I slept miraculously on Saturday with the rain, but I also needed the weather to clear. My visit for furniture was 10 km away, so I had to bike. After getting a little lost & unable to dodge all the drops, I arrived soaked. I met Damian, a Polish kid working for adidas, and we had an instant friendship with my last name. When I looked at the stuff he was selling (and the amazing price), I said 'yes!' I was very happy that I had completed another step in getting my life setup...apartment furniture. We would need to figure out a date to move things via truck, but I gave him a down payment to ensure it was mine.
On Saturday afternoon, the NZ woman engineer was still in town, and since she knew she was going to be moving here, she asked if me & another engineer (Henry) with a car wouldn't mind showing her around. So we drove around Herzo, Erlangen, and even down to Nuremburg to walk around the altstadt & see the Imperial Castle. I then asked Henry if we could check out any other site in town, and so we drove to the Nazi Rally Grounds. I wanted to take advantage of being in car, and not having to travel via bike or foot.
Other than a race car event being setup, this place was awesome! There wasn't much left of the enormous cement structures, as we bombed most of it, but you could imagine what it was like 80 years ago. This was where the videos of Hitlers famous speeches to massive crowds were, and also where the US & Allie officially celebrated the end of WW2 (we blew up a massive swastika). This was great...this is why people visit these sites...because of how influential they were on the world. I was finally getting to experience part of the history of Germany. And with the Krzeminski history of World War II in Europe, I am really interested in the WW2 sites. (and whats also neat...is I was just able to experience part of the Urbon side of WWII in Australia!)
On a cloudy Sunday, I headed out for a bike ride, but then came home and tackled all my laundry & lots of personal things. Especially the several 'travel update' emails that I spammed yall with :)
On Monday, I went for a run and found some trails that got me away from the city of Herzo. When I got back into the trees, and let my mind quiet down, it felt a little bit like running through the woods in Michigan :)
On Tuesday, I met up with Maik (who was moving out of Adlerstrasse 10) and I paid him for the stuff he was leaving inhis apartment. One big thing to learn about living in Germany, is that the base level of what you get with an apartment is very different. In addition to reasonably agreeing on a price for a washing machine, kitchen table, and bed....one has to also purchase the kitchen (oven, fridge, cabinets), light fixtures, etc. (For example, Maik took his medicine cabinet, so I will not have anything but a loose wire above the bathroom sink when I move in). Isn't that crazy?! Luckily the windows & doors were included with the place!
Oh man, Wednesday was finally here. My landlord (Labi) said he should have my keys to move in!
The center of Hochstadt...my bike ride on Sunday
Flowers during my Bike ride
Nazi rallying Grounds (what is left)
What it looked like in the 1930s
Looking out from the main pulpit (over the race car event)
We blew up the swastika (upper left of the picture)
Entrance to the track and soccer pitch on adidas campus.... I ran around the track one day
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