Dortmund
I'm in a better mood now than the last time I posted, though it got worse before it got better. There are certain things that I "know" from reading them in books and from my vague recollections from being here back in 1998, but I still wasn't prepared for. Like the apparent standoffishness of ordinary Germans. I "know" that that's just normal, that people will bump into you, never look at you, and act bored and distracted if you ask for something from your waitress at a restaurant. But it still annoyed me the first couple of days before I was able to calm myself down.
Today I'm in Dortmund, where my father's mother came from. It's a pretty ugly, industrial city compared to the places that I've visted in Baden-Wurtenburg and Hesse. The city center, where I'm staying, is completely filled with businesses shops and malls. Here, unlike other cities, the citizens decided not to rebuild the place to look like it did before World War Two, but instead kept only the streets and the churches. It's strange to see a centuries old church completely surrounded by commercial buildings.
Yesterday I was in Fritzlar, a beautiful city where the law states that, if you buy a building which is falling down, you must actually rebuild it to look exactly the way it did before it fell apart, leaning timbers and all. It's a beautiful place, surrounded by fields of rapeweed (yes, that's right) and wheat.
Things weren't so great in the Schwarzwald. It rained the whole time I was there, and I was only able to find lodging in a Gasthaus which was very... Gasthaus-like. One bathroom per floor, and in the bedroom, only a bed and a sink. No phone, no TV. And the price of the room was about what I could pay other places for an entire suite. Too touristy, too. But the drive there and back was beautiful.
I'm used to driving on the Autobahn now, though driving through city streets still freaks me out. I'm much more comfortable driving on the open road going 150 kph than I am in a tiny cobblestoned Gasse, trying to avoid buildings, bicycles and people while going under 30 kph.
Sorry that I didn't LJ-cut this; all the LJ menus are in German right now, and I don't want to waste time here at this internet cafe to figure out how to do it.
I'm staying in Dortmund for one more day, then on to Oldenburg. After that come (hopefully) Poland, if I can trade in the Mercedes for a car that the Poles won't steal.
Today I'm in Dortmund, where my father's mother came from. It's a pretty ugly, industrial city compared to the places that I've visted in Baden-Wurtenburg and Hesse. The city center, where I'm staying, is completely filled with businesses shops and malls. Here, unlike other cities, the citizens decided not to rebuild the place to look like it did before World War Two, but instead kept only the streets and the churches. It's strange to see a centuries old church completely surrounded by commercial buildings.
Yesterday I was in Fritzlar, a beautiful city where the law states that, if you buy a building which is falling down, you must actually rebuild it to look exactly the way it did before it fell apart, leaning timbers and all. It's a beautiful place, surrounded by fields of rapeweed (yes, that's right) and wheat.
Things weren't so great in the Schwarzwald. It rained the whole time I was there, and I was only able to find lodging in a Gasthaus which was very... Gasthaus-like. One bathroom per floor, and in the bedroom, only a bed and a sink. No phone, no TV. And the price of the room was about what I could pay other places for an entire suite. Too touristy, too. But the drive there and back was beautiful.
I'm used to driving on the Autobahn now, though driving through city streets still freaks me out. I'm much more comfortable driving on the open road going 150 kph than I am in a tiny cobblestoned Gasse, trying to avoid buildings, bicycles and people while going under 30 kph.
Sorry that I didn't LJ-cut this; all the LJ menus are in German right now, and I don't want to waste time here at this internet cafe to figure out how to do it.
I'm staying in Dortmund for one more day, then on to Oldenburg. After that come (hopefully) Poland, if I can trade in the Mercedes for a car that the Poles won't steal.