Pictures Ahoy

Happy Halloween! We've been out to dinner tonight at the Hard Rock Cafe here in Munich. I hadn't been before, but I figured for an American holiday we should have an American dinner. The hamburgers there taste just like the ones at the HRC in New York, and they were showing Rocky Horror on the TVs. It was fun.

I've put up some pictures from last Sunday in the Postcards from Europe section. We went to Kloster Andechs on Sunday and enjoyed a nice lunch and some beautiful weather. Also, I put a couple of pictures from our drive to Garmisch-Partenkirchen on the Miscellaneous page. (The picture at the top of this entry also shows the Alps above Garmisch.)

Marty is off work tomorrow for All Saints' Day so we are leaving for a couple of nights. We have a reservation at a Gasthaus outside Innsbruck for Friday and Saturday nights; I hope we'll be back with some nice pictures and some tales.

It's raining here today; it's rained here most of the week, in fact, although it comes and goes. The weather in Munich operates on basically the same principle as the weather in New England: Don't like the weather? Just wait 15 minutes.

Quick links:
Kloster Andechs pictures
Garmisch-Partenkirchen pictures

Small Update

It's quarter of three and it's raining in Munich! I'm glad I got out earlier and ran my errands.

I took the U-Bahn to Marienplatz this morning and came up just as the Glockenspiel was doing its thing at 11:00. Not that big a crowd today -- the tourists have dropped off quite a lot, and it's been gray all day.

I went into a couple of shops on Marienplatz and then walked down Kaufingerstrasse to Stachus. I had to pick up a few things and of course you can find everything in the world down that shopping corridor. I had lunch at a cafe down near the Stachus, then walked back up to Marienplatz for the U-Bahn.

On the weekend I took some pictures but I haven't had a chance to process them yet. Maybe later today or tomorrow I can get them up. We drove out to Kloster Andechs on Sunday, an old monastery where they brew beer and have a nice big beer hall. I took some pretty pictures there.

This weekend we are planning to get away for a couple of days. Marty is off Friday, so we may go down to Innsbruck for the night, and then come back by way of Füssen and see a couple of castles. You know if we go to Füssen, I'll take pictures. I've been to Neuschwanstein at least twice before, but man. It's amazing every time you see it.

I'm posting this picture as an example of the dairy products we have here that I'm not familiar with from the US. I have to say, I'm not even actually sure what "thick milk" is, but it sounded like something that would be good for making a quiche (yet another use for the Bucket o' Cheese), and so I bought it. The funniest thing is that I didn't even realize until later what it looked like in English. I guess I was thinking in German, because it made perfect sense to me when I bought it. But hours later, when I saw it again in my refrigerator, I couldn't stop giggling.

PSA for Connecticut Readers

Design Forum in Farmington is having its anniversary sale right now. It lasts until Sunday, November 3. Hours: Mon - Sat 9:30 - 5:30, Sun 12 - 5.

If you've never been there, you're in for a treat. Amanda and I were there in February, but it's been one of my favorite stores since I moved to Connecticut in 1997.

Their address:

Design Forum
902 Farmington Avenue
Farmington, CT 06032

Two of my favorite pieces of jewelry came from there -- a necklace watch with purple beads in the chain (bought when I was there with Katynka once, I think), and a pair of sterling silver heart earrings (from when Amanda and I were there before valentine's day this year). But they have lots more than just jewelry. If you need any greeting cards or fun and fancy gifts, it's worth a visit. Especially since everything in the store is 10 - 80% off until Sunday.

You can thank me later!

Oh. And how do I know all this? Heh. I just got their sale flyer in the mail. Forwarded to me in Germany. Ha!

Good Idea / Bad Idea

I can't decide what I think of this recipe: Camembert Chicken.

I mean, okay, cheese, good idea. But, chicken stuffed full of cheese? I dunno, man, but it sounds kinda like a bad idea.

But then, a recipe that helps me use the motherlode of cheese I hit last Sunday? Good idea. Then again, a recipe from Woolworth's Australia? Could be a bad idea.

I guess we'll know in an hour or so.

And can anyone tell me what a "Size 18" chicken is, anyway?

Best Halloween Costume of the Year...

definitely has to go to Amanda and Frank!

You guys looked amazing!!!

Strange Cat

This is where I found Ziggy this morning, only thirty minutes after my shower:



He hates water, you know. And when he came out of there, his whole side was wet. I can't even imagine what he was thinking. (Of course, that's not really so different from usual. Is it?)

It's a "Jump in the Line" Friday! Whoooo!

Shake, shake, shake, Senora,
Shake your body line!
Shake, shake, shake, Senora,
Shake it all the time!

Giddy Up

Well, I have been making pretty good progress on unpacking the clothes and getting things put away this week. Sure, we still have boxes everywhere, but mostly they're empty boxes, and that is a huge improvement.

I think I'm almost used to the shopping thing, too. I do manage to get the groceries before 4pm on Saturday most of the time, so we're not caught without something important on Sunday...

We got something in the mail the other day about needing to pay taxes on our TVs and radios. We do intend to get a TV (Fernseher), but we haven't yet. Still, that's pretty different, isn't it? You have to pay someone for the number of televisions you have? I am looking forward to getting a TV so I can listen to German, though. It really helps when you are learning, to hear a lot. So I can watch the news and stuff when we get one.

This morning the sky is full of clouds, although there's a thin rind of blue just above the rooftops across the street. I bet the sun comes out today, no matter what the forecast said.

Call me industrious. I just put some more pictures up in the Postcards section. Check out our Sunday walk at Schloss Nymphenburg, and then take a look at the page of leftovers (pictures I didn't have enough of for whole galleries, but that are interesting anyway).

All that wind this afternoon was a harbinger of rain. By the time I got back out to go to the grocery store, it had started pouring down. No surprise! Check out our forecast!

Auerdult

The Auerdult is a market that takes place three times annually in Munich's Mariahilfplatz: the Maidult takes place in May, the Jakobidult in July, and the Kirchweihdult in late October. It was first held in the year 1312. These pictures are from the 2002 Kirchweihdult.

You can buy almost anything at the Auerdult, from clothes to dishes to antiques. According to the Auerdult website, this market is the largest dish market in Europe. There certainly were a lot of dishes! There are also stands selling food, toys, and most anything else you can think of.

Along one row of the market are several tents where different products are being demonstrated. You can find demonstrations of kitchen items, tools, laundry supplies, and almost anything else here. One woman even had a newfangled toilet brush and a toilet that she was scrubbing right there! There are also some small fairground rides at the market.

My pictures from the Auerdult are up in the Postcards from Europe section.

It is very windy today!

I just walked in from running some errands, and I'm about to head back out to take care of a few more things before the stores get busy at 5:00. I've spent most of today unpacking and sorting things, and putting them away. It is great that we finally got a second Schrank (closet) -- now I am getting everything where it needs to go. I bet next week we can call to have the cardboard picked up.

Just wanted to stop in and say that I am fine, just busy. I plan to come back later (probably today) and post an entry about my trip to the Auerdult yesterday. And some pictures! Including the marbles, above, which were for sale at a booth selling nothing but marbles.

And now, back out into the wind!

Ha Ha.

I love it that, if you look up scary clowns "evil clowns" on AltaVista, you can find Raspberry World.

Now that's a disturbing search request.

I am about to run out the door to meet a friend for lunch, but here is a quick update: photos from Nürnberg.

Also, now seems like a good time to introduce a new section of the site: Postcards from Europe. I will try very hard to keep up with the places we go, and post my pictures here while Marty and I are in Germany.

Anyway, enjoy!

Nothing Says Love Like a Bucket of Cheese

Auf Deutsch:
Heute war ich zum ersten Mal in Nürnberg. Marty und ich sind dort gefahren, der Stadt zu erforschen. Er fährt wöchentlich nach Nürnberg, eine Besprechung anwesend zu sein. Aber es gefällt mir, Nürnberg zu besuchen!

Zuerst sind wir zum Kaiserberg gestiegen. Der Blick über der Altstadt war wunderschön! Dann sind wir durch die Stadt gewandert. Nürnberg ist bekannt für schönen Kirchen und einen jährlichen Kristkindl Markt. Auch hat der Künstler Albrecht Dürer da gewohnt. Leider hat Nürnberg auch eine Geschichte mit den Nazis, und im Zweite Weltkrieg war es fast ganz zerstören. Aber heute gibt es viele Denkmal zu der Vergangenheit in Nürnberg.

Das Wetter war sonnig, aber ein Bisschen kühl. Wir haben einen schmackhaften Mittagessen bekommt, und später haben wir eine heisse Schockolade getrunken. Wir hatten viel Spaß in Nürnberg!

In English:
Today I went to Nürnberg for the first time. Marty and I drove there to explore the town. He travels to Nürnberg weekly for a business meeting, but I was happy to visit it today!

First we climbed up to the castle, Kaiserberg. The view of the Old Town was gorgeous! Then we wandered through town. Nürnberg is known for beautiful churches and an annual Kristkindl Markt. Also, the artist Albrecht Dürer lived there. Sadly, Nürnberg also has a history with the Nazis, and during WWII was almost completely destroyed. However, today there are many memorials to the past in Nürnberg.

The weather was sunny, although a little cool. We had a tasty lunch, and later we drank hot chocolate. We had a lot of fun in Nürnberg!

It was interesting to see a town that was almost completely rebuilt after WWII. Many of the cities here were all but destroyed, but Nürnberg was particularly hard hit due to the presence of munitions factories and the big parade grounds. Most cities we have visited rebuilt their Old Towns so that they look like they did before the war, and Nürnberg appears to be no exception. The Old Town is built around the Hauptmarkt, a space similar to Marienplatz in Munich, and most of the buildings appear to be very old although I understand they were mostly rebuilt after the war. The Hauptmarkt is where the Kristkindl Markt takes place each year from late November to Christmas. This is a huge market selling Christmas decorations and other holiday items. (Nürnberg and Munich have perhaps the most famous Kristkindl Markts in Germany.)

The Kaiserberg castle is a nice easy climb from the Old Town. It stands at one corner of the city walls, and you can climb up in the tower to see all of Nürnberg. We walked around the grounds for a little while and then started a self-guided walking tour through town, using our Lonely Planet guide book.

Wine appears to be more prevalent in Nürnberg than beer. It is in the region known as Franconia, although it is considered politically a part of Bavaria. So at lunch we had wine instead of beer. I never drink wine in Munich unless I am at an Italian restaurant. It is such a beer city. We had a nice lunch at an old-fashioned restaurant right on the river (actually it stands right out in the middle of the water).

Later on, after a few hours of walking, we had a wonderful afternoon hot chocolate and cake at the Café Kröll right on the Hauptmarkt. They had about a hundred different gorgeous cakes on the premises, and served their hot chocolate in little individual silver pots with a saucer of whipped cream right beside them. Oh, it was just heavenly. We had a little trouble figuring out how to order, but the people we were sitting with (strangers, naturally, this is southern Germany after all) were helpful and friendly.

We had planned to eat dinner at one of the famous Nürnberg wurst houses, but after the cake and hot chocolate we were so full that we didn't think we could wait long enough to have dinner and still get back to Munich at a reasonable hour. Especially since Marty is leaving on a two-day business trip at 5 AM tomorrow morning. So we decided to return to Nürnberg sometime for the wurstl. I do love them, the Nürnberg style of wurst are these tiny little pork sausages, grilled. You can get them at several places here in Munich too. They are so tasty. You order them simply by the number. Eight or twelve, maybe. Or for a table of several people, you might order 100. They're very good.

Finally, here's something funny that happened in Nürnberg today. When we first arrived, we passed several signs for "Fischtage," or Fish Days, apparently some kind of local festival. Neither of us like fish much, so we didn't pay much attention. But later I saw a man walking through town carrying a yellow bucket full of cheese (Käse). Naturally, that caught my eye. Then I saw a woman on another street with the same thing. After we'd been walking around for a couple of hours, we had seen about ten people carrying buckets of cheese. I was going crazy trying to figure out where they were coming from. After all, I love cheese.

At last we asked a man where he'd gotten the cheese ("Entschuldigung, woher kommt die Käse?"), and we discovered that he had gotten it at Fischtage, which was on an island in the river that runs through the Old Town. At this point, Marty later told me, he "knew we were coming home with a bucket of cheese."

We went hunting for the Fischtage and it wasn't hard to find. Today was the last day of a weeklong festival of food, apparently. There were bunches of booths selling everything from Lebkuchen to sugared nuts (Gebrannte Mandeln or burnt almonds with sugar are a big favorite around here). And, of course, lots of fish. But finally we came to an area where there were several big trucks pulled up with the sides standing open. Inside the trucks were crates and crates of food, like you might see in a grocery supply truck. One truck had fruits and vegetables, one had every kind of pasta, and another had all kinds of packaged foods from cookies to coffee. There were men in each truck throwing out these items into the crowd, and people standing up at the front with shopping bags open, just getting food dumped into them. It was a madhouse. And so funny. Some of the guys on the trucks had microphones and they were providing running commentary as they unloaded all this food into the crowd.

Over on the other side, I saw the cheese truck. All painted yellow, just like the yellow buckets. In it, a guy was filling up these buckets with all different types of cheese and then selling them to the crowd for 10 Euro a bucket. He kind of put on a show as he was loading up the buckets, naming each cheese and joking about it with the crowd. He would prepare about six buckets every three minutes or so and sell them off, then start over. I didn't have to wait very long before I got to the front of the crowd and got mine. And yes, I paid 10 Euro for what appears to be at least 30 Euro worth of cheese. It was the deal of the day! And then I had my very own cheese bucket to carry around, too.

We didn't try to catch any of the free food, although as we were leaving a packet of coffee practically hit Marty and so we ended up with that. As we were walking away from the Fischtage, I looked back and saw a man up on top of a truck, twenty feet up, chucking off heads of iceberg lettuce into the crowd. It was really one of the strangest and most entertaining things I had ever seen.

Then we came home and had leftover Katynka's pot roast for dinner. Yum. All in all, a very enjoyable day.

I have a busy start to the week coming up, with a lot of errands and possibly lunch with a German friend tomorrow. I hope to get some more pictures of Nürnberg up in the next couple of days though, so stay tuned. I did take several, but I haven't had time to download them all from the camera yet to see how they turned out.

Tonight I'm unpacking some of the clothes to put in the new Schrank (wardrobe) that was delivered this week. It's nice to see my clothes again. I got really tired of wearing the same thing again and again and again this summer. Really tired. I was living out of a suitcase for six weeks. I especially missed my shoes, like the magenta keds I bought in Detroit last May. I was so happy to see them in the bottom of the box I just unpacked.

While I work, I'm listening to A Higher Place, a mix I made almost 4 years ago now. It's hard to believe it's been that long. But you know, I still love it. It is so pretty, the collection of songs. Grey Eye Glances, Paul Simon.

Which reminds me...

The subway here is called the U-Bahn (I think because it goes UNTER the street) and in München the trains are called such exciting names as U1, U2, U3, U4, etc. Last Sunday, Marty and I were waiting for the U1 at a station where the U2 also stopped. He said to me, all concerned, "We need to make sure we get the U1. I think we would have a hard time knowing where to get off, if we took the U2. I hear it only runs where the streets have no name."

Sorry ladies, the jokester is all mine!!! (Hee! I have my own!)

However, tonight the jokester is working late with 4 other guys who are here on a business trip from Connecticut. It's gonna be a quiet weekend 'round these parts.

It's Happening Again

I hate to sound like a broken record, but... I just heard (via phone) from someone that an e-mail message she sent me yesterday did not arrive. Sigh. It's not like I'm not getting e-mail, so I don't know what the problem is. But that particular message? Lost in the ether. So if you've written, and I haven't answered, please excuse me. And if you'd like to resend we can try again.

Other than that I am having a nice day. I spent awhile working on a recommendation letter for a former student (and current friend) who is applying for the Fulbright Program. I hadn't written anything like that in awhile, but it was nice to think about all the reasons she is qualified for the program. And I know a bunch of reasons why.

I also wrote some German, and read a little too. I didn't manage to get out to the store as I intended to, although it's not quite too late...

Mein Tag / My Day

Auf Deutsch:
Heute hat es in München geregnet, aber trotzdem bin ich im Zentrum gegangen. Bei Müller im Tal habe ich vier CDs gekauft, für echt günstigen Preisen. (Du kannst über meine neuen CDs lesen in meinem Music Log.) Ich habe Mittagessen bei dem Münchner Kartoffelhaus gegessen, ein Lokal mit viele, viele Kartoffelspezialitäten. Dann bin ich in der Hugendubel (eine grosse Buchhandlung) gegangen, ein paar Bücher zu kaufen.

Gestern abend beim Stammtisch hat eine Deutsche Lehrerin mir empfohlen, Deutschen Kinderbücher zu lesen. Ich wollte Heidi von Johanna Spyri, aber heute habe ich nur einen "neue Erzählung" von Heidi gefunden. Nein, danke! Also, ich habe zwei Bücher von Erich Kästner gekauft, und zwei Bücher mit Deutsche Grammatik. Ich freue mich über die Bücher. Jetzt kann ich viele Verben lernen und Kinderbücher lesen! (Ich lese gern Kinderbücher schon auf Englisch; die sind meine Lieblingsbücher!)

In English:
Today it rained in Munich, but I went to town anyway. At Müller (a shop in Tal Street) I bought four CDs for good prices. (You can read about them in my Music Log.) I had lunch at the Münchner Kartoffelhaus (the Munich Potato House), a pub with many potato specialities. Then I went to Hugendubel (a large bookstore) to buy a couple of books.

Yesterday evening at the Stammtisch, one of the German teachers suggested to me that I read some German children's books. I wanted Heidi by Johanna Spyri, but today I found only a "new retelling" of Heidi. No thanks! So I bought two books by Erich Kästner, and two books of German grammar. I am happy about the books. Now I can learn lots of verbs and read children's books! (I already like to read children's books in English; they are my favorite type of book!)

I have heard from a few German readers who are visiting Raspberry World these days, and I thought I would start writing a little bit of German here from time to time. I will translate into English, as I did above, for my readers who don't speak German. And if a reader would like to explain a point of Grammatik to me, I won't be offended. Just write me e-mail.

As I said, last night I attended the Stammtisch again. It was great to speak some German with a couple of the teachers from the Institut and some of the current students. We met at the Paulaner Bräuhaus in Kapuziner Platz. It's nice that they encourage those of us who live in Munich to come to the Stammtisch even when our classes are finished. It is very useful to me.

Then, tonight, when Marty got home we spoke German for thirty minutes. I am all about the Deutsch today!

This is what it looks like when I come back from the grocery store:



This is my Korb (basket), which I can carry to the market or the grocery or any other place I might do shopping.

It's big, too. That black thing it's sitting on is my stovetop.

(Here's a picture of it empty.)

So the shopping baskets are large. But the cars are very, very small. And some are much smaller than others.

Below, you'll see an illustration of why it's smart to drive a Smart car in Munich.

Friday night Marty and I went out for dinner and then we walked over to the Hofbräuhaus. Outside of the Oktoberfest, the Hofbräuhaus is probably the most recognizable Munich tourist attraction. In fact, the first time I was in Munich (in 1988), I had only 8 hours to spend here en route from Prague to Amsterdam, and the Hofbräuhaus was one of the few places I went. (I also went to the English Garden, and the Alter Peter.) And Friday was my first trip back in 14 years.

It's still a huge tourist spot, complete with the oompah band and all the stereotypical Bavarian stuff. Masskrugs (liter glasses) of beer, Brezn (pretzels), and a real drinking-hall atmosphere. When you walk in the door, you're likely to hear ten different languages spoken within the first five minutes. But the interesting thing about the place is, some local people still go there. We were at a table with three Germans -- a man who was born "less than a kilometer" from the Hofbräuhaus (and who spoke only Bavarian, so we could hardly understand each other), and his two friends who aren't real Müncheners because they've only lived here about 25 years. We were joined by a man from Denver who was in Munich for a convention (they have lots of those here). At the table beside us were some Spaniards and more Americans, and one table back was a big group of English people. We also spoke with a man from Birmingham, Alabama and his family, and some people from San Francisco. And there were many Japanese tourists as well.

The band has an interesting setlist. They play a lot of German drinking songs (including, of course, Ein Prosit), but also some other things you might not expect. When we arrived, these were the first songs they played: "Que Sera Sera," "Take Me Home Country Roads," and "On the Road Again." And everyone sang, no matter whether they knew English or not. It's lots of fun at the Hofbräuhaus. We stayed out late, and took the U-Bahn home.

All six of the major breweries in Munich have their own beer halls. the Hofbräuhaus, obviously, is the Hofbräu beerhall. But the other five have them too: Augustiner, Paulaner, Spaten, Löwenbräu, and Hacker-Pschorr. I think I've been to all of them already.

The rest of the weekend, Marty and I got a lot done in the apartment, although we did take a break to go walk around the Nymphenburg gardens on Sunday. It's really getting to be fall here.

Tonight it's raining.

Next month our friends Susie and Jim from England are coming to visit for a couple of days. I can't wait to see them! I keep thinking, hmm, what should we do? It's going to be so much fun to plan what we'll see and do while they are here!

Dairy Products

Tonight for dinner I made Laura's Macaroni and Cheese Deluxe, a recipe I have from Laura Petix. As always, it was delicious. What a great recipe. I am happy to report that it tastes just the same with German ingredients as with American ones. Thank goodness they have cottage cheese here (Hutten Käse).

It's a very good fall recipe... but maybe I'd better not say that too loudly... some people don't like the fall very much...

Speaking of dairy products (that's one of those "evergreen" topics, in my book), they certainly have a plethora of them here. In the dairy case you find almost everything we have in the states, plus some. Yogurt is very popular here and they make it in more than one consistency -- there's a thinner kind for drinking.

They also have something called quark, which I have never come across in the US. (In the dictionary it's translated as "curds.") It's something like a thick yogurt -- thick enough to spread -- but they also use it for baking in recipes where we might use cheese at home. Like for a cheese danish, or cheesecake. Actually, whatever kind of cheese goes into cheese danishes in the US tastes quite a lot like quark does here. (However, it's not cream cheese. They have that here too, as an American import.)

You can also get fresh cheeses -- unpasteurized cheeses -- which I think are illegal in the US. Although maybe that is not true. I would like some contraband cheese, please!

Milk comes in little one-quart cartons (okay, okay, liter cartons) or bottles, and the standard here is still full milk. The lowest fat you can get in the fresh milk is 1.5%. I think you may be able to get lower in the shelf milk (UHT milk, which we do have in the US but it is much more popular here) but Marty and I both prefer the fresh milk.

The lack of lowfat dairy products goes far beyond the milk, though. Even the yogurt is difficult to find in lowfat varieties. And nonfat yogurt, which is such a staple in American grocery stores, appears to be nonexistent here. A German friend here told me that many Germans think lowfat dairy products are unhealthy. Which would explain the extreme lack of them.

On the other hand, they do have the sexiest margarine ads I have ever seen. These come courtesy of Lätta Hoch2, a diet margarine. (And the others are here, here, and here.) Enjoy!

I've reformatted the Salzburg pictures so people who don't have hover-quote capability can see the comments as well. Thanks to Katynka for the heads up.

I updated the music log today too.

Do You Wish Your Name Were Pissenberger?

No, me neither. I just thought it was kind of funny.

Well! The Salzburg pictures are up! Go check 'em out and tell me what you think! I am going to do a new section of the site, "Postcards from Europe," where I can post pictures of the places we visit. I haven't gotten the front page for the new section finished yet, but the Salzburg pics will be the first set.

There are descriptions of what everything is, but I just did them as hover quotes. So you'll have to mouse over the thumbnails to get the descriptions. Sorry if that's inconvenient for anyone.

Tonight I am drinking a little red wine and listening to Beethoven's piano sonatas. And I got some work done on my page, so that's a good thing too.

I have been getting some nice messages from German readers lately, and I would just like to say Wilkommen! And thank you for reading. I hope I don't butcher the language too dreadfully.

So, enjoy the Salzburg shots! You can get there by clicking on the funicular railroad sign, below.

Curious Susie Lernt Deutsch

Here I am in my German class last week. It was lots of fun! My conversation improved a lot, and I got a great review of grammar. Especially prepositions, definite articles, adjective declinations, and passive voice. Whoo!

Next for me is a distance learning course. I still need to send in the application but I intend to do it tomorrow. (I only have to write a little personal statement, auf Deutsch, natürlich, and then I can send it in.) I expect I'll go back to the school and take another class in January or so, though. It was really, really good.

Today I used my German at the bank and at the Post Office. I am still recovering from a bad cold, so I am not coming into contact with too many people. However, once I am well I need to practice more!

If you would like to brush up on your own adjective declinations, feel free to click on the poster below and print out a handy graphic to help! Courtesy of my wonderful German teachers!

A Place for Everything (and everything in its place)

I thought I'd post a few pictures of my study, mostly for my own amusement. I haven't really finished unpacking any room in this apartment except for the kitchen, and I guess the dining room. I am still waiting on another closet for the bedroom before I can make any more progress in there. And I still need a couple of things for the study, too. But you can see the important stuff is out.

I'm still recovering from this cold. I feel better today than I did yesterday, but I'm not full-speed yet. Mostly I lack energy, but I also have a stuffy head and a tight throat. I wore myself out a little bit this morning doing some errands that had to be done. But I hope tomorrow I will feel lots better.

I was psyched this afternoon to run into Laura G on AIM, and later in the day Amanda. I don't go on Instant Messager much but it was cool to chat with some friends. In the pictures of my monitor you can see the AIM screen. It's amazing, how small the world seems sometimes when you have access to someone through the Internet.

I still plan to post my Salzburg pictures. It's taking me awhile to get them all processed. There were a bunch! But maybe I can work on those later this evening. Marty is working late. And he worked all day yesterday, too. I miss him! But not as bad as I did when I was in Connecticut and he was over here. At least he'll be home sometime tonight.

Well, that is about all the news I have at present. Not much, I know. Stay tuned and I will post some pictures from Salzburg, and maybe one or two from my German class last week. I'm so glad I didn't get sick until my class was over! I would have hated to miss any of it. So if I had to be sick, the timing was definitely the best it could be.

Weekend Update

It's been a busy week, what with the second half of my German class and a day trip to Salzburg. Not to mention this bad cold I picked up from somewhere (read: Marty). Still, there's lots to report!

The German class continued to be a worthwhile challenge. I worked very hard and I certainly felt like the hard work was rewarded -- my conversation is greatly improved, and my confidence along with it. I hadn't taken any type of class in a very long time, but I found out I can still do school, when I want to. Next up for me is a distance learning course, which I'll do until sometime this winter. Then I plan to go back for another two-week class.

Yesterday Marty and I went to Salzburg, Austria, on the train. Two guys who are visiting from the US (on a business trip) came as well. I hadn't been to Salzburg since Doug and I were there in 1988. We spent two or three nights there then, if I remember correctly. This time, I saw several sights I remembered from before, including Mozart's birthplace, Hohensalzburg castle, and the Mirabell Gardens. I remembered some things so vividly from 14 years ago, it was hard for me to beleive it had really been that long since my last trip.

I was in Salzburg once before that, with my grandmother, when I was around 10 years old. I hardly remember anything from that trip now, except that we were there together.

We left Munich on the train yesterday morning around 7:30. We had reserved seats (4 together) and I had packed a breakfast in the backpack. So we had some fruit and bread on the way to Austria. The train was pretty empty at that hour. We saw some beautiful scenery as we traveled along the Alps. Autumn is here, and the leaves are changing now. It seemed a little hazy out on our way to Salzburg, but you could already see that it was going to be a sunny, beautiful day. The weather was perfect.

We arrived in Salzburg around 9:00 AM and I stopped at the information booth in the train station for a city map. We decided to do a self-guided tour of the city, with the help of the official guide book, so we walked into town from the train station (about a 15-minute walk).

Our first item on the agenda was Hohensalzburg, an old fortress that sits up above the town. Imagine my excitement when I discovered that it was accessible by a funicular railway! My second funicular railway ride this year! It was a lot more expensive than the one in Bridgnorth, but still very cool.

The other way to get to the castle is to walk up the side of a steep, steep hill. Before we went up on the train, I couldn't remember whether I'd ever seen the castle before. I knew I couldn't remember taking the funicular railway before. But when we got up to the top of the mountain I recognized the castle courtyard so vividly -- and it all came rushing back. Doug and I climbed that hill back in 1988. I thought I was going to die from overexertion. I guess I blocked it out!

We spent a couple of hours walking around the castle and taking pictures of the city below and the alps in the distance. It was a gorgeous morning.

Then we rode the train back down and had lunch at the Cafe Glockenspiel, a nice cafe in Mozartplatz. We sat up on the terrace in the sun and had a great lunch, then continued with the sightseeing.

Please excuse my Americanness, but the thing I always remember about Salzburg is how present The Sound of Music is to that city. Everywhere you look, there, you see locations that were used in the film. From the Mirabell Gardens to the Residenzplatz fountain (pictured above) it is impossible not to be reminded of the movie, if you are even just a little acquainted with it. And I am more than a little acquainted with it. There's a very popular tour that takes you to all the local Sound of Music locations (including the ones out from town, where they filmed the house scenes, etc). I have never taken the tour myself, but I plan to when someone comes to visit who loves this movie the way I do. I hear the tour is very good, but it's long, and it's not cheap, so it's something I want to wait and do with the right person.

After lunch we spent a long time walking around the city, looking in stores and seeing some of the other sights. Mozart was born in Salzburg, and his birthplace as well as his later home are open as museums. We went to the Mirabell Gardens, which I think I do remember from my first visit as a child, and enjoyed the sun there for a little while. We walked up and down that green, green river -- it's green with minerals from the Alps, I think -- stopping to have a beer in the afternoon.

I didn't do much shopping -- just bought some postcards and a couple of patches for my new backpack. One of our companions bought some Mozartkugeln (you may know them as Mozart balls), which are of course ganz typisch for Salzburg. They are perhaps one of the most readily-identified tourist items you can find anywhere in Europe. They are absolutely everywhere in Salzburg!

Salzburg also has its own Hotel Sacher. The original is, of course, in Vienna, but in Salzburg they also sell the Sacher Torte. In addition, the hotel has some very beautiful, civilized restaurants and cafes.

In general, Salzburg strikes one as a very civilized city. It stands on both sides of the river and features so many picturesque cobbled alleys that you feel like you've absolutely stepped back in time. And it's so close to Munich by train!

We had originally planned to leave Salzburg after dinner last night, but we were pretty worn out with all the walking and sightseeing. Plus, we had all been working hard last week, and I was coming down with a cold as well. So we left on the 5:30 train back to Munich. We were at the Hauptbahnhof by 7:30, and I led the gang down Goethestrasse to an Italian restaurant I discovered during my class (I had lunch there twice in the last couple of weeks). It was a nice change from Bavarian food (which I do love, but I get tired of when people are here visiting and it seems to be all we ever eat when we're out). The restaurant was a hit with the whole group, thankfully.

Over on that side of town one is very close to the Oktoberfest, and the streets were full of people last night, even after dinner. Today is the last day, so everyone is getting in their final revelry.

And this morning it looks like fall. Across the street, the trees are turning russet and gold, and the sky today is gray and light. Just a little more time until colder weather, I'm betting. I'm staying in with tea and juice, trying to recover from this cold. And I'm doing all the laundry that piled up in the last week or so while I was in class.

I took a bunch of pictures yesterday, so I hope to process those in Photoshop sometime today. If I do manage to get them done, I'll put them up later on.

Thank you, Katynka, for forwarding this excerpt from Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris.

I doubt my Connecticut report is actually any better than this.

Hee!

Stammtisch

I just got in from the Stammtisch, where I was speaking German for two hours! Whee! I feel like I am really making progress!

Traditionally, a Stammtisch is a table (in a restaurant or bar) which is reserved for regular guests. Often (at least in America) the term is used for groups that meet in restaurants to practice speaking German. That's what it is in this case, as well.

The class has been really good. I am glad to wholeheartedly recommend the Goethe Institut in Munich to anyone who is interested in learning German. It is a very well-run language school, and the teachers are extremely well-trained. There are only three more days of the class left, but we still have lots of work to do. In fact, I still have lots of work to do tonight!

Today I did a presentation about Connecticut. I won't bore you with the whole thing, but here's the last part of it.

Hartford ist die Hauptstadt von Connecticut. Es ist ein schöner alter Stadt, mit viele Parken und Sehenswurdigkeiten. An dem Elizabeth Park gibt es ein ungeheuere Rose Garten, mit 15.000 Rose Pflanzen. Im sommer ist der Park am schönsten.

Viele bekannte Amerikanischen Autoren haben in Hartford gewohnt, zum Beispiel Mark Twain und Harriet Beecher Stowe. Kennen sie Huckleberry Finn oder Uncle Tom's Cabin? Man kann heute ihren Häuser besichtigen.

Mein Lieblingsplatz in Connecticut ist Lyman Orchards, in der Nähe von Durham. Hier gibts ein größe Obstgarten mit Apfel, Zwetschgen, Pfirsch und Kirschbäumen. In Lyman Orchards Markthalle kann man Gemüse, Obst, Käse, Fleisch, und Apfelmost kaufen. Lymans Getreideprodukte sind prima! Lyman hat jährlich das "Best Apple Pie in Connecticut" Prämie gewonnen!

Im Herbst ist Connecticut am schönsten. Die Laub wurdet gelb, rot, und orange im Wald. Sie sollten nach Connecticut im Herbst fahren!

Okay, so please ignore my terrible grammar and mistakes. It was an oral report and it went fine. I would've liked to include some pictures but I couldn't print anything because my printer tried to explode itself last night. So all I had was one measly postcard of fall in New England. But I think it was enough.