I am in Germany!

Severely jet-lagged, but safe and sound. So far, Germany looks pretty much the same as home, except for the language on all the signs and the fact that there are no junky cars amongst the vehicles hurtling down the autobahn at incredible speeds!  The little town where Michelle lives is quite lovely, and I'm hoping to have the chance to do some walking and exploring, maybe next week when I've caught up on my sleep. :) 



In-Flight Knitting



My flights were blessedly uneventful and smooth. On my flight from Detroit to Dallas, a flight attendant noticed my socks-in-progress and stopped to visit for a few minutes about knitting...she is a new knitter. I had a congenial row-mate on the long flight from Dallas to Frankfurt, a young mother, married to a US soldier stationed in Germany but soon to be deployed to Afghanistan.  She had been back in the states for her grandmother's funeral, and was returning to her husband and three children.  There was a family with six children, including four-month-old twins, in the center section of the plane, and I have never seen any better-behaved children anywhere!    

My German room



Shelly has a very nice apartment and I have my own room with a comfortable bed. The weather has been colder here than it's been at home, but very much the same as what we'd usually have in winter there. There isn't much snow on the ground, although we got some fresh last evening.

Our first adventure was stopping at the base to get me registered and have my identification card made. This is a military area, with three US military bases within a fairly short radius.   

I've had the chance to meet some of Michelle's co-workers. We went to a Spanish-style 'tapas' bar last night for dinner. Tapas means appetizers, and we had some wonderful food there, including bacon-wrapped dates, caramelized goat cheese, stuffed mushrooms, spinach balls with cheese (feta, I think).  The joke is that I was pretty embarrassed when they told me 'It's TAPAS not TOPLESS...now go put your shirt back on!'

Here, if you order water in a restaurant, you must specify with or without 'gas' (carbonation), and a large water is truly LARGE! Dinner is relaxed and unhurried, and it was cool to hear the surrounding diners speaking to one another in German.

 

Danish Eggs



I had scrambled eggs that came from Denmark for lunch. Danish eggs are rather unsurprisingly the same as American eggs, even though their chickens say "klukke-klukke" instead of "cluck-cluck".  : D  There is Hungarian goulash simmering in the slow cooker in Michelle's kitchen today, and I made some fresh apple sauce. We'll have supper after she gets home from work this afternoon, and then board the train for Paris this evening.