Kaiserslautern Stadtteilfest: May 13, 2017

On Saturday, May 13, the tenth annual Stadtteilfest will occur in Stadtpark in Kaiserslautern. It's basically a city festival in which community organizations set up booths in the city park. They are available to answer questions about what they offer. Some sell food, books, or rummage sale items as a fundraiser. Gardening enthusiasts will find a plant exchange. Bring a plant, take a plant.

Where: Stadtpark Kaiserslautern (Pirmasenser Strasse 62 is a nearby address)

When: 1100-1800

1900: concert with Shaian

2100: open air movie theater showing Paulette

My week: May 22 ed.

I spent the beginning of the week finishing up the trip in Sofia. During the trip, my feet were very sore. It didn't help that I wore some flat shoes but I find it so hard anyway to find shoes with good arch supports that aren't tennis shoes. I haven't been able to find any supportive shoes that don't look nerdy/touristy so I wore my other shoes. Anyway, A. suggested that I get orthopedic inserts for my regular shoes (if that isn't nerdy...). Since we walk anywhere from 5-15 miles a day and I already have arthritis and back injuries from a car accident (and I'm not that old), I decided it wouldn't hurt to take her advice. I stopped by the local orthopedics/shoe store and they had me stand in a box of foam like they use in floral arrangements. For 80-100 euros, I'd have shoe inserts a week later. I could have tried to get my health insurance to pay but that would've involved a trip to the doctor (and they love to get xrays or MRIs of my messed-up back) and copays so I figured it would just be cheaper to pay cash for the inserts.
Work was busy again since it was the week before the launch of our system update.

On Saturday, I attended the Stadtteilfest, which is a community festival held in the Stadtpark in downtown Kaiserslautern. Local organizations set up booths to disseminate information and also sell food or donated items as a fundraiser. The weather was sunny and the park beautiful with spring flowers.

These events are very enjoyable; old and young alike participate, whether it's kids coloring at the social club's booth or elderly men showing their model ships they've built. As I was walking around, I heard "heeheheheee!" and saw an elderly lady, assisted by her elderly gentleman friend, trying out the slackline. She was having a great time.

I was thrilled to visit the Fairness booth and find homemade Syrian falafel. Can I just say that while I love falafel, the ones made from frozen stock that are sold at kebab shops just don't do it for me? It's awesome when the mix is made fresh and the cook uses an ice cream scooper-esque utensil to make the falafel balls. 

There was another booth that supported Teachers on the Road, an organization that drums up volunteers to help refugees learn German and navigate life in Germany. They were offering, for a donation, various dips and some homemade Afghani bread. I was very interested in that and waited to buy some. The German volunteer running the booth was a bit flustered; she was probably filling in for someone. As she was trying to arrange a container for the food I ordered, a crusty old guy from the shipbuilders wanted to know who was in charge. He was scowling fiercely and I thought, oh, great, is he going to say something rude about refugees? All was well; he actually was Herr Doktor Sowieso and he wanted to help teach the refugees German. He just had what I call "resting old man grumpyface" and felt very strongly about helping newcomers assimilate. Good for him!

As I continued through the park, I was excited to see people playing a game similar to what I know as Sjoelbak, which is a Dutch style of table shuffleboard. My mom's family is Dutch and we compete seriously with this at our family reunion (you can win the magnificent fake crystal saucer and cup glued together trophy-thing). My brother even builds these for other family members. Anyway, the German one looked a bit different but the concentration and determination of the players was recognizable.

I was reading my blog entry from last year when I attended the Stadtteilfest and the similarity was funny. This is what I wrote in 2015: "I stopped by the Terre des Hommes bike market, the Stadtteilfest, Fairness (a thrift store I've been wanting to visit), picked up a few odds and ends for groceries, looked for henna to buy (with no luck so far),  cleaned the house, baked cupcakes, took a nap (definitely needed it after all the running around), and volunteered at the Tanztee."

This year, I did almost all the same things except for looking for henna (I finally found some), baking cupcakes, and volunteering at the Tanztee. Am I creature of habit or what?

On Sunday, I hosted a potluck for one of the social groups. Moo was at first very excited to welcome guests but then I think he was worn out so he reclined on the couch with a slightly disconcerted expression of wishing to take a nap but everyone was partying. We had a fun time and even engaged in a spirited discussion of Indian/Pakistani sweets. At one potluck, my friend had brought barfi, which is kind of like a South Asian "fudge," so to speak, and we loved it. We wanted to know where to buy it in Germany and some of the guys were in the know. The local Asian store, Tam Asia, orders it from an Indian sweets shop in Frankfurt and receives it once a week and the guys gave the lowdown on when to buy it. I love the network of knowledge in our group.

Moo says: party was fun but I'm tired now so please go home.

It's (the end of) Maimarkt Mannheim time!

This weekend, I visited the Maimarkt in Mannheim, which is a huge and awesome trade fair, horse show, home builder expo, and more, all wrapped in one. It still goes on for two more days, until May 10. It's definitely worth a visit, despite my lateness in writing about it ;) The other cool thing is that for 9,50 euros, one can buy not only a ticket to the event, but it also allows for travel in the VRN transportation system for free.

Maimarkt website

This is a more in-depth review of it that I wrote in 2014. I still feel the same way!


--

This year, I went with A and we looked all over for the Waldmeiser (woodruff) soft serve ice cream that I always like to get at the market. We couldn't find it, but did eat Lebanese food at the African Village, another custom. Following that, we watched the show jumping competition. I also picked up a very nice Wusthof knife, a gift from my mother. Since my little cheapie knives at home don't make preparing food for my education in cooking any easier, it's a very welcome addition to the kitchen!

My week: March 6 ed.

I lost some hair this week, pre-gamed wine on a train, practiced German, and came home with a load of inexpensive German books. Sounds good, eh?

-To put the hair loss situation in context: I stopped by for a much-needed haircut. I think the last time I got my haircut was in November and it was so dramatic to see all of my hair on the ground at the salon. Now my mane is a bit more under control ;)

- Apparently I wasn't listening very closely in German class. The teacher last week was a substitute and we have our regular guy back. While I like both teachers, I dig the guy's style especially.

I also met up with my original tandem partner and we howled with laughter over what we believe (and hope) is her misunderstanding of a new acquaintance's profession. She created a special lesson for me this week after I hit a "rock-bottom" feeling of language learning last week, in which I bemoaned my stupid accent when I speak German and my pitiful vocabulary (oh so dramatic, I know). We practiced pronunciation and she taught me some new words. She is such a sweet and helpful person.

-I traveled to Neustadt to meet up with friends C+K. We enjoyed some wine at their apartment, then some wine on the train, and made friends with another train passenger, a retiree who was drinking his beer. We found common ground in that we both wore wine glass holders around our necks. C gave him the rest of the bottle of wine that we had been enjoying, after exacting a promise that he would not be offended by the Badisch wine showing up in the Pfalz. Such is life as one takes the train to wine festivals in the Pfalz.

The terminus of our wine-soaked journey was the Bad Dürkheim Weinbergnacht (wine mountain night). I attended last year (read allll about it here) and felt rather darn cool to show up with my special wine glass holder-necklace-purse-thingie that the nice lady from last year gifted me. You know, it was as if I actually belonged.

It's funny to return to events which are now becoming traditions for me. Last year, I went with the two S-es and didn't drink that much (we still had fun). This year, I showed up after already enjoying some beverages and felt a bit more unfocused, but we powered through the light rain, dodging mud as well as we could. (In other words, when I got back, I thought, dang, my boots and the bottom of my trousers are muddy!)

The three of us sampled various regional cuisine and snagged some wine, of course. I knew the score this year after having many wine sampling tickets left year; I suggested that we only buy two tickets for the three of us, and I brought the wine glass I already had. Since we had pre-gamed on the train, we had tickets left and used them to "purchase" a bottle of wine to go. We were apparently two tickets short but K made sad puppy dog eyes and the booth employee was kind enough to let her have the bottle anyway.

-It was the weekend of the annual Pfennigbasar, a charity rummage sale to benefit local organizations. I'm happy with what I bought, the price I paid, and that the money went to charity. I picked up three pairs of jeans for 4,50 euros and an armful of books in German for 50 cents a piece, including some on my favorite local topic, hiking in the Pfalz. I was also in the need of books to practice German and was able to find a YA book that I've read in English. My main problem was finding books that looked interesting but were short enough that they won't take forever to read. I'm willing to buy secondhand books that don't suit perfectly because I can't justify buying new books for practice when I'm going to mark them up with definitions.*

One day, I volunteered at the sale and mostly spoke German. It was funny when Americans would come up to the booth and nervously ask me if I spoke English; this was my life when I first got here. 


*I come from a family that does not write in books, especially because we normally would borrow books from libraries. My niece found an old book of her father's. As a toddler, he had scribbled in it. She showed it to her grandmother and in a disdainful, 3 year old tone, stated, "we do NOT write in books." Good kid! As I'm trying to learn German, I'm going to put aside this rule with the practice books.

My week: May 31 ed.

Whew! May just blew by for me. There were a lot of things happening this month, with a work trip, several trips for fun, a holiday weekend trip to Budapest, and the departure of my good friend/colleague C. The month ended as such...

-I arrived home late on Monday night from Budapest. The next day, I felt rotten in the morning, experiencing flu-like symptoms. I nursed myself back to help with OTC meds and managed to make it through the workday but I felt quite awful.

-The next night, C came over to stay until her upcoming move on the weekend. We had a girls' night in with vegetarian food from a fave Heidelberg restaurant, followed by macarons (both items she thoughtfully brought), an epilator demo (and some wine because really, who comes up with such a dumb idea without wine?), and making handmade, non-toxic lotion bars from natural ingredients. We're weirdos and the strange chain of events suited us well ;)

-We saw the new Pitch Perfect movie. I'm not really a big fan of American comedies but we were just going to see our German actor/comedian crush, Flula Borg. The movie indeed was dumb with crude and base humor, but hey, there was Flula, so that counts for something.

-It was a whirlwind of goodbyes for C. We planned a farewell lunch with some people in our building, then a cake reception for everyone in our division. Our coworker S made another fantastic carrot cake and decorated it in an exciting way, surpassing even the awesome cake she made for my birthday last month. We also went out for dinner and drinks one evening for further celebrations with C. Phew! C has been my closest friend here in Germany and I'm sad to see her go, but she has an excellent new opportunity so I'm happy for her about that. We have already have plans for a road trip next year so it's "see you later" instead of "goodbye."

-After I drove C to the airport, I came home and took the train to Neustadt an der Weinstrasse to spend some time with my other friend C and his partner, K. They welcomed me with a delicious dinner of Spargel wrapped in savory pancakes and covered with Hollandaise sauce. It was excellent and I felt very spoiled to be eating the area's favorite spring dish prepared by awesome folks.

The next day, we visited Erpolzheim for the Kulinarische Wanderung um Obst, Spargel und Wein (Culinary Hike around Fruit, Asparagus, and Wine). It's in the Weinstrasse region and offers guests the opportunity to hike through the Spargel fields and fruit orchards to try various regional specialties. It was both a delicious and relaxing hike. We bought some fresh, local strawberries; they made me wonder why on earth I ever bother to buy the supermarket kind because the local ones are so much better.

Following the hike, C and K dropped me off at the train station, hugging me and sending me on my way with a cactus, a gift from C, who's a huge gardening fan. It was very sweet of him; I just hope that the cactus has a good life with me (Moo and my opposite of a green thumb, I'm looking at you).

-I had a bit of time at home, so I worked on the yard, during which I started another project that has been of interest to me: learning more about foraging wild foods. I had plenty of stinging nettle plants, which are a combination of something useful and something bothersome. Egads, is it ever unpleasant to get scratched by them! However, I have read that one can eat them, make tea from them, or even create tinctures from them. I weeded the yard and brought some inside to dry and use for tea. I'll have to give an update on how that one turns out.

The afterlife of a Lebkuchen

I love love love having so many international friends. I mused in an earlier blog entry about what happens to Lebkuchen, the giant ones that one gets for one's sweetie at festivals, in their life following their initial gifting.

My friends, both Germans and expats from all over, told me the following, in an informal poll:

-hang it up
-"Either give it away, display it, or dip it in a nice chai to eat it"
-one friend he wanted to eat it but thought it might "kill the love" and also that they reportedly don't taste good
- "Girls will keep it for as long as they are in that relationship and afterwards they might through it away or it it. Boys will most likely eat it right away..... as they would probably not display it in their private appartement anyway!"
-Yet another friends said that she thought that they were never meant to be eaten but she had seen people eating them. She wouldn't recommend it though.

There you go! 

The Maimarkt starts on Saturday!

One of my favorite spring events (besides spring itself) starts on Saturday: the Maimarkt!

This is what I wrote about it last year:

Do you know where you can shop 'til you drop; try food and wines from all over the world; and see so much more? All of this is possible at the Maimarkt Mannheim, which runs until 5 May. Located near the SAP arena on the outskirts of Mannheim, it opens at 9 a.m. and ends at 6 p.m. Be sure to give yourself plenty of time to see as much as is possible; the Markt is huge!

The Maimarkt is almost 400 years old. Today, it's quite a sight to behold, with about 1,400 exhibitors. It is basically a trade show but is also so much more. Of course one can go shopping, visiting vendors who sell everything from kitchen gadgets to car insurance. If one is hungry, there is a huge international food court with wonderful things to eat and drink. Love horses? There is a show jumping and Dressage competition! There is even a neighborhood of houses at the edge of the fairgrounds. Does anyone live here? Nope; they're builders' model homes that are open for tours.

Adult tickets are 8 euros when bought at the Markt. Even better yet is to buy the ticket from a VRN ticket machine available at most train stations in the area; for only 1,20 euros more, one can also receive a round trip travel card in the VRN's service area (including Kaiserslautern) to use the train to get to the Maimarkt.

More information is available at: www.maimarkt.de

Day 1 of Lautern blüht auf

More information about the event here.

I was downtown today for a different event and had a few minutes to visit "Lautern blüht auf," an event hosted by a business association. It's a way to welcome in spring with specials from the merchants, vendors of special goods in tents, and cultural presentations.

For example, the group below presented a cheerful dance routine.

Artisans and community groups set up tents to sell wares and raise awareness of various causes.

Downtown was completely chaotic today. In addition to the Latuern event, there was a soccer match, a political demonstration, and a counter-demonstration.

Kaiserslautern in bloom 14-15 March: shopping and events

This upcoming weekend (14-15 March) is the annual event,  "Lautern blüht auf," which means something along the lines of "Kaiserslautern is blooming," is "in bloom," or is "blossoming." It is coordinated by a business association in Kaiserslautern and is a weekend meant to bring shoppers and citizens downtown for store specials, children's activities, performances by local groups, and more. There's even the special event of shopping hours on Sunday, when the stores would normally be closed.


My 2014 visit to included performances by Renaissance pirates; read more here.

2013 was all about a muppet kitty marching band and chasing down the Easter bunny; read more here.

Who knows what 2015 will bring? I'll find out and report.

If you want to attend, here is this year's flyer with the schedule and more pertinent information.

My week: March 8 ed.

Whew, was this week busy! I had German lessons, a meeting with my tandem partner, and a jam-packed weekend.

-Three of us attended a night wine hike in Bad Dürkheim, the Weinbergnacht (literally, the "wine mountain night"). We hiked up the hills above the town and sampled wine and local cuisine. A light show illuminated the vineyards. Tickets sell out every year (the coveted Saturday tickets sold out at least two weeks before the event, if not earlier) and even on Friday, we were swarmed by the crowd. Despite that, it was a lovely evening. I was envious of the people wearing special purses (for lack of better word) to hold their wine cups. Little did I know...

The three of us sat on some stone benches to eat dinner. An older woman sitting behind us was quite curious about us speaking English with various accents, turning around and asking where we were all from; we answered the US, France, and Germany. She thought that was very nice and seemed pleased to practice her English. When she was leaving, she shared how great she thought it was that international young people (har - I'm definitely not so young) were friends and gave me a handmade wine purse that she had made. How cool is that? I told her, in German, "thank you" and that she was very nice.

-I volunteered at the Pfennigbasar.  Whew, it was fun, busy, and a lot of German speaking for me! I spoke German about 60% of the time overall, and about 90% of the time with customers. I did experience a slightly awkward situation: I asked a shopper if I could help her with anything and she started telling me some involved story about...um, I think her family living in the US and them trying to buy her an expensive purse. There was something about her granddaughter and maybe not setting the dinner table. At least that's what I think she was telling me.

Since I couldn't understand the whole thing (and I didn't really want to know such personal information from someone I had only met 30 seconds before!), I just kept nodding and desperately hoping that she wouldn't ask me any questions. About eight panicked minutes later, she said she had to go and patted me amicably on the arm. I wished her a good day and thought, "my, wasn't that interesting!" She was quite nice though, but it's slightly unusual behavior for a German as it is not always customary to make small talk nor talk about very personal matters with strangers.

One of the funny things I heard this weekend: Me: "I eventually want to get a piece of cake." M, a German member of the club, eying the cake booth: "You better go now." Me: "I can wait." M, "No, you must really go and make...what do they call it. A reservation? You need to make a reservation for cake. Germans like cake, you know, and there will be none left." We looked over at the cake table, which was surrounded by Germans munching on cake, and laughed. I went and bought a piece.

Some of my friends from Mannheim visited the sale. They brought me some Turkish pastries from Pasa, which I will enjoy later.We had a laugh because Ma. of course had to buy a box for himself and as he was making his selections, he even ate a pastry while doing so, perhaps to allow himself to think better.

-I had a house guest who was a delight. She invited me to visit in the Eifel region of Germany, where she and her spouse live near a LAKE (!!!! squee!!!). I am really looking forward to a visit this summer for swimming and kayaking because this Great Lakes gal really misses lakes and rivers.

It was a great weekend. I was able to visit with friends who made special trips from out town, meet some interesting new people, and volunteer.

The Freinsheim Rotweinwanderung

On Saturday, a group of us boarded the train and headed out to the Freinsheim Rotweinwanderung, or red wine hike. It began on Friday night with a torchlit hike through the vineyards just outside of town and continued until Sunday.

From the train station, it was about a 15 minute walk through town to the vineyards. Various restaurants and wine makers set up along the path and offered regional wines and food. At the beginning, there were covered, long wagons where people could enjoy wine with friends. One wagon was rocking as the jolly inhabitants were singing and (presumably) dancing as much as is possible in such tight confines.

The wagons on the right offer a respite from the snow and a place to eat.

The event began at 11:30 a.m. and lasted until 6:00 p.m. By the time we arrived just before 3, people were in high spirits and quite merry, despite the chill in the air and the sleety snow falling. Our group perused the various food offerings, sampling the Flammkuchen (delicious) and hearty soups such as potato and pumpkin. We also saw Reibekuchen/Kartoffelpuffer/latkes, plenty of wurst, and of course, the regional specialty and Helmut Kohl's favorite thing to foist upon unsuspecting foreign visitors, Saumagen.

The hike took us up the vineyard hill where we found more stands. We availed ourselves of the Glühwein, a hot, mulled wine that was perfect to take away the chill. 6:00 came too soon for us as we reluctantly headed back to the train station.

The Rotweinwanderung is a wonderful way to experience the specialties of the Pfalz and to live like the Germans do. In other words, it means enjoying the outdoors, even though it might be snowy and cold. Dress warmly*, bring some friends, ride the train, and drink some wine. It's all part of the good life!


*If you really want to fit in with the Germans, wear Jack Wolfskin clothing ;)

Fasching season begins!

Today (technically right now, thanks to the wonders of blog scheduling!) is the start of Fasching, or Carnival season in Germany. Fasching has various names; in my area, that is its name. Other names includes Fasnacht and Karneval.

I attended the Fasching parade in Wiesbaden the first year I was here. Last year, I didn't do anything for Fasching since I was in the middle of my university classes and being sick/getting over being sick/becoming sick again. Since the main Fasching events won't take place until February of next year, I can't say at this point what I'll be doing.

To read more about Fasching, check out these tagged posts that I wrote.

Seven Ways to Enjoy Germany Like the Germans Do

Are you trying to fit into Germany and want to live life like a local? Below are some wonderful pastimes that are popular with Germans and are fun to try.

1.  Grill party. You might see this at a park, in someone’s backyard, and if it’s allowed, even on some balconies. Germans enjoy a good grill party. Often the host has the barbeque going and guests bring their own meat and share side dishes.
2. Volksmarching. This is a great way to enjoy the outdoors and you can even log your marches if you’d like. These happen all year; one of the most fun I’ve had was volksmarching in February in the snow.
3. Wine festivals. Drink some delicious wines in a beautiful surrounding and listen to German music. With the easy availability of a train ride home from most locations, everyone in the party can enjoy some of the regional specialties. 
4. Picnic in the park. Bring a bottle of wine (drinking publicly is allowed in most places), some delicious food, and a blanket to a park and enjoy a wonderful afternoon. 
5.  Party like crazy during Fasching/Karneval/Fastnacht. No matter what it’s called in your region, the time of the year just before Lent is when Germans love to party like crazy. There are parades, dances, music, and plenty of political jokes (in German, of course). 
6. Relax in the sauna. It’s usually clothing-free but entirely relaxing. 
7. Christmas markets. Oh, there is nothing else like a German Christmas market! Sip some Glühwein, wander among the vendors’ stalls, and soak in the wonderful atmosphere.

What I've been up to: October 5 ed.

This week was a continuation of my vacation with my parents and younger brother. I hope to write more about it in detail, but for now, here's the short version:

-We stayed overnight in Kaiserslautern, after just barely catching the last train home from Saarbruecken since our bus from Paris was late.

-We traveled to Ludwigsburg and visited the palace there, taking a tour completely in German. As if I didn't know this already, the tour confirmed that my grasp of German is still very basic. The tour guide was running out of time so she spoke very quickly. I wasn't sure if Carl Eugen had 300 children or 300 pairs of shoes.* The latter made more sense to me but when I inquired what he had 300 of during a lull, I learned that it was children. I wondered how he was able to get anything else done.

-Then we moved on to Stuttgart, where we attended the Canstatter Wasen, or Volksfest. It's similar to Oktoberfest. It was okay but I'm kind of over big fests.

-We took a tour of the Mercedes factory. It was free and quite interesting.

-Moving on, we stayed in Nuremberg for two days. I've been once before for class, but that visit was limited to two museums so it was good to further explore the city. My brother and I made a new acquaintance, a local guy, who was awesome and gave us a lot of information about the area.

-We attended the wine festival at Neustadt an der Weinstrasse. This was more of my scene.

-On Sunday, we visited the Roteweinfest in Ingelheim am Rhein.



*Other sources I've briefly read don't mention that many kids so I wonder if I'm still getting it wrong!

It's Frankfurt Book Fair time again!

The Frankfurt Book Messe (Fair) is being held again this week. It's the world's largest book fair and has many fascinating things for the book lover to see and do. I wrote about my experience visiting it last year; click here to read more about what I saw and did there.

The Book Fair will be open again to everyone this upcoming weekend,  11-12 October.

Frankfurt Book Fair link with more information, in English.

Oktoberfest, the easy way

Seen at C&A

Music so beautiful it could make you cry

Even though I love my life here in Germany, there are some things from home that I love and miss. Of course my family and friends from there at the top of the list. Another thing I miss are the festivals

I've attended. There are two of them that are almost perfect and feel like home for me. They both have a great vibe and amazing performers.

 

I was thinking of the festival and decided to play some music from Dixon's Violin, which brought back wonderful memories of sitting together quietly with my friends, all of us transfixed by his music. Dixon is a Michigan digital violin artist who builds beautiful, haunting music by recording what he plays live, looping it, and adding to it. He calls himself a "Musical Shaman," which is extremely apt. It's hard to put into words the feeling to be sitting in a huge group, captivated by his music, but the energy and the emotion is amazing. Plus, he's an overall nice guy, humble and approachable, with a soothing vibe.

We partied like rock stars at the Deidesheim Wine Fest

**Note: the Deidesheimer Weinkerwe (wine festival) is continuing next weekend,  15-17 August. More information is available here.**

Some friends and I took a jaunt over to the Deidesheim wine festival. We ended up partying like rock stars, but more like if one thinks about geriatric rock stars ;) It's been a busy time for each of us and after about a glass of wine each, we were all ready for a nap! This is what happens when one gets old. However, I'm not sure if that's entirely true and we didn't have any excuse because I saw a lot of adorable elderly German couples who were partying and didn't seem sleepy.

We took a 40-minute train ride to the picturesque town that is situated on the German wine street. Once there, we disembarked the train and examined booth after booth of wine and food. I settled on drinking a Hugo, which is a mix of sparkling wine, soda water, elderberry syrup, and a mint garnish. It was fantastic! Of course, I do love elderberry syrup (which I only recently learned about, and only knew about elderberries before that because of Monty Python). My friends chose wine and we also grabbed some food.

The band that seemed to play 30 second clips.

We sat near the stage, under the trees, which was quite lovely. Eventually, the band came in, dressed in tracht (i.e. lederhosen). It was the strangest thing, though: they did a few warm-ups, then left. They came back, played about 30 seconds of a song, then left again. Then they came back and played some other songs, too, but it felt as if they didn't play the entire song. It was really strange!

In addition to listening to music clips, we also took a walk around town. Deidesheim is really quite lovely, with many Weinstuben and restaurants tucked along the streets. There is also this lovely Gasthaus zur Kanne, from the 12th century. The whole time we were walking around, I was imagining what my dad's response to this town would be. I could hear him in my head saying, "Oh! This is so gezellig!" The amusing thing about that statement is that gezellig is a Dutch word and my dad isn't remotely Dutch. However, my mom's family is and for some reason, he loves that word. It does fit the town well though: it cozy, cute, and quaint. When my family comes to visit, I have to take him to this village or a similar one.

During our wanderings, we also came across another fountain with Gernot Rumpf's sculptures. He has created other fountains and sculptures throughout the Pfalz and I love his whimsical creatures. They also have some naughty jokes within them. At this fountain, visitors can stick their heads into the statue and look like an old fashioned man and woman. However, the woman is a bit different, though I'm not going to say how. You'll just have to find out for yourself.

The fountain is filled with goats. It turns out that Deidesheim has a traditional festival near Pentecost in which a goat is auctioned off. Actually, the festival seems more invested with drinking and partying, but it's traditional, eh?

Rumpf really has quite the sense of humor. He includes goat "pellets."

Rumpf's signature mouse.

My Second Autofreies Lauteral Bike Ride

Bike riders on the B270. Photo by J.

Sunday was a great day! Some friends and I grabbed our bikes (or, more accurately, 2 of the 3 bikes were mine ;) and headed out for the car-free day on the B270 road from Kaiserslautern to Lauterecken.

I did this ride last year with some friends (read about it here) and loved it. It's a day to enjoy the two-lane highway without the threat of motorized vehicles. Most people ride bicycles but we also saw rollerbladers, skateboarders, and even some unicyclists! It's a great day for all ages; we saw everything from grandparents to children along the route.

Along the way, there are food stands, oompa music dance parties, rock music parties, plenty of town fests, sausage and meat stands (lots of them!), booths with community information, and even bike repair stations. It's basically a 20 mile-long party. That's right up my alley!

We began at the Gartenschau in Kaiserslautern, the first stop, and rode along the river to join the B270. In Otterbach, we had the friendly Technisches Hilfswerk people adjust the bike seat on my old bike that J was riding and add air to my bike's tires.

Our next stop was at the hippie corner. Okay, it wasn't called that, but it certainly appealed to my inner hippie with an organic snack stand and a drum circle. We enjoyed some Holunder schorles (elderberry-fizzy water mixes) from the friendly ladies at the Bund Freunde der Erde stand, then proceeded to play drums with the welcoming drum instructor. Everyone was jamming!

My friends were hungry after all that jamming so we made a meat-packed stop. M had saumagen, which is a very typical regional meat for the Pfalz (more info here). J. gleefully announced that Helmut Kohl, a former German chancellor who was from this area, always proudly offered it to guests. We snickered as it is not something that everyone would like; M's serving of it looked like a huge hunk of meat, but she did like it. I could imagine a few international guests choking it down and trying to appear to enjoy it.

Meat fest! From left, clockwise: steak, Rotewurst, and Saumagen. Photo by J.

The next stop was my favorite: we visited with a herd of Haflinger horses on the side of the road. I fed them some delectable grass that was just out of their reach and J played horse paparazzi.

A horse enjoying some of the grass I gave it. Photo by J.

We finished the ride in Wolfstein, stopping to eat some ice cream. Originally, we had planned to bike all the way to the end, Lauterecken, but a sudden downpour of rain divested us of that idea. We loaded our bikes onto the train (which became more and more cramped with bikers) and returned home. It was a great ride! Had the rain held off, we probably would have biked back for a total of 30 miles, but the 15 mile ride was also good. Even better yet was that I was barely sore afterward, a welcome change from last year.

Weilerbach and creepy ice cream

My friend E. and I ventured forth to Weilerbach, a town between Kaiserslautern and Ramstein, for the Bauernmarkt (farmers' market) on 15 June. It was a special event with a few produce stands, local businesses, fest food, kiddie rides, a flea market, and the Sunday opening of a few businesses. It was a bit funny that it was the farmers' market and there weren't that many farmers represented by booths, but it was a fun, small festival nonetheless.

We did come across a somewhat confusing sight, though: the "California ice cream" booth. As far as I know, there is not a particular type of California ice cream. I wonder if there is a South Dakota ice cream too, or if this is a marketing idea that a German had? Anyway, check out Aunt Sam* (I guess). I find her a bit scary, and the scoop of ice cream on the left looks a little bit like some sort of alien double trunked elephant thing, eh?

Then we found this dog, which didn't make me feel any better!

I cleared those images from my mind and we enjoyed the rest of the festival.


*Slightly misshapen wife of Uncle Sam, apparently.