The Zoll

The Zoll office of Germany....is the customs department.

Typically, an American (usually in the military) would run across the Zoll in three circumstances....at least in the old days.

First, when you arrived at the Frankfurt airport (or Stuttgart, or Berlin).....you had the Zoll folks at the end of the baggage area, and there was this ten-percent chance of them asking to review your baggage and personal belongings.  Their aim?  If you had over $10,000, beef products of an illegal nature, drugs, lots of fake watches for resale, a dozen cartons of smokes, or anything that violated the import rules....then you got stuck for an hour with the customs folks.  It usually meant a fine, and a tax.

Second, around once a year.....you'd enter the commissary or BX....to discover some Zoll guy standing there and asking for your ID card.  If you were a retiree....he'd ask for the red card (woe be until you if you didn't bring it or didn't have it).  They might occasionally walk the parking lot and just ask folks for their receipt and their ID.

The biggest violation episode was always the Germans who used to use the facilities and never get carded.  Back in the 1980s....you'd always hear of Germans who worked on base and bought beef at the commissary.  Retirees visiting Germany were always a big deal because they weren't supposed to be there unless they got the red card.

Third, at entry points leading into or out of Germany.....the Zoll folks would set up roadblocks.  This usually turned into an interesting episode.  Germans with hidden cash.....like to make a once-a-year trip to their Swiss or Luxembourg bank....would find the roadblock about 100 meters before the border, and the Zoll guys would be curious about the 30,000 Euro on the guy's possession.  This usually mean confiscation and an appearance in court.

Entering into Germany?  They'd ask to examine your trunk, your bags, and add up what you bought.  I was impressed once....almost five miles into Germany after leaving Luxembourg....I encountered the Zoll guys around some curve....standing in the middle of road.  Naturally, they demanded to view my car.  My wife's Luxembourg smokes were in the vehicle.....they sell for thirty percent less than the Germans....but with the two of us.....we met the limited scale of allocation, and were 'dismissed' as legal.  I should note, they counted the coffee cans (same limits), and the booze bottles (same limits).  Several countries around Germany sell items for less....enjoying profits from the Germans (Austria sells smokes for roughly twenty-five percent less than Germany).

Why bring this up?  Well.....there's now a fourth way that you might encounter the Zoll folks.  You see....they've grasped how many folks walk through and get out of the Frankfurt airport, with violations.  So, they set up roadblocks within a mile or two....of the airport.

They stop you....ask to review your contents, and start to challenge where you bough these items.  Bought a laptop while on vacation in Canada?  Well....you avoided the German VAT, and that's just not right.  So you get taxed on some highway about a mile outside of the Frankfurt airport.  Bought a new fancy camera?  Same deal.

You can imagine the shock.....you flew in and somehow made it through customs....with no issues.  You get into the car, and think....now, I'm safe.  And the truth is....no, you aren't.

I'll take a humble guess that folks will wise up over this, and if they do bring in some untaxed item....they will merely walk out the front door of the airport....go down the escalator, and jump on a subway car into Mainz or Frankfurt to meet their connection.

If some FEDEX-like operation was smart....they'd open up a shop there and take items for delivery to some guy's apartment in Trier or Koln....rather than risk Zoll issues.

How often do Germans violate Zoll?  It's best not to bring this up.  My humble guess is that most everyone over a twenty-year period....travel beyond Europe....and buy something of an illegal nature.

I went to Corfu this past summer, and found some great leather belts, with brand-names on them.  The odds they were real brand-name belts?  Well....I'll just say I suspect some Chinese guys did some great imitation work.

So, as you travel and counter the Zoll folks....just remember....it's all for a worthy cause....the tax revenue system.  Without us.....there's no autobahns, libraries, or paved walking trails in the midst of a wilderness.

The Cinema

Long ago.....there were two types of movie theaters.  There was the regular place that had popcorn, sodas, candy, and featured cowboy westerns and mobster movies.  The other one?  A cinema.  This typically meant wine, glacier water, oversized seats, and movies with odd twists and usually featured some French actress that fell in love with a fake Italian count with a glass eye.

You went to a cinema for upscale company, a boring movie, and the thrill of being different than the other ninety-five percent of people who desired a cowboy, space alien, or Jerry Lewis-comedy.  Yeah, the cinema crowd paid more for their tickets.  Yeah, they paid fifty percent more than you should for the glass of champagne.  And yeah, they generally forgot the entire theme of the movie within sixteen minutes after they walked out of the theater.

Generally, cinema experiences came and died out in the US.  You might find an old-fashioned cinema in New York City....maybe Miami and forty other big-scale cities.  For the most part....cinema has died out in the US.

Germany?  Well....there's probably five or six big-name cinemas still thriving across the country.  And there's probably another hundred that split between the two themes and try to bring the cinema experience to the intellectuals of Germany....ever how remote they are from real society.

Why does this topic come up?  Well....Wiesbaden is in the midst of a 'passage-renovation' in mid-town.  A passage is typically a small mall of sorts....built into a small building....with a couple of cafes, restaurants, and upscale stores.  Small would be the appropriate word to use with passage.....with total fronts rarely going above thirty.

What the city will attempt to do....is build this roof-top cinema on this passage building.  What they say....it'll be 400 seats between three rooms on the roof.  The seats will be plush and oversized.  No sodas or popcorn....strictly bubbly drinks and such.  The cost factor?  Fifteen Euro per movie ($20).

The features of such a cinema?  One can only guess......French love stories between a countess and a duke.....an Italian opera of sorts with weepy stories over failed vineyard operations....and some Scandinavian story featuring a drunk lobster fisherman and his third wife, Vicky, from Wales....who meet a stranger from Amsterdam who sings country-and-western tunes.  

Will they fill the seats nightly?  Well....this is a year away from start-up and it'll consume at least two years (probably more) to build and renovate.  Maybe they can get four hundred seats filled on a Saturday night.  The rest of the week?  I'd have my doubts if they can get in forty people.  Maybe if they advertise and note that Count Karl will be among the attendees, or some promi-pop singer from Mannheim will be in the audience.....maybe it'll draw more folks.

A slam by me over cinema movies?  No.  We need outlets like this to tell woeful French tales.  I don't mind sub-title movies.....the scripting tends to make sense without all the terrible accent business.  And to be honest here.....it's nice to see rich intellectual stories about some Italian duchess who fell for the wrong guy...four times in a row....proving that intellectuals are just as dopey about making good decisions as the regular folks.

My humble view.

Ten Things About Wiesbaden

Remember....I don't write the blog for the benefit of Germans.....I write toward Americans.  So this is one of those odd pieces where I basically introduce you to Wiesbaden.  So the ten things that you ought to know about the city of Wiesbaden:

First, Wiesbaden is a fairly big town....278,000 people (and still growing).  Course, you have to take this with a note or two.  To reach 278k....this includes suburbs....which connect via a forest or woods, and onto an adjacent village.  So the only way that they reach this....is by moving the city limits further and further out.  You could be a village four miles outside of the city urban area...with a fairly big forest between you and them.....and you'd still be considered part of Wiesbaden.

Reaching 300,000?  I'd take a humble guess and say by 2040....the city will reach this point.  A big town?  No.  It's not what you'd classify as a metropolitan type city.

Second.  For better or worse....it's an area that developed originally by the Romans.  They came....discovered the warm springs, the wine, and the fair climate.  There were various "tribes" that settled the area way before the Romans....but they are the ones who brought commercial activity and made them realize the impact of being a spa town.  There's no gladiator-type events or Roman-days for Wiesbaden...mostly because they've gone past that point in a major way.

Third. Foreigners influence the city a great deal.  The Romans came to influence them.  The Franks came to influence them.  The French came to influence them.  The English came to influence them.  The Russians, the Austrians, the Swiss, the Dutch, the Turks, the Egyptians, the rich Saudis, and so on.  Now since 1945....even the Americans came.  Even Elvis came to influence them.

The Kur Park area, the casino, and the upscale hotels in the region....have drawn people for an awful long time.  Folks used to come for weeks and months, for some type of 'recovery'.  They spoiled themselves with the hot springs, good wine, and exceptional food.  And they paid a fair sum of money to be pampered.

The influence of this capital....over a thousand-odd years.....is seen as you walk around the city today.  If it looks clean, neat, tidy and organized.....it's because they had the money to do so.

There's roughly five thousand Americans in the local community, and they are part of the overall community.  Yeah....they bring diverse menu requests like burgers, pizza, and steak to local restaurants.

Fourth. As much as people in Wiesbaden like to talk about themselves....their survival and growth....is dependent on two other communities: Mainz and Frankfurt.  Both within a fifteen minute drive from the end of the city.  Mainz has the major university and 200,000 residents.  Mainz also has several major business operations and industrial companies.  Frankfurt?  It's the Wall Street of Germany, and most of these upscale bankers and investors.....live in Wiesbaden.

Folks in Wiesbaden will slam Mainz folks....mostly in jest.  The Frankfurt folks will talk of the snobs of Wiesbaden, but it's mostly in jest.

The significance of Wiesbaden would only be half as much....without the two adjoining cities.

Fifth.  The river matters to some degree.  Without the Rhein....there's no barge traffic....no castles on the hills....and likely no wine trade.  I'd be the first to admit that Wiesbaden has almost no harbor facilities (Mainz got the majority in the deal).  But the river has an impact on trade, commerce, and tourism.

Sixth.  Some might argue on this....but Jews prior to 1940 brought business commerce into the city.  At the peak, in 1925....there were around 3,000 Jews in the city.  They were a strong segment of the business community and commerce.  To some degree....they helped bring organization into the chaos of business operations in the early part of the last century.

Seventh.  Restaurants are a major part of the city of Wiesbaden.  TravelAdvisor will tell you that there 433 cafes and restaurants in town....as a minimum.  By the time you consider the extended neighborhoods, the cafes, bakery-coffee shops, and imbas stands....there's likely to be closer to 700 possible places to eat.

Every ethnic possibility of food can be found.  If you were desiring heavily upon some Italian dish or pizza....there's probably over one hundred shops or restaurants to pick from.

Costs from from a 2.99 Euro Currywurst plate, to a couple hundred Euro for a star-chef gourmet meal for two at a fancy spot within the city.

Eigth.  Apple wine is the preferred drink of just about the whole town of Wiesbaden.  Yeah, they will drink a good beer  on occasion, and they've got ten thousand wine labels from the twenty-mile circle around Wiesbaden to pick from.  But apple wine is the preferred drink.

Sweet or just plain sour....take your pick.  Some of the locals might even drink sixty gallons of the stuff on a yearly basis.

Ninth.  Fests occur on a weekly basis with Wiesbaden or the forty towns surrounding it.  Everyone celebrates something....fifty-two weeks out of the year.  This means rich and fatty food, plenty of beer and wine, and a traffic jam or two every single weekend.

Tenth.  Residents of Wiesbaden have built the city into a place that they admire.  There's hardly a city in Germany that has a city park system as extensive as Wiesbaden.  For entertainment, from opera to rock music.....there's something going on nightly.  Art, culture, comedy, and life are pulsating within the city.   On a cold day in December in the midst of town....you could stand there and listen to some Peruvian guys play wind instruments for an hour.  Strange art objects get put up yearly....demanding your attention and curiosity.  Good fashion and bad fashion can somehow occupy the same spaces of the trendy part of Wiesbaden to hang out.

If you wanted to toss Manhattan, Rome, Paris, Amsterdam, Moscow, Miami, Berlin, and Istanbul into the same mix of things.....this is probably what you'd end up with.  No tall buildings.....but no massive traffic jams.  No massive corruption episodes, but no sixty-million Euro water fountains.

Passionate or absorbed with Wiesbaden?  No.  There's some great history, some dramatic moments, an enjoyable closed-in city, and no real urban crime like you'd see in most cities.  It is....what it is.

The Chinese-German Gimmick

If you shop around in Germany.....you come to realize that the discount grocery chains (REWE, Real, etc)....offer up coupons. The more you buy....the more coupons you get.

So they have a program going for six months at a time.....you collect forty-odd stamps on one sheet, and you get to buy something that typically costs a fair amount....at a much-reduced rate.

Naturally, Germans flock to something like this.

Last night....HR did their weekly MEX episode, and kinda exposed the whole gimmick.

The deal always involves a name-brand item.  Real's recent gimmick was a high-class named cooking ware deal.  The manufacturing company is German, and the cooking ware were items that folks would really appreciate....especially at twenty to twenty-five Euro....instead of the normal sixty-to-ninety Euro.

The gimmick here?  Well...this German high quality company....has a deal with a Chinese manufacturer....who makes the same items but slightly different.  The name will be on the item, and the box will almost be the same.....but quality-wise....it's NOT the same quality.  Naturally, the German would be standing there and saying...the company name is on the item....it must be German-quality.  Well....it's not.

The Chinese guys have figured an inside way of buying into a German company.....getting examples of the product....reproducing it but making it slightly different....then selling it into REWE or Real stores for their coupon sales.

Two years ago....my wife got all peppy about some coupon sales here, and bought me a nice Swiss-quality suitcase.  It had a Swiss-symbol on the side, and was regarded as high quality.  Hundreds of thousands of Germans that summer....collected the coupon stamps....and bought their cases.  The truth?  Well....these were all Chinese-made.  Maybe it was higher quality than the typical Chinese suitcase....but it wasn't Swiss-quality.  The thing is....the real Swiss case....would have been at least two hundred Euro.  So my wife got it for roughly thirty Euro.  She was proud of the deal.  I was happy enough with the travel case.  But the truth?  It's a nice two-star case made in China under a Swiss name.

All of this brings me to the gimmick world of German shop coupons.  Everybody is getting into this, and being creative about it.  Even if you don't want this stuff....you collect the coupons....buy items....and give them as gifts to your friend, neighbor, or associate.  Germans are addicted to "deals", and this is bluntly.....a deal.

German Pension Reform (2014)

Most Germans would tell you....that pension reform is a everlasting topic at the Bundestag.  Year after year....there's talk of pension reform, with various bells, whistles, and gimmicks.  Some are designed to be chatted about....some get serious consideration before folks know the price tag....and some actually make it all the way to completion.

So, this week....the newest German pension reform package was put up for consideration.  The Bundestag will chat about it, and see what support can be found.

The pieces?

First, there's the issue of the two classes of German mothers.  For some odd reason around two decades ago....the Germans decided to reward mothers (new mothers) extra time as a bonus for being mothers.  This deal was tied to a woman who worked....took time off.....then returned.  These women were all peppy and happy over the change.  The mothers who came prior to this date?  No bonus time.  You can guess the indignation and hostile feelings that brewed over the past decade.

So, this part of the reform....would bring the 'old mothers' up into the stage of the 'new mothers', and everyone would be equal.  Naturally....all women like this idea.  Naturally, the budget guys at the Bundestag hate this deal because of added cost.

Second, the retirement gate for full pension would be set up for forty-five years of contribution.  This means....if you did start working at 16 (like a fair number of Germans do)....then you'd retire at age 61.  You can imagine the guys sitting around and suddenly realizing that they did start early in life, and now?  Man, you could be fully retired and guzzling Becks beer in the backyard in a year or two.

Naturally, the older folks in Germany are really peppy over this idea, and think its great.  The budget guys?  They hate it.

Third.  There's a piece to the package which would address some perceived unfairness over medical retirement and likely increase it by some percentage.  This feature is the least talked-about element of reform.  Under the present system.....if you got into a serious accident, and were never able to work again....your pension would kick in....but it just wouldn't be as great if you had made it to sixty-five years old.  Almost everyone agrees....this needs reform badly.  Again, the budget folks hate it.

Total cost of this new package on top of the present package?  It's around 160 billion Euro to pay for it from now to 2030.

While everyone thinks the reforms would be great....especially the journalists talking up the deal.....there's this odd factor of taxes.  You'd have to invent taxes to  cover 2014 to 2030....that takes 160 billion Euro out of public's hands.  Yeah, they'd spend the money as they retired.....but you'd have to take a Euro here, and ten Euro there....to reach the extra money required.

The chances of this passing?  Well....there's some issues.  First, Europeans have been listening to Merkel talk austerity for the past four years.  This reform is anything BUT austerity.  So most other countries will hate it.  Germans?  They'd love the idea of being retired at age 62.  The older mothers would love getting their deal as the same for new mothers.

I suspect it'll pass.  And in five years....Germans will be grumbling to a major level....over new taxes invented out of thin air.  Hostile and angry?  Well....yeah.  But that's nothing new in Germany.

The Wiesbaden Anglican Church

I occasionally blog on the history of Wiesbaden, which is always in the making.

Down on Frankfurter Strasse....maybe one block from the main bus drop-off point of downtown Wiesbaden.....right next to the Warmer Damm Park area....is the St Augustine Church.

A grand building of sorts.....built in 1865.  The backers of the operation?  British folks who were a bit dedicated to Anglican Church of England.  Why build in Wiesbaden?  Well....it was a spa town of the mid-1800s, where rich folks came....stayed a month or two for 'recovery', and in those days.....rich folks would sponsor such building projects with ease.

If you walk around town, you get to a point of noticing various denominational buildings....which were part up around during the 1850s to the 1914 period.  Some don't match up with local religious groups....but they were accepted.  You have to remember.....Wiesbaden grew because it accepted one key group of folks....the rich.  And as much money as you wanted to toss into the city....it just felt inclined to accept you.

Times have come to a tough period.  Rich British folks, with religious needs.....aren't coming anymore.  There's no cash flow from within the isle.  So there's talk today of the church being put up for sale....by mid-Feb of this year.

Shock of course.....has come out over the episode.  The roof leaks.  The electrical outlets that do exist in the building....are questionable and need updating.  Heat?  What exists in the structure....is marginal.  Upgrading and renovating?  The local minister is quoted in the Wiesbaden Kourier at noting 500,000 Euro ($650,000) for a basic renovation requirement.

I kinda suspect that the estimate is low, and by the time you figure heating (probably solar), and a massive update on the roof.....it's bound to be closer to two million Euro.

The issues?  Well....it's historic.  You probably can't change much of the look.  Parking?  Non-existent.  Adjacent to the street?  Quiet so.  Remaking for another church?  Zero chance.

Who would buy it?  Probably someone wanting to convert it into a restaurant.  I've noted a couple of efforts now where older churches were converted, and made for interesting dining experiences.  It's near the downtown area, and likely is large enough to be a decent dining area.

The bid?  I'm curious what the place will bring.  With the work necessary.....I just don't see it selling for more than a million.  The real estate or just the land itself?  Probably worth ten million.  Lots of folks would want it for a upscale condo building or such.  But I doubt that the city would allow the building to be torn down.

Just one of those odd structural episodes in Wiesbaden.

The Trip to Hell Story

In my youth, around the summer of 1985, the base recreation center at Ramstein offered up a neat tour....five days at Costa Brava, Spain.  It's about 90 minutes south of the French border....on the Med.  At the time, it was roughly 220 DM (which today would equate to about $130).  This got you a bus ride, four nights in the 2-star hotel, and a breakfast for the four mornings.

For a naive guy like myself....I didn't realize the add-ons.  For example....if you wanted a higher-class three-star hotel....it was another $50.  If you wanted the wine tour on day two....it was $12.  If you wanted the bullfight trip on day three, it was $35.  The real tour....with everything added up, with food money and beverage funding....would have been closer to $300 for five days.  That was 1995 costs.

So I signed up for the "trip to hell".  The bus leaves on Friday night at midnight.  Half the folks meeting up at the pick-up site....had an abundance of wine and booze.  So they drank heavily for the first three hours, and the bus didn't quiet down until 3AM.  Naturally two or three folks got sick.....threw up either in the aisle or in the bathroom of the bus.  That funny smell that lingered?  Well....you just had to get used to that.

Along about 7AM, we were deep into France and stopped at some roadside gas station cafe.  You had to pay in French money....but they'd accept German marks or US dollars.....it's just that the exchange rate was lousy (as much as the food choice).  I think I paid around five bucks for a Coke and a candybar.

Somewhere around 1PM on Saturday afternoon....roughly 13 hours into the trip....we finally started to enter the area.  We stopped at the three-star hotel where everyone except me and two other folks....got off.  It was a nice-looking hotel.

The bus drove on for half-a-mile and the tour lady dumped us at some corner, and we had to walk a hundred feet to our little hotel....a marginal two-star.  The room consisted of one wood chair.....a crappy old bed (with a 15-year old mattress), a lamp, and a window which looked out onto another building (maybe five feet away).  There was no AC, no air circulation, and I think the temp at 2PM was around 94 degrees.

Breakfast at the hotel consisted of one cup of coffee....two Spanish pastry items, and a couple pieces of fruit.  A bottle of funny tasting water ran around a buck per bottle.

By the next morning....I'd come to realize this was a lousy trip.  It only got worse.

The wine tour on the second day?  Well.....they basically drove us around for 45 minutes in some rural area.....then dumped us at a local flea market for two hours.  We mostly stood there....wondering what the heck we needed to do at some flea market.  When they picked us up....we were all fairly thirsty.  So onto the wine tour.  Basically.....we got some ticket to enter the place, and sip little small shot glasses for an hour.  They expected us (Americans) to buy two or three bottles of wine after we'd tasted some.  Well.....we mostly took to a shot-a-minute strategy.....tasting around sixty wines in sixty minutes.  Even with a shot-glass....you can get pretty loaded....if you briskly march through the place.  It's safe to say that most of the tour group was fairly loaded after leaving the wine tour.

Day three?  Some trip to the Barcelona bull fight stadium.  It was around 95 degrees, and the key word of advice as we got off the bus.....be here twenty minutes after the last bull fight.....or we leave you behind.  Well...I got separated from the group, got there at twenty-four minutes after the fight, and missed the dang bus.  I then learned that most Spaniards don't speak English, and you need know where the local train station is.....to get back to the hotel (forty miles away).

By mid-morning on the fifth day....we were done and on the bus.  Several folks were heavily sun-burned and suffering terribly.  Some folks had gotten into love arguments with their beloved while on the tour, and weren't willing to sit with them on the way back.

My funds?  Well....I pretty much spent every single penny I had on me, and kinda wondered where the money went.

Why this comes up now?  Well....the spring bus travel booklets are coming out, and I ended up with a bus tour package in my mailbox.  I naturally surveyed the package and found this neat tour to Costa Brava.  The cost?  229 Euro (roughly $300, twice what I paid in 1995).  The extras?  Oh, they put them in there and let you know.

The deal?  Well....you can only get a three-star hotel.  I guess the tour guys learned it's best not to even offer a two-star deal.  So, what you get?  The hotel for four nights, a full-up breakfast for each day, a dinner each evening, and some option tours (which all cost money).  You can figure....for five days....you need to spend a total of 500 Euro (for the travel package, beverages, food, and tour-options).  That basically covers five lousy days on a bus tour.  That's around $650....or double what it was in 1984.

Part of me would like to go back to Costa Brava....because of lessons learned (I'd skip all the optional tours).  Part of me says it'd be awful foolish to ever step on a five-day bus tour ever again.  The crazy thing?  It's probably ten bucks now at a French rest stop for a lousy Coke and a candy bar.

An Airport of Rare Type

In 1927, the Germans went to work at the outer boundary of Berlin, and built up Templehof Airport.  In it's day...it was a work of wonder.  It was one of the first airports in the world with a connection via an underground subway.....to the city nearby.

The runways?  Two....both around six thousand feet long.

The simple history?  The original use was related to the Knights Templar....going back to the mid-ages.  So, it's kinda holy in some fashion.

In the 1930s....the Nazis came along and made it a big deal to enhance the airport.  By 1940....there were almost a hundred flights a day operating out of the airport, with half considered international in nature.  It was by the basic definition....one of the busiest airports in the world.

While damaged in WW II.....the runways were repaired and made functional again.  In 1948, it was turned into the greatest rescue effort of all time....flying tons of coal, food and fuel into a blockaded city.  Planes landed in a matter of seconds....positioned themselves at key points....unloaded in a matter of minutes, and took to the sky.  The survival of Berlin....depended on an airport of unusual character and capability.  It delivered what was necessary.

Today?  It sits for the most part.  There's a debate in Berlin....what to do with it.  Some want it converted into apartment and business center real estate.  Some want it to remain 'as-is'.  Some want it to become a museum of sorts, and a large green park for that part of the city.

It's a significant part of Berlin's history over the past century.  It's hard to say how folks will react on this.  Political folks are lined up to charge ahead....but it's too sharply divided to say anything is concrete in nature.  Most airports outlive their usefulness....and simply get replaced....then torn down.  This one?  The last thing on Earth I can see....is that you'd want to tear it down.  But we've never had something like this to happen before.  An airport as valuable as the Great Wall of China?  Yeah.