Lessons Learned
Today after church the boys and I headed to Ludwigsburg to check out Ludwig's castle and gardens. They were having a little Pumpkin Festival there this weekend, so we went.
Halfway to Ludwigsburg the boys asked where we were going and what we were doing. When I announced it was a Pumpkin Festival I got groans, grumbling, and flat out whining from the back seat. According to Gabriel "Germany has too many festibals - like every weekend". Yes, Gabriel there is a fest somewhere, for something, just about every weekend. In the future, I'll just leave out the word "festival" and all will be fine.
We made it to the Palace gardens and enchanted forest. There was a lot of pumpkin sculptures, food, and decor all over. There was a cool playground and mechanical reenactments of all the classic fairy tales. These little shows were in German, go figure, so we didn't hang out long. When we finished with the gardens we headed over to the Palace. The boys really wanted to go in but I was low on cash and still had to pay for parking. I asked how much it would cost to get in, I had enough cash to cover both and so we went for it. Another lesson, ensure I have euros a plenty before leaving town. Once I arrived in Ludwigsburg there wasn't a Gelatomat (ATM) in sight. If I had got more cash out before I left Mannheim, I wouldn't have been stressed over the cash situation.
We bought tickets to the tour, in German because we missed the English tour, and headed into the beautiful palace. We were lucky enough to be in a very small group tour, with a tour guide who was willing to translate the high points for us into English. A gentleman in the group was also so kind, and he helped describe stuff to the boys too. The boys had a great time and were so good. This brings me to my third lesson of the day: ask how LONG a tour is before I find myself locked in an ancient palace with no where to go but along with the tour for TWO hours. It was the best spent $13.50 euro ever, but a really long tour.
We finished the tour at 6:30pm and headed back to the car. Once there I took my parking ticket to the machine to pay, and the machine wouldn't read it. I tried two different machines and it kept being denied. How can they deny it? I came, I parked, I would now like to pay so I can leave! By God's grace - truly - I happened to catch a worker turning OFF the lights to his little shack. I asked him "sprechen Sie Deutsch?" He said "nein" which I now know is most likely a bold faced lie. They sprechen they just don't like to admit it. So, ignoring his answer that he doesn't speak English, I told him, in English, that my card wouldn't work. He followed me to the machine, tried it himself, realized something was wrong and said to me "Where is your car?" IN ENGLISH. He motioned to go get it, I did, and he let me out of the garage for free. Sweet deal.
Now comes the fun. The GPS doesn't get reception in the parking garage so it isn't until you leave the garage that it starts to calculate the route home. It still didn't know what it wanted to do by the time I hit the first light so I turned right. Which was wrong. After 15 minutes of sitting in traffic and hearing "please make a u-turn now", I finally convinced it that I was not making a u-turn (due to the rather large barrier prohibiting me from doing so) and it better just recalculate my route, now.
It was taking me on all kinds of bizarre routes, left, right, left, right. I was so confused. I did drive into this city and not in any way the same that it was trying to take me out. I double checked that it was taking me "home" and just proceeded. It wasn't until I had been in traffic, through the city and now on a dark country road that I realized I screwed up. I changed the settings to "walk" as the mode of transport when we arrived in the town, but I never changed it back. The GPS had calculated a route to take me from Ludwigsburg to Mannheim via my own two feet. It wasn't taking me to the nearest autobahn because you can't walk on the autobahn. By the time I figured this out I was already out in the country in what would have been a great Volksmarch if I were actually walking and it were daylight, and not raining. Final, and most important lesson learned today: if I change the settings on the old GPS, I must change them back before attempting to proceed.
We had a great day. The weather was beautiful, the tour was really great, and even the drive home was interesting. I drove through a number of really adorable towns that I might want to go back to in the future.
Halfway to Ludwigsburg the boys asked where we were going and what we were doing. When I announced it was a Pumpkin Festival I got groans, grumbling, and flat out whining from the back seat. According to Gabriel "Germany has too many festibals - like every weekend". Yes, Gabriel there is a fest somewhere, for something, just about every weekend. In the future, I'll just leave out the word "festival" and all will be fine.
We made it to the Palace gardens and enchanted forest. There was a lot of pumpkin sculptures, food, and decor all over. There was a cool playground and mechanical reenactments of all the classic fairy tales. These little shows were in German, go figure, so we didn't hang out long. When we finished with the gardens we headed over to the Palace. The boys really wanted to go in but I was low on cash and still had to pay for parking. I asked how much it would cost to get in, I had enough cash to cover both and so we went for it. Another lesson, ensure I have euros a plenty before leaving town. Once I arrived in Ludwigsburg there wasn't a Gelatomat (ATM) in sight. If I had got more cash out before I left Mannheim, I wouldn't have been stressed over the cash situation.
We bought tickets to the tour, in German because we missed the English tour, and headed into the beautiful palace. We were lucky enough to be in a very small group tour, with a tour guide who was willing to translate the high points for us into English. A gentleman in the group was also so kind, and he helped describe stuff to the boys too. The boys had a great time and were so good. This brings me to my third lesson of the day: ask how LONG a tour is before I find myself locked in an ancient palace with no where to go but along with the tour for TWO hours. It was the best spent $13.50 euro ever, but a really long tour.
We finished the tour at 6:30pm and headed back to the car. Once there I took my parking ticket to the machine to pay, and the machine wouldn't read it. I tried two different machines and it kept being denied. How can they deny it? I came, I parked, I would now like to pay so I can leave! By God's grace - truly - I happened to catch a worker turning OFF the lights to his little shack. I asked him "sprechen Sie Deutsch?" He said "nein" which I now know is most likely a bold faced lie. They sprechen they just don't like to admit it. So, ignoring his answer that he doesn't speak English, I told him, in English, that my card wouldn't work. He followed me to the machine, tried it himself, realized something was wrong and said to me "Where is your car?" IN ENGLISH. He motioned to go get it, I did, and he let me out of the garage for free. Sweet deal.
Now comes the fun. The GPS doesn't get reception in the parking garage so it isn't until you leave the garage that it starts to calculate the route home. It still didn't know what it wanted to do by the time I hit the first light so I turned right. Which was wrong. After 15 minutes of sitting in traffic and hearing "please make a u-turn now", I finally convinced it that I was not making a u-turn (due to the rather large barrier prohibiting me from doing so) and it better just recalculate my route, now.
It was taking me on all kinds of bizarre routes, left, right, left, right. I was so confused. I did drive into this city and not in any way the same that it was trying to take me out. I double checked that it was taking me "home" and just proceeded. It wasn't until I had been in traffic, through the city and now on a dark country road that I realized I screwed up. I changed the settings to "walk" as the mode of transport when we arrived in the town, but I never changed it back. The GPS had calculated a route to take me from Ludwigsburg to Mannheim via my own two feet. It wasn't taking me to the nearest autobahn because you can't walk on the autobahn. By the time I figured this out I was already out in the country in what would have been a great Volksmarch if I were actually walking and it were daylight, and not raining. Final, and most important lesson learned today: if I change the settings on the old GPS, I must change them back before attempting to proceed.
We had a great day. The weather was beautiful, the tour was really great, and even the drive home was interesting. I drove through a number of really adorable towns that I might want to go back to in the future.
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