Sightseeing in Karlsruhe

We went sightseeing today. First we were at the "pyramid" at Marketplatz. Here is a picture of the kids, and another one at this link.



Then we went to the palace (schloß). Here is a picture of the kids posing in front of the schloß.

At the palace "garden", there was a "beer exchange" (bierbörse, as in stock exchange). Alan was in heaven, as there were beer makers from all over showcasing their beer. The palace garden became one giant biergarten. Alan wondered how big the party would be at Oktoberfest.

The kids would not want to pass up the opportunity to ride the "palace garden train" (schloßgartenbahn). We got a family pass (familiencarte) and rode the train around the palace garden. Here is a picture of Gabriel posing in front of the steam engine, and a picture of Jocelyn and me.


There is also a botanical garden on the palace ground. The garden is magnificent.

There are more pictures from our sightseeing today in this album.

More grocery shopping

We are still missing some basic staples, which led to more adventures at grocery stores today.

We went to Basic, an organic food supermarket, on Kaiserstraße today. Prices are lower than Alnatura (which we visited on our first day), but higher than Lidl (which we visited yesterday). The quality of produce at Basic is on a par with Alnatura and higher than Lidl.

Across the street from Basic is Asialand, an Asian grocery store. I could tell Glenda was in heaven as soon as we stepped inside the store. There is no shortage of Asian food supplies.

A few examples:

• our favorite Chinese "longevity shrimp" noodle 蝦子麵;
• a good selection of soy sauce to choose from;
• Longevity brand condensed milk (those who grew up in Hong Kong would certainly recognize this);
• Nissin Demae Ramen 公仔麵 (We don't eat instant/cup ramen, but were impressed by the selection at the store and could not resist taking this picture); and even
• Wong Lo Kat herbal tea 王老吉涼茶

Comparing to the SF Bay Area, the price is quite a bit higher here in Karlsruhe. A 10-lb. bag of Jasmine rice costs about 13€, a price that is significantly higher than that in the Bay Area.

I guess we will embark on an adventure to look for good Asian restaurants next.

Getting mobile phone numbers

We unlocked our AT&T cellphones before leaving the US. Unlocking would allow us to simply plug a Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) card from a German mobile carrier into our phones and we would have local mobile access. This saves us some € from the cost of new "handys" (as cell phones are called here).

We went to a local Vodafone store today and bought two pre-paid SIM phone card packages. Each one costs ~ €20, out of which €10 is usable airtime. At €1,50 per month maintenance fees and €0,29 per call, the credit will probably last us a couple of months unless Glenda and I call each other frequently.

It appears to be easier for foreigners to get a mobile phone in Germany than a few years ago. This is a great story on getting a mobile phone in Germany when a US family was settling in Karlsruhe for a one-year sabbatical (just like our family). At least we got our mobile access without first visiting the police (and we have yet to set up our local bank accounts)!

Eis-cafe

It was a nice and warm day outside. We decided to have ice cream at a nearby eis-cafe.

Here you see Gabriel, Jocelyn and Glenda enjoying their eis.

Day 2: Lidl, KVV, ESK

Gabriel and Jocelyn were eager to see their school today (even though the school year won't begin until next week). The closest station where there are direct trams to Europäische Schule Karlsruhe (European School Karlsruhe, ESK) is at Europaplatz, a 5-minute walk from our residence.

We had lunch at Post Galerie, a shopping mall at Europaplatz. To our pleasant surprise, we found Lidl, a supermarket chain that sells food at substantially lower prices than Alnatura.

But before the grocery shopping spree, we took a KVV tram to ESK. Well...two trams, as tram #4 (the direct tram to ESK) was re-routed for the last three weeks due to track maintenance. A 20-minute trip turned into a 50-min trip; this gave the kids ample opportunities to horse around on the tram.

We finally arrived at the school, and Gabriel and Jocelyn were happy posing in front of the school.

Our first dinner in Germany

After we read the "local guide" (presumably written by the staff at FZK-Guesthouse), we went to the "Health food store" Alnatura to get grocery. Prices are high for most items. For the price of a block of tofu, one could get three blocks at Berkeley Bowl. German shoppers bring their own tote bags or backpacks to grocery shopping. There is no "paper-or-plastic" decision at checkout; we were impressed.

The adjective cheap is boldfaced in the description of Cafe Bleu in the local guide. Off we went to this neighborhood restaurant (mit biergarten). Dining out is going to be a challenge of us this year, as we don't know any German.

Alan thought he ordered a grilled fish fillet and some mashed potato, and got this dish. At least he guessed the mashed potato "kartoffelpuree", and there was McDonald's rendition of fish fillet.


Glenda thought she ordered a salad with sausage. When the "wursalat"came, we were surprised to see a full plate of "salad" made with sliced cold meat. Obviously we had "salat mit wurst" in mind, and Glenda got a good laugh at it.



The kids shared a schnitzel. They seemed to enjoy it. In fact, Jocelyn was excited as soon as she had a bite, as you can tell from the before and after pics.

You can see Cafe Bleu's daily specials here. They are indeed reasonably priced (and the dishes are so big that Gabriel and Jocelyn could share one).

We arrived in Germany safely, but not Alan's laptop!

After a tour of US airports (SFO, SNA, ORD) on tickets redeemed from United Airline's MileagePlus REWARD program, we finally arrived at Frankfurt airport (FRA) some 20 hours later.

The German immigration officer (Polizei?) could not have been nicer.

Polizei: "How long are you going to stay?"
Alan: "A year. I plan to do physics research at Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe."
Polizei: [While stamping our passports] "Enjoy your stay."

If a foreigner were to give the same response at any US, Canada, UK, NZ, Australian...border without a work permit, he/she would be spending at least an hour explaining the word "research" before getting bounced. Not to this Canadian/US family of four showing up without a work permit at a German entry point. We will get our resident permits next week once we have settled down.

We didn't lose any of our eight checked bags (despite the convoluted route). After the "limousine" driver loaded our bags onto the back of a VW van, we hit the autobahn at top speed and arrived at our flats at the FZK-Guesthouse in Karlsruhe about 80 minutes later. We have two single flats for the next few days until a large 2-room flat is available.

The only casualty of the trip was Alan's laptop, which was transported in his carry-on bag. The hard disk was dead (a sinister "invalid key length" error). Fortunately, he did a full backup before the trip; and a hard-disk reformat and three hours later, Apple's Time Machine software restored all his files.