WAY BEHIND!!

Seems like now that the days are getting longer and warmer and we are more settled in..... life has gotten busy. I need to remind myself to stop and take the time to put words to a blog- lest I forget, for instance .......

Terry and I met Elmer and Gabby, a German couple who live around the corner from us. She is a flight attendant and speaks great English and turns out quite the shopper, she LOVES to go "thrifting", she decided that I needed to experience shopping like the poor people. She told me to be ready by 7:00 am Saturday morning. Somehow I don't think the poor Germans shop quite like Gabby...........this is what she drives:

We went, and I mean....... SCREAMIN down the Autobahn. I can honestly say that is the fastest I have ever been in an car, at one point I saw the speedometer reach 240 kph......... who knew Dusseldorf is "just around the corner". We were parked and walking around the market before the vendors were even finished setting up. Gabby most definitely knew her way around , she greeted many of the vendors by name and after spending the day with her I think she could give Joan a run for her money!

The market we went to is called a Trödel Market, we spent about 5 hours shopping. Trust me this market is huge! There was an amazing variety of items for sale, anything from antiques to absolute junk! New clothing with designer labels, which are a Gabby specialty, or if you prefer vintage items..... no problem. I am certain you could find whatever you might think you need. I ended up finding a wonderful European style trenchcoat (new) for €20 and a few very nice shirts. Also had a delicious curry wurst and the best machiatto at a coffee stand. We stood in a long line to use the "toilette" and as was typical, paid € .50 to the attendant or we could have purchased a €4 punch card to use the facilities all day which normally would have been a good deal for me!

The weather was warm and the mood was very festive, all in all it was a wonderful day. The next market Gabby said Terry and Elmer should come and I agreed and told her Terry would be happy to drive!

love and miss you all

Yellow Green Yellow Red

Yellow - green- yellow- red- is how the traffic lights change here. After I finished the blog about some differences living in Germany, I realized a few items were left out, traffic lights being just one. Also, most all of the houses have a single kitchen sink. And when you move into a vacant home, you will need to buy all your light fixtures because there are none, just bare wires!

Windows can be tilted out from the top to circulate air and the majority of homes do not have screens. Because we live in "farmland" there are lots of flies, my friends daughter Brookelyn told us when we first got here, " there are fly's here.......get used to them!"

Now onto the washer and dryer-the European style machines have very different settings-the washer is like a dishwasher in that it heats up the water internally and the wash cycles are MUCH longer than typical American cycles, if you click on the picture you can see that the white load would take 2:39 and the dryer 2:00 hours!-------also the dryer is a condensor type so it's not vented to the outside, water is collected in a "bin" that is empited after each use.

Oh dear, seems as if I have misplaced the list about the differences I guess I will start a new one. In the meantime......I will leave you with this little tidbit and picture .......... Jim and Connie paid 18 Swiss francs for two lattes at this Starbucks in Switzerland, the exchange rate at the time was basically one for one .......

love and miss you all

Hogwarts

Just down the road less than 5 kilometers from our house is what Terry and I refer to as Hogwarts. For those of you that don't know, surely everyone does ...... Hogwarts is the school of wizardry that Harry Potter attended. Can't you just imagine seeing all the young wizards running amok in this now abandoned building?

After a bit of research into the township of Koningsbosch where the building is located, I found that it's original purpose was a Monastery. The town was named in the 16th century, Koningsbosch directly translated means Kings forest named after Charles V, the then King of Spain. The website where I found this information is in Dutch and something gets lost in translation. For instance here is a sentence directly from website:

The monastery had a farm - garden - bakery - laundry and ziekenzaal. Veel Koningsbosschenaren hebben in het klooster hun brood verdiend. Many in the monastery Koningsbosschenaren have earned their bread.

Huh? Perhaps my good friend Nelly whose native language is Dutch will be able to help out with what is the meant here, no? AND guess what? It just so happens that Lee and Nelly Barlow will be visitng us! We are so excited to welcome them into our home this April/May. I think a trip to Hogwarts with Nelly would be a step in the right direction in understanding the history surrounding this wonderful landmark.

love and miss you all