Tag Archives: Germany

Travel

Road Trip: getting there

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While travel throughout Europe is generally quite easy, Norway isn’t exactly the easiest country to navigate from. Most trips require either a plane ride (so thankful for inexpensive local airlines!), or at the least a ferry to get you going.Our recent road trip to Germany began with a ferry ride. We drove just south to Larvik, and took the ferry to Hirtschals in Denmark. It was an early morning for us, leaving the house just after 6:00. The ferry journey was almost 4 hours, but a sweet friend gave us free tickets that included reserved seats.

What’s even better is the seats were like business class seats on an airplane, comfy and with lots of space. Complete with personal screens for television and movies, free headphones, and complimentary self-serve snacks and drinks: it was a treat! Add to that some cool duty-free shops to explore, and those four hours went by rather quickly.

Made it to Germany!

The idea of getting to drive through a new country (first time in Denmark!) was exciting. The reality? Not so much. While the speed limit was a bit higher than Norway’s very conservative 100 or 110 kph, there was very little to see along the way.

Once into Germany, we still had quite a few hours ahead of us. Of course as I mentioned before (see post here), Zack enjoyed finally getting to drive on the autobahn. But still, a lot of driving will wear you out!

Our first stop was Dusseldorf, and we arrived at the hostel around 9:00 at night. We were exhausted and glad to have finally made it.

Travel

Autobahn

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Leaving Denmark and entering Germany

That’s one more check off of Zack’s bucket list!

Our recent trip to Germany was by car and by boat. We drove to a neighboring city, took a ferry from Norway to Denmark, then made our way south and into Germany.
And driving in Germany means taking the autobahn (German highway). While many sections have speed limits, you do come across quite a few stretches where there is not an official limit, only a suggested speed of 130 kmh (@81 mph).
It is surprising how quickly a car can sneak up on you from behind – you’d best be using your rear view mirror! Zack found a couple of more open areas without much traffic, and proceeded to see what our little car could do. We saw 160 once, and then resumed our position among the ‘lesser automobiles’ in the center or right lane. Often we could feel our car shake a bit as a Maserati, Porsche, Ferrari or other high-end vehicle would speed past.Have you ever driven on the autobahn?

What is something on your bucket list that you hope to accomplish soon?

memorable eats

Is/Eis/Ice Cream/мороженое

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It’s a word we have learned in many languages. How can you order it if you don’t know how to say it?And it’s especially good to know how to order ice cream in Germany: theirs is not only delicious, but also really cheap! So we ate a LOT of Eis (pronounced a lot like ice) during our time in Dusseldorf and Hamburg.

 

 

 

 

Travel

Coming soon

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Just returned from eleven days in Germany. So many posts on the horizon, if I can find the time to sit, process, and write.

For now, here are a few photos from the past couple of weeks, to tantalize your taste buds. (Hey C – mission accomplished!)
Language

Liebe Gruß and Language Formalities/NwotD

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When our friends Jeff & Deanna lived in Germany, they were taught the proper way to end a conversation. It included a greeting to your family, friends, etc. And they quickly learned that it was quite important and could be considered rude when not used.

So Jeff’s question was this: Is there any formal or informal greeting or salutation in Norwegian?

There are things that are appropriate to say, but so far we haven’t learned anything that would be considered rude if we didn’t say.

Here are some helpful greetings and phrases.

For a greeting you might say

  • Hei!
  • Hei hei!
  • Hallo!

Often after this, you will say

  • Takk for sist! It means thanks for the last time – basically acknowledging our last meeting. It could possibly be compared to an English phrase like “good to see you again.”

If you are welcoming a guest into your home, you might say

  • Velkommen til oss! Straight translation: welcome to us.

As you are departing, you can say

  • Ha det bra! Taken word by word, it literally translates have it good. But this is the word we would use like good-bye.
  • You can also say Ha det, a shortened form.

And many times in your departure, you may choose to say one or two of these

  • Takk for oss! (Thanks for us)
  • Takk for i dag! (Thanks for the day)
  • Takk for i kveld! (Thanks for the evening)
  • Hils familien! (Greet your family)
  • Vi ses snart! (similar to See you soon!)
What's it like

What’s it like: Signs

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It’s always fun to check out signs when you travel – and even when you’re close to home.Here are some interesting, strange, and fun signs we’ve seen in this part of the world…

No ice cream, no hot dogs, no bottles or cans…?
(I especially like this one because it seems most Scandinavians
really enjoy ice cream and sausages!)

 

An important sign in our language school:
this is not a squatty potty!

 

Be careful, or you’ll drive into the water!

And a few others that have caught our attention over the years…

 

 

 

 

 

Random

Olympics / OL – who are you rooting for?

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We’ve had quite a few people ask us lately…

Who are you rooting for in the Olympics?

We are primarily about the red, white and blue… okay, that’s easy to say when our home country and our current home utilize the same colors on their flags. So here’s a rundown of the countries we follow closely, and why:

USA
Zack and I are most loyal to the place we’ve called home most of our lives (it’s hard to change after 38 years!). There’s just something special when the US gets the gold, and you hear the Star Spangled Banner. And Zack really liked their (really loud and really odd) opening ceremony sweaters. I’m still a bit confused by them, but they definitely turned heads!

NORWAY
Then there’s our new home. We’ve lived here for a year, and we spent a couple of years preparing to get here. And you gotta give it the Norwegians: they own the Winter Olympics. They are the all-time leader in overall medals AND gold medals.

Plus, their curling team uniforms totally rock!

And Team Norway has really cool headwear this year, both in the ceremonies and on the medal podium.
 
(Check out this article from People Magazine about the Norwegian Olympic team:
6 Reasons Why You Should Root for Norway at the Olympics)

UKRAINE
Most of you know our history with this country. It definitely holds a big piece of our hearts. And combine that with the unrest in recent weeks… we just can’t help but cheer for the yellow and blue.

GERMANY
Yeah, why not throw one more in the mix. We have so many friends in Germany, both nationals and ex-pats. And we just love visiting Germany/Deutschland/Tyskland. But I do have to say I wasn’t crazy about their opening ceremony outfits.

So in the end, it’s pretty hard to disappoint us when it comes to the Olympics. We are just happy to get to watch and cheer!

cross-cultural living, friends, Travel

Language Barriers?

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It is amazing to see how kids quickly find ways around language barriers. We spent last weekend with dear friends in Jena, Germany. Our kids only know a couple of words in German, and theirs know about the same amount in English. But did that stop them from playing and having fun? No way!

 

 

 

friends, Travel

Deutschland/Germany/Tyskland…

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Call it what you will, but we call it one of our favorite countries to visit. Germany is scenic and captivating, full of history and breathtaking landscapes.We are so thankful that traveling between European countries is affordable. Typically the overall travel costs are the same or less than our travels to neighboring states when we lived in the US!

Last week we attended a conference outside of Frankfurt. It was a great time of encouragement and learning – and seeing some friends we were missing a lot!

After our conference, we took a train and spent the weekend with some really special friends in Jena (in former East Germany). While the visit was far too short, we thoroughly enjoyed our time there and hope we can reconnect again soon!