Lab dancers

It's funny how one can see something all the time and not really see it. I was walking past one of the table dance places in Kaiserslautern (which is in the middle of a business and residential area and is not unusual here).

Their sign finally registered with me and I started giggling.

Lab dancers? I am envisioning scientists, taking a break from doing experiments, and dancing around in their lab coats. Just for the record: what I'm envisioning is PG rated and looks like a GAP commercial and not an adults-only type of thing.

The other thing I envision is a bunch of Labrador Retrievers dancing around. That's also PG rated.

March's Kaiserslautern in Bloom

During the weekend of March 15 & 16, a business association in Kaiserslautern coordinated "Lautern blüht auf," which means something along the lines of "Kaiserslautern is blooming" or "in bloom." I had gone the year before and wrote about it here. I didn't realize that the event is more than just Sunday shopping.

Primroses were available throughout town but this festival is more about the city waking up after winter. Stores were open on Sunday for the special open Sunday shopping and downtown was packed with shoppers in a celebratory mood. Marching bands provided some musical entertainment. Here's a group dressed like...Renaissance pirates, perhaps?

There was also a car show parking along the main shopping street. Strangely enough, it seemed that most were American muscle cars. Down the road from there, a bouncy house for children was set up. I also heard that there was a petting zoo set up somewhere downtown but I didn't come across it.

This program made for a fun day out on a Sunday, when downtown is usually more deserted because stores are normally closed. It was also a fun way to celebrate the upcoming spring.

Store review: Vitamingarten, Kaiserslautern

Vitamingarten

Pfaffplatz 16

67655 Kaiserslautern

Near the Pfaffplatz, Vitamingarten is a grocery store with Turkish, German, Asian, and Baltic specialties. Many interesting and tasty delights await inside, and this store will be particularly of interest to those looking for wheat-free grains and flours.

There is a great diversity of products even though this grocery store isn't super huge (I would say that it's slightly smaller than the Rewe City). For those who are looking for alternatives to wheat flour, this store has plenty of offerings. I saw rice flour, cornflour, chickpea flour, and polenta, just to mention a few.

In addition to the different flours, there are many other dry goods including beans, spices, cornstarch, wheatstarch, and many other things. There are rows of canned and pickled vegetables. There is even peanut butter, available in both creamy and crunchy versions. It even has the American flag on it, so it has to taste good, right? Okay, I have no idea if it does or not.

Let's not forget the specialties from other countries. Here's some Turkish Delight, for example! I've tried some while I was in the US (maybe not the best place to sample it) and I don't understand why Edmund basically sold his soul for some in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, but whatever.

Also on offer is a selection of fruits and vegetables with standards such as apples, carrots, onions, etc. as well as some slightly less common ones like cactus (would that count as a vegetable? I guess I don't know for sure). I've found the produce section to be a bit hit or miss; sometimes it's not the freshest.

In the back of the store there is a butcher's counter with meats and sometimes fresh fish. There are also olives and delicious cream cheese type spreads with herbs. Farther along the back wall there is a refrigerated section with dairy items and even huge vats of feta cheese. The freezer section has interesting items like lumpia, phyllo dough, Turkish savory snacks meant to be fried or baked (pide, etc.). Or, do you need 10 kilograms (22 pounds) of mayonnaise? It's available in that section, too!

There is a small selection of personal care items across from the giant buckets of mayo. Moving to the front of the store near the cash register, one can find different types of bread, including pita bread.

There is a little bit of everything here. A visit to Vitamingarten is an international adventure with many interesting things to buy and try.

Roadside Candy Machines: Kaiserslautern

On Pirmasenser Strasse at the corner of Humbold Strasse in Kaiserslautern. Feeling springy? Get the catapult frog (Katapult-Frosh).

Manneken Pis is not welcome in Kaiserslautern

...at least this sign in downtown Kaiserslautern would make it appear so, with the little guy crossed out:

The sign actually says "Cultural heritage: no open pissoir!"

In other words, "people, quit using the alley as a bathroom!" Phew. For a minute there I thought that Kaiserslautern didn't like Manneken Pis.

Siegelbach Easter Egg Market Visit

Some friends and I took a trip to Siegelbach, just up the road from Kaiserslautern, for their Easter egg market on Saturday, 22 March at the Westpfalz-Werkstätten. For an admission fee of just one euro, we visited the small market, ate delicious cake, dyed eggs, and enjoyed ourselves.

I had attended a much bigger market in Seglientstadt the weekend before. This market, the Ostereier Market, was much smaller with 18 vendors versus the former's 60. However, it was enjoyable in a different way: it had a homey, small-town festival feel.Vendors were selling eggs with traditional patterns; eggs with hyper-modern, geometric patterns; eggs drilled with designs; blown glass art; stained glass; sewn Easter decorations; and even wooden eggs. There was a small, very earnest display of decorated eggs and egg holders.

One vendor sold personalized eggs; in a few minutes he finished an egg with the recipient's name and a design for three euros per egg.

Another booth offered the opportunity to dye boiled eggs. We each forked over a euro and were given an egg. It was a really cool way to decorate them: we picked either a cut out design on a piece of paper or a fresh herb, wrapped it around the egg in a (new) piece of pantyhose, closed it with wire, and stuck it in a pot of dye. After a few minutes, the dye was set and the egg freed from the pantyhose to show the finished, decorative product. We had a fun time interacting with the ladies working at the booth. They didn't exactly speak English and we are all beginners in German but we got our point across and laughed together. No matter what language it is in, I am totally incompetent with crafting. As I was desperately trying to wrap the egg in the pantyhose, the kind lady at the booth took the egg and showed me a better way to wrap it (I had it totally wrong).

Beautiful eggs: not made by me!

Herbs, paper cutouts, pantyhose, and wire: egg-dyeing supplies!

We had another fun experience with the glow blower. As we approached his booth, he said something welcoming to us in German. We stared at him, mystified. We all speak some level of German, but that doesn't mean that we always understand everything! Seeing our confused looks, he then asked if we were German (in German). We said no and he asked us where we were from in English. He was amused that we were all from different countries and wondered if we had met online. I found that comment pretty funny and astute, as that is often the case for expats! He was super friendly and said he wanted to make a gift for one of us. We nominated S and he made her an adorable, tiny mouse with ears the color of her country's flag. What a sweet guy he was! 

Next, we decided to enjoy some cake in the cafeteria. Two of us wanted cake with fruit on it but the pricing was a bit confusing because cake with fruit was one price and tortes were another. We weren't sure at which point the cake became a torte and neither was the lady working at the cash drawer as we bumbled through English and German trying to figure this out. The end result was that all of us, including the cashier, were giggling and we finally decided on a price. The cake was absolutely delicious and a steal at 1.50 euro, a sweet ending to our fun with the vendors.

A Visit to the Kuseler Handels & Handwerksmesse

On Sunday I was in the Kusel area so I decided to stop by the Kuseler Handels & Handwerksmesse. What is such an event? Well, it's a trade show and craft show held in downtown Kusel. It reminds me of a small version of the Maimarkt held in Mannheim, which I attended last year but haven't even gotten around to writing about yet (oops!).

It was a nice little diversion. The trade fair was hosted in three tents and featured booths by local businesses and organizations. One tent was filled with happy attendees listening to music, drinking beer, and eating sausages.

In the other tents I saw heating and cooling companies, window companies, banks, and even the tourist bureau for the Pfalz (the region in which Kaiserslautern and Kusel are located). The latter was my favorite booth because of all the free flyers and maps of things to do in the region. I grabbed some information about biking, camping, and hiking in the area.

Even better yet than the flyers? There was a "Draisine" in the booth:

What is this glorious contraption? Well, apparently its German name is the same as the English term and it's similar to a handcar which is driven by human propulsion on rail tracks. This particular drisine is pedal-powered. Even better yet? These can be rented for sightseeing in the region! There are even electric powered ones and party-bus (party-drisine?) ones available for rent. Rentals start at 36 euros and more information is here.  And, despite what it sounds like, none of that was an ad or sponsored in any way. I just thought I'd share the info since it seems really cool! I might give it a try, myself; I envision some friends and lots of wine for an adventure with such a contraption.

After seeing the drisine, I wandered outside and came across people "hanging out" in harnesses on a utility vehicle. It was a local tree trimming service, allowing attendees to see what it was like to be suspended from the lift.

In the "handwerk" portion of the event, crafters sold their wares in the courtyard. There were many sewn items, including a lot of owl-related merchandise. I guess owl prints are "owl" the rage right now? Har har.

As I was walking around, I could smell what reminded me of burning hair. I was wondering what on earth it could be. As I turned the corner, I found out: a farrier demonstrating shaping horse shoes for a patiently waiting horse. I felt a bit silly that I didn't recognize the smell as I had been an avid equestrienne. However, in all fairness, I stopped shoeing my own horses more than a decade ago as I have found many benefits in doing so.

To clarify about the smell: it results from the process of hot shoeing. In hot shoeing, the farrier works the shoes over a forge, heating them up. As he works on them, he presses them to the horse's just-trimmed hoof to check the fit and make adjustments as necessary. Since the shoe is hot, it burns the hoof a little bit and the smell results. There is no worry about the hot shoe touching the outside wall of the horse's hoof; it's not painful as this area is similar to the part of a human's nail that is above the nailbed. The other type of shoeing is cold shoeing, in which the farrier doesn't heat up the shoes to fit them to the horse.