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.