Apartment Update/Blogging Holiday

The hubby and I have been hard at work to get our apartment in decent shape. We've been painting, cleaning, organizing, sorting and storing things. We've come a long way and there's still more to do. A big chunk of my days recently have involved carrying stuff down to the garage to store, on days that hubby drives to work, so I don't have a car in the way of the entrance.

I mentioned before how the car is too big for the garage, right?

Yeah, it can't fit... well, actually it can fit, if we drive it all the way to the back of the garage and don't intend to get out of the car unless it's climbing through the hatchback.

You just don't think of a Ford Focus hatchback being too big for anything until you get to Germany, folks.

So no, it doesn't fit. But it looks just fine parked outside the garage. And we can see it from our bedroom balcony, which is handy if we don't remember if we locked it or not: just grab the fob and point.

It certainly was fun helping to navigate the car into the driveway in the first place a few days ago when someone partially blocked the driveway by not parking within the lines on the street. With inches (or centimeters) to spare, we made it in with zero scratches. The hubby Google translated a note to put on the car telling him to please not block the driveway.

Back to the storing - our garage is now our storage space so we've (I've) been bringing down empty boxes that will be essential to keep for the next move (giant TV box, those from new kitchen items, lighting fixtures, etc). Hubby even bought a giant plastic tarp to put down in case there is some kind of moisture that seeps inside.

We also have things down there that we just can't use because the plugs aren't right or we won't need (dining table and chairs), or things we haven't used in forever but someone insisted we bring (golf clubs). At least we have the space for all of it and didn't have to carry it upstairs. The multiple trips up and down have really been giving me quite the workout!

With those items moved out and sorted, here is what a 90% completed, clutter-free kitchen looks like:

And freshly painted dining room (the items on the floor against the wall are all ready to be put into the buffets we ordered when the rental furniture arrives):

We still have to pack up some additional boxes with miscellaneous items for the garage, with those remaining boxes in the center, but 95% of the big items are already stored.

And finally the guest bedroom, also freshly painted with linens and lamps ready for setup:

We still have to do some painting downstairs on certain spots, but all the "room" painting has been completed. The walls came out really nicely, too, even if they are just white. Soon we can start hanging our frames up, probably take another trip to Ikea for more goodies, and really get to enjoy the space.

Speaking of relaxing times, this will be my last post for awhile, but I'll resume posts again on Wednesday, June 5th. I promise a super exciting post on that day, so stay tuned!

Happy Memorial Day Weekend! Enjoy the hot weather - it's really cold here (as I write this at 8:30am, it's only 38 degrees F outside!) Brr, perfect for enjoying a cup of Harney and Sons Paris tea :-)

Burg Ronneburg

As part of my current duties, I was asked by the hubby to look around for fun weekend things to do, so on Friday I discovered a castle where they were going to have a jousting tournament on Saturday. Hubby was definitely on board so we headed over in the morning through some lovely countryside.

Just outside the castle they had tents setup for food, drinks, and medieval jewelry and costumes. While smaller than the Maryland Renaissance Fair ever could be, this one felt more authentic - it was at a castle, after all, but even the costumes were better. By better, I mean that the girls weren't showing as much skin as possible like in Maryland.

And the kids! So many kids wearing adorable medieval outfits, wielding fake swords and having a blast.

Anyway, after we looked around, we got some apfelwein and headed down to the jousting arena. They were some pretty serious mugs that I ended up holding onto the entire time so hubby could get some action shots.

Here's the jousting arena:

And they're off!

As in most tournaments, there were good guys and bad guys. Both sides were really into it, and I'd say the acting was superb. The bad guys especially were revving up the crowd, getting boos for bad behavior, it was lotsa fun.

They had to do several tests before actually going after each other. These included picking up rings as someone held them, then from the ground, then decimating a poor cabbage in half, and nailing a knight cutout to see how many times he spun around.

Before the big fight, they paused the action to allow the children to come onto the field and give ribbons to their favorite knight.

Then things got underway.... spoiler alert - the good guys won!

After it was over and we returned those heavy mugs, we got a bite to eat at a stand - this was SO good! A savory pastry bread with cream and onions, and they had chili powder on the side to kick it up a notch.

We ventured into the center of the castle where there were suits of armor. As we looked around, we realized that they also use this as a wedding venue. While hubby and I did get married at The Cloisters Castle in Maryland, this one was actually sieged upon. Too bad Maryland didn't have this as an option, wow! As we climbed higher, better views...

Really neat inside, too - I loved this armoire.

The kitchen was impressive - nice and big (apparently modern Germans didn't get the message), still with a working fireplace.

Hubby was taking a picture when a small photo-bombing German popped up :-)

We took a climbing break and headed back down.

We were going to watch the falcon show, but we didn't feel like standing around for another 15-20 minutes to wait. Instead we found a peacock!! So pretty.

At last we were able to make it all the way to the top tower for some gorgeous views of the countryside.

 It's hard to see with the clouds, but in the top right corner, that's Frankfurt in the distance.

Brace yourself for an awesome panorama!

Yay castles :-)

Preview from Jousting at a Castle!

On Saturday the hubby and I went to see a jousting tournament at a castle! So fun. Working on a longer post for Wednesday that covers the entire thing, but here are some preview pictures from the day!

rental furniture ordered!

Our housing allowance includes a set amount, and if your total rent doesn't reach that amount, there are some things you are authorized to spend the extra cash on, rental furniture being one of them. There is a store close to hubby's work that does it all, and I mean all!

If you don't see anything you like in their showroom, they have at least half a dozen catalogs of companies in Europe they partner with, in places like the UK, Belgium, and Italy. If you STILL don't see something you want, they can work with one of them to create a custom piece for you, how awesome is that?!

Since we came in well below our allowance, we had plenty of money to "spend." With an apartment that's nearly double the size of our last place, we knew we were going to need some extra stuff, including an entire guest bedroom set.

Here is what we are getting:

Master bedroom - headboard, two wardrobes (remember, there are zero closets here), a tall and skinny dresser, two bedside tables

Dining Room - table and six chairs, two buffets

Guest bedroom - bed, mattress (with a memory foam pillow top, very comfy!), two bedside tables, dresser

Extras - table to put behind the couch for extra storage (and to keep the couch from sliding around), a wardrobe to put in the entryway (for coats, gloves, hats, etc).

You can get an idea of what these items look like if you visit my Deutschland Flat Pinterest page where I've pinned the majority of what we are ordering (and some other little items from Ikea and a few other places that we have or are going to purchase). For reference, the lighter colored bedroom set is going to be in the guest room (excluding the wardrobe, which will be in our entryway), and the darker colored set is for the master bedroom. I can't wait for it all!

I am especially excited for our dining room set - it's essentially what is pictured. Super nice set from Belgium, with light blue microfiber chairs. Yay! The table has a leaf in it to extend as needed, and the buffets are going to provide so much storage for all my bulky kitchen gadgets. The smaller buffet will likely house our bar stuff as well as our bottles of wine. Once we get that setup, we can get a funky light fixture for the room to tie it all together.

This weekend we'll be painting the guest bedroom, dining room, and upstairs bathroom so everything is ready when the furniture shows up. That still won't be for awhile, but it's good to get the painting out of the way. My goal today is to get the bedroom and dining room prepped to paint, which means I have to move all the stuff I've been tossing around there, get out the paper for the floor, and put down the painter's tape along the edges. Then we can just open the paint and go for it!

And because we all like pictures, I'll leave you with this, one of our meals we had this week. If you recall from my last post there were turkey meatballs? Here they are being put to good use. They were delicious!

Happy weekend everyone!

What I've been buying and eating

Even in my tiny kitchen (which is deceptively spacious with floor to ceiling windows and the open floor plan), I can make delicious things to eat. Our grocery store is stocked with tons of amazing things that are easy to prepare/already prepared, and you don't have to know a lot of German. I really like going to grocery stores in other countries and seeing what they have. When we were in Italy last year I stumbled upon some shelf stable gelato that I packed away and stuck in the freezer when we got back home. It was SO good! We also got some chocolate biscuits that I have yet to find again.... but I will!

Using Google translate or just looking at the pictures on containers, you can get an idea of what to do. Yogurt is easy, and they're really good. Here are two of my favorites: one is banana with chocolate flakes, and the other is Greek (which isn't dense like in the US, it's light and airy) with some kind of crunchy topping.

It's obvious what this is, a chocolate roll/bread/croissant (oh yum).

And these make me laugh, because not only are they "Chicken Nuggets" but they are also "Western Style" which apparently means they are super spicy (and Germans have a skewed idea of spicy.... to them, it's more like our mild). I especially like the picture of the cowboy, in case you still weren't getting "Western" from this.

Silly. Hubby likes these granola bars, more chocolate obviously:

And these are really easy and yummy for lunch. Far and above better than any cup of noodles situation, their sauces and pasta are actually tasty, and the flavors are great. Here are broccoli and cheese sauce, and then mushroom cream sauce. I've also had the ham and cream sauce, and herb and cream sauce. Just add hot water, stir, and wait 5 minutes.

Some things, however, are not as easy to figure out.... like these, which are actually potato patties, and quite tasty. We had them last night for dinner with a little pasta sauce on the side. Mostly potato with onion and herbs. Just found the Wikipedia page too.

Tasty turkey meatballs. "Puten" is turkey.

Then we are also fans of these - chicken schnitzels, when you've just had enough of the pork version. We pair it with the sauce below (herb and cream sauce). Really easy and really tasty.

Finally, here is a shot of my first attempt at making spundekas. It didn't come out as pinky-red as you'd find in the restaurants, and I played with one of the (easier) recipes I found, but hubby said it was tasty and that he'd eat it again. That's good news, since we still have plenty of it!

So that's what the hubby and I have been munching on lately. Just wanted to let you all know that we're not really starving, and despite some of this stuff being not so great for you, we're also eating salad and fresh farm-grown veggies.

Alright - I'm off now to do some cleaning, maybe moving some boxes down to the garage, and continuing to work on our honeymoon itinerary. Oh and learning German. I found a cool YouTube channel with lessons which are a little more basic than Rosetta Stone (and actually teach you grammar rules). I also found some vocabulary worksheets I've been reading. I WILL learn this language!