Life on the 5th Floor--Ordinary Days

I’ve been thinking a lot this week about the difference between living in Germany and being a tourist in Germany. The key seems to be that when you live in a place, you necessarily have to have the mundane parts of ordinary life because not every day can be spectacular and amazing just because you’re living in a foreign country. It's frankly just too tiring, both mentally and physically. Think about it--if you had to put as much effort into planning every day for two months the way you do when you are planning a vacation, you would collapse into a heap of exhaustion every night. Of course, even an "ordinary" day here usually requires a great deal of walking (as mentioned in last week's post), so collapsing is a common occurrence here.

Likely these thoughts have come to the foreground because I came down with a cold last week and so spent a couple of days resting so I could recover faster. Thursday and Friday last week were basically spent napping and watching Netflix and crocheting hats, in spite of perfectly amazing blue skies and 65 degree weather which I could only enjoy from my windows.

Because I didn’t have the energy to put into planning a weekend outing, we decided to pay someone else to do it, so on Saturday we took a day tour to Neuschwanstein and they took care of buying the train tickets and told us where to eat and narrated the history of the beautiful castles there and King Ludwig II’s tragic life. Joel and I had been there before--over 10 years ago--but we didn’t go inside the castle at that time (choosing instead to rent bikes and ride through the picturesque countryside), so this was a good trip to take under the circumstances. It was a beautiful, short-sleeve kind of day and we thoroughly enjoyed the trip.

Sunday we went to church in the English-speaking ward here (the last few weeks we went to the German ward because it was closer) and then ate dinner with the woman I had lived with for the summer when I was here 30 years ago. She fed us a wonderfully delicious German dinner, with a chicken knödel soup (a knödel is like a dumpling), semmel knödel covered with turkey and gravy, blaukraut (also called rotkohl, or red cabbage), and green salad, with fruit quark (a creamy yogurt-like food, only better) for dessert.

I have seen most of the major sites here, so I thought it would be good to take some pictures of ordinary things that most people don’t think about until they come here. Here’s a sampling:

• I have seen more mail carriers delivering mail on bright yellow bikes than in the bright yellow Post vans.
  
  
  
• A typical street has rows of 6-story buildings on it. I don’t know if it’s a law, or if that’s just how it’s done here. Even when there are businesses on the street level, there are usually apartments on the floors above. Most apartment buildings have courtyards in the middle (like the one I see from my window) where children can play and it’s generally treated like a communal backyard.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Some of the street signs and general building signs that rely on pictures rather than words were a little confusing at first, like this one that tells you this is a building exit (not that you should attack these people).
  
  
  
• Every few blocks there seem to be playgrounds for the children of the neighborhood. Families are clearly very important.
  
  
  
• Dogs are also very important. They are everywhere and businesses will leave out water dishes in front of their stores and if the dogs aren’t allowed in a store (very rare, but I think most grocery stores don’t allow dogs) they often provide a “hitching post” where you can tie your dog leash. I got to hold and pet a friend’s dog this week (who went shopping and to lunch with us), and that made me miss our own recently-departed schnauzer.
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Public transportation is amazing, which is why you don’t really need a car. You can get anywhere in the city by bus, tram, subway (the U-bahn, which is only underground), or train (the S-bahn, which goes both underground and above ground). A bike would definitely be useful here, though. Bikes are everywhere--most of the sidewalks have a lane designated specifically for bikes (and bikers ring their bells--like honking a car horn, but more annoying--at you if you are walking in that lane). Also, there are several pedestrian shopping zones throughout the city where no cars are allowed.