European Adventure Part 2 - Food and Logistical Lessons

When traveling and eating in Europe it's anyone's choice how to get along.  You can eat local traditional foods or go to McDonalds for a Big Mac.  We opted for the local fare and experienced some amazing foods.  I don't have pictures of all the food so I borrowed some of these to illustrate my point.  German food is so delicious!!!

Here's a typical breakfast.  Meat, cheese, bread and jam.

These little rolls are the BEST!  Our hosts bought them first thing in the morning so they were melt in your mouth fresh.

You can't go wrong with the Curry Wurst.  It's quick, cheap and so good.  The sauce varies quite a bit from place to place but the brats and the curry powder on top never disappoints.

There are a number of ways to eat Schnitzel.  This is my personal favorite Jaeger Schnitzel.  So creamy and rich and soooo good.  I can't decide whether I like it more with chicken or pork but I can promise, it doesn't matter.

Here is the most decadent and traditional dish Rouladen.  It's meat rolled with bacon, onions, mustard and pickles inside.  OMG, this is soooo good!  We first experienced this years ago at my Sister in Law's house.  It is always served with potato dumplings and gravy over the whole nine yards.  The dumplings melt in your mouth!!

Here's Mark eating pig knuckle.  It was falling off the bone and melted in your mouth.  So good!

This was a late brunch in Berlin.  So excited to see eggs on the menu!

What is the problem with all this scrumptious German food?  Did you notice?  There's no vegetables to speak of.  I'm not sure how they do it.  Pickles, kraut and potatoes don't really count as vegatables and that's too bad.  There are salads on the menu but they're not traditionally German.  Note to self, next time I'm in Europe I will need to balance a bit.  Suffice it to say that it's hard to keep the digestive track moving on this type of diet.

One more note about food.  We saw some strange combinations of food in restaurants.  These were not fusion of the two just the choice of one or the other.  One day we chose a Mexican/Italian joint.  Our experience showed that you really can't do both well, better to focus on quality of one type of food.

Now let's talk about packing.  I researched how to pack light on a Europe trip.  Being a perpetual overpacker I amazed myself.  For two weeks I had one small suitcase and a back pack.  Mark carried a larger suitcase for bringing gifts home.  It worked great.  I made one stupid mistake.  I was very excited about vacuum packing my clothes in ziplock bags.  See:

This way of packing sucks, I would never do it again.  The one point I will have to concede is that on the way to Germany a small bottle of witch hazel exploded in my toiletry bag.  None of my clothes got wet!  It was such a hassle to figure out which bag the items I wanted were in.  Having a bunch of ziplocks along was nice but packing bricks of clothes was harder then just stacking folded clothes was.  Oh well, lesson learned.

For all you smokers out there, you will love Europe!  (I know, nasty habit).  You can smoke where ever you choose in Europe.  Here's a couple of examples:

Gotta love the airport smoking room!  I saw this moments after stepping off an 11 hour flight.  THANK YOU Frankfurt!  : )

Here's a smoking box in a restaurant.

The next post will be all about some fun highlights.  I'm anxious to show you a video of one of the coolest experiences ever!  Then I'll move on to some of the most touching moments celebrating lives that were lost or forever changed during the decades of war and religious persecution in Germany.

European Adventure Part 1 - Changed Forever!

Home from our trip and I'm bursting with stories and experiences.  There are so many things I want to share that I will post about our trip again and again!  Some experiences defy words but I will do my best!

I want to start with the ways this trip has changed me.  I am forever changed!  Some of the influences are due to being completely impressed.  Others are just really cool or nice that I want to hang on to.

Let me begin with the environmental and conservation consciousness in Europe.  I'm completely blown away!  America could learn a ton from this way of life and could benefit from this way of thinking.  Germans don't use their clothes dryers.  They wouldn't dream of wasting that kind of energy.  Most have lines and drying racks outside for nice days but virtually all have them indoors for everyday use.  As I type this post I have about 4 loads of laundry strewn in  my back yard.  I'm researching online for just the right style of drying rack for my needs. Think of all the energy and money we will save!  It's way better for the clothes as well!!

Another example is the smart toilets.  You have a half flush option for #1 or a full flush in the case of #2.  This is not simply in some homes, it's everywhere.  Imagine the water they conserve!  One of the homes we stayed in uses rain water for both the toilets and the laundry.  Another home we stayed in had a large rain barrel installed with a complicated valve attached to the gutter down spout. 

The German's have the leading edge on wind energy.  We saw turbines on every route we took.  Wind power produces more then 7% of the country's power and it's ever increasing.  Not insignificant it employers more then 100,000 people.  The overall percentage of Germany's power that comes from renewable resources is almost 20% and employs over 400,000 people.  I felt inspired and motivated by these numbers although I'm skeptical that America will adopt this mentality anytime soon.  That makes me sad.

One thing I found peculiar was that there are not very many garbage cans around towns.  Especially in Berlin, it is dirty as hell.  This is so juxtaposed to the rest of the culture.  In malls or public places where you do find a garbage, you can recycle whatever you have as well.  It's just to bad they aren't more frequent. 

As I've seen before in Europe every single employee from Doctors to Grocery Baggers get 6 weeks off every year for vacation.  What on earth is wrong with America that we can't figure that one out?!  The quality of life is just better.  The German people go to great lengths to embrace traditions and celebrate every detail in life.  From special glasses for schnapps to candles lit everywhere in the home before dinner.  It's more work but it's so cozy, comfortable and special.  It's a mentality that prioritizes quality over quantity.  Hmmmmm....how many ways can I use this information to transform my life forever!

Finally, let's talk about transportation.  I'll post about driving on the autobahn another day (OMG, So fun!!!).  I want to talk about trains.  Have you ever looked at a train map of Berlin?  It looks like a spider web.  You can go anywhere in the city on a train.  In Seattle we don't have squat.  The B.A.R.T. in the Bay Area of California is extremely handy but you can only get to a general vicinity not to exactly where you want to go.  Once we took 3 different trains in a matter of 10 minutes, walked up the stairs and poof we were right where we wanted to be.  Most times we were within a few blocks of what we were looking for.  Again, America could learn from the Europeans. 

Pictures and more stories and impressions to come.  Thank you for sharing this wonderful adventure with me.

Keine Worte Konnen beschreiben....

"No words can describe" how I feel about Germany.  I'm on day 4 of 12 (full days) of this trip and I can't put words to it.  Staying with a friend, I have access to the internet.  I got on and thought 'my time is now I can finally blog'.  I just can't describe the experiences in the last few days yet.  I have a notepad in my backpack that already has a full page of rambling notes because I want to blog about it.  Also, it is such a whirlwind that I don't want to forget anything!  I want to savor every moment of this wonderful adventure!

I'm also exhausted so instead I will paraphrase my random thoughts in this particular moment:

• I have been free all my life.  No communism, no religious persecution, home based war and no real and meaningful limits on my freedom.  I take so much for granted and that's arogance at it's finest.  There's no value in guilt and now would be a great time to let it go!  It's great to be alive and FREE and I will NOT take that for granted any more.
• Driving 112 mph on the Autobahn ROCKS!!!  I will post pictures and describe this one in detail since it is mega important on the "bucket list" for me!!!  YAY that was sooo much fun!
• I'm short in Germany.  I'm never short at 5'7 1/2".  I'm not tall but I'm never short.  Even living with Men 6'4" and 6'5" I never feel short.  On a train I was standing a good 2 inches shorter then the woman standing next to me when I realized she couldn't have been more then 15.  Neither a judgement or a regret...simply an odd feeling.
• Our camera says we only have 1270 pictures left and I'm not sure that's enough.  That says it all....
• Pickles are phenomenol!!  I didn't even realize that pickles were so German but trust me they are soooo freakin' good here it's indescribable.  I ate a chili pickle yesterday that burned my mouth for 20 minutes.  If you know how much I love spicy food you will know how big that statement is.  So freaking yummy I could SCREAM!
• I have been wondering how many different ways there are to make Schnitzel.  I would like to spend a year finding out!!!
• Beer is all good!  I keep drinking a different one that quenches my thirst in a new and different way.

Ok, enough for tonight.  I feel like the luckiest person alive.  The spell check on this computer highlights every word since I'm not writing in German.  Forgive me my errors for the time being.  Guten Abend (Goodnight!)

Deutchland!

Our Germany trip is finally here!!  It took forever and flew by at the same time.  I have never needed a break from work this badly!  It's been years since I took 2 full weeks off work and this time I get 2 1/2 weeks!!

So far there are no signs of my neurotic pre-travel panic attacks, this is a huge accomplishment!  I used to have these attacks starting about 48 hours before travel that lasted about 48 hours into a trip.  It's really quite embarrassing!  At first I thought it was the fact that we were leaving the kids behind.  I rationalized that it was fear that something would happen to us and leave our kids parentless.  Then it happened even when the kids were with us so I couldn't figure it out. 

In 2009 I had a bad case of it before heading to Copenhagen for work.  My poor workmate that I was travelling with had more than she bargained for!  The symptoms are difficult to describe, sharp pain in my stomach, heart racing, tunnel vision, coming out of my skin feeling and uncontrollable crying.  I feel bad for people I travel with, ha!  I remember one time we were going to Mexico about 12 years ago.  Our town car picked us up and I cried all the way to the airport.  Poor Mark made small talk with the uncomfortable driver who didn't know what to think.  After the Copenhagen trip, I prayed and meditated on it and somehow released it all together.  I discovered that it didn't really matter what was causing it, I needed to let it go!  Progress is WUNDERBAR!

So, here I sit just a few hours before 14 hours of travel to Berlin and I'm calm as a cucumber.  I'm not even fully packed yet!  Man, that says a lot!  I'm so excited for the adventure I'm about to embark on.  I'm beyond grateful for the MOST amazing travel partner!!

Here he is having a little fun with our Euros.  Mark makes me laugh all the time, we crack each other up.  He's the very best friend a girl could have!  I'm sooo blessed!!!


Wir sehen uns bald!  See you soon!