Wednesday, Feb. 10 2010

Hello,

We went on the tour today, it was freezing, plus we were very tired because we were up till 0245am, that is when Dyllon got off work and I pick him up since we have 1 car, and the tour started at 0845 today, sooo needless to say, very tired. But despite everything the trip was informational and we are excited to revisit the town on a warmer day. It is snowing here, and they say this is the worst winter they have had in 30 years, I am sure it is not as bad as what you have there, as I hear you have been getting quite a bit of snow. It is 18 degrees here today. I uploaded more pictures under the Germany Album. I am going to try to figure out which cellphone company we are going to go with today, and look into the internet/home phone today too, once we have a home phone we should be able to call back to the states unlimited.

Just to share a background on the many different fish pictures you will see here and in the future:

KAISERSLAUTERN, Germany — Something fishy’s going on in downtown Kaiserslautern.

On street corners, in fountains and hanging as shingles outside businesses, nearly 200 brightly colored, giant fish are floating about the city. The display commemorates the 725th anniversary of Kaiserslautern, which has the carp as its official symbol.

The reason behind the symbol is a real fish tale, USO guide Rose Davis said during a downtown historical tour Friday.

Legend has it that back in 1497, the Elector Philipp had a 20-foot-long fish weighing 385 pounds served for his dinner in Heidelberg.

"Can you see a carp weighing 385 pounds?" Davis asked a group of servicemembers and their families on the tour. "I cannot. But this is the legend."

A fiberglass fish with shiny scales made of compact discs appears to be jumping out of a fountain in downtown Kaiserslautern.

The fish had been caught at the Emperor Barbarossa’s lake in Kaiserslautern. The city is named so because the Lautern River ran through it [the river now flows only underground] and it belonged to the Kaiser. Thus, Kaiserslautern.

Around its head, the fish had a ring with an inscription reading: "I am the first among all the other fish that has been put in the lake personally by the Emperor Frederick II, on Oct. 5, 1230."

After the 30 Years War, fought in Western Europe between 1618 and 1648, Kaiserlautern’s leaders replaced the two small fish on their city seal with one mighty carp.

That’s what the school of fishes in downtown Kaiserslautern represent in the whimsical display called Fishing For Fantasy.

The city sold a basic version of recycled glass-fiber fishes for 1,400 German marks — about $650 — to merchants, schools, sister-cities and even foreign nations such as Bosnia and Herzegovina. Each has decorated its catch with its own signature. There’s a fish with a pig on its back; one whose shiny scales are actually dozens of compact discs, and another, outside St. Martin’s church, has a Biblical theme.

Well thats all for now, love ya,
Kristen