Vaduz

Vaduz is the capital of Liechtenstein, a country that some people have probably never heard of before, and people who have heard of it probably don’t know where it is on the map. In fact, it’s a tiny country that’s sandwiched between Switzerland and Austria. Miraculously, this country, originally a part of the Holy Roman Empire, never got conquered. It survived empires rising and falling around it, namely Holy Roman Empire, Napoleon’s French Empire, Austria-Hungary, the German Empire, and Nazi Germany, just to name a few. Because it survived the political upheaval around it, it is still ruled by a prince (i.e. a principality) like it always was.

The above image shows the residence of the prince. It feels like some strange anachronism – a prince living in a castle on top of a hill ruling over his subjects, but in a modern time.

Even though it’s the capital of Liechtenstein, it only has ~5000 inhabitants – by no means large at all. Its vibe is quite different from other European cities – it doesn’t have a fancy old town or anything, but there are several museums of art and history, as well as the Princely Wine Cellars, which is a vineyard where guests can do wine tastings.

I jokingly asked the fellow at the tourist info centre if he’d ever met the Prince of Liechtenstein, and he actually said yes! He said that everyone who turns 18 gets invited to an event called the Young Citizens Celebration (Jungbürgerfeier) to meet the prince.

Hohenzollern Castle

From Vaduz, we drove into Germany, to where the House of Hohenzollern began, Hohenzollern Castle. These are the same Hohenzollerns, whose family members once ruled Prussia and the German Empire, among other places. Even the last Kaiser of the German Empire, Kaiser Wilhelm II, is a Hohenzollern. Today, the castle is still privately owned by the family,

The only way to see the interior of the castle is to pay for the guided tour, and on that guided tour there are no photos allowed. The coolest part of the guided tour is the room showing the entire known family tree of the Hohenzollerns. It even goes into detail as to which branch of the family is part of the Catholic Swabian branch, or the Protestant Franconian branch.

Today was the first day of the trip that actually snowed! The last several days were a bit windy and cool, but still above zero centigrade, but suddenly today, the weather dipped and it started snowing!

It’s kind of nice driving while it’s snowing as long as it’s not a total blizzard.

Stuttgart

In 2011, I spent eight months in Stuttgart for an internship while I was in university, and since then I went back again in 2013 and now again in 2020. I remember in 2013, it still felt pretty nostalgic, but now nine years later, I found that I’ve forgotten a lot of places and barely knew my way around. The feeling was totally different. It felt a lot more distant – like a place I used to know.

Before we left, we planned to eat at Sophie’s Brauhaus, the brewery that my friends and I used to go a lot to. I knew what I wanted to order before we even went – spaetzle with lentils and sausage. Spaetzle is a German pasta with eggs (as a opposed to other types of pasta which may not have as much egg in it). It’s easily one of the most Swabian dishes there is (Swabia is a region in Germany with its own culture and language). And of course we ordered beers, because after all we were at a brewery. I even ordered a bananenweizen – a wheat beer mixed with banana juice (yes, it’s a thing).

When I ate the dish, it didn’t connect with my nostalgia at all, I just remembered having nostalgia for it. Same with the beer I had. This was the place I had my first real German beer, and now there was zero connection between what I tasted now and the nostalgia. I mean the food and the beer was still delicious, but in my head, I definitely was looking for that emotional connection.

Photos

• Vaduz
• Hohenzollern Castle
• Stuttgart

Day 58

Water Costs Money

Now if somebody asked me what I didn’t like about Germany, I would say that it is how water here costs money. In Vancouver (not sure about the rest of Canada), water is free. We use as much water as we want and it costs us nothing. However, we do pay for the energy to heat the water. In Stuttgart, people pay for each cubic meter of water they use. Those that don’t want to spend more money than they have to (most people) know how to take a shower in less than like five minutes. I am used to enjoying my showers and taking over ten minutes in the shower. After realizing that water here is so expensive, I too, must now start thinking about my water use. Apparently, on average, people only use one cubic meter of water. I somehow managed to use seven. Clearly, I like to take my time in the shower.

Being Foreign Attracts Attention

On many occasions, I had random strangers start talking to me. I believe it is a combination of two things. The first is that I’m Chinese and the second being that I speak English to the people that I’m with. Almost everyone has this kind of sixth sense where they know someone is looking at them. This happens to me all the time. It’s almost as if people here have never seen an Asian before. This happens most often in the small towns. In the city, it doesn’t happen as much and is probably because more Chinese people live in the city center. And on three occasions, I’ve had people say stuff to me that had to do with me being Chinese. The first was when this random guy at the train station looked at me and said “ni hao” as he was walking by. The second was this kid that looked twelve years old who said “good evening Chinese person”. The third was someone really drunk on the metro who said “ni hao ma” to me. Yes, “ni hao” is probably the most common Chinese phrase that non-Chinese speakers know, but it doesn’t mean they have to go around saying it to Chinese people they see. Even though I’m Chinese, I end up speaking English most of the time. Whenever I go on trips with my friends from Bosch, the only common language between our group is English. On a few occasions, the locals would talk to us in English. I don’t know why. Maybe they want to practice their English or something. Or that they have an urge to speak to foreigners.

Drinking in Public

In Vancouver, one could get a ticket for drinking in public. In Germany, it’s perfectly okay. When I go home late at night, there’s always people walking around with beer bottles on the street. Some of them drink on the subway, or even on the regional trains. I’ve also seen people drinking in the morning. I found that even more unusual. I’ve even been offered a drink in the morning by a random stranger on the metro. I respectfully declined.

Churches and Castles Are Everywhere

Out of every city I’ve been to so far, almost all of them have at least a castle or an old church. It’s understandable though, because so much of the architecture was left over from the past. But whenever I go anywhere, seeing castles and churches doesn’t seem as interesting as before. Unless of course, it’s extra special like the Dom in Cologne, or the Hohenzollern Castle.

Some Restaurants Have Their Own Breweries

I thought this was super cool. The fact that some restaurants brew their own beer means that they brew it in their own unique way. As a result, each restaurant’s beer tastes a little different. Weizen from place A might taste better than the Weizen from place B. I always though Pils was too bitter for my taste. But yesterday, I tasted good Pils.

The New York Yankees

This team is probably the only team that sells the most merchandise to people who aren’t a fan of them. In North America, I always see people wearing hats with the Yankees logo on it. Most of them weren’t fans of the team. It was a fashion statement. Apparently, people in Germany do it too. I doubt most of them even watch Baseball. I see little kids wearing Yankees toques.

Dogs That Bark Don’t Bite

Now this is a theory that I don’t really want to test, but Germans say this a lot. I don’t know the logic here. Everyday when I go to work, these two dogs in someone’s backyard will always bark at me. For as long as I’m in their line of sight, they’ll bark. I don’t know if they’re happy or angry. I don’t know much about dogs. But I assume they’re angry when they start mixing in growling with their barking. According to the Germans, those dogs won’t bite.

Weird Obsession with Carbonated Water

Carbonated drinks are popular everywhere, but here I see people drinking carbonated water and carbonated juice all the time. At work, every other desk has a bottle of those drinks on it. My landlord buys giant crates of it. I’ve tried it, and frankly, I find it to taste the same as their non carbonated counter-parts. The only thing extra is the fizzing. Is that why people must have it?

Lax Smoking Laws

This is probably my biggest pet peeve. I hate the smell of cigarettes. In Vancouver, people must be a certain distance away from the entrance of a building in order to smoke. In Stuttgart, people smoke indoors. People smoke inside the train station, inside bars, and inside the office building where I work. I suppose this is really good practice for holding my breath as I walk past those people. I feel like I’m shaving years off my life every time I smell the smoke.

In an effort for the company to promote socializing with other interns working at Bosch, they organized what’s called a “Stammtisch”.  Literally translated it means, “regular’s table”.  It is a weekly gathering at a restaurant, cocktail bar, or club.  Together we drink beer and socialize, hence why I call it the weekly drinking day.  I met most of the interns at Bosch through this and I’ve even gone to Tubingen, Hohenzollern Castle, and Freiburg im Breisgau with them.  Soon we’ll be going to Köln (Cologne) and Paris.

At the first Stammtisch back in January, I didn’t know anybody except for the friend from Canada that I went with.  I didn’t really know what to expect.  When we got there, we found the Bosch table and introduced ourselves to the people already there.  I didn’t really know what to expect at the time.  Stereotypes of Germans told me that we’d probably end up drinking while we were there.  Sure enough, we did.  As someone who doesn’t drink a lot of beer, or alcohol in general for that matter, I was at a loss as to what drink to pick.  And so one of the interns recommended a beer called hefeweizen.  Hefeweizen is a kind of beer brewed with a large amount of wheat and malted barley.  I didn’t know that at the time, and all I knew was that it tasted damn good.  Definitely than the bitter North American beers.  A friend of mine described it as “drinking alcoholic, liquid bread”.  I am also told that it’s also got a lot of calories.  That’s okay with me, since I probably need to gain a few pounds, or kilograms as people use instead here.  I was also able to try a pale lager called helles.  This beer wasn’t as good as the hefeweizen, but that’s just personal preference.

Apart from just drinking, I also learned a bit about the drinking culture in Germany.  Like other cultures, Germans too will clink their glasses together before they drink, but one thing they must do is look at each person at the table in the eye while doing the clinking the glasses.  Otherwise, the person will be destined seven years of bad sex.  I don’t think I would have known that if I wasn’t told.

The location of the Stammtisch varies each week.  The first week I went, we went to a restaurant that had their own brewery, known as a “brauhaus” (how cool is that?).  Another time it was at a Spanish cocktail bar, that had cocktails at a discount if the party was large enough.  The most recent Stammtisch took place at a “disco”, which I think is German for club.  When I first heard the word, I immediately thought of The Bee Gees in the 70’s with their Saturday Night Fever.  I’m not a fan of clubbing, so I opted out of that one.

While drinking and socializing, I met a people from many different countries.  The group was a lot more multicultural than I thought.  There were people from Germany, France, Canada, America, China, Hong Kong, Iran, and even Mexico.  The only common language between all of us was English.  We all pretty much talked for at least 3 hours.  There were so many people that I ended up moving seats to get a chance to talk to other people sitting further away.  We went in there knowing nobody, but at the end we all weren’t strangers anymore.  Kind of like what Forrest Gump said, “Well I guess we ain’t strangers anymore!”

I really should have posted this week ago when it happened; time did not work in my favor. After having worked for a while, I met a few interns, and I went on this trip with them. We met up in the morning to take the regional express train to Tubingen. Upon arriving, we made our way to the old town. While walking, we saw a river separating the town similar to Heidelberg. The streets also looked similar to many historic German cities. There are probably some distinct differences between each city, but I’m not knowledgeable enough about the architecture of the period. We then took a bus to the main attraction of the town, the Bebenhausen Abbey.

Walking around the monastery kept reminding me about Diablo II (the nerd in me talking). It was quite reminiscent of the Rogue Monastery, but we obviously were not being chased by sword-wielding skeletons. Located in the outer cloister is the tourist information center, church, cemetery, and various historic buildings.

Walking further into the monastery, we came arrived at the inner cloister. A large hallway enclosed the area on all sides, with doors in the hallway leading to rooms for public display. Along the wall were stone plaques dedicated to the history of the place. In the center is a fountain that has been dried up and I don’t know if it is used in the summer. It kind of reminded me of an exhausted health/mana fountain.

The rooms inside the monastery contained information and artifacts displayed for people to see. In one of the rooms, there was a entrance to the catacombs. Maybe if I went down there I’d find Andariel.

The next day, we went to visit Hohenzollern Castle, the ancestral seat of the Hohenzollern family. Two castles had previously been constructed there before, but were destroyed during war or due to lack of care. The castle that remains today was constructed for Frederick William IV of Prussia. The sole purpose of the castle’s construction was as a memorial to the Hohenzollern family and not as an actual residence for anyone.

Along the battlements of the castle stood statues of Prussian royalty. They probably didn’t fight in many battles and since they didn’t look very physically fit to me. They probably just ate a lot.

The castle possesses a lot of defensive structures, but since this castle was built only as a memorial, it was all just for show.

The top level of the castle was the central courtyard. Along the battlements was a view from 855 m above sea level.

We took a tour inside the castle, but unfortunately, they did not allow photography on the premises. The ballroom of castle contained pillars of pure marble even though nobody ever used it. Nowadays, the castle is open for tourists and private functions such as weddings.

Inside one of the rooms were paintings on the wall dedicated to remembering each member of the House of Hohenzollern. In the hallways were paintings of various people and of the two previous castles that were built. One of the paintings was of Baron von Steuben. He assisted the Americans during the Revolutionary War and received a thank you letter from George Washington for his service. Since monarchies dominated at the time, there was talk of choosing a king to govern the United States, but obviously that never happened. At the time, their choice was one of the members of the Prussian royal family.

Some rooms displayed some personal items of the Prussian Kaisers. Apparently, a lot of them liked tobacco and even had a really fancy looking box for tobacco snuff. Despite how unhealthy that sounds, one of those boxes took a bullet for one of the Kaisers and saved his life.

The most significant item was the Crown of Wilhelm II. It contained so much and so many different kinds of gems that it was worth millions. It sat inside clear glass display, but looking closely at it, there was a whole slew of motion detection devices around it for security. Unfortunately, because of my terrible memory, I can’t really remember much more. I thought the castle was Heidelberg was amazing, but this one completely beats it.

Photos:

• Tübingen
• Hohenzollern Castle