I climbed onto the train from Munich with my gulash soup and sliced bread in hand, ready for my adventure. I also got to try this rhubarb tart, since rhubarb seems to be very common here. They were both quite delicious! I was also, however, fighting the train with my bouquet of flowers. It's very traditional to bring a host flowers, so I found a bunch of beautiful flowers at the market to bring to Sophia's grandmother. For those of you who don't know, I'm currently on a train, well actually a set of three trains, to Landau, Germany. Landau is a small town not too far from Frankfurt, and I will be joining Sophia, her boyfriend Justin and her grandmother there.
When I arrived, Justin and Sophia were standing on the platform to greet me! It was so exciting to see them. I hadn't seen either of them since graduation! Sophia's grandmother lives very close to the train station, so we walked over to her house and got acquainted. And, I did some laundry! It was very nice of Sophia's grandmother, and I especially appreciated not smelling!
Sophia's grandma (I'm going to start referring to her as Oma, which is German for grandma), Oma made gulash and spatzle for dinner! Even though your first reaction may be: Oh no! She also had that for lunch, it is not a worry. I've learned that wherever you go, gulash can mean many different things as long as it has beef in it. So for lunch it was a beef and vegetable soup essentially, and this was slow cooked beef in a gravy sauce. I have to say, it was delicious! The spatzle is so good! It is very simple, just flour and eggs put through a press and then boiled, but somehow it's very delicious. It's also served with crispy breadcrumbs on top. I must say, I'll need to try to make this one at home one day, cause it's way better then boxed pasta.
Dinner was served during half time of the Eurocup game that Germany was playing it. It was quite fun to watch with Oma and Justin. And excitingly, Germany won! So when we went on our after-dinner stroll, the streets were lively and exciting. People were honking their horns in excitement and cheering down the streets. We ran into one beer garden that had exploded into the street where one person was playing the guitar, another with a harmonica and another with drums. Everything felt so organic and happy. I really enjoyed it. And to make this walk even better, we picked up a scoop of ice cream on the way home! This place makes delicious ice cream, and I loved my hazelnut scoop.
However, we forgot that Oma had made dessert for us!! She had prepared strawberries with two types of ice cream. So, what choice did we have but to enjoy a second dessert!? I must say, I didn't do much complaining. We had a lovely evening and I slept incredibly well that night.
I woke up the next morning very refreshed. I ate the customary breakfast of a roll with homemade marmalades, butter and local honey. It was very tasty. Before heading out for the day, we went the local cheese shop to gather some cheese for our dinner. Parts of me really wishes that we could shop like this, with a store for each thing. The products are just so much better (and well, a whole lot cheaper here too). Today we are going to climb to ruins of a castle! So we took a bus through the beautiful German countryside to a tiny wine town. From there, we found our hiking path, which happened to be much more difficult than I expected. It was steep uphill and muddy, but the view from the top was well worth it. On one side of the hill you could see lots of rolling mountains, which was a large contrast to the other side of the hill where you could see German countryside with lots of farms. On each side you could see these pockets of tiny towns that broke through the mountains or farms. Sophia said that towns here are so tightly packed because it was easier to protect and took away less of the farmland. I think it's great because it creates these great small towns that have a feel to them because there are people in a tightly packed area, but they are still small and quaint and have their own individuality and identity.
The castle itself was truly in ruins, but we were able to explore around it quite a bit. Castles in these small towns also have little restaurants. While maybe not this one, because it's more of a rigorous hike, it's very common for outings of elderly people to walk up to a castle on a hill and have lunch up there. While we aren't elderly, we did truly earn our lunch on the mountain. I got a wine spritzer (because believe it or not, Oma calls this area the wine gate because we are very close to France and this leave has gone back and forth between France often) made from local wine and liverknudle which is a liver dumpling in a soup. It was quite tasty, as you know, I've never exactly had a problem with enjoying liver. Justin and Sophia had the German version of pizza (which I remember eating when I was studying abroad) which is a thin crust with cheese spread and toppings. Also yum! We enjoyed the great view with our lunch and rested before climbing down. We explored a town before making our way to the bus stop. We were there with plenty of time, so we waited and waited and waited for a bus to come, but it never did. Which to me is quite surprising as Germany is known for their promptness. We got tired of waiting, and decided to stay walking back. It wasn't too far right? Or at least make it to the next station. The German countryside is pretty... but as we start walking, we get about two blocks away and i turned back to take a picture. Just as I looked, the bus came!! So I waved it down and it was so kind to stop and let us on. I must say, we were relieved. We were very happy to be back and rest in the apartment! We didn't stay too long though, because there were some errands to run! We enjoyed a stroll around town going to different shops. For example, we went to the bookstore to find Sophia a cookbook, and to a gummy bear store where they had these hilarious beer cups filled with gummy bears to look like beer. We stopped by the bakery to get pretzels for dinner and even went to a pharmacy, paper store and kitchen store. And how could I forget, we couldn't skip our midafternoon ice cream. Since we were very relaxed today and has lots of time, we decided to sit at the shop and order fancier ice creams. Sophia and I split a Giotto sundae and it was amazing. Can't you tell by our huge smiles!?
That night we had cold cuts for dinner, which is a very common meal here. But unlike America, they put it all out on the table and you arrange it yourself. Also the meats and cheeses are just so delicious and interesting. I enjoyed the cheese that we got in the morning on my pretzel. Also, Oma makes an incredible salad. It's very simple, but the products are so fresh that it tastes great. Her dressing, however, if the secret touch. It's oil and vinegar with salt and sugar! How smart. I again found myself enjoying liver, as I was showing the liverwurst onto my pretzel as well. I have say Oma actually doesn't buy much pork, and you can get these interesting and tasty spreads and cold cuts made out of poultry and beef. Like poultry salami. We also spent the evening watching the football game (soccer) and enjoying each other's company.
In my last day in Landau, Oma gave me a tour of the town. We saw the bank and the post office, even where Anne Frank's grandfather once lived with a synagogue. We stopped by her butcher, and I must say, it looks very different then the deli section of our supermarkets. We ran a few errands before coming home.
For lunch, Oma was making a special German dish called daumfknudle. This dish is a yeast dough that is fried on one side and steamed on the other. It is here served with a vanilla pudding. And yes this was for lunch! I got to watch her make the daumfknudle, which is something I always enjoy, especially while traveling.
This afternoon we enjoyed relaxing and a few card games. Language barriers didn't get in the way of our Skip-bo (did I mention that Oma only speaks German, which made it difficult for Justin and I, buy through little pieces of language, some charades, and some help translating from Sophia, we could talk just fine). We ended our trip with a walk to the nearby fort. It was a beautiful park to walk through, and even though the sun was intensely beating down, the shared park was nice. There was also a funny arm cooling pool in the middle of the park. You put your forearms into the cool water so that the water, and it evaporating off of your skin, cools you off. |
I had to say goodbye to Sophia and Justin. I was so glad that they welcomed me into their family time. I truly enjoyed their company and small town Germany and appreciated a more restful two days. Now off on a train to another train (which I sprinted to make the connection. I really didn't want to miss that one), to an overnight bus to meet my friend Nicole and her boyfriend in Croatia!!