Day 3 in Germany
Apr. 11th, 2011 01:33 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
fishsupremeI got up today having managed about 6 hours of sleep between 11 and 8. Unfortunately, I'm still quite sick.
Germany does not seem to have drug stores in the sense we do in the United States. Instead, there are "apothekes", which have pharmacists and sometimes even doctors on staff. Nothing is over-the-counter, though most things are prescribed by pharmacists on the spot, and groceries and discount stores don't appear to carry pharmaceuticals of any sort. You have to ask a pharmacist for so much as a Tylenol. The ones I tried, however, seemed unfamiliar with the very idea of cough medicine, and only offered me things that were either paracetamol and caffeine or the same with an added antihistamine. While that reduces the fever and might help me sleep, it does absolutely nothing for the constant coughing which will make giving presentations tomorrow rather challenging. At this point I wish I could find so much as a cough drop.
So, taking some Excedrin I brought from home, I went down to Nürnberg's old town for a couple of hours, where I saw a variety of medieval architecture. It's still kind of amazing as an American to see how old all the buildings are, even those just housing typical shops these days. The Nürnberger Burg towers over the city and is absolutely enormous -- I can't imagine attacking it with only medieval foot soldiers and cavalry. I was able to walk around in its inner court and gardens, though the castle interior is accessible only via German-language guided tour.
I tried to visit the German National Museum, but alas, it's closed Mondays, so due to my luggage misadventures yesterday I'll be missing it this trip.
I stopped at several food stands for Nürnberg bratwurst and various German snacks I didn't fully recognize until I ate them, and also picked up some chocolate and lebkuchen foranjelabug and I to eat when I get home. I am now back at my hotel to rest a bit and change into suit and tie and head over to the conference that is my ostensible reason for being here.
Also, you would think a hotel that caters to business travelers would not make it impossible to press a shirt. There's no iron, and the front desk doesn't have one -- there's a laundry service that promises a 48-hour turnaround if you give them clothing by 8am, which is too long to be of any use even had I noticed it the moment I checked in. No problem, there are alternatives for getting wrinkles out of shirts: except the hangers are all the unremovable anti-theft kind, the bathroom exhaust fan runs all the time and cannot be turned off, the hair dryer is built into the bathroom wall, and there are no flat surfaces in the bathroom more than 3" wide other than the toilet seat (out of reach of said hair dryer.)
Germany does not seem to have drug stores in the sense we do in the United States. Instead, there are "apothekes", which have pharmacists and sometimes even doctors on staff. Nothing is over-the-counter, though most things are prescribed by pharmacists on the spot, and groceries and discount stores don't appear to carry pharmaceuticals of any sort. You have to ask a pharmacist for so much as a Tylenol. The ones I tried, however, seemed unfamiliar with the very idea of cough medicine, and only offered me things that were either paracetamol and caffeine or the same with an added antihistamine. While that reduces the fever and might help me sleep, it does absolutely nothing for the constant coughing which will make giving presentations tomorrow rather challenging. At this point I wish I could find so much as a cough drop.
So, taking some Excedrin I brought from home, I went down to Nürnberg's old town for a couple of hours, where I saw a variety of medieval architecture. It's still kind of amazing as an American to see how old all the buildings are, even those just housing typical shops these days. The Nürnberger Burg towers over the city and is absolutely enormous -- I can't imagine attacking it with only medieval foot soldiers and cavalry. I was able to walk around in its inner court and gardens, though the castle interior is accessible only via German-language guided tour.
I tried to visit the German National Museum, but alas, it's closed Mondays, so due to my luggage misadventures yesterday I'll be missing it this trip.
I stopped at several food stands for Nürnberg bratwurst and various German snacks I didn't fully recognize until I ate them, and also picked up some chocolate and lebkuchen for
anjelabug and I to eat when I get home. I am now back at my hotel to rest a bit and change into suit and tie and head over to the conference that is my ostensible reason for being here.Also, you would think a hotel that caters to business travelers would not make it impossible to press a shirt. There's no iron, and the front desk doesn't have one -- there's a laundry service that promises a 48-hour turnaround if you give them clothing by 8am, which is too long to be of any use even had I noticed it the moment I checked in. No problem, there are alternatives for getting wrinkles out of shirts: except the hangers are all the unremovable anti-theft kind, the bathroom exhaust fan runs all the time and cannot be turned off, the hair dryer is built into the bathroom wall, and there are no flat surfaces in the bathroom more than 3" wide other than the toilet seat (out of reach of said hair dryer.)
