rockover

Where we are staying My other email address is screwing up and I may have lost a couple of emails, so I will probably send from this one from now on. We are staying across from the main train station. Once you get inside, there are at least 3 stores of McD´s. Pizza Hut. food places, grocery stores, book stores, and a lot others. It´s a whole nuther world, the train station is. The one in Nurmburg is very impressive. It was redone completely about 2 years ago. This place is sharp. The downside, it cost €1.10 for women to use the restroom (€.60 for men). But, it is the cleanest restrooms in Germany. Attendents all over the place. So far, both stations go as far as you can see and stores lining both places, on the main floor as well as underground. The weather has been as expected. Lots of overcast, sun seen only twice and rain on occasion, but briefly. The temp ranges from cool to cold. Once the sun really goes down (around 5pm) then it starts getting colder and if there is wind, whhhooooo watch out. Only the Gruhwein can keep you warm. The place we are staying is not too bad. We had to get a double because I wasn´t on the original and their beds are 1 meter by 60, which means, unless we are pre-teens, we ain´t able to share the bed. They also apologized for the confusion of the floor numbering. Their first floor (lobby) starts above the ground floor (US ground = 1st floor). But the first floor is 200´s. Yeah, I can see how that´s confusing. In France/England, you also have ground floor (lobby), then first floor which is numbered 100´s. I guess this hotel got it messed up. I`ll have to check the Mariott American hotel to see if 1st floor starts on the Lobby floor or not. So far, I have not found anyone that doesn´t speak english. I´ve done some walking around today and have not had any problems. I guess my english is pretty good after all. Good thing I practiced. ARO has done a good job of using her German. Several have commented and one even suggested she had an Accent. I said she ought to tell them it´s her Texas German accent. One of the tour guides, who spoke german the whole time, at the end of the tour said good bye to everyone and spoke to ARO in spanish. Speaking of German. You won´t believe the Japanese population here. Not as tourists, but as German speaking Japanese who live here. Two things very noticable here is the lack of restrooms and the cleanliness. France was very dirty. Germany on the other hand has lots of stations that have room for Plastic, Waste, Wrapping, Paper. Wrapping would be cardboard, etc. In the train station, you can see these about every 50 feet. Outside, maybe every 100 feet. At least on every corner. At all centers (i.e. train stations), there is a cost to use the restroom. Sometimes, they´ll have specialized spots at places like the Christmas Market and charge about .30 or .60. Or you can use the portable, but not many do that. The Christmas Market in Nurmburg started over 100 years ago. And although it is billed as the largest, it is definately the most crowded. Nurmburg is where Hitler stayed off and on before and during the war. It was mostly levelled (about 90%) during the bombing. Instead of redoing the city, they tried to recreate the city. Looks just like a German city that has been around for a long time. Sharon, you mentioned for me to get some type of chocolate. I left that in the office. Can you tell me again what it is I need to get? If there is something that we have to get for anyone, let me know pretty soon. We haven´t really found anything that stands out. Mom, I need Jeff and Gary´s email since my other service may have lost their emails. ARO has taken lots of pictures. She is threatening to put a few together to email to everyone. We´ll see. Hope all is well. Food is good, people are great. Hope spelling is good. European keyboards, but I think I caught all the y\z problems. Randy