September 19th: A Stroll Through the Park

Hello!

This week has been, truthfully, fairly uneventful. I have tagged along to learn the route to Felix's school so I can drive him in the near future. Frankly, I am petrified of this idea. The car is, of course, a stick. And the rules of the German roads are similar enough to American rules, but different enough in some areas to make me concerned. And the city itself has a lot of traffic and, being a novice with stick-shift, I am nervous. But I plan on taking the car out for a few loops around the block to get a feel for the clutch and whatnot before I start driving a child through city traffic, ya know?

Like, one weird thing to me is that there aren't that many stop signs in neighborhood areas. Instead, you must ALWAYS yield the right-of-way to the person on your right. So you want to go straight, but there is a road on your right? Better stop so they can turn. I just...what? One thing that I like, though, is that the lights flash yellow before they go to green. Which will help me and my slow start time on a stick-shift.

Some people also park partially on the sidewalks since the roads can be rather narrow. Not only is it legal, but there are painted lines telling them where to park:

And instead of the clichè street names of trees, plants, etc., Neu-Ulm has the pleasure of naming their streets after famous (or not so famous) composers. Here are a few I've walked by:

I also live fairly close to Offenbach, but didn't take a picture of it.

I had a decent amount of free time today since the kids don't get out of school until later, so I got on my coat, grabbed my Zune and phone (for pictures) and went to the local park. The park has some things you would expect: playgrounds, open fields, soccer fields, trees, etc.. But this park also had something very rare: the Donau! For those of you who do not know, this is the second longest river in Europe. It also divides the twin city of Ulm/Neu-Ulm, as well as the federal states Bavaria and Baden-Wuerttemberg in this area. Though the weather is a bit cloudy (we're in a valley, so the sun isn't a common sight), I still think I got some lovely shots. I also took some pictures of interesting play areas...as well as some graffiti.

                                      Hard to see, but it's a little zipline that you sit on. Yes, I did it.                                      Yes, I probably looked crazy.   No, I didn't care.

At least someone else had a little humor.

Similar photo taken a couple days previous, when there was a little sun.

The water was coming out of a source at the top. There were

various little dams you can raise and lower to alter the flow of water.

Thanks for reading! I am compiling a list of things that I want to travel to and see in the near future. I will be sure to update as those things finalize. 

"Certainly, travel is more than the seeing of sights; it is a change that goes on, deep and permanent, in the ideas of living." - Miriam Beard