We just wrapped up another low key week in Germany! It has been absolutely freezing all week. A “Scandinavian Cloud” has settled over Central Europe and doesn’t seem to have any plans of leaving. We have gotten a couple of dustings of snow, which just seem to live permanently on the ground now.
One thing out of the ordinary this week has been the Bauernprotest, or “Farmer’s Protest.” The German government is facing a deficit and in an effort to balance their budget, made several cuts to grants for farmers and truck drivers, including a major diesel subsidy.
The farmers organized and ‘went on strike’ for a week. In addition to picketing government buildings, they used their tractors to shut down huge sections of the autobahn across the country by blocking travel in the two outside lanes. They also had some interesting forms of expressing their displeasure, such as dumping wagonloads of manure in front of government buildings and dropping bales of hay on the autobahns to slow travel.
Monday was definitely the worst of it. Both of the kids were over an hour late to school because the busses were delayed. They are lucky though that they are the first stop, because many students had to wait out in the freezing weather forever before their busses even came.
Many people took trains instead of trying their luck on the roads. Unfortunately, the train drivers, both passenger and freight, joined the strike on Tuesday, so the country was literally at a standstill until Friday. The good news is that the government is listening and has reconvened on the subsidy issue and giving serious consideration to revoking their previous ruling. It was not only the traffic and manure that got their attention, but everyday people had no idea there were even budget cuts in this area. The farmers were able to successfully bring the entire country’s attention to the issue and get voters to make calls to their elected officials.
This week I also got to go back to my eye doctor and schedule my LASIK re-do surgery In two more weeks, I should be able to see without glasses again and I cannot wait!
Thursday afternoon, we waved goodbye to Ryan, who was going on a weekend trip with his ski club. There was no school Friday so they loaded up the busses as soon as school was released on Thursday and directly got on the road for Kronplatz, Italy, in the Dolomites. Unfortunately, Brooklyn would have to sit this one out as she had another wrestling match to attend, but she did not mind.
The ski club is only for 7th-12th graders and a couple of times each winter, they take about 100 kids to a different ski destination. There’s always more that want to go so it ends up being a lottery and we’ve been lucky so far that the kids have been selected each time we’ve thrown their names in. There are chaperones who accompany every trip, but all the activities are student led by trip captains that are selected in advance. All to say, we think it’s an awesome club and a great opportunity for the kids to get some independence from us, while having fun with their friends. The club normally reserves one or two hotels for the group and the kids bunk up together for the weekend. Breakfast and dinner are provided by the hotels and the kids get their own lunches out on the mountain.
It’s also turning out to be a great opportunity for the kids to ski the way they want to. They are now far better skiers than we are, and far more adventurous. I don’t want to do the difficult runs anymore, and neither does Matt with his knee. When they ski with us though, they are stuck hanging back with us. These trips give them a chance to do all the black diamonds and terrain park jumps they want. We received a couple of great shots of Ryan living it up throughout the weekend.
Friday after school, we took Brooklyn for some shopping in downtown Stuttgart, a delayed Christmas gift for her. Then, we had dinner at Block House, a new restaurant for us. Block House is a German chain steakhouse and because it’s a chain, we hadn’t felt very compelled to try it before. Of course, it ended up being probably the best steaks we’ve had since we moved here. The icing on the cake was they also have French Onion Soup, which was just as good. We will definitely be going back and often!
In Germany, Fasching season has started. While Mardi Gras is really only celebrated on the one day before Lent in most of the world, Germany celebrates the entire season between Three Kings Day on 6 January, and Ash Wednesday. Every weekend, different towns host their own parades and parties.
Saturday, Matt and I, and some friends headed to Göppingen, about 45 minutes east of Stuttgart, for their town’s parade. We did leave the house in a bit of a rush and while we were en route, we both realized we were not dressed appropriately for the weather in thin socks and jeans but hoped for the best.
We arrived around 3pm for the pre-party, where multiple bands and drumlines from different towns were taking turns entertaining the crowd. Then, at 4pm we got in place for the parade to start. The parade was made up of different clubs who dress in different themed costumes, mostly witches and demons, although there were some animals and aliens; and try to scare or prank parade watchers. Typical pranks are drawing on peoples’ faces, covering them in confetti or shredded paper, stealing hats, scarves, or gloves, and picking up children and running away with them. We even saw one witch knock over a child on the edge of the parade. Kids dress up in their own costumes and the witches and demons give out candy.
The clubs dress the same each year, wearing the same wooden masks that are sometimes passed down through generations. The clubs can be quite exclusive to get into; you can’t just join, you have to be invited and only when a spot is opened up by someone leaving.
We originally thought the parade was from 4-5pm followed by a beer tent. But by 6pm, the parade was still going strong and we were frozen to the core. We finally managed to find a program guide and discovered we were only up to the 54th group out of 90. We decided to run to the car and head home in order to thaw out. It would have been super fun to stay until the end and go to the beer tent, so hopefully that’s something we can do in the future.
On Sunday, we did not have any plans so we made it up as we went along and tried to cross some local things off our list of things to do.
First, we hiked to the “Middle of Baden Württemberg”, the state that we live in. This didn’t take so long as it turns out it was only an eight minute drive and then ten minute walk in the woods to the stone marker. It’s so German to put a stone up to mark the center of something. Even more German, we were not the only ones there. When we arrived, there were three other groups of walkers. Apparently, the center stone is a “hugely” popular attraction!
Afterwards, we headed to Böblingen Old Town. On the way, we crossed the bridge over the town lake and saw that it was frozen and people were walking around on the ice. We quickly parked and headed down ourselves to check it out. After a few minutes of watching everyone running around on the ice, Matt and I got brave enough to walk out too. We had only been on the ice for about five minutes when the police came and had everyone clear the ice. Apparently, it is illegal to walk or skate on the frozen lake. Luckily, no one got into any trouble and now we know for the future. We got some great pictures of the town from the lake and can say we’ve done it now.
Our next stop was the Böblingen Bauernkrieg Museum. I didn’t even know this existed until I saw it on Google that morning. Its located in the old grainery in the middle of the Altstadt so we decided to check it out. The museum is all about the Bauernkrieg (Peasant’s War) of 1535 when the peasants revolted against their noble overlords, and were eventually slaughtered in order to put down the revolt. A couple of things surprised me; first that there is even a museum to commemorate this war from almost 500 years ago, which was a defeat to the common man. The Germans really do never forget. Secondly, the German word for farmers is “Bauern,” which I realized upon visiting the museum, is also the word for “peasant.” So, Germans still call farmers, ‘peasants,’ which to me feels kind of offensive.
The museum visit was very short. There is not much to it all and all of it in German. There were some really cool dioramas though that showed what Böblingen looked like in the middle ages. Since Böblingen was bombed in WWII, the castle and city wall are all gone, but a few buildings and the medieval street plan survive. It is kind of funny that the old castle turrets that held the city gate over its moat are now a Subway and my dermatologist. It was also kind of poignant to visit a museum dedicated to a farmers’ rebellion from 500 years ago, while there is another huge one going on right now. Hopefully the modern Bauern are more successful than their predecessors.
After the Bauernkrieg Museum, we walked over to the Deutsches Fleischermuseum, or, ‘The German Museum of Butchery.’ Yes, I know, it was an extremely interesting afternoon! This museum was even smaller than the Bauernkrieg Museum, and only had a few displays of machinery that used to be used, and then a couple rooms of pictures of animals being butchered. Let’s just say it wasn’t our favorite and we didn’t find it that interesting. But, we also couldn’t imagine moving away one day and never having visited the local museums. So, we are glad we are done.
We finished the afternoon with dinner at a restaurant new to us, Nikki Asian Fusion, where we had sushi, pad thai, and curry. Ryan’s bus arrived back at around 10pm and we picked him up exhausted, and got him home to bed.
Monday was Martin Luther King Jr. Day, so the kids were out of school and Matt and I were both off work. Recently, the Mercedes Benz factory started doing guided tours again and we were lucky to score some last minute tickets. The factory is only 10 minutes from our house and something that we drive by several times a week so we were excited to get to see more of it.
We arrived just in time for our 10:15 tour where we first watched a movie on a basic overview of the plant. Among the many interesting things we heard in the movie, we learned that the plant is so big, it is something like 3 times the size of the country of Monaco and has over 35,000 employees, yes 35,000! The plant is its own city, with its own police force, two fire stations, train station, truck depot, hospital, and more. The plant manufactures the E-Class, S-Class, EQS Electric cars, and the Maybach, as well as the armored car division. and all associated parts of production including research, design, testing, building, and delivery of the finished product. There is even a test track on site that we had no idea about since you can’t see it from the road. After the movie, we were given orange vests to wear and then loaded onto a bus to make the drive over to “Factory 56” where the cars are assembled. No cameras or phone were allowed in due to the risk of loss of trade secrets.
After a ten minute drive, all still on plant grounds, we arrived at Factory 56. The first stop was to visit some floor models of cars produced in the plant. This included a Maybach which we were allowed to get in, sit, and play around with the electronics. Wow, I had no idea cars could even be so comfortable! There were amenities I didn’t even know I needed, like buttons that can be pressed to open and close the doors or eject umbrellas. I’ll probably never get to sit in a Maybach again so it was definitely an experience in and of itself.
After trying out the model cars, we got the tour of the factory floor; it is huge! I wish we were wearing our Apple Watches so we would know how far we walked, but it was definitely non-stop for almost an hour. We saw everything from the body assembly, the engine and body joining, and multiple phases of testing, to the moment the car is turned on for the first time. It was awesome. As we were leaving, Ryan told us that he was going to work at this factory when he grows up; not just any Mercedes factory, but THIS one. A big change from him dragging his feet out the door that morning not wanting to go. 😊
We finished off the weekend back at home getting ready for the week ahead. To our surprise, we found out that our ice-walking adventure on the Böblingen lake made the local paper, which we found pretty hilarious.
Gilcrests Abroad 