yes! industrie!

well, to start off, last night i stepped on the scale in the bathroom, it said 69kg. doing the math today, i came to find out that i've lost ~2.3kg (or, about 5lbs)! this is good news for me, because i've put on quite a bit of weight, and i was hoping i'd do enough walking in DE to lose some of it. i also noticed that my pants are fitting better than ever!

that was until around 7pm today, when i ate a huge dinner. and now feel that i am going to waddle all day tomorrow.

now, on to the meat and potatoes of the post.

today we went to oberhausen. it is a city about 60km north of leverkusen (again, where we are staying) oberhausen was, for a very long time, a HEAVY industrial city. it revolved mostly around the production of iron ore into steel. while there, we toured the museum that explained all about the industrial revolution, and about the production of steel. it was incredibly fascinating!

for example, i learned that the men working in the steel factory would end up with black gums because of all the soot, smoke, and shavings that went into the air. i also got to see a hammer for making train wheels that was as big as a house.

after the museum, we went to an industrial park. which was ACTUALLY a park! you got to go inside of the machinery that was, until around 15 years ago, a functioning steel factory. we climbed several flights of stairs, and went on a LOT of really scary pathways. unfortunately, i started chickening out around 55m up, and had to stand on the middle level because i simply could not go any further. it was one thing in the Kölner Dom going up 98 meters, with a wall around me. but going up past 55meters was just impossible for me, because i hate being able to see the ground below me when i'm that high up.

interestingly, while we were on that middle level around 55m up, we could see very far past the city. on the horizon, i spotted two nuclear energy plants. this is INCREDIBLY fascinating to me, because i am a HUGE proponet of nuclear energy. it's very cool being in a country that actually USES this type of energy! as well, they use a lot of solar, and wind energy.

finally, the weather today. it was 15C, and it felt absolutely fantastic! when Miriam and I went to the post office, we didn't even need jackets! unfortunately, we are not going to be having such weather tomorrow. my weather site says ~8C, cloudy, and then possible rain in the evening.

for tomorrow, we are going to Düsseldorf with Samuel, on the DE-bahn. that is, if the strike hasn't made the trip impossible. (i honestly can't remember if i mentioned this, but the DE-Bahn workers voted to strike, again (they did last week) starting tomorrow. So much for a certain co-worker's rich praises, and chastising of riding in a car. (that didn't make much sense, i apologize)

now, i am going to drink some tea, and read a bit from david sedaris. Tschuss!