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Janet Burgard Lodging, Kaiserslautern, Germany – 18 MAR 2011
This week I’ve been teaching in Kaiserslautern but staying in a small town nearby (Hütschenhausen) at a Temporary Housing Facility (Extented Stay). It was recommended by a co-worker who was here earlier this year. It felt so good to have a full size apartment. I had two bedrooms (one with two twins, the other with a queen), a living room nearly as large as my own, small kitchen (complete with stove, microwave, freezer & refrigerator), and a small room with a shower & sink and another with a toilet & sink. It was larger than my vacation home in Big Bear. Five people could have stayed here in comfort. Between the two buildings, there are five apartments plus the living quarters for the owners/manager, Janet, a British expat married to a German.
The structures were originally built in 1805, but the barn burned down and had to be reconstructed in 1856...my apartment was through the door on the right.
When they converted the barn into apartments, they move the many ancient troughs into the yard to serve as planters:
Scenes from around town:
The sidewalk:
Janet and I, are close to each other in age and she loves visiting cemeteries. In fact she took me to the Hauptfriedhof Kaiserslautern and made a great photographers assistant…pointing out interesting items, carrying an umbrella to shade my lens from rain or sun, taking to the gardeners to learn which sections had been recycled. We had some interesting conversations and I got answers to many of my questions...such as, how come there are so few dead animals on the roads? She told me the posts along the roads are sprayed with an animal repellent.
When I was in Heidelberg, many posters with faces appeared overnight. Comparing notes with a co-worker, we figured they were political campaigns…Janet told me I was right.
Of course if it was California, after 10 minutes, the posters would look like this:
One night Janet took me out to dinner to a local Kegelbahn (bowling alley). It had two lanes and pins that reset by string. (Nine-pin Bowling) The food was excellent and it gave me exposure to a very German place I would not have tried on my own. Janet also works with the Fisher House Foundation (FisherHouse.org), donating her time and apartments to the families of wounded warriors, when they come to the area to visit their loved ones who are recovering from injuries. By the time I left, I felt like I was leaving an old friend behind.
The sidewalk:
Janet and I, are close to each other in age and she loves visiting cemeteries. In fact she took me to the Hauptfriedhof Kaiserslautern and made a great photographers assistant…pointing out interesting items, carrying an umbrella to shade my lens from rain or sun, taking to the gardeners to learn which sections had been recycled. We had some interesting conversations and I got answers to many of my questions...such as, how come there are so few dead animals on the roads? She told me the posts along the roads are sprayed with an animal repellent.
When I was in Heidelberg, many posters with faces appeared overnight. Comparing notes with a co-worker, we figured they were political campaigns…Janet told me I was right.
Of course if it was California, after 10 minutes, the posters would look like this:
One night Janet took me out to dinner to a local Kegelbahn (bowling alley). It had two lanes and pins that reset by string. (Nine-pin Bowling) The food was excellent and it gave me exposure to a very German place I would not have tried on my own. Janet also works with the Fisher House Foundation (FisherHouse.org), donating her time and apartments to the families of wounded warriors, when they come to the area to visit their loved ones who are recovering from injuries. By the time I left, I felt like I was leaving an old friend behind.
