Monday, February 21, 2011

FROM THE BANK - Day 12

From the Bank - near Frankfurt - Wednesday December 29th 2010


would you ever find this in Canada?


I slept really well that night. So well I barely heard my roomies return (sometime after 2am I think) and I never heard them leave, at least before 8:30am.

Marcel picked my upand we went for a drive on the autobahn. It was pretty fun. But you really don’t notice that you’re going fast. I had to keep checking the speedometer (secretly haha). I think it all has to do with relativity. If everyone else is going (for example) 170 kph too, then you all might as well be going 100 kph and just get there later, and probably save a small fortune on gas.
all the way to frankfurt...

If I understood correctly, there is some kind of law that you have to drive in the farthest right lane as possible, unless you’re ripping it up at 210 kph and the others are only going 150 kph then you can drive in more left lanes, but not if you’re the only vehicle around. There is also some weird law on tailgating or driving side by side. It was weird, like I said, and didn’t make much sense.
looking down from the castle

there I am with the Castle..
While I’m on the topic of driving, I will have you know that in Europe, the traffic lights are not on the opposite side of the intersection; they are on your side and you pull right up to them. That totally throws me off, mainly as a passenger when my mind is not fully on the road.
i wish that light was light up

For those of you who read this and happen to have a “special” connection to the Radisson, check out this crazy round Radisson I spied.

Speaking of crazy buildings, I am always amazed at the stuff these Germans are building. It’s like they are constantly on the cutting edge, and also averaging five years behind schedule and a couple of million, if not billion, over budget. Glass making waves and weird windowed shoots, they really out do North Americans. Granted we do like to get our buildings up so we can move on.
where we went sledding
acorss on the hill is the castle poking out

The first stop of the day was some kind of old castle in a small town. It was way up on a ill and even though it was super overcast, you could see some significant tower of the Frankfurt skyline. Marcel said this would be a very good place to be on New Year’s Eve. A slightly secluded place with enough room for all of your mates and an excellent view of all of the fireworks from there right to downtown Frankfurt. Now I wish I was staying for New Years… After a couple of minutes of taking it in, we slid back down to the car on the sleds we lugged up.
castle!!

Marcel had this really old wooden sled that was super tippy and incredibly fast (if you could keep it going straight without falling off). I guess it was a very traditional German sled. So traditional that it belonged to his parents.

I guess I should let you know that we went sledding on a hill by the nearby zoo. It was tons of fun! Probably the only time I’ll get to play in the snow this winter. I loved it SO MUCH!!
WHAT ARE YOU?!?!

On a quick stop at a grocery store, I came across an amazing fruit. It was all pokey and orange on the outside while being green on the inside. I should have bought a half. Instead I took a free sample of chocolate that was disgusting. Bad move on my part.
Shayla & Marcel

I did not know that Marcel really likes horses. You probably did not either. Our last stop of the morning/afternoon was the stable. Here I met Marcel’s horse and some other riders. The stable was really nice, but probably not in the way you are thinking. It wasn’t all luxurious, “competitive” and full of ribbons. This stable was like a local community stable where people who genuinely like to ride and care for horses can come. I don’t actually know if the horse is actually Marcel’s, or his family’s, or even the stable owner’s. However, the horse loved him, sometimes. Out on our 1.5-2 hour walk with it, things got a little interesting. Shayla, the horse, is kind of difficult to handle, which is why none of the girls at the stable want her or prefer otherwise. Despite a moody horse, the walk/run was lovely. The weather was a little crisp and the frosted area was a real winter-wonderland.
Shayla needed to blow off some steam

We headed back to Marcel’s and I had the most amazing meatballs of my life for out really late lunch. So late that it was only two hours later when we had supper with his mom. Turns out Germans eat a lot earlier than the French, which is fine by me.
alot of steam..

Marcel and I recuperated from our double whammy of meals and waited for some of his friends to come by for a bit. It was nice, but I’m finding that now very many Germans know a lot of English. It was still fun. Nice to meet people.

If you know a tad about German cities, you may have noticed that there are ‘Bad’ places. Example: Hamburg, Bad Hamburg, Soden, Bad Soden. Surely they can not be outright bad places! Quite the opposite. These places are in fact very good. A while ago (time undefined) places that had really good water (like hot springs, mineral springs, etc.) got the prefix of ‘Bad’ to their names. Bad Soden’s mineral pool is now looking pretty good isn’t it?

4 comments:

  1. Bad Soden's mineral pool is A.M.A.Z.I.N.G
    please please please tell me you went there

    that was probably one of my fav things that we did while visiting with my oma and opa on the last 2weeks of our summer visit in 2008

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  2. nope. did not. sorry.
    my days were jam packed, as yo ucan tell, plus, it costs monayyz

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  3. I talked to them actually and I don't think it costs that much. ANYHA, like I've said before, if you ever get the chance, it is soooooo worth going. like a million times over.

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  4. i guess i gotta go back. fair enough, i never made it to Munich or the Beatles museum in HAmburg. Plus, I still gotta see Anemone, and I wouldnt mind seeing MArcel again.
    ok, I am DEFINITELY going back to Germany.

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