Driving 800kms for Breakfast

Typical German brekkie.

It was a very special breakfast, and lasted until well after noon... Sonja's mom's big birthday party, with friends and family united. Knowing our mom all too well we could be sure that there would be no shortage of food, and we ended up taking home a full bag of Tupper-wared left-overs.

Happy big Birthday, Mom

Busy Summertime

The weather could have been a bit better (as in warmer), but we made due with what we got. And we were out riding (be it bicycling, scootering or motorcycling) a lot. Related posts can be found on Sonja's blog.

Alpine Roads in Switzerland

Somewhere in France

We had another visitor, too. Andrea, who swapped the draught in California against the occasional torrential rainfalls in Germany.

Castle Hohengeroldseck, Blackforest, Germany

And now Roland is about to embark on a trip to Southern England with his buddies, while Sonja is mentally preparing for another exciting trip towards Italy. We are really getting good at life, aren't we?

Harvest Time

We had rented a cycle for Mom to be able to show her our backyard and our favourite place by the river Kinzig. She did a great job pedalling through the valley. And of course, we had to dip our feet into the refreshing water. The river level was quite high, so Roland made sure that Mom wouldn't be accidentally torn away by the strong current. (He was counting on dinner after all...)

Mom became quite excited when she discovered all the low hanging fruit. There were apples, peas, yellow plums and purple plums. And before we could say stop, she was already in the orchard harvesting, or better "collecting samples" (well, scrumping isn't exactly legal but widely tolerated by the farmers).

Caught red-handed!

Another fruit, another stop.

Mom's pickings

Life's too short for bad Coffee.

Germany has a very rich coffee culture, and a long history of coffee drinking. So it's no surprise that Roland is a coffee aficionado, and always on the quest for the ultimate taste.

Yesterday we went equipment shopping in a cycle shop, when Sonja discovered a flyer pointing to a local coffee roaster. Since we make it a point of buying local whenever possible, we headed to the store & cafe located in a tiny side road in downtown Offenburg. 

Arnold's Kaffee Manufaktur

When we entered the building we were welcomed by the overwhelming good smell of fresh roasted coffee. The antique furniture and the grandma style decoration perfectly fits the architecture and the atmosphere. In the inner sanctum we find green beans from all over the world stacked along the wall, waiting to be processed.

Mr Arnold is a coffee lover himself, and two years before, when he found the shop closed due to the passing of its previous owner, he didn't hesitate, put an offer down for a lease, and continued the traditional business.

Mr Arnold and his coffee roaster
Photo source: here

Roland went with the owner's recommendation for a Costa Rica and a Rwanda roast. Of course, excellent coffee comes with a certain price, but it also comes with an extraordinary taste, plus from a local shop.

And, isn't life too short for bad coffee anyway?

Visitors from the North

Mom, Sis and son had been over for the weekend, and we offered our usual tourist package, well some of it. Actually it was very little since we were mostly busy entertaining the little guy.

It involved strolling through Gengenbach Old Town to find a toilet for him, and then a walk along the river, for a stop over at a playground he had spotted earlier. Mom had to pose quickly for the few sights we got to see, meanwhile the little guy - unattended - got his hands (and his sleeves) wet.

He is attracted to everything watery, and this might even mean volunteering doing the dishes. Really!

Walking along the old town wall.

While the sky looks threatening.

Look, a playground!

And if there wasn't a playground around, but the need to climb aroused the little guy made do with what came across his path.

We watched two cats on a roof discussing the world's problems.

More water! Gimme rocks to throw (please)!

And another playground.

And somebody just made his day: A ride on a tractor!

It had been quite a different program compared to what we usually recommend to people visiting the area. However, we pretty much know all playgrounds in the vicinity now  ;-)

So - Old!

Roland: From time to time I am getting reminders that I am getting old. One of them occurred yesterday when I drove up to Düsseldorf (a mere four hour drive away from the Black Forest) to join a Peter Gabriel concert by the title 'So - back to front' for a late 25th birthday celebration of Gabriel's 1986 album 'So' (the one with Sledgehammer and Don't Give Up) and the accompanying 1987 tour. Gabriel managed to (inserting Blues Brothers quote) 'get the band back together', and he actually performed with the same musicians that made the 1987 concert so memorable to everyone who had the pleasure of seeing it. 1987... 26 years ago... half a life ago...

I got the impression that it must have been pretty much the same audience, too, as it appeared that there weren't many people under the age of forty around.

Obviously the musicians aged, too (and actually Gabriel himself did not age too well...), hence there wasn't as much jumping and dancing as in the Eighties. Instead we were rewarded with a really beautiful light show with loads of impressive pictures.

It was a good concert (albeit not even close to the original), but the best feature of the event was meeting my old buddies again who were there back then in 1987! And if you think four hours is a long way to drive to a concert: the couple in the middle traveled down from Sweden!

A Field Day in the Woods

Roland: Once a year my company organizes an outing where people from three plants in two countries (Germany & France) meet for a 15km hike close to one of the plants. This year the task of organizing the field day was given to the colleagues in the Frankfurt area. At 5:45 AM we boarded a bus to the German state of Hesse, to the Taunus area to be exact, where the Feldberg hills were waiting for us.

Unfortunately the closer we got to our meeting point with the other colleagues the worse the weather conditions became. Anyway after a hearty breakfast we were off to conquer the 300 m difference in altitude to the top of the Greater Feldberg.

A pitstop between Roman ruins.

On top of the Greater Feldberg

No view!

It rained continuously, but the group of 160 did not let that fact affect the mood. We walked through puddles of mud, conquered steep climbs, beared phases of heavy rain, but we never gave up! So after net four hours of walking time, a couple of breaks to water our insides as well - one of them, of course, at an old Roman garrison at the old Limes wall -, a lunch break on top of the Feldberg, and a few material failures (e.g. soles that came off their shoes) we arrived at a well-deserved Hessian buffet that even had various choices for Sonja and the other vegetarians in the group!

At some point things became very interesting when the French colleagues from the area of Alsace (close to the German border) started singing songs in the Alsatian dialect which in fact is much closer to German than it is to French. We have to admit that we understood only every second word, but we pretty much have the same problem with the "badisch" dialect that is spoken in the town where we live now.

After a long bus ride back south, we arrived home Sunday morning at 0:30 AM where we were greeted by a long hot shower before our bed was calling us! Today we suffer a mild muscle soreness, but we enjoyed the rainy day in the woods very much!

We ought to play the Lottery!

To meet people at a busy travel hub such as an airport is nothing unheard of. We were just about to leave Scotland (more about the journey coming with the next installments), when a stranger came up to Sonja and asked her if she was SonjaM. Sonja found familiarity in his face but the penny didn't drop until he introduced himself as Nikos.

Here they are: Two bloggers bumping into each other in Edinburgh! And more so, traveling in the same direction, and having seats booked next to each other... What are the odds of that? It will likely remain one of those great mysteries in life.

Sonja meets Nikos, the grand master of meatballs.

Back in Germany we got to the opportunity to say hi to Mrs Nikos as well and spontaneously decided to spend a lovely evening together at a nearby Chinese restaurant. We had a lot of fun chatting the night away, and hope to meet again... most likely at another airport?

Here's Nikos' view on this cosmic event.

Long Weekend with Old Friends

Roland: One of my friends lives in Sweden, far away from civilization in the woods. For years our group of school friends wanted to visit him there, but somehow it never worked out. Now one of us fixed a date for a trip, and miraculously almost all of us managed to join. So last Saturday morning seven of us to met VERY early in the morning, squeezed into one car, took a plane from Dusseldorf Airport to Oslo and drove another three hours to Central Sweden.

We did not have to organize anything for the entire weekend. When we arrived lunch was already being served in the old barn.

After lunch we explored the area. The next neighbour is seven kilometers away, and in between there is nothing but trees, lakes and very bad roads. Therefore chances are that you will not meet another soul for a whole long weekend.

In preparation for our visit our host had recycled an old oil tank into a wood-heated five person whirlpool, so obviously we had quite some fun trying that out!

The next day we had a chance checking out his two Quads. As this is an entirely different way of movement than a scooter I had some significant problems with it (it always takes me quite a while to get accustomed to new ways of transportation), but being the pillion rider was just as much fun!

After some canoeing and kayaking (sorry, no photos) the day was concluded with another fantastic meal out in nature. The next day we had to return to Germany already... The long weekend felt very short, but it was fantastic!