More Day Tripping and an Interview

We felt honoured to be interviewed by a professional blogger! We met Ali and Andy when they lived here in Freiburg and have kept in touch via email mostly, here's the link http://www.aliadventures.com/2017/06/non-traditional-interviews-retiring-europe/

Unlikely coincidence happened the other day, I bought a bottle of beer, which I do maybe twice a year, not often, then I read on social media Ryan and Angela were at the brewery just hours before! The saying from Casablanca applies of all the beer joints …, "Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, she walks into mine”, well, loosely.

Augustina, comes to clean for us, she’s taking her Masters degree in Economics and Politics so this is very much temporary work for her. Her mother is from Tanzania, I think she was born there, should write more about this when I get more info from her… We’ve been adopted! She said she feels disrespectful by calling us by our first names due to her culture and wants to call us Mum and Papa, so we’re Mum Beverley and Papa Bruce. We are both reading about Tanzania, because I’m curious and know next to nothing about African countries. The elder people are highly respected, age equals more knowledge to them. For me it’s a great opportunity to learn about another culture quite foreign to a Canadian or European one. 

Bruce’s birthday and loose plans fly out the window because he had a sleep in, well it is his birthday and he can do whatever he wants! The Indian food place in our neighbourhood is closed for the month of June, wah, wah! It’s sister restaurant downtown will be open though so we’ll go there to get our fix. 

Augustina made a card for Papa Bruce giving him many blessings from the Lord. He felt truly touched and it was kind of her to write it. 

We go downtown to Konvikstrasse, an old neighbourhood in Freiburg with wisteria vines crossing the top of the street, old thick vines that are beautiful when blooming. We stopped in at Culinary Zoller which is owned by Gunter and his wife Adelheid who Bruce met a couple of years ago. She has ALS and her health has deteriorated some according to Gunter, but she’s still getting around with modifications to help her. Next day we ran into her on the street. She is clearly weaker than last year but is soldiering on, more in a bit...

Also stopped at Craftbeer Lodge, a store that sells dozens of different craft beers, interested for Ryan and Angela’s project www.craftbeer-lodge.com It is not a brew house that I know of but a place for those to sell from.

Then we went for our Indian food fix to find the two fellows that usually work in Rieselfeld to be working downtown. We went to pay for our meal and had very little cash, had to use up almost pennies to pay the bill, they don’t take debit or credit cards. We also had stopped in a cheese shop for well, cheese, smoked dill salmon and a bottle of wine, she didn’t take cards either. We made it anyway, home with much lighter wallets. A word on that, cash is preferred over cards, in both Germany and Spain, in the regions we inhabit. Merchant fees for cards can be quite high and they would have to boost their prices to cover that expense so they just don’t in the smaller establishments. That’s all good but, in general, a person needs to carry more cash here than in Canada.

Out with Christoph and we eat at Zum Ochsen, they have a lovely, covered patio area to sit in. 

Bird house in rafters

Liked what I assume to be painted milk jugs and the metal plane.

Afterward we toured a wee bit through Markgräferland wine area which is directly across the valley to the Kaiserstuhl. Markgräflerland is mainly Protestant and Kaiserstuhl is mainly Catholic due to past rulers. Christoph gave us a bit of history about both areas that used to be one volcano but split into the valley between eons ago. 

Both lands have white and red limestone and granite, with the limestone being porous and granite not, we wondered how that worked out, he’ll look it up and tell us next time.

Monday, Whitmonday or Pentecost Day and we go downtown for breakfast for me, forgot to buy eggs on Saturday. I order eggs benedict with smoked salmon, which would have been a treat, instead it was yuck! The salmon didn’t look right, the hollandaise sauce was from a package, yuck! Presentation was good but that doesn’t help when I could only eat a quarter of it. Waiter came by to ask what was wrong and I just said it was okay but not to my taste. He did a good thing and didn’t charge us for it. Oh well sometimes, most of the time we are lucky, but sometimes not.

Another coincidence, maple here is called ahorn. It was referenced for pancakes on the breakfast menu at the place above paragraph. We didn’t know what that meant, looking it up, it means maple. Then meeting Adelheid and Gunter he couldn’t remember the English name for it and we were able to tell him. 

Adelheid has trouble speaking now so her voice has very little volume especially hard for Bruce to hear. Gunter and I pretty much carried the conversation, his English is good, so is Adelheid’s but she said she understands more than she can speak. Gunter gets more practice in their store with the tourists that come in. He attends a culinary trade show twice a year in Stuttgart, smallish show, but high quality vendors that he gets quite a bit of business from. Adelheid mentioned the metzgerai or butcher in Rieselfeld has great salami made with truffles and covered on parmesan cheese, I think we’ll be trying a bit of that! They know Italy quite well, he carries a lot of Italian products in the store and she lived in Florence for years taking art lessons. Interesting people, interesting visit with them.

Making full use of the chair.

All for now, Cheers, Bx2 and Lexi Cat