Category: Die Deutsche Leben

The S.O. and I went to the Fasching parade today. Fasching is carnival season. Originally it was a Pagan festival which came out of ancient Rome or Greece. In recent centuries, however, it has become more associated with the Christian Church. Officially the season starts on 11th November at 11:11am, although I’ve no idea why. It… Continue reading Fasching

Phil: You want a prediction about the weather, you're asking the wrong Phil. I'll give you a winter prediction: It's gonna be cold, it's gonna be grey, and it's gonna last you for the rest of your life.   Morning temperature in Stuttgart tomorrow? 16 degrees F. How the hell did these people spend a… Continue reading The damn rat saw his shadow!

Still have not got my car fixed-the body shop is waiting for all the parts to come in. SInce they are billing my insurance company directly and thus reducing any out of pocket expense by me-I really can't complain. Except for the fact its supposed to hover around 10 degrees this weekend, clear-but cold. For… Continue reading Next time-I’m taking the train.

Or at least the supporters of the Syrians. The S.O. and I decided to go into Stuttgart yesterday. We went to the Mercedes Museum and the Landesmuseum of Baden Wurtemburg. The S.O. was not much of a fan of the Mercedes museum-it seems mega Euro sports cars are not her thing, but I thought it was… Continue reading Saturday with the Syrians….

I took these pictures back when we moved in. It was better weather then-now the skies here are mostly gray-in the brief 7.5 hours we have daylight between about 7:50 AM and 4:30pm or so. But it is a nice view to wake up to or see when you can:     And the view… Continue reading The view from my window.

Just got done watching a rather huge display of fireworks from our balcony. Seems everyone in ours and all the surrounding villages had fireworks to light off. It was really amazing-and unexpected. Happy New Year-Zwei Tausend Zwoelf!

A quiet Christmas was had by the S.O. and yours truly at Gasthaus Skippy. We got out oven to work reasonably well and I made a ham-and potatoes, salad, and a nice wine to top things off. I also found some time to work on the science project a bit-but in the New Year, I… Continue reading Happy Boxing Day!

Today is Christmas Eve. Im Deutsch they call it Heilige Abend. Here in Stuttgart we discovered a few new things: 1) EVERYTHING shuts down at 2PM. We were out at Breunigerland shopping mall, and a store person came up to me when I least expected it, “Entshuldigung, wir schliessen.” (Excuse me we are closing). Within… Continue reading Heilige Abend

Got back from Israel-late but none the worse for wear. The storms in Europe delayed departures out of Istanbul, but luckily enough for me, I did not get strip searched going through Israeli security. They actually do things differently than our TSA brethern-and while you go through a lot of check points, the line was… Continue reading Life in the slow lane.

It would seem the Leute have gesphrochen: The people of Baden-Württemberg have spoken: In a referendum on Sunday voters backed state funding for the controversial €4.5-billion Stuttgart 21 rail project. 58% of voters voted in favor of the project-ensuring it would go forward. The opponents wasted no time updating their signs today. As I was… Continue reading The Ja’s have it!