People always say you shouldn’t stereotype cultures but I
know why other people do, it is because it is absolutely true. I am a Yorkshire man and I am as stereo
typical as you can get, I am proud of my Yorkshireness and I am as tight as a
duck’s bottom and proud of my “cautious with money” outlook on life. Today I have been in the land of Luxembourg
which is a mish-mash of different nationalities and I will say that as you
speak to each one you can see their culture shinning through. It is not me being nasty but people are
brought up a certain way and they then live their life to that teaching. I think every Frenchman I have come across is
that typical stereo type although even I agree they do not wear stripy tops and
have strings of onions around their necks, but other than that they are typical
French men and have the same idiosyncrasies as each other. I would love to procrastinate further on this
topic but as I probably risk being hounded out of France the next time I go
through I will leave it there.
So today was a work day but as all work days they never end
but I do take a break. Today’ break came in the form of a trip to Germany. I have to admit that had it not been for my
Nottingham colleague I would not have bothered.
I came out of the office and feeling a little beaten
following a tough meeting, the rain was pouring down and I felt like going to
my room and shutting out the world. But
with a little bit of sub coercion we agreed to meet in just a few minutes back
in reception and would go to a little town he had investigated on t’internet.
The journey was not too bad as it being only 5.30 p.m. the
locals had not yet started to leave work (they seem to work quite late around
here), and we soon were on the motorway heading east to Germany. After about 20 minutes we crossed the border
and we were on the Autobahn and a road with no speed limit. It is at this point I have to admit that I
must be getting old. I turned to my
colleague and said shall we see what speed the car can get up to, and then as I
passed 70 m.p.h. I thought, that may be a little reckless and slowed down
again. I may not be a granddad officially
but I am thinking like one. I will be
sat in my chair tutting at all the youngsters next and there modern gadgets,
bah.
So we left the Autobahn and a very normal and steady 60
m.p.h. and turned into Trier, a small village on the river Mosel. The first views of the town from the hills
leading down into the Valley are very special but as I was driving I didn’t get
any pictures of the views, the only picture I did get was a very helpful sign
directing one to the hotel, as you can see in picture one, it points you simply
to where the hotel is.
Finally we pulled into the town and parked in a local multi
story car park and walked into the town centre.
It was really lovely and below I have put some pictures of the buildings
that are in the town centre. The surprise
was that we found a Woolworth shop, I thought they had all finished but as the
internet is a great thing, I posted a photo on facebook and within minutes one
of my friends had responded saying they are not the same company as our
woolworth’s and there are similar shops around Europe. I thought I had found good fortune but he
stole it from me, damn technology.
The town was a busy place even at 7.00 p.m. with all the
shops still open and it gave us a great chance to walk around the shops, I needed
to get a birthday card, I won’t say who for as they may be reading this blog
but I am sure they will appreciate it in German.
As the evening grew dark we were looking for some food and
as my colleague wanted German sausage and my very limited German was the best
we had I took the lead. Looking for the
word wurst on all the menu boards.
Finally I found Currywurst and explained that this was curry
sausage. All those years of German were
not wasted as I said to the young man (they all look young these days) kan ich
haben swie currywurst mit pomme mittal bitte.
And he responded, “Do you want mayo or ketchup on them”. Deflated I complained I was trying to use my
German so he responded in German but it was ruined as I knew what he had asked
already. He then said something and I
had no idea so I smiled and gave him some money.
We got our food and stood and ate it in the street, very
German we both looked stuffing currywurst into our wurst holes as the locals
walked by. Feeling full and darkness descending
we returned to the car and I started the drive back to Luxembourg, but not the
way we came, we headed south along the banks of the Mosel and ignored the sat
nav shouting to turn around and go back where we had come from. The drive was again really nice and my
colleague got a nice shot of a lovely picturesque view of houses around the
river. The only negative side was that
on the way back we saw two quite bad accidents, one before the motorway where a
car had left the road and crashed into a field, they all looked OK and there
were plenty of locals around so we carried on.
The next was on the motorway and a small car had seemingly jumped the
crash barriers and nestled itself between two barriers near an exit slip road,
that looked quite bad and the number of police around was an indication how bad
it was. I was glad that I have the
restraint through my many years of experience to speed on the road unlike alot
of others who were going like maniacs even though the fog was starting to fall
or rise depending how the heck fog comes out nowadays.
We returned to the hotel after 8.30 p.m. and having had a
really nice evening it was time to cut the break short and get back to some
work.
That’s all for now so until tomorrow
Night All
The helpful sign telling people where the hotel was
The centre of Town with the church in the background
Another church
Now this is confusing, in Luxembourg there are elephants everywhere and now in Trier there too are lots of elephants dotted around the town.
My find of the day
A lovely church with a Crucifixion statue above the door
The picture my Nottingham colleague took as I drove out of Trier and toward Luxembourg via the back door. Unfortunately doesnt quite show the view we were seeing but still a good attempt as the roads were quite winding and difficult to get a clear shot.
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