We enjoyed the German efficiency on display throughout our two weeks in Germany and Switzerland. Roads were well-marked, prices on menus were clearly marked (no drink menus without prices in Germany!), the concert we attended in Esslingen began precisely at 7pm as promised, and things ran as expected.
Johanna and Christoph were practicing for a piano recital. They had a 4 hour dress rehearsal with all of the students on Sunday afternoon and had a final dress rehearsal later in the week.
I didn’t catch this guy’s name but he landed as expected. We went to a “model airshow” where this guy was the featured guest. He might be called “Jet Pack Guy”. Although the large model airplane were a big draw, I think this guy was the main attraction. He was taken very, very high in a helicopter where he jumped out and used a jet pack to fly around. For safety reasons, he lands with a parachute and landed directly in front of the crowd as expected. He was recently on the morning news here, too and he might be at the EAA in Oshkosh right now too.
These were some of the “model” planes we saw fly near Neuenberg. From what we understand, they run on jet fuel and are very expensive.
The Germans and Swiss take their flowers seriously too. These beautiful windows boxes are ….
way, way, way up the steeple or bell tower of the Freiburg Cathedral. I want to know whose job it is to water them and whether they got this idea from Mary Berg.
More perfectly kept flower boxes!
Restaurants in Germany also take their food portions seriously. We were never, ever hungry in Germany. Many of our meals were enormous (and delicious). On several occasions, the server brought out additional portions of the side dishes like french fries, potatoes or spaetzle to enhance the epic portions. This is Doug’s meal at the Grunau’s local restaurant.
I was so happy Rudi decided to have the Schweinhaxe (pork knuckle). I really wanted to see it but I did not want to order it myself.
On the whole, Europeans including Germans take the “reduce, reuse, recycle” motto seriously. Here is an ancient city entrance repurposed into an advertisement for the nearby McDonalds in Freiburg. The McDonalds was also in a really cool old building. We didn’t get to one on this trip but it is a fun cultural experience to go to a McDonalds in other countries. I remember the chairs at the one in Vienna had leather seats. They usually try to cater to the local palette so it’s fun to see what twists are on the menus.
The state of Baden-Württemberg was winding down in their school year (yes, in mid-July) so we saw many school groups out and about during our trip. Johanna returned from her class trip as we arrived and both she and Christoph had end-of-the-year canoe trips/cookouts on the Rhine. As we were heading for our car after lunch in this small town in the Schwarzwald, one of the youngsters from this group of high school students on their class trip approached Doug to take their group’s picture.
He must have looked German enough to pass as a local. He and Rudi did the honors while Johanna and I stood back and watched the fun.
The Swiss/German/French airport was also an efficient place. We were through the ticketing and baggage in record time. We had plenty of time to linger over the choices at the bar/café where we could purchase both a German pretzel & beer or French croissant & coffee. How efficient! As it was about 9am, we went with the pan au chocolat (chocolate filled bread) but don’t think we didn’t consider one last German tap beer and ‘bretz’.
Here is Doug as a model of German efficiency. He was unloading the car, checking for lost items, carrying my new hat and modeling his new pants all at once as we returned our car at the airport.
No comments:
Post a Comment