nichtszusagen

• You may have noticed what will hopefully become a new feature, just before this: Song of the Day. Eventually, I'll update the sidebar so you can find them all easily--for now, there's just one, and you can find it (and future ones until I update the sidebar) on the Index.
  
  
• We just got back from a trip to the North Sea over spring break. Poindexter (the new GPS--so named because he's a snotty know-it-all) said it would be a 5.5 hour drive. It ended up being more like 8 hours.
  
  
• Last Saturday, we took Diva to the kennel in Wuerzberg (not to be confused with Wuerzburg). It was a bit of a zoo... heh... lots of people there to walk dogs. They remembered Diva, and she seemed happy enough to see them. On the way home, we stopped by our favorite ice cream place in Erbach. I had the Odenwald sundae--vanilla and strawberry gelato with a lot of fresh (!) raspberries, blueberries, blackberries, and currants, topped with raspberry syrup and whipped cream.
  
  
• Then Sunday was our niece Emily's confirmation. There was dinner at an Italian restaurant. I had a salad of baby greens, rucola, grilled chicken, tomatoes, onions, little balls of fresh mozzarella, and a thick drizzle of balsamic vinaigrette. Nice. Afterward, there was coffee and cake at the house. The weather was great--sunny and mid-70s. It was tough leaving, but we still had to pack.
  
  
• Packing took longer than expected--it always does, so I don't know why our expectations are so short. We took Carl's mom and Camden's friend Andre along. Rented a vacation house in Bensersiel. Long drive. I sat in the third row seat, wedged in by the cooler, because Carl's mom's motion sickness is even worse than mine. Thank goodness for Dramamine. And for my new iPod shuffle, which appears to have more storage space than my old one.
  
  
• Nice thing about our timing: German schools don't start spring break until next week, so we had the place mostly to ourselves.
  
  
• We arrived at the vacation house pretty late, unloaded the car, then headed off to find food. We opted for an Italian restaurant and had pizzas. Mine was a veggie something--I was too tired to remember much, except that it had black olives and artichokes. Camden and Andre had seafood pizza--Camden's usual, and a first for Andre. He looked a little askance at the tentacles on his pizza, but ate them anyway. Ah, teenage testosterone.
  
  
• The plan for the week was breakfast and showers, then shop for food while the boys got up and showered, lunch, then off to some activity. Tuesday we had Nuernberger bratwurst, broetchen, potato salad, cucumber salad, and cabbage salad. The rest of the week we had sandwiches and the rest of the salads.
  
  
• Our timing was a little off--we walked along the dikes on Tuesday afternoon, and it was excessively windy.
  (Camden and Andre) (Doris) (Carl) Carl estimated 60 mph wind. It nearly blew us off the dikes. Once we gave up our pride and pulled up and tied our hoods, it was a little more comfortable walking. Carl's mom was really tired afterward, so she stayed at the house and the rest of us went to a Greek restaurant for dinner. I'd wanted moussaka, but since there wasn't much business (every restaurant we went to in Bensersiel, we were the only patrons), they didn't have it. So I had bifteki instead.
  
  
• Wednesday, we drove to Wilhelmshaven and visited the Aquarium and the Naval Museum. (Naval Museum--picture of the sub taken from the deck of the destroyer) Then on the way back, we stopped at a Chinese restaurant with a buffet and a Mongolian grill. The create-your-own-stirfry was a little annoying, because they didn't use the little clothespins to identify your plate and deliver it to you--you had to stand there and wait. Still, they had a great variety, including whole cuttlefish, kangaroo, and ostrich, in addition to the usual meat and seafood. And it was a new experience for both Andre and Doris, and they enjoyed it as well.
  
  
• Thursday we went to the beach, and intended to take the ferry to one of the barrier islands. That was our one fiasco--not bad for a mostly-unplanned trip. First we arrived at the ferry ticket office only to find that one ferry had just left and there wouldn't be another one for an hour and a half, which would leave us just 30 minutes on the island before the last ferry would bring us back to the mainland. Carl asked for the prices, and "how much all together?" The answer was 20 euro for the adults and 12 for the students. I'm sure you can see where this was going, but we're thinking 32 euro total. So we spent the hour and a half checking out the beach and a souvenir shop, then came back to buy tickets. Give yourself a brownie if you figured out that the total cost would have been 84 euro, and another one if you said we decided the guy at the ticket counter was right--it really wouldn't be worth it.
  
  So we went back to the beach, where the tide was out, and you could walk pretty far. It was the best weather of our trip so far, so it turned out to be a good plan. The boys took off their shoes and ran. (this was taken on the first trip to the beach--before they took off their jackets and shoes)
  
  Interesting thing about North Sea beaches--instead of umbrellas on the beach like you have elsewhere, they have what's called a "Strandkorb"-- "beach basket": Here's a picture of an open one:
  
  We decided a trip to the North Sea wouldn't be complete without eating fish, so we went to a seafood restaurant. Camden, Doris, and I had the fish plate special with four kinds of fish.
  
  
  
• Friday morning we packed up. The rental agreement said we were supposed to turn in the keys at 9 a.m. (!), but since they didn't have new tenants arriving until Saturday, they said we could take our time. On our way out of town, we stopped by the "Life on the Sea" museum in Esens. Like everything else, it was empty, and the young guy at the door asked us if we wanted a tour. Unfortunately, his English wasn't good enough to explain things to the boys, but we adults learned a lot of interesting things about the area.
  
  
• Stopped at McDonald's a few towns later. I got an Italian Bagel and a cappuccino at the McCafe. I don't know why I never think of getting my lunch at the McCafe--it's so much nicer than a burger and fries, and most McDonald's restaurants in Germany have them now. Coffee, of course, but also nice bakery desserts and interesting sandwiches. All served on real dishes. Here's a post that tells a little more about it: =>LINK<=
  
  
• There was a lot of traffic, so it was taking us longer than expected to drive home (see above, re: the amount of time we expect things to take), so we stopped at an old-fashioned rest stop restaurant for supper. I had split pea soup and a broetchen. Got back home around 9 p.m, unloaded the car in record time, and then pretty much just crashed.
  
  
• Carl and Doris went to the flea market in Metz, France this morning--they intended to leave at 6. I don't know what time they left: I was asleep until 8:30!

Labels: about me, weekend update

// posted by Darla @ 4/16/2011 12:22:00 PM