Kate's arrival

With a huge backpack and an overweight suitcase in tow, Kate arrived this morning to much fanfare, tail wagging, and a spring rainshower.

She's now sleeping (recuperating) and we'll be up and moving on our windshield tour of Wiesbaden in about a half-hour. No picture of her yet, as I intentionally left the camera at home, thinking that no female would want her picture taken after being up for 24+ hours.

But, the hotel room was newly cleaned and fresh tulips were placed throughout it to give Kate a welcoming, springy, Northern European hello.

Nuernberg

There's a calming essense to Germany where, even in its larger cities like Nuernberg, it's easy to sit down at a picturesque location, take a deep breath and drop your shoulders and exhale. The pace of life is slower, the coffee tastes better, and the words "e-mail" and "I need this yesterday" seem to drop from your vocabulary. It's easy to forget about stress in a place like this.

I didn't experience that this weekend. Instead, there was lots of drinking and lots of dancing with both the male and the better coordinated female type of the species. All in all, a good time was had.

In this picture, I'm saying, "Woh. I don't think so, hussy. Put my shirt back down!"

Kate arrives Sunday.

Here's something you don't see every day

Thought I'd share this gem with all of you. That's a bedet, btw (pronounced "WAT-tha-HILL-r-won-uf-them-fer?"), with a lamp in it.

AND IT'S PLUGGED IN!!!! WHAT THE HECK DO YOU THINK THAT'LL FEEL LIKE?

I still haven't used one, btw. I don't even know if I'd be sure how....

Although, despite all that, I'm sure lamp-holder is not one of those alternative uses listed on the instruction manuel.

Cherrio

Another freaking dog pic

I must confess, I am not the dog-crazy one of the pair, but I really would rather post pics of my dog than of me or Germany. He's cuter.

So here's my dog, "the devil dog," when we got up this morning. And also, here's a nice picture of one arbitrary vegetable stand the market that happened last Saturday. Lots of fresh fruits, veggies, cheese, and old men.

Ah Germany. Land of plenty.

A constant state of recovery

There's a lot of alcohol in Germany.

Friday I went to a great wine-tasting/wine-pairing dinner in a small town called Hallgarten near Rudesheim and had a great time learning about wine, the city, and an 800-year-old wine cellar. The host was none other than the mayor of this quaint town of 2,200 people and the wine ranged from nose-wrinkling bad to pleasant. Nothing worth buying in my opinion, but the ambiance and the company (in all, about 14 Americans) was great.

Saturday I explored Frankfurt for my first time, bought a magnificiently ugly bike (shown on left), held my nose and gulped the "fruity" local Frankfurt drink, Apfelwein - basically the fermented brine of rotten apples - and slept like a rock.

Sunday was Jay and Linda time at an Indian restaurant in Bierstadt (which means beer city). Needless to say, the alcohol-free drink options were few and far between, so I was encouraged to pair Indian cuisine with, of course, beer.

Monday was Monday and involved lots of Mondayness.

Tuesday was Stammtisch night at a local restaurant/weinstube in Eltville hosted by former barber Eric the Red (named so by President Kennedy in the early '60s) and it too involved drinking. In all honesty, the biweekly group, called the Schnudle dunker club because the first sip of all glasses of alcohol that's drunk must be done so without hands via a bent-over slurp, was great fun, replete with dirty jokes, pranks, and dirty old men. I'll have to go back and learn a thing or two.

Again, ladies and gents: the bull the bear and the blue bike.

Where's Kate?

While Justin and Pecos are busy settling into life in Wiesbaden, I am wrapping up our life in Chicago. My days are busy with working and getting ready for the move, so I don't miss my boys too much. I function with all semblance of normality until Justin sends me new pics and videos of Pecos. Then, I become pretty much worthless.

Liz is coming to visit me in Chicago this weekend before I head back to Maryland next week. I can't wait to see Liz and my family. I am also dying to see my parents' dogs!

Oh yeah, I made Justin take down the Pecos' poop picture yesterday, but relented today. You just can't deny the joy that poop humor brings Justin.

Toodles

No more poo pics

It came to my attention that my picture of my dog's first poo in Europe was not to the liking of some of my patrons. So, I posted it again, along with a PG version of my dog in action.

Cheers.

Gelandet

So, here I am. I landed, remembered how overcast and rainy Germany is this time of year, did lots of tedious work inprocessing, walked around taking pics of Pecos, and unpacked a little before dozing off to Traumland, which was filled with images of schnitzel and pretzels.

Yesterday and today it was more work stuff. Although I've walked around and used some of my immaculate German grammar on people, I haven't done/seen anything worth mentioning yet.

More news later. Now it's time for pics.