A change of plans...

We intended to go to Strasbourg, France last weekend, but a friend from Plymouth (well really, now, a friend from Palo Alto) was in Amsterdam for the week for a conference. We decided to change our weekend plans and head there to see her.
We left early on Saturday morning with Becker (that's what we call the GPS) along for the ride. Becker must be very adventurous, because instead of routing us around the Taunus mountains, she decided to go over the mountains. It was dark and foggy and a little daunting, but we arrived in Amsterdam around noon, relatively unsacathed.

We checked into our hotel, left our bags with the concierge and set out for lunch. Dave's father lived in Amsterdam for a year and he provided us with some good recommendations. We went to Sama Sebo for rijtaffel. Rijtaffel (rice-ta-fell) is usually a big to-do in Amsterdam consisting of rice or noodles and more than 40 side dishes. There is an elaborate process for eating rijtaffel that includes the correct utensils and sauces (fork in left hand, spoon in right) and Sama Sebo is the most famous venue in Amsterdam to enjoy this. But ,we just had the lunch.
The lunch was amazing - honestly, one of the best meals I've ever had. Instead of laying out the rice and side dishes, the lunch consists of a bowl of rice, topped with little tastes of side dishes in different areas of the bowl. There was a fried banana, chicken satay, beans, beef madura, bean sprouts....all delicious.
Pam met us at Sama Sebo, so from there we walked over to the Van Gogh museum.
Amsterdam is a beautiful, walkable city - it reminds me of Paris but with less traffic and bustle - less intimidating, more accessible. Dave pointed out that Florence is to Rome as Paris is to Amsterdam. I think that's a pretty good comparison.
There are a lot of bikes. A. Lot. It's funny to see how people decorate their bikes in unusual ways so they're easy pick out from a crowd.

It was raining, so there wasn't much of a wait at the museum; we walked right in. The musuem has the largest collection of Van Gogh works in the world. I really like the way everything is arranged chronologically so you can see the evolution of his work. I was surprised to find out that Van Gogh didn't know how to draw or paint when he decided to become an artist. I was also surprised to find out that Van Gogh is pronounced more like "fun hock". Who knew? (Dave did, naturally.) And, oh, I bought some red erasers shaped like Van Gogh's head, minus the ear, of course.

Then we headed over to the De 9 Straatjes (The 9 Streets).  This is one of the city's shoping areas - and we spent a good amount of time wandering from one to the next. If we go back to Amsterdam, I will try to find a hotel right here.



Group Photo: Dave, Pam and me.

    





















Pam introduced us to bitterballen - this is another dish unique to The Netherlands, most often served in pubs or cafes. Picture a little fried ball of bread crumbs, filled with something that tastes like turkey, stuffing and gravy all mixed together. They're dipped in spicy mustard. Tasty.

  
At one point, we walked by Anne Frank's house. If there wasn't a museum next door and a bunch of people taking pictures in front of the building, you probably wouldn't even notice it. It's hard to believe that something so inspiring took place in a building nearly indistinguishable from neighboring structures. Dave pointed out that there is now a bagel shop next door so, as he says, "I guess the Jews won."

The rest of the day was spent walking, laughing, drinking (Heineken, of course) and eating (Italian for dinner). Both Rick Steves and Pam pointed out that the people of Amsterdam are almost all tall, attractive and hardy. Needless to say, we weren't. Dave was intimidated, but Pam and I were easily entertained.

Exhibit B: Random attractive people

We didn't get back to the hotel until almost midnight - got our room, and fell into our (twin) beds. Seriously, twin beds. Is there a reason people don't like to sleep on the same mattress here?
Before heading home, we walked to a little cafe for breakfast. (Note to self: even though the little jar looks like it contains brown sugar, you should probably make sure it doesn't contain cinnamon before you dump it in your coffee.)

The drive back was fast. I was expecting to see windmills in Amsterdam, but we didn't. Well, we did, but not many of the kind I was expecting.
I was expecting to see these:

But, we saw these:

(Picture was taken through the car window. Sorry about that....)

I loved them. I can't understand why people wouldn't want these in their backyards - they just seem so sleek and peaceful, like cranes. I'll take one, please.

So, that was Amsterdam. We're planning to go back before we leave, probably in November.....

Day 8: I can sleep!

Since I worked until forever (literally, forever) on Sunday and Monday, yesterday was the first chance we really had to get anything done. The first thing on the agenda was sleeping or, more accurately, making sleep possible.
What is the deal with the pillows in Germany? They are ridiculously flat and droopy - like someone took 3/4 of the stuffing out and used it for some other project.
With even a little weight applied, my pillow collapses like a marshmallow. When you put your head on it, the part under your head sinks to the level of the mattress. So I spend all night mushing the pillow into a shape that might be capable of supporting my (admittedly) large brain, and it still doesn't work.

    Exhibit A

Normally, this isn't much of an issue when I'm here. I just pull out every other pillow and fold up the unused comforter and make a new pillow scenario. Unfortunately, those resources aren't available anymore as David has decided he actually wants to use his pillow and comforter (hummph).
So, yesterday, we decided to make a 4 euro investment in ourselves and trekked to IKEA to procure all new pillows.
Heaven.

I should mention that IKEA is about 10 minutes away, so it wasn't much of a trek. And it wasn't very painful because I'm me, and I really love IKEA. We ate there too. We did the "IKEA loop" and jealously looked at all the things they have here that we don't have at home. It was all very enlightening and fun.

Then, I acquiesced and unpacked all our belongings in a civilized, organized way. When our closets are organized my world is right, but I was hesitant to do this because we're "moving" in a few days. Dave pointed out that we should try to participate in living even if we're moving and I agreed, so we unpacked. A place for everything....

Finally, we made an actual dinner in our "kitchen." We went to the market (if this sounds like a daily event, that's because it is) and obtained the goods to make pasta. (If you're keeping track, we remembered the coin for the cart and forgot the bag) We figured almost everything out except this:

   "Crazy Salt" Really?

I asked around and it turns out that Crazy Salt includes a little pepper. Now, that should tell you something if Germans think that's crazy. They really know how to go nuts around here.

So, I made pasta. It was a little salty, but this was completely unrelated to the crazy salt. It was a little ick, but really just a little. For the most part, everything was very good.

   Dinner!

And so it goes....

This weekend we're going to Strasbourg, France.
I'll keep you posted. (Get it? Posted?)

Day 5: We find ourselves at a sausage party....

Yesterday, we got up early, made some coffee in our "kitchen," and set out on our first Saturday in Germany. Orginally, we had planned to visit a flea market in an old section of Frankfurt called Sachsenhausen, but I was hesitant to put a long day of trekking on the agenda. We'll probably do that next weekend.
My ankle was feeling well enough that we took a walk to the market to buy some things for dinner. It always seems like we just don't plan enough....
I thought we were good because we finally remembered to bring our shopping bag. In Germany, and most of Europe, shopping bags aren't provided. You either have to buy them there or bring your own. We purchased a bag last week, but I think this is the first time we remembered to grab it on the way out.
We did, however, forget to bring a 1 euro coin for a shopping cart. Just like shopping bags, carts aren't provided either. You go outside to the cart area, press a coin into a slot in the handle and the lock on the cart is released. When you return the cart, your coin is returned as well. I'm not sure I really get this process. Is 1 euro really enough incentive to prevent someone from stealing a cart?

Anyway, we bought as much as we thought we could carry through the store without a cart (which meant leaving behind a case of beer....) and walked home.
While I did some work, Dave went on a run on the mountain trails near our apartment. It's really quite lovely up in that park and as soon as my ankle is back to normal, I plan on taking some long walks.

   Taunus trails

So we didn't do much during the first part of the day. Later, it occurred to us that we should go shopping in downtown Oberursel. The stores aren't open very late here, even on Saturdays, and Dave wanted to get a new windbreaker. We hopped on the train and took it to downtown where we ended up in the middle of a good old Bavarian street festival. There was antique farm equipment on display, livestock, bands, and, of course, beer. The downtown area is nice. Nice and old. I'm always surprised when you turn a corner on one of the twisty cobble streets and stand in front of a house that is obviously hundreds of years old. Sometimes it feels like a Disney exhibit and then you're struck with something that is obviously quite old. The buildings on Oberursel’s cobblestone streets are all original. During World War II, Allied troops and POW's were housed here, so the town missed much of the damage that flattened much of Frankfurt. According to Wikipedia (which is never wrong), the town dates back to the 8th century.

   Downtown Oberursel

We walked around for a long time looking at all the crap stuff. I ordered an actual bratwurst for Dave in actual German. I felt very proud of myself until I realized later that he shorted me on change and we no longer had enough money for beer. The whole time there was one of those oompa-loompa German bands playing in the background, which occasionally switched over to AC/DC. It was all very authentic.

Back home after another quick trip to the market (no bag, no coin!) we made salads for dinner (blue cheese, walnuts, apples, balsamic) and tried to plan some weekend trips.
All the short-term trips were expensive, so I finally decided to try the blind booking option on Germanwings. Germanwings is a discount airline and they have this cool surprise-flight option. You book a flight with the dates you want to travel, but without knowledge of departure/arrival times or, get this, the actual destination. 
So, I entered our dates, paid 100 euros, took a deep breath, and got Milan! Oh yeah, we're going Milan! We leave in 2 weeks. I got an amzing hotel deal too. Can.  Not.  Wait.

Getting on with moving on.....

Things are looking up. I had a GREAT day at work yesterday (after a not-so-great time the previous night when I tripped and sprained my ankle), then I drove home without getting lost, even once, even a little, then David and I took the train into Bad Homburg and had a nice dinner at a Mexican-ish restaurant.
Although I would definitely go there again, I think we won't to avoid falling into a routine. You know, the kind of routine where I go to the same restaurants, and order the same thing, every single time. I used to do that.
The waitress was friendly and gave us some brief German lessons. We (re)learned the easy stuff like "month", then promptly forgot it.
It was really nice to walk back to the train station from the restaurant; a little rainy, but not too cold and something about walking a while after a nice dinner just felt right.

Tonight, we're planning on going back to Bad Homburg to visit the Market Place. On Tuesday and Fridays, vendors set up stands and sell fruit, vegetable and flowers, this tradition that has been taking place on this square for nearly 100 years.

Day 2

So, I've talked David into moving to Germany for nearly 3 months. Of course I thought it would be a grand adventure - jetting to Paris whenever the urge strikes.

Not so much.

So far, our grand adventure has been comprised of a series of unfortunate surprises. Our apartment? One room. That's right, one room with one bed and one chair and one desk. The pillow is literally 14 inches from the bathroom. That won't work. Not. At. All.




The location is also less ideal than I envisioned. We're in the north end of Oberursel, about 15 minutes away from my office. While the proximity to the Taunus mountain nature area is very nice, we have to walk a long way to get to the good things. Luckily, there is a u-bahn station right outside the door.
We can also walk to the grocery store. We made an exploratory visit there yesterday and we figured out mundane things like the German words for "ground coffee" and "not gross yogurt."
I also got my car yesterday. We are now mobile.

So, slowly, we are getting things back on track. We move to a new apartment on Monday. It will be a larger apartment and I hope that it will have a couch. A couch really makes a home, I think.