Schupfnudeln made by Jana, and our beautiful dinner
Emmendingen town square
Our fabulous lunch in Emmendingen
Blue Monday because...the Germans lost to the Spaniards. And Jane's boy, Michael Ballack (Number 13) got a big cut on his eye. Poor baby.
Breakfast of fruit salad, joghurt and muesli mixed together.
We drove over to Jane's office in Kirchzarten to set up her hammock (they have a little backyard they can relax and lunch in) and to download our pictures from our cameras. I got to meet most of her workmates, including Mark who is a Pearls Before Swine fan. Naturally, I said "Helloo Zeebah Neighba!" We kept mentioning how disappointed we were in the game - interesting to me was how everyone said pretty much the same thing, "they played better than we did." The Germans are good sports.
We got the pictures off the cameras so you will begin to see some of them on the blog. It's very time-consuming putting them up, and we haven't time to edit them, so just take a look anyway and be mindful. I'm not even posting the ones that are "side-a-ways" until we can get them edited.
After leaving her office, Jane wanted me to go to the ice cream parlor just beneath her floor for some Simsim flavored ice cream (sesame, like halvah.) Unfortunately, they no longer have that flavor. So we got ice cream anyHOW - Jane had chocolate, tiramisu and hazelnut and I had rum, coffee, and tiramisu. It was too hot to get in the car with ice cream cones so we walked across the way where there was a beautiful old Catholic church with a graveyard (you hear that, Mutti? We ARE our mother's daughters - 2nd bone yard this trip.) We walked through the graveyard, which was beautifully tended and full of flowers. The one thing that puzzled us what that on many of the graves there were ornate stands with pretty glass bowls on them. In the bowl would be water, and in the water would be a sprig of evergreen or some other plant. Eventually I noticed that the graves which did not have the bowl of water had a built-in brass bowl with a lid. I opened the lid and inside was a scrub brush. So we assume that they are for cleaning off the graves. (Back at the office one of her co-workers said it was for "sprinkling" the graves, but I'm not buying it.) There was an old man standing before a grave praying, and then wiping tears from his eyes. The woman buried there had died just last year. It was very poignant.
On the side of the church was painted a sort of sun-dial, which was interesting. We went into the church. It was extraordinary for a smallish church with a beautifully ornate baroque altar and frescoed ceilings.
We had a plan to have lunch at a place up in the woods and climb a tower there, and drove a long way through the forest to a restaurant which was...CLOSED. You hear that? The whole restaurant had the flu.
By now we were starving and there was going to be trouble, so we winged on over to Emmendingen where there is a nice pedestrian area (Fußgängerzone.) We walked around a bit and then found Cafe Palio on the Marktplatz and sat outside reading our books and drinking Radlers. We were WAY too hungry so we ended up ordering too much - Flammenkuchen and a dish with both a pork and a beef filet with herb butter and Pommes which came with a salad. As always, we shared everything.
We were too full when we left - we need a laminated card to tell us to only order one dish when we have reached that hunger point. But it would be useless because once we reach that point, we are too far gone to think. Walked around a little more, released a some books at a natural food store.
After Emmendingen we went to Edeka (a grocery store) where we released more books and I bought a €0.90 Diet Coke to keep in the fridge. These people are so seriously ice-challenged. I have been drinking warm spit (room-temperature mineral water) for nearly a week.
We walked over to Aldi, which is part grocery, part dime store, where the goods change every week. It's always fun - there is a great selection of chocolate and Ray would just lay down and die if he saw the quality wine and the wine prices. Remember what Jane says, "If you live in Europe, you can't afford NOT to be drunk!"
We came back home and stopped at the below-neighbors' to ask them to babysit Gerald while we go to Idar-Oberstein overnight. They were delighted and just gushed over Gerald - "here is where he sleeps when he comes in," "he drinks out of the fish pond - he likes the fish flavor," and how he lies on the grass with their male cat, Charlie, and Charlie will play with Gerald's tail. They expressed that they had been concerned when a male cat moved in but Gerald just made himself at home and he and Charlie have become fast friends. Charlie is very, very shy so it's turned out to be really great for him to have a pal. They were happy to take care of G while we were gone, which was a huge load off of Jane's mind.
We came home and put on our jim-jams and I opened another present. It was very exciting - a CD of the British pop singer Cliff Richard, which I have been jonesing for ever since I saw him on the Dame Edna Experience. We put it in our baggage to take on the road with us tomorrow.
Jane made Schupfnudeln - it's like gnocchi tossed with onions, diced Speck (bacon), and sauerkraut and all sauteed together. Jane added cheese to it and it was just a delicious casserole. Jane had white wine, I had red. We watched 3 episodes of The Office and 1 of The Vicar of Dibley. The Vicar of Dibley has already changed our lives. We can't say "No" without going "No no no no no no...yes" like the character Jim.
We packed up and went to bed.
