So, to make a long story short, it was a great trip. After booking the airfare both my dad and I confided in each other that Germany was actually nowhere near the top of either of our travel wish-lists and that we both would have probably preferred to go somewhere else. Despite that, we both loved Germany and the other places we went as well. I was actually surprised at how much I enjoyed Germany. Here are some of the things I liked about Germany in general:
- Carbon Conscious - One of the very first things I saw after arriving in Germany was vast fields of flaxseed and windmills. Flaxseed is used to produce biodiesel and Germany is one of the world's leaders in biodiesel production and consumption. I think I read somewhere that most (all?) diesel sold in Germany has some blend of biodiesel and higher blends are readily available. In our few days driving around in the car we saw many gas stations offering biodiesel, and it was always the cheapest offering too (probably thanks to government subsidies). Gasoline in general is quite expensive though (approximately $5/gallon) which I actually think is a good thing because I think it probably makes people drive less. But expensive gas isn't the only thing that helps remind Germans of the carbon their cars emit; new cars sold in Europe all seem to include a carbon-emissions figure on the sticker right along with the gas mileage and the horsepower. In general Germans and other Europeans just seem to be more aware of the impact their activities have on the planet and I like that very much.
- Cars - Because it is expensive to own a car and difficult to park it, there just don't seem to be quite as many cars as in the US, but there are a lot more cool cars. I think per-capita there are more Bimmers, Benzes, Audis, and Porsches there than there are Fords, Chevys, and Toyotas here. On this trip I also saw several very special cars which I will probably never see again for the rest of my life. So the car-watching is quite a bit better there, but even the more plain-jane cars there are better. Small and efficient is the name of the game rather than big and bulky like here.
- Public Transportation - As cool as the cars are, Dad and I were happy to return our rental car and go back to the fantastic public transportation. Between the trains, trams, buses, and subways we easily, cheaply, and comfortably got everywhere we needed to go. Actually, it was the 3-hour trek between DIA and Dad's house in Berthoud that was the hardest part. On a slightly unrelated note, German tram drivers have some pretty good bus-driver waves, but since they don't have to steer they seem to have a broader range of wave possibilities, but that's another blog...
- Laissez-Faire - I've written and re-written this bullet three times now and I just don't know how to articulate it, but the basic idea is that Germans are pretty laid-back. Yeah, I'll just leave it at that.
- Berlin - I loved Berlin and if I only spoke German I would love to live there for awhile. It is a pretty big city, but it has lots of neat little old neighborhoods scattered throughout the city, each with its own distinct flavor. Although the wall came down nearly 2 decades ago and the city has for the most part integrated itself back together pretty seamlessly, I still found the history and the legacy of the wall to be quite fascinating. I'm not sure if I liked Berlin or Munich better, but Berlin might be the favorite by just the slimmest margin. I do think though that where I would describe Munich with words like "lovely" and "laid-back," I would describe Berlin with words like "interesting" and "vibrant."
- Munich - With its attractive old town, English Garden, efficient public transportation, pretty Isar River, and most important, its fantastic beer gardens, Munich is a real gem. And its proximity to the Alps means skiing probably isn't too far away from here either. Hmm, maybe I'll have to re-think putting Berlin in first place.
- Budapest - Budapest certainly lacked the aesthetic beauty of Munich and the vibrancy of Berlin, but it had a character all its own which I enjoyed. I wrote in a previous entry that Budapest was "gritty" and had sort of an Eastern-Bloc feel to it, and I guess still haven't thought of a better way to describe it. I guess none of those descriptors make it sound very good, but somehow I really liked it. I also felt like the Hungarians were some of the nicer people that we came across on the whole trip, and I was also pretty intrigued by the Hungarian language which is a pretty crazy language with no close linguistic relatives. Finally, Budapest has several big thermal pools, one of which we visited and it was very pleasant. It was sort of like Glenwood Springs pool, only less stinky, more elegant, and with slightly more good-looking people.
- Driving - The driving portion of our trip was fun not just for the actual driving (curvy narrow roads and fast-paced autobahn), but also for all the quaint German countryside that we got to see.
- M.C. Escher Museum (The Hague) - I knew that I liked Escher before going to this museum in The Hague, Netherlands (who doesn't like Escher?), but I gained a new appreciation for his art after seeing this museum. I hadn't realized that much of his work was done with wood block carvings, which kind of blew my mind. I also got to see a lot of his pieces which I had never seen before. He must have been a real genius. I bet he was good at puzzles too. I bet he kicked ass at scrabble too. We also went to the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam which also made me better appreciate Van Gogh, but not as much as Escher.
- Mercedes-Benz Museum (Stuttgart) - I'm not really a big fan of Mercedes-Benz because I'm pretty sure they haven't sold a car with a manual transmission in the United States for several decades now, but despite that I loved their huge, fancy museum full of millions of dollars of old, rare, and one-of-a-kind cars. Dad and I went about two hours before closing when we got to Stuttgart and only managed to see about half of it, so I had to go back the next day to finish it. The best part, however, was the buses on display. They had a big fancy new one, but you couldn't sit in the driver's seat unfortunately. Luckily they had another older bus in which you COULD sit in the drivers seat. So I waited for all the other little kids to hurry up and get out of it so I could have my turn at the helm and boy was it worth it. They also had a sweet video of a bus doing 360's on a sheet of ice doing ABS brake testing or something. It looked so fun, I hope I don't accidentally try it someday...
- Audi Factory (Ingolstadt) - Audi also had a museum that looked suspiciously similar to the Mercedes museum, but it wasn't nearly as good. Audi DID have a factory tour though which was very interesting despite our lackluster tour guide. It was neat to see the whole process of assembling the car and seeing the big robots deftly maneuver themselves through their confined workspaces, not seeming to care about all the things that they almost collide with as they run through their programmed motions. I think the most important thing that I got from the tour, however, was the realization that everything is infinitely connected. When you go buy a car from a car dealer, it seems very simple, but then you get thinking of every single part on that car, thousands of parts, each of which had to be assembled with the other parts, each of which were produced using tools which were constructed of many other thousands of parts which were made from materials which were produced in some other factory which had more tools to produce the materials which are used to produce the... well I could go on and on.
- BMW Museum - Under renovation, they only have a temporary exhibit which I didn't even bother going to. But hopefully the renovated one should be fantastic when it is finished, supposedly in just a few months.
- Porsche Museum - Under construction, the current museum is pretty underwhelming. At least it was free though, and it did feature a Porsche Cayman cut in half... Rumor has it the new Porsche Museum will also be big, fancy, and amazing like the Mercedes one... I guess I'll have to go back and see it.
- Nürburgring - The only disappointment with this was that I didn't do my homework and so I ended up showing up there and having no way to get a ride around this public race track. So I just stood at the entrance/exit point and watched all the Porsches and sport bikes and stuff go in and out from the long, curvy track dubbed "The Green Hell." I'll just have to plan on going back after I turn 25 and rent a car and drive on it myself I guess...
- Stuttgart - Home to Porsche and Mercedes-Benz, I was hoping for a lot from Stuttgart, but this ended up being probably my least favorite German city. That's okay though because Germany seems to have more than its fair share of charming cities, so if it has a mediocre one here and there I guess it is only fair.
- Amsterdam - As I mentioned previously, A'dam was just too debaucherous for my taste. I guess some people like it though. Good for them.
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