Mostly about Food! Yummy Food!

We went downtown to get the sleeves shortened on Bruce’s leather coat, back to the store he bought it from. The shop caters to tourists and locals too, they sell lederhosen and dirndls, the dirndls sell for between 70 and 100 Euros, didn't look at the price for lederhosen.

Found this little fellow outside the shop.

This is a water fountain, sun was at the wrong angle to get a better picture of it but the lions on top are great.

Stop at the Eis Cafe for an iced tea with lemon sherbet in it, yummy. The Munster markt has a number of large tents in it for the annual wine festival happening this week.

We used our air conditioner a few times, works well, should do because we get it serviced once a year. It’s a bit of a fiddle though, have to open up the winter garden door which requires a key at the bottom and a long rod with a whirly thing at the top, putting it back in place when turning off is not pleasant, hot and seems to take forever to line up the gismos.

English speaking day, I had a few errands to do so left early in the morning to avoid the heat. Went to the tobacco store for an update on our transit passes, Frank there speaks English, on to the Apoteka for meds, they speak English, Doctor, receptionist, fellow at the Edeka wants to move to Canada. All excellent English really, wow! 

We made southern fried chicken, I've never had it before and it was a treat! Bruce chose a spicy recipe with lots of herbs, cut the chicken into strips, mixed with herbs and buttermilk we made by adding 1/2 a lemon to regular milk, marinade for six hours, then drench the strips in herbed flour and fry. Not sure that’s how they did it in Driving Miss Daisy, but it worked for us. Tasty morsels that I dare say are fit to serve to company! A successful experiment, I would add a bit more spice, but good. 

Back to the Kaiserstuhl with Christoph for lunch at Gasthaus Bären, I order trout and it comes complete with head and tail, yikes!, immediately get rid of those so it isn’t staring at me. Tasty though, we’ve moved on from spargel season to pfifferling (mushrooms) season. Christoph said it was a rather insincere way now, for what it was originally intended, using up the mountains of produce they have in the season, not really relevant to today, but tradition. This Gasthaus is third generation run and the cooks, waiters all look alike. Grandma still works in the kitchen at 91 years old, still dying her hair, they are portly people. Good, simple, German food, cooked well on offer here. Seems to be a hiker’s stop, many people with walking poles stopped by.

Detail on the eaves of the house next door.

Back to Landerer winery for another tasting and buying more wine. The daughter served us this time until a large group came in. She has a great sense of humour and a bubbly personality. Sometimes they give us a bit large tastings and there are no spit buckets, we used a flowering plant to pour the extra into this time. That plant will likely do extra well on it’s wine offerings. They always give Christoph a free bottle of wine, this time we got one too. Bought two bottles of sparkling wine this trip, which have a very delicate flavour, doubt we’ll mix this with orange juice. 

We made Italian sausage, then into gravy and onto home made biscuits. Started with freshly minced pork, many spices, frozen until it could be cut easier. Bruce made the gravy which was milk and more spice, I made the biscuits and had to take the recipe off the internet since I couldn’t remember my mother’s but it came very, very close. Good, very filling and rich though, would serve smaller portions and a salad along side. 

I took that lovely orange/melon coloured tunic into the seamstress to get it altered, it’s too tight and she made suggestions. She has a very different way of dress but it works for her and found out she speaks English which she has been reluctant to do before. Making moderations to this tunic will either work or not but I cannot wear it as is so we’ll see. I think, Natalie is her name, is a creative person due to her creative dress so hoping she makes it into a garment I can wear. They have a limited supply of fabric there so limited choice. Update, it looks great!

We also made chili con queso, a dish Bruce used to make a lot. It contains onion, tomato, peppers (hot and sweet varieties), basil, celery and cheese, all boiled up together to produce yumminess. 

Dawna and Erwin came by Freiburg as a resting spot between the flight from Ottawa to Frankfurt, before going to the south of France. They rent a small house owned by a friend in a small village close to Nimes. Lovely visit as always! 

Saw these in a shop window, looks like they are having a grand time!

We started with our representative at the train ticket office but she had difficulty contacting the boarding help with the ramp in France so she’ll get back to us early next week.

Out with Christoph on Saturday and he gets the convertible this time, weather not conducive to have the top down unfortunately, windy going and raining as we came back, he admitted that there were fewer cars left, this was probably the last choice available. We went to Staufen as we have many times but tried a different restaurant this time called Fauststube Löwen. Food was considerably better than the place we have gone to before a few times, not that theirs is bad, this was just much better. 

This is a hotel that Faust was supposed to have done his alchemist experiments and died in. Faust is a legend of a person who sold his soul to the devil and there are many legends and stories about this “person”. Christoph knows of plays that have been done of him, there was a romance, and it seems there are two parts to the play, first one contains the romance and second rarely gets performed because of boredom, look it up if you are interested (or not) but I won’t go further on it.

The Saturday market was on and bustling, rain held off for our lunch and the market closed up almost immediately after, good timing! There were a couple of weddings also with parties drinking champagne in the square. The Rathaus or town hall is where people get married legally in Germany. In Heidelberg, us and others, would sit in the square on a Saturday afternoon and watch the wedding parties go by. Something uplifting about seeing that if you don’t go down the other cynical road of wondering how long the marriage will last…

Driving south of Freiburg is mainly small villages, viewed first by their church spires and through hectares of corn, wheat and on the hillsides, vines, it’s pretty in a different way than the Kaiserstuhl.  

Walking around the neighbourhood on Sunday again we see different things every time. 

Wet web, looks like lace!

Walked the laneways and you get a bit of look into how people live better than the main roads, but not peering into windows! 

Working fountain if you pump a lot.

Miniature John Deere digger, smaller version of what my Dad used.

Everyone loves flowers but Germans seem to take that to a higher degree with their potted plants on a windowsill or in the back yard. 

Parking places for cars are in what I would call sheds, open to the sides and no doors.

Don't know what this plant is, pretty though.

We also saw a roaming free standing lawnmower, same principle as the Rumba vacuum cleaner. It just moseyed around the lawn cutting it. That's a real time saver, took a picture but I'm at the picture limit for this post.

Well that's all for now, Cheers, Bx2 and Lexi Cat