Weinheim, Germany

Monday, Monday...lah, lah, lah, dah, dah. You know that song? Monday, Monday.. anywho. Monday was a pretty good day. I went to the clinic to get the second round of the skin test that I needed as part of the pre-employment packet. That packet is intense. The assistant in human resources said that my 7 year background check should come back sometime in the next two weeks. Great. I feel like I am living in this haze, where everything is gray. Nothing can be black and white. What happened to the land of certainty? Apparently I left that in America. Anyways, it could be another two weeks until my paperwork back, but he is not for sure. I can't start actually working at the CDC until all of the paperwork is returned, so I won't start working until mid March. It is a good thing that I applied for the job the second week I got here. Yeesh! After the clinic Lenea and I went to the USO to sign up for a day tour to Weinheim for Tuesday. It was only 10 euro. Yippee! After the USO we went by the gym to pick up a schedule of the classes they offer. There is a spinning class on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Did I mention it is free? Oh yes. It is free. Can you believe that? The government is offering free classes. I know. Shocking. You can pick your jaw off of the floor now. We are going to start the spinning classes, especially since they are free!! We lucked out, because we had the car today to run these piddly errands. The weather here has been pretty gross, so having the car allows us to get out more frequently and en. A lot of drizzly rain, which is the worst kind of rain. It is not quite enough rain for you to pull out your umbrella, but then you get soaking wet and you have no idea how. If you pull out your umbrella for the drizzly rain, then you look like a pansy because it isn't really raining. Luckily I have succumbed to being a pansy and I now use my umbrella whenever I feel the slightest hint of rain. It is no fun walking around wet. No fun at all.

Tuesday- Weinheim! I ended up going alone because a Vodafone technician was going to come to our apartment and fix our internet and phone. I was kind of excited because this was one of the first opportunities I had to meet people on my own. I knew that most of the woman were going to be army wives and probably older than me, but I was okay with that. We were a small group of 6 women, but I liked it. It allowed for a more personal tour where I was able to talk to every person in the group. They were sweet women, and all married with children. It was a fun day, but I can't see myself calling any of the women to hang out. With that being said, this is what we saw:

Once we departed from the train we had to trek up the hill to get into the heart of the city.



We turned from the above road onto this cute little street.




That little street turned into the walking district, which you see below. It is a lot more charming than the walking districts in Mannheim and Heidelberg. Weinheim is a much smaller city, so it offers the ideal feel of a quaint German town.

This is a plaque for Jewish families who were torn from their homes in the Holocaust. The plaques are all over the walking district in front of stores. They have the name of the families who were pulled from the homes above the stores. The plaques represent the every day family. They weren't extremely wealthy or poor. These were just average families who were trying to survive in trying times.

There are ugly parts of Germany too, but just beyond the construction are the two old castles in Weinheim. If you look closely at the top of the mountain in between the two red construction poles, then you will see them.

Once you walk farther into the heart of Weinheim (pronounced vine-hime), you reach the MarktPlatz (market area). This area is where local farmers will bring their produce certain days of the week to sell to the community. Farmers will setup their stands in the large open area where the truck is parked. Along the storefronts you will find cafes, restaurants, and shops.

Another view of the MarktPlatz. We were told that cars are not supposed to park in those areas, but apparently they didn't feel like following the rules that day.

If you walk past MarktPlatz, then you will find this tower. This was a knight's tower. Almost everywhere you stood in Weinheim, you could look up and see the castles. This tower was in a pretty central location to allow knights to keep an eye on both the castle and the common folk. Notice the rectangular box next to the window towards the top of the tower. Do you see it? It kind of sticks out a bit. That is the toilet. There is no bottom of the box, so the excrement would simply fall down to the ground. Now use your eye to travel down the column. What do you see? The door. Why would you put the opening from the toilet right above the door? What a wonderful way to welcome your guests.

This is the entrance to the "new" castle. When referring to the castles of Weinheim this would not be one of them, because this castle was built much later than the original two castles of the city. This castle was built to house a princess who was not allowed to mingle in the city because she was unwilling to sleep with her husband. She was given an ultimatum by her husband: this castle or sex. Well...we know what she chose.

The tower of the "new" castle.

Not too shabby eh?

Ginormous tree in the "front yard" of the castle. Look how small the person is standing next to the tree.

Memorial tombstones to the family who loaned the Weinheim people the money to build their castles. Did I mention this is in the front yard of the new castle? Creepy.

Just beyond the new castle is this tower.

What is missing? The door. What else is missing? The box that sticks out of the side for the toilet. Who would stay in this tower? Prisoners. Wouldn't that be the pits...no door and no toilet.

This is the park that extends from the new castle. The pond is completely frozen over!

View from the park looking up at the old castles.

This shrine is in the public park. The Weinheim government took care of this at one point, but now they ran out of money and it just sits in the public park.

This golden beauty is hidden under dome of the shrine. If this is on the outside, then can you imagine what the inside looks like? We couldn't go inside because it is now closed to the public.

Me :) I wanted to get a picture to show myself in these places, but I couldn't hold the camera far enough away to get a decent shot. This is what I got.

Another tower, but this one was for witches. If a young woman was supspected of being a witch, then she was held up here until her trial. The trial was brutal. Germans believed that waters was one of the most pure substances of our world, so they used it in witch trials to test the character of a young woman suspected of being a witch. They would take the woman and throw her in a lake or large body of water. If she sank, then the water accepted her and she was pure. The only downside is that meant she had to drown to prove her purity. If she floated, then water rejected her and she was a witch. Then they would take the "witch" and hang or burn her.

These rocks with red stripes are scratching posts. They lined the corners of buildings in the low income part of the city. Carriages were apparently very reckless and would often times run into the sides of buildings. If buildings had scratching posts, then the carriage would run into the posts and ruin the carriage wheels instead of scratching or ruining the sides of peoples' homes.

Pathway into the lower class of the Weinheim society. Weinheim is one of the only cities that still holds close to a leveled society. The higher up the mountain you live, the more money you have; the lower down the mountain you live, the less money you have. Most people who lived in this part of Weinheim were tanners.

Does this not scream Germany?



To the left of the doorway is a coat of arms. The family who lived in this house worked with swords, hence the crossed swords on the coat of arms. :)

I really like the way this blue door pops in the black and white. One of my favorites of the day!

The smallest house in the city. Yes...someone lives there.

Someone's awesome gate. Look at that face. Love it! Germans are crazy.

More crazy German architecture...

Monument from WWII...

Crazy ticket booth. This is where you buy your ticket to get on the train. Public transportation is outstanding here!

I really liked Weinheim, but then again I have liked everything so far!

Wednesday: Laundry. This may seem silly-to blog about doing laundry, but we don't have a washer/dryer in our apartment. There are 5 washing machines and 5 dryers in the basement. It is cold and smelly down there. It is not my favorite thing to do. Once the laundry got going, I had to walk to the clinic to get a physical as part of the pre-employment package. I passed, but I am still waiting to get my 7 year background check back. Yeesh!

Tomorrow I am going to walk Lenea through the city to show her all of the goodness of the city. Hopefully I can remember it all!