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March 2024
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Archives

Völklingen Ironworks – A Cynical Take

Last October I popped over to Saarbrücken for a weekend, gong there to see the Völklinger Hütte — A UNESCO World Heritage Site that, from a distance, seemed pretty cool. It turns out I found it rather boring — and I wrote a note to a friend about what I thought:

Today I am in […]

Essen: Well worth a visit!

I spent last weekend in Essen with a friend.

The raison d’être for the trip was the Zollverein, a coal mine that has been turned into a UNESCO World Heritage Site. I’m that kind of weird.

Last October I visited the Völklinger Hütte near Saarbrücken, a steel mill turned UNESCO World Heritage Site. I […]

Whatchamacallit 144: Happy End, soft de luxe

The first time I visited Germany, the Lonely Planet guidebook mentioned that one grocery store chain had named its house brand of toilet paper, “Happy End.”

My hosts denied knowledge of such a store with such a brand. It wasn’t until after I lived in Germany that I learned that Penny was the store […]

My September… Düsseldorf

Wow… This month is flying by, and things are, at least for now, going pretty well.

I skipped out of town last weekend – driven out of town by the prospect of being within drum earshot (and only drum earshot) of a “music” stage set up to motivate the runners of the Berlin Marathon.

My […]

It’s August… I took a brief vacation.

This month, for the first time since January, I had the time to take a vacation – leaving the boundaries of Berlin, hopping into metal tubes, and escaping to Immenstadt and Kiel – opposite ends of Germany, but fulfilling personal wishes to see friends and hit the beach.

I managed to spend three […]

Visiting Wolfsburg (VW): Germany’s Detroit (but not quite there yet)

This weekend, for reasons I won’t really disclose here, a friend and I agreed to meet in Wolfsburg – a city just over an hour west of Berlin.

For most people it is notable because it is home to Volkswagon.

I’ll admit that when we agreed to meet in Wolfsburg, I had no […]

Berlin takes a starring film role, this year in Victoria

Late last week one of my friends told me about a recently released film that features Berlin: Victoria.

So I saw it Sunday evening – and while there are a number of impressive things about (like the fact that it was shot in exactly one take with one cameraman), ultimately I hate Victoria.

No, […]

Adam’s Eurovision 2013 Preview Post

Eurovision is shit this year.

Pure unmitigated shit.

Wait – before you give up, hear me out. As most of you know, I’m a Eurovision fan. Perhaps not the most dedicated (I don’t pay attention to within country song selection processes, not even within Germany), but I do buy the music and listen to it […]

Same procedure as last year?

New Year’s Eve Tradition in Mobile, Alabama…

And, in keeping with the procedure from last year, Germany…

If you want to watch this on television, instead of on YouTube, and you’re in Germany, good news: you cannot miss it:

[…]

More fun than I expected…

Last night I kind of nerded out and started sorting through a massive stack of paperwork that’s accumulated over the past month – there’s something cathartic about sorting through all of it, punching holes in documents and putting them in binders.

Maybe that’s not nerding, per se, but a sign of being too German.

I […]