Germany - In other Bietigheim Food News...

In other news today, we had a produce market pop-up on our way to the butcher to get lunch

I was excited about this because as some of you know, I enjoy some good produce from time to time. My plan was to grab some strawberries and raspberries on my way back from lunch and snack on them this afternoon. However, by the time we got done with lunch, which lasts about 15-20 minutes max here in Germany, they had torn down almost all of the market and were no longer selling :-(So I settled for some OJ from the store.

And Yesterday, Mark, John, Karel and myself went to the Chinese restaurant for lunch. Good food as always, Mark and Karel discovered the chopsticks which I was unaware of. Funny thing was after we got done eating, none of us could remember what the protocal was there for plates, if we took them up to a trash area, or if they bused the tables.

So we took a guess at what we were supposed to do and carried out plates back inside from the sitting area. When we got inside, one of the employess, I think, was asking us what we needed, and we didn't know what to say, we just wanted to know what to do with our plates. So, we all stood there, the four of us, with dirty plates in our hands, looking at her, and at each other. Seemed like about 5 minutes, but I am sure it was about 15 seconds, finally I think John just stretched his arm out with the plate in has hand, and she got this hint.....good stuff

Germany - Downtown Bietigheim Again

Last night Dr. Kugler took Mark, John, Karel and I to dinner in downtown. Mr. Dieter Ruffner and Ben drove up from Stuttgart to join us. Somewhere in the communications of when and where, Dieter and Ben got the idea that we wanted to meet at 6:15 at the restaurant, and our plan was to meet at 7 at the hotel, reservations at 8. So Ben and Dieter got some quality time together, and we did a little city tour, took a little different route than Mr. Honicke and I took, so these pictures will be different than what you have seen. Here we go..

A picture of some of the old housing that runs along the river as we enter town.


Picture of a pathway next to the river Enz with the fountain in the background on the right

This is a shopping mall the closed about 12 days ago. The company that owned it is large and owns many malls, but was having financial difficulties and closed this and a few others. That would suck to have had a shop in there.

A couple pictures of a fountain that is across the Enz river from the city

And the gardens on the far side of the fountain

This is looking back across the bridge after we crossed it back towards Bietigheim

This is the opposite view looking into the city

This we just found flat out interesting

This is another fountain right in the city, they have a lot of interesting drainage routes and fountains all over

Just really old buildings and churches, like 400-600 years old

This is a shot from the restaurant we ate at this evening, please forgive John's expression, he was really hungry

This is Ben's meal, Haxenteller is what it's called, translation, the leg of some animal with some greens and spuds around it....reminds me of a jobsite I have been to recently.....hmmm

This was a glass of good Lemburger wine I was drinking....at a brewery.

I have been doing well remembering to not drink until we all have said cheers and looked each other in the eyes while over here, a German custom, and tonight was no different. However, I took this picture right after we decided to also touch glasses after a cheers, I touched a few, but as I got to Dr. Kugler's glass, he told me to put my wine down, we only touch glasses with beer :-) We all got a good laugh out of that one, as I was shunned from the group due to my choice in drinks.....much like in the US :-)

And these two, not sure what to make of it, if I had to guess, Ben just won a pair of Chris Webber's old Michigan shorts at a carnival. While Ben was winning those, John filled up on cotten candy, and then threw up on the Tilt-a-Whirl....that's my best guess

Germany - Badminton and Dirt on the Court

So I mentioned something a bit back about being slightly off my game over here...well, last night was another good example :-) Mr. Ronny Kschiwan and Ms. Karina Hentrich invited me to play badminton with them last night. Mr. Honicke has been asking around for people who could take me out to do some active things in the area. When I heard about badminton, my vision went to when I was, I don't know, maybe 8 or 10, playing at the family picnics. Pretty low key, not really sweating at all. So I figured this was just going to be a relaxing time with a few of their friends outside somewhere. Plus Ronny said afterwards we would go to the Beer Garden, which is a term for a bar/resturant that is outside under a large roof/cover. So, with all the in mind, I dressed for the Beer Garden, plaid shorts, a polo shirt and sandals.

I rode to the fitness center with Ronny, so that was my first shock, that we were in doors, and when Karina arrived, she was already in workout gear, and Ronny had a bag of clothes to change into. Then Mr. Jochen Walter arrived, and he was in workout gear as well. I think Ronny assumed I has some clothes in my pocket :-)

So, we headed to the gym, and as I am watching the badminton players, I realize I am really underdressed, especially in the footwear department, and I am going to sweat quite a bit. Here is the scene.


We decided it would be best for me to play barefoot. Karina said that she has seen little children do it before so why not. So we divide up into teams, Karina and I against Ronny and Jochen. Karina and I take a serious hit the first game, not even close. We brought it together the second game thought and won, and this is where I learned that Katrina and Ronny are very competitive in this game, so it was quite entertaining to watch her slam the birdie into the ground at his feet numerous times, and him get frustrated and swear in German....and English, for my benefit I think.

This was much more of a workout than I anticipated, it was very fun though, and I had a good time playing with them. Bottom line though, in case you are curious, the good guys and gals came out on top 4 games to 2, but not without some sacrifices. The floor was a little dirty, which was hard to detect with the eye, but my feet had no problem revealing this.



But the worst part, hidden under all this dirt, was this

Tough to tell, but essentially, I had developed blisters on the bottom of my big toe and the ball of my left foot. I didn't really notice this, until around game five, I felt that the bottoms of my left foot was no longer moving and reacting as quickly as I would like, and it kind hurt when I moved. This is when the blister skin broke away from the flesh, so it was just loose skin on the bottom of my foot. I know, good image right. So, I have a bit of a limp this morning, but it was worth the victory......

After the gym, they all showered there, and Ronny was nice enough to take me back to the hotel to shower and change. Then we went to a Beer Garden in the villiage where Karina lives, I cannot remember the name of either unfortunatly. It was nice though, very open, the river was about 10 feet to our left, great weather, I had another good German dish and some good German wine. Here is the scene.

sorry, this pic is a little blurry

The river is right behind me here

We ate chatted about world travel, the Fist of Zen show that is on TV here, my adventures in Germany, cultural differences, and how the part of the US they see on TV are all people from a small area in California, and is not representative of our entire nation, until about 10:30, then we headed out. Here is what the place looks like when they turn the lights on...another bad pic, sorry.

So another good day in Germany, with another adventure, and another miscalculation on my part of what I was getting myself into........

Germany - Lunch Time Walks

I mentioned in an earlier post about how nice it is to walk everywhere around here, and how at lunch, it's like herd migration for the viastore folks....well, we are just more sheep following the masses. Here are some pics of our migration today.

Generally the herd has much greater numbers, but we did not read the signs of the seasons properly, and were late with the start of our migration to where the food is plentiful, so we missed the pack.

Germany - Pizza Dinner

Monday, more of my co-workers arrived in Germany. Mark Hollebeek, JohnFountain, and Karel, who is from the Czech Republic. The four of us went to a little pizza joint that is a half block from the hotel for dinner. I had been eyeing this place every day when I walk by it, but never stopped in. So I talked the guy into going there last night. The setting was great, outside seating, tables with umbrellas over them, a little patch of grass in the middle of the eating area, lots of plants, trees.....and wasps. The food was delicious, I think we all got the special, except for Mark, he had the Trufel I believe. There were 12" pizzas, and I think we all almost polished them all off. I of course pizzasaid no way was I eating all that.....but I think I was the only one that finished mine :-)


This is a shot of Karel and John just after we got served. John is checking his email as he and Mark just activated there phones for international service as we sat down, so lots of emails, and Karel is, well, being Karel from what I could tell. Also, if you count, you will notice four beers...obvously one of those was not for me....but the server intended it that way, so I tried a little just so I could say I had some German Beer while in Germany. Yeah, just like Chinese food, beer is the same no matter what continent you are on....nuf said.

Here are a few more pics of the place, you can see the patch of grass I mentioned, a little bit of landscaping, and that cool "mist" that makes the bottom picture look great, that's actually the smoke from the BBQ grill that is just to the right of the picture. he was grillin up something over there. So that was our night.

Wait, I did have a little more excitement, I rode the hotel bike to the gym last night, and when I was coming back it was getting dark and hard to see. This bike has a light, so I was using that, but I was wearing dark clothes. So, as my recent history in this country would predict, I almost had a collision with another biker, head on coming around a corner. Luckily, one of us, me, swerved out of the way, and into a concrete wall.......I have a few scrapes to show for it, but I think I will keep all my limps. Not sure what is going one over here, but I am all off my game :-)

Ah yes, this also reminds me, for those that have not been here before, when you ask for water, you need to ask for no bubbles, or no gas I think is the more common way of stating this. They carbonate most of thier beverages over here. Water, apple juice, most juices, millk....ok, not the milk. But, even though I am aware of this, I still forget sometimes and take a big swig of what tastle like flat Faygo Cream Soda Pop....if you have ever had that. Not good, or refreshing.

Also, all of the picture I have taken, except the hiking ones, have been with my Storm camera. I think it takes pretty good pictures for a camera phone......

Germany - Dinner in Downtown Bietigheim

Had dinner with Mr. Honicke today in downtown Bietigheim at another Swabian resturant. Bietigheim is beautiful, it's really easy to forget how young our contry is. Old in our contry is a few hundred years old, old over here is a few thousand years, and I think the attraction of buildings gets better with age. We took a little time before dinner to walk through the town, look at some of the shop, achitecture, sculptures and people. Got some good pictures...

What is it........

You guessed it, four horses on top of each other................like Goldilocks and the three bears, but with hooves

Good trip through town. One thing I noticed is that not a lot of the eateries around Bietigheim have English menus, but I remembered in Suttgart most did. Mr. Honicke thought this is probably because of all the US GI's in Stuttgart........So, Hollebeek, you will have to be picking our meals for us next week.....Ben, you are in good shape.

Oh, and you can stop worrying, I decided to drive us to dinner tonight so I could get the hang of it before I drove across the country tomorrow, and apparently I still remember how to do it......even though I was never very good at it, today was probably my best manual driving display ever.....must be another thing that comes with rings :-)

Enjoy the rest of you day kids

Germany - Dinner at the "Mud Hole" and gender specific bathrooms

Ok, I am a little behind on my posting, I had some pics I was going to post with this one, so I have been waiting till I figured that out. Mr. Honicke took me to a cool spot for dinner on Wednesday night. The trainslation is the Mud Hole...something like Lamecouger..anywho, when he first told me the trainslation, I thought he was saying Mutt Hole, which didn't make a lot of sense to me..as you can imagine. Great spot though, it's built out of very large pieces of weathered wood, it's what I picture the inside of Noah's Ark would have looked like. But the best part is the back dinning area. It's a patio, with a tree branch canopy that has light strung on it, and grape vines growing on it over head. There is also a sand box with slides for the kids to play on. I have attached a picture of the patio

We had a great dish of pork and noodles with grilled mushrooms that I will certainly be ordering again while I am here. And of course I had some German wine while he drank some German beer. We chated quite a bit about travel during dinner, he has been a quite a few trips that I would love to go on. He took a trip in 1989 that started in San Francisco, went to L.A. and San Diego, then over to Death Valley, the Grand Canyon, Bristol Canyon, and back to San Francisco. All this in 2 weeks.

We also planned out what we are going to do on Sunday. He is going to take me to the Tegelberg cable car. We will ride the cable car up a mountain, then hike back down. At the base of the mountain are 2 very large castles that we will visit. So that should be a good trip, looking forward to that.

One more thing I learned at dinner was the words used for men's and women's bathrooms.

Can you guess which one is the men's bathroom?????

hopefully it takes you one less guess than it took me :-)

Also took my first ride in a Smart Car....Mr. Honicke owns one.

Germany - Chinese for Lunch & Stick Shifts

All of the food I have been eating here seems to be fairly healthy. Grilled or baked meats, noodles, light sauces....nothing fried. That is, except for the Chinese joint we keep going to, where everything is fried. Chinese tastes the same no matter what continent you are on, that's for sure, they even slip a little sushi in there, which I don't mind at all.

Aside from the fried food, lunch was pretty good, because I got to see this......

This would be the first Ford I have seen on the roads of Bietigheim....well, I guess this one isn't technically on the road, parking lot if you will. But as you can see, this baby is going for about 1,990 Euro, so a cool $2,800 for this bad boy......not sure about that deal..

Which reminds me, I have had a company car while I am here, but I have yet to use it, I have been walking to the office, which is nice, and the hotel lends me a bike to go to the gym. Really I have been avoiding it because I haven't driven a stick in about 5 years, so I am a little out of practice. Well, Satruday, I am driving to Baden-Baden, which is a town on the edge of the Black Forest known for their waterfalls, hiking/biking trails and vineyards. This will be about a 90 minute drive each way....minimumn. I have to drive into Stuttgart first to pick up the bike I rented, so there will be some fun city driving to get me refreshed, then I will be off, hopefully with my transmissin intact. Wish me luck.

Oh, and those of you who have been reading these can tell a dude is used to having Spell Check watch his back......my apologies

Germany - Few More office tidbits now that I can post pictures

These are the tokens that they use for lunches. From what I understand, they are worth about 3.5 - 4 Euro, which will get you most lunches at the places that accept them. The company pays for about half of them.

And this right here is how I charge my laptop in the office, I use a similar set-up in the hotel for my phone and laptop.