Slide, slide and slide

Gabriel and Jocelyn had a lot of fun at a playground at the Schlossgarten today. Here are two clips showing the kids coming down their favorite slide. Jocelyn did not have a smooth ride in the second clip.

We hit the autobahn (and IKEA)!

We need to better equip our kitchen, and off we went to Ikea today. We signed out a "klein" (small) Opel Corsa from Stadtmobil. It was quite an autobahn experience for me: driving at 130 km/h (~80 mph) on the slow lane, and there were Mercedes, BMWs, Audis, and Porsches (and never an Opel or Fiat) passing us at perhaps over 200 km/h.

Ikea in Walldorf (about 40 km from Karlsruhe) was packed with people, and it seemed like everyone was buying stuff. No wonder it was packed, we picked up a few items at incredibly low price, e.g. a few dining plates at 0,29€ each.

Dinner with Peter, Kazumi and Brandon (and the Guinness question)

Several friends came to Karlsruhe for a meeting. You can see Kazumi T. and Peter D. having a good meeting on this German Reunification day (and a public holiday here).

We had dinner at Badische Weinstuben at the Botanischen Garten (Botanical Garden). Peter was in the questioning mood, and bombarded us with questions. He asked Brandon W. and my son Gabriel why bubbles float down in Guinness (when he was drinking Pils and there was no Guinness in sight). Gabriel almost guessed it correctly without even knowing what a Guinness stout is ("I think the liquid pushes the bubbles down", which is mostly correct).

Gabriel's haircut

I took Gabriel to the barber shop today. I thought I asked the barber (in German) to cut Gabriel's hair 1 cm shorter. But he definitely has cut more than 1 cm, and Gabriel's hair is now shorter than 1 cm...hmmm.. Fortunately Gabriel likes his spiky hair style.

Heidelberg

Our friend Anett suggested that we should go to the annual Heidelberg Herbst (fall festival) yesterday. Much of Heidelberg turned into a party ground, and perhaps not the greatest day for sightseeing.

After an hour of train journey from Karlsruhe, we arrived at the Heidelberg train station late in the morning. Then we took a bus to the Bismarckplatz end of Altstadt (old town). Hauptstraße (literally the "main street") was lined with stalls (in front of existing shops) and was already packed with people. We grabbed a quick bite and slowly made our way to the other end of Altstadt where we could get up to the world famous Heidelberger Schloss (the Heidelberg Castle). Not only did we cherish the view there, we enjoyed strolling around the Deutsche Apotheken Museum (German Pharmacy Museum...it isn't clear to us why there is a museum on pharmacy in the castle though). Jocelyn was excited afterwards.

There were many food stalls on Hauptstraße. Here you see Glenda learning how to make flammkuchen, a Rhine valley version of thin-crust pizza with sour cream, onion and bacon bits as toppings. The most intriguing food stall sold hot dogs with 50-cm (~2o inches) long bratwursts! The bratwursts were cut four-folds in order to fit in the baguette length-wise.

We crossed the Neckar via Alte Brück (the "old bridge"), and walked along the river bank. Here you see Gabriel on the bridge with the castle in the background.

By 5:30 PM, the kids were already tired, and we tried to make our way back to the train station. But there were even more people on Hauptstraße than earlier in the afternoon. In fact people started streaming in and the party was just beginning. The sea of people really reminded me of Mong Kok in Hong Kong.

There are more pictures from our trip at this link.

Solving the car problem

Karlsruhe has an excellent public transport system. We live close to the town center and don't need a car every day. But we do need a car occasionally, and buying a used car just for this does not make sense.

At the advice of one of the graduate students here, we explored the possibility of car-sharing with Stadtmobil, similar to Zipcar in North America. Armed with the city-issued local address registration form, our residency permits (hence passports), California driver's licenses, and international driving permits, Glenda and I registered as members at the Stadtmobil office a couple of weeks ago. We paid the initiation fee of 600€ (and we will get back 460€ when we return to the US and terminate the membership next year), signed a few forms. From now on, we pay a monthly membership maintenance fee of 7€, and we can take out cars for hours or for days at a time. Most of the cars need advanced reservation (on the web or by phone), but there are also cars that can be signed out for up to 48 hours without prior reservation as long as they are at the lot. The cost for taking the car out each time is reasonable: a 1€ processing fee, a hourly fee (ranging from 0,98€ to 3,45€ per hour depending on whether you are checking out a subcompact or a transport van) and a mileage fee (ranging from 0,19€/km to 0,28€/km). The mileage fee includes gas and insurance. There are also special rates for daily, weekend or weekly check-outs. Each car also comes with a child booster seat (which means we only need to buy one booster). The car problem is now solved.

Fleischkäse

One of the lunch specials at the cafeteria today was Fleischkäse ("meat-cheese"). It sounded too heavy for my taste, so I had the salad bar instead. Then my German colleagues made a few jokes about the "meat-cheese" and got me interested. A quick search on the internet got me to this hilarious piece, where a picture of the "meat-cheese" is front and center.

Is this Alan or Gabriel Alan?

For those of you who do not think that Gabriel bears a striking resemblance to Alan, please see the picture below. Gabriel put on Alan's spare pair of glasses last night so I decided to snap this photo. What do you think? Sorry about the red eyes...

Day trip to Basel

Deutsch Bahn has a special fare that is perfect for day-trips. A day-pass that is valid for a group of up to 5 family members traveling within the issuing state (in our case, Baden-Württemburg) can be purchased for 27€. The B-W pass even includes Basel, Switzerland as a destination, and the transfer from Basel Bad. train station (the arrival station) to Basel SBB train station (where most of the museums and tourist attractions are) is also included. Off we went to Basel, the third largest city in Switzerland, yesterday!

The train ride took about 3 hours as we had to take the regional train (and not the direct InterCity Express...remember, the total ticket cost was only 27€ for our family of 4!). The train stopped at most stations and there was a train transfer. We got to Basel just before lunch, and Gabriel and Jocelyn were eager to take a picture outside Basel SBB.

Our first destination after lunch was the Puppenhausmuseum (Doll's House Museum), where there was a huge collection of dolls, teddy bears and other toys. The kids really enjoyed it.

We then headed to the world-famous art museum Kunstmuseum Basel. Its permanent collection is impressive, and the paintings (even those from the 1500s) have been well preserved. The collection features quite a few by Picasso, Rousseau, and the impressionists such as van Gogh, Cézanne and others. Several Picasso pieces were donated by the artist himself. The museum has a good collection of Giacometti's work, but they are too surreal for me.

The kids wanted a drink after strolling through the museum. We thought the price of CHF 4 (US$3.60) for a shot of expresso at the museum cafe was too high; so we went to a local Starbucks instead. Well, it was not cheaper. A tall (small in Starbucks lingo) cup of drip coffee was CHF 4,90 (US$ 4.40)! At the Starbucks in Karlsruhe, a small drip is only 1,90€ (US$ 2.70,a price that is still substantially higher than the US, but inlcuded 19% of value added tax). Our two cups of coffee and bottled juices for the kids came to over CHF 20.

We then headed to the Münster (the cathedral in Basel). It is quite an impressive building on the bank of the Rhine. Behind the cathedral is a path down to the river bank. Here is a picture of Glenda and the kids by the bank.

We just strolled around Marktplatz for the remainder of the day. The Rathaus (town hall) is stunningly beautiful. We found a chocolatier across from the Rathaus. The chocolate selection was huge, and we bought (perhaps) too much chocolate. Jocelyn was enjoying one on the train on the way back.

I can sum up my feeling for Basel in three words: beautiful, friendly and expensive.

Violin!

Gabriel missed his violin practices since we moved to Karlsruhe.  Today we finally rented a 1/4-size violin for a monthly fee of 15€ from a local violin maker Frau Charlotte Hepfer, whose workshop is only two blocks from our flat.  Garbriel couldn't wait to play a few tunes for us.  The violin sounds great, although Gabriel technique is a bit rusty.  Next, we need to find him an English-speaking violin teacher.  

An afternoon at the city park and zoo...

On Sunday we took the tram to the City Park and Zoo, which is across the street from Hauptbahnhof (the City's main train station). The children had fun looking at the animals, particularly the flamingoes and the polar bears.

They also enjoyed the petting zoo, where they were able to feed the sheep, ponies and goats.

There was also a huge playground in the outskirts of the zoo, where the kids ended up spending most of their time. Gabriel liked climbing around the rope structure while Jocelyn preferred to play on the swing.

And as the name suggests, there were also beautiful gardens at the site. There was a lovely rose garden, a Japanese garden and countless other gardens that we didn't have time to explore.

The weather seems to have changed rather suddenly here in Karlsruhe. Fall is definitely around the corner and it is more noticeable here than it is in the Bay Area. Luckily I finished Jocelyn's hooded sweater just in time. This was made using the Knit Child's Raglan Cardigan pattern, free from the Lion Brand Yarn's website. I used slightly less than 3 skeins of Lion Brand Wool-Ease Chunky in the Redwood colorway. I also added a knitted flower as an embellishment, which Jocelyn adores.

Eis in Karlsruhe

"Eis" (the Italian gelato variety) is cheap in Karlsruhe. For 0,70€-0,80€, you get a single scoop on a waffle cone. Alan's favorite in Berkeley, Naia, is pricier. Needless to say, our family has been enjoying a few cones a week. Alan is worried that he may lose his bet with Lindley...