Third Week in Deutschland
Hello all,
One more week down and one left to go. I do not have anymore trips planned for the up coming week after my visit to Felix and Katja since it will all be about work. This week should fly by quickly since every day will be filled with work, lunch and dinner.
Last Sunday, the 10th, I spent time cleaning clothes at the boarding house where Josh and David are staying. The washers are small but powerful. Josh and I smoked cuban Cigars while the clothes washed. Then we grabbed some Pizzas at Areana--a local place. I helped Josh return his motorcycle to München so we stayed and had dinner at the Hofbräuhaus. The crowd at HB was very rowdy and young. It seems that the american high school seniors that graduated were at HB drinking liter beers and then barfing in the vomitorium. Josh and I found a nice quiet spot outside and checked the menu. Our waiter was a jerk. We ordered 2 Helles which he wanted us to pay for right away. I told him that we would be ordering food too which got him to walk away. Once our food came to the table, our waiter did the most deplorable and absolutely rude act, he brought the bill with the food. That doesn't sound so bad coming from the states because we are used to it, but here people ask for the bill (bezahlen, bitte!) when they are ready to leave. I was told later that this is expected at a Biergarten, plus the people who work there are not treated very well.
Monday (11th) through Friday (15th) was work. David returned on Wednesday from the States. I believe he will be here for many more weeks than Josh and I. Monday night, Josh and I went out with Angela. She is Swiss and speaks swee-tsah-dooch which is a running joke between us and any swiss germans who don't speak Hochdeutsch (the swiss asctually say they speak swee-tsah-dooch). We went to another place here in Penzberg. It was Italian food which was very good. Tuesday night Josh and I went to Culinario where we saw Horst and another local--Ernest. We drank Erdinger Dunkles Weissbier.
Wednesday night we were invited out for a Biergarten dinner in München (in Bayerisch Munich it is called Minga). We carpooled from work into the city and arranged for a taxi to take those of us who do not live in München back to Penzberg. We went to the most beloved Biergarten in München called Augustinerkeller (Pictures can be found here). I think the Germans were trying to kill us with their best beer -- Augustiner Edelstoff. Each beer was a Maß (1 liter) and on the table were pretzels (Bretzls). I had a Schweinwürstl (sausage plate) with sour kraut. Es schmeckt mir sehr gut (it tastes very gut to me)! I wish you all could have seen this place. We were in a cellar (keller) with brick walls and barrels of beer. Dining here would be interesting for anyone from the US. The seating arrangement is true Biergarten style--long tables and benches where anyone can sit down next to you (Ist hier besitzt? or Ist hier noch Frei?).
This weekend (16th and 17th) I spent with Felix, Katja (Kah' tya) and their daughter Nike (Nee' Ka -- not like the shoe) at their house in Schluttenbach near Ettlingen. it has been two years since Michelle and I met them in Santa Barbara. Ettlingen is just southeast of Karlsrühe (Karls roo-ah) and Karlsrühe is about 2 hours west of München. I rented a car through work which I picked up on Friday at Roche. The car is a VW Jetta with manual transmission. I stalled twice pulling away from the rental hause--oops! I traded Josh and David the VW for the Mercedes (I could not get the VW's navigation system to speak English--threatening it in German did no good).
I started driving to Schluttenbach at 11:00am Saturday which would put me there two hours early. I thought I might stop off in Sttutgart on the way there, but once I was on the road stopping in Stuttgart was not going to happen. I ran into a lot of traffic congestion going through Stuttgart which burned-up 1.5 of my 2 extra hours.
During the drive I was reminded of a saying that we have in the states which is completely different here--going Dutch. We know "going Dutch" as each person pays for their own. Here in Deutschland, "going Dutch" is a slightly racist slur. When you see one trailer with a NL (Netherlands) license plate there will always be another traveling as a pair. Here the dutch are the cheap people who travel through every land in Europe but never spend any money in their host land. The Dutch bring everything with them--food, shelter, etc.
But I digress, I got to Ettlingen and drove around in the beautiful sunshine for a few minutes to get familiar with this town. I drove up to Katja and Felix's house where it rains buckets of water as I pulled up. I waited for the freak storm to pass before getting out of the car and knocking on the door. Felix and Katja introduced me to their daughter Nike whom they call Nike Maus (similar to Scott calling Cole Coler Bear). She is 5.5 months old. Since we had plenty of sunshine and daylight left, we walked through their fields and forests near their flat. Felix has taught Nike to "tease the trees". This involves Felix or Katja holding Nike near a tree branch which she grabs and then they pull back the branch and let it go. Nike loves this very much. Once we got back to the house, we picked out vegetables from their garden and greenhouse for the dinner salad. They grow lettuce, 3 types of basil, cucumbers, tomatoes, rosemary, thyme, and other wonderful food stuffs. While it was too early for dinner, Felix and I went into Ettlingen to get some beer from the local brewer. I have fogotten the name of the place, but the bottle was two litters with a handle and snap down cap (like Grolsch). Dinner was pasta with a homemade sauce and a Beck's salad with lemon juice and olive oil dressing. Dinner was fantastic. They gave me a very good pesto sauce (Pesto alla Genovese con Basilico Ligure from Anfosso) that we put on top of the tomato sauce. Michelle will love it. Felix also shared with me a Pear Schnapps that his father made in 1983/1984 which was terrific.
On Sunday, Felix had made fresh breakfast juice from fruit and we also had coffee. When Katja and Nike joined us at the table Felix started feeding Nike the fruit juice--she loves fruit and juices. We had decided on Saturday night to go into France, only 20Km from Ettlingen, for breakfast. However, we also wanted to go into Heidelberg so we dropped the France trip (which was fine by me, I'm not here for France) to spend more time in Heidelberg. We stopped at a small outdoor cafe for Kaffee und Kuchen. Afterwards we walked along the river Neckar which runs through the town. We made ourway to the "Old Bridge" from which you can see Schloss Heidelberg very well. We crossed the bridge and ate at the Heidelberger Hecht (Hecht heißt Pike auf Englisch). I ordered the Herrengulasch mit Käsespätzle with another new beer--Heidelberger Pils. I stopped and bought some more Cohibas; Felix and Katja had some icecream. We walked the longest shopping street in Europe (1.5 Km long). It was sad to say goodbye, but I will most likely be back in Europe again this year with Michelle and we will see them when we are here together.
There is only one more week to go--as of now, actually only 5 working days. So this week will flyby and I will be home very soon.
One more week down and one left to go. I do not have anymore trips planned for the up coming week after my visit to Felix and Katja since it will all be about work. This week should fly by quickly since every day will be filled with work, lunch and dinner.
Last Sunday, the 10th, I spent time cleaning clothes at the boarding house where Josh and David are staying. The washers are small but powerful. Josh and I smoked cuban Cigars while the clothes washed. Then we grabbed some Pizzas at Areana--a local place. I helped Josh return his motorcycle to München so we stayed and had dinner at the Hofbräuhaus. The crowd at HB was very rowdy and young. It seems that the american high school seniors that graduated were at HB drinking liter beers and then barfing in the vomitorium. Josh and I found a nice quiet spot outside and checked the menu. Our waiter was a jerk. We ordered 2 Helles which he wanted us to pay for right away. I told him that we would be ordering food too which got him to walk away. Once our food came to the table, our waiter did the most deplorable and absolutely rude act, he brought the bill with the food. That doesn't sound so bad coming from the states because we are used to it, but here people ask for the bill (bezahlen, bitte!) when they are ready to leave. I was told later that this is expected at a Biergarten, plus the people who work there are not treated very well.
Monday (11th) through Friday (15th) was work. David returned on Wednesday from the States. I believe he will be here for many more weeks than Josh and I. Monday night, Josh and I went out with Angela. She is Swiss and speaks swee-tsah-dooch which is a running joke between us and any swiss germans who don't speak Hochdeutsch (the swiss asctually say they speak swee-tsah-dooch). We went to another place here in Penzberg. It was Italian food which was very good. Tuesday night Josh and I went to Culinario where we saw Horst and another local--Ernest. We drank Erdinger Dunkles Weissbier.
Wednesday night we were invited out for a Biergarten dinner in München (in Bayerisch Munich it is called Minga). We carpooled from work into the city and arranged for a taxi to take those of us who do not live in München back to Penzberg. We went to the most beloved Biergarten in München called Augustinerkeller (Pictures can be found here). I think the Germans were trying to kill us with their best beer -- Augustiner Edelstoff. Each beer was a Maß (1 liter) and on the table were pretzels (Bretzls). I had a Schweinwürstl (sausage plate) with sour kraut. Es schmeckt mir sehr gut (it tastes very gut to me)! I wish you all could have seen this place. We were in a cellar (keller) with brick walls and barrels of beer. Dining here would be interesting for anyone from the US. The seating arrangement is true Biergarten style--long tables and benches where anyone can sit down next to you (Ist hier besitzt? or Ist hier noch Frei?).
This weekend (16th and 17th) I spent with Felix, Katja (Kah' tya) and their daughter Nike (Nee' Ka -- not like the shoe) at their house in Schluttenbach near Ettlingen. it has been two years since Michelle and I met them in Santa Barbara. Ettlingen is just southeast of Karlsrühe (Karls roo-ah) and Karlsrühe is about 2 hours west of München. I rented a car through work which I picked up on Friday at Roche. The car is a VW Jetta with manual transmission. I stalled twice pulling away from the rental hause--oops! I traded Josh and David the VW for the Mercedes (I could not get the VW's navigation system to speak English--threatening it in German did no good).
I started driving to Schluttenbach at 11:00am Saturday which would put me there two hours early. I thought I might stop off in Sttutgart on the way there, but once I was on the road stopping in Stuttgart was not going to happen. I ran into a lot of traffic congestion going through Stuttgart which burned-up 1.5 of my 2 extra hours.
During the drive I was reminded of a saying that we have in the states which is completely different here--going Dutch. We know "going Dutch" as each person pays for their own. Here in Deutschland, "going Dutch" is a slightly racist slur. When you see one trailer with a NL (Netherlands) license plate there will always be another traveling as a pair. Here the dutch are the cheap people who travel through every land in Europe but never spend any money in their host land. The Dutch bring everything with them--food, shelter, etc.
But I digress, I got to Ettlingen and drove around in the beautiful sunshine for a few minutes to get familiar with this town. I drove up to Katja and Felix's house where it rains buckets of water as I pulled up. I waited for the freak storm to pass before getting out of the car and knocking on the door. Felix and Katja introduced me to their daughter Nike whom they call Nike Maus (similar to Scott calling Cole Coler Bear). She is 5.5 months old. Since we had plenty of sunshine and daylight left, we walked through their fields and forests near their flat. Felix has taught Nike to "tease the trees". This involves Felix or Katja holding Nike near a tree branch which she grabs and then they pull back the branch and let it go. Nike loves this very much. Once we got back to the house, we picked out vegetables from their garden and greenhouse for the dinner salad. They grow lettuce, 3 types of basil, cucumbers, tomatoes, rosemary, thyme, and other wonderful food stuffs. While it was too early for dinner, Felix and I went into Ettlingen to get some beer from the local brewer. I have fogotten the name of the place, but the bottle was two litters with a handle and snap down cap (like Grolsch). Dinner was pasta with a homemade sauce and a Beck's salad with lemon juice and olive oil dressing. Dinner was fantastic. They gave me a very good pesto sauce (Pesto alla Genovese con Basilico Ligure from Anfosso) that we put on top of the tomato sauce. Michelle will love it. Felix also shared with me a Pear Schnapps that his father made in 1983/1984 which was terrific.
On Sunday, Felix had made fresh breakfast juice from fruit and we also had coffee. When Katja and Nike joined us at the table Felix started feeding Nike the fruit juice--she loves fruit and juices. We had decided on Saturday night to go into France, only 20Km from Ettlingen, for breakfast. However, we also wanted to go into Heidelberg so we dropped the France trip (which was fine by me, I'm not here for France) to spend more time in Heidelberg. We stopped at a small outdoor cafe for Kaffee und Kuchen. Afterwards we walked along the river Neckar which runs through the town. We made ourway to the "Old Bridge" from which you can see Schloss Heidelberg very well. We crossed the bridge and ate at the Heidelberger Hecht (Hecht heißt Pike auf Englisch). I ordered the Herrengulasch mit Käsespätzle with another new beer--Heidelberger Pils. I stopped and bought some more Cohibas; Felix and Katja had some icecream. We walked the longest shopping street in Europe (1.5 Km long). It was sad to say goodbye, but I will most likely be back in Europe again this year with Michelle and we will see them when we are here together.
There is only one more week to go--as of now, actually only 5 working days. So this week will flyby and I will be home very soon.