The second post from our weeklong visit with my mother-in-law Nina in southwestern Germany:
German Word of the Day: Kaiserslautern!
(The German Word of the Day must be shouted, no exceptions. Hit each syllable hard for full effect.)
I’ve had some sleep and some coffee, so I’m ready to go. (Note to Unisom: you’re useless. I took you on the flight here and you failed miserably. You’re off the Christmas card list.)
So we’re in Germany for a week and let me tell you, these people know what to do with a potato. I’ve had them french fried, home fried, croquetted, blended into soup, and, best of all, slivered with pumpkin, deep fried and served with cream cheese sauce. I love you, cream cheese sauce. Last night they smothered my weinerschnitzel with you. I hope to see you again tomorrow.
Working on a full night’s sleep, we ventured to Trier, a small-ish town about 50 miles west of our home base, Ruschberg. On the way to Trier we passed roughly eight thousand wind farms and a football field’s worth of solar farms. It reminded me of the battle to prevent a Nantucket Sound windfarm; it’ll be an eyesore and an environmenal hazard, so goes the argument. Laughable. The windmills are nothing less than majestic, looping slowly through the air like so many giants in Don Quixote.
Trier once belonged to the Roman Empire, which means lots of people died entertaining the locals in a stadium setting. The ruins still stand:
The ruins also produced the German Picture of the Day:
Renate is telling me why she won’t follow me up into the stadium seating area; it’s muddy, ick.
Local flavor abounded in Trier. We stumbled upon a local festival celebrating funny costumes:
Trier wound up with a fair amount of our hard-earned tourist dollars. Could someone please stick an IV into the dollar? We dropped seven bucks on a bag of peach-flavored gummies.
I took 155 photos today. Renate and Nina learned to keep walking and let me catch up. Here’s a few of my favorite pictures from the day. A few more of my favorites are on flickr.
I also started tracking European logo/signage design. Lots of strong color and light:
I’m hoping to post every day we’re here. Funny things are bound to happen, such as my attempt today to enjoy the local oddity of beer mixed with cola:
Yes, it’s as disgusting as it sounds.
More tomorrow from Koln.