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

Frohe Ostern / Happy Easter

Good Friday marks the beginning of the four day Easter Holiday. Most businesses close and families gather together to celebrate many Ostern events such as walks, egg hunts, special meals as well as Easter bonfires. Eggs are readily available and can be purchased painted and hard boiled ready for the Easter basket.

This time of year it's ALL about the egg. Look at the difference in these eggs. The Germans put an extra something something in the chicken feed to make the yolks a darker orange, they want their eggs to look like eggs!

Here in this window is an egg wreath complete with little tiny feathers!

Easter Sunday we feasted with the Nadeau family, which included Jen's Mother, who made awesome fresh rolls, I think the picture here tells the story! And yes ....... of course Jen made sure that Bailey and Terry had plenty of peeps!

Easter Monday we woke up to SNOW!!!! There is a small Chapel not far from the house, we ran out first thing to get this picture. It is an interesting little chapel surrounded by farm fields and dedicated to Heilige Gemma Galgani, not sure what that is all about, but we picked up a brochure to translate...................

What a way to welcome Spring!

love and miss you all

Stop by for pastries

It took a little bit of peeking out the window to figure out what was going on, but of course I had to know why this truck was stopping at Trudi and Lorenz's house next door. Basically every Tuesday, Friday and Saturday a bread truck comes thru and delivers fresh bread and patries throughout the village. The next door neighbors have it all arranged, how handy is that!

The Tuesday delivery lady doesn't speak a word of English but we manage to somehow discuss the cold or wind, a popular subject these days. Friday's delivery lady speaks good at English and she is interested in how we are getting along and always has helpful local shopping advice. On Saturday the truck is very early and the two women teach me how to say whatever I am ordering in German-they delight in my pronunciations! Sometimes they have a young man with them he is very good at English and likes to "practice" his numbers, very specific when he tells me my total and then counts back the change.

Each delivery has the basics: rolls, pies , donuts as well as a variety of breads but on Saturday there is the best selection of desserts, it looks like a window in an upscale bakery. I try and pick something special for Terry and I to split. Because we are one of the first stops the brochen is always fresh and warm. Can I just say.............delicious!

love and miss you all

Brüggelchen

Our small village of Brüggelchen has had a bit of excitement, actually two events that would make one wonder WHAT THE...............


We could hear the bullhorn before we could see where it was coming from or what was being "announced". A small white car was slowly going up and down all the streets in our village. In the passenger seat was a man with a bullhorn repeating the same phrase over and over. The only words Terry and I could catch or understand were "Attencion.....Attencion" as the car neared our house we could see it was some kind of red cross vehicle. Of course all I could think of was the nuclear plant up the road! We did a quick check of the neighbors to make sure no one was loading up their cars and heading for the hills. We asked around at the next village connection dinner and found out it was a blood drive. Who knew!


The next incident happened in the middle of the night, I was deep in the land of dreams when I heard sirens start up. OMG, Terry and I both jumped strait out of bed, sirens wailing, no announcements, no PA system, just the loud repeating sound of the town siren. Again, the nuclear plant image flashed thru my mind. The sirens stopped by the time we fumbled around and got dressed. A quick check to see if the neighbors were packing their cars and heading for the hills.............all was quiet the streets were empty and not even a light on in any of the houses. Our inquiries the next day revealed it was a call for all of the volunteer fireman to report to the hall for some type of emergency/disaster-anything from a car accident to a fire. I gotta tell you it is a teensy bit scary not knowing what was going on....... What next?


Terry is now on a rotating shift, alternating first and second shift weekly. It has thrown our "routine" off a little off which is the reason my blog has been a bit quiet lately. One bonus though is that we are able to explore more of the surrounding area during the mornings-every other week! Here are a few pictures from our last outing. Check out the the chairs below, they have lap blankets to keep you toasty warm as you sit in the square and enjoy a meal or a beverage, now I ask you, how wonderful is that!

















love and miss you all

And the winner is.............

Jim Long won first prize at the Osheim hosted first quarterly couples bunco held last Saturday evening. His lovely wife, Connie took the low score prize, very appropriate. Low score won a big box of valentines chocolates. Tom was the second prize winner and I heard his winnings were earmaked for a computer part for his wife Jen. We sent invitations out to 5 fun couples, do we know any other kind? Of the 12 attendees only three had ever played before so there was a small learning curve, no problem though-easy to play if you can count and throw dice, you can play. Other winners included Cris, Leona and I believe Mike.......

We are already looking forward to the next bunco party at Jim and Connie's, they have a traditional German courtyard home that has summer BBQ written all over it! We can play outdoors and may end up playing with 16 instead of 12!

Of course we had one, maybe two slight mishaps on the evenings festivites. We had a last minute couldn't be helped cancellation, so there was a Saturday morning scramble to find another couple. Terry and I were both making phone calls, my biggest worry was that we would both find subs. Of course it all worked out Mike and Cris came thru and as Jen said they made a nice addition to our group. I am quite sure they will remember the night for a while, the mirror hanging in the entry way gave out when one too many coats were hung, spilling the contents of three oil candles all over their jackets and almost sending them up in flames........Luckily Terry was Johnny on the spot and put out the fire and just in case Connie was right behind him ready to douse the flames..........

All in all a fun time was had by all, here you see Tyson the mighty banker exhausted from trying to keep up with who had the last bunco......... Or could it be that he was so tired from all the brisket Terry fed him or the cookies Chris shared!

love and miss you all!