Living in Germany

Happy New Year!

2010-12-31T15:45:00.000+01:00

I apologize for being that lazy during the past couple of months an wish you all a happy new year 2011!

Merry Christmas!

2010-12-25T19:58:00.000+01:00

This year we are lucky here and have a really white christmas. We have had snow and real winterweather for a couple of times since the end of November but it was intermixed with warmer periods and rain. Yesterday the last snow had molten away almost complety and Christmas Eve started with rain. But during the day it grew colder and the rain turned into snow. When our christmas tree was decorated

Dwarves and Orcs in 3D

2010-11-30T17:09:00.002+01:00

I admit having been lazy for more than half a year by not posting here. Not the least this has to do with me having discovered 3D modelling. I started making simple things in Blender and than found Bryce and the DAZ3D Studio. The latter is specially used for posing characters and the first for creating landscapes. With Blender You can do literally everything having to do with 3D grafics, even

A Nipppy and Rainy May

2010-05-16T09:05:00.004+02:00

It's already may now and normally you can go swimming at this time of the year. But this year it's still nippy and rainy. But I am not to worried about that because we have a country saying about a nippy and rainy may will cause rich crops. And as April was quite chilly too this year I expect a long, hot summer, at least if this silly vulcano on Iceland won't generally chill the weather with its

A great german hunter died

2010-05-01T10:56:00.005+02:00

Actually I`m quite busy wuth a lot of things and have not much time to read my favourite German hunting magazine "Wild und Hund". Yesterday I happened to have a look at the issue from April 1st of this year and found a piece of news which made me quite sad: Heribert Kalchreuter died already on March 14th when he was on holydays in the Dominican Republic, just the day after his 71st

Happy Easter!

2010-04-04T07:26:00.003+02:00

It's still a bit chilly but, no doubt, spring is here to stay. Yesterday I not only replanted my chili plants into yoghurt cups but also chipped the first vegetable patch. I guess, this week I will bring out the first seeds of the year.This morning we went to curch at 5.00 a.m. Our new, quite young preacher we got a couple of years ago introduced a very impressing way to celebrate the

Daylight saving time

2010-03-27T10:46:00.003+01:00

Now that spring finally is here you can enjoy the outdoors again. Due to daylight saving time you have one more hour left for walks, grillparty, fishing and such things on working daysThis weekend we here in Germany change to daylight saving time. Many people complain about it because they in fact have to get up one hour earlier. Some people get confused because they dont know what to do with

Cold Weather, Phariseans and Dead Aunts

2010-03-13T10:34:00.007+01:00

Actually it has been cold for over a week again instead of spring coming. If you have been out for a while under this circumstances and come in again you might like a hot drink, maybe with some kind of fire in it. That was what I met yesterday and so I made up my mind to make what people in the north of Germany call a "Tote Tante" and what I got to know when I was sailing the Baltic Sea in winter

Internet Censorship in Germany

2010-03-03T12:22:00.005+01:00

Last tuesday the new german internet censorship came into force because it than was undersigned by our bundespraesident, which is the last step in the procedure to make a new law effective. The new CDU-FDP-government swears that it was not intended to make use of it and that it was only a kind of bad legacy of the old CDU-SPD-government. However the law does exist although the general public did

Using Public Transport

2010-01-30T09:32:00.003+01:00

If you are used to run all your errants and make all your visits and things by car, suddenly being forced to use public transport can be a complete new experience. And not really a bad one as I happened to find out. On Wednesday I had to see my dentist for my regular yearly exam which you need to have been to the last couple of years to get the maximal allowance for artificial dentition from the

Winterly Impressions from East Wuerttemberg

2010-01-17T12:21:00.006+01:00

Actually it is a bit warmer and it has been raining this morning. But last week we had what you can call winter. Here are some impressions how my place looks like in winter. When I was walking my dog Alfons a couple of days ago I took my little camera with me...A view out my office window into the gardens between the houses of my housing areaHofherrnweiler a former village and now suburb of Aalen

Christmas is over and winter is coming

2010-01-09T14:54:00.002+01:00

Christmas holydays are over now, on monday kids will be back at school. And now it has been snowing and probably will do taht again and it will be cold for a while. That`s typically here: No white Christmas but at the beginning of january winter will come.

Did you already know?

2010-01-07T16:45:00.004+01:00

Stewed rhubarb tastes even much better, if you use strawberries instead of the rhubarb!Sorry, just remembered this age-old flat German joke and couldn't resist at all to post it here... ;-)

A Happy new Year!

2010-01-01T11:32:00.003+01:00

I wish You all a really happy and successful New Year 2010!New Year's eve was like it always is at our house. We were celebrating at home drinking a wine cooter and playing a parlor game. This year it was "Carcassone". Granny and Grandpa came upstairs to celebrate a bit with us. The only new was, that my daughter was out for the first time on New Years Eve partying with some other girls.At

Merry Christmas!

2009-12-25T10:41:00.005+01:00

Once again it is Christmas, a time in the year I like very much although I have already been kicking round on this nice place for almost 51 years. Eating, drinking, reading playing computergames - in a nutshell: just beeing lazy and rest is what I like on christmas.I hope You all enjoy theses days as much as I do and wish You a very Happy and and Merry ChristmasFokkoBTW: The picture shows the

Christmas in Germany

2009-12-23T19:53:00.004+01:00

Christmas in Germany is a bit different to Christman in the USA. It´s let's say quite more concentrated on the three days from December 24 to December 26. In fact, December 25 is the day when we celebrate the birthday of Jesus Christ, although we dont know on which date his real birthday is. In former time the Christmas gift giving took place in the morning of December 25 but nowadays it has

German Game: Roe Deer

2009-12-21T21:34:00.010+01:00

In Germany we have a small relative of the red deer which is called roe deer and does not occure in America. Red deer is practically the same as wapiti and used to live almost everywhere in Germany. But nowadays red deer ist restricted to certain areas because it does much damage to agriculture and sylviculture. If red deer appears outside these areas hunters has to shoot it unless it is a stag

Winter in East Wuerttemberg

2009-12-20T11:31:00.008+01:00

Winterly Ambience: A Wayside Corss near Aalen-UnterkochenEast Wuerttemberg is sometimes called "Swabish Siberia" because it has a much less mild climate since the area around Stuttgart, the Fils Valley, the Rems Valley and some other areas which together are called the Unterland where also the famous Wuerttembergian Wine is grown. On the other hand the westmore parts of the Swabish Alb are quite

An Old Woman in the Confessional

2009-12-18T12:31:00.004+01:00

Wuerttemberg, the part of Germany where I live once used to be the Kingdom of Wuerttemberg, a protestantic country. Nevertheless the former kings seem to have been not that strict in religious things and so some parts that had belonged to monastaries or other ecclesiastic lordship remained catholic. Therefore you can still find merely catholic villages and areas in Wuerttemberg. One of these

Climategate nearly ignored in Germany

2009-12-17T21:45:00.002+01:00

Right before the climate summit at Kopenhagen some hackers cracked computers at the CRU (Climate Research Unit) University of East Anglia and downloaded a lot of compromising material as emails and computer programs which they published for a short time on a website. Because a lot of people took the stuff themselves and uploaded it onto other websites now everyone can have a look themselves at

The Doctor, the Dachshound and the Poachers

2009-07-05T17:54:00.006+02:00

In a small valley southwest of Koenigsbronn on the Ostalb the eastmost part of the Swabian Alb, between Heidenheim and Aalen, there is an old memorial stone with a cross on it. People call it „Sueskind's Cross“ because it is said to be there in memoriam of Gamekeeper Sueskind who died on duty near the site of the stone. Sueskind's

Germany and its Forests

2009-06-27T13:30:00.006+02:00

As a matter of climate and geology in ancient times Germany used to be covered almost entirely by old-growth forest. In fact nowadays round about 31% of the federal territory consists of woodlands, but the nowadays German Forest are not old-growth forests but working forest cultivated primarily to produce wood.Fall in a Franconian forest where I used to huntWhen agriculture appeared in Germany

Housing in Germany

2009-06-17T21:36:00.011+02:00

In southern countries people spent a lot of time outside and homes and ambiance don't play such an important role in the everyday life. Although Germany isn't a really cold country, there is a cold season and even in summer there are periods now and than in which most people wouldnt like to spent their evenings and weekends outside the hoause like people in Italy or Spain do. So homes do play an

My little forge and its history

2009-06-11T12:21:00.027+02:00

One of my hobbies is blacksmithing. Blacksmithing as a hobby is not so common in Germany although the craft hasn't died out as business at all. We have a lot of horses here in Germany because alot of people ride. So we still need some farriers. Hence some people here still like wrought iron and can afford really hand made pieces there are some artist blacksmiths too. And last not least there

Computer Games and Firearms

2009-06-06T12:51:00.007+02:00

Yesterday the home secretaries of our 16 federal lands came out with a demand to our federal government. They want them to stamp out the so called "Killerspiele" (lit. killer games, pronounced "killershpeeleh") what is a demotic term in Germany for computer or video games where you have to fight.Background is a school shooting in March which happened in Winnenden, a small town near Stuttgart. (I

World of Warcraft in Germany

2009-06-04T12:30:00.006+02:00

As in the USA and in many other countries the MMORPG World of Warcraft is very popular. A lot of people play it here and, in fact, not only children at all. As a matter of fact, the oldest guy I know from playing WoW is about 60 and there are more around 40 or 50 as I am.My mainchar the dwarven hunter "Drahtbart"A school shooting and a lot of dumb talkAlthough WoW has a lot of fans here, people

Hunting in Germany

2009-06-02T20:55:00.009+02:00

Like many people in the whole world I like to go out hunting. But hunting in German is much different from hunting in e.g. the U.SA. or many other countries.Final ceremony with horn blowers of a hunting event in the state forest Getting a hunting licenseFirst it´s not easy at all to get a hunting license in Germany. You only get one if you have an absolutely clean criminal record. That mainly

Medieval Markets and Steam Railroads

2009-06-01T16:15:00.007+02:00

At the Medieval MarketA lot of people in Germany are into medieval reenactement and events in this field are quite popular. This morning I have been to such an event, a medieval market at Burg Katzenstein which is a castle on the Haertsfeld not too far from Heidenheim and Aalen."Showroom" of an armourerThere are lots of things on such a medieval market especially old craftmanship: blacksmiths,

Where I was born and where I live

2009-06-01T13:43:00.016+02:00

A view of Aalen, the place where I actually liveI was born in Heidenheim a town of about 50,000 inhabitants in the East of Baden-Wuerttemberg and about 55 Miles (on the road) from Stuttgart. In 1994 I moved to Aalen where my wife is from and where we have been living since with our two kids. Aalen is also a middle town with about 60,000 inhabitants.A storm-probed pine tree in the higlands of the

This is my new Blog

2009-06-01T08:21:00.001+02:00

Hi everyone!This is my new blog about everyday life in Germany. From now on You will find here some bits of information about a lot of things having to do with my country: everyday life, sights, history, current events and things like that.This might be of interest for You if U want to travel to Germany, have to stay here as a represantative of a foreign company or even just to learn a bit about