God's grocery cart is made by Germans

05.01.08

Marco picked me up with roses and a temporary phone, and he had already stopped by my office to pick up the keys to my corporate apartment. We dropped off my luggage, and despite my zombie state, we went for a walk along the Rhine, bought some food for dinner, and went home so that Marco could cook German-style chicken.

May 1 is a holiday here, and on occasion, like today, it is also Father's Day. Father's celebrate by riding around in trailers pulled by tractors and drinking lots of beer. I thought it was a parade. Nonono, Marco explained, it's just fathers drinking beer. There was also a lot of ringing of church bells.

All of the stores were closed, but we managed to go look at an apartment and schedule a lot more appointments for Saturday. The one we saw was nice but very far away from work.

The best thing about Germany so far is the grocery carts. I have never seen a more perfect grocery cart - the BMW of grocery carts. The sucker can soundlessly go backward, forward, and SIDE TO SIDE. They are spotless, squeakless, and designed better than half the cars in the United States. You have to pay a Euro to check one out, but when you RETURN IT you get your Euro back. Everyone returns his grocery cart. I love German grocery carts.

"My nose is running, and my feet smell," Marco said randomly as we were walking through the park, "That's backwards, isn't it?"