BLACK FOREST

We made our way into the Black Forest today.  The weather was lovely and we girls we ready to shop!  Our friends, Jack and Jane, came with us, and armed with our GPS (coincidentally, also named Jack), we took of for Triberg - a little town known for it's waterfall, as well as it's Black Forest-y attributes of cuckoo clocks and Black Forest Cake.   Along the way, our friends asked us if we were going to buy a clock.  We smiled and said that cuckoo clocks weren't really our speed - so we'd pass, but we were excited to see what we could learn about them.

Triberg was a cute, one stoplight kind of town.  The leaves were beginning to change, and they were all set up for Black Forest Tourists!

The cuckoo clock options were dizzying.  We met a man who had lots of opinions and expertise about hand vs. machine carved characters and how he could customize a clock, etc.  I smiled and nodded - it truly was interesting.  However, my dear, sweet husband was HOOKED.  He thought it would be really neat to take home a hand carved clock.  (By the by, we didn't see a clock for less than 250 Euro!)  He was all jazzed and ready to hand over his wallet.  So then, I stepped in and resumed my role of "She Who Makes His Dreams Die" and pointed out that two hours before he hadn't been interested, and perhaps maybe we should wait awhile before deciding to make this purchase.  I indicated that we didn't live far from here and if he got home and months later still really wanted a clock, we could always come back....  It did the trick :)  Jack and Jane passed on the clock option as well.  We decided to wrap up the shopping and head instead to the cake part of the trip!

I gotta tell ya, we were a little disappointed in the Black Forrest Cake. We went to a place advertised as having the "first and best" recipe for the cake. I'm sure there are another 20 just like it with a similar claim on the main street there. It was ....okay. A little spongy. VERY booze-y. I dunno - it felt like a bad grocery store cake to me.


After Triberg, we siddled on home and had a late dinner at the Japanese place down the street.  It was one of those hibachi style places where you cook your meal at your table.  It was yummy (not cheap, but yummy!). 

All in all, it was a mellow adventure, but one more feather in our German Culture Cap :)

VOLKSFEST PART DEUX

Yep, we are back again!! This time we joined Hubbz’s command which had reservations for a different beer tent. The email from the command urged us to be there at 4pm to ensure that we were occupying our reserved tables (when the party reaches critical mass, it’s too hard for the Fest staff to get folks to vacate a reserved table).


The crowd was MUCH more subdued when we arrived at 4:00. The band was also a little more tame – although still very good. By 8:00 the party was picking up – but we had already had four hours worth of beer, and we were timed out. We felt a little bad for our guests – the scene was much more lively in our previous Volksfest experience – and we had talked it up quite a bit. But I think that they had a good enough time (they probably think we have a SAD definition of a wild night in our old age!!)

Tomorrow we plan to get up and hit the road for the Black Forrest – home of the cuckoo clock and Black Forrest cake!

100 MBS OF INTERNET GOODNESS

That’s right, dear readers. We have internet!!!! I don’t have to perch on the windowsill any more. AND we can stream shows to our television set and watch them while sitting on our couch (Watching TV on the couch is something we haven’t done since MAY)
The installation did indeed take four hours. The technician spoke no English but we made it work. (He apparently also had an aversion to personal hygiene, since I could SMELL HIM FROM THREE ROOMS AWAY. Ick) The installation was not without its hiccups…I had a very Lucy Ricardo type morning.

THE PLAN: After chatting with our guests, we decided that I would take them to the Marktplatz and show them the flower and veggie market (to which I am addicted) and take them to breakfast at that super cute café (to which I am also addicted). We figured we would all window shop and wander a bit and when they were ready to go, I would get them situated on the train to Luidwigsberg where they could visit the pumpkin festival while I hosted the cable guy at 1230.

THE EXECUTION: I had literally just put my coat on and had my hand on the door when I was completely surprised by my ringing doorbell. Major hiccup. The cable guy arrived at 930 – three hours ahead of schedule. Thank goodness we didn’t leave any earlier!!

Crazy Little Math Segue: It is entirely possible that I got the time wrong with the scheduler on the phone and the cable guy was actually on time (one wrong on my part) – but since I don’t speak German well enough to get the clear picture from the installer (another wrong on my part), I am going to take the win and tell the story in a way that makes me right (my blog, my rules). SOOO – for those of you who might be keeping track, I do believe I just proved that two wrongs CAN make a right!!

I scurried around trying to direct the cable guy, and get Jack and Jane clear directions not only to the Marktplatz but also to the train station and explain the correct trains and connections to make. I couldn’t wait for Hubbz to come home so I could tell him the story and he could shake his head in a loving but admonishing Ricky Ricardo-like way..

Thankfully it all ended well. We have blazing fast internet, our guests had a day of Stuttgart adventures and we all had dinner together tonight at our house, drank wine and watched silly YouTube videos in 1080p HD tv together.

FIRST HOUSEGUESTS

Hooray! Today we are welcoming our first houseguests at the Holy Grail Apartment (and Guest Hotel). The couple joining us this weekend are friends we made in San Diego. Jack worked with Hubbz and cruised on the Tarawa with him back in 2007. While the boys were out defending the free world and patrolling for pirates, Jane and I (and the other wives in our little helicopter deployment group) all bonded over a few girls’ nights out. Jack and Jane were dating then, but now they are married and living in Naples. They will arrive tonight and we will get to explore some of the area’s offerings together – including a visit to Volksfest on Friday night.

Unfortunately, our internet service provider called this morning and wanted to schedule our internet installation tomorrow. What a quandary!! To be a good host and show our friends around would mean passing on what may be the first of many appointments required to install our internet. Jane assured me that she and Jack were more than happy to explore on their own – so I went ahead and made the appointment for Thursday at 1230. It seems that our building is old – and the cable wires that run through it were probably installed 20 years ago. We ordered the most bandwidth possible, since we’ll be running our telephone, television and internet through it. This means that the installation could take as long as four hours!!!

At any rate, we are thrilled to welcome Jack and Jane tonight – and so appreciate them for baring with us as we work out the kinks of moving in and navigating sites that we aren’t familiar with yet!!