A Thursday Regular--"Oh, say can you see?"

Can you see it?  Above the windows are the faded words 'US ARMY' on the building facade.  The Bavarian-American Hotel was formerly used by the US Army during the occupation of Germany after WWII.  Nuremberg was formerly part of the American section. (There were four parts: American, British, French & Russian).  Eventually the sign came down and the army left (well at least out of that building) but I guess no one ever wanted to paint over it. A kind of 'where's waldo' piece of history right across from the Hauptbahnhof. Cool, eh?

A Thursday Regular--'Love Life'

Found a piece of "Kostenlose Kunst" in the Altstadt.  Painted by local artist Michael Paullutz of Nuremberg, he graciously scattered his pieces all throughout the city to be found and brighten up someone's day.

*Painting courtesy of LOVE LIFE CORP. For more information on them, check out their Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/LoveLifeCrop.

A Thursday Regular--Back to School

Second day back to school here in Bavaria, and I've never (ever) seen such a huge crowd in Müller's stationary section.  German children and their mom's flocking in dozens to stock up on their notebooks and pens.

Say what?

If the world is a village, who then, are the cool kids on the block?

Well according to an unofficial (but revealing) survey done by social networking site Badoo.com, Americans took the number one spot.  Surprised? Me too.  But apparently the survey results are based on the opinions of "30,000 people across 15 countries".  Still more is that Badoo.com is based in London and owned by a Russian entrepreneur --and the site itself is most active in Latin America, Spain, Italy and France. (I never actually heard of Badoo.com until now.)

So top 10 coolest nationalities?

1. Americans
2. Brazilians
3. Spanish
4. Italians
5. French
6. British
7. Dutch
8. Mexicans
9. Argentinians
10. Russians

...and the most uncool nations (according to the survey)...


1. Belgians
2. Poles
3. Turks
4. Canadians
5. Germans :( (How can this be?!) 

So what do you think?  Are the rankings spot on or do you disagree?

A Thursday Regular-- By the 'See'

A view of Dutzendteich on a lovely summer day, when all the boats came out to play.  The Colosseum you see there in the background is one of several constructions built on what is the former Nazi Party Rally Grounds.  Today its a museum.

The closest thing I've got to the ocean, a huge "See" (in German) or lake.

The Mystery of the Smiling Pig

Riding on the number 6 Tram line, I've often passed by a red and white sign that reads "SAU, SAU, HURRA!" with a big smiling pink pig.  I never cared enough to look into it further, but I thought it was a strange sign for a restaurant. Would a restaurant really only serve pork?  And it didn't look like a Metzegerei/butcher either.  Finally the other day I came across my answer.

While looking for a restaurant online, I stumbled upon this website: 
Freunde des Fränkischen Schäufele n.n.E.v

Its a club for people who love Shäufele!  How funny is that?!  (Shäufele is a pork dish using the meat from the shoulder of a pig.  Its served still on the bone so it has a kind of scoop-shape to it.  I've never actually tried it though.)

If you click on the link, you can see the sign that I was talking about in the upper left hand corner along with a photo of the club members.  If you scroll all the way to the bottom, you'll even see a massive pig-shaped float that they used in the Fastnachtszug.

I guess that's one way of keeping traditions alive.