A few more days in...

A few more excerpts from yet another e-mail sent a few days in:

"Hope this e-mail finds you guys well. We are enjoying a beautiful day here. The past few days have been rainy and cold...clothing-wise,we are not prepared. However today it is GORGEOUS out. 70 degrees, sunny and no humidity."

"After we stuffed ourselves once again with a German breakfast --let me detail what is avail each and every day:
Extensive yogurt bar with variety of yogurts and toppings including different seeds and muselix...an oatmeal bar with similar toppings. Waffles, pancakes, to-order omelettes, hard boiled eggs, scrambled eggs, an array of homemade breads (including pretzels), a ton of different meats and the most amazing cheeses I have seen.-- and literally that is just part -- there also an entire section of smoked fish....did I mention the Costco size jar of Nutella? G's new fave thing-- Anyway, we have been able to sustain ourselves for the day with just breakfast and then a hearty dinner (tell you about that later).  I should mention that the afternoon includes either a cappuccino or a biere, of course."

"Sat we went to Strasbourg-- the architecture is incredible in both Germany and France. Strasbourg was particularly beautiful. It was cold and rainy for most of the day; but we had umbrellas-- so we were still able to get around town without getting too soaked. The cobblestone streets are lined with both high-end shops and amazing bakeries..I love it! The patisseries are filled with the most beautiful sweets I have ever seen. Stuff you see in the gourmet mags I read-- but just in your run-of-the mill bakery."

"Yesterday we had planned to hit the outlets outside of town because we need some more appropriate clothes. However, apparently everything closes down on Sundays in Germany. So we decided to head to downtown Stuttgart instead. We chose to take the S-Baun and that was quite an adventure deciphering things for the first time. If not for the kindness of a German gentleman, we never would have made it.

 We finally made it downtown and found our way to the Scholzplatz. The town center. It's beautiful! Very green with people picnicking, playing with dogs, kids...big fountains and sculptures. There are a bunch of cafes planking the center- so we sat down for two big beers and Griff played on the green and was fascinated by all the dogs. After our monster beers we headed out to explore that area which is much more modern and cosmopolitan than the surrounding neighborhoods."

Around 5.30 we started to head back home and again, it took a while to find our way.
We decided to just find a place to stop for dinner on the way home...but driving through Vaihingen (another area we would love to live) we saw everything was closed for the Sunday holiday. We came across a little house that had a specials board out in front so we stopped and are so glad we did. In the back of this house were 6 tables under a big umbrella. The menu came out and the first page said in German... "Chantrelle Season" and under "chantrelle season" were 10 dishes made just from the mushrooms. I surge of excitement arose! :) I ordered the warm chantrelle salad with swabian noodles in an apple-balsamic dressing. CM ordered the house special which ended up being a huge hunk of meat in an onion brown sauce and a side of spaztel. Let's just say I won. Of course dinner included two more big beers.....and they don't have water here unless you buy a bottle for the table. In all the places we have gone, we have been told they just don't have tap water. I am perpetually dehydrated. Griffin had bites of our meals but settled on a big apple for his main course."

"Tomorrow, vacation is over and the real work begins. We head over to base to speak with the housing office, arrange to take our German driving test. Wed we start 'indoc' classes.... ie indoctrination. I think we are doing pretty well on our own, but any additional guidance can't hurt."

In the months since this e-mail was written, we have mastered public transit, visited Strasbourg three times, have been downtown countless times, and have eaten our weight in chantrelles...they make a mean homemade mushroom soup!