Tyskland --> Germany

When I say I didn't do too much this past weekend I mean that the trip down to Germany on saturday wasn't too much and that on the seventh day I rested. Now your probably thinking "Germany! That's not nothing!" And in which case I would have to say, "Straight up it's not nothing!" but when in Rome do as the Romans.

It was explained to me once that to the Danes, Germany is two things. One, Germany is just a country you have to go through to get to the other countries. Two, Germany is were we buy all of our cola and beer. Because of the extremely high taxes here, many people living in Danmark make day trips down to the German boarder stores to stock up on things such as beer, wine, cola, and anything else unhealthy. When I say stock up, we're talking about the mother of all hens going to Cosco to buy toilet paper and paper towels saying that the two packs of 24 rolls is absolutely necessary. I saw people walking out with cart fulls of what has to be somewere around 100 cans of something. It's insane!

But they do that and I even participated in the ritual. Though I didn't buy any beer, cola, or wine, I did manage to get away with 2350 g of candy for only 100 kr. For all of you Americans, that's just over 5 lbs of sugary goodness for just under 20 USD. Seriously a good deal. Besides going to the stores we stoped by a place called Dannevirke. I can't remember if that's the danish of the german, but I think it's the danish. Anyway... It is like a museum of sorts. It is an area that tells a lot about the Danish and Germany history.

Over the years the boarder between the neighboring countries has done a lot of hopping. At some points it's germany and at others danmark. There is also a wall of sorts there ment to be like a fortification. I don't quite understand all of it because low 'n behold - no english. The wall is, by the way, the picture to the right.

On our way back home we stopped by this town in very southern Jylland. It's name alludes me, but it is home to the crown prince's brother, the corn prince. He lives here and thrives on a very good farming like industry. We were able to see his mansion, through the gates of course. Though I'm still barrowing a rather dated camera, I was able to get a fantastic picture if I might say so myself.

All in all, even if the Danes think a quick trip down to Germany every three or four months is nothing, it was just short of awesome for me. It's another country checked off my list, but quite frankly, I can't wait to go back. Besides, I never even got a postcard - of course I will have to go back.

FYI: Come the first of November I will officially stop speaking english. I'm going to experiment with the first 3 weeks of absolute NO english. This means for a full 3 weeks there will be no blog entries, no emails, no phone calls, no instant messaging to any of you unless you suddenly learned how to speak danish. It's harsh, but its for my own good.