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Wedding Picture

Here is the professional picture we had taken on our wedding day. We're both very pleased with it and really like the photographers work. If anyone wants a copy let me know and I'll send you one or give you one when we're in Jersey.

Haven't blogged in a few days because we've been busy. We're making arrangements for private health insurance here and I have been working on a new version of the blog. Not only a new look but using a new program that will give me more felxibility. PLUS the new one will allow you, the viewer, to post comments directly on the comment pages. It also alows me, the writer, to make it a little more interactive. I hope to have it all complete by this weekend and start posting in the new format on Monday.

Thanks for you patience and have a good weekend!

For the Cigarette Smoking Bicycle Rider Who Has Everything...

It's the Jaegermeister-Soccerball combo pack. Picked this up a few weeks ago at Wal-mart. I don't know about you but to me nothing spells "weekend" more than getting plastered and participating in team sports. "Hey dude...you can't use that elephant as a goalie dude...either of 'em"

I (Heart) Hamburg!
Living in a foreign country isn't always easy. While the cultural differences are very interesting to me, the language barrier is the only thing that really gives me pause. I say pause rather than stress or concern because the barrier isn’t that big. The longer I’m living here in Germany (it was six months yesterday) the more I understand on my own. Like a child learns the language through listening, repetition and visual references I find I’m learning the same way. Without a formal language education I may never be fluent but I’m already able to handle everyday tasks like shopping and ordering in a restaurant. To me that’s half the battle. Frank tells me I should use my English more because a good percentage of the people here understand it but I know how I would feel if people tried to communicate with me in a foreign language in the states. I’m sure they don’t mind here but it helps my learning if I don’t have that crutch.

But back to the title of the story, something that became very apparent to me from our first visit to Hamburg is that people love this city. After staying for three months in Frank’s mother’s hometown, which is the German equivalent of Hooterville, living in a big city is naturally exciting. Hamburg is a state within itself, which is unusual. It would be like if Manhattan was it’s own state. But Hamburg is special somehow. People have a real pride in this city like I’ve never seen before. A few months back I made mention to a friend who was wearing an Alaska t-shirt from her vacation and got asked if she was from there. DUR! Sure, she is and she uses the shirt as ID. Well, here in Hamburg having Hamburg labeled items is the trend. T-shirts, jackets, key-lanyards, sneakers and even a special edition MINI Cooper all sport the Hamburg logo and the town flag. And they are everywhere! Personally we are the owners of one jacket, one shirt, a 3’ x 4’ flag, car decals and an ecologically-friendly reusable grocery bag with the town name and castle. I’ve posted some pictures in a new album located here.

Hamburg does have a lot to offer. We’re in the north within driving distance to the Norway, Denmark and Sweden. It’s the second largest city in Germany, after Berlin, and in the center is a large lake called the Alster that feeds the canal behind our apartment. It has the second largest seaport in Europe at the southern most part of the town. It’s fed by the Elbe River that flows directly to the North Sea. While we’ve toured the harbor before which is filled with great restaurants and shops we never explored the Elbe River any further until this past Saturday.

I found out that the town that has everything has one thing more, a beach. In a section of town called Blankenese there are hilly neighborhoods and narrow winding streets filled with multi-million dollar homes that over look Elbe River and it’s beaches. They reminded me of everything from the town above Lake Garda in Northern Italy to the hills above Santa Barbara in California. Simply beautiful and only a 15 minute drive from our apartment. While seeing container ships in the distance was a little strange I guess is was no different than some New Jersey beaches. I thought this sign was interesting:

Apparently showing the bottom of your foot to large ships makes the waves sad. Either that or waves from the ships can cause you to be flung back through the air on to the beach. Either way it didn’t seem to bother Daphne who took to the water there like...well...a lab to the water.

After a beautiful sunny day on Saturday with that trip to the beach and a car tour of the northern parts of town, a quiet Sunday was planned. Got up about 9am and took the dog for her morning walk only to be greeted by thousands off screaming people on the next block over. Sunday was the day of the 19th annual Hamburg Marathon. Like the New York Marathon it went through all different parts of the city including our neighborhood. People were partying in the streets. Restaurants that normally sat dormant at that hour were open with outdoor seating and brunch buffets. And with good reason. It’s the 8th largest marathon in the world that attracted over 20,000 entrants including 43 Americans. Frank and I went back out and watched from the street for a while and then caught the rest on TV. They showed breathtaking views of the city from a helicopter camera that I wish we had recorded. I did manage to witness a few things from street level, like this:

Overall the race was sponsored by Olympus who has a big office here in Hamburg. But the 21st kilometer marking in our neighborhood was sponsored by Erdinger Beer. Seems oxymoronic and reminds me of the old Marlboro ‘Action Gear’ catalog. Frequently I see people here riding bikes while smoking and that still makes me laugh every time. But I guess the ad had some influence on people like these women who were standing near by:

Mind you, it wasn’t even 10am when I took this picture. Some how I don’t think 22oz. of wheat beer is part of a balanced breakfast. But maybe being drunk and hung over all in the same day has some hidden advantages. Speaking of being drunk:

Apparently from what we saw on TV this “clown” made it through the race with his baguette sign pole intact. His sign and shirt say something about France so in all fairness he may not have been German. But he may have been in training for the Alster-Beer-Lauf Race in September. It’s a foot race with two person teams around the 5 mile border of the lake. Oh, but there is a catch. You and your team member have to carry a case of beer between you (20 bottles) and each have to drink 10 of them before the end of the race. Of course a local brewery sponsors it. Some try different strategies like drinking all the beer at the beginning and then running or vice versa. We’re told that drinking as you go along seems to be most effective. Something about ‘sweating it out’. Tasty. There is a handicap for women allowing them to drink two large bottles of wine or champagne instead. The winning times from last year were all a shade under an hour. Frank is confident that he and his friend Axel will make a decent showing this year.

As for me, I’ll just be cheering them on from the sidelines in my Hamburg shirt with my Hamburg flag eating a hot dog...oh, excuse me...I mean a hamburger.

My Kingdom for a Decent Burger
Living in a place called Hamburg, who’s citizens are called Hamburgers you think you’d be able to find a decent burger here. Sure there are 20+ McDonald’s here which taste pretty much the same as they do in the states. Same with Burger King, which even though is one of my fast food favs they have deteriorated a bit with the over use of the microwave to reheat their flame-broiled beauties. When we were in Fuerteventura last November I had a burger but the meat was ground so fine that it was the consistency of cat food. Later I gave myself a tongue bath and chased a plastic ball for fifteen minutes but that might have been the beer talking.

Anyway, I’d like to preface this little rant by saying we’ve only tried two and seen one burger here that wasn’t “fast food”. The first was at a restaurant called “Louisiana” that’s in the mall up the street. It’s a local chain here and appeared to be their version of a TGI Friday’s or Applebee’s kind of place but with a Cajun twist. The menu was mostly spicy things with few finger foods (another thing lacking here, decent appetizers) and a few burgers. Though I ordered mine with only cheese it came with some Cajun-spicy, relish-laden sauce and pickles. I guess plain means no lettuce and tomato. The roll was good but the add-ons masked the taste of what might have been a decent burger. I might try it again.

The second one we tried was at a place here called Doris’ Diner. I found it in the phone book while looking for the number for Chinese. After looking at their menu online we decided to give it a go. They offered traditional diner fare at reasonable prices. My original intent was to get American-style pancakes because the regular pancakes you find here are like crepes. (Funny that they have to add “American Style” to the name, but ironically German Sheppards are called German Sheppards here.) A last minute decision had us both ordering “the best burgers in town”. This time I spun the cylinder and ordered the bacon-cheese variety hoping that like any diner that if I didn’t say “Deluxe” it would come plain. This time I got the chamber with the bullet. Between the 6 pickles, shredded lettuce, tomatoes, onions, what must have a quarter of a bottle of ketchup hid a burger that was harder to find than Osama. That’s another thing, if they ask if you want ketchup with your fries and you say yes they serve them with the ketchup on them already. Hey chief here’s a buck, bring out the whole bottle and let me do it myself. The other bad thing is that curry ketchup is popular here so sometimes they use that without asking. (Trust me, it’s gross.) Topping it off was an otherwise nice roll had it not been covered with seeds. Not just sesame seeds, but poppy and sunflowers seeds as well. I call these birdseed buns and I know for a fact that not every one here likes them. Frank ordered a mushroom-swiss that came out pretty much to his liking. They came with steak fries that were tasty. In spite of it all it was pretty good but still not to Fuddrucker’s standards.

The only other burger I’ve seen is when we all went to the Block House for his Mother’s birthday dinner. It’s a chain of steak restaurants here kind of like Beefsteak Charlie’s without the handlebar moustaches. Their steaks are great so I wouldn’t bother to order a burger there but Frank’s brother did. It looked good lacking the mass of vegetables and condiments but it had grilled onions under the cheese making them nearly impossible to remove without forfeiting most of the cheddar. Another thing it didn’t have was a top bun. Apparently that’s another thing they do here sometimes forcing you to eat it with a knife and fork. In one way it’s like the genteel world of eating hamburgers. In another way I picture a sad little support group called “Buns Without Partners” meeting in a smoky gymnasium once a week drinking coffee and discussing separation anxiety amongst their peers.

So the search continues. We’ve passed at least two other places that say “The Best Burger in Town” so we’ll have to try them. Our barbecue grill gets delivered today (a wedding present from his friends here) so who knows, Hamburg’s best hamburger just might be in our own backyard.

Phun with Photoshop

Today we went down to do the final paperwork for my resident visa. Now that we're wed I'm allowed to get a spousal visa which allows me to stay and work here. We had all our paperwork together, unfortunately they didn't so they extended my tourist visa another three months and made an appointment for us to come back in June. One of the things we had to bring with us were passport photos. When I got my photo in NJ for my US passport I was in and out of the photographers shop in 40 seconds. Would have been 42 but I tripped going out the door which sped up the process. Determined to get a better picture this time we went to the photographer we used for Frank's resume picture and our wedding photo. It cost 12 euro which is the going rate here but he took about 20 minutes to do it. Adjusting the lighting just right and taking test pictures. In the end he gave me the choice of three. (See picture above) This was the best in my opinion looking somewhere between mug shot and glamour shot. In the second one my smile looked a little crooked and the third one was me on all-fours atop a velvet couch. I'll save that for the Christmas cards.

It started me thinking though, why do the passport photos have solid backgrounds? How about some choices once in a while? Let's try these...

A beautiful sky...


Fall leaves...


En fuego!


I'm not the only thing hot and tasty in this picture...


Me and the signing of the Magna Carta in 1215. I think this one makes me look old...


Monet Monet! What's with my ear?


I'm the only Dave with 10 essential vitamins and minerals (Please note, my contents may have settled during shipping.)


Davey Warhol


Finally, me and Shannen Doherty. This picture begs to question, is she behind me or is she tiny and growing out of my neck? You decide.

I'm Cosmo Kramer...

A real sign I photographed this weekend in Kiel, a town about 45 minutes north of Hamburg on the Baltic Sea. It's a wheelchair-medical supply company. I tried to get a picture of their fleet of vans with the Assmann logo but it came out crappy. (pun intended)