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As probably all countries all over the world, the budgets of the government is tight…so they have to make sure, they get it filled….
What seems more easy than to draw it out of the pockets of the people who place their cars some where ?
Apart from parking places (designed as such) or park houses or garages, you can park your car on the sidewalk, if the signs allow you. For most of them, you’ll find specific signs to tell you what to do = what to use or how to pay.
Pic 1 shows the “Parken mit Parkscheibe” (the red square, marked on the pic), parking with a special parking “card”, which you can get at gas stations. Parking is for free, if you see that sign, you only need to place this card visible in your car, and set it on the time you arrived. The "Mo-Fr 8-20 h (etc)" says that you need to display this card only during the time, noticed there
Pic 2 shows "Parken mit Parkschein", which means you need to draw a paper, which is put in the car to tell the hour until you are "allowed" to park there. The machines are close by; pic 3 shows such a machine. The price depends on the region; I paid for example 15 cents per 30 minutes (in Darmstadt, June 2006). The machines only work with cash (coins), so be prepared.
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 The Wedding Dress by Sunchild
Well, the first thing to do for us two (Nicki and myself) was of course, to buy the dress. What an adventure! As the husband in spe (Ralf) was not allowed to see the dress before, we took pics of the fitting so that Nicki could have a look at herself with dress on whenever whe wanted to. Very important for her ;-)
We were told in January 04 about their intention to get married in June and I assume, that Nicki and I had so many phone calls in between that time, we did not have in all her live all together ;-) ! Much to the worry of my hubby, who had to pay the costs for that ;-))
For explanation: My daughter lives together with Ralf already for 4 years now, approx. 40 kms away from us (I know, it must appear very unusual for many other VT'ers, but living together as a couple in a flat before getting married is very common here in Germany!). That's why the dress was to stay in our house until the wedding.
Then we began to prepare what was hopefully to become the "most beautiful and important day in their lives"! I started to prepare the decorations months before (I was put into charge for it by the young couple) and everybody in the family got very exited. In fact, for me, being mum of 2 daugthers, this first wedding of my first daughter (although the younger one!) was more exiting for me than our own wedding (more than 28 years ago by now ;-) honestly! We enjoyed it very much! Leave a Comment
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 Gradierwerk in Bad Orb by Nemorino
This is a common thing to say when you run into somebody you know, but in Germany you should use it selectively because some people take it as an excuse to inform you that they are feeling terrible, and give you their whole medical history.
The photo shows part of the Gradierwerk a.k.a. Salt Works or Thorn House in Bad Orb.
What's that? Click on the link below to find out. Leave a Comment
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 Bride and Groom picking baby
clothes from the line by Sunchild
Here: Two people are holding up a clothes line with baby clothes on and the couple has to pick these baby clothes from the line. The meaning of it? Well I suppose "have a lot of healthy babies".
Another habit is letting them saw a trunk, such making them prove, that they are really in the position to work "hand in hand" within their marriage. Leave a Comment
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 A poster-pillar in Frankfurt
am Main by Nemorino
Litfaß installed his first one hundred poster pillars in Berlin in 1855, which makes 2005 the 150th anniversary of his invention.
The poster pillar shown in the photo is advertising neither kiwis nor bananas, it is advertising itself. The slogan is:
Plakate machen aufmerksam -- 150 Jahre Litfaßsäule.
Which means roughly:
"Posters grab your attention -- 150 years of the Litfaß pillar".
Thanks to VT member JLBG for pointing out that "the Litfaßsäule were the ancestors of the famous Paris "Colonnes Morris" (1868) that have recently spread to other French cities".
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 Little rubber bear by Nemorino
The first is that most Germans have the disgusting habit of eating a sort of gelatine candy called "Gummibärchen" or little rubber bears. Aside from gelatine they contain masses of artificial color and flavoring, and have the most wretched consistency you can possibly imagine. Sometimes I have the suspicion that they must put in some other secret ingredient to make people addicted to them, but this is just a suspicion of mine, I don't want to start any rumors.
Actually it's not only the Germans who succumb to this strange craving. Here on VT there are no fewer than three tips saying how great these Gummibärchen are, and two of these tips are by Americans, namely lenoreva and AcornMan. But the third is by a German, World-travel, who writes: "Everyone likes Gummi bears..."
Everyone? Well, not quite. In an obscure Frankfurt neighborhood there is still one tiny pocket of resistance...
Anyway, the second thing you have to know is that Bärchen or little bear is a nickname that lovers sometimes call each other, so the phrase "Gummi, Bärchen" with the comma could be taken to mean "Rubber, darling" or "Don't forget the rubber, darling." Leave a Comment
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When you travel around Germany, be on the lookout for the clever condom ads that are posted in stations and on billboards all over the country.
What all these ads have in common are the two slogans:
Mach's mit meaning take part or join in. *
Gib AIDS keine Chance meaning Don't give AIDS a chance.
And they all list the website www.machsmit.de, which is a very informative, friendly and non-moralizing website intended to promote safer sex among young people. (All in German, of course.)
Do other countries have ads like this, too, or is Germany the only one?
Second photo: Here's a newer one, from the summer of 2006, with the condom on a carrot. The headline is "Against Short-Sightedness", meaning not only that carrots are good for your eyes, but also that it would be short-sighted to have sex without a condom.
Third photo: Another vegetable one from 2006. It reads: "Fits any cucumber! A condom is so elastic that it almost always fits perfectly. And in case the standard rubber doesn't fit properly, there suitable types even for unusual sizes. That makes sex secure and relaxed for everyone. Including you!"
* Thanks to VT member globerover for pointing out that the slogan "mach's mit" also stands for "mach es mit", meaning "make (do) it with" the "with-thing" is the "condom" of course. So, the slogan in fact means "do it with (condom)".
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 Spring feelings in the
Karlsruhe main station by Nemorino, 2 more photos
Second and third photos: "For dreamers, realists and braggers" Leave a Comment
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 Like in Seventh Heaven by Nemorino
Or: "As in Seventh Heaven" as my seventh grade English teacher would have insisted.
(I wonder what she would have thought of these posters. I imagine there are lots of things in the 21st century that she would have disapproved of. But she did give us a solid grounding in English grammar, so I shouldn't put her down.)
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 The Gradierwerk in Bad Orb by Nemorino
The German word Bad means bath, so these places are all spas. They all have some sort of naturally occurring mineral springs which are alleged to have medicinal or curative properties of some sort, so these are places where people come to "take the waters".
In the good old days before the German economy started going to hell in a hand basket, any self-respecting German above the age of, say, 32 would try to develop some vague illness which would allow him or her to go off on a three or four week Kur at the expense of their health insurance. That's why lots of German towns attempted to get the word Bad in their names, so they could get a chunk of this lucrative business.
Bad Orb for instance was only called "Orb" until 1909, when they finally got state permission to use the word Bad in their name. And Bad Hersfeld was only called "Hersfeld" until 1949.
I once asked my doctor in Frankfurt if he would prescribe a Kur for me, but he only laughed and said I was too healthy. I was somewhat miffed about this at the time, but have since decided that it wouldn't have been my scene in any case. And being healthy is something really fine, even the Germans are starting to get healthier now that their health insurance has stopped paying for everything.
If for some reason you would like to read about life on the Kur, there is a short book by Hermann Hesse called Kurgast, published in 1923. Leave a Comment
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