Egyptian Goddess in Germany

Yesterday, we used our new car to explore still unknown corners of our surroundings. The short trip took us to a ‘Bergtierpark’ (a small zoo with animals living in different mountain areas of the world) some 40 km away from Mannheim. Perhaps one of the strangest inhabitants there was this ‘zonkey’ (in German: ‘Zebresel’), a crossbreed between a zebra and a donkey.

For those who can’t believe it: Just google ‘zonkey’ (or zebrass, zebronkey, zeedonk, zedonk, zebadonk, zenkey, zebrinny, or deebra).

But there were also conventional animals, such as a baby donkey and some kangaroos.

As you can imagine, we had a lot of fun. Although (or because?) it seemed we were the only couple without kids. ‘No, DON’T eat this! It’s animal food, not kid’s food.’ - ‘Benjamin, don’t push the goat, please!’…

Yesterday morning when we woke up and pulled up the shutters, I saw two big fire engines in front of our house. ‘Cool, seems as if something exciting is going on in our neighbourhood!’

Then I spotted a group of spectators who were all looking up and pointing to OUR roof.

At second glance I then discovered what had happened: Apparently, the storm last night had loosened a tile on the roof which had then crashed down on the sidewalk, fragmenting into a thousand pieces (and luckily enough not killing anyone). Now the fire men were busy trying to safely get down two more tiles which were lying at the edge of the roof, about to fall down as well. Quite funny to watch such a large scale operation involving eight firemen just bringing down two tiles. Gives you the impression that you are living in a very safe country.

Yesterday morning I was walking to work when a police woman, standing next to her parked car and a parking meter, addressed me:

‘Excuse me, could you maybe break a ten Euro note? A five Euro note and a few coins would be great.’

I dug up my purse from my hand bag and handed her a five Euro note as well as five Euros in coins.

‘Oh, thank you so much, that’s lovely… I just don’t want to get a ticket again!’

:-)

For his 60^th birthday, my dad got a tour with a ‘Draisine’ (handcar) from my mum, my brother and me as a present. As my dad will turn 65 this year, my mom and I decided last year that it was high time for us to finally deliver what we had promised. So we checked for a place where you can rent one of those handcars to travel on old railway tracks which are not used any more by the German railway. A place not too far away from Mannheim was found pretty quickly, but our disappointment was big: All handcars had already been booked for every single weekend of the whole 2006 season! So we decided to be earlier this year and enquired again in January. –Just to discover that every single handcar had already been booked for every single weekend apart from two Sundays. Of course we did not hesitate and booked one of those funny handcars and last Sunday our present was finally redeemed!

Our trip with the cycle handcar (sounds a bit contradictory, doesn’t it?) took us from Staudernheim, a tiny village somewhere in the palatinate, to Lauterecken, another tiny town somewhere in the Palatinate. It was a great trip, different from the usual weekend bicycle trip. Certainly something worth to be repeated, so I think I will try to book again tomorrow to make sure that our second trip takes place before 2009…

On the road, uhm… track again!

The king of the railway tracks

The sign says ‘club provisions’

On 24th June, the day that the German national team beat Sweden 2:0 and secured its way into the quarter finales, we were in Kaiserslautern to watch the match on a big screen. As one of the places where the world cup matches take place, the town has become a very colourful and international place where you can meet all types of people from all over the world at any time of the day or night.

Right after our arrival some football players welcomed us. Unfortunately they were rather uncommunicative and not really willing to give autographs…

All over the town there’s always something going on. You can even spot some crazy guys riding on cheeky emus which continously try to steal cake from innocent old women sitting outside and having coffee.

All along the ‘Fanmeile’ (fan mile) you can buy accessories from your favourite team, may it be Brazil or Trinidad and Tobago. Of course you also get small culinary delights from the different corners of the world.

At 17.00 we went to one of the two big screens to watch the match together with thousands and thousands of other fans. We even spotted one (!) Swedish supporter! He probably left after the first 12 minutes of the match…

We watched the match together with Kristina and Steffen, two friends whom we hadn’t met for more than half a year. It was great to see them again!

We had fun!

In May we had the chance to see our German national team in Mannheim while playing against the FSV Luckenwalde, a team playing in the ‘Verbandsliga’ (union league) somewhere in eastern Germany.

Our ‘Nummer 2′ (number 2) while warming up.
The ‘Klinsmann Elf’ (Klinsmann Eleven) practising their moves.

We had nice seats. 4th row behind one of the goals. According to eyewitness reports, we also made it on TV (hopefully not while doing something stupid).

The game was well contested by FSV Luckenwalde but the national team gently pushed them out of the contest with a 7:0 thrashing.
“It’s coming home…”

Steffen and Selket for the first time during their year at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, Scotland. Now - more than 3 years later - Steffen was doing a 3 month training at Karlsruhe before going back to Oslo and beginning his work with Siemens. He came over over a weekend and we decided to walk through Heidelberg…

A stop over at a Café before the conquest of the Castle…

The Elizabethan Gate at the Castle.
This gate was a birthday gift from the young prince elector of Heidelberg, Friedrich V, to his young and beautiful wife, Elizabeth Stuart, the daughter of King James I of England, and the granddaughter of Mary, Queen of Scots.

The oldest House of Heidelberg, now a Hotel. This house belonged to a French man and therefore was the only structure not destroyed by the French at the end of the 17th century.

The sheep also have some fun in the green environs of the castle.

It is the quintessential way to celebrate something in Germany during Summer. It is also apparently the easiest way to invite friends over – no one likes missing a good BBQ! It is my first BBQ and this one is initiated by Selket to celebrate my coming (moving!) to Germany . The crowd of friends eventually assembled included several friends of Selket from University and even High School.