Städtlemarkt (Village Market)

Visiting the village market is is a fairly typical German Saturday morning ritual. Also very typical are its business hours: open from 7.30AM to 12.30PM. Experts usually arrive early for the best quality produce.

Each booth presents a different local or regional fresh produce. All offerings are basically from your next door neighbour: your dairy farmer, your butcher or your bakery, so they can't afford to lack quality. Otherwise word would go around quickly.

There are fruits and veggies, flowers and plants, jams and preserves, breads, cheeses, meats and cold cuts, and variety of liquors and schnapps.

It's a bit more expensive to shop on the market, however, it's located literally two minutes from home, so we don't need to drive there, which makes it a cheap plus eco-friendly option.

Little Things

Sonja: When looking for a rental apartment in Germany you will notice that it is quite rare to find a home that comes with the kitchen, appliances and lighting fixtures already in place. And don't even think about walk-in closets...

There is this strange concept that we Germans pursue in quest of making our personal space homey:
The native spends top Euros to install costly designed custom fit furniture (such as kitchens) in their rented condos, only to rip them apart, and drag them along when they got to move. Later you will find them spending another big portion of dough to get the previously perfectly fitting parts adjusted to make them fit into the new home. Seriously!

And yes, of course we take with our lamps and draperies as well, even if we end up storing them in the basement because they don't fit the new home. I am not kidding you.

However, we were lucky to be able to find an apartment that already had a kitchen and a few appliances (no fridge, no washing machine) in place. But the kitchen was not in best shape, and definitely not our style... not to look a gift horse in the mouth.

Before:

After

You won't really notice it but the surfaces were quite tacky and greasy, and I soaped and scrubbed everything in and outside several times. We removed the top rims and the rustic glass cabinet door, painted the walls and the wooden duct cover, and it immediately brightened up the space. Then I re-adjusted all cabinet doors, used some wood putty (thanks to Martha I know that word now) to cover up some holes and cracks, and changed the wooden knobs to brushed metal ones. After that it was just a matter of setting some colour accents. Guess, what's my favourite colour... It only required little investment but we find it a very satisfactory improvement.

A Flying Visit of Baden-Baden

Our mission was to find something ugly in the beautiful Black Forest. So we thought a visit of another bigger city in the area might help: And we picked Baden-Baden. Nestled in the foothills it's not a big city per say, with a population of 55,000 give or take, and it's a Spa town with Roman roots (of course!).

We were surprised to find a lot of intact old architecture downtown, and learned that the French allies prevented the bombing of the city in WWII, as they were planning in setting up their headquarters here.

River Oos flows through the Lichtensteiner Allee, a green oasis in the heart of Baden-Baden.

Baden-Baden has a lovely pedestrian zone with lots of cafes, bistros and restaurants, you definitely notice the French influence, which isn't a bad thing.

There were painted horses all over the place. It reminded us of Calgary where they had an exhibition of colourful cows, and Vancouver where Orcas were the theme.

We had a quick glance at the Trinkhalle (pump house) which is part of the spa complex. It is said that its water has healing powers. The arcade is decorated with frescos showing heroes and nude females.

A nymph (female, naked) on the left and a knight (male, dressed) in shining armor on the right. It is never the other way round...

 More legalized porn...

 Casino Park

 Casino with culinary festivities in front.

It became a bit too crowded for our taste, and we had a crave for regional food. Our desires were satisfied to the max in the nice ambience of the restaurant in the Atlantic Parkhotel bordering on river Oos.

 A delicious chanterelle salad for the lady, and steak for the man. Needless to say, it was delish!

Baden-Baden made it very high on our list of great German cities today. It certainly won't be our last visit, and it's merely an hour away.

We haven't succeeded in finding something ugly in the area, well maybe one thing: A construction zone stretching 43km (!) along highway A5 with nerve wrecking speed limits and a challenging obstacle course... it even has its own homepage.

Baden-Baden, we will be back!

After Work Chores

Up to now we didn't pay much attention to our piece of the community garden as the area is shared with six other residents. Every party does their best to make the whole look pretty, and kindly jumps in when others are too busy.

Now after our move is over, we (that would in fact be Roland) also want do contribute to the beauty of the garden, by mowing the lawn, picking the weed and attending to the hedges.

We haven't had a garden before so there is much to learn and even more to do, and Roland finds it indeed very relaxing.

Setting up a Routine

1. Sunday 8AM. Get up, freshen up and get dressed for a morning walk.

2. Grab some fresh rolls and croissants from the bakery in 5 minutes walking distance. Despite the Working-Verboten-on-Sunday law, bakeries are a typical exception from the rule.

3. Make a decent coffee! Thanks to our new De'Longhi espresso machine life has a meaning again ;-). There is no Starbucks anywhere close by but now we are able to make our own cafe latte and London Fog again.

4. Lay the breakfast table to your liking. We have a sweet tooth and prefer jam, nougat spread (Nutella of course) and a Rhineland specialty: Golden syrup - made from sugar beets.

5. Enjoy the day ;-) Live is good!

Delivery Day!

A sunny Thursday morning at 8AM. The moving truck with trailer arrived right on time. We asked the team of two (likely Eastern European from the accent) gentlemen when the rest of the crew would arrive, and they replied: For this little load it's just the two of us!

Remembering that we had a crew of six in Canada preparing the move (Note: We had already packed up and boxed about 2/3 of the stuff ourselves.) we wondered how those two guys would make that happen within a day.

The Harley had been traveling all packed up and sitting on a custom skid on the truck, while all our other goods including the Vespa were on the trailer still tucked away in the same container in which it had been shipped overseas. 

The motorcycle got unpacked while still in the truck, while the scooter crate was put on the lifting ramp and and unwrapped on ground level.

While we rode the two-wheelers out of the way (The motors fired up immediately!!!) the crew started bringing in the furniture.

At one point we had to literally force the movers to stop for a break. Roland offered to grab some coffee from the nearby bakery (There is no Starbucks around for about 60 km...), and made them breakfast, but those guys didn't idle for long, and continued to 'fly in' boxes, totes and other bits and pieces without further ado.

At 3PM the men were done, the furniture unwrapped and mounted at location, and boxes neatly piled up in an empty corner where they would wait for us to be unpacked.

There was some minor transport related damage on a few items despite the extensive wrapping, but it was to be expected after this long journey. However, we are happy to report that most things have arrived at final destination unscathed. For those who need/want/have to move back to Germany we can confirm that despite some lack in professionalism on the admin side (communication and scheduling issues) we were over all very satisfied with the services of our provider.

Update: As of Saturday 1PM everything is unpacked, cleaned and put into place.

Land of Plenty

We have always been supporters of the buy regional movement. It not only helps the local producers to stay in business, it also guaranties fresh fruit eco friendly available at your doorstep. As a matter of fact you can even ride your bicycle to the field and pick it yourself.

Last July was the month of (blue-, black-, straw-, rasp-)berries and cherries, but most of it has been harvested by now.

The vineyards are carrying a load but the grapes are not yet ready for harvest. They still taste far from ripe.

Season is coming up for prunes, plums and mirabelles. Plum cake from dough is our favorite late summer cake.

We also find green and red varieties of pears. The area is well known for pear schnapps (and other hard liquor made of all kinds of fruit).

Thinking of apple pies... those are certainly ready to go. Shall we dare pick a few? No... we rather wait for them to be available on farmer's market day.

Black Forest is the land of plenty, indeed.

Plenty of vistas, too.

 

What's in a Name?

The Black Forest, a low mountain range in the southwest corner of Germany, today a popular tourist destination. But where did the dark and rather uninviting name come from? Of course, it had to be the Romans!

Actually a few hundred years before the Romans stopped by, the outskirts of the Black Forest were (rather reluctantly) populated by the superstitious Celts, who called the region Abnoba Mons (mountain range of the goddess Abnoba, protector of forest, springs and wildlife). They respected the area, and pretty much remained in the flood plains by the river Rhine.

Back in the old ages those mountainous grounds were heavily forested with dark trees such as conifers and beeches of thick growth, thus making it difficult for the Roman armies to pass through. They did not bother too much, went around, dubbed this area with the rather unflattering name Silva Nigra (forest black), and moved on to Baden-Baden where they found easy maneuverable terrain and a more inviting climate. Of course feeling right at home up there they made good use of the famous thermal springs in the region, and began cultivating vineyards. Ah, those Romans.

The Romans left the woodland without a trace, but the name got stuck.

Two hundred years fast forward into the new millennium the mountain range got conquered by the Allemandes, some rather wild and predatory folks, who destroyed everything in their way, and ruled the territory with brute force. 

Although in the fifth century AD beaten by the Franconians, the Allemandes stayed in the region, and in the end were 'tamed' by Scottish and Irish missionaries... But despite the efforts of Christianity the old stories and myths rooted in this dark forested mountain range are still very much alive... But that shall be a different story for another day.

Traveling back in Time - 400 Years of Farming in the Black Forest

The past comes to life in the open air museum Vogtsbauernhof. A variety of old farmhouses, some of them 400 years old were salvaged and rebuilt to serve as a reminder of how different and difficult farm life was only a few hundred years ago.

Those houses were constructed from local wood, and some of them had a foundation made of rocks and bricks. They were huge but most of the space were used for storage and livestock.

 

The farmhouse provided shelter year round against the cold winter storms and the hot summers.

Small gardens would provide for spices as well as medicinal herbs. The farm houses were built in remote areas and a doctor was not easy to get by in these days.

Often the roofs were covered by thick layers of thatch, a method that is still used today for ecologically built housing.

Most of these buildings were still occupied and lived in until late of last century, and some of the furniture has been left to show how people lived. The little shack on the right is a bakery. It was kept away from the main house for fire protection.

It looks picturesque today but one can imagine that farming in the Black Forest was a hard life, like pioneers' life in the wild west.

Water flowing through this little shack provided necessary cooling to keep diary products fresh. An eco - fridge.

Signs and smells of smoke is embedded in these walls. A rather primitive cooking place but it was likely the warmest spot in the house.

Under the roof there is the hay barn. It provided food for the livestock over the hard and long winters, and served as an additional insulation for the house.

 Old carriage.

 Cuckoo clock.

 Traditional clothing.

 Sawmill powered by water.

 The blacksmith's shop.

 A water powered oil mill.

In the long winters people would gather and tell each other ghost stories and sagas. The Black Forest is full of mystic events that might derive from the time that the Celts were around. Even the Romans didn't seem to like the eerie atmosphere back then, and moved on without leaving a trace.

The sun is shining bright, blue skies are decorated with fluffy white clouds, the river is surrounded by lush green. Who wants to think of cold winter nights on such a day, anyway.

 A covered bridge reminds yet again of Oregon.

 Today it serves as a foot and bicycle bridge across the river.

 

After so much history and education we moved on to get some real life refreshments. To quench our thirst we stopped at the former monastery of Alpirsbach where the monks specialized in... brewing beer.

 The monastery.

 An over a 1,000 years old watchtower.

 Medieval architecture.

Isn't it loverly?