So this past week...has definitely been a blur. Here is what I remember and worth mentioning...
On Wednesday, we joined some of Ryan's coworkers at the Corso Cinema International to see Pacific Rim in English. First Ryan and I took the train into Stuttgart to shop for our super touristy German steins. There is one tourist shop in the city compared to hundreds in more tourist destination cities like Munich. I am very glad that we purchased these awesome stereotypical German beer glasses though. Then we had doner kebab at a different shop downtown and I have to say that I did not enjoy it as much as when we get it at our favorite shop in Boeblingen. It was extremely spicy and the sauces just were not right. The movie was ok, definitely different than the typical movies that I enjoy. My favorite parts in the movie were when the main character Charlie Hunnam was shirtless, which was not nearly enough!
Thursday I waited for the movers to come pack our airfreight, which did not happen because the truck broke down.
Friday they did come and brought a box of candies and gummies to apologize. The box was immediately packed in my carry-on for snacking during our layover this week. The apartment feels quite empty without our extra belongings.
Friday evening we met up with friends at the Schonbuch Brauhaus in Stuttgart for dinner and drinks. Our super over-priced dessert drinks were enjoyed at Sky Beach Stuttgart. I have been wanting to go there since the weather became decent and was very excited to stand at a bar table in sand on a rooftop beach bar. They weather was perfect, the view was great and the sand between my toes was wonderful. Of course the experience begins with clumsy me stumbling on the wooden boardwalk and smacking my right foot. I didn't feel the pain at the time, but the swelling that ensued should have been a sign...After elevating and icing, the size of my foot was now returned to normal and I am trying to ignore the colorful bruises. Thankfully this is the closest we have gotten to a medical emergency since we arrived here in February. Knock-on-wood, since we are almost but not quite home yet.
Saturday was a hot day in Boeblingen with temperatures in the afternoon reaching nearly 100 degrees F. We were outside late afternoon in a paddle boat on the Oberer See for just under the maximum 30 minutes in our rented boat. That was about all our bodies could take of the heat.Then we cooled down at the city festival Schlemmen am See. The event was much like a small "Taste of Chicago event with five days of drinking and dining on the lake with local restaurants and live music. I had the most refreshing cold bubbling apple juice ever! For dinner we had salmon cooked over an on-sit fire-pit, with delicious "wild potatoes" and a Flammkuchen. We hung out there into the early evening when the temperature cooled down and the people came out. I finally tried an Aperol Spritz while we listened to fun music and watched people eat Ox im Brot. These giant meat sandwiches looked absolutely amazing but I was beyond stuffed and just could not imagine eating one. It only I could try everything!
The next morning was Sunday and we had a double date at the pool and afterwards a BBQ with friends. Even though it stormed all morning, the sky cleared up for a few hours in the afternoon and we were able to soak in the sun at Fildorado outdoor pool. The outdoor complex is huge with volleyball courts, sand areas, grass areas, kids play area, giant trampolines, a snack bar and patio, and numerous large pools complete with an in-pool rock climbing wall, three diving boards and kiddie slides. I could have easily spent more time there this summer if I would have known it was so awesome. (And it only costs 4 Euros per adult.) I enjoyed every minute there and was sad to leave when the sky started to get dark again. Here are a few other observations at the pool:
- Everyone was super happy. All you could hear was laughter!
- There were naked or nearly naked babies running around all over.
- Very few lifeguards.
- Speedos and short shorts!
- Still no paper cups. The snack bar had plastic beer glasses with a deposit.
- The concept of privacy does not exist in the locker room...
As soon as we entered our friend's apartment, the sky ripped oven with lightening and thunder and the torrential downpour began and continued for the next 26 hours (I will get back to that a little later, keep reading.) The couple had prepared a delicious feast of watermelon, tossed salad, Swabisch potato salad, toasted bread, and just about everything you could imagine grilling; shrimp, salmon, white fish, curry chicken, steak, sausage scallops, and bacon skewers. Delicious!
For dessert, I made a strawberry blueberry crisp with vanilla ice cream. It was supposed to be a strawberry rhubarb crisp, but I had to make a last minute change. Rhubarb has been everywhere pretty much since we arrived in Germany and I have been super excited to bake with it but had not had an opportunity to make a large dessert until now. I went to five stores on Friday and could not find Rhabarber anywhere. I tried researching the growing season here and all I could find is an article saying that Germans prefer locally grown rhubarb and choose not to import. My last minute change still produced a delicious product and used locally grown blueberries. Thank goodness blueberries are in season here now!
On Monday, it rained, all day! It literally stormed hard until 6 pm and the lightening and thunder never let up. I was busy in the kitchen beginning at 7 am. The German tradition is for employees to bring snacks and treats for their coworkers on their birthday and their last day of work. Ryan has experienced a fellow employees last day and they brought a kleines Frühstück of pretzels, danishes, etc. For Ryan's last day he asked me to bake desserts for his office of about 50 plus people. I baked the following in a very small oven. The best part is that we don't have a cookie sheet so I could only bake 12 cookies at a time on the oven drip pan lined with parchment paper.
- two 9x11 pans of brownies
- 5 dozen peanut butter cookies
- 5 dozen oatmeal craisin white chocolate chunk cookies
- about 35 oreo truffles
- 3 dinner plate sized sugar cookie fruit pizzas
Ryan and I were introduced to the construction that they began in Boeblingen that morning when I tried to drive Ryan to work. The route which should have taken 20 minutes at the most took over an hour. There were numerous lanes closed in the small city center and the route was detoured out of the way. I wanted the car though in case I needed to run to the store in the rain for any last minute baking necessities. Of course I did have to run out once and had no traffic problems going to the close Real.
After baking and cleaning all day, the plan was to meet friends for dinner in downtown Stuttgart. I left plenty early to run to the bike store to return the CO2 cartridges I purchased before heading to Ryan's office to park so we could take the train downtown together from there. Side note - of course I never got a flat once I was overly prepared for one and TSA does not let you fly with pressurized cartridges. So to give you an idea of timing, I left the house at 5 pm with the plan of catching the 5:45 pm train. Well I tried two different routes to get to the bike store and found them all to be blocked due to either construction, accidents, or flooded roads. Then I decided to forget the cartridges and I drove three different routes to try and get to Ryan's office. FAIL! Then we gave up and decided that I would just park two stops down from his office at Goldberg and we would meet on the 6:00 pm train. FAIL! There was a notice on the boards at Goldberg that the trains were not running through the woods to Vaihingen due to flooding. Ryan was able to make it one stop to downtown Boeblingen, right in the heart of the construction. Since it was pouring and he was trapped, I fought the traffic to go pick him up. Then we were together but trapped, we decide to try and head back to Goldberg to see if there are any changes or if we can take the bus...And two of the routes are closed so we have no choice but to drive to Vaihingen...but there is no where to park there and take the train into Stuttgart and the Autobahn is so overly congested because of the rain and the trains being out of service that traffic is not moving at all. After fighting the traffic for nearly another hour, we decide to give up and head home...But now the road to access our neighborhood is closed so we have to go way out of the way to get home. We finally made it home a little after 8 pm for our last dinner at our Boeblingen apartment.
We polished off the last three beers remaining in our refrigerator on Monday. One from Belgium, one from Copenhagen and a local one from Boeblingen. That pretty much encompasses our beer travels from the past six months. Unfortunately our freezer burnt pizza, icey frozen mixed vegetables, and super fatty American style frozen chicken wings did not complement the delicious beer, but I was very happy to not be on the road.
I took the train home for the last time and was very tempted for some reason to shout before my stop "I am an American and I have been trying to fit in here for the past six months and it is really hard!" I restrained myself and instead just exited and walked to our favorite Doner shop to meet Ryan for dinner. We enjoyed our doner and the last walk home. I will not miss walking up 50 or so stairs everyday to get home!
Now for 24 hours in a plane or airport to get home and begin our lives back in the US. I will definitely continue cycling and even registered for a bicycle repair and maintenance class at a local bike store. Hopefully I will perfect my brewing skills and enjoy craft beer from all over the US. Maybe I will even continue blogging as long as I continue exploring. Every day can be an adventure!
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