February 20-24

Wednesday February 20

Today R and I took GE to Kindergarten, then rode our bikes to my friend, SL's house for coffee. On the way, we rode by my favorite little international grocery store and I just couldn't resist taking R inside even though I didn't need to buy anything. I had my camera along, so took some surreptitious photos...

"SES Supermarket Hearty Welcome" (I assume the writing below is Turkish, but I'm not 100% sure.)

Setting out the fresh produce... including exotic fruits like pomegranate, avocados, and others that I don't recognize!

The sweets when you first enter (I have to hurry through this part!): Turkish Delights, dried figs, dates and apricots, Russian, Turkish, and Mediterranean specialties! (I have yet to buy something from here, but the date and nut specialties are always calling my name...)

Olive oils of all sorts, canned tomatoes and tomato sauces with varieties of spices and herbs...

And the spices! I could just stand here and breathe and I'll be happy.

HOT chilis!

Fresh olives anyone? Fresh feta? Marinated or plain, pitted or not...

And just in case you don't like your olives fresh or you want to take some home on the plane, here are the canned sort! A whole shelf section dedicated to OLIVES!

Dried beans, lentils or rice anyone (basmati, brown, red, wild, Valencia, short grain, long grain....)? Every sort you can imagine (except French green lentils and sometimes no black beans which makes me sad, but at the moment they have them).

Fresh flat breads of all sorts. Have no idea what some of them are called (can't read the language on the packaging) and don't know what country they're from. Some are clearly baked somewhere nearby and brought in daily (the large bagel looking things are covered in sesame seeds, fresh pitas to the left and a larger sort of flat bread behind the pitas). Others are imported.

Need fresh produce for international foods? Germans only seems to use parsley, basil and chives, so the German stores stock those, but it's hard to find cilantro or mint except in itty-bitty boxes.

Fresh herbs, greens, and cabbages! Cilantro, celery, leeks, spinach, mint, bok choy...

Fresh eggs too. These have fabulous dark yolks like our eggs at home.

Oh and mustn't forget the fresh peppers and squashes!

After our little tour of the store, we hopped on our bikes and rode to SL's. She made us each a cup of foamy hot coffee and we visited for a while. She and R got to talking about knitting so, of course, we went to her work room where she makes hats, scarves and felted slippers.

Me and SL.

Big foamy coffee for my sister, R. A new knitting, felting project laid out on the table: a lined felted bag with knitted rosebuds.

Felted slippers.

Talking shop! (finely knit shawl pattern)

Hats and scarves. (@ my twin sister L: Do you like the green and purple hat?! I always think it's your colors when I see it!)

After an hour or so, we said our good-byes and took the U-bahn into Bonnzentrum. I had a babysitter coming to meet HR and ME when they came home from school so we didn't need to be back in Friesdorf until 2-ish to pick up GE from Kindergarten. We window shopped, tried on shoes (didn't get any), walked through the Marktplatz which was having its mid-week Markt and bought some apples to munch on. Saw a display of discounted winter scarves (wool and cashmere) and decided to get some (R a dark burnt orange cashmere scarf and I got a woven wool one similar to my blue one that I got for Christmas and *love*). Explored a yarn shop and a Chinese goods store (found plain canned black beans for the first time!!!) and then a children's toy shop (got some Ostheimer figures for R to take back to my niece, G). Then we headed to the Cassius Garten for lunch.

The Sterntor in the pedetrian zone.

Flowers at the flower market near the train station.

view from the flower market to the Bonn Munster church (R on the right in the tan trench and her new cashmere scarf).

Outside the Cassius Garten restaurant.

 After lunch we hit the huge toy store, Puppenkönig, for a few more little things, then picked up some groceries from the Bio Basis grocery store near the train station. We got home early enough to drop off the groceries before I headed back to the Kindergarten to get GE.

The huge Puppenkoenig toy store.

The canned black beans and minced garlic from the Chinese shop (convenience foods that are hard to find here!)

I had running group in the evening and tried to convince R to come along but after being on our feet most of the morning, she decided to stay with J and the girls. Probably a good thing because HW had dreamt up a doozy of a workout for us! He filled giant plastic pipes (about 3.5 feet tall and 8-10 inches in diameter) with some sort of sand/pebble and capped them off. We had to lift them, bring them into balance (think African "water" instrument, but much heavier), carry them up and down the steps, do squats while holding them, push-ups with one hand on the floor and one on the pipe and alternating between hands, bench press them, do bicep curls with them, full sit ups with it on our feet, crunches with it across our chests, and bridges with it balanced across our waists/hips! I'll be sore tomorrow...


Thursday February 21

R is going on an adventure by herself today. We took GE to Kindergarten then rode into Bad Godesberg. I helped her buy a train ticket to Braubach and showed her how to read the timetables and use the automated ticket machines, then waited with her until her train came. She's going to take the train via Koblenz with one change at the Hauptbahnhof. Then she'll get off at Braubach and walk up to the Marksburg castle for a tour, have lunch somewhere pretty and take the train back to Bad Godesberg and try to find her own way back to our place by bike. She has a map of Bonn for finding her way back from the train station and I wrote out the details of her itinerary. *Note: she borrowed my cell phone and called me at about 11:15 to say she'd already had a snafu. She got off at the wrong Koblenz stop (i.e. not the Hauptbahnhof, but another "Koblenz" stop), then had to try to either take another train from there or get to the train station and take another to Braubach (since by the time she realized her mistake she had missed the original train). She called again to say that when she got to Braubach she stood at the door and waited for it to open, which it didn't (!!) and then the train left the station! She hadn't realized that you have to push the green button to get the doors to open. So, she got off at the next stop and figured out how to get back but was delayed another 1/2 hour. When she called, she was finally on the path up to the castle, but it was after 1 p.m. instead of the planned 11:30!! Oh well, she'll be back for supper, I hope...
Finishing the story:  She made it home without mishap, just in time for dinner! She was only sorry that she hadn't taken my suggestion and brought a book along. I'll also have to remember to make certain things clear to my other sisters (like the button for the train door!) if they decide to go on an adventure on their own too!

Friday February 22

We took GE to Kindergarten and then rode through the Rheinallee district to the bike bath along the Rhein. This is one of my favorite neighborhoods: large stone and stucco townhouses from the early 1900's. We took our time and stopped to take pictures.

Dropping GE off at Kindergarten. GE is holding her Frühstuckstasche.

Townhouses in the Rheinallee district.

Bundled up for biking in the cold!

It was bitter cold and even though we'd dressed extra warm, I had underestimated the river effect on such a cold day! It was bitter along the Rhein.  It soon became clear that we would have to abort our plan to ride all the way into Bonn city center for lunch. Instead we warmed up with some coffee and espresso at the Maus Bäckerei in Friesdorf, picked up some groceries (including visiting my favorite organic farm store, Der Leyenhof), poked around in my favorite consignment shop in Friesdorf (I found an awesome beat-up leather student bag and another woven wool scarf!), and then dropped our stuff off at the apartment before heading out to take the train to Bonn instead. I treated R to lunch at Frittebud, my favorite greasy-spoon (vegan/vegetarian though!!). We shared the "special" pommes frittes, a salad, and an in-house veggie burger. Yum!

The Bauernhof Haus at Der Leyenhof.

The Biohof store (that's my bike with the Kindersitz and panniers.)

The bunnies in the barn.

And... Herr Schwein.

The driveway path leading from the store back to the street.

 

Inside the store.

Fresh veggies!

Organic breads and cheeses.

R checking out the bunnies.

Lunch at Frittebud!

In the evening, we met VM and CN (our friends from Köln) in Bonn at Ishiban Sushi Bar for dinner, then went to this Bönnsch pub in the pedestrian zone. As usual, a wonderful time with them. Extra cool: R came away with two curvy Bönnsch glasses!

Saturday February 23

R's plane was set to leave at 12:40, so I went with her to the U-bahn a little after 9 and took her to the Hauptbahnhof, squeezed her good-bye and got her settled on the Schnellbus to the airport. A bitter-sweet moment! I was not ready to see her go! A little depressed and mopey, I headed home alone, but now am looking forward to my other sisters' visits in the coming weeks.
Note: I just had an email from R that her return trip went smoothly and all was well. Yeah!

Me and R--I realized that we had hardly taken any pictures together while she was here! So, one last shot (with my new beat-up leather bag!!)

I picked up some groceries before going all the way back to the apartment, then made the girls some lunch and got them all ready to go out the door. The girls had been wanting to go to the same shoe exhibit at the LVR museum where I'd gone with girlfriends for my neighbor's birthday celebration. We picked ME and her friend, Y, up from Y's house where ME had spent the night and then took the U-bahn into town. The girls had a blast trying on shoes and walking on the catwalk. MK wears an adult shoe size now, so she was able to wear some of the shoes almost perfectly. She has such long legs and rubbed it in that the shoes made her taller than me!

ME's friend, Y, wearing Chinese platform shoes.

She's getting the hang of it!

GE had a little more trouble finding something that she could wear. The heels were ridiculous, but she really wanted to try something on the catwalk.

Finally a shoes that "fits"!

Look Mom, I can "model" too!

And... GE discovers herself in the video image on the screen.

Look at their faces on the screen!!

Smile! You're on camera!

Working on that swinging gate.

MK finds a good fit.

Ok, I know this is a lot of shoe shots, but this was just so much fun to watch!!

Now it's Barbie's turn to walk the catwalk!

A different sort of shoe (wooden clogs!) to try on.

Walking over the ground texture samples. No hot coals...

Y trying to figure out the steps to a Tango from an instruction book.

 

Barbies and shoes and clothes. The girls are in heaven. Not sure how I feel about that.

  After they tired of the shoe exhibit, we also went through the "Weil Wir Mädchen Sind..." exhibit. I found this one a little more enriching than the shoes!

Moving on  to the "Weil Wir Mädchen Sind..." (Because We Are Girls...)

"An Experiment: Imagine you must move with your furniture and household goods into my Round hut! Because my hut is much smaller than your house/apartment, everything won't fit. What would you bring and what would you leave behind? Surely there are some household things that you find more important/essential than others. Try it! Empty the hut and the house first..."

The house and the hut.

ME joins GE to listen to one of the videos.

Y practices balancing a bucket of "water" on her head with a cloth ring.

 After we got home from the museum, we rested a bit and then went back to Y's apartment for an impromptu dinner (they'd invited us on the spur of the moment when we stopped to pick ME and Y up to go to the museum). Her mother made traditional Serbian stews in little individual clay pots (reminded me of mini dutch ovens). The kids loved the chocolate fondue with strawberries and bananas for dessert. Y's parents had also taken some pictures and video of Y and ME playing dress up and practicing their Irish Steps together.

Sunday February 24

It's snowing, again! It started yesterday afternoon and has continued on and off since. The temps are still below freezing and not expected to warm up until Tuesday. We're told this has been an unusually cold and snowy winter. Typically the Rheinland would only get snow once or twice and it melts quickly. Not so this winter! Plus the temps have been repeatedly holding at below freezing, even during the day. Brrr! I'm so ready for spring.

How this day flew by! We went to church (there was Kindergottesdienst), then hurried to the bus stop to go to J's colleague's (AS) house for the noon meal. She served a kale (yeah!!) stew with potatoes and Mettwurst (yes, that's not supposed to be on our Lenten menu, but this is one of those instances in which we planned to be flexible). It was scrumptious!  We sat around the table for several more hours, visiting with AS and her daughter. The girls were spared the kale experience and got to eat spaghetti with bolognese sauce instead.

When it was time to go, AS led us along the old Muffendorfer Straße (she lives in the city section called "Muffendorf") with its quaint old Fachwerk houses and cobblestone sidewalks. Beautiful!

The old Pfarrer's house, now privately own.

GE in the snow of what used to be a Bauernhof (barn yard) but is now another private home. Muffendorf's old homes are protected by strict laws regarding renovations and repairs.

Quiet streets on Sunday afternoon. We could walk on the street or the sidewalk.