Whirling Dervish

I always get a huge burst of energy right before I have to go back to work after a vacation. This year after Christmas, my ass was stuck to the couch for about five days then, two days before heading back the office, I got about a zillion things crossed off Dave's list.

I did this:

Before (messy, I know)                               After (!)

And this:

My new recycling center! (...and handles on those doors after 5 years)

Here's the best one.

Mo called me on Monday to see if I wanted to go shopping. I did. I was enjoying a quick lunch with Dave when she called, so I told her I would be ready at about 2 o'clock.
Dave left to go back to the office around 1 and I headed up to change my clothes. When I got to the top of the stairs, the light hit the big chalkbaord wall in a way that  made me dislike it even more than usual. I decided I had enough time to change it before I left.

Forty-two minutes later:

Yes, forty-two minutes. That includes going to the garage to get the ladder, then finding the tape, the paint, a brush, and a tray. That includes taping off the trim (I still have to), removing the switchplates, washing the wall, cutting in, rolling on, and cleaning up.

When I got home, I made 4 new pillow covers in 17 minutes.
Seriously, I scare myself.

Why I can't I channel all that energy and speed into something that 's actually productive?

Oh Yeah

I just realized I never posted any pictures from Barcelona or Paris.
Maybe I'll do that next week when I'm officially over and done with being on vacation for 11 days.

11 glorious days.

Dear Santa

Thanks for the snow! It's beautiful.
While we're on the subject of gifts from you, here is a short list of what I'd like for Christmas:

1. World peace.
2. Healthy and happy family and friends.
3. Healthy and happy pets.
4. An apartment in Paris (even a small one would be very nice)
5. More hours in the day.

Thanks, Santa!

Weekends in Winter

Weekends during the winter always seem warmer, happier, cozier and longer. I don't know why. Maybe because we live in a neighborhood where people are always walking in and out of the house during the summer, the peace and relative quiet of the winter calms everything down a little.

We spend a lot of time cooking in the winter. This year, Dave is recreating his own version of Julie & Julia. In the original version, author Julie Powell aspires to cook all 524 recipes in Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking cookbook in 365 days.

Dave is going to cook all the recipes in David Rocco's Dolce Vita cookbook. It will  be Dave & David. Get it? I fear that Dave thinks this whole exercise will somehow ingratiate him to Nina Rocco (as noted here), but what the hell, at least I get to eat really well in the meantime.

Lat night, he made Filletto di Manzo Con Soffritto. If your Italian is a little rusty, that means, "Really, Really Good Beef Tenderloin with Onions, Celery and Carrots".

Admittedly, it probably tasted a little better than it looked, but delightful nonetheless. It was the perfect meal for a cold winter night. 



After dinner, we had our annual viewing of Elf. Honestly, at this point I could probably recite the whole movie from memory, but it never gets old.

Then we tricked out the tree.

Creative people can work wonders with a tree. I thought black Christmas trees were ridiculous, until I saw one I lurved. I’ve also found myself impressed by purple trees with bright green ornaments and white trees with ice blue ornaments. But, we're boring, so we go the traditional route.

As our last name is not Griswold, we use only white lights.

Ornaments fall into two categories: Glass, or Santas with Moving Legs. I have a collection of them which I receive as gifts or which I add to sparingly over the years with additions from all over the world.

You may be wondering why you've never known that I collected Santas with Moving Legs.

I have a theory about collections. Part of the fun, most of the fun, is in the hunt. I love combing through ornament displays looking for the elusive Santa. If I tell everyone what I'm looking for, then my well-meaning friends and relatives will inundate me with Santas with Moving Legs because they're all kind and thoughtful and generous and that's just what they do. But then the fun will be gone. So there might be about three people in the world that know about my Santas with Moving Legs. Until now. Now it's five, I guess.

Then we top it with a slightly, ahem, unusual, Christmas angel.
 

We may be boring, but I have no regrets.

It's Christmas Time

It's cold.

So that means we must have decorated the house for Christmas, right? I like to imagine that the Motivation Fairy confirms the forecast for the coldest day of the year before giving me the mojo to bundle up and climb that cold, cold ladder 72 times.

But we beat that Motivation Fairy at her own game this year, because David's aunt and uncle sent us an early Christmas/Hanukkah gift - handmade hats and scarves! We were happy and toasty and warm the whole time we were outside.

Warm and happy.

And we really must have been warm and happy because there were no arguments disagreements discussions about proper placement, light spacing, bow size, swag depth, extension cords or theme.

With our house decorated (and all lit up like a...wait for it: Christmas tree), and the photo for our annual Christmas card nearly completed, my energies are now focused on finishing up decorating inside our home and baking mountains and mountains of cookies (I should have preceded that with a Gift Spoiler Alert).

 The tree is up, but I didn't really have time to do much else. It's nearly perfect, though. I might not ruin it by tricking it out like a $5 hooker...

I did, however, put a big silver bow on my giant, scrap-metal chicken.

I mean seriously: A giant chicken with a silver bow? 

How perfect is that?!

Thanksgiving At Our House

Although I felt like I was playing catch-up for the previous week, we did manage to pull off our traditional Ridiculously Complicated Feast this year, thanks to my brother, Jeff,  taking on more than his share of the advance preparation. It went something like this:

 

Thanksgiving Dinner at Our House

Tomato-Herb Soup
Mixed Salad with Pears, Walnuts and Blue Cheese
Roast Turkey
Grilled Beef Tenderloin
Gravy
Green Beans with Bacon Vinaigrette
Cauliflower with Hazelnut Butter
Corn
Creamy Mashed Potatoes
Dueling Stuffings
Orange-Cranberry Relish
Apple Pie

I don't have a special recipe for roasting my turkey, I try to change it up every year. This year I tried a new one called, "My Sister Roasted the Turkey". Best one yet!

I have to say that my beef tenderloin was perfect. PERFECT. I managed to get medium-rare all the way to medium-well in one, long tenderloin. Sure, it was a complete accident, but a happy accident nonetheless. At the last minute, I realized we didn't have any horseradish, but Jeff whipped up a reduced-wine sauce in about 12 seconds and that made it even better.

No surprise here, but we usually focus on the food. I'm trying to add in a few Thanksgiving traditions that relate to actual, you know, thankfulness, but I haven't settled on anything yet.

I skipped place cards this year in favor of personal wishbones for everyone with a little tag on which each guest wrote thing for which they were thankful this year. I'm going to collect them in a jar and fill them anew each year. Of course, nothing, not even wishbones, can escape the clutches of competition in my family, so we quickly determined the "best" thumb position required to win the wishbone pull every time. It's a sickness.

Next year, I'm going to tape a huge sheet of drawing paper to the refrigerator door around the first of November. All month long, we're going to write or draw things we're thankful for. Guests will be encouraged to participate too. By Thanksgiving, I think we'll have quite a work of art and we'll be reminded to be thankful everyday, rather than just one.

On the day after Thanksgiving, I skipped the crazy Black Friday shopping (gasp!), and slept in. But that night, I went out with some of my old friends from school who were in town for the weekend.
Best. Night. Ever.
Well, maybe not ever, but in a really long time. I hadn't seen some of my friends in more than 20 years and it was like we had just talked yesterday.

It was really a great weekend.

Thanksgiving also marks the beginning of the Holiday Season at our house. It is followed by David's birthday (which almost always falls on the Thanksgiving weekend), Christmas, my birthday, and ends with The Superbowl.
Can't wait.

Things I Learned This Year:

1. I used to think it would be better if guests didn't arrive until after everything is done, when I've transformed back to my human self, but everyone arrived really early this year and that made it a little more fun.
2. Having someone else make the turkey doesn't make Thanksgiving weird, it makes it better.
3. There is almost nothing better than getting together with old friends and realizing that the passing of time doesn't change the important things.

Florence

I had a crazy few days of traveling....Italy to Frankfurt to Zurich to Chicago to Zurich to Frankfurt to Florence, all in the space of just 6 days! I was pretty sure Florence would be a bust, especially because Dave had been "stop-dead-in-your-tracks" sick all week, we were way behind on laundry (yes, that again), and I was exhausted.

But we had been to Florence for a few days last summer and I really wanted to return. It's probably cliched to love Florence so much. It's really one giant tourist trap, but we couldn't help ourselves. It's a good place to get lost in, so we went anyway.

We got off to a shaky start because we happened to be flying on the same day those explosive printer cartridges were found in the cargo shipment in Europe. Our terminal was evacuated once. And then, after we had waited in an excruciatingly long security line and when we were only two people away from placing our bags on the conveyor, it was evacuated AGAIN. Then we waited in ANOTHER excruciatingly long security line. Then we missed our flight. It all worked out, though, because they put us on the next flight and we got to Florence around noon.

Our hotel had a neat little balcony (and free wireless!). Dave managed to procure a bottle of wine and some sandwiches while I prepped for a conference call.





















We got really lucky with absolutely perfect weather on the first day. Since we like to spend the entire day walking the streets, rain would have definitely put a damper on things. We ogled ancient architecture, walked all over the maze of streets, shopped, shopped and shopped, ate and drank and overall had a pretty good time.

I'd been craving gelato for weeks. We stopped at the third second first place we saw and got a healthy dose to tide us over for a while. Sensing our role as stupid Americans, the girl working at the gelato counter made Dave an insanely large cone and charged us about two thousand euros. He made very short work of it.



See? It's a mouse, with cookie ears!



Dave claims he's a big fan of David Rocco, the chef on the Cooking Channel, but I suspect that he's a bigger fan of David Rocco's wife, Nina. Here's Nina:

See? Anyway, David Rocco is filmed in Florence and we were able to find this cool dam in the middle of the Arno that we saw once on his show. We walked out into the middle of the river, hung out a while and wished we had thought to bring along a picnic lunch.

















There was this amazing market right outside our hotel and we spent approximately 9000 hours walking up and down the aisles. Dave watched patiently for 8999 hours while I picked up and inspected every single bag, glove, briefcase, scarf and key chain. I was determined to find a new laptop case, but I was having a hard time estimating the size of my laptop. Finally, I found the perfect bag. And then another. And some scarves. Happy day.

There was a large indoor market too. We had a private tasting of balsamic vinegars from 8 to 25 years old. Luckily, it took a lot less than 9000 hours to figure out which we wanted. There's also a pretty good story in which Dave tried to muscle in on another group's private tasting with bad results which he, of course, mulled over for days, but that's best left for a verbal re-telling. We'll tell you the story at the slide show.

Speaking of balsamic, let me interject here another cool thing about food stores in Germany. Balsamic glaze. Yes, that's a cool thing. They have it everywhere. You know when you get one of those caprese salads and the vinegar is scattered around the plate in swirls and dots? And when you try to do that at home it just pools in the bottom under the tomatoes? That's where the magic of balsamic glaze comes in....it's thickened vinegar, so it stays where you put it. I bought four bottles to take home.

Ok, after that brief interlude, back to Italy....

We went back to a restaurant that we had gone to last summer and it was just as friendly and welcoming as I remembered. The host (maybe the owner?) was delighted to see himself in a picture we took last year, so we took more and he was just as goofy as he was then.

Saturday ended up being much colder. We still spent a lot of time walking, though. We tracked down another restaurant, a panini place, that still makes sandwiches to order. This is a dying trend in Florence, where all the sandwiches now arrive in delis pre-packaged and you just pick out the one you want. Dave was intimidated by the prospect of ordering a sandwich in Italian, so I took one for the team. The counter guy didn't seem too thrilled with my combination of eggplant, mortadella, cheese, tomatoes, and mustard (Really, you want that?), but he made it anyway and I think it was ok. I'm not big on sandwiches, but it wasn't the worst thing I've ever tasted. I just realized I might be the first person in history to refer to food, fresh food, from Italy, in Italy, as "not the worst thing I've ever tasted."

Sunday was terrible; rainy, cold and miserable. We were totally exhausted (and maybe a little hungover). We changed our flight to one that left a couple hours earlier, hopped a cab to the airport and waited there for three hours - long lines, weather delays, and a futile search for my lost iPhone. The lost/found actually told us that they don't handle lost objects, they turn them over to the police.

Us:     Can we talk to the police?
L&F:  They don't like it if we call them.
Us:     Can we call them?
L&F:  No, they'll be here in 20 minutes
Us:     Our flight leaves in 10 minutes, can you write down their number or Lufthansa's lost and found info?

They finally gave us a form on which the information for Lufthansa's lost and found office was printed. This was also futile. This is how most things go in Italy. I think it's part of their charm.

For some reason, when we arrived in Frankfurt I had the insane idea that we would take a train home from the airport. This is a very do-able proposition, but maybe not such a great thought when we were soooooo tired. It took about an hour to get back to the apartment (but only cost 7 euros!) I can't even begin to describe how nice it was to sleep in my own bed away from my own bed (even with those crazy pillows). Heaven.

Looking back over our pictures, I still want to go back again. Maybe we'll rent one of those Tuscan country houses in a couple of years...:)

By the way, Dave wasn't trying to be coy in that bottom pic, he was just midway through the process of removing his sunglasses when the picture was snapped....

About time

I guess a new blog post is in order. But, it's not going to happen now.
Even though "now" would really be the perfect time because we're just sitting in the airport, waiting for the next flight to Florence after we missed the last flight because the airport was evacuated TWICE for security reasons.
Good times.

Fancy meeting you here....

Today we stopped by the market on the way home (no bag, no coin) to pick up a couple things. As we were walking out, we ran into someone we know walking in.

We stopped to chat for a while and it was a weird feeling. Like, the first time since we've been here that I've felt like I kinda belonged, or that things could be a little bit like they are at home.

Of course, since we didn't have a bag, our purchases were clearly visible. Dave, standing there, clutching a box of ice cream bars and a loaf of garlic bread.

Amsterdam, again.

We went to Amsterdam again this past weekend. This was partly because we didn't get off our asses fast enough to make other travel arrangements and partly because we really enjoy it. It's such a small city - you can walk from one end to the other in about an hour and look at lots of pretty/interesting things and that's about our favorite thing to do in any city. That's why we're the kind of people who've been to Paris a few times, but have never been to the Louvre: I'd rather just walk around.

Anyway, we decided to drive to an arena just outside of Amsterdam and use the Park and Ride service to take the train into the city center. Never. Again.
It worked out ok and everything, but it was such a pain to be on a train for more than an hour when we had just driven into the city 2 weeks before and knew how quick driving was. Anyway, once we got past the train madness and checked into our hotel (very nice, inexpensive, and highly recommended), we were on our way.

The weather was absolutely perfect - high 60's and loads of sunshine. We hit every shopping street we missed the first time and we also hit an open air market in the middle of the city. I got a kicky little black scarf and Dave got food, lots and lots of food.....

\

We found a great wood-block print at a gallery and bought it for the living room. Now, I wish we could go back yet again because I realized too late that both Dave's father and his wife, Alaine, would have really liked something from there too. They have each lived in Amsterdam for extended periods. Oh well.

We walked all the way into the center of the city, had a great snack at a Mexican restaurant (what? we miss Mexican food), and walked all the way back to the hotel.

Dave looks much happier after a margarita and a beer....

\


That evening we had reservations at Sama Sebo so we could try the real rijtaffel dinner (you can read more about that from our first trip there here). The dinner was crazy. Nuts. Let's just say that they have to bring an additional table to hold all the food.

See all those plates? That was all just for us. That's actually only about two-thirds of the food that was brought out. Bananas.




But the best part of the trip for me might have been the drive. It took a little while to get used to it, but now I love the Autobahn. It's amazing how polite and careful everyone is when they're driving 110 miles an hour. We've yet to see an accident and I've only seen one total jerk. Because everything is happening so fast, you have to pay attention the whole time. It might be a little more tiring, but you never have those moments where you just zone out. I think that makes the time go by a lot faster.

When perusing the following pictures, please disregard the fact that I may or may not have been taking pictures while driving at very high speeds. Really, I might not have been - Dave took some pictures too!

Au revoir Amsterdam.

(Did you get that? See, we'll be in Paris this weekend and I said goodbye in French!)

:)

Is it us?

We're planning to go to Paris this weekend
There's a big labor strike in Paris right now.
Of course there is.

Things to do, things to do....

You may or may not know that, on most days, Dave sends me an email reminder of anything I've mentioned I would like to do. Let's just say we're sitting around on a Sunday afternoon and I say, "I really need to get outside this week and pull those annoying weeds near the sidewalk." Dave will ask me what day I want to do that and on the designated day this will appear as a reminder in my inbox. It's like having one of those voice recorders, and an electronic calendar, and a really funny friend, all in one.

Since we've been in Germany, I don't get that many reminders because there isn't that much to do. Lately, I've really missed the feeling of having a project to look forward to. When we were driving to Amsterdam last weekend, I mentioned that I want to make some small adjustments to our kitchen when we get home.
Nothing big, just a few changes to things that have been bugging me.

First of all, I want to make a better recycling area. Dave has a habit of just leaving the recyclable stuff on the counter near the back door. Sure, the bin is only twelve steps away if you open the back door, but who has time to go to all that effort? We don't have a very organized way of collecting returnables either, and that just irritates me. We usually just throw a brown bag by the door and toss them in there.
We do have a cabinet that is used mostly for roasting pans and junk other important stuff. If I move the roasting pans to the butler's pantry (more on that later) and shuffle around the junk other important stuff, I could have a whole cabinet for recycling and returnables.
I'm still debating the exact method, but it will be something like this:

Or, this:

I also want to install a bread box. I used to think bread boxes/drawers were the kind of thing only Grandmother's had, but now I'm starting to reconsider.
First of all, Dude the Cat really, really (REALLY) likes bread. Really.We have to keep it on a high shelf or, if left low and unattended, we'll find bite marks in the bag and large chunks missing from the loaf. Plus, there's Bob. He doesn't have a special hankering for bread, he just likes food. Finally, bread doesn't last very long and since I've been here, my sophisticated palate can't really stand the thought of going back to just sticking it in the fridge or in a plastic bag.
I think I'll just add a pull-out shelf in a cabinet on which we can place a bread box. I'm sure they make a built-in version, but that just sounds like an awful lot of work.

Finally, I need to improve the butler's pantry. I know that sounds pretty fancy, but it's really just what I call the closet in the hall. I don't think it's original to the house, but at some point someone added a built-in cabinet above three built-in drawers, and it's just outside the kitchen.
We used to use it as a linen closet, but a few years ago I moved all the linens upstairs and organized the closet to contain all our serving dishes and vases and placemats and, and, and.....
The shelves are high and deep, but in some ways that makes the cabinet kind of impractical because I have to take a lot of things out before I can get to the one thing I need. And serving dishes are shallow, so I have to store them nested inside each other and that doesn't always work so well, either.

I have this fantasy solution where I have an exact place for everything in a sparkling white cabinet, with little silver nameplates and about a hundred adjustable shelves. The final result probably won't be that great, but it will be a lot more organized.
I've been scouting around for inspiration and this is what I've found:

I love the little hang-y hook things. I'm definitely using those for gravy pitchers and creamers.

How cool is this? If I could add about 3 feet to both the front and back of the house, we'd be all set. Sigh...

Now this seems just about right. I like the idea of using those IKEA boxes for the small stuff, too.
I think I might put some dowels horizontally across the back, to hold up the platters. I have plenty of time to think about the details. I'll let you know when I get around to the actual project.

This brings me to today's reminder:

3. We need to make a list of those projects you want to start when we get home-home.

Done.

Laundry (or, I Should Have Known)

Get ready for a funny little story.

After waiting to do laundry for a couple of weeks (we were still scoping out the new building) I have to say that I was ready to kiss the washing machine when we finally went downstairs to load it up. I did notice that there was a duvet in the dryer, but no biggie, we had time. We would have just dumped the clothes right in, but that would imply that there is something easy about this process. Instead, we had to check the rates on this machine, then walk to the main building to transfer our Euros into Deutsche Marks. I'm sure there are washing machines that accept Euros, but that would imply that they were assembled and shipped sometime in the last 20 years. Ours wasn't. One mark costs about .8 Euros, which is about $1.10. In the last building, we needed 6 DM for one load of wash/dry ($6.60).

So, we go to the main building to buy enough marks for one load in the washer and the dryer.
But, oh, wait, they're out of marks. It would be crazy to have enough for both washers and both dryers because it's completely impossible that they would all be used at the same time, right?

So we wait until the next day.

The next day, I return to the main building for the marks. They have them! Except I'm informed that these machines require 8 marks, 4 for washing and 4 for drying. Yikes, that's $9.00. But whatev's, you gotta do laundry, right?

So, I buy the marks for one load in the washer and the dryer and scramble downstairs to make sure the washer is unoccupied (it is) and dump the clothes in. It takes a little while to figure out the German control panel, but I do it. Mission 1: Complete.

I notice that the (fully dry) duvet is still in the dryer, but I figure it will probably be gone when I get back.

A couple hours later, I skip downstairs to move the clothes in to the dryer. The duvet is still there, and now I need the dryer, so I carefully fold it and place it on the ironing board. As I'm doing this, of course, the owner of the duvet arrives downstairs. I tell her I'm sorry I moved the duvet, I hope it isn't a problem, I need the dryer, blah, blah, blah.

It is a problem. On top of that, she's shocked (actually, amazed) that I'm moving the clothes to the dryer right after I washed them.

"No, no, no. You have to wait at least one day. The clothes are too wet now and it will cost you too much money to dry them."

Huh? I have to leave them in the washer, wet, for at least one day?

"Yes, leave them in the washer."

So we wait until the next day (which is fine for someone who has, like, patience).

Late in the evening of Day 3 of Operation Laundry, I move the clothes to the dryer (the f'in duvet is there again, and I move it, AGAIN) and dump in my 4 marks.

On the morning of Day 4, Dave arrives to empty the laundry. Not dry. Not even close.
He goes to the main building to get 5 more marks.
Then he dumps 5 more marks in the machine. Not dry. Not even close.
He goes to the main building to get 5 more marks, again. Then he dumps 5 more marks in the machine, again. Not dry. Not even close.

Then he takes all the clothes out of the dryer and spreads them all over the bathroom to dry.

Now we've spent more than $20.00 and we have a bathroom full of wet clothes AND YOU CAN JUST IMAGINE HOW MY PATIENCE IS TAKING THAT.

On Day 5 of Operation Laundry, I pull a wet shirt out out of the bathroom and stomp down to the main building. I swear, I can literally hear the desk clerks groan when they see me coming.
I explain that there is clearly a problem with the dryer in our building. I explain that the nice lady who lives in the building (and leaves her f'in duvet in the dryer for THREE DAYS) told me that I have to leave the clothes in the washer for a day before I can dry them. Then I explain that we've spent 14 marks over 2 DAYS in the dryer and they're still not dry.
They seem puzzled.
At this point, I pass the wet shirt over the counter to illustrate the nature of the problem.

"Can I just use the dryer in the other building," I say, "it worked fine."
This is a major request. Supervisors must be found and permission must be granted, but I walk out of the lobby with a key to the other building.

And 4 more marks.

Now, we take all of our (wet) clothes, stuff them into a plastic laundry hamper, put them in the back of the car, drive over to the other building, and dump them in the old dryer.

And, behold, after 5 days, 2 hours and $25.00, we have armfuls of nice, dry clothes.

And one missing sock.

Catching Up

You may remember that we were supposed to be in Milan last weekend. Also, you may have noted that I have not posted any pictures from Milan. That's because we didn't actually go to Milan. As Dave noted, our blind booking turned out to be, "booking for the blind." For some reason, I assumed that we were departing from Frankfurt Hahn airport. Instead, we arrived at Hahn airport to learn that the flight was actually departing from Hanover airport, 4 hours away. True story.
We did end up spending a nice weekend in Frankfurt, though. It was nicer than previous weekends because we finally moved! We have an actual bedroom now. With a door. We have a table. And chairs. We have all the luxuries.

Now that we have a kitchen that is comprised of more than 3 linear inches of countertop, we were able to make some actual meals. Sunday was a little cold and rainy (good thing we weren't in Italy, ha!), so I made chili. It didn't taste exactly like normal chili, but I would have had more. I could have had more, I guess, if I ate leftovers, but I don't. What I'm saying is that I would have enjoyed it again if I had made it the next night, too. There.

I guess it doesn't look so appetizing here....

I cooked the next night, too:

See how happy Dave looks?

Cooking has brought about an interesting observation about life in Germany. Groceries are inexpensive. Like, really inexpensive. I think Dave is going to start shopping alone because I just walk around saying, "wow, do you know how much this would cost at home?" He's not very impressed. I had to call Mo so we could play virtual Price is Right.
For example, guess:

That's one loaf of (very good) bread, spaghetti, bread crumbs, tomato paste, about a pound of coffee, tomatoes on the vine, cream, ramen noodles, three heads of garlic and oregano.




Guess.....
Ok, 14 euros! That's like $19 (depending on which day of the escalating currency crisis you decided to calculate the exchange rate).

Continuing our culinary odyssey of last week, we also stopped and got some famous Doners. I love these things. If you're not familiar with a doner, it's like a thicker, heartier lamb gyro with a garlicky (sp?)yogurt sauce. They are, I think, the most popular fast food in Germany and at least as popular as hamburgers in the States. Sometimes they put pickled red cabbage on there, too, but as it turns out the doner kebap house near us makes them the way I like, without the cabbage.

After all that eating, we finally got around to making the last of our travel plans. Our weekends through November will consist of Amsterdam, Paris, Barcelona and Florence. I have a trip to Turin in there, too. I'll also be spending a few days in Chicago.

That's if we make it to the right airport, of course.
:)

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?)