Girls Like Us

To the land of escargot and foie gras for Thanksgiving!!  That's where Jen, Kim, and I went, without husbands (I think they preferred that more than I, plus I wanted to use that word).   Unfortunately the Christmas market wasn't open and the weather was cold and wet, but France has wine and food and wine and wine.

Strasbourg is only about 2 hours from Wiesbaden and it's in the Alsace region, which at several points in history, couldn't figure out to which country it belonged--to France or to Germany.  Once it was decided and because of the winners, they speak French, but their food is influenced by Germany (think pork knuckle and potatoes with a delicious sauce, like Jen learned), and many people speak at least a little German.

We had fabulous food and some great wine.  When we arrived and were walking in no particular direction, Kim was about to pass out from hunger and we stumbled upon a very nice restaurant.  Everyone was very friendly and it helped we were willing to try without being demanding.  Jen asked our waiter a recommendation for food and what arrived looked very much like corned beef.  We were told it was pork, but it didn't taste like pork.  Later that night, we figured out from someone else's plate at another restaurant that she probably had pork knuckle.

For Thanksgiving we had dinner reservations at a restaurant apparently popular with dignitaries.  I got my escargot and foie gras.  The foie gras was a little sweet for my taste, but the escargot was wonderful--not Petit Louis wonderful, but still wonderful.  Our waitress was so nice.  She only spoke French, but didn't do in an elitist way.  She was clearly much more comfortable in French, but understood English.  I can't explain it.

Thanksgiving appetizers: escargot and foie gras

The next day before we left, we stopped by the Strasbourg City Hospital, which has a wine cellar that was built in 1395 and contains ancient wine barrels and wine from the 17th century.  We also did some clothing shopping and got some wine from the grocery store to take home.

Would You Go With Me

Two weekends in a row in May, I went on trips. On May 21st, my friend Kim and I headed to Bruges, Belgium, a small city in West Flanders sometimes called the Venice of the north. It's one of the cutest cities I've ever visited. It's very small, but has so many cute roads and what I think is beautiful architecture. After very annoying traffic all the way up, Kim and rushed to dinner to have what ever tourist visiting near the North Sea should have......mussels. And when in Belgium, beer. Kim was even a trooper and had beer, save for the last dinner.



The next day, we were grateful for the bright ball in the sky, which Germany seems to lack from October through May. We strolled through the city and took a canal boat ride to see some of what you can't by foot. We took a tour of De Halve Maan, the only working brewery left in the city, and had mussels for lunch. With beer. There were no museums or plans or large groups to satisfy. We just did what we wanted, which some might argue wasn't much, and had a lot of fun.


At the end of canal ride, our canal boat driver asked us if we could recall the story of Romeo and Juliet. As he did so, we approached a house with an open window, out of which a blond was looking. It turns out, she's the Juliet of Bruges and she's not a bad looking broad.

Ring of Fire

This has to have been the busiest my social life has been in months. Tongeren for antiques on Sunday, barbecue and Elton John on Tuesday, a going away for two women on Thursday, and a Rhein cruise on Saturday for Independence Day.

Thursday we had a girls night for two women who are leaving to go back to the U.S. We met at Amy's for drinks, then walked downtown to an Indian place. The food was delicious and we had a ball. I had never had Indian food and I really liked it. I definitely will be going back. I haven't laughed that hard since probably the girls trip to Tongeren and it had nothing to do with our waiter's unibrow.

Kim, Booky, Chantel, Amy, Kim

Me, Debbie, Naymar, and Jen

After dinner we wanted to go to an Irish pub for karaoke, but being a Thursday, they didn't have it, so we went to a different bar....where we proceeded to order a drink based on the name--a screw up against the wall. I can't remember if it was a a slow one ;)
It was only a bonus when they showed up as a fun color. In the picture they look green, but I swear they were blue.

On Saturday, I went with a group of people on a Rhein cruise for the Rhein in flames. It includes dinner and we floated down the river and saw several fireworks shows from castles and from the vineyard hills. (You can click on the collage to see the pictures enlarged in another window.)

Way Down in the Hole

This weekend I came out of my hole a little bit, or out of my shell, as my friend pointed out. I think for the first time in my life, I've been affected by the dreary, grey, weather. It has been non-stop grey and grossness for months and it has really gotten to me. This past week, however, it was sunny. Cloudless and almost warm sunny. It was so refreshing. All I could think about was having a drink or a meal outside at one of the restaurants and people watching.

Saturday, I went with three of my girl friends to the Wiesbaden market, which is held every Saturday. It was gorgeous out!! Everything looked different with the sunshine. And everything tasted great too. I sampled some blueberries, rasberries, and these cool mini, bitesized kiwi fruits. I didn't take any pictures, because I was mostly enamored with and eating the food any chance I got. I bought some cheese, bread, and olives all for dinner that night. I wanted to buy more, but since I'm leaving on Wednesday, I knew I couldn't eat it all before then. Every free Saturday I have, I'm going to make a point of going down there.

After our rendezvous at the market, we found a place to have lunch outside. We chatted, had our requisite adult beverages, and enjoyed seeing the strange outfits the Germans were sporting. I wished I had had my camera poised, because there were some true winning style points for some of these outfits.

Following lunch and one of the reasons all of us met was to each find a hat. My boss is having a ladies tea party the first weekend in May, complete with cocktails at noon, little sandwiches, pasteries, English scones, and tea in the afternoon. We're supposed to bring a tea cup and to wear a hat--there will be a winner for the best hat. Now all along I've been opposed to buying a hat I'd probably wear once, especially one of those gawdy huge things that you always see the Brits wearing in the movies. I had even said I was going to show up in my Orioles floppy hat, which I thought would be a definite winner. But once we got to Karstadt (the department store) and started trying on hats, I started to change my mind. I wasn't going to buy one of the gawdy ones, but something I might wear again, and given that many of the hats made me look like a man, my choices were limited. Thank God I went shopping with friends, because we all told each other when we looked stupid. I went with the cowboyesque style hat.

Next we headed to the women's department just to see what sort of clothes they had. Kim ended up finding this cute skirt, but the only one in her size was on the manequin. So we asked a woman to take it off and getting it off--the arms were coming off and she couldn't get them back on. Of course, I had to take a picture of that.