Grounded Traveler

Baden-Baden in Pictures

Baden-Baden is a resort spa town in the south west of Germany between Karlsruhe and Freiburg and has been for several thousand years. There are roman ruins of a bath house under the modern spa of Friedrichsbad. “Baden” is the German word for baths. The town feels appropriately resort-like and is a nice walkable town amongst the hills. Ali and I went to play with our new cameras before heading to Turkey, so I took tons of pictures.

Here is a look in pictures of our day around town.

American Foods We Can’t Find in Germany

Any long term Expat is going to miss certain foods after a while. Foods you grow up with are pretty deeply ingrained in the memory and often when the expat life gets overwhelming, we just crave certain things from our home country. This is normal and I definitely enjoyed being back in the US last year to go shopping. However I often get asked what foods we just can’t find here. We can find most everything, the point is the lack of choice.

Places to Eat in Freiburg, Germany

Here is a look at some of my favorite places to eat in Freiburg. All of them are right in the center of the city where most of the tourists come anyway. The university is right here too, so they can’t get away with outrageous prices even for the center.

Although I love my adopted home city, I realize that I don’t write a lot about it specifically. Freiburg is a great university town in the south west of Germany on the edge of the Black Forest. As it is a town full of students as well as passing tourists (we get a lot of french and italian) the food choices are pretty good here.

German Expat – 11 1/2 Signs This Could be You

Have you ever pondered about becoming an expat. Moving a way from home and diving into the glamorous (sometimes) and frustrating (often) life of living outside of your home country? Have you every thought of Germany as a destination? Perhaps you are already planning a move and wonder whether you fit. Here are some signs that you might be a good expat living in Germany.

How to Deal With Being Overwhelmed as an Expat

Being an expat is an overwhelming experience. Nearly everything about your daily life will change. This starts with the big things like language and housing and goes all the way down to having to find a different brand of butter. The expat move usually means that most of your stuff is not coming with you and you will have to build up a new circle of friends. So dealing with all of this newness stripped of your normal armor. This is one of the first challenges, so here are some of my ideas on how.

Finding a Train Station in Europe

Many backpackers have in their mind to go backpack around Europe for a summer and use the trains. European travel becomes (rightfully) associated with trains. They are usually reliable, if not always punctual. If you plan ahead, they are not dreadfully expensive. Sometimes the problem can be as simple as finding the train station in a foreign language, so here is a short guide.

Are Germans Any Fun?

The German culture is known for order and efficiency. The stereotypes of well run train systems and high engineering pervade. But does this mean that the creativity and whimsy is gone from the Germanic culture completely?

Using German Numbers – A Travelers’ Guide

So how cultural can numbers really be, you ask? We learn them as a kid and just use them. Well there are differences on how things are presented and used in Germany. Here is a guide to them from an American expat’s point of view.