When I was a kid I had a white BMX bicycle.  My brother and I got them as gifts at some point during our childhood.  Most likely for Christmas.  We never went very far on those bikes.  Mostly riding them around the neighborhood or in circles around the house on our horseshoe shaped driveway.  Even though that was more than 20 years ago now it was the only bicycle I have ever owned.  During high school my brother had a bike that I would steal to ride the five miles (8 km) into town.  I remember he was never very happy about that.  Even if he wasn’t going to use it he would be upset that I took his bike without asking.  I cannot say I really blame him.  It was his bike.

Since I am very immobile without a car Anni gave me a bicycle.  I have borrowed bikes and went places here before, but I had never ridden by myself until earlier this week.  I was a little nervous I would get lost on my own.  I have ridden to our flat several times in the car, but we almost always took a different route that I could not bike down.  Before heading out I looked up my route on Google Maps to make myself feel better about where I was going.  Unfortunately looking at directions online doesn’t really help with you don’t take those directions with you.  I can say I didn’t get lost on my way to the flat, but only because I found a fast food restaurant sign which I could follow.  Since I knew where that restaurant was relative to our flat I knew I was on the right track.

I spent three hours working on the flat after I got there.  I was pretty proud of myself for finding my way around for the first time in my new surroundings.  Which helped make the work of scraping wallpaper off easier.  Anni and I also looked at furniture for our new flat.  We selected a bed frame and placed and order for it.  There is a lot to do still before we can setup any furniture, but it feels good to know that we will not be sleeping on her fold out couch once we move in.

The plumber also got the brackets installed for the sink and toilet.  The sink bracket is basically the water pipes and a place to mount the sink to.  The toilet bracket contains the water tank.  You can see both brackets in the pictures down below.  Before it is complete (I think) a false wall will be placed over the brackets to cover them.  Then the fixtures will be attached to the wall.  I have never seen anything like these in the United States.  I’m sure they exist, but probably just aren’t common.

It was getting pretty late so I decided to finally bike home.  I was a little more confident I could make it home without getting lost since I made it to the flat with only a little help.  To my dismay the trip home was a little more involved that I would have liked.  I didn’t really get lost.  Everything was fine until I stopped to take pictures of the sunset.  I knew where I was and I had plenty of sunlight before I needed to get back.  After I captured the images I wanted I decided to try a new direction to see if I could get home from there.  Turns out that decision was not really the right move.  I rode maybe a kilometer or two out of the way before I realized where I thought I was going wouldn’t get my where I wanted to be.  It was a good side trip though.  I got to snap several more pictures of the sunset and a farm I found before turning around.

At the end of the day I rode 15.5 miles (25 km).  It felt good it know I am no longer dependent on other people to take me where I want to go.  I hope you enjoy the pictures I captured along my way.

I guess wall paper is pretty common in the United States.  I have never really wanted it in my house.  I always thought it was just a mess to install and couldn’t compare with just painting the bare wall.  I was a little surprised when I learned we would have to wall paper our flat before we could paint it.  That didn’t really make sense to me at the time.  If we’re going to wall paper it why are we painting it was my thought.  Then I found out the truth.  Since our new places is of brick construction, like everything seems to be here, the walls are covered with a mortar.  The wall paper gives that a smooth finish that doesn’t look like concrete.

Before we start on anything the old wall paper had to be removed.  In the pictures to the right you can see our progression after 6-8 hours.  The closer picture shows the wall with most of the wall paper removed.  You can see the mortar covered wall in the lower sections.  The upper part still had paper on it when picture was taken.  In the far right picture you can see the mess upon the floor after scrapping the wall off.  In some places the mortar came off with the wall paper.  While that means removing the paper was easier we have to recover the wall with mortar again.  I never thought I would say this, but I miss working with sheet rock.

This will be a fun learning experience though.  Almost every tool we have or will use to complete the project is similar to what I would have used in the United States.  I am just working with different materials and different building practices.  Just another chapter in my new adventure.

I drove for the first time this week.  I have not been nervous behind the wheel in a very long time, but I would be lying if I said I wasn’t nervous before we got going.  Most cars here are not any different from anything I have driven in the United States.  They may be smaller on average, but a car here is still a bunch of parts with four wheels and several seats designed to get you where you want to go.  Even though the machine was basically the same where I was driving is measurably different than back home.  I thought I would list some things you might find interesting about driving in Germany:

1) Stop lights are typically positioned on your side of the street.  This is very strange for me.  I am so used to looking across the intersection to where I am going that having to look up at a stop light directly in front of me seems alien.  One feature I like about stop lights here over the United States is before transiting from red to green the light goes to yellow letting you know it will be turning in a moment.  Having driven a manual transmission car for years this would have been nice.  Giving me that split second to put my car back into gear at those long lights before the car behind me is expecting me to have left my spot already.

2) Neighborhood intersections rarely seems to have stop signs.  In a lot of places there is a line there to indicate you need to yield to traffic coming from your right.  I get the concept pretty well, but I found myself stopping at every intersection even though it wasn’t necessary.  Someday I’ll get over this learned behavior, but until then I’ll be making a lot of random stop and goes.

3) The speed limit changes don’t necessarily come with a road sign.  In the United States every time a speed limit changes there is a sign.  Sometimes there is a sign telling you there will be a speed limit sign coming.  Here though, you need to know where you are at to know the speed limit sometimes.  Apparently neighborhoods are 30 km/h, city streets are 50 km/h, and county roads are 100 km/h.  I haven’t even thought about driving on the autobahn yet.  I was listening to a podcast where one of the hosts was on the autobahn last week.  They were traveling at a 140 mph between Berlin and Munich.  I don’t think our car will even go that fast.  I’ll bring up the speeding cameras another time.

4) Stop signs actually say, “STOP” and look just like the ones in the United States.

5) Yes, Germans DO drive on the same side of the road as Americans! There were two questions I was asked a lot before I left.  The first was “how many hours ahead [in time] will you be?” and the second was “don’t Germans drive on the other side of the road?”  As far as I know only in the United Kingdom do they drive on the other side of the road [in Europe].  In Germany you drive in the right lane and sit behind the steering wheel on the left side of the car.  I always think it is funny when I pass someone in a right hand drive car.  We went by a car like that today.  It was weird looking over at an empty passenger seat before seeing the driver.  I wish I had looked at his license plates to see where he was from.

I started to drive for a second time, but I am so used to not carrying my wallet since I got here I didn’t have my license with me.  I had to let Anni drive after all.  I’ll probably be driving over to our new flat tomorrow though.  We are getting the walls ready to paint.  I’m spent this morning ripping off layers of old wall paper to expose the concrete under walls.  I’ll post some pictures tomorrow of what the work looks like.  Right now I have to go outside and help with the new garden shed.  Enjoy your Friday!

We are closer to moving into our new apartment everyday, but still I wonder when everything will finally come together.  I am not in any rush.  I love being at Anni’s parents house, but eventually it would be nice to have our own place.  I would feel like I’m less of a burden on everyone around me then.  We spent most of the afternoon looking at kitchen cabinets and appliances.  When you move into a flat in Germany the kitchen isn’t necessarily included.  We looked at dozens of different kitchen sets in all different kinds of price ranges.  I don’t think we have found exactly the one we are looking for yet.  No single set seemed to offer the combination we need at any price.  We did find a couple that were close though within our price range.

My grandfather owned a hardware store for a very long time.  Looking at these different kitchen sets reminded me of being a kid wandering through his store playing with everything we could get our hands on (and get away with).  Each display offered something different and new to see and discover.  My favorite was finding the fridge and seeing how it was arranged.  I say finding, because here the fridge is designed to look like the rest of your cabinets.  Being covered with the same material all the other cabinets in your kitchen are.  What surprised me the most was how many refrigerators did not have freezers.  Or had a freezer so small you could barely fit a box of ice cream in it.  Anni tells me most people who had those would have a larger freezer in their basement.  Neither one of us want to buy another appliance though.  And having a frozen pizza in the fridge from time to time would be nice.  Hopefully in the next week or so we will have made a selection and I can post some pictures of what it might look like.

The place we are moving into is actually being remodeled right now.  If it wasn’t we might have been left with a kitchen from the previous tenant.  That also means the flooring and walls are all getting redone.  Along with the insulation and many other things.  Besides looking at kitchen’s today we also choose two different types of flooring to go with.  Both are a laminate wood floor and light in color.  I think the one we will ask to be installed is called apple tree.  The store had it installed and I like how it felt to walk on.  I’ve never lived somewhere with this kind of flooring installed, but I like the idea of not having carpet anymore.  It seems so much easier to clean and maintain.  Hopefully I’ll continue to be happy with our choice after it is installed.

Before they can put down the flooring we have to remove the wall paper from the concrete walls.  We bought this wicked looking spiked roller for that.  The plan is to spend tomorrow afternoon scraping.  I’ll upload some pictures.

Anni’s parents have started a small building project in their back yard.  It was time for a new garden shed since the little one room shed they have now is overflowing with things.  Last year the building site changed a little on each visit.  Once it was a hole for a concrete foundation to be poured into.  Then the concrete was there along with the new paving stone sidewalk.  So far everything was exactly what I was familiar with from building similar things in the United States.

When I got here last week the walls had been built and the lumber for the roof ordered.  I have never seen building blocks like these.  There are like solid concrete blocks, but very light.  I can easily pick a brick up with one hand.  The material is porous which contributes to the light weight.  Yet it holds up very well with materials stacked upon it.  You can see an example of a block holding the center beam for the future roof.  In the middle picture you can see the building as of last weekend.  There are three wooden beams resting upon the previously completed walls.  These are anchored into the concrete forming the top edge of the wall with some continuous thread bar.  To the right you can see the beams the roof will sit on.  I think the room will be made of tiles and the white walls will be covered with bricks.  I’ll post more pictures as the building gets completed.

Some of you have asked about which German beer I have been drinking.  In the far right picture you can see the bottle I had with dinner.  It is a Flensburger Pilsener.  I like their bottles because when you flip the metal clasp the bottom makes a “plopp” sound.  And of course the beer is good too.  I also tried mixing some beer with Sprite which is common here.  I actually liked it, but I don’t think I’ll make a habit of mixing Sprite in my beer.  It still seems unnatural.