The Ghosts of History

One of the most fascinating things about living where we do, is how ingrained every little thing is in history.  Layers upon layers of history are everywhere you turn.

Marika is studying World War II now, and even though we live with it, it was still a little startling to be doing research for a paper and come across several photos of soldiers, Nazi parades or rallies in the areas we spend time in on a regular basis.

She has decided to try to get some photos of herself to juxtapose next to those WWII photos as part of a project for history class.  Many are in Heidelberg proper, but a couple were also in nearby Schwetzingen.  We headed over to Scwetzingen this weekend to take those photos.  This is may favourite pair:

Hadley

The return of the prodigal cat

Today is a WONDERFUL day at our house.  Nearly 5 weeks ago, one of our two cats, Taio, went missing.    He is home today.  MUCH thinner, but seeming otherwise healthy.

So, in light of this very happy event, today seems like a good day to blog a bit about the local Tierheim, and how it compares to animal shelters in the US (though I fully admit that the last time i was in one in the US was almost 20 years ago, so perhaps things have changed).

When we went into the Tierheim looking for our new pets, we said we wanted cats and were asked if we wanted totally indoor cats or not.  In the US it is very much frowned upon to let pet cats outside, and we are fine with keeping cats in and said an indoor cat.  The employees got very stern looks and said there WAS one older cat who was declawed that we could look at.  A bit of discussion turned up the interesting (to us) fact that the attitude here is that it is cruel to the cats to keep them indoors all the time and under normal circumstances cats will not be given to owners who will not, or cannot let them out (so, if you live in an apartment with no direct exit, then you are out of luck!).

The cat area of the Tierheim is it's own building.  There are about 8 cats rooms, each about 6'x8' and each with an enclosed outdoor area about 6'x5'.  The ceilings are high and each room also has a large, multi-level climbing tree and several shelves along the walls with cat beds on them, litter boxes for each cat, etc.  They are really nice, big, spaces.

When we were adopting there were 3-4 cats per room, on a recent tour with Girl scouts there were 2-3 per room and only half the rooms were in use.  When we asked, we learned that the maximum is 6 cats per room, but that is rare.  If they are full they may ask people surrendering pets if they can wait a week or two and if not find another shelter in a nearby town.  They said a cat rarely stays longer than 3 weeks.  It seems they are a no kill shelter---with no real pressure from overcrowding to do so anyway.  I attribute this largely to the German tendency to follow rules!  There are probably a lot fewer pets whose owners neglect to spay and neuter them here than in the US.

Cats are where we spent the majority of our time, but the shelter also has dogs, rabbits, guinea pigs, donkeys (yes, really!), birds, etc.  It is really a pretty cool place.  Next time the scouts go back I will try to get some photos for you.  In the meantime, we are thrilled to have our Taio back again.  His sister, Fergie, seems pretty happy too.

I hope your Tuesday was half as good as mine,
Hadley

Easter Advent?!

Germans LOVE Advent calendars (and wreaths and anything else advent or Christmas related).  Between mid October and Early November they all arrive in stores.  We've counted as many as 72 different varieties of toy related calendars in our local department store at one time.  JUST toys (Playmobile versions  Legos, Hotwheels, magic sets, puzzle balls, plastic ponies, hotwheels cars, etc., etc.).  Of course, there are dozens upon dozens of chocolate calendars as well.  And ones for your pets with gourmet cat foods or chew toys in each box, calendars for adults with little mini bottles of alcohol, different teas for each day--you name it.  When the time comes around again this year,  I will have to take some photos to share here.

In the mean time, we noticed the first "Easter Advent" calendar we have seen while out running errands yesterday.

Hmmm.  So, I guess the question is, is the German love affair with the advent calendar a function of their love affair with Christmas, or will stand independently of that holiday?  It will be interesting to see if this takes off and more such countdowns are on store shelves next year.

Hadley

 

New Year's Eve in Spain

So today I am finally getting around to finishing up talking about our trip to Spain.  Our last night there was New Year's Eve.  All week we had been seeing a big tent being set up around the main round about in town (causing some interesting rerouting to get from point A to point B!), and we figured it meant there would be a  town party, though it seems everyone else just knew what to expect; there were no signs, nothing on the town website, etc.

As you may recall, Rio had developed a fever earlier in the day.  He is my party kid, but he was in no condition to go out.  His temp was high enough that I didn't even want to leave him alone, but Marika is NOT a party kid and had no intention of leaving the house on NYE for any reason.  She was happy to stay with him, and the tent was only about a 5 minute walk from our rental, so we figured we could be back quickly if he got sick enough to need to be taken somewhere.

So, we wandered over around 11:30.  We were pleasantly surprised to find that there was no fee at all to get in, and the drink prices were quite low.  We spent a Euro fifty each on a plastic champagne glass filled with 12 grapes, wandered through the tent to check it out (there were big screen TVs up, showing the festivities in Puerta del Sol--sort of like the Times Square of Madrid, a DJ, lights, etc).

Do you see the balloons shaped like bunches of grapes?  Are you noticing a theme yet (with our champagne flutes and the balloons?).  I knew from the year I lived in Spain as a teen, that it is a Spanish tradition to eat one grape with each strike of the clock in the Puerta del Sol on New Year's Eve.  There is even a Mecano song about it (which I HAD to play a few times that day!):

Here I am with my grapes, back out in front of the tents:

Shortly before midnight, we crowded into the tent with a good number of others--ranging in age from toddlers up to elderly older men and women pushing walkers.  We ALL had our grapes and everyone counted down the clock striking, as we watched it on TV--and then we all stuffed grapes in our mouths!  It is hard to chew that fast, especially because the grapes have seeds.  On 12 the balloons and confetti fell, the DJ started up and bubbly flowed---all the glasses (those 1.50 ones, with grapes) were filled up at no extra charge.  

We only stayed for 4-5 songs before heading home by 12:30.  With a sick kid and a long drive ahead of us the next day a night of partying was not the thing for us.  We were leaving along with parents with toddlers--and as many teens were just beginning to arrive (I wonder where they were for the countdown ).  

And, so, ended our time in Spain, for that trip at least.  It was truly a nice place and we are very much considering going back next Christmas.

I hope you all had equally interesting New Years,

Hadley

Warmes Essen oder Kalt?

Well, Dave was supposed to have surgery yesterday (an ear issue), but there was an emergency that kept the surgeon busy, so we waited all day at the hospital (he was checked in, gown on, no food or drink) before finally being sent home around 7:00 last night.  Not wanting to embarrass him (or horrify my readers!), I didn't take any photos, so this is rather a "dry" post--but there was an incident that reminded me of an interesting difference between German and American culture that I can mention.

Once it was clear he would not be going in for surgery after all, the nurse was able to bring Dave some food (we still had to wait to find out when he would be rescheduled to).  The question was, did he want the lunch tray or the dinner tray?  The vital difference between the two would e that the lunch tray is a hot meal, dinner is not.

I think we had been living in Germany nearly two years before we figured out that In Germany, the norm is to only eat one hot meal a day.  It is usually lunch.  Often served in a workplace cafeteria or at school during the week.  There is generally a cold option available and if someone has plans to go out for dinner, or to a party where food will e served, etc., they will switch things up and have the cold meal for lunch and hot for dinner (seriously, this happens, often).

I don't feel too badly for missing this for so long.  I figured it out in conversation with my German friend Eva, who was annoyed that her little daughter wanted a hot dinner when she had already had a hot lunch at school.  Eva and her family lived in the US for 3 years and never realized that us Americans commonly eat hot lunches and hot dinners (an even hot breakfasts fairly frequently!).

I sometimes wish my family could adopt this German way.  I'd have a lot less to do if I only needed to cook lunches for Marika and I on weekdays and could throw some salad, rolls, cheese or lunch meet on the table in the evenings.  Sometimes, when Dave is out of town on business  the kids and I eat this way.  But, Dave has never even liked cold sandwiches in a packed lunch, so I doubt it could take over as life (then again, I now drink water without ice as often as not and he drinks bubbly water--so you never know!).

I hope you enjoyed hearing about this little difference in the cultures--and if you happen to know about other cultures and which model they use, I'd love to hear about it.

Hadley

Our Spanish Christmas Adventure--Part X

Hi everyone---I apologize for the long gap between posts.  We had a hard drive crash and it took a while to get these photos back, but here they are now.

Our last big outing in Spain was to Mundomar in Benidorm.  Mundomar translates to "sea world" and, though I have never been to one of the Sea Worlds in the US, I imagine it is similar to that, only ALL about the animals (no rides) and without Shamoo or other killer whales.

Marika is not an animal lover and elected to stay home while the rest of us got an "early" (by Spanish standards) start at 9:00 so we could be there when they opened.

It was about a 40 minute drive from El Campello.  Rio was particularly tired on the drive and I kept asking him if he felt alright   He assured me that he was just sleepy--which is pretty common before a growth spurt, so I didn't worry too much about it.

The entry areas, and much of the park, had some Christmas decor up (snow?  In southern Spain? lol)

We paid for tickets (I had found some discount coupons at the El Campello gas station that brought the price down to 12 Euro each), and headed up the shaded, parrot lined walkway into the park:

The park is really well laid out so that you can work your way from front to back and see every show in succession with a little time in between for exhibits, but not a lot of waiting around or back tracking.  This was very nice.  Here are some photos of the various exhibits, buildings, the Sea Lion show, etc:

At MANY of the exhibits, you could wait in line and have your photo taken with the animals.  We saw this with seals, sea lions, lemurs and parrots as well as others.  Rio and I jumped in the short line to hang out with the parrots (yes, one is eating my hat).

We saw a sea lion show, a bird show and a song and dance show about the holidays--as well as several smaller exhibits.  All of the exhibits seemed to be well set up, clean, large and with animals that looked to my amateur eye to be well cared for.  They were all a miss of English and Spanish and easy for either group to understand   The bird and dance shows were both held in a central building with tables in the audience area.  The park's counter service restaurant was adjacent, so it was designed to have a meal or snack while you watched, which really worked out nicely.  We had a drink during the first show and a nice little lunch of sandwiches on fresh baguettes and fries during the second one.  Here is the building--I liked the style:

Towards the end of the lunch time show, Rio started to feel really cold.  Sure enough, he was running a fever!  I guess he wasn't just tired with an upcoming growth spurt.  We debated heading straight home, or holding out to see the dolphin show in 20 minutes.  That is the BIG show, and the main thing (along with otters, whose exhibit is on the trail out of the park) that Rio had wanted to see.  In the end, we opted to throw some tylenol at Rio and sit through the show and then hightail it out and back home.  

The theatre that the dolphin show is in, is set up to have lovely views of the nearby hills as well as the ocean. It really was a perfect location--and the show was wonderful.  Even feeling sick Rio enjoyed it--and so did David and I.  It had a bit of a Christmas feel and opened with one of the three kings ziplining over the dolphin pool--which was pretty comical (note: in Spain family gifts are given on the 24th or 25th of December.  Santa does not come, and the three kings, or wise men, bring gifts on January 6th).  

Since the otter exhibit was right on our way out, and Rio loves them so much, we did stop for a few minutes to look at them.

As I was snapping that last photo, Rio was telling me to turn around and look at something.  Almost simultaneously, I felt something touching my backside.  I turned around to find the culprit was the little guy who had somehow managed to escape!  

Yes, I was groped by an otter! lol  As we exited I told the staff in the gift shop that there was an otter on the loose.  It is a good thing I had taken a photo, I don't think they believed me until they saw it--then they were suddenly radioing frantically.

And so ended our, cut short, day at Mundomar.  It was a really nice place and I hope we can take Rio back when he is feeling healthy.  It was certainly worth a return visit.  

Here's hoping you have a nice, otter-harassment-free day.

Hadley

Our Spanish Christmas Adventure Part IX--Candelabra Caves of Busot

Luckily we all felt good the next day, so we headed up to the little mountain town of Busot to tour the Canalobre (Candalabra) Caves.

Everything I found online said to just head into the town of Busot and then follow the signs to the caves.  So, we packed a picnic lunch and drove inland.

Once in Busot we turned off by this adorable church:

and found  the perfect spot for our picnic   Yes, Marika really did eat with her back to the view and her nose buried in reading fanfic on her computer. I told her that I'll send her a copy of this photo when she has a teenager and complains about how jaded they are lol

The view was spectacular.

We were so glad that the online directions were to go into the town looking for signs,or else we would have never found such a perfect spot.  There WAS one sign in town telling us to turn right off of the main road towards the cave.  However, in spite of looping through the narrow roads five or six times and branching off in different ways each time, we never saw another sign.  Eventually, we found directions in Dave's iPHONE and followed those to arrive at the caves.  A note to anyone who may visit, we parked at teh first labeled parking area you come to, and ended up hiking about 1 km up the hill along the road with no sidewalks, only to find a second parking area right at the entrance   Save yourself the walk and having to dodge traffic and drive on past that first area.

Visits to the cave are by guided tour only.  The next tour was in 20 minutes, so we only had a little while to wait around, and we had plenty of lovely scenery while we waited.

We also had fun being silly and coming up with alternate meanings for some of the prohibited items on the sign pictured below ("no making objects levitate," "no pointing," "no skimpy bikini tops," etc)

So, here is the last point at which the camera was allowed to be out:

And a couple of photos I pulled off of the internet of what it looks like inside. There are caveS, but only the main cavern is open to the public.  None the less, it was very impressive and you get to walk all down into it.  The tour lasted about 45 minutes and was fun.

After our tour, we slowly worked our way back to El Campello, and had another great BBQ on the roof top terrace and soaked in some more heat in the hot tub.

Mountains, valleys, oceans and caves all in one day.  What more can you ask for?

Hadley

Our Spanish Christmas Adventure Part VIII--Scenes from El Campello

I keep getting sidetracked with current events here in Germany, but here is a bit more about our holiday in Spain.  The 28th was pretty much a lost day for me as I was still sick, but Dave and Rio went out exploring the coastline in El Campello and took several photos worth sharing with you:

By evening I was feeling mostly well again, and I wanted to get out, so we had a nice stroll along the beach and then out along the fishing area.  It is hard to get a nice photo in the dark with my camera, but I thought the bait vending machine was funny. It was just like a soda vending machine, but instead of getting a canned drink for your money, you get a container of live worms.  It seemed popular, and quite a few people were out fishing in the dark.

We never really got many photos up in town--but the entire little town, as well as the coastline area was really nice.  It was clean and cute, easy to navigate, etc.  One thing that was funny for us was that there is a large British Ex Pat community in the area and we seemed to hear as much English as Spanish whenever we went strolling. It really was a nice town to stay in, and very centrally located (with clean train running through town every 10 minutes to take you to Alicante in one direction or Benidorm in the other).  So, if you are ever looking for a place to get away to in Southern Spain, I would recommend it without a doubt.

Hadley

Faschings in Heidelberg

So, as promised, we headed out to the Faschings parade to day in Heidelberg and took plenty of photos of the fun to share! I love the Heidelberg parade--it is still small enough to not be completely overwhelming (as I suspect that Mainz and Cologne must be), but big enough to feel like a serious party (though, I LOVE some of the small town celebrations as well--unfortunately we were unable to get to any this year).  The estimates are that approximately 10,000 people viewed the parade in Heidelberg this year.

Marika and I headed downtown with our friends Karla and Elizabeth.  The parade has the traditional 2:11 start time (I have been unsuccessful at learning why all Fashcings events must start at 11 after the hour--does anyone know?).  Trams stop running downtown at around 1:00, so we headed out about 12:30 in order to be sure we made it.  We planned to eat lunch downtown so that we could stay warm while we waited for parade time.

We ended up on the same tram as most of the Eisbaren (polar bear) band..  They even played a couple of songs along the way (which, yes, is rather loud in an enclosed space, but it is all a part of the experience!):

After lunch, we donned face paints and costume pieces  and headed out into the cold along with thousands of others caught up in the celebrations.

All of the kids are carrying sacks because they still pelt spectators with candy (and little bags of popcorn or peanuts, hair clips, etc) that the kids collect at parades here in Germany.  No barriers, little kids chasing down candy, free flowing alcohol among marching band members, this is so not America!

There is really not much that I can SAY to convey the atmosphere.  This year, like most was cold (about 25 degrees), yet everyone sticks around to watch.  It is festive, and there is a fair amount of drinking--but I have never yet seen someone sick, or belligerent or out of control from the drinking or broken bottles, etc; it remains a family atmosphere and I  have no issue with Rio viewing the parade with friends, etc.  In addition to the candy, it is common for parade participants to dump confetti on spectators  "write" on them with facepaints or lipstick, etc.  No one is worried about liability for, well, anything so far as I can tell.  One thing I really love is that those in the various bands and on the floats range in age from very young kids up through people probably in their 80s.  There is absolutely NO age limit on the fun--in any direction.  

And now, I will quit trying to explain it, and just let the photos (most taken by Marika) do the talking.

The Opening Act

The Ziegelhausen Hexen (Witches)

Yes--they ARE handing out little cups of champagne to spectators as they go!

This is the first year we have seen something quite this creepy.  There was a whole group of them.

Could these little ones BE any cuter?

The eisbaren OFF the tram!

The camera battery died about two groups before the end of the parade.  The final float is always a large truck playing techno music and sponsored by a local radio station.  A large percentage of the crowd follows this "party truck" and the dancing and fun grows bigger and bigger as the parade winds through downtown.  Eventually the parade ends near the night clubs at the end of the pedestrian zone, and the die hard partiers flood the clubs and stay for hours (we head right back OUT of downtown and away from the chaos--the parade itself is just the right amount of fun and partying for us).

  I hope you enjoy the photos as much as we enjoyed the parade.

Hadley