Lazy Sunday

Sundays in Germany are typically very lazy for people. All shops (except eateries) are closed because they are required by law to do so (according to the Uni Mannheim handbook). There is really no activity in the city area, the trams come only once every 30 minutes. Most people would thus stay at home, or go jogging or spazieren gehen (strolling or walking) in the woods with their dogs and then drink coffee in the afternoon.

The day was also quite slow for me, as I woke up pretty late and made myself sweep the floor and tidy up my place. In the afternoon I was on the phone most of the time as well as trying to organise what I'd be doing next week.

Dinner with Stan and the Singaporeans

Stan is a full time Malaysian Engineering Student at the Fachhochschule Mannheim (University of Applied Science, Mannheim) and lives 1 floor below me. I have seen him around before but today was the first time he jioed us out to Palm's for dinner. It was not a bad deal actually, because we had Spare Ribs buffet which was 9.90 Euros. The Spare Ribs was of unlimited helping and was very delicious. It came with Bratkatoffeln (roasted potatoes). I ordered a Schwarzbier (Black beer - like Stout) to go with it and it was very well worth the money, cos I went for a second helping as the pile of ribs would testify:

Schwarzbier, Spare-Ribs mit Bratkartoffeln

Potato with sour cream - check out the presentation in the aluminium foil

After the second helping of ribs

It was a great dinner, considering what I had for lunch above today.

Lessons are beginning this week, so this means my holidays are over. Although it is well-known that exchange students do not study, I do hope to learn something useful from my stint here, especially from Corporate Finance. I do not want to be like what I have been always doing at NUS, studying, mugging and getting A and then forget it totally clean once the next semester arrives.

Ladenburg

A small, quiet and peaceful town along the river Neckar

I never heard of this place before. Actually to be honest, places like Worms and Speyer were unknown to me before I came to Mannheim. I only heard that Heidelberg is near Mannheim, and Mannheim lies between Heidelberg and Ludwigshafen. And when I came here, because of the free semester ticket, we could travel to nearby places, and hence I got to hear about places like Speyer and Worms. Only a few mentioned Weinheim, no one whom I spoke to mentioned Ladenburg. And I do not remember seeing it in Lonely planet. And so I actually came across Ladenburg on the train on my way to Weinheim about 2 weeks ago. It was this image from the train that made me decide to take a look at this small town:

This view can be seen when the train crosses the Neckar river, however this shot was taken in Ladenburg when I was at the pedestrain side of the bridge itself. Those houses you see houses that people live in, and the tall tower the right hand side is the Wasserturm (water tower, which Mannheim also has one, a landmark that Mannheimers seem to be proud of)

Karl Benz (the Automobile designer, founder of the Benz company) lived here from 1901 till his death in 1929.

Certain parts of the city walls are still preserved, although the well below is obviously not in use.

Dalbergschule (Grundschule - something like primary school)

Markplatz und die Fachwerkhäuser (Market place and timbered houses)

Frankly speaking, most German cities have the same landmarks and street names, places like Markplatz, Bismarkplatz, Berliner Platz, Altstadt or street names like Hauptstraße, Bismarkstraße or Bahnhofstraße. And at the same time, most cities' Altstadt have about the same designs and things to see, such as the Rathaus, (city hall), Stadtbibliothek (city library), some Doms and Churches, a fountain or two, and the main street in which shops line up. Ladenburg is no exception. What caught my eye that day was however, I noticed that on almost all of the Fachwerkhäusern have the year in which they were constructed on them.

Markplatz with the St. Gallus Church behind

1598 - today an entrance to a bistro

1750 - today a shop (can't remember what it was selling)

1689

1603

1541

1577 - today a Apotheke (pharmacy like Guardian)

erbaut 1480 - constructed in 1480

Ladenburg is quite a small town with a population of less than 12000 people and not much activity taking place. As I walked around, I did not notice establishments like fast-food restaurants, cinemas, Spielothek (shops containing jackpot rooms or coin slot machines), Porn movies shop or discos. I admire the simplicity and slow pace of life there. As I was there in the late morning and walking around in the early afternoon, school had just dismissed and the students were all riding home on their bicycles. They were havin fun running around, guys chasing after girls, some kids going into the tall lalang grass to look for some insects to catch while another group of teens were trying to do flipovers by kicking on the treetrunk to flick themselves. Along the river, people were walking their dogs unleashed. In fact the dogs here were often unleashed and you see their owners bringing them everywhere - inside shopping centres, cafes, even on the buses and trains.

http://picasaweb.google.com/mannheim08/12FebLadenburg

Unexpected weather

The weather the past few days were good. However, I did not travel much this week. Only been to Ladenburg and Hambach Schloß which I was quite sian to learn that it was under renovation. This morning however, I woke up to find out that I could not see anything outside my window:

8:00 am

1 hour later

I was quite surprised and went to switch on my laptop to go online. To my even greater surprise I could not go online. My laptop could not be assigned an IP address by the server. And I thought there was something wrong or anything. Tried to repair but no avail. So I went to look for the person in charge and he said that it always happen whenever the weather is like that. Oh Crap.... and so for the whole morning I was stuck without the internet, which is acutally quite good cos I managed to finally do my laundry for the first time.

And the weather was -1 deg today. Cold but have more or less accepted this kinda of weather and gotten used to it. I will talk abit of what I saw at Ladenburg in another post.

guten Appetit..

...und ich hoffe, ich werde später nicht ins Krankenhaus geschafft.

You see

1) chicken fillet with sause
2) wurst
3) boiled greens sprinked with salt
4)BEER

The cost
1) 2.99Euros for 600g of fillet
2) as below
3) 1.25Euros for 1kg of greens
4) as below
5) and maybe the hidden cost of being rushed to the hospital later...

Now I am starting to appreciate the food my mother cooks whenever I go home. I am not sure if she is reading this post.

Cheap Food in Germany

The poor man's alternative to eating out

You see

1) Pasta (0.55 Euros - used up 1/3 packet)

2) Kiwi Yoghurt (0.29 Euros)

3) BEER (0.33 Euros per bottle!!!!!)

4) Sausage (0.358 per Sausage)

5) Pasta sause (1.39 - used up 1/2 bottle)

Apparently the PPP-theory does not really apply to Germany and Singapore.

Exchange rate - 1 Euro = 2.10 SGD (that was the rate I got before I left. But just now when I checked http://www.xe.com/ucc/, I got so sian because the SGD has appreciated to 2.06 after I came over here.)

And yes, its edible.

Heidelberg

Ich hab mein Herz in Heidelberg verloren

- Fritz Löhner (I lost my heart in Heidelberg)

Finally I visited Heidelberg today with Hong Keat, even though it is a only 15 minute train ride from Mannheim. In fact initially Heidelberg was the city that I wanted to go to for my exchange program in Germany, but later on I decided to go to Mannheim instead. Heidelberg is one of the must-go for all tourists for visit Germany, and in fact almost the whole city sustains its economy on tourism. Heidelberg one of the most beautiful city in Germany, especially the scene of the old bridge with the castle and the old city in the background.

The old bridge and the old inner city with the castle

Philosophenweg (Philosopher's Walk)

This is actually a trail on the other side of the river facing the inner city and the castle. If you see in the picture, the trail is above the houses across the hill and we had to climb up steps to reach the trail, but thank goodness it was not as tiring at the one I experienced in Weinheim.

climbing up the steps

Why is it called the Philosophenweg? It is believed that Heidelberg's Philosophers and University Profs (The Uni of Heidelberg is the oldest in Germany) used to walk there and perhaps gathered inspration in the process of doing so. While walking along the trail, we saw that it was not only a place where people sat there to read, enjoy the view of the other side of the view (as seen from above), but also pursue romantic persuits.

Crossing the old bridge and entering the inner city

Here is the gate of the old bridge which brings us into the old, inner city. The inner city is very much the same as most inner city in other cities in Germany. There you could find churches, a Markplatz (marketplace), Schloß (palace) as well as a Rathaus (town hall). Heidelberg is no exception. However its Schloß has a very beautiful garden which also provides a great scenery of the old bridge and the innercity, as can be seen in one of the pictures below.

Huge church organ inside the Heiliggeistkirche (Church of Holy Spirit)

Hotel zum Ritter built in 1592.

The view of the old city from the castle garden. I think it is a great place to just lay a mat, have a picnic and watch the world go by. From the castle garden we could see part of the damaged castle, to enter the castle would cost us 1.5o Euro. I did not enter this time, but I am deciding if I should go in the next time I visit Heidelberg.

The shopping street above is called the Hauptstraße - main street in German. It is a 2km street leading to the way up to climb to the castle gardens.

Today was my first visit to Heidelberg, but I did not see much, only the main areas. Heidelberg is really a romantic city and it is no wonder why I see people all over the world there. In fact I think I will return to Heidelberg very soon, since its so near and I do not have to pay for transport. I would be interested to actually learn more about the oldest Uni in Germany as well as check out the nightlife there!

Dinner at Hong Keat's

Hong Keat lives the next block and on our way back we met Charmaine n Zhenle on the bus, and since he had chicken, rice and some lettuce he asked us to come over where we had chicken soup, rice and wurst (susages), and of course chips and beer. It was also the first time I met Zhi Wei (not sure if its spelt correctly) from NUS Business and this American girl (can't remember her name though) from Carolina.

They commented that I blog real fast... but I think my blogging days are limited already. When lesson begins, all these fun has to stop!
http://picasaweb.google.com/mannheim08/09FebHeidelberg

Speyer

A walk along the Maximilianstraße

I would say that today's sightseeing in Speyer was not as tiring at the one at Weinheim, because I did not have to climb up and down hills, which also meant that I did not see any castles in Speyer. In fact there is not much to see in Speyer since some of the attractions like the Judenhof is only open in April. As a result I completed the walk around the main city area in Speyer rather quickly, in about 3 hours.

The main place, and also the most beautiful place along the Maximilianstraße (Maximilian Street), where it is lined with two rows of colourful houses, and with the Kaiserdom zu Speyer (Imperial Cathedral of Speyer) - built before 1100 facing the Altpörtel (old gate) - built slightly before 1200.

Kaiserdom zu Speyer

Altpörtel

Kaiserdom zu Speyer

This Cathedral was added in 1981 to the UNESCO World heritage list of culturally important sites. In fact the orignial purpose of this Cathedral was built by an emperor before his death, and subsequently became a honourable burial place for German emperors as well as honourable bishops. I found this Cathedral to be very different from others that I have stepped into, because of the colours of the bricks. The interior was not dark at all, it looked sandy with a tint of red. Reminds me of a pyramid actually.

Domplatz

Basement of the Cathedral - resembles an Egyption tomb acutally.

Gedächtniskirche der Protestation (The Memorial Church of the Protestation)

Not far away from the Maximilianstraße sits the Gedächtniskirche der Protestation. It was built between 1893 and 1904 in memory of a the Diet of the Holy Roman Empire that took place in Speyer in 1529. This church was built during the time when Germany experienced Kulturkampf, and that the relations between the Protestants and Catholics were at a nadir. As a result, this church was intended to be a church for the Protestants.

The design of the church looked rather gothic from outside. Unfortunately, half of the church was undergoing improvement works. (In fact most of the churches I visited these days in various cities are all undergoing improvement works.)

Just after pushing the heavy doors to enter the church, you could see a very thick tome in which visitors could write what they want. Of course I left my personal message behind.

Church Organ

Technik-Museum Speyer

The first thing that came to my mind when I was entered the museum foyer is that this is like the Science Centre. As a result I did not want to pay to enter. However it is very popular with kids because of the many aeroplanes on display, and for a fee, they could also take a ride in the plane around the city.

Eingang means entrance

It seems to me that the urinals at such scientific places are also quite different. The last time when I was in Bremen university science centre, I saw a green mesh with a pin-head size soccer-ball in every urinal. Today I was reminded of it again.

Dinner with the Singaporeans

We met at Ian's place at 8pm today, and there were like 10 of us. Malcom remarked that we have already beat the Malaysians in terms of gathering numbers. We had pineapple rice, chicken wings, chicken curry as well as dumplings for dinner, followed by make-do Lou Hei using carrots and tuna, and agar-agar with coconut milk for desert. It was a great dinner and Ian can really cook I must say, and of course he was very happy to host us.

http://picasaweb.google.com/mannheim08/08Feb08Speyer