare, we didn't have toast. And the temporary apartment we were in had a coffee maker but no toaster. When we finally moved into our place, we decided to wait till our kitchen was installed (another story for another day) before buying small appliances (except for a coffee maker--we needed coffee from our first day of arrival).

Seeing my family eat toast, one would think that toasted white bread was an American delicacy. We ate a whole loaf of bread the first day I brought the toaster home.

White bread is not popular in Germany. The Backereien (bakeries) make so many different breads, including Italian ciabatta and French baguettes, that there seems to be no need for basic white bread. But you can buy it in the supermarkets, and it is called "American Toast Bread." It's basically the same as Wonder Bread, except that it gets moldy the day after the expiration date. I once kept a loaf of Wonder Bread for a month after the expiration date, and it still had no mold.

We've also discovered that Aldi (yes, the same as in the US) sells American-style bacon. German bacon, or Speck, is more like prosciutto than what we would call bacon, so it's nice to have our eggs with toast and bacon again.

Nikolauszug

December 6 is St. Nicholas Day and is celebrated in Europe but not the US. It's not a public holiday, but it is celebrated in the schools and kindergartens. Alex's kindergarten had a party, and St. Nikolaus (German spelling) visited and passed out socks full of candy, nuts and fruits. On Nikolausabend (the eve of St. Nikolaus Day), Philip's school had a Laternenumzug (lantern parade), and then each class sang songs or read a poem. Being Ukrainian, we always celebrated St. Nick's day, but since we followed the Julian calendar, we received gifts on December 19.

The best thing about this holiday in Erlangen, which is near the Fränkische Schweiz (Franconian Switzerland), is riding the Nikolauszug, a steam engine train that travels through the Fränkische Schweiz and St. Nick comes on board to pass out bags of treats to the kids. We rode the Nikolauszug twice before while living in Erlangen, so I was very excited when I found out that I could still get tickets. And since my kids still believe in Santa Claus/St. Nicholas (to them, he's the same person), they were excited about meeting him again. He looked a little younger and thinner than they expected--I told them he diets in the summer and fattens up before Christmas--but they knew it was him when he spoke to them in both German and English, because Santa speaks all language. Although, Santa almost blew it when he asked Philip where he was from. I told Phil that Santa has a lot on his mind and just temporarily forgot that we're from Chicago. As for the St. Nick that visited Al's kindergarten, Alex decided that he must have been Santa's brother.

Christkindlesmarkt

Friday, December 1, was the official opening of the Nuernberg Christkindlesmarkt (http://www.christkindlesmarkt.de/english/). We just missed the prologue by the Christmas Angel, because we were looking for parking. In Chicago, I would leave earlier than usual for special events, because I knew it would take longer to find parking. For some reason--maybe because Nürnberg is only about 500,000 people instead of several million--I assumed it would be no problem to find parking right beside the Hauptmarkt.

Chicago has its own version of a German Weihnachtsmarkt (Christmas market) at Daley Plaza and Block 37, but it's not as festive as the markets here. It doesn't have the feel of a carnival. The Nuernberg market is the best, because they have old-fashioned wooden carousels. They also have a lot of booths with arts and crafts for kids to make, and candy, cookies, and Kinder Punsch, which is the non-alcoholic version of Gluehwein. By the way, here you can buy a bottle of Gluehwein for about 1 Euro and 79 cents. In Chicago, we were paying $6, or even $10.

We were told that the Christmas market in Nürnberg had for a long time been the only such market. Now every town and village has one. Forchheim, the town where Bob worked when we lived in Erlangen before, has a very good market. They use the windows of the Rathaus (townhall) as a giant Advent calendar (http://englisch.forchheim.de/forchheim/special_events/adventcalender/).