So, better late than never, Notes from the Shore makes its temporary transition to the travelog genre. Currently I am typing this from my friend Andy's computer in picturesque Hutschenhausen Germany, a burgh named for its love of "little hats". Hutschenhausen is near the slightly smaller but still rustic towns of Hauptstuhl and Landstuhl and is considered a suburb of Kaiserslautern, the nearest true city. Since Andy is an armed forces nurse, the folks I'm staying with have access to Ramstein air force base (of some renown in the metal genre). These locales are all part of Rheinland-Pfalz, the Rhineland state of Federal Germany, which is historically known as the Palatinate and was the 16th century cradle of second-Reformation Protestantism (Calvinism) in Germany. The opportunity to visit sites of historical significance to the reformation and to bicycle past land defended in the Thirty Years' War is certainly going to be difficult to forget. That being said, I thought I'd jot down some initial impressions after a few days in Western Germany.
1) Climatologically, the Palatinate is strikingly similar to Western Washington. Same diverse flora (although a lot more pigeons), same clouds, same temperature range...regrettably, same allergens. In fact, first impressions driving out of Frankfurt-am-Main made it difficult to tell I had left home, minus the apparently rampant graffiti and the occasional street sign in German.
2) Germans are big conservationists, and it is more noticeable than one might think...while also being less annoying. Residents are expected to carefully sort their recycling into several types and given one infrequently emptied garbage can to encourage doing so. Almost all windows and doors are designed to open for ventilation...because the house I'm staying in has no fans. Toilets have multiple flush settings, and I showered in something reminiscent of the scrubber/crematorium from "Gattaca" this morning. The tendency towards environmental protection yields fascinating synthesis between old and new, such as a farmhouse that proudly displayed a bevy of solar panels (complete with sign crediting them to BP) alongside the markings dating the structure to 1836. Riding the train to Landstuhl, trees and massive recycling centers were on evidence next to sprawling industrial apparatus of various types. One almost wonders if the ubiquity of the industrial age urges Germans on towards more green-mindedness. Speaking of trains, seemingly every German family owns a sedan or smart-car, and the various autobahn are bereft of the "unnecessarily large trucks! 'Murica!" phenomenon, while your nearest train station even in such a rustic setting as Hutschenhausen (I am five minutes' walk from the nearest cow pasture) is a twenty minute bike ride south. Yes, bike ride. Every inter-city highway in the country has an associated separate lane with yield signs marked for bicycles. While one wonders how much tax money is required of Germans with less enthusiasm for two-wheeled vehicles, this is likely a policy that is both green and healthy for people willing to take advantage of it.
3) Kaiserslautern is frankly a rather sketchy place, with a nudey-bar close to the train station and posters that attempt to synthesize Smokey Bear type slogans with a tireless campaign against venereal disease ("only YOU can prevent genital warts!"). Despite the eyebrow-raising moments, and the sense that "K-town" has seen better days, it is a place worth seeing. I had the opportunity not only to be photographed with two storied churches, St. Martin's and Die Stiftskirche, but also to see the inside of the latter, complete with 150-foot pipe organ and Protestant unity monument (die Stiftskirche was the first church in the Palatinate [possibly all of Germany, not sure] to hold a communion service open to both Lutherans and Calvinists...and it only took until 1828!). The chance to visit a Burger King was not only valued for the bathroom (almost all "public" restrooms in Germany require either a fee or being a paying customer), but because this particular edifice stood across from Church row, and in a similarly impressive building. The interior was also humorous, as one felt that there was an attempt at American decor that was almost there, but not quite (gratuitous amounts of NBA posters!).
4) Never let it be said that Germans don't take their politics seriously. Local elections in the Palatinate and the election of Germany's representatives to the European Parliament occured over last weekend, and there were posters for parties and candidates in abundance throughout the K-town area. German law requires that all parties receive the same money for campaign signs and that said signs all be the same size, which gave the opportunity to see propaganda running from the mainstream and reserved (the CDU's pictures of Merkel and "a stable Euro helps everyone" were particularly inspiring) to the...fringe (no, thank you, Marxist-Leninist party of Germany, I don't think I will vote to "destroy the EU" or "liberate women from oppression"). Probably the most interesting headline of the weekend was the story a copy of Die Welt keyed me into on the plane into Frankfurt: the acquisition of seven EU Parliament seats by an upstart organization known as "Alternative fur Deutschland", who in a rising tide of Euroskepticism on the continent, are giving voice to a cultural trend unprecedented in post-war Germany. The world will stay tuned on that front, I suppose.
That's about all for initial impressions, but there will be more to come, as the anniversary of Ehrenbreitsen fortress in the city of Koblenz is tomorrow, and my flight for London leaves early Monday. More on all of that when I get the chance.
~JS
