Ritter Sport: knights on shining bicycles

(Joe's recap of our weekend)

Today we rode our bikes to the Ritter Sport chocolate factory and museum in Waldenbuch, which is about halfway between Stuttgart and Tübingen.  The weather was perfect, sunny and warm, but not too warm – we didn’t want to get too sweaty riding up the several hills on the 18km route.  We went with 2 of Betsy’s lab colleagues –Jamie, a Canadian visiting for 7 weeks, and Aude another post-doc from France (whose oven I recently helped to hook up).

We were like the proverbial kids in the candy shop, and we bought A LOT of chocolate.  Although more than half will be gifts.  For instance, Betsy’s colleagues made it clear that she should bring back something for the group, so they will have to share a 2 kg variety pack (4.4 lbs) –I think that should satisfy them, at least for a few days.  We also got our own Ritter Sport expansion pack for Settlers of Catan!  After a quick dinner, we played; Betsy beat me, and handily.

To add to (or compensate for) our chocolate expedition, Betsy & I have been swimming regularly with a “competitive swimming” group at the university.  We happened on them quite by accident.  There was a misprint for free swim time at the pool, and when we showed up on the pool deck, ready to swim, they were concerned that we were just there to play.   As it turns out this is the type of swimming we have been looking for since moving to Germany.  Unlike what Betsy described in “Schwimm, shwamm, ist geschwommen” on the November 13, 2011 post, this group knows how to lap swim.  The pool is small, 3 lanes and only 20 m long, but the group manages to accomplish a serious 1.5 hour workout with 3 or 4 people per lane.

While we don’t have pictures of it, yet, there is a parachute flying club that uses the hill between our apartment and the university.  They take off from the top of the grassy hill and fly into the wind.  They only manage a ground speed of walking pace, but manage to get up to 100’ above the ground.  We aren’t the only people to watch in amusement.

Frühling (Spring!)

 (an update from Joe)

This is the second Sunday in a row that it has rained.  That being said, spring has been very nice here.  The last two weeks have been mostly sunny and warm.  Three times this week, for the entire afternoon, I left all the windows in our apartment open.

Last Sunday we spent the rainy day at a local hot spring bath.  We went by local train with our American friends (Chris & Rachel).  As you can imagine it was a good time.  There was an indoor pool and 3 outdoor pools of varying temperatures.  We spent a lot of time in the hot pool, and between the steam and clouds we could see the ruins of an ancient castle.  After we had soaked for a few hours, we had lunch in the pool complex.  As usual, where there is food there is beer –so we had our obligatory wheat beer.

Betsy & I joke about the beer in Germany all tasting the same.  So I helped Chris brew a batch of IPA beer, because our wives love hoppy beer.  It took about 3 weeks of brewing, but we had our first taste this Friday – it is wonderful!  We really miss the micro-breweries of the Colorado Front Range, especially Avery, which is known for its very hoppy beers.  However since we can make our own beer now, the sting of leaving Boulder’s beer scene behind is lessened.

Besides satisfying our beer needs, we have satisfied our other fundamental needs, namely shelter.  We have signed a contract for a new apartment.  It is a great apartment – lots of south-facing windows.  It has a south-facing balcony, which overlooks a garden and a stream, and there is a small horse pasture on the other side.  It is 10 km west of the Betsy’s building, but the bike paths are all flat, so the ride should be easy.  However Betsy is suddenly interested in “Rollers” (mopeds or scooters in English), as she isn’t sure she will want to bike 20 km every day.  It just so happens that Betsy’s new German driver’s license allows her to drive Rollers, as well as cars and small tractors.

We have been to a few parties lately.  Yesterday we attended a spring garden party, and in honor of an Irish tradition, many people wore green.  And I arrive in my kilt, and played a few tunes on the bagpipes – the Germans were a very receptive audience.  And as a follow-up to our last post about board games, Betsy organized a board game night with her colleagues.  We played two versions of Settlers of Catan.  For a snack I cooked up half of a paper grocery sack of pop corn, which was also a big hit.  Earlier this week we tasted the “young wine” at a seasonal restaurant ("Besen") – in the fall we had “new wine” just after the grapes were harvested.