Deirdre's Blog

Not much was open yesterday.  I must have misunderstood.  It may be that museums and the like are open but not businesses (I saw several brochures in the hotel lobby that seemed to indicate things were open on Sunday, but they were all museums and historic buildings and the like).  Bierhause appear to open earlier, around 2 or 3 in the afternoon, but close earlier too.  I walked by one that I think was opening around 2 and it was 1:50, I was going to go back but I needed a nap (jet lag and late nights drinking combined with not much water).  I slept later than planned and when I headed back out most things were closed – actually some places appeared to be open but there were no customers.  I kept walking in to what would turn out to be Mexican restaurants and the like which weren’t at all what I was looking for.  There are Tappas clubs/bars/whatever around which are a Spanish thing and should be open quite late but I was looking for German beer.  Finally, I ended up back at Schlenkerla, they were packing up all the antlers on the wall, no idea why, maybe they need dusting or something.  I thought they might be closed but “ein bier” got me glass.  Then to my dismay the keg ran dry, but the barkeep asked me if I wanted another beer (apparently), I nodded and he went and drew some off a new keg somehow (he went in the back and brought back a full glass).  There was a different waitress tonight but the same barkeep.  Schenkerla opens at 0900 and serves a local specialty called weißwurst (with beer of course) for breakfast.  But most taverns seem to open in the mid-afternoon.

I continue to stay up far too late and then get up barely in time to eat breakfast.  I’m forcing myself not to go to sleep today so that hopefully, I can get to sleep around 2100 or so.  I have PT in the morning.  Today I finally spoke with some Americans.  I called SGT Claspell and CPT Hanna to try to coordinate tomorrow morning.  Until I get a cellphone keeping in touch with others here is going to be difficult – if they call my hotel they will likely have to ask at the front desk – which may not work well – and I can’t yet tell if there is any way for them to leave a message, let alone for me to check messages.  It took me 20 minutes today to learn how to make a call from the hotel phone because I couldn’t read the instructions on how to dial out.  Before I started trying, I searched on line for the various words on the phone so I could avoid the three that are: “Help!”, “Fire!”, and “Doctor!”  None of which were obvious.

I tried to ask the hostess at breakfast for an iron and how to turn my clothes in for laundry (there is a bag in the room which I have filled up but nobody takes it).  She said they don’t have irons but she’d ask her boss (at least I think this is what she said) and she didn’t know anything about the laundry, she said nobody had ever asked her that before.

The past two nights I had carefully watched the other patrons to see if they tipped.  It did not appear that they did.  I know that in Korea is was insulting to the waitresses to be tipped, so I thought maybe they don’t tip in Germany either and I didn’t tip.  Then I watched the first couple last night pay, the barmaid told them what they owed and the man handed her some money and said a number.  I asked him if it was important to tip and he amazingly understood me and said it was usually good to tip.  I asked him how and how much.  The answer to how much: 5-10% unless you only drank beer in which case only € 0,50 – 1,00 – they use commas instead of periods as decimal points (which is quite shocking the first time you get money from a Geldautomat, the comma registers the whole number in thousands in the American brain, or at least in this American brain.).  The answer to how is interesting: The waitress says you owe €7, you hand her a €10 note and say “8 Euro”, she gives you back €2, danke.  They said you can leave it on the table, but that’s not the usual way.  I double tipped when I got ready to leave so at least I’m now square with the barmaid at Schlenkerla, which I expect to visit regularly.

Interestingly, the second couple last night, the ones from Nurenburg, were the first to ask me my name.  They didn’t offer theirs back, so I asked, they were Wolfgang and Castine.  I thought this was particularly intersting because I’ve only known, or even heard of, one other person with the name Castine.

Yesterday, I saw a man carrying a lap dog in Karstadt.  Today a large dog came into the hotel dining room.  It lay by the table that its master was drinking tea at and kept looking at the table and thumping its tail.  Every so often the master would softly say “nein” a couple times and the dog would stop.  While drinking my coffee, I saw a dog on a leash being walked by a woman, so far the only dog I’ve seen with a woman and the only one on a leash.  Besides the dogs, another thing I was told would be different, mostly strollers and carriages are pushed about town by men, sometimes accompanied by other men.  I haven’t seen anyone “wearing” babies yet, but then I really haven’t seen that many children except in the department stores and very few babies at all.  I wonder where they hide them (of course, it very well could be that people with babies just stay home – I could understand that).

Last night I went to Klosterbräu, there was a notice on the door, but I couldn’t read it.  Inside was a sort of entry hall with many doors, each had writing on it, but I couldn’t read any of them.  I tried one door and there was a large open sort of indoor courtyard with chairs and benches but no people.  I tried another door, it was locked.  Another door was unmarked and smaller, I think it was an employee door, but I’m not sure.  Finally, I tried one and it opened into a restaurant.  I sat at a table with a young couple but this was a bad idea.  They were on a date or something.  They spoke in low voices even though they knew I couldn’t understand a word they were saying and they didn’t say anything to me except when I asked them if they spoke English and what the coaster said on it.  As they were trying explain it, the waitress brought over a brochure in English.  The place is the oldest brewery in Bamberg, but it is somewhat touristy (you can buy the glasses which are imprinted with the name of the tavern and there are different glasses for each beer it seems) and kind of pricey as restaurant’s go.  On reading the brochure, I realized that this was more of a restaurant section and that one of the other rooms was more of a pub, but I coudln’t figure out which one.  I tried a Schwarz-bock and a Weissen.  I had what I thought was going to be brats made from wild pig but what turned out to be more like wild pig steaks I guess, tasted more like roast beef.

I decided to meet some people I needed to go back to Schlenkerla (which I misspelled Schlenferla below I think, they print it with a old script in which the “k” looks like a modern typeset “f”).  I sat with a man I had met the night before and a couple that were talking with him, it seems to be impossible (and quite irrelevant) to know whether the couple and the man were there together, or even knew each other before last night.  I learned that there is another section of the tavern that is bigger and is more touristy, I had walked into the part that was more or less for Bambergers just by accident.  The man told me that in days of old, the rich people sat in the other area and the poor people sat where we were sitting.  The other area is apparently fancier and does not have long benches.  So here at least I picked the right door!  Eventually the man left, then the couple, I went to the restroom and came back to find another younger (closer to my age) couple sitting there.  They spoke English quite well and we talked for a long time.  They were visiting from Nurenburg and they had been to America once.  They gave me a list of “must see” places, including a 12km beer hike where you stop at many different breweries along the way.   They also told me that the place opens at 0900 and serves a breakfast of weisswurst (essentially white bratwurst if I understood the explanation) and of course beer.  Serving beer so early has it’s drawbacks though, the place actually ran out of beer while we were there to the astonishment of most of the patrons.  There being no more beer, the bar maid put on her coat and everyone got up and left.  So, now I can say that I not only close out Schlenkerla, I helped drink it dry!

Today I plan to walk about town and just see what’s there, things apparently are closed on Mondays not Sundays here, so everything should be open.  I’m quite sure that bierhäuser are open everyday.  I also plan to cue up Rosetta Stone, the Army has purchased online access to all of their languages for soldiers to use.

So, now that I’m sobered up and rested, I can explain more about Schlenferla.

But first, I needed Euros, I asked the hostess at the hotel but “ATM” doesn’t mean anything here.  I said “money machine” but this only got a response about “eine bank” I pulled out my credit card and gestured putting it in a machine.  She said something I didn’t quite understand and circled some places on my map.  It turns out that you have to go to a “Geldautomat” to get Euros.  I found one and got € 100, it was much more convenient that in America.  The machine delivered my money in 5, 10, 20, and 50 Euro notes.

I found Schlenferla and I went in and it was a most amazing place, sort of like I imagine a colonial tavern, but several stories tall with huge beams on the ceilings.  Only the first floor appeared to be for eating and drinking.  The main room was no bigger than the kitchen and dining room combined at my house in Cornish and it was filled with old wooden tables, like picnic tables without the benches, surround with chairs.  The bar itself was a tiny area, only big enough for the barkeep to stand and draw glasses of beer and hand them to the barmaid. They washed the glasses by simply dunking them in a bucket of water that may have had a little soap in it and sloshing them up and down and then putting them upside down over a sprayer that rinsed the inside of the glass.

I looked around wondering where to sit as most of the seats were already taken.  The bartender suggested a seat but a person next to it said they were holding it for someone who was coming later.  Then he asked some other people if I could sit with them and they said sure.  Most of the discussion was not in English, what was was very broken.  Everyone assumed I was German or at least spoke it, and everyone was very surprised to find that it was my first day in Germany, not the least because this is more of a local secret than tourist spot – though I have since found that it has a small entry on the English Wikipedia.

I ordered Rauchbier and it was not at all like greasy bacon, or if it was I want that bacon! It was more like a very heavily smoked ham, minus the salt, substitute beer for the meat.  I have heard that you either love or hate rauchbier, actually, I’ve seen this, as I’ll describe below.  I like ham, especially heavily smoked ham, and I love beer, so this was no disappointment.  The group to my left pointed to a sign on the wall and mentioned that the place serves another specialty beer, a winter beer called Urbock, which is much stronger than Rauchbier, I tried one.  It was very good but very powerful, strongly flavored but not smokey, or at least no where near as much, it was hard to tell after the Rauchbier.  Urbock is apparently a kind of doppelbock, which is a bavarian bock of very high alcohol content, 9 or 10%.  Both beers were lagers and I wasn’t paying close attention but I think both were drawn from casks, both had a substantial and very frothy head on them, the Rauchbier more so, and were served quite cool, but maybe not so cold as an American pilsner.

After a while I tried to order libercasse (sp?) (liver cheese – a kind of sausage made from pork liver), but the barmaid said that was a bavarian food and this happened to be a Frankish establishment (she said this all in German and one of the people at the table attempted to translate, this is what I managed to glean.   She went to get a menu, but I stopped her and asked “Bratwurst?” which got a cheerful “of course” sort of response.  She came back later with a plate of three very long thin sausages, somewhat longer and thinner than the average hotdog, on a bed of sauerkraut, the kraut was much sweeter and darker than any I’ve ever had before and the brats were fantastic.  I went on to have quite a few more Rauchbiere (the “e” ending is the plural form) and to talk with many patrons as they left and others replaced them.  I moved tables once mine was empty, as it was reserved for 1900 and it was after 1800 so I expected no one to join me there.

Before this though, a group of three men sat down at the end of the table and talked to me.  They said the beer was aweful and I found that they were from out of town and had come to try it.  Apparently one had tried it before and knew it was aweful but told his friends they had to try it since they were in Bamberg.  I noticed two of them speaking to each other in broken English and I asked them why.  It turns out one of them was French.  They were businessmen here “trying to convince people who don’t need it to buy our product at an exhorbitant price” or something like that, they said.  They sell steel tubes used for bearings.  We talked about the economy.  They said the car industry uses their pipes, but they aren’t buying any right now. I asked them about whether they thought the economy was America’s fault.  They said no, that British and French and German banks did dumb things too, but they admitted that they cannot understand the U.S. real estate market nor do they understand buying things on credit.  They said they think Americans are always hopeful and believe tomorrow will be better, whereas Europeans are always depressed so they would never buy anything on credit because they believe that tomorrow will be worse and they won’t be able to pay the debt.  I thought that was a very interesting way to analyze the situation – we’re not irresponsible, we’re just overly optimistic!

At the next table, a couple who had reserved a place and were eating what I suspect was Wiener Schnitzel. I tried to say something to them which they didn’t understand, the man asked if I said “Prost?” and then with a gesture that suggested “whether you did or not I’m sure that’s one thing we can agree on” picked up his glass and said “Prost!”

Between the English of some of the other patrons, a tiny bit of German (I manage to ask “Wo ist die Toilette?” and to say “Danke” a lot – I also found I could generally tell what she was saying when she told me what I owed, though if not I just picked a 20 Euro note and got a lot of change), and the universal language of holding up an empty beer glass and nodding to the barmaid.  I was a bit surprised to get my change all in coins as I didn’t realize that they have coins for at least 2 Euro (around $3 I think right now), and they may have larger ones.

I do need to learn how to ask if a seat is taken though.

Oh, BTW, in the post below the ß = “ss” and the ¨ over a vowel equals a following “e” that is no longer written except occasionally on the computer if it doesn’t have the necessary characters.

Time for something to eat:  beer is food.

I corrected the post below, the beds do have fitted sheets, but there are no top sheets.  They look very strange this way, especially because there are no ordinary blankets, just down comforters.  The beds, in this hotel at least, are very firm.  I mean, I’m used to sleeping on the floor and I find these beds firm!

The hotel serves breakfast.  I suppose it is what should be called “Continental”, but if this is the model that American hotels were thinking of, they have failed miserably to immitate it.  There was a large assortment of breads – mostly whole grain, one white bread for slicing, yogurt, cereal, especially granola (I had some granola that had chocolate chunks in it!), jam, nut butter, sliced meat and cheese, cottage cheese, and soft boiled eggs.  The hostess brought me a pitcher of coffee and a glass of orange juice.  There was a toaster, and I toasted some fresh white bread, interestingly, it only toasted the bread on one side.  The nut butter, called Nutella, is made from hazelnuts and chocolate.  They had whole peanuts set out but SGT Claspell told me yesterday that they don’t have peanut butter and you can only get it at the Commissary.  I only had a very little bit of the cottage cheese, but I don’t think I could have eaten much more, it was very rich.  The sliced cheese turned out to be much softer than I expected, I don’t know how they can possibly slice it, and it was also very rich.

After last night walking around the village, I decided I needed gloves.  I have only military gloves and I’m missing one of the dress gloves, one glove doesn’t do much good.  I took my military dress glove to the hostess and asked her “was ist dis in Deutsch?” and she told me “ein Handschuh”, asking her where to buy a pair was a bit more difficult as I didn’t know the German for “where can I buy this?” and she couldn’t really understand English.  Finally I held up the glove and said something like “where shopping?” and she understood and circled several places on my map.  One of them, “Hohner”,  she said was very big and said what I guess was the name of a store or the word for “department store” maybe.  I looked puzzled and she said “uh Woolworths?” I thought this was an interesting choice of stores but I got the picture.  Another store she said was even bigger – “Karstadt”.  Then she circled another called “Handschuh Gründ” and she said it was a small place that had “Lederhandschuhe”.  All of these places were on the other side of the river or canal “Linker Regnitzarm” in what she called “the city”.  The area I am staying in is called Alt Bamberg, i.e. “Old Bamberg”.

I decided to go to the specialty store first.  I walked down “Richard-Wagner Straße” to “Hainstraße”, then to “Lange Straße” and easily found the shop.  They had only a few pairs of mens gloves, the shop being mostly womens handbags, which was slightly dissapointing.  The shopkeeper spoke almost no English.  So I held up my hands and said”handschuhe?”  and the lady showed me about four choices.  The gloves were high quality and very expensive, some nearly  €100.  They were a bit tight but the lady assured me that within one hour they would fit just fine.   I bought the cheapest pair which still cost nearly €50.  Then the lady wrote out a receipt and explained the gloves were guaranteed for two years and if the seams ripped out to bring them back with the receipt and they would repair them!

I then went back toward Hainstraße to Promenadenstraße which I followed to Franz-Ludwig-Straße and then to Grüner Markt, where I found Hohner, and yes it was like a large Woolworths.  Unfortunately, it did not have what I was looking for or at least I couldn’t find it.  I needed an adapter for the outlets.  My universal powerstrip with European plug wasn’t working, I suspected a bad fuse, and my other converter wouldn’t work because the European plug wouldn’t fit into the socket, the sockets here are recessed, rather than the flush ones they had in Iraq, so the whole plug, not just the contacts, must be the right shape.  Many electronic products will work on 220, if you have an adapter so you can plug them in, laptops generally ar fine.  So, I went to Karstadt, and they did have one plug that I thought might work.  Although it was rececessed, it appeared that an American plug could fit it if it were small enough.  I bought one and then went to another level to look for a scarf.  It was difficult to find a wool scarf, most were acrylic, and none were cheap, but I did find a rather nice wool one.  There were several Cashmere scarves which had been reduced to about the same price as the regular wool one, but they were too thin for my taste, so I bought the wool one.  I noticed some bedding on beds and it too appeared to have no top sheets.  My boys will be happy to know that the toy sections of both Hohner and Karstadt had nearly an entire wall of Legos, including some Star Wars Legos.

I was pleased to find I could navigate back to my hotel without once referencing my map, but when I got back I realized that the extension cord on my MacBook has a three pronged plug!  This is strange, because you don’t need it, the normal cord has a plug right on the power supply and it has only two prongs, but it can only be used if the outlet is flush – I might have been able to cut off the recessed portion on the adapter I bought, but I couldn’t find a part to my MacBook that is needed to use the powersupply without the extension cord; so, I set about rebuilding the universal powerstrip that I bought in Iraq.  I found there was an extra fuse, but that didn’t help, the problem was a wire had come off the back of the place where the fuse is.  I now have it jury-rigged, basically, the wire is simply stuck under one of the contacts and left exposed because if I try to put the cover back on the fuse the wire will most certainly come out.  I’ll just have to keep an eye on it and unplug it from the wall when I leave.   At least now I can use my laptop and charge it up.

One thing I discovered is that Bean Hunting Shoes are not the best thing for walking here.  I thought they would work well and they are a lot warmer than my Timberland boat shoes, but something else entirely is needed and I’m not sure what it is.  There are asphalt roads in the city, but even there many areas are cobblestone, as is the entirety of Alt Bamberg.  Asphalt with a light coating of slush on it is bad enough, especially in a city area where it has picked up a coating of oil over a long period of time, but cobblestones are very slick; my boat shoes seemed to do better last night, but it has snowed lightly since then.

So I asked the hostess where to go for Rauchbier, Klosterbräu doesn’t have it even though they’re the oldest bräuhaus in town.  But Schlenferla does, they are the original Ruachbier haus since 1678 and oh my God do they have beer, or bier, or whatever it is, it’s amazing, I think I am in bier heaven.  And I had bratwurst too, most incredible, much thinner and longer than the ones you get at Hannaford’s and most amazingly, the sauer kraut is much sweeter than any I’ve ever tasted – try ours plus molasses – yup! The whole idea of a bierhaus is incredible, something we could really learn from.  Oh and they all think Obama is the real deal, as one of them put it, anything is an improvement.

Oh, and the answer is (after some embarassment due to the hostess having to come to my room to explain), you don’t get any top sheet in Germany.

We left the office and drove around a bit trying to find a place to park.  The TMP is a Mercedes van, not at all good for parking.  Then we walked around in circles looking for my hotel.  First the sergeant said “their’s your hotel” but later once we had parked, he confessed that he was just picking it because it was a hotel we were near.  We walked around looking for the correct hotel and finally gave up and he called the Trial Counsel, CPT Hanna who said it was actually the hotel he’d first picked.

We went there and it was gorgeous but obviously undergoing some substantial remodeling.  There was only a dog at home it first appeared, we yelled and rang the bell and got no one.  Finally some construction workers came downstairs and we exchanged pleasantries in our respective languages, though they didn’t seem to notice (or, less likely, they didn’t speak English) as they kept speaking in German.  We started to leave and the sergeant said there was another hotel closer to post he could take me to.  He described the area and I looked around me at the classic European village, the cobblestone streets, the bierhausen and das Bäckerei right across from the entrance and I said “this is too good, I’m going back to yell louder”.

I went in and yelled again “Hallo!” a few times quite loudly and rang the bell again.  Still no response, though more talking upstairs, more workers.  Back outside to ponder what to do.  Then the phone inside rings and I go back in, a woman is now magically sitting at the desk talking on the phone frantically taking notes.  She is wearing latex gloves and looks like she has been painting.  She gets off the phone and I find that she speaks English quite well (which probably isn’t surprising considering she’s at the desk in a hotel).  Anyway, they have no rooms, but they have another hotel around the corner, actually just beyond where we’d walked earlier when we were looking for a hotel (she describes this as “two minutes by feet”).  It’s hidden, but we find it eventually and it’s less than ten paces from Klosterbräu a rather largish brewery.  The hostess here speaks very little English (which is good, I don’t need to practice my English).  She shows me the room (apparently one should expect to check out the rooms here before committing).

Anyway, I’m trying to figure out if the sheets are missing, if I was supposed to bring my own, or if they don’t use such things!  I’m also wondering where to get some Euros so I can drink my first Rauchbier, the local specialty, “Rauch” means “Smoke” and I’ve heard several describe the beer as meaty or tasting of greasy bacon.  I also need a scarf so I will stand out less – all the local men are wearing scarves.  Time to explore!

SGT Claspell picked me up from the USO and we drove to Bamberg, it took about 3 hours.  The base is really interesting and the law center is in the oldest building on the compound.  I’ll post pics once I get a camera.  There is no room at the Bamberg Inn (Army Lodging), as I lost my reservation due to the constant delays, so now I have to put up the money for a hotel (I’ll get reimbursed since the Army needs to house me, but I have to upfront the hotel).  On the good side, I’ll be downtown, so I get to spend the weekend in the town.  It’s a four day weekend as most Army units take the Friday before a three-day off, so I’m holding up the SGT from his day off – signing off for now.

I’ve arrived in Deutschland.  Waiting at the USO in Frankfurt.  The flight was shortened by over an hour due to very fast tailwinds coming out of Atlanta.

Today I worked at the OSJA on main post.  We were going to speak with the Deputy about asking OTJAG to have me assigned to Benning rather than the possibility of me being “returned to home station” which would mean being released from active duty (and job hunting).    The Deputy was busy for a while and while we were waiting, I got a call from Charlie Company at the CRC saying they had received my amended orders and were getting me a ticket. Apparently, HRC St. Louis finally gave in and amended the orders but said they won’t issue orders like I now have for anyone else.  From now on if you select PCS, you won’t go through the CRC.

I told them I would only fly out of Atlanta as I don’t want to lose my bags on an international flight and they weren’t able to schedule ground transportation for today, so they scheduled me for tomorrow.  I quickly wrapped up the three matters I had pending and went to rent a car for the night.  Several of us met over at Mike Tregle’s house and played poker, I was down twenty at one point but ended up ahead twenty.

In the morning I’m going to meet with CPT Dulhaney for an interview for switching over to the Regular Army in the JAG.  It’s not a committment at all, but knocks out one of the steps in case I decide to go forward with it.  Much easier to do it here than in Germany.  I must head for Atlanta by noon.  My flight is around 4:30 and will arrive in Frankfurt on Friday morning around 7:30.