Deutschland

So, two weeks ago I had the good fortune to be able to visit my brother and his wife and their adorable baby in Germany. When I say "good fortune" I mean that I am lucky enough to have an extremely supportive husband who wants me to be able to travel even if it means a week-long separation and I am lucky enough to have a mother with a bad enough memory that she allowed me to fly her out to watch our boys despite the fact that they nearly drove her to insanity when she watched them last year. At any rate, I was able to go and I had a wonderful time. As you can imagine, I have a gazillion pictures which I will share over several posts, but for this first post here are some things I loved about Germany that just didn't fit anywhere else.
#1 My cute niece

Honestly, I would travel half-way across the world just to see that face. Wouldn't you?

#2 The food

So, I was a very bad tourist and did not take any pictures of the amazing food I ate, but I did take a picture of this Rhabarbersaft aka rhubarb juice that I LOVED. Other things I particularly enjoyed, all the fresh breads served with fresh meats and cheeses for breakfast, Maultaschen, crepes with banana and Nutella, fresh pastas and Spatzle and some pretty fabulous Eis. Since we ate in a fair number of Biergartens, I did try some of the nonalcholic brews. I didn't hate them, but I'm not sure I will be needing my own Stein anytime soon.

#3 Summer Bobsledding

Need I say more? A ski-lift pulls you to the top in your own little metal sled and then you fly down the mountain in a metal chute at kind of terrifying speeds. We went again and again and again.... Oh, and there were no helmets and no insurance waivers. We aren't in Kansas anymore Toto.

#4 Rittersport Chocolates

The chocolate bars say on the back "Quadratisch. Praktisch. Gut." Translation: "Square. Practical. Good." Can anything be more German? We went to the chocolate store and little museum on site at the factory.

I loved these Easter chocolate molds from the early 20th century. I've never seen chocolate deer for sale in the states.

This is the skylight between the Rittersport store and the Rittersport Kunstmuseum. Because, every chocolate factory needs its own art museum onsite. Apparently the factory workers in Europe are far more cultured than those in North America. The Kunstmuseum had a large collection of modern art which was, disappointingly, NOT chocolate themed.

#5 Haribo Gummibaren

These were already our favorite gummy bears and when I say "our" I mostly mean "Marc's" but they taste even better in Germany. It probably has to do with freshness. Some of the restaurants we ate at had a little bowl of Gummibaren instead of dinner mints. This reminded me of eating at Marc's house for the first time on a date. Marc's dad poured a large pile of gummy bears on my plate in a gesture of goodwill. Unfortunately, they were not Haribo gummy bears and I thought I would have to eat them all in order not to offend. Luckily, Marc came to my rescue. That man is a gummy eating machine. My hero.

#6. Legoland? 

So, we didn't actually go IN Legoland because we stumbled on it by accident late in the day and they still wanted 41 Euros to come in. Boo. But, just seeing the giant Legos outside of the park and hearing the "Everything is Awesome" song sung auf Deutsch made me a little giddy.

 "Alles ist super!"

#7 the Bodensee

We visited the Bodensee on my last day in Germany.

It was gorgeous...

...and charming...

...and pretty much perfect. 

When I think of Germany, this is how I will picture it.

Thank you for a beautiful week Joe and Dominika.