More Walldorf

I walked around to the other side of the town today, and there's more houses and some little shopping centers. I wanted to take a picture of some of the houses because they're so cute in Germany, but didn't want to look creepy. So I have some shots just down some neighborhood streets for now. Also, you can see how people park anywhere here. Notice the cars half on the sidewalk, half on the street. That's normal. Also, if people have tiny enough cars, they'll park sideways, to where the front of their car is perpendicular to the road.

Drinks in Boxes

In an e-mail, Dave asked me why the Evian was in a weird silver box. Well- I sent an e-mail out (I don't remember whom all I sent it to) but I talked about the crazy recycling here. A lot of drinks are in boxes like that, and usually they aren't chilled either. Somethings I put off buying a while, like boxed milk, unchilled, because it seemed like it would rot. But- they have some kind of lining that preserves it while closed. Anyway- the Evian bottle, the apple juice I have right now, and a milk carton, are all in boxes like that so you don't have to pay a deposit. I don't know if it shows up in the picture, but the Evian box says Pfand Frei across the top. That means 'no deposit.' In Würzburg, a girl bought a Coke at a bakery, and had to pay extra for the glass bottle. Once she finished it, she took it back to the counter and got her deposit back. I guess that's one way of making sure people either recycle or return glass bottles. There are recycle bins everywhere, and there's about 6 categories, including 3 for glass: white, brown, or green.

Here's a short video I took...

Better Forest pics...

These trees look like they have eyes!

At first I thought someone must've drawn them on, but it's just how they grow.

Der Wald

The city I'm in right now is called Mörfelden-Walldorf. I guess it's similar to a subburb of Frankfurt, because my hotel isn't far from the Frankfurt Airport. I went back to the forest today and took my camera. I have more pictures than I'm posting, but trying to pick out some of the more interesting ones.
You can see the rain clouds in the one picture, but I walked the other direction and avoided most the rain. On my way back, it started raining kind of hard, but I was able to stand under some trees and eat my fruitbar. The canopy was thick enough I didn't even get wet.

Here's another giant snail I saw today. This one wasn't as big as the last, but there's at least some grass back there so you have a better idea of how big he is.

Pics from Phone

Here are some pictures from the woods near the hotel. I'll go back later with my camera and get some better pictures.


It may not look like it in the picture- but that snail was HUGE. Snails were only animal I saw other than a mom and baby duckies swimming in the river, and lots of bugs- mosquitos, flies, and beetles.

Domizil, Walldorf, Frankfurt

This is my new from at the Domizil Hotel near the airport. I have a longer stay here, and it's in a nicer area of town. It's more like a neighborhood and has a huge forrest with trails very nearby. I have some pictures from the forest, but they were taken with my phone, so they're a lower quality.

It's nice I have a kitchenette and can finally chill my drinks, and maybe buy some milk for cereal! And, these rooms are soundproof. The last hotel had very old, metal doors and they made so much noise it sounded like your door was being opened. Also, I had a kid in the room next to me with about 3 adults- and it got pretty loud sometimes.

Here a couple of pictures taken in Frankfurt. The statue of the single man is Goethe; he's like the German Shakespeare. You could tour his house nearby, but I didn't get around to seeing it. I don't know what the other statue and buildings are. The shot down the street was toward the shopping area on Zeil. It was pretty nasty that day due to the rain, and the streets weren't very crowded. Other days were really full and there were little street performance going on, too.

Random pictures taken in Frankfurt

This is my I-pod wearing a hoody. Good thing, since it's cold and rainy!
This is a picture of the food I bought at Rossmann. All this was under 21 Euros! The fruit bars are pretty gross, but the yogurt rice cakes were really tasty.

The last picture is a scary lady from TV. She was on a day-time court room show, which seemed obviously scripted. There were probably more here in Germany than there are in Texas. On one, they went to get a witness who was a fellow prostitute of the defendent, and she ran out pointing a gun, screaming, "Ich habe eine Pistole!!" and kept shaking at the guy, but then quitely got in the car to go to the courtroom.

Frankfurt

Here's some pictures of my first hotel in Frankfurt and the view from the window. The night picture looks blurry- but it was really very foggy and pretty neat looking, but the camera didn't really capture it. The day pictures are just of the skyscrapers and other buildings nearby. The view was kinda ugly- I think my room looked out to the back of a lot of other buildings. Frankfurt is nicknamed "Mainhatten", because it's on the Main River and apparently the only city in Germany that tall buildings like that.


There are two pictures of my room. One is the entrance; there was a little hallway before the bedroom, and the bathroom to the right. Notice how tall the bath-tub is? It was halfway up my thigh and a little tricky to get in and out of.

That's all for a while. I'm watching German CSI:Miami. I've heard this is the #1 show in Germany. The blonde lady is stomach-able with her German dub. She doesn't sound doped up and on helium. However, the Germans did good at making David Caruso just as annoying. I almost think he had to have done his own voice to get timing that obnoxious.

Here are some shots looking up to and down from the Vineyard Fortress

I have 100+ pics, but here are some...

this is some of us who hiked up the vineyard mountain to the fortress on the hill. There was a bottle to take a picture with. Pictured: me, Laura, Maryanne, Alyssia and Christa. Jason took the picture and he and Alyssia were the only two on the hike I knew from UT.
Here's a picture of Jason taking a picture. We were always behind the others because we were taking so many pictures.
A cool tower.
Toward the top of the forttress; but I took so many photos, my battery died before getting inside. Too bad because there was a really cool garden with 4 statues, one on each edge. Also another Church, where I think the Bishops hearts were buried.
Back down in town, near the meditation area of one church. The Pieta.

Kirche

Churches: I don't know the name. On the edges of the picture are statues of Adam and Eve.
Another church, I may be able to figure out the names, but don't know right now. No one was really sure why there's a giant Menorah in the entrance, but Jews are always confused, they said.
A depiction of the Final Judgement; you can see the saved on the left and the damned walking into hell on the right.
This is another angle of the first Church.
Here's a cruxifix with the gaunt German-style Jesus. from same church with Menorah.By the way, I think they said Würzburg was the Catholic center of Germany.

Random Wuerzburg city pics

I'm pretty sure this is a statue of St. Killian, one of the town founders, on the Altebrücke. They're names are under them in gold, but it may be too blurry to read.
This is the fountain near the Rathaus, that means City Hall. :)
This is the Dom, one of many churches I photographed.
This is the Altebrücke again. Joseph with Jesus.
Here's a memorial. This is a model of the town after the British bombed it in WWII. It was weird, because it was like a 9/11 memorial would be here.