I’m sure all of you are wondering if this is going to be the post where I share that our air shipment has arrived. Sadly, you must wait a while longer. Somehow our already delayed shipment was not put on a direct flight from Chicago to Frankfurt. Instead, it went from Chicago to Louisville, then got stuck in Kentucky due to a strike in Cologne, Germany (which was it’s planned 3rd stop before coming to Frankfurt). If I read, “I apologize for the inconvenience” one more time I might lose my mind. What can I do? Nothing. Ugh.

I thought it would be fun to start a game. Some of the German road signs make sense. Many do not. I’m going to start posts with a traffic sign, you try to guess what it is, and I’ll post the answer at the end of the blog. Here are some that I see everywhere and have no idea what they mean. 

I think I have talked about these Jewish Stumbling Blocks in a prior post. I found a set in Königstein, just a half block away from our house. They are a subtle reminder of the horrors that Jews experienced in the not so distant past, and seeing them so close to home makes me stop and think about what these poor people went through. 

So funny story. You know how charcoal is supposed to be a whitening agent, like in toothpaste? We have not found any Tide in Germany, and none of the other laundry detergent brands are recognizable to us, so we are going through the fun of trial and error to see what we like. We picked up a bottle of detergent that had charcoal in it and used it for several days. One day as I was pulling the clothes out of the dryer, I panicked and thought that the dryer was burning up because the clothes smelled like smoke. I was about 5 seconds away from calling the rental company about it when I thought that maybe it was the detergent. I ran down to the Rewe (grocery store) and bought a different brand, as well as a washing machine cleaner. I ran the cleaner through, then did a load of clothes, and amazing! They didn’t smell like smoke! 

Basketball is my favorite sport. I loved playing it as a kid, and I have loved coaching it as an adult. Imagine my disappointment and sadness when both of my children informed us that they did not want to play basketball in Germany. *sigh* OK, I can respect their wishes. We went almost a month before Ty sent a note late one Saturday night after watching ISU basketball and said “I want to play basketball.” WOOT WOOT!!!! I immediately found the coach’s email address and sent a note. He had his first practice last Monday evening, and first game on Thursday night. Most of the junior high boys at FIS play basketball, and for many, this is the first time they have ever played. The ref was pretty lenient on blowing his whistle, and it was a good thing because the game would have been stopped a lot for travels, double dribbles, etc. Because there are so many boys on the team, they pretty much play one quarter. And since Ty had only been to one practice, he sat on the bench until the 4th quarter. That meant he had 3 quarters to sit and watch and realize that he could dominate the court. And he did! I have never seen him play with so much confidence and intensity, ever. #proudmama

Jay and I were able to get a membership through my language professor to Selgros, which is like a Sams Club/Costco. They had a great meat selection, we broke down and bought tupperware and a good knife (even though we have some coming in the air shipment), and really big wooden spoons. I almost bought it to threaten my kids like my mom used to do to us – don’t make me get out the wooden spoon. It’s hilarious to think about how terrified we were of that statement, even though mom never once used it on us. :)

Isn’t this just the cutest little bush you ever saw?

Sunday we decided to go for a hike, and maybe I was a little ambitious, but what else were we going to do all day Sunday? I found a hike on the app Komoot that was just over 7 miles. What can I say, I was excited to try out my new hiking shoes (that I had to buy because mine are in the air shipment in Kentucky). 

One thing that I have observed is that people seem to walk everywhere. I don’t just mean walk instead of drive, I mean if there is a piece of land with grass or woods, there are people on it – even if it is off the trail. I asked Jay if it was all public land, and he told me that there isn’t really such a thing as trespassing in Germany. Land is basically all public use. I did a little fact checking on this concept and found this explanation. So basically land is privately owned, but you must allow people to walk/bike/ride on it. 

Observation. Most people that I pass by on the street don’t smile, or say guten morgen. So I have decided to bring my most midwest nice self to my outings and be overly happy to say good morning to people. I also am introducing the “farmer wave” to German drivers. There is so much give and take while driving on these roads, that giving a little wave to say “thanks for pulling over and letting me through this tiny little street” seems like the right thing to do.

At about the 3 mile mark, Lily said she was starving. I was hoping that one of the little towns we were going to walk through would have a cafe open. We walked a little further, and she only said “I’m hungry” about 10 more times, before we stumbled across this adorable restaurant with a huge biergarten in the middle of nowhere, called Rote Mühle. We didn’t have reservations, and since it was 50 degrees out we went ahead and sat outside. We were apparently all pretty hungry and everyone just about licked their plates clean. Here are some photos from our Sunday adventure.

Lily had fun playing with different camera settings on her phone. The next few are shots that she took.

We were all pretty exhausted when we got home, so we laid low the rest of the afternoon. I have done most of the major bookings for our Ski Break trip to Italy next week, but I didn’t schedule anything in Florence. I asked the kids to do a little research and pick out what they want to do. Lily super shocked both Jay and I when she showed us her Canva presentation! She artfully laid out things that we should do, including a museum visit, an E-Bike tour and David, and a pasta-making class. :) 

Another observation. On our hike we saw two gravestones, unmarked, and covered in moss, along the trail. There were no other graves around them, just lonely little blocks of stone. On my walk to the gym I noticed this headstone – with initials – located alongside a fairly busy road, next to an apartment building. This is not something you would typically see in the US, so I’m trying to get more information. 

And now, the moment you have been waiting for….the answers to the street sign quiz! Did anyone guess correctly?