Nürnberg Knits

In case you haven't been on Pinterest lately, it seems that knitting is back in fashion. I can't open that site up without seeing tiny knit hats for babies with flowers or superhero logos or frog faces, and that's not the only place it's been popping up. 

A few months ago, I was in Erlangen far too early one morning, when I happened to look up. 

It's a little bit hard to see, but someone decided to decorate the winter-bare tree with all kinds of little knit ornaments. Very sweet, right? 

Then, a few weeks ago, I was heading into the bank in Nürnberg when I realized that the normally gray-metal posts outside were a bit brighter than normal. 

A couple of sassy ladies, a dog, and a cat certainly brightened up the area. But lets face it... any color that isn't GRAY has been pretty welcome here in Deutschland lately. 

Walking home from the city one afternoon, I spotted this guy not far from the movie theater...

It become clearer and clearer that someone was on a mission to brighten things up around here. I'm totally okay with this plan. 

Walking around the city while my friend Katie was visiting, we officially hit the mother-load. The first picture is a bit dark, sorry about that, but you can see the post on the side of the tree decorated, as well as more stuff hanging down from the tree. 

We spotted these right outside a store with a window display full of yarn, so I guess this one is pretty logical. But what we found next was totally random, and completely awesome. I give you Star Wars in Nürnberg...

The whole crew is there, and they are pretty darn impressive. If you happen to be in town and walking from the Hauptmarkt up to the castle, keep an eye out for these guys on the right-hand side.

Any cool crafts popping up in your area? 
 

HHI on Repeat

Just popping in to say that if anyone missed my episode of House Hunters International back when it first aired, you can catch it tonight. This is the first time *I think* that it's been rerun since it was first on, so if you're interested, tune into HGTV tonight at 10:30pm EST, or 1:30am EST. That one's for the insomniacs, I guess. 

Enjoy Courtney and I being very serious while eating sausages, and other things like this....

Real estate jazz hands with Claudia

I'm somewhere between Nevada and Milwaukee right now, so maybe I'll even get to watch it in my old house tonight. I'm sure my parents would enjoy the additional color commentary, such as "This is where they made the camera and sound guy hide in the closet while I pretend to be astounded at the amount of space!" Good times.   

HGTV Episode Page

 

From the Road...

It's our second full day here in the States and I can already die happy. Why? Because I've seen something that I've been sorely missing in rain-soaked Germany.....

Blue skies and sun. The beach was just a bonus.

And We're Off...

Getting on a plane in Frankfurt on Friday at 4pm... See you at 8pm in San Francisco... 

Hands. You have them? Use them!

In exactly 24 hours, I will be strapping myself into a plane and taking a nonstop ride straight to San Francisco. I should be doing something more productive right now, like say, packing my suitcase... but since I'm still waiting for laundry to dry, I'll write about burgers instead. 

For the past few months, BV and I have been sampling all the supposed "good" burgers here in the greater Nürnberg area. Good is in quotations, as any expat knows that a truly good burger is hard to come by outside of America-land. But, we've been trying. Recommendations have come from here, there, and everywhere, and we've tried nearly all of them. 

Last week a friend of mine, (Hi Ellie!), wrote that she'd had a good one in my neck of the woods. BV had also heard good things about the place, but they were always full when he tried to get a reservation. We decided that we should probably try to get in before we went to the States... you know... for research and comparison purposes and all. Today we were in luck when we managed to snag a late lunch at 2pm, at Auguste Premium-Junk Food.

Right behind my house is a large complex of student apartments, and I've been wondering where all these kids go to hang out. I'm guessing that Auguste is one of those places. In addition to their menu of "premium junk food," it has a very fun, colorful atmosphere.

I especially loved the ceiling, which was covered in rubber duckies... almost all different too!

There were scuba duckies, police duckies, soccer football duckies, cat duckies, racecar duckies.... I had no idea they were so versatile! 

But really, duckies aren't so important. Burgers are. I think one of the best things about this place is that nearly all of the ingredients are bio, which is great. Burger prices ranged from about €5 for a small burger, to almost €20 for a burger with 750 grams of meat, aka 'Monstersize-me.' They have beef and bio-beef burgers, veggie burgers, and also some more exotic options like kangaroo and ostrich. Or chicken, if you think that's exotic. I went with the "Premium Burger," with all bio-fixin's, and a size of the Auguste Pommes. 

As usual here, the burger was served with an orange sauce, which is pretty much a mix of ketchup and mayo. I'm more of a ketchup and mustard sort of girl, so nearly every place loses points with me on this. The burger itself was really good, but it didn't quite have the flame-grilled quality that I like best. Other than those two things though, it was a winner. I was sorely tempted by an avocado burger on the 'veggie' side of the menu, so I think that will be my next choice. 

Auguste also has a pretty decent selection of whiskey, and they have a monthly whiskey special as well as a monthly beer special. They also served some more unusual beers than we see at the typical Nürnberg spots. I'm totally cool with this though, as the biggest beer here, Tucher, is probably my least favorite beer in Germany. Go figure. I tried the Reh-Bier from a private brewery near Bamberg, and it was delicious. 

The picture with the mayonnaise is just for scale. I'm pretty sure that's the biggest damn thing of mayonnaise I've ever seen here. When we first sat down I thought it was a pillar candle until I actually got a look at it. 

Finally, I guess I should explain the title of this post. While we sat and ate, the restaurant filled, emptied, and filled again. Of all the people who came in, only one person (besides ourselves), ate their burger in the proper way. This is a major pet peeve of mine in Germany. Every time I see someone trying to eat a burger with a knife and fork, I want to smack them upside the head. They always look so concentrated and are completely at a loss when it falls apart. 

Are you listening, Germany? This is a public service announcement for you...

It is between bread. You can pick it up. It makes life easier. That's why you have hands. Use them! 

In Nürnberg and hungry? Check it out!

Auguste Premium-Junk Food 

Augustenstr. 37

(I'd make a reservation though.)

Beer Hike III: The Fünf-Seidla-Steig

Apologies for the lack of posts lately... the good news is that I've been pretty busy. The bad news is that I'm posting now because I'm in bed fighting off the super-flu that struck a lot of people here in Germany in the last week. Initially when BV was dying on Wednesday, we thought it was food poisoning. But then he went to the doctor's office, where the waiting room was full and the doctor confirmed that everyone has the same thing. I thought I escaped it, but it struck me down yesterday afternoon in a pretty horrible fashion. So here I am, tucked into bed and finally with some time to post. But on to more pleasant topics....

Last weekend was pretty action-packed. BV had his birthday on Friday, Saturday we spent in the car to Frankfurt and back where we picked up my friend Katie who visited for a few days, and Sunday we had planned to do a beer hike with a bunch of BV's friends. All week the forecast was pretty crummy, but it slowly improved to the point where we felt safe venturing out. Sunday dawned absolutely gorgeous, and we felt pretty good about our chances.

This was the third beer hike that I've done since living in Germany, but this was the first time on the Fünf-Seidla-Steig. One of my classes recommended it, and it has the advantage of being a lot closer to Nürnberg than the one that I've done before. The disadvantage to this one is that it isn't a round-trip, instead it's pretty much a straight line. You can make it a round-trip, but that ups the hike from 10 kilometers to 19 kilometers. We thought that might be a little much with five beers along the way, so we opted to take the bus to the far end, and make our way back to the train from there. 

Via

We met half of our group at the Nordostbahnhof in Nürnberg, then hopped a train to Gräfenberg. The train was full of fellow beer hikers, some already with drinks in hand, some with their trusty Nordic walking sticks, and a whole group with yellow flowers in their buttonholes and on their hats. In Gräfenberg we waited a few minutes for a bus, and then took a 10-minute ride to the far end of the hike in Thuisbrunn, where we found the first brewery.

Gasthof Seitz, Thuisbrunner Elch-Bräu

The beer garden at Gasthof Seitz was already about half-full, despite the early hour. Beers were served up those stairs in the second picture, from a man inside a rock. The building was surrounded by rocks with doors in them that I can only assume led to hobbit holes. Table service was also available from servers in Dirndl, provided you could wave one down to get you a coffee. After beers for some, coffee for others, and some small morning snacks, we were off again for Hohenschwärz, our next destination. Along the way we soaked up some sun, and enjoyed the green fields, yellow flowers, and blue skies....

Towers on hills in Thuisbrunn

When we reached the next brewery, the Brauereigasthaus Hofmann, we planned to meet up with the rest of our group who were only doing part of the hike. But before we could reach them, we had to get through a stag party. They had been at the first stop as well, and we had been a bit perplexed by the pink bat-like suit that the groom had on. The mystery was solved though when they stopped us, and tried to convince people to take shots at the groom for prizes. What does that mean? Well Katie was about to find out...

We were really confused about the holes in the outfit, but now it was explained. You had the option to kick or throw through the holes for prizes, or to just go for broke and hit the groom in the "foul" center circle... aka, try to hit him in the nuts. Sadly, she missed entirely, but they still granted us entrance to the packed beer garden and the rest of our group. 

 

 

Beer garden from the front, and no room at the inn.

We had lunch and beer, but no pictures of either... sorry. My mug didn't have a cool brewery logo on it, and so I picture-failed. 

After lunch, we wrangled the over-worked waitress (clearly they were not planning on a busy day), and got the group on the way. The next chunk of the hike was a bit further, but again we enjoyed the blue skies and green fields. 

Pictures of pictures.

BV has focusing issues.

Katie and I enjoy fields.

Sadly though, those gorgeous blue skies were not to last. As we came into Gräfenberg, the sky was beginning to darken...

The third brewery was at Friedmann's Bäustüberl, which was also pretty packed. 

We did all manage to find seats, and even drank most of our beers/waters/colas before the heavens opened on us and we all smashed our way under the umbrellas with all the other guests. It was a pretty short cloudburst though, and so we continued on our way. This was the end of the line for half of our group, so we parted ways and they headed for their cars. The rest of us bravely soldiered on, and made for the last brewery of the day in Weißenhohe. There are two breweries in Gräfenberg, but unfortunately the second, the Brauerei-Gasthof Lindenbräu, was closed for the day. I guess that means we'll just have to do this again sometime. Preferably on a day with no rain in the forecast.*

My students had warned me that one end of the hike involved a huge hill, and therefore you should do that end first. They were right, as we did have to hike up and then down an enormous hill, and I should really learn to take notes on things like that. On the bright side, it was raining a lot at that point, so we didn't get too over-heated. Silver lining!

At the bottom of the hill we found our last stop for the day, the Wirthaus Klosterbrauerei Weißenhohe.

The rain had pretty much stopped when we arrived, so we opted to sit out in the garden. It was really gorgeous, with the trellises all covered in wisteria. The servers mopped off a table for us, and optimistically went around cleaning off the other tables, and redistributing the cases of coasters. This was short-lived though, and when we started to hear thunder rumbling again, they went running around recollecting everything. We were about two-thirds through the last beer when the sky opened up on us again, and we ran into the Wirthaus for protection. We thought we'd be able to grab a table and maybe have a piece of cake before the train, but the place was completely packed and a table for eight was impossible. Instead we lingered in the entryway, finishing our beers, and watching as soaked people came in, went into the dining rooms, and came right back out again. Next time, we might want to try for a reservation. 

When the last beers were finished, we took the short walk over to the train station, and headed back to the city. Despite the rain, it was a really nice day, and I'm looking forward to trying this again... preferably with some sun, and all five restaurants open for business!

My Original Beer Hike Post- The Brauereinweg

More info on the Fünf-Seidla-Steig (in German)
 
*Which means it may never happen. German spring, you are on my shit-list. 
 

Sisterhood Bloggers Award

A couple of weeks ago, the lovely Beverley over at Confuzzledom nominated me for the Sisterhood of the World Bloggers Award. Danke, Beverley! I'm crap at these things, and it seems like every day I find a new Germany expat blog, so I'm just going to answer her questions, and if you write a blog (especially here in the land of expats and pretzels), feel free to consider yourself nominated. Just leave a comment so we can read your responses!

 To accept the award, the rules are as follows: 

1. Provide a link and thanks to the bloggers who nominated you
2. Answer 10 questions
3. Nominate 10 blogs that you find a joy to read
4. Provide links to blogs and inform the recipients that they have been nominated
5. Include the award logo within post

QUESTIONS:

1. Who is a woman from history that you respect? There are a lot, but if I had to narrow it down then Queen Elizabeth I jumps to mind. I love reading about her life and the fact that she lived through such a turbulent time and 1) survived and 2) went on to be such a strong female ruler is unbelievably amazing. I'd also say Laura Ingalls Wilder, because I loved her books as a kid, and still do today. She has such a wonderful, clear way with words, and makes it so easy to picture her life.
2. Why is your blog’s name your blog’s name? Well, it's pretty darn unoriginal. I'm Heather, and I went to Deutschland. So there you are. I renamed it when I moved from Prague and I'm pretty sure no one read it at the time. That was also before I read so many other blogs and realized that an alliterative name was really preferable. But don't worry, my next blog will be named Tigers, Truffles, and Treehouses. Or maybe Yellow, Yoga, and Yurts. We'll see how it goes. 
3. What book are you reading right now? I used to be a voracious reader, and am a bit ashamed of how few new books I get to these days. I did just download the sample from 'Salt Sugar Fat' and am considering downloading the whole version... but I'm a little afraid of reading that on the plane to the States. I want to enjoy my chemical-laced foods while I'm in America... you know? But if anyone has any other recommendations, by all means, throw me a comment. 
4. What’s your favorite drink? If we're talking non-alcoholic, then lately it's been any sort of Yogi tea. I'm completely addicted, and they have ruined other teas for me. My favorite flavor (so far), is the Black Chai. If alcohol is involved, margaritas or mojitos are my favorite cocktails. Oooooh, Margaritas, Mojitos, and Moscato. Now there's a blog name. I've also gotten pretty into Italian red wine. Damn you Tuscany!
5. Which is your favorite method of transport? I do miss driving myself around, but there's just so much to love about trains in Germany. They get you where you want to go, they're usually on time, and you can kick back and enjoy the scenery. And the people-watching.
6. What is your favorite food? So many choices... so little time. But if I had to only eat one food forever, I'd probably choose fresh raspberries straight off the bush.
7. Do you ever sing in the shower? Nah, my bathroom window is right on the walkway... I don't need to subject my neighbors to that. :)
8. Are you wearing socks right now? Nope. I hate socks and if the weather would stay nice so I can quit wearing them for the next several months, that would be great.
9. If you could be given any gift, what would it be? I've been lusting after a good DSLR camera for the last several years, so I'd take one of those. My current camera is a refurbished hand-me-down, that doesn't do what I want half of the time. And goes through the occasional spurt when it just stops working. So a new camera would be lovely.
10. When you have 30 minutes of free time, how do you pass it? On any number of time-suck websites, usually. I think this sums it up best....

Well, that's about it for my answers... thanks again Bev! Like I said above, if you write a blog and want to join on in, consider yourself nominated. Leave a comment and play along!

Parental Appreciation, German-Style

May is pretty awesome as far as free time goes. We've had two public holidays thus far, with two more before the end of the month. My only argument with this is that three of the four fall on Wednesdays or Thursdays, aka my busier days of the week. My lazy side loves this, while my wallet does not appreciate... especially as I'm heading Stateside in a mere 18 days. But, you win some, you lose some, am I right? 

Last Thursday was Christi Himmelfahrt, or Ascension Day, or something I've never heard of prior to living in Catholic Bavaria. For some reason, the Germans decided to go ahead and sandwich this together with Father's Day. In the middle of the week, as it's always a Thursday. Now, this is Germany, so I'm sure there's some logical reason for this (other expat folk... feel free to weigh in on this for me), but I don't know what it is. 

In America, Father's Day is the day to make your dad breakfast, let him watch sports uninterrupted, or do something with the family. In Germany? Well.... not so much. I foolishly asked students what they planned on doing for the occasion and I got two responses.

1) Um, nothing?
2) Drink

One group told me that the guys all get together, and pull wagons filled with beer from pub to pub. Basically a bar crawl except they don't stop drinking between bars... hence the wagon. While I was out and about on "Father's Day" I saw a few of these groups. One group was all in Lederhosen, with one girl in a Dirndl along for the ride. And for some reason, this poor girl was tasked with pulling the wagon. The other group I saw was this one...

Sorry it's so far away... I was on my phone and trying not to attract their attention by gawking. Right after this they crossed the street, and six of them went behind a billboard to empty their bladders, so I doubt they would have noticed either way. With their minds distracted and all.

According to my students though, this is more of a 'sport' for the young'uns. Once they have kids, they get stuck at home and don't get to pull wagons through the street anymore. Schade.

Now, if you are one of the odd folks who enjoys getting their dad a little something for Father's Day, might I direct your attention to the following link. I can't figure out a way to embed it here, so just go ahead and click on the first video. 

  

Mad German Beer Engineering Skills 

Perhaps it's not practical for everyday use, but if you're having a party? Perfect!

I'm happy to report that I spent my German "Father's Day" following tradition, and enjoying the sun and warm(ish) weather in the beer gardens of Nürnberg. I even ventured to the city beach, where the lukewarm temperatures did not deter the people who wanted to stick their feet in the sand. I'm pretty sure everyone here is is dying for real summer though. It might get desperate soon. 

Even though Father's Day is on a different day here, Mother's Day falls on the same Sunday as in the States. In contrast to the beer-fueled Thursday before, Mother's Day is pretty standard. People don't go quite as Hallmark-holiday crazy as they do at home, but the flowers and lunch are pretty much the same.

On Friday I was dispatched to the city center to pick up some flowers for BV's mom, and we took her (and his brother) to the Fränkische Schweiz on Sunday. It was a lovely (albeit partially gray) day, but that will have to wait for the next post. Don't worry, there will be pictures. Of rocks! And tiny horses! 

Balcony Rehab: Spring 2013

I don't know about all of you, but now that it's May I'm really hoping that The Long Winter is over. Although as I'm typing this, it's my favorite shade of Flat Gray outside, so that's a great start to the day. 

One of my main priorities for this spring was to get my balcony in order again. It went through a few incarnations last year... I wrote a helpful guide to getting it in shape, which you can find right here. That lasted fairly well until I went on vacation for two weeks and everything died. That meant I had to do a frantic rehab afternoon on it before it ended up on TV since we shot the day after I came back from said vacation. Stress! Tip: try to find someone to water your plants if you're leaving for two weeks and then immediately having a film crew in your house.* Back to this year.... Here are some "before" shots.

Ugh. So depressing.

Seedlings from a friend, lettuce, strawberries.

The process was of course much easier this year (thank God), since I of course had all the planters and even some dirt left over. That makes the hauling much less painful. Additionally, BV has a friend who's a gardener, which meant that all we needed was one Friday evening visit to his nursery. 

Last year I had wished for a strapping young German gentleman to help me carry things up the stairs. And boom! It worked. Now I'll wish for a million Euros... let's see how that goes. 

By the time we got back from the nursery it was raining pretty hard, so planting had to wait until Saturday. Even minus BV's run to OBI because we were just a little short on dirt, it went super quickly and I am very happy with the results...

Mini herb garden

The seedlings for lettuce, radish, and tomatoes went into this new planter along with the strawberries and romaine lettuce. I'm not sure how well it's going to work if and when they really start to grow, but we'll see. Plus those planters were only €1 each at Woolworth's. Yes, you read that right. There is still a Woolworth's here. My Grandma couldn't believe it either.
 

 
Everything has been in for a couple of days now, and seems to be doing okay so far. I've got my fingers crossed that we get a little more sun now, it'd be nice to sit out there and enjoy it! 
  

*That is oddly specific advice, but could be helpful to someone. Maybe.