Tage Wie Diese (Days Like These)

Each time that I've relocated over the past few years I've gotten sentimental when leaving (yes Louise, it's difficult). Stuttgart's no different and, in some ways, it's been a bit harder than usual.

Now that I'm back in Philadelphia, and having lots of time to reflect on my experiences in Germany, I've concluded that the weather, food (except for maybe the wine), and the views are not the reason to live in Stuttgart. :-) The reality is that, even though I've met and spent time with some pretty awesome folks over the years in Japan, Spain, Colombia, the United States, and lots of other places along the way, something is different this time - probably 80+ percent of my memories are about "just" the people as opposed to the sights, etc. The folks I got to know in Germany made it, unexpectedly, one of the best experiences I've had.

I started writing out a big-ole'-list of people to thank but I'm too afraid to leave someone out so I ain't doin' it. Instead, I went through all of the more-than 10,000 photos I took and selected about 80 or so that show both the people I spent my time with and the great times we had. The result is the slideshow video below.

The song I chose for the video is called "Tage Wie Diese" (Days Like These) and is by the old German punk/alternative band "The Toten Hosen" (The Dead Pants). The song's basic story is classic guy-meets-girl. Their time together is so amazing that he (the singer) doesn't want it to end. The refrain (with English translation below):

An Tagen wie diesen, wünscht man sich Unendlichkeit.

An Tagen wie diesen, haben wir noch ewig Zeit

In dieser Nacht der Nächte, die uns so viel verspricht

Erleben wir das Beste, kein Ende in Sicht.

On days like these, you wish it would never end

On days like these, we still have all the time in the world

On this night of nights, which promises us so much

We’re experiencing the best, no end in sight.

To the amazing people that I met and spent time with in Germany, vielen Dank für alles! Ich werde euch vermissen. Wir sehen uns bald wieder, hoffe ich. Kein Ende in Sicht!

Thanks to Fabiola from my German classes for (unknowingly) introducing me to the Toten Hosen and, especially, to this song.

Local Stuttgart Wine - Spätburgunder

Today's post is about something that's very close to my heart: WINE!!! Woohoo!

Before moving to Germany, my opinion of German wines was, well, not too good. The reality, though, was that I didn't ever have much of it but what I did try was too sweet for my taste, which tends towards very dry reds and whites. I usually tell people that I want to be more thirsty after drinking the wine than I was when I started!

Living in both California and Spain has given me the opportunity to try lots of different wines and my favorites for sure are Pinot Noir (mostly California) and Pinot Grigio (mostly Italy). I even wrote a homage to California Pinot Noir a while back! When I got to Stuttgart I was surprised to find vineyards lining the hills around the city so I immediately set to work figuring out what the local wines were and making sure to.Try.Every.Single.One...

The two common wines from the Baden Württemberg area are Trollinger and Lemberger. They are available at pretty much every restaurant and festival including the annual Stuttgarter Weindorf.

A bottle of Lemberger and another of a Dornfelder/Spätburgunder blend:

The most common local wine is called Trollinger, which is a dark-red wine that's often used in wine blending.  It's (just) okay in my opinion, in other words, there are better. Lemberger, the other, in my non-technical-wine-vocabulary view, is one of those multipurpose wines that can range from sweeter to dryer, hearty to light, and so on. I've tried quite a few and really am not a fan.

Don't think that it's all doom and gloom at southern-Germany wine tastings though. Quite the opposite! What I found, quite by accident when my roommate brought home a bottle that had been given to him as a gift, is called Spätburgunder:

Spätburgunder is a Pinot Noir grown in Germany. Like the California Pinot Noirs that I love, love, love, Spätburgunder is now among the wines at the top of my list. The four bottles above range in price from around 5 euros (~$7 U.S.) up to around 9 euros or so. It's not expensive but it sure is oh-so-good! Oh, and the second from the left, a Pinot Noir from the Collegium Württemburg winery (see this story I wrote for photos from their winery) is now one of my two or three favorite wines for under $10.

So, what have we learned? Well, yes, German wines, are, on average, still a bit sweet for my taste but I'm no longer hesitant to check out the German section at the store and neither should you. On your next trip to Trader Joes, take a look for some Stuttgart-area Spätburgunder, buy a bottle, and have a drink for me! You won't be sorry!

Why Germans Are Cleaner Than You: Kehrwoche

If you were to travel across the United States, you'd find some pretty big differences in cultures as you go. Think of the difference, for example, between "deep in the heart of Texas" versus what's in New York City. Those types of differences exist in Spain and Germany as well. Barcelona is culturally different from Madrid and Stuttgart's different from Hamburg. I love looking for and learning about those types of differences and how they represent or even define a culture.

So, you're living in an apartment building in Stuttgart and you come home one day and someone's hung a small sign outside your front door:

You probably'd ask yourself who'd hang decorations by your front door? When you get closer, though, you notice that the sign says Kehrwoche and has a broom on it:

What the hell is Kehrwoche and why has someone hung it outside your door?

Well, it might be helpful to understand a little bit more about the southern Germany area. Stuttgart, as you may already know, is located in the southwestern-most state (Baden Württemburg) of Germany. The people from the area, as well as from a small slice of western Bavaria, are called the Schwaben. Similar to the Catalans in Spain, the Schwaben have a different cultural identity but, unlike the Catalans, they speak the same language as the rest of the country day-to-day (although with a different, sometimes hard to understand, dialect) and are not considering, as far as I know, separatism. The Schwaben have lived in the region for about two thousand years and have been formally recognized since around 500.

Okay, back to Kehrwoche. At some point in the middle ages, someone decided that people weren't doing a good enough job cleaning up after themselves. It was decreed that everyone must toss their crap (sometimes literally) out regularly. Thus began the tradition of Kehrwoche, which can be roughly translated to "sweep week".

Another Kehrwoche sign:

If you've been to Germany, or even know some Germans, you already know that they are an incredibly orderly and clean people. But, I guess weren't always so! So, how does the modern-day Kehrwoche work? There are actually two versions, just to add to the confusion: große ("gross" meaning large) Kehrwoche and kleine (small) Kehrwoche but they are both based on the same idea.

A große Kehrwoche sign:

During kleine Kehrwoche, you're responsible for cleaning the common areas outside your and your neighbors' apartments including any stairways. It's usually limited to your floor and maybe one more below you. When you get große Kehrwoche, you'll have the honor of not only doing your kleine-Kehrwoche inside work, but also for keeping up on the outside cleaning. The term is for one week (the entire week) during which time you must keep everything clean, including shoveling any snow, or suffer the scorn and dirty looks of your beloved neighbors.

Some Kehrwoche signs (photo taken) by my friend Timo at his building:

Not performing your Kehrwoche duties isn't just considered antisocial, it's probably also a violation of your rental agreement since it's written into almost all rental agreements. So, what's the cultural connection, you ask? You'd really have to spend some time here to fully understand but Kehrwoche is such a good metaphor for describing the Schwaben people. They're very orderly, clean, and don't want any problems or misunderstandings. Having personal responsibility documented in the form of Kehrwoche makes them surprisingly happy.

A classy Kehrwoche sign photographed by Timo:

While I was living in Barcelona, I found that the Castellers embodied many parts of Catalan culture. It interested me so much that I ended up joining the Castellers del Poble Sec. In the case of the Schwaben culture, I'm interested in their local wines but not so much in Kehrwoche! I don't think I'll be joining any Kehrwoche groups, in other words, but if I find a wine-drinking group, watch out!

Thanks to Timo for the two photos!

Stuttgart's First Snow

My most recent post was basically just a photo show of Vaihingen, the neighborhood of Stuttgart where I live. As coincidence would have it, the day I posted that story, last Saturday, was the day Stuttgart got its first snow of the year. It wasn't a very big storm, maybe four-or-five inches (10 cm) or so, but it was enough that I went around and took some photos, so, yes, more photos of the 'hood!

An old Fachwerkhaus a few houses away:

It's mostly fall-like here but it's been getting colder. Our neighbors still have tomatoes ripening on the vines outside our kitchen window and the rose bushes still have some flowers on them:

Around the corner, there's an apple tree that's loaded with fruit. Just like when I lived in California and didn't eat most of the oranges on my orange tree, the folks here are about 50/50 when it comes to picking the fruit off the trees.

What I believe to be a Japanese maple tree across the street. I love the bright-red color contrasted with the snow and green building:

A random street on the way to the supermarket in the center of Vaihingen:

It was still pretty early in the storm so there's not a lot of snow so far when these were taken. A scene from the smallish Saturday-morning farmers' market:

The snow really started to accumulate as the sun went down and the temps dropped. I considered going out to take photos for about an hour or so but had a hard time getting the energy up to leave the nice warm house. I'm glad I did though as the photos are pretty nice. A view down my block:

Every time I walk to the metro, I pass a red bicycle that's been locked to a street sign pole. The bike's been there every day that I've lived here with the exception of about a month or so at the end of summer when it was gone. I honestly figured that someone finally stole it (as easy as lifting it over the top of the pole) or just got tired of it being there. Well, I guess not because it came back one day.

The whole thing reminds me of a bicycle that showed up one day in the backyard of my friend Andrew's house. He started taking photos of it every few days to document it. I haven't gotten that inspired but I do wonder whose bike it is and why it's left there day after day. Is it possibly used only for a once-a-year vacation?

A couple of trains passing in the night:

Vaihingen is located up on a plateau on the southwest corner of the city of Stuttgart. The photo below shows the start of the valley, just beyond the metro station, that runs down to the center of town. If you look carefully, there's a tall structure almost at the left edge of the horizon. That's one of the buildings at the university where Diana's been doing her research project.

We're "fortunate enough" to live downstairs from our landlord. He's married and has a couple of early-teen daughters that are still of the "we-can-play-in-the-snow-and-have-fun" age where they can make a snowman for everyone to enjoy:

Batten down the hatches - I think winter's-a-comin'!

Vaihingen (Stuttgart)

One of the original reasons why I started this blog was to be able to share with my family and friends about my life, where I am at any given moment, and what it all looks like. Today's post is simply sharing some of the images from Vaihingen, which is the neighborhood in Stuttgart where I'm living. These photos have been taken over several months and give you an idea of what the architecture of the neighborhood looks like. As much as possible, I've tried to include people in the photos but it's tough as the neighborhood is somewhat suburban and finding people walking around during the day can be difficult.

Vaihingen, pronounced roughly "fie'ng-gen" with a small pause after the "e" and before the "n", is a neighborhood in the southwest corner of the city of Stuttgart. They say that it has a population just under 50,000 but I have no idea where all the people hide (it's exceptionally quiet here). It's home to Stuttgart's largest university, the Universität Stuttgart, which is the reason why we chose to live in this area. For people from the United States, Vaihingen might be known as the home of the Patch Barracks, which serves as the headquarters for the U.S. European, African, and Special Forces (Europe) command. Actually, it's pretty amazing how many Americans there are around here. I could have gone weeks in Spain without hearing an American accent!

A view up the street I live on and, yes, it rains here quite a bit:

I took a lot of these photos walking to and from the center of Vaihingen where the supermarket and other stores are. Some multi-family houses:

There's quite a bit of different architectural styles in the neighborhood partly owing to the fact that it's over 500 (!!!) years old. It's mostly multi-family houses with some apartment buildings and a few, older, single-family houses. While reading about Vaihingen for this story, I came across one old document from the early 1800s that talks about how it's about 1 1/2 hours away from Stuttgart. I laughed because it's probably more like ten minutes away with modern transportation. A little father down the same street as the photo above:

A grade school and the town church on the left. The school reminds me of the "old" building at my grade school in Philadelphia as they were both built post World War II and have a similar style.

The street below runs between the church in the photo above and the Rathaus (city hall) and has a few older, half-timber houses like the one on the right:

The other end of the above street where it ends at a pedestrian-only plaza in front of the Rathaus (behind me in this photo):

These two old houses are located right on the Rathaus plaza. The brown and white one was built in 1556 and the one on the right, which is now a Turkish restaurant, is much newer, from 1586:

The Rathaus and Rathaus plaza as seen from across the street (the two houses in the photo above are to the left of the Rathaus in this photo):

This area serves as an informal town center as it's surrounded by lots of little shops and is anchored by the modern Schwaben Galarie mall. The weekly farmers' market is held in Rathaus plaza. The above photo was taken in front of the Schwaben Galarie, which where the supermarket is:

The rest of these photos are taken at random locations in the center of Vaihingen. Just to the right and out of the frame of this picture is one of the Holocaust-memorial Stolperstein locations that I wrote about not too long ago.

More older buildings down the street from the Rathaus:

I'm not sure if this house is very old, I'm guessing it is, but I like it either way:

An unusual but cool brick house a few blocks away from the Rathaus towards the university:

This building is from 1756 and is, I think, an amazing German Fachwerk, or half-timbered, building:

Some more older buildings. I have no idea what the wood tower was/is for. You'd never know that this street is one block from the super-modern, multistory Schwaben Galarie:

It's not quite as crowded or exciting as Barcelona and the weather's not quite as good as California, but Vaihingen is a pretty cool place to happen to end up living. I hope you enjoyed the tour!

Krautfest

If the way to a man's heart is through his stomach, then I believe the way to understand a culture, in addition to learning the language, is to go to as many local festivals as possible. I recently went to the Markgrönigen Schäferlauf, which is a shepherd-themed festival and definitely the best German one that I've been to so far. Since then, I've been on the hunt for more like it. Well, about two weeks or so ago, my roommate told me about a local Krautfest. What? A festival about kraut, as in sauerkraut? That would rock for sure.

The Filderkrautfest happens every October and celebrates the area's agricultural heritage and as well as the Filderkraut (Filder = the large agricultural plateau south of Stuttgart city and kraut = cabbage). Before this, I always thought that "kraut" meant "sauerkraut" and didn't know that that sauerkraut is just one way to prepare a "Kraut", or cabbage.  The pointy cabbage that's in all the photos is called a Spitzkohl, which means, yes, "pointy cabbage". The two-day festival happens in the twin-villages of Leinfelden and Echterdingen, which are cute little towns about a 1/2 hour south of the center of Stuttgart near the airport.

As with the Schäferlauf, there were a bunch of different activities planned during the weekend including the celebration of the festival king and queen. Below is the Krautkönigin (kraut queen), the Krautkönig (kraut king), and a local Bierkönigin (or beer queen). I'm not sure why, but the Krautkönigin and König remind me a little of my friends from Oceanside - Chuck and Gail. Maybe it's the beard but, in spite of their not-overly-excited looks in this photo, seemed to be a pretty rockin' choice. Oh, and I'm guessing that the Bierkönigin was chosen as a way to celebrate her recently-completed M.I.T. PhD.

Oh, you might notice that the photo above is leaps and bounds better in quality than my normal photos. That's because it's not mine but rather my friend Armando's, who's actually a pro. More about that in a bit.

As opposed to the disappointing Pretzelfest from earlier this year, the Krautfest had plenty of its namesake items available. Every other booth seemed to be selling at least one kraut-related food item. These folks are cooking up Krautschupfnudeln, a local kraut-and-pasta combo in giant woks. I love the pasta that they use in the dish and think it's a great combo.

Berat talked about Krautkuchen (kraut cake) during the two weeks leading up to the fest so the four of us stopped and picked up a piece to split. It was surprisingly good and way better IMO than the similar onion cake that they make here but that could be just because I HATE onions!

I think that the surprise of the day was seeing this booth for the York Pennsylvania Leinfelden Echterdingen Club. How random and crazy is it that there's a club for folks from York, which is not too far from where I grew up in Philadelphia, and folks from the Stuttgart area? Oh, and by the way, they were selling doughnuts for some reason.

There were two events the day we were there that I wanted to see. The first was a kraut weigh in of some local politicians. They assembled a large balance in the plaza in front of the Rathaus (city hall) and had the mayor, the governor of Baden Würtemberg and another guy who I didn't know on one side. Firemen then loaded the other side with Filderkräuter. It took 67 cabbages to equal the weight of three politicians. I'm not sure if that's good or bad. It did remind me of the scene in Monty Python's The Holy Grail where they compared a woman's weight to a duck and, when she was the same, decided to burn her for being a witch. These guys seemed to get off easy by just signing some of the cabbages, which were then sold off auction style to people in the crowd to raise money for a local school.

The next big event of the day was billed as the The World Kraut Pentathlon. This Olympic-style event pits teams of three against each other in five kraut-themed events including the kraut (running) relay race and the kraut sled race:

The final event was involved holding a Filderkraut at arms length for as long as possible. It took about three or four minutes for the last contestant (far left in the photo below) to put down his arm but only after he took a big swallow of beer from the glass of one of his teammates.

Yes, that's another of Armando's photos. I need him to show me a thing or two for sure!

Diana and I recreated the challenge. Next year we're hoping to compete against Stuttgart's finest.

So, by now, you're probably familiar with our roommate Berat but who's this Armando guy? Believe it or not, I met him through this blog. During the summer, Armando decided that he wanted to leave his native Guatemala and study German in Stuttgart. Being the modern fellow he is, he googled for German schools in the area and my post about my German classes was the first result (who'd have known?). He told me that he read my stories for a couple of hours and then wrote to me. We quickly became friends and planned on meeting once he got here, which we've done a few times. I've met others through the blog but Armando's the first that I've ended up hanging out for more than a short time and it's been great. As I mentioned above, Armando's quite the photographer. You should check out his site as well as his travel photos (under "Viajes"). Probably my favorites are his recent visit to Dachau.

Family photo from the Leinfelden-Echterdingen Filderkrautfest:

...and, of course, the mandatory self portrait:

Thanks to Berat for telling us about the festival and to both him and Armando for coming along and making it such a fun-filled, culturally-interesting day!

(Not) Oktoberfest - Cannstatter Volksfest

I think that I've clearly and frequently enough announced that I don't like beer. I don't like the smell. I don't like the taste. Yes, I've tried everyone of those beers that people say "oh, this one's different, it's:

chocolate/coffee/pumpkin/micro-brew/dark/light/white/Guinness/wheat/shoe leather/whatever-flavored

so it's good - you'll like it". Well, I'm sorry. I still just don't do beer.

Due to this "defect" of character, it's probably not necessary to mention that Germany's annual beer-drinking Lovefest, Oktoberfest, isn't really very high up on my bucket list. I'm sure that a visit to Munich to worship at the drunken altar of beer worship is on your list, but, alas, I won't be going this year. But...........I was interested in going to Stuttgart's own version of Oktoberfest, the Cannstatter Volksfest. Hell, it's local, it's one of the city's biggest events of the year, and, best of all, it's freeeeeeeee!

Just when you though leather pants were only for gay dudes in the Castro, you've got TONS of them right here in southern Germany. Actually, here, they're the new cool. Look at this photo below and notice how many dudes are in leather shorts with suspenders AND how many dudes are cruising around arm-in-arm with two cute chicks. Yep, exactly one. He's the shit!

Just like its big brother in Munich, people come together at the Volksfest to drink beer, people watch, drink beer, eat chicken, drink beer, go on carnival rides, drink beer, and hang out with friends.

While we're talking about it, the "traditional" clothing, Lederhosen for the guys and Dirndls for the ladies, is originally from nearby Bayern, which is the state where Munich is located. From what I understand, it became (much) more fashionable in Stuttgart to wear the trad duds over the last four or five years because the beer tents were getting too full. The event organizers decided to put a rule in place where you could either make a reservation for a table or you could wear the traditional clothing. Without one or the other, or both, there was no getting in to the event. What's a beer drinker to do, right?

Some traditionally clothed guys outside one of the beer halls at the Wasen (Schwäbian-German for "meadow" from the days when the event was held in an open field):

The outfits have gotten so popular that you can even buy a Dirndl at the local Kaufland supermarket for 50 Euros (~$65 U.S.). Diana modeling what's hot:

My first visit to this year's Volksfest was on the first Saturday night of the two-week-long event with Diana, Ying from my German class (center below), her husband (red jacket), and a couple of their other friends. I'm quite proud of my self-portrait photo skills now that I can fit SIX people in the photo and have it turn out fairly well:

So, you might ask, was the most interesting thing that I saw that night, other than guys in leather pants and chicks with their cleavage pouring out of the top of their Dirndls? How about ketchup, mayo, and mustard dispensers that seem to have been based on dairy cows? Oh, and note that they use Pennsylvania's own Heinz!

Oh, so back to the title of this story. Oktoberfest, like Champagne or Superbowl, is a trademarked name that can only be used by the owner. So that's why you have names like Cava, "The Big Game", or, in this case, "Volksfest" when everyone really knows what you mean but you can't say it. People in Stuttgart are very proud of "our fall festival that takes place at the same time where people drink the same beer and eat the same food" and I think they should be. They've done a nice job putting together an event that people enjoy and the area can be proud of.

Speaking of things with names different from the commonly used one, each day the big beer companies have their horse teams on display in front of their respective beer hall. These horses, often called Clydesdales (but in this case called Kaltblüter or, in English, Draft Horse) were used for many years to transport the breweries' beer around town.

I went with people from my German class to the fair on our last day of level B1. One of the guys, João from Brazil, is a horse guy back home. I know that every day of his six months in Germany he missed his horses so I think he was the happiest one of the group to get his photo with the horses.

By the way, João is one of the "German savants" from our classes. Some of the people in the class have been able to kick ass with learning the language. While I'm pulling my hair out struggling with how to say "nice to meet you" or something simple like that, people like João and Alex (in the photo below) are joking in the local Schwäbische Dialekte.

Bumper-car action at the 2012 Stuttgart Volksfest with peeps from class:

After our bumper car rides, we went for some well-deserved drinks at the Dinkelacker beer hall. The hall is probably about 400 feet long and 200 feet wide with maybe 26,000 tables inside. They've got a big stage along one of the long walls where a traditionally-dressed band was playing classic-rock tracks. I was hoping for some trad Oom-pah music that would go along with the band's look or something but apparently this is what you get on a Monday afternoon. There were still way-too-drunk people dancing on the tables, which, along with the company, made it quite entertaining.

Some of my classmates celebrating the successful end to another class. João and Alex who shame me with their German abilities, Ying (or at least half of her), whose German is at about the same level as mine, and another friend of hers waiting for our first round:

Even though I'm not a beer drinker, Volksfest was quite fun. Now that it's pretty much over, next up on the must-do-festival list is the Weihnachtsmarkt, which is the annual outdoor Christmas market in the city center. I am verrrrrrrrrry afraid of how cold it'll be as it's been over 20 years since I've had a real winter!

One last thing, I don't really have any other place to put this so it'll go here. Our roommate went to the real Oktoberfest in Munich on its opening day a couple of weeks ago. He's such a rockin' guy that he bought and brought home all the required ingredients for a nice, traditional, Münchener breakfast. Oh, and he even cooked and served it for us! Love! And yes, I did try the Weißbier - white beer - and it wasn't that bad - could it be the start of something???

Happy Oktober from Stuttgart from our family to yours!

(Thanks to Berat and Katharina for the history lessons.)