And then we were off - and all of a sudden I was driving on the Autobahn. Yes, THAT Autobahn. The one with no speed limits (in parts, anyways). I was pretty nervous at first because driving in a foreign country should make anyone a little nervous and because NO SPEED LIMITS.
But I quickly got the hang of it and figured out the signage and rules of the road and then I LOVED the Autobahn. It usually started with a speed limit like 120 kmh (while driving through towns or tricky bits of road). Everyone obeyed the speed limit; I didn't even have to see a sign because everyone would just automatically slow down, very orderly, very politely. (Also, Germans also tend to drive about 10 above the posted limit. Some things are universal!) Then there would be a white circle sign that let you know there were no more limits and everyone would just speed up. I'd go pretty fast, but keep in the middle lane because the left lane was for speed demons. Seriously, some of those cars were going at least 150 mph if not more. But it never felt dangerous or out of control. And I quickly learned that passing very closely to someone (like cutting them off) wasn't a sign of aggression - that's just how things were done. I got pretty good at it, if I do say so myself! My top speed was around 170 kmh, or around 105 mph. Our little Mini didn't have much more to give than that, much to Lance's disappointment.
Overall, I LOVE the Autobahn. If there were one thing we could import from Germany, I'd want it to be that. But it'd never catch on here because Americans are far too independent and wouldn't follow the rules that make the Autobahn so efficient and great.
Anyways, it was awesome, and now I can say that I've driven on the Autobahn!
We drove through beautiful rolling hill country, with lots of fields of empty hops trellises. I'm sure it looks amazing in the summer, but it was also quite lovely and golden in the fall. And I loved looking at all the villages and spotting the church tower, because every single one had a church spire of some sort. We also had fun reading all the German road signs, because let's be honest - German is a pretty funny language.
That morning we drove to small village called Aeurbach in der Oberpfalz, where Cherry is located. Cherry is a keyboard switch company that Lance has been working with for Aimpad. The guys we met with were so excited to have Lance in Germany! (They had met before, but always in the states.) Their English was really quite excellent. They all had a 90 minute meeting while I read on my kindle, because what do I know about Aimpad and keyboard switches? Well, probably more than the average person, but also more than I want to. Hah.
Also, there were technical difficulties during the meeting. Another universal thing!
After the meeting we got to eat in the company's canteen for lunch. We had brats and sauerkraut and bread, and it was pretty delicious. And then it was on to the tour of their top secret factory. No really - it's totally top secret. (Which is why we have zero pictures from that entire morning.) They have these super fancy machines that put all the parts together, which was pretty interesting to see. We had to wear lab coats and weird rubber shoe covers. Anyways, top secret. But they totally trust Lance, and probably realized I know so little about the industry that I couldn't sell any secret information even if I wanted to. (Which is true. I had no idea what was going on.)
The whole morning was just cool. Talking to these guys gave me a good insight into what living in Germany is really like. (We talked about university and apprenticeships, how Germans usually stick to one or two companies and don't move around as much as Americans, things like that.) How many people do you know who have been on a German factory tour and eaten in a German factory canteen? I love stuff like that.
(My apologies if my stream of thought seems to jump around a bit. I'm still a bit jet lagged. Ugh.)
Anyways, after the Cherry tour we drove out to Nurnberg. We started at the Nazi Documentation Center. It's in this ginormous building that Hitler had started building but never finished. It was called the Nazi Congress Hall was supposed to be used for their annual Nazi rallies and stuff like that. The museum focused on the Nazi's rise to power, how it happened and why. (Politics. It's all about politics. And the majority of people taking a "wait and see what happens" stance instead of resisting what was going on.) It was really interesting and REALLY long, so we didn't see it all but I think we got the best parts.
Here's my awkward picture outside. The museum fills up the inside of that building - so big! It's all in a big circle. And when we were driving to the museum none of the signs were in English and we couldn't tell where to go and I ended up driving into the middle of that ginormous courtyard you see behind me. Oops. No one got after us but we were pretty sure we weren't supposed to be there.
And now I can say that I've driven into the middle of the Nazi Congress Hall. In a Mini. And survived.
This was an art installation at the end - each chip under the tracks represents something like 10,000 people who died under the Nazis.
Hitler liked things big and grand and imposing.
This is the wall in the bathroom. I soon discovered that Europeans have a penchant for graffiti in public bathrooms. (It just struck me as odd that they would do it at this museum!)
The outside of the building. Thus starts something I'll probably be saying a lot in these posts - it's just so hard to show how BIG this building is! Hitler liked things in the neoclassical style, so its design looks a lot older than the building actually is.
Soon we were off and on our way to old Nurnberg. Oh, we also passed a really large chair.
It took a while to fight evening traffic and find a parking garage, but we finally did. Fortunately, our garage was buy a pretty prominent landmark - the opera house - so we weren't too worried about not being able to find it again!
Me at an entrance in the wall.
There was this little section that was supposed to look like the old medieval city, but it was pretty dang Disney-esque, not medieval!
We walked by several night markets, and they were so pretty! I was kinda bummed because we were about a week or two too late to be there for the Christmas markets. Dang.
Saw several churches, but they were all closed so we couldn't go inside.
This fountain started my picture taking of all the fountains we saw. Because there are a lot of fountains in Europe and the majority of them have water coming out of unusual places. Case in point.
On a bridge over the river, looking at I *think* what used to be the hospital. Holy Ghost hospital? I'm too lazy to go look it up. Picturesque either way though, right?
Some sort of monument.
More churches and night markets.
We hiked up the big hill to see the castle, but it was closed. Dang. That's the one bad thing about traveling in November - it gets dark early and things close early. (But the cost savings and fewer tourists totally make up for it!)
We searched for a recommended restaurant, only discover it had closed 15 minutes before we got there. Dang! So instead we went back to a night market and had currywurst for dinner, which was excellent. Apparently it's a favorite market food in Germany. It's a sausage (wurst) covered in spices and a curry sauce. Sometimes it's served with fries, but we had ours with some bread. Delish. (Even more delish because we were starving!)
Driving home we discovered that at some gas stations in Germany (maybe all of Europe?) you have to guess how much gas you want. In other words, you don't just start pumping and then pay that amount. There are buttons for different amounts of gas - like 30 euros, 40 euros, etc. And I guess you guesstimate how much you need? It was odd. And gas (or diesel, in our case) is so expensive there - it was around 1.40 per liter, so well over $4 a gallon! I'm sure we were a pretty entertaining sight at the gas pumps trying to figure things out.
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