Sundays in My City

This will be slightly more than one city, since I will talk about our entire past week.

Alternate title:
Check out the Americans!

What a week we've had! We had our first guests from America, horse friends of mine. Barb and Brandi were my teammates in Mounted Orienteering, and we did endurance together too, and basically lots and lots of weekends camping with horses.

(In this photo my man discovers a fun game on the iPad called Gravity Blocks. Addicting!)

There is so much to see here, but I didn't want to exhaust them on their vacation, so we tried to minimalize. That didn't work cuz these ladies are avid geocachers and they were intent on spending every day geocaching.

That meant that even visiting the castle, there were Garmins in hand. *lol*

Schlossburg was built around 1133 and the first room alone was worth the 5 Euro entry fee; the life-size paintings of horses (battle scenes) were unbelievable. Actually the whole thing is unbelievable cuz I cannot fathom that it is actually REAL.




The detail! But the castle just gets better and better as you go thru it and up and down the levels and around to the lookout tower with arrow slits for archers, looking down from up there makes me dizzy and I love heights.

Then we saw Muenstner Bruecke, Germany's highest railroad bridge, with its wonderful park underneath. There are several myths surrounding this bridge, and just recently the train that uses it has been told to slow way down because its structural integrity is under inspection. It was creepy to see the train crawl over so much slower than normal.


There are 10 little pedestals with riddles engraved on them, and when you've puzzled for a while, you just step up and stand on it and a speaker tells you the answer, and a little story. So much fun! Anyone want to try for this one? I know the answer.

Of course we had to see Koelner Dom (Cologne's cathedral), one of the most famous old churches. Brandi said it almost made her cry, just the detail in the exterior. I said "Wait til you see inside!" but it was so overwhelming, the historical scenes in the windows, the crypts, the thousands of candles burning for the dead, it is not a happy place.

Wednesday we went geocaching the entire day until we were exhausted.

Then I showed them a few horse stables around here, and we got to meet and pet lots of horses - many types of warmbloods, Merlin the Irish Tinker, a Knapstruper (sp?, which is Europe's Appy, but with lots of mane and tail), Haflingers, and of course the pony party ponies. They seemed as surprised as I was to discover the differences in the German way of horsekeeping. (Especially the silage ---- what a smell!)

By chance we got to see a jumping event at one of the stables - a group of children were being judged to earn their certificates to qualify to enter the show ring. It was so fun to see the kids navigate the course; I wanted to try it. We joined the families in the seating area and whispered because it was a very serious, silent event. I was surprised to see grandparents there too, dressed up in formal attire just to support the kids. In the end we saw the awards laid out, little pins with different emblems which signify the levels, and certificates for the kids who passed. Riding lessons are like soccer or swimming back home - most kids learn to ride.

After the kids were done, we went to the indoor roundpen and had lunch. They'd set up a propane grill so we could have bratwurst.

The next day we visited my man's city, Wuppertal, and rode the Schwebebahn. Descending a particularly long hill we got caught in a typical drenching rainstorm that lasted 20 minutes and we had no umbrellas or even appropriate coats. I have to blame Barb cuz she said, "There's a cache up this hill - only 350 meters!" and I was feeling lazy but trudged up it anyway - she wantd that cache. Then, boom, thunder, lightning, and torrential rain.

Brandi went thru someone's front gate and stood in front of their door under a tiny cover that leaked -we joined her but it was really pathetic. We were soaked the rest of the day and determined not to let it slow us down.

I'll never forget Brandi squeezing out her rain-filled jacket into the potted plants and decorative fountains in the mall, *lol* Since we didn't try to be quiet when we spoke, pretty much everyone knew we were Americans.

Everywhere we went my friends seemed to make friends. Storekeepers practiced their English skills with them, they exchanged email addys with a waitress, a total stranger joined us for geocaching, and the Italian ice cream cafe owner wanted to go home to America with them!

I insisted we eat at least one traditional German breakfast - fresh rolls with cheese and meat, and coffee. People who know Germany will understand, German bread is one of the best things about being here.

We also ate at the German pancake house (which has absolutely no American pancakes, their specialty is a crepe-like thing with meat and gravy inside, they're to die for!).

We also had (drumroll please, this was hard to find last minute): traditional Rheinland Sauerbraten (made from cow, not horse). This is hands down the best thing to eat in Germany, and I believe you can find it at Leavenworth if you're in the PNW. They served it exactly right - with lots of gravy and two potato dumplings on the side, and a mess of sweet cooked red cabbage.

Both restaurants were old mill houses with history and we got the full stories on them.

Other days we tried bratwurst and frikadelle and ok, I admit, two nights of Indian, hehe. Oh, but I cooked one night, my mother in law's creamy mushroom chicken bake with small potatoes.

My guests brought out the bright side of Germans, it was so much fun. I particularly liked the time we went to the grocery store and I hadn't told them they have to bag/cart their own groceries after the checker scans them. We had this huge pile of groceries and the checker knows me so she knew these were Americans and she just laughed and said, "It's different here huh?" and I said, "Yah, you're not bagging for us. In fact, you're doing practically nothing for us! Do something!" *lol*

One day we took a car, then a train, then a subway, then a street car, and then a bus. It was on the train that Brandi read aloud the entire storybook she'd just bought about the legend of the Heinzelmaennchen. They are the gnomes who would finish your household work at night while you slept until someone left peas on the floor and they fell down and got mad, never to return. Now the people of Cologne have to do all their own work.

I think my friends are gonna need a vacation after their vacation, cuz we never stopped going. But they were the ones who insisted on geocaching until our shoes were falling apart! (Here is an image I just found of three of the places we visited: The castle is at the top, the bridge in the middle, and Wuppertal on the bottom. Our house is beyond the castle.)

I'm so happy they came, and I hope they come back.

For any ex-pats who are reading this, I have to include a list of treasures from home that I was given (cuz usually it's me reading your lists of goodies from home *lol*):

• 15 Ranch dressing packets
• Large Betadine scrub
• Large Desitin
• Farnam Flysect SuperC (it costs exactly 10 times as much here)
• Ivermectin (enough for 4 years)
• Strongid (enough for 4 years.....if my horse lives that long)
• American Bandaids
• Deep Woods Off (100% DEET)
• American Baby Powder (J&J)
• All-purpose contact lens solution (large bottle)
• Dark MnMs (3 large sacks, for my man who loves them)
• Reeses Pieces (2 large sacks, MINE, don't even think about it!)
• Food coloring in 4 colors

I asked my man tonight what he'd like with his Ranch dressing for dinner, hehe.

Oh, one more thing, we went 113 MPH (182 KPH) on the autobahn: ) Well, wouldn't you?

For more Sundays in others' cities, click here.