So, I've been in Germany for about a week now doing a little hands-on training for my new job in the National Guard. The thing is it seems they were woefully prepared for us. Their First Sergeant claimed on the bus ride from Frankfurt to Mannheim that they were overwhelmed with work. Maybe it's that someone was giving her some false info or maybe it's that she is busy planning for her retirement next month, but either way there really isn't too much for us to do. Consequently, it's a little awkward for us, but there's nothing we can do about that.

After work hours we're free to do as we please, except we can't rent a vehicle. Fortunately the strassebahn (streetcar) here is only a twenty minute walk away. So far, we've used the train to get around Mannheim and also to get out to Heidelburg.

Yesterday, two of the four guys I was with decided to take the train over to Heidelburg to see how long it would take. The plan was to meet up at an Irish Pub called Murphy's when they got back, which was fairly close to the main station in Mannheim. However, Murphy's hadn't opened yet, so we headed over to a tiny bar across the street.

I know enough German to, say, order beer or find a toilet, but while in Mannheim, I've always been asking whether or not whoever I'm talking to knows any English. At the bar, only one guy there spoke conversational level English, so he came over and helped us with our orders and chatted for awhile. His name was Rudy and he was a police detective in Mannheim. He had been around America quite a bit throughout his life for vacation. Both me and my buddy Zeglin are students, and we ended up talking about the differences in the education system of Germany and America, and also about crime in Mannheim. There was an older guy next to him who also knew a bit of English who said he had been over to Mexico during the '90s to help set up Volkswagon's factories.

Anyways, at about that time in the conversation, the detective stood up do use the latrine. The older guy next to him started giggling and saying something about how we didn't know who we were talking to. My friend Rob caught the word that he used to describe Rudy and told him what the guy said trying to get more info, but he just shrugged it off. So we never found out what his position was, but it was clearly notable. He had told his wife he would be home at six so he left after a bit, and we finished up the rest of the evening without anything else too notable, except for the fact that I'm still jet-lagged and I was dead tired.

Today we went to Heidelburg and it was beautiful. We climbed an absolutely enormous hill to get up to the magnificent Schloss (Castle) Heidelburg. I'll certainly be posting the pictures from up in the castle on Slide and Facebook. The town looked as ancient as the castle itself. As I looked down at the entirety of the city, I felt the phrase "it's good to be king" emerge.

After scoping out the castle, we headed down the the main street in the city to grab some food and to look at the two main churches, one gothic and one baroque, in Heidelburg. I've been to Michigan avenue in Chicago, but I think this street bested it as far as the sheer number of shops lining one avenue.

And tomorrow we are going to head over to Munich on the fast train.

Germany has really impressed me so far. I'd love to come back again since there are still so many amazing things to see.

posted by Brett @ Friday, August 11, 2006