Some general observations and...Frankfurt

We've been surprised how easy it is to get web access so we decided to start this blog. It's a little tricky as the keyboard is German and the y & z are reversed as well as having other strange keys.

Al & I have noticed that Germans seem to like larger black dogs and smaller white dogs (at least what we've seen so far).

People here love to hang plants in their windows probably because tending a garden here would be tough in the wintertime.

As Al & I have been doing a lot of driving, we've noticed that there are a plethora of street signs that make it very confusing. Also parking garages have tiny spaces which can make it challenging. Austria & Switzerland have a lot of tunnels, many of which are many kilometers long. The autos here are different too. They are much smaller versions of US cars (like slimmed down minivans). Plus they use a lot of small one person Smart Cars (electric cars) which makes it easy for those owners to park on the street.

If you're in town on a Sunday, most establishments, except restaurants and cafes, are closed. You'd think that this would be a prime shopping day but most businesses do "rest" on Sunday.

Germans love to smoke – everywhere – in restaurants, hotel lobbies, etc. so it does take getting used to. That may also explain why the young people here are so thin compared to their American counterparts.

The elevators in the European hotels we've been staying in are not for the claustrophobic. It's like taking a ride 3 flights in a phone booth. Another thing to get used to is carrying around a lot of spare change to use the toilet/toiletten or "WC" for Water Closet. Almost all establishments charge for the use of the facilities, anywhere from .30 euros to 1.30 euros if you use the McClean washrooms in the train stations. Speaking of train stations they are more like airports here because the train system here is so extensive.

Frankfurt/Frankfurt am Main
We spent the night in Frankfurt a couple of nights ago near the Central Train Station/ Hauptbahnhof as we had an EARLY (5:15am) train to catch to Berlin. We were a little concerned since it was a red light district, but the hotel was great and there was inexpensive Chinese food only a block away.

The skyline in Frankfurt is beautiful. Big, tall, new buildings of glass and steel. Very different than other German city skylines. They have actually nicknamed Frankfurt "Main-hatten" because of its tall skyline.

Al's been having problems with his ATM card not accessing the German bank networks. Fortunately, Rhein-Main Air Base had an ATM that worked so if you are planning to do any international travel in the near future make sure you check with your bank before you leave. Same thing goes for your cellphone which we thought would work here but have yet to.

We've been fortunate in that a lot of Germans speak English so if we get stuck with a language barrier they're pretty quick to pick up on the fact that you are more comfortable conversing in English.

Frankfurt to Berlin
Since Berlin is way on the other side of Germany, we had plan to park the car and catch a train. The train ride to Berlin is about 4 hours from Frankfurt non-stop (it takes longer on the return route at night). We highly recommend that you buy your tickets online in advance. The S/U-bahn system can be incredibly confusing but efficient once you know how to use it. A couple of people have just come up out of the blue asking if we needed help with taking the right train.

Even with the dollar/euro exchange not being great there are still quite a lot of American tourists here.

The last thing I'll mention for now is that Germany is definitely not ADA compliant. Along with the elevator issues most places of business only have stairs entering the building. This is true for some of the train stations and most of the palaces/museums we've been to so far.

Bye!/Tchuß!

-- Locke