Break Needed in Deutschland

Well, it has been an interesting 2.5 weeks in Germany:  230 hours of work and 13 hours of touring.  The bank account is happy, but my body and what is left of my mind are shot to hell.  For instance: I had every intention to write a new post last night, but I fell asleep at a quarter of 8 and slept all night long.  For great insight, I would recommend reading Brett's blog, "Remarkably Unremarkable," located to the right.  He is much more versed in the art of written communication than I.

So in order to fulfill a selfish endeavour, I wish to relive for the time being the aforementioned 13 hours...

Upon arrival in Frankfurt, at o'dark thirty on a Sunday, Brett and I decided to front-load our installation trip with tourism.  Keep in mind that we've spent the past 17-ish hours in Denver, Chicago, and Frankfurt airports, plus a 757 and a nice 777 (I dig the room on those thangs) airplane.  He had heard of an old castle overlooking a town by the name of Schnaittach (insert crude joke here).  So we piled all 300 lbs of our crap into a nice new BMW 5-series and hit the road eastward.  My first experience traveling on das Autobahn and it did not disappoint.  We cruised at 100 MPH and tipped the speedometer at somewhere north of 135 MPH along some stretches, that was fun.  I haven't had that experience since the mid-1990's when we took my 5.0 across Montana, when they revoked their speed limits.  Twas fun and not the last time at those speeds, to be sure.  After much searching and a u-turn on a one-lane, goat farm road, we made it to the castle.  We started off on the wrong foot by giving the tour guide a 50 Euro bill for a 5 Euro admission fee, but tough scheiße is what I say to that.  He made us pay by eyeballing us during his rambling diatribe in the local tongue.  We didn't learn a damn thing, but took some good photos:

Rothenberg Fortress, at least the remains thereof.  Large caverns underneath.

Picturesque town of Schnaittach from the castle.

Danged if I can figure out how a New York mousetrap found it's way here...  Hello to Brett!!

 So after cruising through the remains of the castle for an hour, we hopped into the car and headed off to Nürnberg, with the hope that the trials were still going on (turns out they finished up long before we showed up).  Pictures from Nürnberg:

One of several random cathedrals we saw around town.  Amazing sight to behold.

The old rampart surround the original city-fortress of Nurnburg.  Most of the walls were still intact.

 By the time we reached Nürnberg, we were pooped.  So we headed off to the next destination for training.  Some town that begins with an "E," between Nürnberg and Frankfurt.  Training sucked, as it was on a topic that we've once, or thrice:  power plant safety 101.  we could've aced  the test right from the start, but I guess we're gluttons for punishment.  Nothing else happening aside from installing the BOSS at Niederaußem Generating Station (the "ß," is Deutsch for a double s, wheird, eh?) until the next Saturday night.

Köln is our next tourist stop.  Amazing night, to say the least.

Kolner Dom from the side.  Awe-inspiring to say the least.

Some douche bag named Adolph made a speech here 28 Mar 1936.

Bridge over the River Rhine.

 The rest of the night entailed new friends, whiskey, and another jaunt on the Autobahn.  Then more arduous work at the plant, until Tuesday.  Tuesday was a holiday in Germany and dang it we could not work at the plant.  What to do?  Sleeping in and driving to Brussels was on the agenda:

The "Manneken Pis," or as I refer to: "The Piss Boy."  Really famous landmark in Belgium.

The Brussels Museum.  Very ornate town square.

Lots of roaming around the town and seeing people from all over the world.  Brussels makes a good capital of Europe.  Even got to use some of my terrible French.  After a couple of hours of walking around in the rain, we decided to head back to Germany, as we still had a bunch of installation crap to complete.  Not everything is neat to look at in Germany:

The "dick jokes," are the same the world over.  Whodathunk???

And sadly, a lot of this shit is around the plant.  Makes me sad.

So that's been our experience as a tourist in Europe, for this trip.  I suspect that we'll have about a dozen more installations in the coming months (between two install groups).  I'd like to post daily pictures, in short blog posts for the next installation, sometime in December (Pennsylvania).

Cruising through Europe is a great experience for a "history nerd," such as myself.  In spite of all of the awe-inspiring and really cool things I get to experience every day, each day ends with the same depressing theme:

Loneliness Defined

I look forward to each day's highlight:  calling my wife at four in the AM.  Some things are worth striving for, and getting home to her is what drives me every day that I am away.   SIGHHHH, my Christmas needs to get here soon.

Thanks for reading,

Kev