Clocks, Cudgels, and Cathedrals

Well the Rheingau is returning to the picturesque sunny getaway I saw when I first came here. The vineyards of course are still stripped bare and won't be green again until the summer, but the beautiful view and people taking walks with their dogs make everything seem alive again. It's surreal to hear about all the snow back home. I've been pleased with my first snowless winter. It did snow at some point, but I only remember it being around for a week or so and never reaching more than an inch or so.

So I've hit the 5 1/2 month mark here. It's weird to think I've hit the halfway point. I got information on applying to extend the grant for another 10 months (same September to June period) and will probably submit it. If I get offered it I'll have to think about it. On the one hand I'm still enjoying myself here and would be sad to go home and pretty much never hear German again. On the other hand it would be nice to be somewhere where I feel more like I belong for a while. Maybe the summer in between the grant period would be enough time back in the US before heading back to Deutschland to sort of recharge. Of course it isn't very easy to get grant extensions, but I'd hoping for it.

I continue to be perplexed by people's priorities here. The have a separate knife for everything imaginable (cheese knife, fish knife, steak knife, vegetable knife, etc etc), but then no dryers for their clothes. Also my favorite quotes from different people here so far are:

"Punctuality is a virtue" said with complete conviction. Also "the Soviet Onion was a powerful force on Germany" during a book report (yes, he meant soviet union, but I love the image of a onion dressed up in uniform barking commands at all the other vegetables).

So something I wanted to mention in the Prague post was the astronomical clock there. I took a few pictures:


The only reason we noticed it was because of the massive crowd of hundreds of people gathered in front of it. We wandered over to see what the attraction was and saw hundreds of people staring up at an unusually complicated looking clock on a tower. We stood and stared with them until the clock struck the hour. Just as it did, a chicken popped out. Then two more side doors sprang open above the clock face and a cycle of wooden representations of the 12 disciples paraded around. Everyone cheered, and then wandered off in different directions. It really is an unusual clock, though. Here's the wiki on it.

Long story short, it keeps the time, gives information on seasons, the position of the sun and moon, and has a zodiacal ring. Somehow someone was able to cram all of this information into one clock and synchronize it so it can keep track of and display all that information simultaneous. Oh, and it was made in 1410. Check out this animation of a sped up representation of the clock in action. It really is incredible:

Astronomical Clock Flash

Another things I found amusing was when we went to the Prague Castle. The entrance is a large gate with two guards stationed in front. I love the statues perched on the top. What on earth is happening here...



Oh, and I forgot there's one more picture of me standing in front of the huge cathedral on the grounds of the castle. If you click on it to make it big and zoom in a bunch, you'll see I'm the figure in the black coat standing in the center of the picture. Really, I just wanted to give an idea of the proportion of this massive cathedral.