Deutschland

It's Easter weekend, which is quite a big deal over here. Well, at least a bigger deal than in America. Easter was always strictly a Sunday activity for me growing up. Typically just church and then lunch, once I outgrew the egg hunts. But in Germany both Friday and Monday are national holidays, ALL stores are closed Fri/Sun/Mon (except gas stations, I suppose), the nearby city of Aalen has a street festival, and various local Catholic churches have special services. Liz and I were invited to a Saturday service. We'll snap a picture if we go. So, what are your Easter plans?

Also! we'll be babysitting vampire cat again, but only for one day, and absolutely not in our apartment this time around. Sorry. No crazy cat parties this time.

Next week a coworker from KY is visiting for about ten days. He'll be busy, but it's his first time over here, and he's alone, so I plan on seeing him a few times. I owe him anyway - he picked out my shoes.

If you haven't heard, twice now Liz and I have joined Puppies, Cats, & Cake. That's when we walk shelter dogs for an hour or two, play with shelter cats, and then eat homemade cake. It's as spectacular as it sounds. Some dogs are better than others. Rosa had her moments.




(Those are the shoes that I mentioned, btw.)
And some dogs were... special.




My coworker, Sarah, and her sister, Julia, take us each month. This last time, new friend Alena joined us as well. The next Puppies, Cats, & Cake is at the end of April. We'll see if Liz is up for it, being 8.5 months pregnant.

Umm... Liz and I are making a giant commitment soon. We're buying a fern! Liz and I have horrid track records with caring for plants. Not to mention that the cats' are obsessed with vegetation. As a result we've lived 100% plant-free for years now. All of that is about to change because I randomly decided we needed something green in the apartment. Maybe red. We'll see. Wish us luck!

I haven't shaved my face in 2017. That's news, I guess. It's not as much hair as one might think since my jowls are naturally bald. But it's bright red, so I get lots of attention, which, you know, is what I'm all about.

Beer! This is sad news for Liz, but very exciting for me: the grocery near us now carries a selection of not-terrible beer. One small corner now contains some German craft brews - and Stone Arrogant Bastard. About ten choices in total. Now, it's not America expensive, but it's certainly Germany expensive, at 2 or 3 euros per bottle, so I probably won't buy them often. It's just nice to be around good beer.

Sorry there aren't better pictures, and that we haven't traveled anywhere lately. Liz is busy growing things, and I'm just lazy. I do have cat pictures because, you know, cats. But there are enough pictures of cats online as it is.

FROHE OSTERN!

How is everyone? It feels like we talked just yesterday, right? No? No, of course not. In my defense, Liz and I haven’t traveled anywhere since New Year’s Eve—and that trip was super low-key—so I was trying to spare you from boring Germany stories. You know you didn’t want to hear about our daytrip to the doctor in Ulm. Ugh, Ulm. Language impairment or no, was the most confusing hospital I’ve ever encountered. The highlight of that adventure: I bought a German baby book, though I still haven’t bothered translating it. You see? You don’t want to hear stories like that. You’re welcome.

Honestly, our New Year’s Eve trip was excellent, although I’m confident you’d claim that we did it wrong. We spent 5 days in Strasbourg, which is a city right on the border of France. Very cute city, lots of water, lots of Christmas decorations.




We toured by foot a significant portion of the city and hit a museum, but overall the trip was very relaxed. Liz was tired a lot from baby-growing, and Strasbourg was rather chilly most days (France isn’t particularly sunny in my experience), and yada yada yada… we ate in the AirBnB several times. Like, more than half of our meals came from the grocery. To appease the party gods, I drank a beer on New Year’s Eve, and Liz and I ate 24 grapes. However, that, too, was done within the walls of the AirBnB. Midnight was genuinely entertaining, though. The AirBnB apartment complex was in the center of town, surrounded by numerous other tall apartment complexes, and so we got to watch drunken French residents on their balconies shoot fireworks at each other.

Travel news: I’ll be working in Florence for 2 weeks in mid-July. I won’t have a car, I’ll be staying at the Hilton by Cracker Barrel, and Liz won’t be with me… so, yeah. And I’ll be back again in early October for work. Also without Liz. But maybe with a car? Very little information at this point.

I’ve been reading an unhealthy amount of books lately. No—not books in German. Let’s go ahead and assume at this point that German will never come out of my mouth. Anyway, Liz bought me a Kindle for Christmas and set me loose on the Kenton County Digital Library (with mom’s help). I had serious doubts about owning a Kindle, but—especially considering my situation abroad—it has been a godsend. I still don’t prefer Kindles over paper books, exactly. But I love checking out books from my apartment. For free.

Everything else I have to talk about is babies. The baby is coming pretty soon. Liz has been taking (German) parenting classes in town. She’s been a champ, walking the mile to get there, walking back in the dark. Before you ask: no, I’m not invited. In fact, I’m banned from these particular classes. There are 2 classes I’m allowed to attend next week, the rest Liz must tackle on her own. We’ve accumulated a lot of baby stuff already. However, the room is blah. Apartments, you know. I can’t wait to be home in Florence (typically referred to as “home-home”), where I can go all out designing a baby room. I just need to be patient, I suppose.

Send us a message and let us know how your life is going. And chime in if you have any baby book suggestions (for adults, about babies). I’m willing to give anything a try… as long as it’s at the library.

Another weekend, another adventure.

Thanks to the national holiday on Tuesday, Elizabeth and I spent our 4-day weekend in Rothenburg ob der Tauber. It’s a gorgeous town, only a short train ride north. Rothenburg is known for its well-preserved outer wall and ancient buildings, as well as for its cannonballs… I mean, Schneebälle. Founded in 1274, Rothenburg is 6 years younger than Schwäbisch Gmünd. It’s no wonder that their city walls are still in excellent shape. That half decade makes all the difference.

I don’t want to drone on like I’ve done our past 2 trips, so I’ll stick to the highlights. Relaxation was the objective this weekend. On Friday we picked up 2 books for me from the library. Thank you, Cousin Liz, for the help (not “The Help”, though I actually am reading that, too). We hopped on the train Saturday, shortly before 9:00, and by 11:00 we had arrived ready to party.




That’s a lie. We arrived ready to nap. But we were too excited (and I was too hungry), so we resisted the cozy hotel and dragged our lazy butts outside. After lunch we explored the town. We hit as many of the tiny shops as we could, which triggered a substantial amount of déjà vu, and I’ll tell you why: While beautiful, Rothenburg is not immune to the terrors of tourism… of the 50 stores, there are maybe 3 suppliers. In other words: none of it is unique. Once you’ve been to 3 stores, you’ve likely seen everything.

Of course, shopping wasn’t why we were there. We were there to eat! And Elizabeth is my mealtime good luck charm (Abendessenglücksbringerin), BTW. We are American, so we never reserve tables. Nevertheless, not once in Rothenburg were we denied a table. That might not sound impressive if you’re American. And if you’re German, it probably sounds reckless. Interpret it as you will.

The biggest mealtime fail was Sunday night, when I ordered something direct from the server’s mouth. She kept saying that it was extremely, extremely fresh. I didn’t know what she was saying, obviously. It turned out to be another pig knuckle (like I ate in Berlin). It’s not a matter of taste. It was very good. But I’m not happy to say that I ate the entire thing. Again.




The mealtime biggest win was Monday night (Halloween) at Hell. Hell is a restaurant in a cramped little house along the wall of the city. Its foundation is older than Rothenburg itself – constructed before the year 1000. We grabbed the only non-reserved table in the restaurant. Well, to be honest, it too was reserved beginning at 7:30, but we promised them we’d be gone by then. During our meal, no fewer than 15 parties were turned down at the door. It was great fun.

After Hell, Elizabeth and I took the Nightwatchman tour. It was a late night walking tour through the city with local history, led by – whom we agreed upon later – Eric Idle carrying a very large weapon. All of us in his pack gave him a wide berth, for fear of his halberd which was swinging haphazardly behind him. If you go to Rothenburg, do the tour. It’s short and cheap. No risk.




Anyway, during our stay, Elizabeth and I also walked all the way around the city wall. We explored horrifyingly creepy abandoned churches. We ran away from nighttime Halloween weasels. And we still managed to squeeze in enough down time for me to read “Never Let Me Go” by Kazuo Ishiguro. Very interesting read. But now I feel like I need to read “Remains of the Day”. Or watch it? We’ll see.

We’re back to the routine again. The cats were ecstatic to see us Tuesday afternoon. They haven’t stopped ramming us with their faces since. Now it’s time for me to bug Elizabeth, to ask to use some of her pictures. I myself shot 1.