Things you won't see in the USA

Because Lisa was attending classes and theater-group rehearsals for most of the time I was in Heidelberg, I had a chance to bum around the old part of the city and also do some hiking in the surrounding wooded hills. So here's a brief record of some of the things I saw. First, something you won't see in the USA:

In the USA, people seem welcome to drink at a bar and then drive home. But WOE be unto him who walks around with an open container of booze. Stoopit!
And in keeping with my recurring silly words theme, here's this, pasted on the top of a computer at a local Internet cafe:

Lisa translated this as something like "priority for floppy disk drive users." If you say so, honey.

Another thing you don't see in the USA is 14th century ruins! As Heidelberg is a city with a history dating to the Middle Ages, the surrounding countryside is dotted with relics. I tended to want to hike to places with a view, which, not surprisingly, is also where lords and monks tended to build their watchtowers. Here's my favorite, the Heiligturm (Holy Tower), which, I believe, was part of a Franciscan abbey. The tower had a spooky but very cool internal stairway, and an unbelievable view of Heidelberg from the top.




One last thing you won't find in the USA is medieval structures COVERED IN GRAFFITI!

If I had my way, anyone caught "tagging" would be tossed off the top of said structures. And with luck, they'd land on people who don't pick up after their dogs. Then we could eliminate two scourges at once!