Shoes shoes and more shoes!

Today - I will make this quick...I have an unfortunate migraine but no worries I am a happy girl anyway.  I took a long walk into town looking for nail polish and remover, both of which I found.  Only a 40 min walk not so bad! However; the most amazing thing was I walked into my favorite (cheap) shoe store.  I found a great pair of Gummistiefels and yes low walking boots.  The prices was great and my German actually worked so I bought both and headed out!  Wunderschönen

The back story to the shoe store is that they had one in Düsseldorf.  My good friend Barb would take me every time I had an eye appointment - kind of a pick me up after all the trouble of the cornea transplant.  Anyway, needless to say (but you know I will say it anyway) 

I have a lot of German Shoes!

Tschüss or should I say shoessssss!

You have to love a country where you can have Chocolate for breakfast!

What a nice way to start the week! Chocolate. With my cup of coffee in hand and my Brötchen mit Schokolade I am ready to face the world, well at least the laundry!


So we had a pretty good weekend. Friday we walked into Nürnberg for dinner and found a quaint little place along the river for some good Tia food (well is sounded good- and it was). We walked around looking for my Gummi Steifels (rubber boots) It has been raining a lot here and I didn't bring any thinking it would be more fun to buy them when I got here.  Weird I can't seem to find them anywhere in this town. They were all over Dusseldorf...I bought 3 pair last time grrr.  So that is on my list to keep hunting for!  I like a challenge.


Saturday we got up and headed into IKEA for a few household items. When we returned we walked into Old Town to find a few of the landmarks.  We started at the main Castle.  First we ate next to the castle - Nürnberg is know for their sausage so we had to have that as well some AMAZING Cheese Spätzle   I do mean amazing.  They brought some yummy huge pretzels while we drank our beer and waited for lunch. Oh so good.  After that we headed up to the castle and I mean up it was a heck of a walk. Then over to the Albrecht Dürer Haus (from 1471-1520, the most famous artist of the German Renaissance, which represented the renewal of cultural territory outside of Italy.)

Albrecht Dürer Haus in the right side 

 Young Hare, 1502, Watercolour and bodycolour (Albertina, Vienna).

Then off to the Toy Museum, the Main Market, Milch Kaffee break and then back towards home.  A frozen pizza for dinner, a bottle of Chianti and a place to raise our feet!

Sunday we watched our church service -streaming on the internet and then headed out for a sasual walk around the Old Nazi party rally grounds - Reichsparteitagsgelände, literally: Reich Party Congress Grounds)  We walked from the Stands to the Document Center and then around the lake to were we started. It was very interesting as well as eerie.  We then headed back home to drop off the camera and walk back yes back into town for "real" pizza.  We stopped in a wonderful little place and had Pils, brochette, and pizza, finished off with coffee and tiramisu!  Anther great travel day.

Document Center #7

Zeppelinfeid #11 

Map of the Rally Grounds.  It was a beautiful walk but amazingly strange at the same time. So much history and to be walking in it just seemed amazing.

Home!

Another day...end of a very long work week!

Okay, so I guess I am getting a bit braver in my old age.  Funny if you knew me you wouldn't thinkI had a hard time venturing out on my own.  But ever since the whole eye thing last time we were in Germany I feel a bit, well introverted  Not sure why but need I digress....

So after many days of only venturing out 1/2 a block to the City Park (oh yes we have also had horrible Thunderstorms...Like bowling balls going over the Cobblestone walks...or like when you were a kid and it was the angels bowling...non stop!) I decided to grab my cloth shopping bags and head to town for a few groceries. That and we were out of food! You can only shop for a few days here as the food spoils, overnight, and the fridge is only big enough to hold college size food - or should I say drink.  You get the picture.  It was a nice walk, no rain and pretty cool. The US is in a heatwave this week.

I actually had two full conversation in my broken German.  Let's face it I did not want to stand in front of the Deutsch Post if no one could help me. So in my bravest face I asked the older gentleman in front of me (all in German) "Hello, I am sorry, my German is not so good, but can I mail my letter here?"  Big step as we have been away from Germany now for 4 years and there has been no need to use German in the States hmmm.  So he answered back "German, German German,something about she will be right back and yes it would be okay German German German your German is not so bad!"  Wow well if that isn't what he said I am believing that is what he did say.  My spirits lifted a bit I figured I could tackle the big grocery store alone!
Off I went taking my time to look over everything.  I picked up 3 days worth of groceries and tried to figure out what the difference was between süße Sahne and Schlagsahne...I knew in Dusseldorf (sweet vs. whipped) but here there seemd to be niether on the shelf.  Here we go again.  The store was a bit empty and still feeling lifted by Herr German I decided to ask the women next to me.(In German)  "Entschuldigen, mein Deutsch is nicht so gut, aber, was ist Shlagsahne und ist das heir?" Always start with excuse my, my German is not so good but.....
She was great and told me she didn't know what it was in English, speaking in English and German and apologizing her English was bad because it was early in the day.  I said no problem thank you blah blah and then she showed me where it was in the store! Woo Hoo not so bad .  But wait it gets better.  NO you say....


After paying for my groceries (with the largest bill I had just in-case I didn't hear them correctly and gave them too small a bill. Tricky I know.) I went next door to the Penny Markt.  For the "icing on the cake".  Two yummy bottles of Riesling wine from the Mosel Valley, some great chocolate, and yes a bouquet of roses - mind you the whole bill for that was only 11 Euro.  They do price the important stuff right over here!


I must admit that is a great way to end the quiet, long work week.  I am looking forward to David being here and heading into Old Nürnberg to play and take photos.  Hopefully the travel on the weekends will get me through the long quiet weeks!So check back often...
tschüss

A day in the life of a returning Expat....

Okay so we are here in Nuremberg, Germany.  It is rather cold and rainy. I have spent the last few days reading and translating the everyday tools of life; the washer, the dryer, the microwave ( I will get to that later), the oven and few other things. Yikes a lot of work!

The first day was good..we had an appointment in town for our residency permits, so when we got there early, we stopped for a cup of coffee.  The best part of Germany is the Milche Kaffee, outside in the lovely coffee shops.  I must admit this was the best Milche Kaffee I have had yet!  I also walked 5 blocks for a bit of groceries, only to remember, after getting there, that you NEED to bring your own bags. Well I NEEDED groceries so I carried them home in my hands.  A bit funny walking down the street with a head of lettuce, some cheese, cookies and few odd's and ends in my hands but well I got the groceries didn't I?  Next time I won't forget the bag!

So the microwave...this morning when we got up I thought it would be nice to make David an egg.  I found a little dish and rubbed some butter in it, I don't know if they have "Pam" here yet. I dropped in an egg, scrambled it and popped it into the microwave.  Punched in what I thought was a min. and waited.  Upon opening the door I notice a bright red glow on the top of the microwave.  Hmmm is that what the grill sign means - this microwave grills as well as microwaves?  So I punched in another 30 sec and this time figured out how to just microwave the runny middle of David's gourmet egg! Success. So after he left for work, I wrote down everything in German from the microwave on a paper and headed toward the computer to figure it all out.  Job well done, well until the next time.

So the week is off to... well a start, let's see what the rest of the week brings.

Until next time tschuss (informal good-bye)
Regen, regen, wo ist mein regenschirm?
(Rain, rain, where is my umbrella?)