Wiesbaden

Sunset over the autobahn (highway)

Inside of the Cathedral.

Outside of the Cathedral.
A casino--apparently you have to wear a suit inside, not like Las Vegas where you can wear whatever.

Wiesbaden is a small town close to Frankfurt. It's smaller and more charming. Apparently there is an American army base located there. Some Germans told me that many of the Americans are unhappy to be in Germany, and like to tell Germans how much they hate Germany, haha. There is a special radio stations for Americans which I listened to. Since it's specific to the army, they would have announcement like, "remember, accessing classified information on a non-classified network is a violation...you have a responsibility to protect privileged information." While German tail lights have to be yellow, Americans are allowed to have red ones; they also get square license plates instead of the long rectangular ones.

We went to a nice Mediterranean restaurant in Wiesbaden, and it was a nice place to take a walk. There were more old buildings, and a pretty cathedral made of red brick. Along the shopping street, there was a small store dedicated to a German stuffed toy company called Steiff (not sure of the spelling). The tiny teddy bears are 40 euros!! Apparently they are really high quality and will last a life time. I have a really cheap stuffed kitty (which I'm pretty sure is actually supposed to be a dog toy, since it has a squeaker), which I still have now, so I'm not sure if the quality argument stands. I guess I'm only in my 20s, so my stuffed kitty hasn't quite stood the test of time yet.

Some words about driving in Germany: there are many small roads, and most roads do have a speed limit. However, there are parts of the highway that do not have a speed limit at all. My friend regularly drives 200 km/hr, which is the first time in my life that I have driven so fast (well, been driven, since I was the passenger). On average, people drive a lot faster, and it's nice since you get places faster too. There are also a lot more Mercedes Benzes and BMWs; I think my car at home probably couldn't handle going over 100 mph (about 160 km/hr).