Aachen

*Yesterday I paid my first-ever visit to Aachen and had a little time to explore after my interview. I got to see the point where Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium touch – it’s in a pretty park on a hilltop, marked by the three countries’ flags. The city itself has a charming cobblestone-street center with an old cathedral and rathaus (town hall), and it’s ringed by medieval towers. It’s also chock-full of political ads for the upcoming national elections on Sept. 18, which are a hot conversational topic everywhere I go. (Oddly, Frankfurt seems to have fewer political ads – I gather Aachen is in an area considered more of a political battleground). The company owner I interviewed in Aachen is planning to open a subsidiary in Charlotte soon, and he said he enjoys the fact that Charlotte’s downtown has street life. But it’s really so modest compared to the center city street life in any given European town, even the smallest ones. It’s a shame the American love affair with automobiles and sprawl has made that type of atmosphere so hard to come by back home.

*On the other hand, I would just about kill for a Johnny Burrito, sodas with ice in them, TV channels in English besides CNN, and stores that stay open on Sundays and past 8 p.m. on weekdays. As I reach the midpoint of this trip, there are plenty of things both large and small that I miss about home. I suppose that’s natural. Of course I’d never trade this experience for anything, but the ice thing kind of gets to me. Would it kill them to put a little scoop of it in my Coke Light?

Frankfurt Museum Festival

*I spent much of the weekend checking out Frankfurt’s Museum Festival, probably the biggest festival to hit the city each year – they say they get 3 million visitors. All the museums are open extra-long hours and you can buy a cheap pass to get into all of them. The riverbanks are lined with many musical stages, booths for food and drink, and crafts for sale. I only went inside one museum – the Modern Art Museum. I loved the interior architecture – much like the Bilbao Guggenheim, the architecture becomes part of the art. I’m a fan of some kinds of modern art, but some of the more extreme works made me chuckle, like the piece that consisted of raw eggs smashed against the wall (drippings and shells visible on the floor) and an entire huge gallery with just one tiny blue square on one wall.

*There were fireworks last night, which I watched with some of the folks from last week’s stammtisch group. The fireworks were pretty, but the crowds were a little too Cologne-like for my taste. This week unfortunately I’m battling a cold that makes me tired, but I have lots of travel planned so I hope to shake it off soon.

Stammtisch

Writing from the office:
*I met a second “stammtisch” group last night – all journalists, many of them Americans who moved here for work. Friendly group. One thing I don’t get here, though, is everyone who lives in Frankfurt – German or otherwise - has a tendency to bash it. They say it’s ugly or unfriendly or whatever. The most positive comment I’ve heard from a local is “It’s better than its reputation.” Berlin, Hamburg and Munich are viewed as much more desirable places to live. Personally I don’t see what inspires such dislike. It’s a vibrant city, journalistically interesting, and as I’ve mentioned, I have not had any unfriendly encounters.

*I’m still tired from Cologne. There’s a big museum festival here this weekend that’s supposed to be spectacular. I’ll definitely check it out – so much for my desire to stay away from crowds for a while.

Cologne part 2

August 21, 2005
*Writing aboard the train back to Frankfurt Sunday night:
*Friday night there was a party for the journalists. It was a blast – great food and drink. The local beer specialty in Cologne is called Koelsch, served in a small glass, about 0.2 liters. They’re dangerous because you hardly feel like you’re drinking anything, so you just keep going.

*Saturday was my one day here completely ‘off the clock’ for stories, so I slept in. Sabra and I took a dip in the hotel pool. Then another Burns fellow, Josh from ABC, met up with us. Curt briefly joined us at a little café by the river. From there, we took our opportunity to go inside the Dom (cathedral) – all of the Catholic ‘pilgrims’ were heading out of town for an overnight vigil, so the city center had emptied out quite a bit. From the cathedral, we walked to a beer garden famous with the locals (I think it was called Paeffgen). They brew the Koelsch there, and it’s a pleasant place. Then we ended up in a restaurant in a high tower at the Messe (convention center) overlooking the city center as the sun set and the city lit up.

*It was early to rise at 5:30 a.m. Sunday. Sabra and I made our way on press buses to Marienfeld to cover the big final mass with the Pope. Getting to the field was no problem, but once there we had big problems trying to find the press center – nobody in any of the ‘official’ uniforms knew where it was or the answers to any other questions we asked. We made our way around the hill where the Pope would be speaking and finally found the center after much frustration and got our computers working. And then I had to wend my way through the crowd to find the Charlotte group. At one point I had a panic attack, no joke, because the crowd more or less ground to a halt blocking a walkway and I was stuck in the middle of it, mashed up against everyone, and felt like I couldn’t move or breathe. I finally had to shove my way sideways out of the knot, take a few deep breaths, and then start moving again. Found the Charlotte group with surprisingly little difficulty after that. Watched Benedict’s service on the screens with them. The sheer scale of the event was impressive, with ultimately over a million people there (half of them had slept overnight on the cold, wet ground). The Pope wasn’t even a speck on the hill from where we were.

*Then came the nightmare effort to leave - no amount of logistics can handle that many people trying to leave at once, and unfortunately things were poorly organized. I ran into Matt from AP and one of his co-workers by chance. We then spent another hour to 90 minutes trying to make our way to where some mythical ‘press buses’ were supposed to give us a ride. No luck, so we decided to walk a ways because a local on a bicycle told us it was about 5 km to the nearest city center, Frechen, and we thought it would be an easy walk. Turned out to be not so easy.

*One part of the walk was neat: As we started entering the edges of Frechen, the locals were looking out their windows to watch the stream of pilgrims from all over the world walking by, and many of them were waving at us. I’m sure it’s one of the bigger things to happen to their little town. And some of them had set up little snack bars and other businesses in their driveways to serve the pilgrims walking by. We stopped at a guy grilling bratwursts and had some.

*But the walk soon turned painful. It was more like 10 km, and we were all carrying computer gear, and all of the streams of pilgrims who’d left the field on foot converged with us until we were a mob moving down the streets of the town. Just as we were beginning to despair of finding transportation, we lucked into hailing a cab and I enjoyed a sleepy ride back to Cologne courtesy of the AP. In all, getting to my hotel had taken five hours.

Bylines etc.

From the office:
*I’ll be posting part 2 of the Cologne experience shortly. Meanwhile, here are my Germany bylines so far for those who are interested:
Lufthansa experience:
http://www.charlotte.com/mld/observer/business/12385584.htm
The shoe biz:
http://www.charlotte.com/mld/observer/business/12437101.htm
World Youth Day:
http://www.charlotte.com/mld/observer/living/religion/12431147.htm
http://www.charlotte.com/mld/observer/news/12443176.htm (intro to final mass story)
http://www.charlotte.com/mld/observer/news/12443229.htm

*And a postscript to my Lindau trip: Thanks to Burns fellow Robert for this explanation of the lion in the harbor:
“The lion you can see next to the lighthouse is the Bavarian heraldic animal. And since Lindau is the only Bavarian village on the shores of Lake Constance they call it the "Bavarian Gate to the Bodensee" where - of course - the lion has to welcome the visitors.”

Crowded Cologne

From hotel in Cologne:
*Whew, Cologne has been crazy this week. I arrived Wednesday with AP friend Matt to cover World Youth Day, an immense gathering of Catholics and Pope Benedict’s historic first foreign visit since being named pontiff. (Benedict’s also a native German).

*The first sight from the train station was overwhelming – mobs of young people carrying flags from countries around the world, many of them singing and chanting. (We learned the numbers were expected to reach 450,000 that day and an estimated 800,000 are expected at the mass on Sunday). They were packed so densely around the train station, and in front of the jaw-droppingly impressive cathedral, it was difficult to move through them. Matt and I cabbed it to the press center, which was joyously uncrowded and full of great facilities. (Reportedly there are 7,000 journalists here but I haven’t seen nearly that many anywhere at once). Matt graciously invited me to hang out with the other AP folks in a room designated for them.

*I spent most of the day playing catchup in the press center until I could finally meet up with some members of the Charlotte Diocese who traveled here for the event. After a quick interview, I found my way to the hotel room Sabra offered to share with me, then retrieved luggage that had mistakenly been taken to the AP folks’ hotel (for a few heart-stopping minutes I thought it had been stolen). My hotel, the Maritim, is something of a landmark along the Rhine and quite elegant (thanks Sabra!).

*Yesterday was a marathon – I got up at 5:15 a.m. in order to meet the Charlotte group by 7 a.m. to follow them around for the day for my story. Journeys that normally should take 20 or 30 minutes swell into hours in these crowds, but I made it on time. I attended a catechesis and mass in a soccer stadium with this group and some 10,000 others. Not to offend any Catholics, but I found it a bit bizarre that priests were hearing confession from rows of plastic chairs set up in full view of the crowd. I also found it fascinating how efficiently they took communion – about 100 priests fanned out into the crowd with bowls of communion wafers and moved down the rows and had the stadium covered in no time. I was a bit embarrassed that I had to decline – I was probably the only one in the stadium besides the security guards who did so.

*I had time to go to the press center to transmit my photos, then made my way back to the Charlotte group again. On a train crossing the Rhine I caught a glimpse of the Pope’s boat floating down the river – that was how he was first presented to the faithful as they lined the banks. I’d originally thought I’d be either in a journalist boat beside him or on the banks with my Charlotte group, but they decided to skip the river arrival because they figured they wouldn’t really be able to see him anyway (they were right – I had a far better view on live TV in the press center). As I made my way to the crowded streets near the cathedral where the Pope was scheduled to drive by in the Popemobile, I was beginning to think that finding the Charlotte group would be futile, despite the meeting point we’d devised. But against all odds, I ran into one of the group leaders on a street near our meeting point. She led me to the rest – they’d picked a spot behind the barricades at the end of the Pope’s motorcade route. A very painful, leg-cramping two hours ensued during which I waited with them, pressed on all sides by sweaty strangers, for a glimpse of Benedict driving by. A distant photo showing him as a white blob and a concluding quote for my story rewarded the effort. I filed my story around 11 p.m. and had a room-service dinner afterward.

*Today I visited Krefeld, a city of about 250,000 a 40-minute train ride from Cologne. It’s Charlotte’s sister city. It’s a decent little place with nice amenities which I’ll detail in the story I’m writing about it, but the best part about it today was the fact that it was so uncrowded compared to Cologne. I found a nice shaded bench in a grassy park and just enjoyed the silence for a while. I also saw some cool modern art by the likes of Warhol, Christo and Lichtenstein in one of the city’s museums. Sadly, eventually I had to board the train again and return to the mobs!

On holiday

*Posting from Starbucks in Frankfurt:
*This weekend, I got a taste of what it’s like when Germans go ‘on holiday.’ That’s where most of them are right now, particularly many of the sources I’m trying to contact for stories. And of course for many of them the holidays last three or four weeks. I met fellow Burns fellows Sabra and Alex in Friedrichschafen, one of many resort towns ringing the Bodensee, also known as Lake Constance, which touches southern Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Sabra, normally in Moscow for Cox Newspapers, is working for the paper in Stuttgart, and Alex normally with Dow Jones in New York, is working for the AP in Berlin.

*The trip started a bit ominously Saturday morning. Sabra and Alex had problems catching a train and ran late, once they arrived the weather was gloomy, there were gnats swarming everywhere and we took a somewhat intimidating walk to a shop where we wanted to rent bicycles.

*But once we got on the bikes and started exploring, everything got more fun. The weather improved. We ended up biking more than 25 km along the lake to the town of Lindau, which overlooks Austria. We had a leisurely lunch at café – my order was a Bavarian dish that turned out to be a gigantic dumpling with bacon in it, perched on top of sauerkraut. Normally it would not have thrilled me, but I was so hungry I devoured it happily. (I have not yet had a spectacular restaurant meal on this trip). I finished off with an iced coffee with ice cream and whipped cream, evidently one of the local specialties as I saw several restaurants serving it and many people partaking. At one point a costumed brass band whose members appeared to be drunk marched by.

*We took a quick walk to a lighthouse that frames the town’s picturesque harbor along with a giant lion statue – I wish I’d gotten a chance to find out its story. Then we loaded our bikes onto a ferry and took it back to Friedrichschafen. That ride was my favorite part of the day – the weather was beautiful, the water was calm and we could enjoy the scenery.

*We took a train about 18 km to Ravensburg, where our hotel was perched beside a medieval tower dating back to the 13th or 14th centuries. (The town is known for having seven towers). The town of about 50,000 was cute, with pedestrian-friendly streets filled with shops, and a long avenue of cafes where we had our dinner. We chose a Mexican restaurant and discovered the food was not particularly Mexican, but was palatable.

*The weekend’s other notable experience has been the Frankfurt film festival. Friday night I saw what is very likely the first-ever German martial arts/sci-fi film. It was so ludicrously bad it was kind of….well, I won’t say good, but it managed to be entertaining. I could see 12-year-old boys loving it, but it won’t make it further than a possible DVD release or possibly limited Asian release, as it was reportedly a hit at the Shanghai film festival. But anyway, you gotta love a filmfest where you can see a guy who looks like James Van Der Beek of “Dawson’s Creek” busting out kung-fu on bad guys.

*Tonight after returning by train, I caught “The Big White,” Robin Williams’ latest film, also with Holly Hunter, Giovanni Rabisi, Woody Harrelson, Alison Lohman and Tim Blake Nelson. Great cast, offbeat story along the lines of “Fargo” and “A Simple Plan,” but with more broadly comic moments. I was oddly disappointed by it, though – the characters were quirky because the script required it, and it didn’t fit together. Too bad.

Friday in the office

August 12, 2005
Office again:
*Went to the top of the Helaba building last night – Frankfurt’s second-tallest tower, 205 meters including antenna. It’s the main building I can see from my apartment window. The views were spectacular but I had a little vertigo and was timid about approaching the edge. I have a few fuzzy shots of the view from my phone camera – email if you’re interested and I’ll share. Also had a couple of cocktails in a bar on top of the building. Thanks to Bernd, a Burns alum who works at the Frankfurt newspaper, for being my tour guide.

*My new refrigerator arrived yesterday and I discovered the joys of shopping in the basement of the nearby Karstadt department store. It’s a true gourmet shop with much better produce and overall selection than my pitiful little Lidl grocery store. But expensive too. There’s an amusing “American” food display that includes boxes of Betty Crocker brownie mix for the equivalent of about six bucks apiece.

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang

August 11, 2005
In the office:

Last night I sampled the Frankfurt Fantasy Filmfest, a smallish specialty festival focusing on thrillers, horror and sci-fi. The opening film will be released in the U.S. on September 16 – “Kiss Kiss Bang Bang,” starring Robert Downey Jr. and Val Kilmer. It’s a blend of thriller, comedy and film noir. My take: Hilarious, and highly entertaining. Critics probably will say it got too caught up in its own cleverness or something, but I say just go see it.

It continues to amaze me that Frankfurt is roughly the same size as Charlotte (about 600,000 in the city limits, 1 million metro area), but manages to be so much more urban and lively. Things like having its own film festival – with the size of the film community in Charlotte, there’s no excuse for not having one. And public transit – I know the Germans were taxed heavily for the privilege, but it’s amazing how extensive the train, bus and tram systems are. In Charlotte we’ve sweated so much to start building one pitiful little light-rail line. The Main river through the city is beautiful – in Charlotte we had water running through downtown, and we paved it over and put in Marshall Park. And the museums are astounding here.

I’ve heard a few folks complain that they don’t think the people in Frankfurt are very friendly, but that hasn’t been my experience. Last night I took the wrong street leaving the movie theater (those familiar with the Eschenheimer Tor intersection won’t be surprised) and was looking at my city map when a woman stopped to ask if I needed help finding my way. And a guy in the movie theater could tell I hadn't understood the German introduction to the film, so he leaned over and explained it to to me. Everyone has been very kind when I’ve tried out my halting German. Thus far, Frankfurt’s getting two thumbs up from me.

Ups and Downs

Writing from the DJ office:
*On the downside: Refrigerator broke Sunday night, causing my freshly-purchased groceries to spoil. This morning, the maintenance man told me he’ll bring a new one “next Monday or Tuesday.” I said ‘What am I supposed to do about food until then?’ His reply: “OK, maybe Friday.” Grrr.

*On the upside: Shout-outs to all of the many friendly people I’ve met in the last few days. Matt from AP and his wife Ali were extremely warm and welcoming and have invited me to hang out at their place regularly.

*And last night I experienced my first “stammtisch,” the German name for the tradition of meeting weekly at a designated restaurant for drinks and discussion. This was at a pub in the Nordend, a quiet but trendy neighborhood north of where I live. I tried my first apfelwein (“apple wine”), a local Frankfurt specialty – not quite like cider, more bitter, but not bad when served as a “spritzer.” I joined this group thanks to Tibet, one of the German journalists I met during orientation who’s now working in Portland. He put me in touch with his friends. Thanks to Susann and the others for making me feel so welcome.

Exploring Frankfurt

August 7, 2005
*Back in Starbucks:
*Friday night was my first night out for drinks with co-workers. Four of them took me to an authentic-seeming German pub, where I tried two of the special beers of the house, with a name I now can’t remember.
*Saturday I met up with Sabine, a Burns alumna who works at Reuters and offered to help show me around. She took me to a castle about 30-40 minutes outside Frankfurt, the Mespelbrunn Castle in Spessart. It was built in the 1560s and we could tour about half of it and see its antique furniture, weapons and artwork. The other half is still occupied by descendants of the original family. It’s surrounded by a picturesque swan-filled moat. I had a slice of a delicious raspberry cake at a café in the former stable on the grounds. I liked it because not only was it not overly touristy, but it was the kind of thing that would be considered interesting by average Germans.
*She invited me afterward to a barbecue being held by one of her Reuters co-workers, Rajiv. Originally from India, with nine years in America, he has a great apartment that can fit mine in his living room. He grilled tandoori chicken over charcoal and it was just about the best thing I’ve ever eaten. His sister and nephew were visiting from England, and the nephew Sanjay was the most brilliant 11-year-old I’ve ever met. It was a great time and I can’t thank Sabine enough for inviting me.
*Today I got out to explore Frankfurt a bit. It’s another chilly, somewhat blustery day, but the rain has held off. There’s a festival going on by the river, the Mainfest, but it was a bit disappointing – a blend of Speed Street, Festival in the Park and a county fair. I crossed the Main to the museum district in Sachsenhausen and went into the German Film Museum. None of the exhibits had information in English, but they were so visual that I could follow most of it. The bulk of it was a history of the development of film technology, and there was a special exhibit on stop-motion filmmaking that had exhibits from Harryhausen films and some trippy German children’s shows. I spent a little time in a theater showing Laurel & Hardy short films. I’ll have to read my guidebook to see which other museums I should visit – there are so many the choices are a little overwhelming.
*This evening I’m invited to dinner at the apartment of Amy’s friend Matt from AP and his wife, parents of a 7-week-old. I was thrilled to learn they live extremely close – just around the block from my Woolworth’s.

Trip to Essen

Writing aboard the ICE (InterCity Express) train from Essen back to Frankfurt:

A couple of observations:

As a retail reporter, I’m appalled by German merchandising – in the grocery store, everything was piled helter-skelter with no regard to appearance, logical juxtapositions or ease of use. But good wine was cheap – about three Euros for bottles from Spain, France, Chile and Australia. And in Woolworth’s, the same type of merchandise could often be found in two or perhaps three different places in the seven-story store. I needed clothes hangers for my closet and found them on the basement floor – and again on the seventh.

The train system is difficult to figure out here, and much more expensive than I thought it would be. A one-way short trip on the Ubahn (metro) is 1.55 Euros, almost two bucks, and a monthly pass is nearly 64 Euros (about 80 bucks). It seems to be largely honor system, as I have never been checked to see if I’m carrying a fare card. And in the stations, multiple trains with different destinations share tracks and signage is poor, so it’s difficult to know whether you’re waiting in the correct spot for your destination. As far as the intercity trips go, I gulped at the price for a Eurail pass allowing me to make 10 trips within two months – I’ll use it up easily, and may have to scale back some of my original plans. I also belatedly learned today there’s no need to fork over the extra 3 Euros each way to reserve a train seat on most trips, as the first-come-first-served seating is just fine.

The weather is much chillier than I expected. The Germans tell me it’s unusual and will get warmer before it’s chilly for good, but for now I’m convinced I overpacked summer-weight clothes.

I traveled to Essen today for an interview with the German owner of Rack Room Shoes in Charlotte. The city is in the northern part of the Rhine valley, though the river was not visible on the train or in the city. From Frankfurt, you pass Cologne and Dusseldorf on the way. Essen was rather ugly compared with most European cities I’ve seen – gritty and worn down, lacking the spectacular modern (or is it postmodern?) architecture of Frankfurt’s many skyscrapers.

I had lunch at a café on a reasonably lively boulevard and mistakenly ordered a plate of smoked salmon – the waitress tried to explain the menu to me in broken English after seeing me trying to translate it with a dictionary, but I clearly misunderstood because I thought I was ordering a stuffed fish dish with cheese. I ate the salmon anyway. I walked around a bit in the shopping district near the train station but was unimpressed. The city’s main theater was a garish pink modern building with square columns of what appeared to be concrete – ugh. But it had a Starbucks with a great T-mobile connection across the street.

I’m enjoying the intercity train ride, about two hours each way. While the scenery is not spectacular, it’s different from anything I see at home, and the bright blue sky is dotted with dramatic clouds, and the seat is comfortable. Oh, and the interview was reasonably successful. So, all in all a pretty good day.

Second day at work

August 3, 2005
Writing from the Dow Jones bureau in Frankfurt:

My apartment is tiny and overpriced, but in a great location right around the corner from a bustling shopping boulevard called the Zeil. I was quickly able to find a cheap grocery store and a Woolworth’s to buy all of my settling-in necessities. (I bought what I thought was toilet paper and it turned out to be paper towels instead, but as a new friend pointed out, there’s not much difference between the two here). I can get CNN International and MTV on my television. There’s also a lovely gourmet food market nearby, resembling an indoor farmer’s market. And I’m right around the corner from the Ubahn (metro trains).

The office has been hospitable – the editors are letting me set my own agenda for what to work on. I’ve got plenty of Observer stories lined up and I busied myself during my first day yesterday on those. Today I discussed two new story ideas with a very friendly editor here, Adam, and we’re hoping one or the other can be a feature that would be picked up by the Wall Street Journal.

Last night I met Susanna, an alumna of the Burns program who’s now working for Bloomberg here in Frankfurt, for a light supper at a café outside the Opera House, which is beautiful. I tried a German noodle dish, spaetzle.

My biggest problem so far has been technology. My plan to call everyone in the U.S. using Skype from my wireless laptop hasn’t panned out because my T-mobile service isn’t working correctly. And I found out my U.S. mobile phone is not compatible with the German phone system, though I may be able to resolve it – I’ll let everyone know. I got a German mobile phone for 25 Euros to have a local number, but couldn’t dial it at first (I’ve since figured that out). At least my email works fine from the computers in the office.