June 1, 2018 – Day Seventeen – Kreutzal

June 1, 2018 – Day Seventeen – Kreutzal

Just before it’s reasonable to wake up there is a really loud storm!  I get up and close my windows, secure in the knowledge that we closed up everything last night before we went to bed!  It doesn’t last long and I open everything back up to take advantage of the breeze. Have I mentioned that the birds seem to sing continuously?  Their songs are varied and quite melodious.  I’m really enjoying Spring!

Shots from my bedroom window.  This is the view down the street.

Kreuztal

I can see Krombacher's from my window!  (through a screen - one of only two in the house)

Morning ablutions, yoga, dressing and I’m downstairs about the same time that Marilyn is up and about.  We fix our coffee and tea and retire to the family room to check our mail , the TBT front page, and our blogs.  It’s time now for breakfast!

Yep, that's the whole kitchen.  Not enough storage to put away all the appliances.

Back yard

We use up some leftovers by frying potatoes, onions, red pepper, mushrooms and our last egg, and cover it all with more Danish cheese.  We heat the last two pastries from the bakery down the street and enjoy a somewhat virtuous, but extremely delicious, breakfast.

As we finish washing the dishes, and straightening the kitchen, the doorbell rings.  It’s Evelyn, with some news and a need for coffee!  She has spoken with her husband, Helmud, and on Saturday he will pick us up and take us on a tour of the brewery with Evelyn!  There will even be headphones and an English-speaking guide!  And it might even be free since we’ll be with an employee!  Yesterday she told us that after the tour there is a little restaurant where they serve as much beer or other Kromacher beverage as you like, with a really good ham and bread!  It’s all included in the tour;  but since we might not be paying for the tour, we’ll see how it all works out!  (Later, when we hear from Henning, we learn that it can take six month to get a reservation for a tour!  Boy are we lucky!)

We settle in the dining room and pick up where we left off yesterday, learning more about each other and laughing like crazy people!  Evelyn actually has two sons;  the older one is thirty-seven.  When she was fourteen, her father worked in Calcutta at a steel plant that made rollers.  She attended an international school there for four years and those classmates are the friends she met in York for a fortieth reunion.  They all reconnected on Facebook.

We talk about learning different languages and how you can get into trouble by using phrases or slang with meanings you might not know.  Evelyn has dancing blue eyes and her laugh is both infectious and reassuring.  It is nice to think you are making someone else that happy. Marilyn asks about how the local government is structured and we learn that Kreuztal actually has five little “villages” that are part of it.  We think it’s a bit like Carrollwood or New Tampa – they may or may not actually be within the city limits.

The ladder-like structures we’ve seen on the roofs are to prevent large amounts of snow from cascading down the roof onto someone’s head!  Things we don’t worry about in Florida!

When Evelyn glances at the clock she realizes that her dog is waiting for her to go for a walk and she hurries off, first confirming that we’ll see her tomorrow about twenty minutes before two.

We celebrate our good fortune before going for a walk to the bakery, stopping along the way to deposit Marilyn’s post card to her grandchildren in the yellow post box.  At the bakery we have a strawberry confection, then select another to take home for the morning.  Along the way we stop to take pictures – imagine that!

The neighborhood biergarten and restaurant

Yum!

almost like a reflection

Sing a song of sixpence

Stupid magpie playing beek-a-boo!

And making a speedy getaway.

His blue wings are glorious in flight

almost like music notes

I hope this blooms before we leave.  It's on our balcony.

Someone's a football fan!  FC Bayern Munchen

Where's Waldo?  Can you see his long tail to the left of the nest?

There are people out working in their yards and when Marilyn compliments their gardens one lady smiles and says, “Thank you.”  Another, further down the street, is actually willing to practice her Engish, which is pretty good!, and tells us her mother-in-law is the lady looking out the window, her husband is the man working in the yard, and her daughter, who is a bit shy but intrigued by the strangers, will be six soon.  When the mom translates for her daughter she uses the word “school” and the daughter comes back with the German translation, “schule”!  She’s learning English, too!

Back home we are still trying to get decent shots of some of the local birds.  There is a Eurasian magpie that has build a nest in a nearby tree (well, relatively nearby) and he keeps flying in and out;  but when he pauses, he’s hidden inside the tree and it’s very frustrating.  There is a tiny little bird who has a nest under the eaves of the house across the street.  He darts under, then vanishes, reappearing for a nanosecond before flying off.  More frustration! 

Eventually my Krombacher bottle is as empty as my patience and I come in off the balcony.  We decide it’s time for dinner - meat and cheese sandwiches with potato salad and beets.  After dinner we open another bottle of wine and return to terrorizing our laptops.  A rainstorm threatens and spits and the wind is downright chilly, so we close all the window/doors.

Just after dinner we heard a siren and lots of booming, like fireworks.  I can see the smoke rising from a few blocks away and it sounds like the siren is coming from the same spot.  More booms and smoke.  More siren wails.  Eventually it all just quits!  Maybe Evelyn will be able to tell us what it was.

A few more “Lie to Me”s and it’s off to bed.