Holy flooding in Germany, Batman!

There has been a lot of flooding in various regions in Germany in the last week or so. Kaiserslautern is okay, probably because our river, the famous Lauter, has gone underground (literally; it's buried beneath the city now). Other areas in Germany are not so lucky.

We took a trip to Wiesbaden this week and crossed over the river. I was looking at it and thought it was strange that there were streetlights where the barges were docked. Then it dawned on me: the barges were docked on what was either a pedestrian path or a road normally, but was now under water!

Scenes from Kaiserslautern, downtown, March

I took these pictures in March. I am also behind on posting stuff. That is true.

View to the east, mostly, from the pedestrian bridge by the Pfalztheater in downtown Kaiserslautern.

Anyway, see the skies? This is pretty much what they looked like all winter. It sometimes made me feel a bit grumpy and I'm sure it didn't help with my jetlag, which felt like it lasted for six weeks when I got here. Is that even possible, to have jetlag for six weeks, or was it just seasonal depression?

The later part of spring brought with it some more sunshine but it still has seemed to be cloudier than what spring would normally be, not that I've lived here that long to really know ;)

Volksbank, with a ghostly looking photobomber.

So, what is downtown Kaiserslautern like? Is all of it full of historical buildings, like the ones pictured here? No. During World War II, between 60-70% of Kaiserslautern was bombed. Much of the city was rebuilt. There are some pockets of left over, beautiful old buildings, but there are also a lot of not-so-gemütlich buildings, too. Some are rather ugly, but at least it's a small percentage; most are just, well, ordinary.

Restaurant Review: Hacienda Mexican Restaurant, Kaiserslautern

Hacienda Mexican Restaurant
http://www.hacienda-kl.com/
Weilerbacher Strasse 110, Kaiserslautern

Mexican food is one of my favorite foods. It's no surprise, then, that I would seek out every possible instance of Mexican restaurant available near where I live. Since there are so many Americans in the Kaiserslautern, and since many of them also share the same appreciation for Mexican food, it's a region "blessed" by "many" Mexican restaurants, at least by German standards.

Very near the Vogelweh / Pulaski / Kapaun joint base on the east side of Kaiserslautern is the Hacienda Mexican Restaurant. It's located on the upper floor an unassuming, two storey building. I stopped by one day for lunch.

The restaurant is cute; it has sombreros and other items as decorations. I thought it was even cuter that each table has a little flag. If you'd like something or need to get the waiter's attention, you raise the flag and he'll come by. My dad went to a Mexican restaurant in San Antonio several decades ago and mentioned that the restaurant did that.

See? Isn't the flag cute?

I started some chips and salsa. These weren't bad. I also was thrilled when my waiter happily brought me a tall glass of ice water. It's not common to get free water, much less free ice water, in Germany. Even better yet, the glass was HUGE! It was a pleasant surprise because usually one must order a tiny bottle of mineral water that costs about half the price of the meal. I usually just don't order any drinks at all at the restaurant, but if I'm at a restaurant that has a large American clientele, I don't feel weird about asking for "Leitungswasser," which is tap water.

Look at that beautiful, cold, delicious glass of ice water!

The waiter then brought out my meal. I ordered cheese enchiladas. I was disappointed. The enchiladas had a brown gravy on them. I've had enchiladas in the US in the TexMex style with chili gravy on them before. That kind of gravy was tasty; it was slightly spicy and flavorful. Unfortunately, the gravy at Hacienda was not good at all. I tried tasting it several times, just to be fair. I ate about four bites before I realized that there was no sense in eating something that I thought didn't taste good. Just for the record: it's almost unheard of that I don't finish trying something!

This gravy just tasted like something out of a can, like a cheap beef gravy. It wasn't flavorful or tasty at all. It was so bad that I didn't finish eating my enchiladas; the gravy had permeated them so it wasn't like I could just scrape it off. The beans accompanying the meal had no flavor, either. I did eat the rice, but the spices on them didn't seem right, either.

I later found out that the owners of the restaurant are Pakistani. They sometimes substitute Pakistani spices for Mexican spices. I think this works to their detriment; it's just not Mexican food with spices from around the world :( I do have a colleague who is Mexican who has eaten here. He says he doesn't mind the food at the restaurant, but finds that it is not authentic, either.

I would give the restaurant a rating of 2 stars out of 5 and would not recommend it. The wait staff were pleasant, food was served promptly, and the restaurant is cute and clean enough, but the food was just not good.

The entrance to the restaurant is on the second floor; you park behind the building and use the stairs in the back.

This sign made me laugh

This was in the parking lot of Edeka (grocery store) at the Hauptbahnhof in Kaiserslautern:

I was very pleased that I could read it. Remember, I still know very little German. It's an ad for chocolate that says: "For a date with your friend. Or with yourself."

American products in other countries: Kaiserslautern, Germany

The American food section at Real.

There is a huge American population in Kaiserslautern; I believe that the count puts at us at something like half of the population here. It came as no surprise that Real, which is like a German Walmart with a large grocery section, would have a good showing of imported "foreign" American foods.

Your hunt for BBQ sauce is over! Real has it, albeit at an expensive price.

 

 

 

Of course there was the requisite array of barbecue sauces. I guess it makes sense; it's something not totally out of line to be in many Americans' refrigerators. Even my Northern family has it for chicken and fake chicken nuggets (for the vegetarians). The price was rather high at Real, but that's not surprising, either, for an import.

They even had an off-brand of Cheez Whiz called "Cheese Zip." I'd be very interested to know how much of this they sell. The packaging and the product makes me feel queasy...rather like thinking of going to a carnival, eating some greasy food followed by going a ride and not feeling so great afterward. I have no idea why I have this association.

Other "American" products included marshmallows, these weird chocolate marshmallow cup things, pancake syrup, mayonnaise, etc. Some actually were recognizable American brands and others were brands I had never heard of before.

For those who don't have access to the Commissary on the military installation, Real would be a good place to find some "comforts" home. I'd recommend avoiding the Cheese Zip though.

Stairway to heaven at Real, or, Escalator to the parking garage

There is a large shopping complex at the very eastern edge of Kaiserslautern. It's called the Pfalz Center and includes Real (which is like a Walmart with a large grocery section), Aldi, Rossman (like Rite Aid), some clothing stores, a travel agency, a dry cleaner, a place to have copies of keys made, a baker, a Turkish deli (caution! the food there is delicious but also expensive, at least for the deli stuff), and some other stores.

It's a very large shopping center; half of the parking is above ground and the other half is underneath. There is a special escalator right as one enters the shopping center. The carts for the whole complex are kept in the subterranean parking garage and to bring them upstairs, one uses the escalator. I don't think I've ever seen this before when I was living in the US. I have seen this at other stores, too, like Kaufland, which is on the other side of town.

To the Shopping Cart Cave!

The underground parking garage is also the site of a weekend Flohmarkt, or flea market, on Saturdays. I stopped by on one Saturday during the winter. There were maybe about ten vendors with antiques, junk, and clothes.

Graffiti in Heidelberg

I was visiting Heidelberg in April and saw this graffiti painted on the sidewalk on Speyerer Strasse bridge.