I might as well have had toilet paper on my foot

I thought I had it all together today. Put on my brand new brown tank top, which matches my brown plaid shorts perfectly. Pored over the maps of Munich and figured out where I would bike. Packed up. Took off. Got to my destination, the Viktuelmarkt. A woman passed by me on her bike, and said some sort of something to me, and it dawned on me. The huge, bright red, 3" square price tag was hanging off the back of my shirt. Dang. I thought I had it together! The good news tho, I found the markt, bought a Fuji apple and gobbled it down, got a few apricots for later, went into the quilt shop and got a sewing machine needle. Also, while in the quilt shop, I asked to borrow a pair of scissors to cut off my tag. And I only had to consult the map once when I was ready to go home. All in all, pretty good. Now I'll stay here and hide my embarrassment and enjoy the not so cool (but cooler than outside) apartment. All the shades are drawn, windows shut. May be time for a nap or a good book! Also, I must say, I had a great time talking to my friend Debbie last night! Maybe I'll think of who I shall skype next.

Settlers

On Saturday night we are hosting some complete strangers at our apartment to play Settlers. Hopefully by the time they leave we will be bosom buddies and breathless at the thought of meeting again. I went to Marienplatz today to buy the German version of the game, because I left mine in Portland, where I am sure Stephanie is guarding it closely, if not sleeping with it under her pillow. Ha. So the current German version features plastic pieces. Ick! But hey, the robbers are cute.

The other news. Yesterday I went shopping. I bought some cute shoes and a cute sundress. When I got home to put the shoes on, the button popped off the right one. So I need some black thread to fix it. Then, today I wore the new sundress. And on my way home from shopping, the strap came undone. It's sort of hard to nonchanlantly walk thru a busy bus station with your strap hanging down. I put my purse over my shoulder so it wasn't so obvious. Now I need some brown thread or blue thread to fix that. Here comes another trip to Hertie. At least I can get some fruit on the way home! And maybe check for a place to get my pics developed. No, not of the shoes and strap, but vacation pics. I wanna scrapbook!

Scandinavian Vacation, Part V, yes, it's finally over

Day 13: This is where I stopped writing reminder notes. Mind you, by the time I was in about the 3rd city we visited I was confused. I couldn't tell one place from another, so I had started writing notes on some paper because typing on my blog...well, one, I couldn't remember how to log in, and two, have you seen Rob's cell phone? You don't want to type more than about 3 words at a time or it will drive you crazy with the tedium. So. We were on a ship to Helsinki when we awoke on morning #13. We arrived in Helsinki around 10 am. Went to our hotel and dropped off our luggage at the Scandic Continental. We walked thru a park called...something, where they had this huge structure that looked like lots of pipes welded together. Rob stuck his head in one and made noise. It was so funny! Then we found lunch (me: McDonalds, him: Indian) at a mall. Wandered. Bought a keychain and some postcards, although we had no idea what they said. I translated them when we got home. Turns out one said something like, "A woman will never admit to her actual age, and a man will never act like his age." Wandered some more. Ate dinner at a restaurant attached the hotel. Walked around a lake afterwards. Went to bed.

Day 14: Woke up in Helsinki, ate a quick breakfast, and took the tram to the ship dock. Oh, yah, this is the one we almost missed. The dock with our ship was quite far from the tram stop. We ran. With luggage. Anyhow, this was just a ferry, about a 2 hour ride, to Tallinn, Estonia. When we arrived, we checked our luggage and took a taxi into the old part of town. Saw wonderful old Russian cathedrals and the city wall. Bought a keychain, some postcards, some little ceramic houses like I have on the mantel at home. Walked ourselves silly, at lunch at a bar, walked some more, walked back to the ferry. Got on. Checked into our cabin, which was another one without windows. This ferry took us back to Stockholm overnight.

Day 15: Woke up on ferry. Quick breakfast. It kind of sucks to have to pay $15 or $20 for breakfast when all you do is use their hot water for instant oatmeal and hot chocolate. Somehow, raw fish just doesn't appeal to me for breakfast. Or smoked fish. Or whatever it was. Rob loved it. He liked the food everywhere, of course. Lucky guy! So anyhow. We got off the boat, took a taxi to our hotel. Oops, didn't have enough cash and he didn't take Visa. So Rob ran off to find a cash machine and I waited with our luggage and the taxi driver on the curb. Paid him. Went into hotel, went to room. Wait. The room had only one bed, and we'd specifically asked for a double bed or two beds. They promised to have a bed brought up soon. So, we left our luggage, and went out to explore. We went to Tivoli Groneland (different from Tivoli in Copenhagen). Went on a few roller coaster rides and in a fun house. It really was a fun house. We had to climb huge moving stairs to get in, and then there were tilting stairs, tilting rooms, spinning rooms, slides, magic carpets, undulating rooms, bridges that sprang up and down (very delightful tummy feeling!), wow! Then we went to Skansen, which is a place right across the street almost, and they had brought in houses from all ages and assembled them in all one place. So we saw sod houses, old farm houses, stables, etc. And they had some animals, where we saw up close mooses and reindeer with very felty antlers. Finally, we went back to our room, asked again for another bed, finally got it, went to sleep.

Day 16: Time to go "home." Killed time for awhile, went to tram, to train, to airport. This time, they finally noticed that I had a pair of scissors with me in my luggage. You can't do needlepoint without scissors! They also discovered that I had a bottle of Pepsi. Oops. I did forget to ditch that. They were a bit annoyed with me, and probably thought, "stupid americans." But I didn't care. We were on our way to Munich. Just two flights and two train rides away. YAY!

Scandinavian Vacation, Part, er, um, IV?

Day 10: We woke up at the Augustus Hotel in Bergen, had a quick breakfast, and got ready for our "Norway in a Nutshell" tour. We walked down to central station to catch a train. We took the train to Voss. Ran from train to bus. Found out there were 3, all going the same place. Got seats on bus, fortunately next to each other. The bus ride was about 2 hours. We drove out a road that got narrower and narrower. The road went up a mountain, and then down the other side (familiar theme yet?). On the other side, we had entered a fjord like area, with a very steep drive. The bus took switchbacks, steep ones! The road was about 5 feet wide (exaggeration here) and it switched back every 10 feet. I thought it was going to fall over on its side every time we turned. But! There were waterfalls and wonderful views. So, the bus dropped us all off in Gudvagen, where we boarded a ferry. The ferry took us thru beautiful fjords(It was cold and raining, by the way). It pulled in at several very tiny towns, and delivered the mail. They put the ramp down just long enough for a man with a canvas bag to toss it to a person standing in the town, and then we'd back up and head for the next town. We ended up in Flam (sounds like flome). We ate at a restaurant there, and then took a walk through town and up the street, took pictures, and looked at postcards and various souvenirs. Then we got on a train which continued our trip through the fjord. We passed more waterfalls and pretty landscape. Got off the train in Myrdal, had a snack, and got on another train. This train took us back to Oslo. We were glad we knew our way around Oslo, so we could jump on the tram and go back to the hotel we had stayed in a few nights before. A very long day. At the hotel we were in a different room. We'd been upgraded, they said, and it was quite nice. There was a huge lampshade over the bed, and an even huger number on the wall (the number of our hotel room). This actually came in handy, cuz after breakfast the next morning I couldn't remember which room was ours, which is kind of awkward when you have a generic keycard in your hand. Then I just thought back romantically to the night before (ahem) and bing! 411. (Which is, of course, on the 5th floor to us Americans.) By the way, when you travel for awhile you end up with dirty socks. You wash them in the sink, and then you stick them on the end of a hair dryer to dry them. Works great!

Day 11. We slept in. It was sunday so many stores were closed, but all the sightseeing places were open. We had gotten smart at some time on our journey, and learned to purchase 24 hour bus/tram/train passes. So we used our pass from the night before, and hopped on a tram (or 2) to the Olympic ski jump. It was raining, and by the time we had walked up the hill to the ski jump area we were soaking. We walked up stairs, looked at the olympic ski museum, went up an elevator, and walked up about 100 more stairs (the tall kind with traction for ski boots) and arrived at the top of the ski jump. Gulp! You've gotta have a lot of guts to go down one of those! Went back to the hotel, claimed our luggage, and got on a high speed train to the airport in Oslo. Flew to Stockholm. Dropped our luggage off at the Berns Hotel and headed off to dinner. You know where. On a canal! Ate at the Diplomat, a tasty place. I think a guy had just proposed to his girlfriend there, cuz he kept holding her hand and admiring her ring and they were dressed really nice and they both kept smiling like crazy. Now comes the dum-dum-dum part. We got back to the hotel. We were tired, we had walked a lot in Oslo, and at the airport, and in Stockholm getting from the various trains to hotels and such. We were ready to fall asleep by 10. But a band started up at 9:45. We were on the 2nd (3rd to you) floor. The band was on the 1st (2nd) floor, not far from our window. Did I mention that we had been given a hotel room upgrade again? It was a beautiful room, nice big bed, TV, nice bathroom (I think it actually had washcloths). But we were fooled. The bathroom apparently had a heated floor, and we couldn't figure out how to turn it off. So our room was warm. Couldn't open the windows, because the band was so loud. Couldn't go enjoy the band, cuz I had already taken my ambien (although acting like a drunk person I may have fit right in!). The band and music played until 3 am. Rob was going crazy. He asked for a different room around midnight (sorry, they're all full), went for a walk around 1 am, complained around 2 am, the people shouted and were noisy in the street until 4. Finally, sleep. And at 7am. Bang! Crash! Garbage truck. We had this same hotel book for a couple nights later. Needless to say, we cancelled our reservations. The band plays Thu, Fri, Sat and Sun nights. We'd be back in town on Thu. No thanks! This was definitely the low point of our vacation!

Day 12: We checked our luggage into a locker at central station in Stockholm and got on a tram to Gamlestan. It's a really old town, full of twisting streets and alley ways. We found a keychain from Sweden, and wandered a lot. I had to go potty, and we found one of those pay potties on the street. It cost 5 Kroner. I went in (P. U.) and it said "this door automatically locks after 30 seconds." I was like, so, I have to do everything in 30 sec or I get locked in? So I hurried and pottied, and then, of course, being the good citizen I am, I was ready to flush. I looked all over. No flusher on the back of the toilet. No flusher on the wall. No flusher on the sign that said "be sure to flush". Finally, I decided to leave. Opened the door. Flush. Opening the door triggered the flusher! Why hadn't they told me that. Argh! So. We happened to be outside the Swedish Mint. So, we went in for a tour. It turned out the Mondays are free. It was neat. There were 3 floors, and we saw coins from all sorts of countries, and in all sizes and shapes. They had the biggest piece of money in the world. Not sure what value it was, but it was about 6 or 7" across, about 15" long, and at least 1/4" thick. Looked like it was made of copper or something. So, who was gonna carry that around? How would you keep it hidden? Can't hide it in a pocket or a skirt hem! Anyhow, I think it started raining about then, so we headed back towards central station, got soaked, hid under a bridge to wait for a break in the showers, reclaimed our luggage, and got on the train to the ship. I think this is the ship we almost missed. They had already closed the doors for boarding by the time we got to the ramp that lead to the ramp that lead to the ramp that lead to the ship. They let us on. Whew! By now, I was really tired of lugging luggage everywhere we went. On this ship, we were headed to Helsinki, Finland. We opted for the cheaper cabins, without windows. It turns out that was great, because it was totally dark in our room and we slept well!

Time for a commercial break

I have no sponsors, so I can't really take a commercial break. But anyhow. I figured out why they don't have drinking fountains anywhere in Europe. You see, if you had a drinking fountain, you'd drink. If you drink, sooner or later, well, you need a toilet. So then you have to find a toilet. A WC. And when you find a toilet, then you have to find a coin. And of course you don't have any of the right coins with you, so, to save you the trouble, they haven't put any drinking fountains around. Really.

Scandinavian Vacation, Part III

Day 7: We got up early, like, way early for people on vacation. I'm talking, like, 6:30 am! Can you believe it? haha. We discovered that our shower came out in a big...no, not a gush, a dribble. And where, oh where, was the hot water? So we took the tram to the train station. We bought some (junk) food at the train station, because our train ride was going to be about 7 hrs. Something else I learned on our trip: People in Scandinavia don't use washcloths. I don't know exactly how they get clean. Hotel rooms have bath towels and hand towels. I had been resorting to using a hand towel in the shower, but it was a bit...difficult. So one of our goals when we arrived in Trondheim, Norway, was to find a washcloth. And some instant oatmeal. I'd had cornflakes, cornflakes, and more cornflakes for breakfasts so far. We found packets of hot chocolate too, a nice addition! We went to a big tall church, it was the farthest to the north Gothic church built. We climbed 172 steps to the top of the tower. It was a circular stair case, around and around, no stopping because people were behind you. In some places it was dark and you had to feel for the steps. They recommended that if you were claustrophobic or not in shape, you should not take the tour. When we got to the top we had wonderful views of the city. My legs felt like rubber when we had finished walking around the top and gone back down the stairs (yes, all 172 of them). Did I mention that they were very narrow? and slick? and it was drizzling out? Watch your step! Dinner was at the Big Horn Steak House. $638 Kroners. Wine, steak, baked potato, and peas in pods. On our way back to the hotel we walked up past the canal. Another canal! I think there were canals in every town we visited. Got ice cream at a place like 7-11, called Narvesse. $5 American dollars for an ice cream cone. Well, it was yummy. We were dripping wet by the time we got back. This dripping wetness became a theme for the next few days.

Day 8: This was the day of our Hurtigruten tour. That means, we took a taxi to a boat. The taxi dropped us off just steps away from the boat. We had a cabin on the boat, but we weren't allowed into the cabins until noon, so we carried our luggage with us and found a seat with a good view. It was very pretty, cruising right among the fjords. Looking at the map of the ship, we noticed there was a laundry. By now, my jeans really needed to be washed, as did a lot of our other clothes. It took only one wash cycle to get things clean, and there was a dryer (A dryer! The first clothes dryer I've seen since leaving Oregon!) (Well, California if you want to get technical about it, cuz my parents' house has a dryer of course.) It took about 4 cycles in the dryer to get things dry. Fortunately the dryer was free. The washer cost $4 and included a tablet of soap. Our cabin had a bed, and a drop down bed, and a window, and its own bathroom. Lunch was roasted chicken with fries and a salad. Dinner was steak with fries and a salad. We slept very well. No motion sickness at all. Rob was up and down the stairs so many times, taking pictures of everything. We arrived in Bergen, Norway around 2:30 the next afternoon. (I just can't get used to saying "we arrived at 14:30.") Oh, and I forgot, we arrived in Olesund at midnight while we slept, sort of. Rob claims he woke me up and had me look out the window, but I have no memory of it. I tried to stay awake, really, but after so much walking, I was sleeping very well on our vacation. So far. (dum-dum-dum...)

Day 9: Bergen is a cool town! We got off the boat, and walked up and hill and down the other side (sorry, it didn't turn into a mountain). Going down the other side was the crookest road in the world. I mean, it had like 7 switchbacks on it! Later that day we saw a car driving up it. Not fun! We went to the CANAL area, and shopped for a keychain. There were fresh fish and fruitstands, where I got a cup of strawberries and Rob got a cup of raspberries. Wow, they were very good! The shops were amazing. They are so old, they are crooked. There were really narrow alleys in between. We went up some stairs that were really crooked. We walked a lot that afternoon, then went to Egon's again, cuz it sounded familiar and the prices were reasonable. Slept at the Augustin Hotel. A small room, but by now we didn't care.

Scandinavian Vacation, Part II

Day 4: We got up fairly early to catch a train, another train, and a boat to Goteborg (Gothenburg), Sweden. Using public transportation to get everywhere is pretty easy, and healthy in that you have to walk a lot. And you can get a bit wet. Silly us, going North for vacation. We wanted to go to a Chinese Restaurant for Shabu, but it was closed for a private party. We walked around a bit. It was a sunday, so a lot of shops were closed. We ate at a pub, and I had surprisingly good chicken Caesar salad. Instead of grated parmesan cheese on top it was more like sliced. But tasty. We walked a ways, past some water and some parks. There were lots of kids there, from everywhere. Wearing team jackets, soccer gear. It turned out the Gothia Cup soccer championships were happening the next day. We had a very nice hotel room, and got to sleep in the next day.

Day 5: Got up late, checked our luggage at the hotel we'd stayed in, then roamed around town. Went into a craft store. Learned they are called hobbyshops here. It was a bit chilly and threatening to rain. Did I mention that 7-11 is everywhere? That's good, because they provided lunch for us often. Usually a hotdog for me, and Rob got lots of different things. After walking up to some sort of plaza we ducked into the public library for awhile. Found a free toilet to use. In many places we have to have 5 kroners or 2 euros or whatever to use a toilet (don't call it a bathroom here!) or WC. We went to a tapas restaurant for lunch, and basically had dinner there. Our bus was leaving at 5:30, and wouldn't arrive in Oslo until 9:35 pm. We had a very pretty hotel in a residential area. We actually splurged on a taxi to take us there, since it was so late at night. We got in our room around 11 pm, and went to bed.

Day 6: We got up late and walked around the Oslo Central Station area. Picked up tickets for our train ride the next day. We walked up and down the streets to the town hall. By the way, I don't think I have seen a drinking fountain anywhere since I left Oregon. I learned to usually carry a bottle of water with me. When I forgot, we had to go somewhere to buy a bottle of water, usually around $5 by US standards. It's crazy! Lunch at 7-11. Dinner at Egon's. The nice thing about Egon's is that you go up to the counter and order your dinner, tell them your table number, and pay for it then. A waiter brings your food to you. If you order white wine, you get a glass of water for free. If you order soda, beer, or red wine, sorry, you are out of luck. I don't like soda at night, I can't generally drink beer, and I really dislike red wine. So I drink a glass of white wine with dinner, whatever kind is their "house" wine. I got to eat spareribs and fries. The salad was a bit odd, they like to put their hot food right on top of the salad, so often the salad is wilted. Oh well. We slept again at the Gabelhus Clarion.

Scandinavian Vacation, Part I

Day One: We took the UBahn from a nearby corner to the SBahn to the airport. About an hour's trip. Then we flew from Munich to Frankfurt, and from there to Copenhagen. Got on a train, and went to our hotel. Our first room smelled much like a cigarette, so we asked for another room. Much better smelling. It was a bit small, tho. I could just barely touch both walls at the same time. It was cool, tho. Very old and pretty hotel. Just for reference, it was the Hotel Opera. We walked up to the canal to search for dinner. The canal area was very pretty, with colorful buildings, boats, and pedestrians. We ate at a restaurant with a 17 in its name. Watched a hooker make a date with a man.

Day 2: we walked all over. Saw lots of shops, bought my first souvenir, a keychain with a viking helmet on it. I've decided that I will collect a keychain from each country I visit this summer. It's simple and won't take up much room. Then we wandered down to Tivoli Gardens. We bought tickets to go on some rides. Eventually our feet got tired so we found the train to go back towards our hotel. We rested awhile and then went out walking again. This time we walked over a bridge, towards a big pretty tower, a park, a museum, etc. Rested again, and then went in search of dinner. We went to a Mexican place. We noticed pretty quickly that if you don't want to inhale smoke, you have to sit inside where smoking isn't allowed. Got some Ben and Jerry's ice cream on our walk back to the hotel.

Day 3: Got up early to catch a train. It was a little over a 3 hr ride. We arrived in Arhus (the A needs a little circle over it), which is still in Denmark. We dropped off our luggage and then took a city bus to a viking museum. We couldn't figure out how to buy a ticket, so we just sort of snuck a ride on the way there. (In Denmark, you enter the bus thru the back door, and they trust you to have a ticket). In the museum, we saw the body of a really really old man, who had been discovered in a peat bog in fairly well preserved condition. It was a little bit gross. They had some rune stones on display, so here is a picture of my favorite one. Guess where we ate dinner? On another canal! This time it was more of a family restaurant. We started noticing that lots of families have 3 children. No more, no less. Don't know why. But they are all so blonde haired and blue eyed. And tall. All the people are tall! I thought they'd all be skinny too, but we saw our share of pudgy people. Walking up and down the streets, going into shops, we were able to use English usually. Whenever I heard someone else speaking English in an American sort of way I'd listen, just because it is so nice to hear. We went to bed at the Scandic Plaza Arhus Hotel.

I'm back!

We just returned from our Scandinavian vacation. I'll get photos up soon. My observations: Will Smith, McDonald's, and grafitti are everywhere. Toilets flush in all different ways. Showers turn on in all different ways. Every town has a central station where you can get the tram, train, or bus. Ferry boats don't have a lot to do on them. Travel by train is fairly pleasant. Hotels in Stockholm are tricky. More soon!

...and the kitchen sink

So, Rob didn't tell me about this before I arrived. Half of the kitchen sink is above the clotheswasher. This I knew. The middle portion tho has this little pass thru slot straight to the trashcan. Very handy for food prep. This is what it looks like:

And what about the meatballs last night? Well, they turned out pretty good. One of the sauces was very garlic-y, like, with huge chunks of garlic. But it was good. Really. We'll have it again tonight because tonight is leftovers night.

And now for something different. Tomorrow we fly to Copenhagen. Then we go to Arhus, Fredrikhavn, Goteborg, Liseberg, Oslo, Vigeland Park, Trondheim, Bergen, Oslo, Stockholm, Helsinki, Tallinn, Stockholm, and finally, Munich. We'll fly, take train, take boat, take bus, walk, take train, take boat (and sleep on boat), walk, fly, ferry (sleep on ferry), walk, ferry (sleep), and fly. We'll be gone until the 25th, but I will try to update with pictures when we are at hotels with internet service. We aren't bringing computers, but we'll have our cell phones with us. By the way. I found Snuggle fabric softener today. Yay! Soft sheets for our return!

Meatballs

So my goal for dinner is meatballs. That means locating ground beef, tomato sauce, breadcrumbs, and various herbs. Ground beef is pretty easy. It's meat that looks ground, and it should have some version of "rind" on it--that means beef. For tomato sauce, well, last time I ended up with tomato puree, so I was more careful this time. I found two boxes. One says, "Tomato al Gusto--Arrabbiata" and the other says, "Tomato al Gusto--Lasagne." Either one should work. Do I want "pikant scharf" or "mit krauten & knoblauch?" Maybe a combination of both. One box has pictures of peppers and tomatoes, the other one has pictures of garlic, something leafy like basil, and a tomato. I'll probably combine the contents and see what I get. The last part. Breadcrumbs. Last week I found some gluten free bread. Good start. But how to make crumbs? It's shaped like a breadstick, so it has a lot of crust. Without a food grinder or blender, these are the steps I've taken.
1. Try a cheese grater. Rub the bread up and down across the grater. Not much result.
2. Use a pair of scissors to cut the bread into smaller pieces. Okay, now what?
3. Try one of those handheld blenders they use to make milkshakes. Lots of noise, breadcrumbs jump out the top no matter how carefully I try to cover the opening. Still big chunks of bread left.
4. Try the scissors again
5. Alternately curse and whimper
6. Maybe a knife now that I have small chunks?
The good news is, Rob's not going to be home for dinner. Whatever I come up with, I'll happily eat. Oh, and no luck with fabric softener. Maybe another store will have it.

Vittel

I don't know what that means. It was on the TV screen when I turned it on. The one channel I watch is Eurosport. They covered all the volleyball olympic trials, cycling, boxing, soccer, and some sort of biathlon performed on long skates. Today I am determined to find some fabric softener. It takes awhile to wear the crispness of line drying out of your jeans, and I really want to wash the sheets from our bed, and have soft sheets rather than sandpaper to put back on. Another thing I'd like to find is baking soda to put in the fridge to absorb odors. Rob bought some smelly cheese awhile back and its smell still lurks.

Oh my goodness! I just hit enter and I got a new paragraph. Woo hoo! So now I want to enter a photo here, and have you guess what it is:

Do you give up? Hint, it says, "Duravit." Actually that's not really a hint because I can't figure out how it relates. It makes me think of long lasting vitamins. I'll post a picture further down of the object of this photo. I've also got some pictures of the things I eat:

So, we have no containers to put things like sugar in, so we close the bags with clothespins. It works. Every breakfast is oatmeal and orange juice. I found some gluten free crackers at the "reformhaus" and a cheese spread at "Herties" so that is lunch. And usually some sort of fresh fruit from a stand. There are fruit and veggie stands everywhere I walk, so that's no problems. The only broccoli I have found is at "aldi" and I have only been there in the car with Rob, so I'm not sure where it is. I'd like to walk there and get some. I haven't made anything with cocoa in it yet, but I am determined to make some brownies soon. And finally, here is what the earlier picture is from:

You never woulda guessed that!

Tomorrow...the kitchen sink

the Zoo

We went to the zoo today. We rode our bikes, because it wasn't very far from our apartment. It was all downhill on the way there, along streets bordered with big trees. We paid our admission ($9) and went in. No one collected the tickets, but you just have to carry them with you in case. The zoo was a lot different from the zoos I've been to. Almost all of the displays had no chain link fences. A person could just climb over the 2 foot high bars or rails, and swim or wade across the moats and go to the animals. But no one did. We saw flamingos, which weren't really pink, more of an orange. We saw bison, and elk, polar bears, penguins, elephants (brown ones and gray ones) wolves, tigers, lions, and all sorts of orangutans and birds. The tiger was the scariest thing, because he was only 3 feet from us, and the only animal behind heavy looking bars. He growled and lunged at people. By the time we were leaving the zoo, we had been walking for 3 hours. It began to thunder, as it does most afternoons. It began raining just as we left, so we had to bike home in the rain. However, the big canopy of trees along the road protected us from most of the moisture. Once home, we rested for awhile. Then we went to dinner. We decided to go for Italian. There is an Italian place right at the end of our street. I got a pizza (I'm planning to stay home tomorrow) and Rob got sambullaca or something like that. We had Bruschetta. wow. That was really good! Just before we left, a man paid his bill and then left, and his wallet was still on the table. We were able to catch him. Also, someone at the zoo dropped a hat, and we yelled "hallo, hallo" at them until they stopped and we could give it to them. And at the bathroom, there was a line of women, and I saw that there were two empty stalls around the corner, so I said "zwei" and pointed, and they got the message. For my limited (very) skills in German, I felt pretty good!

july 5

Today we went to the fabric store. I'm not sure what the name of it is, but we finally found one. Fabric here. My gosh! A meter of plain brown cotton fabric was $12 Euros! That's like, $16 per yard in the US. I also had to buy a rotary cutter and ruler because I apparently didn't send one here. The cutter: $17 Euros. The ruler: $15 Euros. Wow. What else? I haven't driven yet. The car is a stick shift, the streets are narrow, everyone drives fast, and there's nowhere to park anyhow when you get there. I tend to walk to the markets. There are fresh fruit and veggie stands everywhere. They have wonderful cherries, and apricots that actually smell and taste like apricots! There is a store I go to for meat, which costs a lot more than in Oregon, but beef and chicken is good. The milk, I haven't really tried yet. It comes in a box on a shelf, in the unrefrigerated section. I've used it in hot chocolate, but not on cereal yet. Mostly I eat oatmeal every morning. And orange juice. Lunches--I've found some gluten free crackers at "reformhaus" and I found a pimiento cheese spread. I even found some Dr Pepper, but it costs $1.15 Euros per bottle, so it's more of a luxury. Tonight for dinner Rob made his famous orange chicken. Unfortunately, it would have been better if we had realized that vinegar here is 5 times the strength of vinegar there. The chicken tasted a bit pickled. My mouth felt a bit pickled too. Otherwise, it was good! We have taken a bike ride and many U-bahn rides, which is the underground train system. We rode our bikes to a big outdoor market last Saturday. We took the Ubahn to get to the sewing machine store. We didn't know that the shop actually had customer parking so we carried the machine in its big box all the way home on the train, and then had to walk several blocks. Oh! I hear a reminder of something else that is different here. We don't have window screens. We don't have air conditioning. So we have the windows open a lot. We get moths and little bugs, but no birds or bees yet. My mom told me that when her sister lived in Germany years ago, birds used to fly in and take butter off their table. Our butter dish is covered. No worries. Then my dad mentioned bats. I hope we don't have bats. Ok, that's all for this post. I have to figure out how to do paragraphs. It's not just a return. Perhaps Meg can tell me.

House cleaning in Munich

Today I learned how to use a German vacuum. And I cleaned a German toilet. The water is so hard here that when Rob drinks tea his pure white coffee cup turns dark brown.