Dano's

Life in Ithaca is so familiar! It is weird to have been away for seven years, lived in three different continents, and to find the same restaurants with the same menus as when we left. We've been to Aroma's which has not painted their interior or changed their pizzas (hmmm, black bean pizza!), to Just a Taste which still has the best cod fritters and the same staff, and Dano's, which was wonderful as always!

Only one more day together, and then we will be living apart for a whole academic year... :(

Birthday Foodz

There is no birthday foodz like Brusselz sproutz, even when served one day too early because the wife needs to go on a junket to St. Hans.



We added a little maple syrup to the walnutz and sproutz. Yum-o!

Great Food

After these photo ops on the Mairspitze, we arrived at the Nürnberger Hütte. We enjoyed the sun, and their spectacularly good food!



There was home smoked bacon, Hauswurst, great cakes etc. Also beer.



Gröstl.



Goulash mit Knödel.



And a "Tris" of Schlutzkrapfen, Käseknödel and some other deliciousness. Many good reasons to stay overnight in huts!

Strangers in the US

We both arrived in the US on Friday, and really felt a bit like strangers. We picked up our rental car the next day and started driving towards a giant outlet mall to do our "patriotic duty". Of course, we took a wrong turn, and were confronted by a toll booth. We had the choice of using an EZ pass, which we of course did not have any more, or using coins, which we did not have. We did not want to get a ticket right away, so we stopped the car before the exit, and felt stuck. Luckily people here are really nice. Some cars stopped, and gave us quarters for a dollar bill (or even just gave us quarters!), and we could continue...



The outlet mall even tried to make us feel at home, by offering us German sausages:



But we wanted local food, and therefore went for...



... a Nathan's hot dog.

Home Biking

Yesterday we decided to check out some local wineries (on the German Weinstraße), and were pleasantly surprised! Not only was the weather beautiful, but some of the wineries were lively (with senior citizens in RVs) and had some decent wines as well! We especially liked the winery in Königsbach, where we had fresh wine and a good chardonnay.





Here is a somewhat less lively winery, which had a soup that made A smile.





We ended up in Bad Durkheim, where we had local specialties for dinner.



Surprisingly one of the specialties was sausages!

Biking

Yesterday we went biking again. We started with a hearty brunch, consisting of a real German specialty: Curry wurst. This consists of sausage (of virtually any kind), with a sauce of ketchup and curry powder, dusted with more curry powder. A very misunderrecognized flavor in any cuisine, but the German: powdery.



We had beer along the way. Anke was so smart as to take the train at some point, but I stupidly soldiered on. I finally got home at around 8, and was not really able to bike, walk or even move my neck or shoulders. Anke somehow knew this was coming and had already prepared a wonderful quiche.

Vote Early and Often!

It is that time again! We again need the help of our trusty readers: Frans wants to win prizes in another photo contest, and he needs your vote. For your convenience, here are the links to all the photos he submitted (just click on the photo, and then click on "Jetzt für dieses Foto Ihre Stimme abgeben"):

I don't understand their website, nor the voting rules, but it seems that you can vote as often as you want.

And camping, too!

We missed the US, because camping in Germany involves being surrounded by small permanent mobile homes filled with retirees busy keeping their little bitsy gardens, and no open fires or bears, or anything remotely exciting.

However, camping in Germany also involves being joined by Ellen and Christiaan, which makes up for all of that!

Also, weizenbier:

and sausages:

What this weekend missed out on you

A's brother and half of poppamomma paid us a visit this weekend. We "splurged" on 2 kg of SAUSAGES, directly from the Saarbrücker meat factory. We paid a full 5 euros. Oh yes, we don't skimp on the food when we want to show family members a good time!

We illegally fired up the barbecue (not permitted on our balcony, according to our lease) and grilled the full 2 kilos of sausage. Yum-o! It turned out that meat is somewhat of an optional ingredient in sausage, though.

Unfortunately, we did not take any photos of this spectacular event, so you will all have to just imagine what 2 kg of sausage looks like...

Fail

Today we went to the Christkindlmarkt to eat sausage in honor of the repeal of DADT. Somehow, we are a little tired of sausage, so we ate Germknödel instead (kind of the opposite thing I guess). Moreover, the camera refused to focus, and the screen showed all kinds of psychedelic colors, probably because of the cold. Multifail.

Here then just a picture in honor of the repeal of DADT:

More Snow

Today we did another nice little hike in the forests around Saarbrücken. We found this wonderful website that gives information on where we can get food and drink, and we just plan a hike close to these places.



Today it turned out that we were hiking in our own forest.



And afterwards we were lucky to find some place with sausages --- what are the chances of that?

Bo-ring

It's not just you, we think this blog is getting a little boring too, now we don't have any work related conflicts. Maybe we should create some?

More fun on the webz: Ellen's beautiful looking (and prolly also tasting) foodz, Emmanuel's fall bounty, and much much more.

Today was meatless Wednesday:

Meatfest

It is not even Friday, but we're in Germany, so every day is meatfest.

(The sausages from the French hypermarches are much better, however.)

The husband's lucky day

It already started with lunch. I feel somewhat threatened that he liked this so much.



Then, he got to go for a long bike ride, while I got to take my bike to the supermarket so F could have a day off from his daily two-hour+ shopping ordeal.



Finally, we got reacquainted with Ghillie Basan. Welcome back in our lives, Ghillie!