Walking Tour

I took a walk yesterday evening and Jer joined me for another earlier this evening. I snapped a few pics to show some interesting things about where we live.
This first picture is looking down the street from our townhouse. It is very common in Germany for cars to park on the sidewalks because the streets are so narrow. It is a law on narrow streets that if there are vehicles driving towards you and there is a car parked on your side of the street, you have to stop behind the parked car to allow oncoming traffic to pass first. In this case, where the street is much too narrow for 2-way traffic and cars are parked on both sides, is it a courtesy to pull to the side wherever you can to allow the other vehicle to pass. Sometimes this is impossible. Thankfully, drivers here are very courteous and look ahead to see which vehicle can find room to pull over. The scary part is when a tractor or truck is coming!
This second picture is an example of a common intersection. This is a 3-way intersection. Note the mirror to the left. That is so you can see if there are any cars still coming when your light is green. There are a lot of blind corners and a lot of mirrors at intersections. Buildings here have been around a very long time (even hundreds of years!), and roads were built around them much later.
There is another law here that structures must be kept up in their original condition. Even old, dilapidated gates used for horse and buggy must remain with the structure. It is interesting to see how they get around such laws. Here is a picture showing the old, brick stones of one property, and the updated facade of another. Many houses have the formica-type, fake brick exterior put on top of the old existing one. I think they do it to make the property look more modern and well-kept. They keep their yards and house fronts nicely maintained. It's kind of a joke amongst the locals that you can tell where the Americans live.
This evening we walked straight down the hill to the main road. It's about 1km to the intersection shown above from our house. I wanted to show how narrow the sidewalks and streets are here. There is only room for two people if we walk single-file. You can see a step from a house protruding onto the walkway. Sometimes, like in this picture, the building juts out, but the street doesn't curve around it (because of the buildings on the other side). That's when the sidewalk all but disappears! It can be a little scary when there are cars right around the bend driving very close to the curb!
We have had gorgeous weather the last few days. We enjoyed strolling around the town so much, we decided to stop at a little restaurant for dinner before heading back home. We've eaten at many restaurants since we moved here (I just can't say it enough: Germans know how to cook!), and I've noticed items on the pizza menus that I wouldn't see back in the States. A few examples: broccoli, tuna fish, fried egg, peppercorn... I decided to allow the customs their influence and added a fried egg to my pizza. I like pizza and I like fried eggs, so the outcome just couldn't be gross! Besides, it's Germany and I absolutely trust the chefs. (Some may wonder--that is turkey salami on mine). Jeremiah ordered the spaghetti pizza and added olives. (On a quick side note, the Scheuffeles LOVE olives!) Pizza is eaten with a knife and fork only--they do not precut it. Dinner was very delicious, as expected. We liked it so much, we would both order the same thing again. It's a little odd to think of at first, but so tasty! Who'd have guessed?
We got a couple of ice cream cones (even the ice cream tastes better here!) to enjoy as we walked home. Soon after leaving the restaurant we heard the church bells ring. I love their musical chime. What a wonderful, beautiful day to be in Germany!