Unser wochenende (Our Weekend).
After a pretty intense week of language courses, we were set free by the language institute on Friday afternoon. Dave and I went straight to a Biergarten we had seen earlier in the week - it stuck out from the other places in Bonn because of a huge Maibaum (Maypole) in front that said "SCHNEIDER-WEISSE."
This is Dave's favorite Weissbier that is made very close to Regensburg. Afterwards we found a restaurant that served Schweinshaxe (roasted pig leg) with sauerkraut and potato dumplings. Although the Schneiderweisse was as good as we remembered from Bavaria, the Schweinshaxe was really dry and tough. We decided to wait until we are in Bavaria again to try that kind of food again and to try to eat other things that might be good here.
On Saturday we slept in for an hour or so, and I went to the market to get fresh bread and milk. We made ourselves a nice German-style breakfast - salami, ham, marmelade, honey, and a few different kinds of bread. My favorite kind is called "Follkornbrot" (whole-grain bread), a very dense and thinly sliced bread. The idea is to have about three or so thin slices of bread, with all the different toppings and combinations. It's a very filling breakfast and good for late mornings, since you'll be full through the day until dinner.
While we ate we watched German TV on the recommendation of the director of the Humboldt Foundation (a direct quote: "I strongly recommend that you watch TV." I only get about every fifth or sixth word or so, and sometimes whole phrases, but it's good for me to start to hear the way people pronounce things, and their word order. In the USA I usually found the scrolling news headlines at the bottom of the screen on CNN irritating, but here it's nice so that I can pull out my dictionary and look up some of the words I see.
Later in the day we took the train to Koln again to hang out. We shopped on the main street in town for a few hours, looking for a pair of shorts for Dave. I found a dress but had to struggle a bit with the European sizes. The irony is that US sizes are so variable from store to store, that I know what arbitrary number I am at different US stores but have no idea my exact dimensions, in inches or in centimeters. I took a good guess and found a sundress on sale at H&M for myself, and Dave found a shirt and some shorts with some of his birthday money.
In the early evening Dave used his good people and German language skills to ask some locals where the best place to get Kolsch beer might be. Every region in Germany has its own kind of beer, and the specialty in this region comes from Koln and is a lighter beer, meant to be served very cold in small glasses so that it can be consumed quickly. There are a lot of breweries that make Kolsch - Gilden Kolsch, Dom Kolsch, Gaffel Kolsch....we weren't sure which would be the best to have. The locals pointed us toward a place called "Pfaffen" that had a few stand-up tables spilling into one of the main squares in town, and it was jammed with people. Dave ordered a meter of Kolsch, which is a set of small glasses of beer, for us to split. The beer was delicious, and while we were standing around we started talking with a woman who was from Koln. Dave got to practice his German with her, and I was able to insert one or two sentences when I followed the conversation - a step up from where I was a few weeks ago, but still a long way to go before we can converse with the locals.
Germany's final game was last night, and so we ate a Spanish dinner quickly (a delicious Paella with chicken, mussels, whole shrimp, clams, and squid) and then went back to the bar. It was too late by then to get a spot in front of a TV because everyone was out in their Deutschland gear and in position to watch the game. We had a great time just watching the Germans in the square, watching the big-screen TV and going absolutely crazy every time the team scored. Germany ultimately won, and by the time we got back to Bonn you could hear people driving through the streets, honking their horns and screaming out their windows that Germany had won. It's really the best possible outcome for the German soccer team that they won third place and could end the World Cup on a high note.
After a pretty intense week of language courses, we were set free by the language institute on Friday afternoon. Dave and I went straight to a Biergarten we had seen earlier in the week - it stuck out from the other places in Bonn because of a huge Maibaum (Maypole) in front that said "SCHNEIDER-WEISSE."
This is Dave's favorite Weissbier that is made very close to Regensburg. Afterwards we found a restaurant that served Schweinshaxe (roasted pig leg) with sauerkraut and potato dumplings. Although the Schneiderweisse was as good as we remembered from Bavaria, the Schweinshaxe was really dry and tough. We decided to wait until we are in Bavaria again to try that kind of food again and to try to eat other things that might be good here.On Saturday we slept in for an hour or so, and I went to the market to get fresh bread and milk. We made ourselves a nice German-style breakfast - salami, ham, marmelade, honey, and a few different kinds of bread. My favorite kind is called "Follkornbrot" (whole-grain bread), a very dense and thinly sliced bread. The idea is to have about three or so thin slices of bread, with all the different toppings and combinations. It's a very filling breakfast and good for late mornings, since you'll be full through the day until dinner.
While we ate we watched German TV on the recommendation of the director of the Humboldt Foundation (a direct quote: "I strongly recommend that you watch TV." I only get about every fifth or sixth word or so, and sometimes whole phrases, but it's good for me to start to hear the way people pronounce things, and their word order. In the USA I usually found the scrolling news headlines at the bottom of the screen on CNN irritating, but here it's nice so that I can pull out my dictionary and look up some of the words I see.
Later in the day we took the train to Koln again to hang out. We shopped on the main street in town for a few hours, looking for a pair of shorts for Dave. I found a dress but had to struggle a bit with the European sizes. The irony is that US sizes are so variable from store to store, that I know what arbitrary number I am at different US stores but have no idea my exact dimensions, in inches or in centimeters. I took a good guess and found a sundress on sale at H&M for myself, and Dave found a shirt and some shorts with some of his birthday money.
In the early evening Dave used his good people and German language skills to ask some locals where the best place to get Kolsch beer might be. Every region in Germany has its own kind of beer, and the specialty in this region comes from Koln and is a lighter beer, meant to be served very cold in small glasses so that it can be consumed quickly. There are a lot of breweries that make Kolsch - Gilden Kolsch, Dom Kolsch, Gaffel Kolsch....we weren't sure which would be the best to have. The locals pointed us toward a place called "Pfaffen" that had a few stand-up tables spilling into one of the main squares in town, and it was jammed with people. Dave ordered a meter of Kolsch, which is a set of small glasses of beer, for us to split. The beer was delicious, and while we were standing around we started talking with a woman who was from Koln. Dave got to practice his German with her, and I was able to insert one or two sentences when I followed the conversation - a step up from where I was a few weeks ago, but still a long way to go before we can converse with the locals.
Germany's final game was last night, and so we ate a Spanish dinner quickly (a delicious Paella with chicken, mussels, whole shrimp, clams, and squid) and then went back to the bar. It was too late by then to get a spot in front of a TV because everyone was out in their Deutschland gear and in position to watch the game. We had a great time just watching the Germans in the square, watching the big-screen TV and going absolutely crazy every time the team scored. Germany ultimately won, and by the time we got back to Bonn you could hear people driving through the streets, honking their horns and screaming out their windows that Germany had won. It's really the best possible outcome for the German soccer team that they won third place and could end the World Cup on a high note.
posted by Erin at 3:47 PM
1 Comments:
You made my stomach grumble! How jealous we are of all your beer experiences! This is such a great way to keep up with you both. It really sounds like you are having a fabulous time, and really taking in all the culture has to offer you.
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