Walk to Work

Blog 1 of 2 that I meant to post before I left...

In remembrance of my experience in Germany (not just for you all, but for me as well), I figured I'd make a "photo-blog" of my daily walk to the Frankfurt office from Berger Strasse 121. Enjoy.

So I lock the front door...


Walk down the steps (inside)...


Then walk down the steps outside (to the left) and pass by the casino on the ground floor (mind you, its in the cut, as you have to go under a canopy-corridor off of Berger Strasse to get to this area...


Check the always empty (except for the infamous letter grandma sent me) mailbox...


Come from under the canopy-corridor onto Berger Strasse (this is the view north)...


And this is the view south (the direction I have to walk to the U-bahn (subway)). Watch out for the cars.


Walk less than a block to the escalator for the Hoenstrasse station...


Pass by the "Fahrkarten" machine that I never learned to properly use my entire time in Frankfurt. Mind you, this isn't where you purchase the monthly pass, so I never really had much interaction with this machine, except when visitors came to town.


Go down two more levels to the actual boarding area...


However, this is the end of the boarding area I would wait because by boarding the train at this end, it would be less of a walk to the escalator I would need to take when I would get off at Hauptbahnhof (my destination).


Check the time board to see how much longer I have to wait for the next train...


Board the train when it arrives. Unfortunately this end of the train is ALWAYS crowded.


Fortunately, two stations later (at Konstablawache), many people get off the train to transfer to another train. I can usually find a seat at this point.


Get off the train and come above ground to this rather grandiose view of the Hauptbahnhof...


Get an "apfeltashe" (which I just learned means "apple turnover") from one of the vendors by the long-distance trains...


Walk to the southern-end of the station (along the platform for track 1)...


Exit the station and walk towards the cylindrical glass building in the distance...


However, its not as easy as it seems because the rental car parking lot blocking your way is like a maze (they have hidden gates and rails that making walking a straight line (the shortest distance between two point) impossible)...


Once through the parking lot, I come out on the street between the two buildings in the distance where the green "go" stick figure is (this picture is me looking back from where I just came)...


Walk half a block west to the next street, make a left and the glass building comes into clear view...

At the end of the block, all that's left is to cross the street...


Cars hardly come from the left...


But the right is always chock-full of cars...


Once across the street, a clear, sunny day always greets me with a beautiful view of the cobblestone ground around the office...


Although the glass building is the guide, our building is the trapezoidal one next to it...


Walk to it and put the access card in my wallet to the "entrance pad"...


Walk through the glass door that slides open...


Catch the first available elevator to the 2nd floor (which in the U.S. would be classified as the 3rd floor)...


Get out the elevator and use my access card again...


To open one of the glass doors for entry onto the floor...


Turn to the right and walk down the hall...


To the "water closet"...


To get my favorite 32oz. "medium-carbonated" sparkling water...


Go back out into the hall and walk the opposite direction to the other end...


Turn the curved corner...


Say hello to the world famous, Wall Street Journal quoted, Head of Research for Germany, Inga Schwarz (whose laughing by the way cause of all the pictures I'm always taking)...


Admire the open lay out of the Frankfurt office...


Walk to my desk and say hello to my desk mates Pascal (right) and Thomas (and yes Thomas is also trying not to laugh at all the pictures I take)...


And finally, get my laptop from the shelf to hook to the docking station to start another day at work...


Cheers.

Weekend Round-Up

So with one weekend left, I had a bunch of loose ends to tie up…these loose ends involving 3 cities which I had already visited: Berlin, Hamburg and Heidelberg. For two of the cities—Berlin and Heidelberg—the mission was easy: mail post cards. As these were the first two cities I visited while out in Germany, I had neglected to elevate mailing post cards to their proper priority level (i.e. people, after reading my blog, sent me their mailing addresses to send them post cards as a traversed Europe). The reason I needed to go back to Hamburg was a bit different.

In Spring 2009, I believe I will be traveling to Japan—Tokyo in particular. Now, I’ve been twice before and both times I have forgone checking out their world famous fish market. This is not a mistake I plan on making a third time—after multiple accounts from several people about how amazing the place is. Now, Hamburg also has a fish market and it is open only on Sunday morning from like 4am to 9am. If you can guess, my whole purpose to going to Hamburg was to check theirs out and compare it to Tokyo’s next year.

So here was the plan…leave for Berlin in the morning, get there sometime in the afternoon. Buy post cards (and postage), write and send them off, and spend a couple hours in the city (most likely the main retail strip that’s listed in our annual “Main Streets Across the World” publication). Head out to Hamburg sometime in the evening and get there just as the nightlife begins. Store my bag in one of those lockers in the train station and head out to the Reeperbahn (the main nightlife drag in Hamburg which is home to its clubs, bars and red light district). Party hearty on my last Saturday night in Germany til ‘round 4am, then walk over to the fish market (as it is close by). After getting my fill of the fish market, head back to the Hamburg Hauptbahnhof and catch the first thang smoking to Heidelberg and pick up, write and mail some post cards. Get right back on the train (as everything is closed on Sunday) and head back to Frankfurt.

And guess what…everything pretty much went according to the plan, except for a few minor deviations, namely:

• I went back to Frankfurt after leaving Hamburg…but left back out to go to Heidelberg after taking a shower at the crib.
• It started raining I’d say about 1 or 2am, and it was one of those irritating rains where it was heavier than a drizzle but not enough to classify as a shower or downpour. As such, by the time I got to the fish market, my socks were pretty soaked. And I almost didn’t find the fish market and was ready to give up (everyone I asked where the actual fish market was either didn’t know or pointed me in the opposite direction). Luckily, just when I was ready to give up on finding the place—I had found a little storefront area that sold fish stuff, but it was closed—I asked someone cleaning up one of the storefronts who finally told me where to go. Turned out, I caught the fish market just as it was opening so it wasn’t exactly at full tilt when I arrived…and it didn’t seem as if it was going to get at full tilt at any point given the rain. It was more a fresh fish market than a place to get meals or sandwiches having freshly caught fish in them. Oh yeah…I called this a deviation because it caused me to take the second thang smoking out of Hamburg to Frankfurt (like 7:15am).
  

And that’s about it. I mean, I took some photos in Berlin…

No your eyes are not deceiving you, I believe this is a Chevy Impala out in Berlin

And in Hamburg…





















Oh yeah, as an FYI, I recorded that “End of the Road” preview at a Kareoke bar in Hamburg (sort of like an homage to the Kareoke bar in Lisbon and because it really was the end of the "Germany road" for me). Also, yes I was pretty toasted that night so while I remember taking many of the above pictures, I pretty much remember very little of the night except for the fact that I went in and out of like probably 5 bars/parties and socialized the whole way through.

Cheers.