I notice when I write a post “in advance” on note pad…it looks goofy compared to if I use the built in text editor for the blog. (ie: tomorrows post is already written, just need to publish it)

or am I the only one who notices such differences?

On Saturday…it wasn’t a nice sunny day.  I guess this whole April Showers brings May Flowers is strictly enforced in Germany.  It was damp, it was chilly…so I put on my shorts and grabbed my light jacket that isn’t waterproof. (I think it was waterproof back in 1997 when I bought it…)

Off to Lichtenstein!  Thankfully, I had remembered to bring the TomTom into the hotel and programmed the address from the laptop.

It’s important to know some things when you get there… [flickr]photo:2431080997[/flickr]
like, where’s the toliet! (Herren, I think, is Men’s room..unless I’ve forgotten already)

Here’s the path to the castle entrance: [flickr]photo:2431897026[/flickr]

The tour is only in Germany, not enough of us normal talkers about, but, they give you a handy card to tell you about each room: [flickr]photo:2431081515[/flickr] and you can read along and sort of ignore the German.  I am sure I missed little caveats — like the explanation of the toilet in the main dinning hall that’s just a hole in the floor where yo remove some boards.

The castle isn’t very large… 9.6 yards by about 30 yards.  We only went through 2 stories of the castle.  Big room at each end, and a smaller room in the middle.

[flickr]photo:2431900122[/flickr]

The views, however, are amazing.  Good building location!  I had lunch outside the castle, and forgot to take a picture.  Fried sausage mit pommes.  No Ketchup, because I forgot to ask…but spicy brown mustard worked great!

[flickr]photo:2431900324[/flickr] [flickr]photo:2431083455[/flickr]

To see more..you’ll have to click an image…we’re moving along to the Mercedes Benz Museum in Stuttgart here! [flickr]photo:2431900902[/flickr] as I walk to the entrance..it is still raining a bit.

The museum is in the photo above, you don’t get to go to the one with the cool hood emblem on it [flickr]photo:2431901144[/flickr].   So I paid my entrance fee, go the audio tour in English guide (they support every language I believe) and headed off.  You get to an elevator and are whisked to the top floor then you meander down through the years and the cars.  It’s interesting.  I took lots of car pictures, [flickr]photo:2431086007[/flickr] [flickr]photo:2431903776[/flickr].

To see more cars, click above and browse the flickr account.

After leaving Mercedes, I’d driven past a huge festival next to the river.  It wasn’t too long a walk, so I headed to that!  It was fun.  Lots of people, and the rain had mostly stopped by the time I was there.  It was packed.

If you haven’t been to Lakeside Amusement Park, get off you butt and go.  The place in Stuttgart has a newer version of the Chipmunk! [flickr]photo:2431905140[/flickr] I think it’s called Crazy Mouse here.  Same ride, just “updated”.  It was worth the 2 euros.

I also went on the giant ferris wheels! [flickr}photo:2431904782[/flickr] [flickr]photo:2431905324[/flickr]

I then just walked through and went on the roller coaster.  It was fun, and then I got a sausage sandwich for dinner.  I headed out of the park to my car and drove to the Shell to purchase  some unleaded.

I didn’t take a picture of it, but I should.. there’s lots of fuel options.  Diesel, Benohol {sp?}, Super, and something else, and Unleaded.  I got 44 Euros of Unleaded and headed back to the hotel for the night.

And that’s how Saturday was.  It started out cold a rainy…stayed rainy, but it warmed up and was nice by evening.

Tomorrow…I’ll do the Sunday entry for the museum in Speyer and the castle in Heidelberg.

This is more a teaser….

[flickr]photo:2431095451[/flickr] Heidelberg…

[flickr]photo:2431084575[/flickr] Lichtenstein…

[flickr]photo:2431906030[/flickr] View from the Ferris Wheel in Stuttgart…

So..an important lesson to know in German..  Frei does not mean Free.  It means available.  As in, Parking Garage Open (Frei Park!)… it has open spots to park, drive in!

Don’t make the same mistakes I do… it’s not as much fun as it sounds.

In case you’re wondering…from my hotel, my own website is banished! So, I’m “working” at the moment … shhh!

Karlsruhe, Sunday…the ZKM! It’s a technical and art museum.

Look! The font door, right? It’s not open… so I walked around the entire building once. Still didn’t seem to be open. There were two churches in the area, and I wandered over to those…of course, no photos of that. It took about 1.5 hours to walk to them both from ZKM. I did, however, pass by a laundry mat! I might be back later…

The Font Door? [flickr]photo:2423155825[/flickr]

I’m waiting on a bench for it to open up: [flickr]photo:2423156049[/flickr]

So after waking around the better part of 2 and a half hours and not noticing that the place is open…someone noticed I’d be in the area for a long time and asked what I was up to. I told them I wanted to go to the ZKM but it didn’t look open yet…. they directed me to the middle of the building, and it’s wide open.

By the ACTUAL entrance, there’s this giant glass building with light tubes in it, surrounded by water — it’s all enclosed and wasn’t open for access..

[flickr]photo:2423968886[/flickr]

It cost 5 Euros to get inside, and it was worthy! They had many interesting displays. Its mostly computer related things, cameras connected to the internet, interactive displays, music, and what not. I spend another 3 hours in side..

One of the ancient computer exhibits: [flickr]photo:2423156317[/flickr]

I got yelled at, in German, for taking a picture..so I decided against anymore…they had “Security” type people all over, and they tended to follow me around. They gave m no chance! OK, that was that..not enough pictures… I know.

So I went to Ettlingen again to get lunch and hang out. Apparently, things close at 14:00 on Sunday. So, if you go for lunch at 15:00….well, be thankful they took pitty on you. I had spaghetti with meat sauce! It’s very good.

Anyway, this is the grassy area I enjoyed my chocolate milkshake at: [flickr]photo:2423969896[/flickr]

Here’s a car driving down what I feel is strictly the sidewalk…but what do I know..[flickr]photo:2423970238[/flickr] (actually, I drove around there too….purely on accident.

Tonight, Friday, 18-Apr, I went to Ettlingen for Dinner! I was going to go to another brewery, but it was packed so I generally shy away from that with my meager ability to get a table. I went to La-Cubanita!

I had a Cola-Bier. [flickr]photo:2423970478[/flickr]

Yes, beer mixed with Coke. It’s interesting, and I wouldn’t say I won’t order it again…but don’t count on it. I also had another Dark Beer! [flickr]photo:2423970362[/flickr] YAY Dunkel Bier!

Look, the menu is readable by me: [flickr]photo:2423970582[/flickr]

I ordered the Beef fajitas and chips with salsa.

Is that what you think of when you order Fajitas? [flickr]photo:2423157313[/flickr] .. yeah, me either.
Despite how it looked, and that it wasn’t what a Fajita should be by my standards, it was actually very tastey. The beans were kidney beans, not refried…the rice was just white rice with tomato paste…. I don’t know what the white stuff was, it wasn’t sour cream. It was fine, and I devoured my beef fajita!

Here’s the Salsa: [flickr]photo:2423157493[/flickr]
Those who know me..you know I’m kinda a salsa snob…
Ok, tip: Don’t Order salsa in Germany. I had read on some website that they had awesome salsa. I was all psyched. I don’t know what that person was drinking, but I didn’t drink enough of it. It was just ketchup with some spices. Seriously. I about ralphed. The tortilla chips were coated in some weird thing, too. Stay away from Chips & Salsa at La Cubanita!

The staff was nice, the spoke English (always a plus for me) and wondered why I didn’t eat my salsa and chips. I just politely stated it wasn’t what I expected. I could tell they didn’t understand and they honestly thought they had good salsa…how depressing for the people who like that.

And now for the comic relief…. on my way out of Ettlingen, I stopped off for a Ein Schokolade Waffle, bitte! (chocolate waffle cone). They are nice there, they put up with my attempt at German! I walk, maybe 20 feet, across a little footbridge over the water..and wham. Right on my face. Seriously, I didn’t see a step. I landed on my stomach and left hand. The waffle cone was still in my hand…but the Shokolade had jumped onto the pavers. Dags… There were LOTS of people. They all stared. I laughed…said, “EIN SCHOKOLADE!! NOOO!!!” and I got up… I just walked away and people asked if I was ok. Other then my ego…and my missing treat… I was fine. To bad no one gets these things on video. Cobble Stone 2, Todd 0.

Oh look…”work” is about up…and my Internet Passwort is only good until 18/04/2008 20:02:02. Time to hit Publish! Tomorrow I am going to Lichtenstein to visit a castle, and Sunday is another museum that has airplanes! Whish me luck!

Wednesday was good! I am waking up at a normal hour (6:30am) and am headed to work much earlier. I was barely making it in by 9am, and now I get here by 7:30am. Jet lag must be over…

Wednesday night, a coworker informed me there’s a micro brew pub in Richenbach (did I tell you no one lives in Waldbronn…Waldbronn is a collection of 3 smaller communities …). Since I’d not seen this place…I was curious. I even looked for it on walks Monday and Tuesday but didn’t know what he was talking about.

Lindenbräu!

They had good beer, and good food! I had what is best described as bologna salad, with provolone cheese and a pickle relish. With a side of Pommes! (Ok Pommes is french-fries, and it’s one of the few words I’ve learned.)

It’s located very near my hotel:

as I am on the Kronen-stabe (just off the yellow lines).

I’ll go back and try the Flammkuchen..

It’s hard to write an entry on the blog when I end up either IM’ing or talking to everyone anyways. I feel like I’ve said or written everything twice..because it’s what I’m about to do…

So last weekend, my first weekend, I had a few things to accomplish. Well, maybe not accomplish, but, what the hell was I going to do? First thing…I was still having issues with jet-lag and woke up around 11am. Great. Late start.

Saturday… I headed off to Karlsuhe (which I continuously mispell..) I was looking for the ZKM or KMZ or something. I never found that. I did find a mall and a museum of natural history. The museum was a bit lacking in the display category, but, thanks to my lack of Deutchse and their lack of English – I was spared the 5 euro entry fee. Here’s some pictures I took while there:

The entrance area: [flickr]photo:2411313484[/flickr]
The displays are a bit more graphic if you’re the food: [flickr]photo:2410485987[/flickr]
[flickr]photo:2411312220[/flickr] [flickr]photo:2410484155[/flickr]

That was that….probably spent only 20 minutes in there, and it wasn’t really worth the time. As I had such a late start to the day, I was very hungry. I noticed people walking around carrying snacks and treats. I didn’t see any obvious signs for restaurants, so I headed in the direction they were at. I stumbled in a mall. Apparently, a huge mall. It was 3 or 4 stories. I walked in from ground level (I thought) and was really on the 2nd floor. I found the food court, and a T-Mobile store. One of the things I wanted to do was get a mobile while in Germany in case there was an emergency someone could reach me…so for 29.95 euros, I got a pay-as-you-go sagem my200x mobile. It supposedly came with 5 euros on it, and they gave me two 6 euro cards to load….

Now…trying to figure out something in German usually isn’t that bad. I look through my book, and look at the menu. Mobile phones don’t have many references to food for menu options. It took me about 20 minutes but I got most of the display into English. I think I used up the first 5 euros loaded onto it for trying to setup voicemail. Long story short…I won’t have voice mail because I don’t know what it’s asking in German when I call. The number was given to those who need it 🙂

That was pretty much it for Karlsruhe. Ate some food at the food court (chicken sandwich) and had a coke.

Leaving was another story. I parked in the parking garage….and, I’m used to paying the person when you leave, right? Well, that’s now how it works here. So yes…I was the American in the car at the thing that takes your ticket with no idea what was going on – but the gate wouldn’t open. Finally, someone who spoke English ask me if I’d paid…nope. They got the 4 cars behind me to back up so I could get out of the way…go park, then go inside and pay. You stick in the ticket, it tells you how many Euros it wants, and it spits out the card. Take the card with you and drive to the exit..insert card and you’re free!

I headed from Karlsruhe to Ettlingin with a stop at the hotel to drop of the mobile (to charge it up).

Ettlingen is a interesting town. Some of the streets are “normal”, others are barely wide enough for my little car and I thought I was driving on the sidewalk. I spent the end of Saturday and most of Sunday in Ettlingen. Walking around is interesting, it feels medevil as the roads are so narrow, the buildings are close, it’s cobblestone, and it appears to be a castle/gated type area in the middle.

I did manage to get a chocolate milk shake [flickr]photo:2410489441[/flickr]
, and I d’erfed once on the coble to get a nice anchovie on my knee [flickr]photo:2411316944[/flickr].

On Sunday I located the ZKM museum in Karlsruhe, but apparently, I haven’t offloaded an cam pics in a while 🙂 so I’ll save that story for..later…

I’ll go back to Ettilingen much more, as they seem to be more “tourist” friendly…and there’s more options for things to eat and see. Apparently, there’s a little trail with 12 historic buildings and signs in English. I’ll get pictures of that..later.

That’s that. The week hasn’t been very exciting. Get up, go to work, figure out lunch at work by picture menu, then go home. I average about a 2 hour walk every evening after work. It’s something to do.

Hopefully this weekend brings some more entertainment.

Ok..so where am I? I’m in Waldbronn!

Here’s a little map…it show’s where my Hotel area is, where I go for work, and where I wander around to.

[flickr]photo:2415552613[/flickr]

I’ve pretty much walked most places you can see within that image…down that hiking trail until I decided I needed to go eat, and went to the known location of food. As I find more places, I’ll probably walk to different areas. I’d walk to work…but it’s rainy most mornings so far.

Welcome to Waldbronn!

[flickr]photo:2411318124[/flickr]

So I got here Thursday, and  I was really tired.  I was awake most of my flight from Philadelphia to London.  I think it’s just over 6 hours, they had 2 movies to show.  I watched part of Beowulf and don’t remember the ending.  Then the lights were on and food!
Landed at Terminal 4, and had to walk forever to transfer to Terminal 5.  Terminal 5 was rather smoothe…I only tried to leave the secured area once – and the police with the guns were polite enough to stop that, though they declined pictures. 
My flight out of London Heathrow Terminal 5 was delayed around 45 minutes.  They didn’t post the boarding gate until 15 minutes prior to departure – so that wasn’t such a good omen.  We finally boarded..and then sat anouther 45-60 minutes in the plane.  My seat was broken.  It constantly reclined…so I tok off in the reclined position despite the stewardesses obvious displearue.  Fix your plane.
Oh…and there’s no entertainment from London to Stuttgart.  Just the channel and France to stare out the window at…which I did.

Stuttgart seems to be a small airport, and I forgot to take pictures. (Did I mention I was tired?) Passport Control looked at me oddly when I said I was here on business until 10 May.  I got a stamp…and followed the English in front of me through the doors.
Awaiting for baggage, bags came up on the carousel, but they were from some other flight.  You could hear the groan from everyone as the anticipation was Terminal 5 messed up again.  A British Airways person was soon there, took all those bags and explained out bags would be out momentairly.  Thankfully, my bags made it!  I picked them both up and pondered where to go next.
When in doubt, head to people with guns.  They were standing front of the customs door, and apparently if you have something to decalre, you should still go through the other door because no one is there to really stop you.

I walked over to the Hertz rental car desk.  My first interactions with Germans!  As I only speak English, and I had no idea what became of my English -> German book…english it was.  I got a small car and he tried to upsell me to the Mercedes SLK…too bad the company wouldn’t flip that bill, eh?  I got some directions…two exits, across the walk, up the moving walkway.  Look for door B, go to level 1 and…umm..some other stuff.  I found the car easily enough.

Now…getting out of the airport…  I have a TomTom GO 920 GPS with European maps.  What a life saver!  Of course, GPS in a parking garage doesn’t work so well…so I followed signs that meant Exit, hit the green button, almost rain over someone, then off down the road I went.  I had to drive a bit before the GPS signal came in, and TomTom knew where it was.  It picked itself up ok, and then I chose the work site in Waldbronn as my destination.

TomTom likes to tell you to do things you can’t do…like turn left, sometimes, it’s just not going to happen.  thankfully, you can ignore it and it’ll re-route fairly quickly and get you where you need to be.  I don’t know how many cloverleafs it’s made me drive through all parts of, but it’s done it several times.

On the A8 and toward Karlshue I headed.  The autobahn is under construction, so, there wasn’t much speeding.  Also, it was raining, and my car is 1.2l…so  I didn’t get much over 80mph.

I found the work site, then programmed in to find the hotel.  Hotel Krone (http://www.hotelkrone-waldbronn.de).  It was in the TomTom’s POI database, and I got to the hotel… no one at the hotel was speaking English.  There’s a girl here who does speak English, but,she is a student and is only here occasionally.  I was shown two rooms.. and I choose this one, because it has a balcony. [flickr]photo:2410475385[/flickr]

I fought falling asleep at 4:00pm CET and didn’t really do so great.  I went for a long walk, took a few showers… [flickr]photo:2410478979[/flickr] [flickr]photo:2410479797[/flickr] [flickr]photo:2410480913[/flickr] [flickr]photo:2411309504[/flickr] [flickr]photo:2411310226[/flickr]

I finally fell asleep around 10:30pm.

Friday, I had a hard time waking up.  I missed the hotel breakfast…so I went to work.  Got settled at work, have a desk, a phone, internet, plant access, got lunch (tillapia, yumm!) and met a lot of people.  We went for a walk after lunch…not too much happened…other than I didn’t get any money from the ATM I tried.

…and since I’ve written a lot already..I’ll stop here.

My flight leaves at 6 from Philly..so I’m off.

See you when I figure out net access in Waldbronn, Germany!