Week 16: Luebeck

This past weekend we took a road trip to the other side of Germany to visit with some friends who were competing in an autonomous sailboat competition. The competition was held in Luebeck, Germany, which is very close to Denmark and very far away from us. We split up the drive on our way out, stopping off in Dortmund to stay for the night (about 3 hours from home) before making the rest of the drive to Luebeck (about 4 hours). We hit some traffic, saw a jackknifed RV, but we made it to our friends' competition at exactly the right moment.

When we arrived, they were working frantically on getting their boat working. They had just finished a run and had found that the timing on their code was way off--they were able to finish the course on that try, but it took 5 times longer than it should have. We stayed out of the way while they got everything ship-shape (ha!). A few minutes later their boat was put out in the water and it did its thing. Flawlessly.  

The Autonomous Sailboat Completing its Run

Evidently, we brought luck with us on our long drive, as this was the only successful run our friends had during the multi-day competition. We only saw one portion of one event, where the boat had to execute a series of maneuvers relative to the buoys. They didn't win, but it was pretty cool. We were both very impressed with our friends' achievement, especially since the boat had sat over night on the bottom of the Charles about a week before.

The Boat Being Torn-Down

After the competition awards were presented, we all went out to wander around Luebeck. On our friends' recommendation, we all went to a restaurant that focused it dishes on potatoes and even had some seats outside. Very good food and very good beer. A great way to spend a late summer evening.

Group Photo: 4 Nerds

On Sunday, we hopped in our car and drove around Luebeck a bit before we headed back to Speicher and our friends headed off to their next vacation destination. We drove east of Luebeck, to get out to the Baltic Sea. Jason and I realized that we had never seen the ocean in Germany and the last time we had really been close to it was when we were in Norway a couple months ago. Odd for a couple of people who have lived walking distance to the Atlantic for the past five years. 

We bid our adieus and headed back to Speicher, arriving late on Sunday evening. We slept well. It was a very nice weekend, but we were a little bummed that we had missed Wittlich's Pigfest (or Saeubrenner). Or thought we had. In reading some posts on a base related Facebook site, I found out it wasn't over until Tuesday(!). So, for dinner on Monday night, we headed on over where we were greeted by a large pig on a stick and offered his tasty insides to eat on a Broechen. And, my, they were delicious.

Eat Up! I'm Tasty!

Week 15: The Tunnels Under Luxemburg

We spent some more time in Luxemburg this weekend, but in the capital city instead of one of the outlying towns. It was quite wet in our region of Europe, so we decided to visit more of an indoor attraction than we normally do for weekends, and visited the casements under the city.

There are two separate sites to visit. We weren't clear on that and visited the least popular first, which turned out in many ways to be the cooler of the two sites. First, there were fewer people around, so we could explore a bit easier without having lots of people in our way and second, they were darker and danker, as you can see in the photo of Jason below. It was very cool and only a little creepy. What kept the creepy factor a bit lower was that the casements are located in one of the city walls and intended for defensive purposes. If you want something to be defensive, at least in the 1600s when these were first built, you need a place to fire your cannons. As a result, as you work your way deeper into the tunnels, you find places with sunlight, which seems odd when you've spent 10 minutes walking in tunnels.

Jason in the Casements

The casements were also used during WWII as bomb shelters. Looking at them now, I think Londoners made out much better sitting the Tube than Luxemburgers did in these dank, narrow tunnels. One evidence of this is the sign shown on the wall in the photo below: "Don't forget the sand". It was how you "flushed" after doing your business--those cubicles would be the privy.

That is how you flush ("Don't forget the sand")

The second site wasn't nearly as grim, and is known as the Bock, and is located in between the two high points in the city. The Bock was also mined to prevent invading armies of the last century from making it into the city. The mines have been removed and you can go deep within the structure to the "mine gallery" and see where they used to be. There were quite a few.

The sun decided to come out as we finished up with the Bock, so we walked around the city a bit, coming across our first mime. The act had two mimes, but the portion of the video below only has the male lead. I think the performance was something about the relationship between the two mimes. There was definitely a mimed baby for a bit. And possibly the baby died. The bit below was the male trying to cheer the female up. I think. Other interpretations are welcome in the comments.

We did some more work on our projector screen this weekend, actually buying the required cloth, stretching it over the frame and painting it. In the process of stretching the cloth, the shape of the frame was altered, so it no longer fits between the two shelves. For that reason and to remove a bit of slack that emerged when I was painting, I'll need to remove some staples and restretch at least a portion. It will also need a second coat of paint. But, we did try it out with that latest episode of Torchwood and it is much better as a screen than that sheet I stole from pre-frosh weekend all those years ago...

Week 14: Lake Konstanz

Every-so-often, Jason gets a goal day. A goal day is a day off for the base when there have been no DUIs in the previous allotted time (I believe a month). Luckily, we had a little notice and after some consideration, decided to go to the Lake Konstanz area. Lonely Planet touts this as a vacation destination for many Europeans, and since many Europeans are on vacation in August, the hotels were packed. We did, though, luck into a very nice place in downtown Friedrichshaven, that had a great breakfast and clean rooms.

One of the reasons we chose this destination, was for the great biking trails that surround the lake. On Saturday we had perfect biking weather--a little overcast and warm, but not hot and we road through three countries, covering around 35-40 miles, with a nice stop for lunch. Note that is about 20% of the way around the lake. On our next trip to that area, we'll have to plan for more than one day of riding so we can make it further.


View Larger Map

Now, the best part of the ride was that we could take either the ferry or the train back to our starting point. Knowing that we didn't have to ride back, helped us ride that much further. When we arrived in Rorschach, Switzerland, the ferry was soon to arrive, so we hopped on and headed back to Friedrichshafen. On the ferry, we had some particularly nice views of the Swiss side of the lake.

Me and Switzerland

Friedrichshafen is a nice tourist town. It was completely leveled during the war, as it was the location of the Zeppelin works. It still works that angle quite heavily. There is a museum--no, Karl, we didn't go in--and airships can be found in various motifs throughout the city. Oh, you can also book a flight in an airship. We saw at least two of them while we were out biking.

Nothing Like Public Drinking from Real Glasses

There was a Kultur festival going on in Friedrichshafen the weekend we were there. There was a wide variety of performances and folks selling their wares. On our first night there, we had some street food and beer. Yay European public drinking! They had a great system, so you could eat on real plates, with real silverware and drink beer from real glasses, where you paid a deposit on each (I think it was a Euro or two for the plate and the glass) which you got back when you were done eating. We've seen similar systems at other festivals, but only for the glasses. 

And then there was this...table dancer...don't worry, it is safe for work.

And as we rode around the lake, we had a chance to see the differences between three countries--Germany, Austria and Switzerland. The biggest difference was the color of the biking signs. All three of the countries in this area speak German, so other than the changes to the signs we were following we wouldn't have noticed a difference. 

We also got to see the only wood carving of Alf that probably exists. If you ever wondered just what happened to Alf, he is currently living happily in Austria under the name Gordon Shumway. The neighborhood was suspiciously devoid of any stray cats...

Alf says "Hi!"

Weeks 12 & 13: Lots 'o Luxemburg

You can tell I am living in Germany from how I spelled Luxemburg. The French add an o before the u in burg.

We spent the last two Sunday afternoons in Luxemburg. The first Sunday there, July 24th, was a bit of a serendipitous event. Our intent was to go to Beaufort Castle, but when we arrived, they were having a "Rock the Castle" music festival, which had an admission fee. So, instead, we drove back the way we came and stopped at a pretty cool rock formation that we had passed on the way in.

A car, a rock and Jason

That was pretty neat, but we did some more driving around and found some more amazing formations, again, right next to the road. This included a few trails that went to the top of big rocks and others that went into large cracks. As someone who grew up with only a single little rock in our yard (it was between the roots of a tree and about the size of a basketball--or at least that was what stuck out of the ground), the rest being sand, I still love climbing around on rocks. (I seem to remember that I might have asked for a big rock to climb on for a birthday present at some point.)

Jason in a crack

As we were driving out of that area, known as Little Switzerland, we saw more and more cool looking places to stop, but decided we would save them for another trip to the area, as it is very close to us (about 45 minutes away). We also wanted to look into where the good bouldering spots are, as it looks like it could be quite a lot of fun to get on the side of those rocks with the right shoes on.

Now, this weekend's Luxemburg adventure was less on the naturalist side. As Jason and I are both *terrible* at meeting people, we tried forcing the issue by joining a Meetup group. We found an expat group in Luxemburg city and figured we would try hanging out with them a bit to see about meeting some folks outside of the base. The group turned out to be quite mixed--a Briton, an Amerian, a Spaniard and an Ecuadorian by way of NYC.

The destination was Echternach, which Jason and I have visited a number of times before, but this trip was specifically for the balloon festival. I have never seen a hot-air balloon up close, so though they didn't get far into the air until just after Jason and I left, I enjoyed watching them fill up the balloons and getting things floating. The highlight was getting to step inside a balloon that was being inflated. Very cool.

It was a Paulaner balloon-- unfortunately no beer inside

I would be completely remiss if I didn't also mention our activity from this Saturday. The base had it's open house, where it invites Germans to visit and check out the planes with lots of airshow like activities. While we were there, we got to see an A-10 and an F-16 fly in formation. Jason was saying that the F-16 pilot probably had a hard time matching the slower speed of the A-10.

They also had a large number of static displays of planes and plane parts. I particularly liked the view of the A-10's gun outside of its packaging. Man, that thing looks like it can pack a wallop. They had the whole plane on display as well, but the interesting parts of the plane (other than the gun) are all in the redundant design features that are far more interesting to read (or hear) about than to see in person.

A-10 Gun

Oh, and we had some fantastic food while we were at the airshow. The different groups on base each had their own booths. The one that was selling hamburgers and hotdogs and another selling ribs had the longest lines. We instead chose to eat from the Filipino booth. And it was a good decision. On a final note, Jason heard from one of his colleagues that German teens caused his group's booth to sell out of Mountain Due and Doctor Pepper. Evidently, teens are the same everywhere.