We're spending our Memorial Day Weekend biking along the Rhine River from Mainz to Koblenz. 2 days down and it has been yet another fairytale adventure here in Germany. Castles and swans everywhere while biking through one picture perfect town after another. Today we've landed in St. Goar where we spent the afternoon playing on the beach.
Spargel is a specialty here in Germany that people go crazy over. It is basically white asparagus. Grown in fields, the tips are tirelessly covered by mounds of soil and or a white tarp to keep the sunlight out. Without the sun, the shoots stay white. I can't figure out how they manage to get them to grow so thick though. The best spargel are almost and inch and a half wide!
It is prepared differently in different regions, but the most common way to serve it is with hollandaise sauce. Here in Hessen, the herbful grün sauce is my favorite. Another favorite is spargelsuppe, which I attempted to make for my family.
So first we started with a trip to the roadside farmer's stand to pick out our spargel shoots. Then my assistant and I struggled to peel each shoot to take off the woody outside. The recipe for the soup itself is quite easy, and in no time we had ourselves a yummy cream of spargel soup.
We played hooky from school again today and decided to check out the technik museum in Mannheim. It blew us BOTH away! 6 floors of amazing hands on exhibits about science. I had to bribe Jackson with McDonalds (and the promise of returning with DADDY) to get him out of there. He agreed that daddy would like it stating, "his heart is going to explode with love when he sees this place!" I have to agree.
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| Jackson's first book |
is going to the flower fields and cutting my own bouquet. Now that it's spring the fields are blooming again. I've been looking forward to this since September. There are knives in a cup that you use to cut your chosen blossoms, when you return the knife, you pay for the flowers you took by putting money in a box. No people, just the good ol' honesty policy. I don't think you'd find this anywhere in the states. It's one of the very simple things that I just love doing here.
It's finally warming up around here!! a high of 26 today! The music and farmers market in town was very lively today. Everyone's getting excited for spring around here. We took a bike ride through the fields today and had a picnic in a newly discovered favorite spot. Wonderful way to spend a Saturday!
Today's craft for the children's english is a clown noise maker for tomorrow's Carnival parade. We are learning colors, shapes, and body parts of the face. The hair is carnival streamers. Although Carnival is celebrated here like Mardi Gras, it has some differences in the traditions. The symbol for Carnival is a clown and the colors of carnival include all the primary colors. Everyone wears super silly and creative costumes for the parade including kids and adults. Similar to Mardi Gras it is a big party time for the adults with lots of drinking. I'm looking forward to the parade tomorrow to top off our 6 straight days of carnival events. I hear at the parade they throw all kinds of things at the crowd, not just beads. I'll let you know tomorrow what kind of booty we collect.
It's a sunny 9 degrees celcius today!! Perfect weather for exploring our backyard more with the bikes. This time we have a map in hand! Although when we stopped for our picnic lunch we still had no idea where we were, lol! We are surrounded by rolling hills spotted with farms and vineyards and tiny little perfect villages. It's our favorite way to spend a Saturday!!
I actually met Jorg last week when I tried to take Jackson climbing, just me & him. He recognized us from the kindergarten and suggested we get the boys together to climb. We thought they would motivate each other. Well I'm here to tell you it worked perfectly! Nothing like peer pressure to get your little butt up the wall!! And when the boys took a snack break the parents got to climb. Perfect playdate indeed!!
Just a few photos I had to share on my way to work today. I'm teaching English a few times a week and today's client is a company in the odenwald. It is such a beautiful drive first through rolling hills of vineyards, then through small town streets lined with criss-cross houses and then through the rolling green hills of the forested odenwald. I love it and I enjoy the clients so much too. All ina good day's work!
We drove up to Gardelegen in NE germany to see Joe for the weekend. The closest interesting attraction is the VW factory in Wolfsburg. Here Jackson is in the kid area where they gave me a cell phone and told me they'd call when he's done. It is admittedly a little surprising to have this unexpected freedom. I'm a little unsure what to do with my time now. Do I stay and watch or take the chance to see the museum??? Ohhh darn the phone just rang.
