Magnifique!

Made it to France on Sunday, via the Netherlands and Belgium. Probably the second most important road race for cyclists happened on that day, and I was excited to check it out! It's called Paris - Roubaix, and is known by the nickname "Hell of the North." To you non-cycling enthusiasts, it probably won't be very impressive, but for those of you who follow racing, know that it was one of the coolest things I've seen.

Here are a few photos from the trip:

Near the finish, in Roubaix:

The team bus of the eventual winner, Tom Boonen:

A Boonen fan before the finish:

Unfortunately, closed roads and crazy traffic made getting to the cobbled sections too difficult, but I did manage a great spot at the velodrome to watch the finish. As you can see, young and old come out to support the racers:

That's a huge tv in the back, with coverage of the race before they reached the velodrome:

Tom Boonen entering the velodrome:

Filippo Pozzato, who finished second:

Thor Hushovd, Leif Hoste, and Johan Van Summern, who finished third through fifth:

I saw Thor Hushovd after the race, by the way. He was standing about five feet from me. Mmmmm.

Aengus liked it, too:

Tom Boonen, accepting his pave trophy:

Oh, and that same Boonen fan, after the victory:

It was such an awesome experience. I wish I could have seen a cobbled section in person, but at least I could watch it on the big screen.

After the race, we had the unbelievable luck of finding an awesome hotel. It was kind of in the middle of nowhere, in a town called Orchies, and didn't look particularly special from the road, but once inside, it was magical.

It's a family-run hotel called Le Manoir, and the people are spectacular. The son, Philip, speaks English very well, so communicating with him was easy, but his father speaks only French. It turns out the French and Swiss juniors teams were staying in this hotel, and the restaurant had been closed so they could have their team meetings there after the race, and get a good dinner, but Philip and his father, whose name I wish I had learned, were kind enough to let Martin, Aengus and me in for a wonderful meal. Some kind of terrine with fish for the starter, and then chicken with a mushroom sauce and peas for the entree and an unbelievable cake for dessert. We sat right next to the French team - it was so cool.

Here's the restaurant, on the left:

After dinner, Philip and his father invited us into the little lounge area in the hotel for super conversation. The coaches from the Swiss team were sitting in there, enjoying a local beer, and we all spent probably two hours in there chatting in combinations of English, French, and German. It turns out that the family who runs the hotel are huge cycling fans, and the father in particular was so interested in telling me stories about his experiences. I could dig enough of my French up from college to understand him almost all of the time, and didn't have too much trouble speaking with him. He has an amazing book of photographs and autographs from probably thousands of cyclists. He has one of Erik Zabel's bicycles. Pro teams, including Milram and US Postal have stayed at his hotel. At one point, he went back into the hotel office and brought out an old wooden wheel from 1940 to show me. It was so cool hearing about and seeing everything. They made us feel so welcome. If you are ever near Orchies, and need a place to stay, please check out this hotel. Even if you are not a cycling fan, you won't regret it.

Here are a few pics of the surrounding area:

The next day, we went to Valenciennes for a tea at an outdoor cafe. It's a beautiful, beautiful city.

After leaving Valenciennes, we got lost for a few hours in the beautiful French countryside before driving back up to Muenster through southern Germany:

It was an awesome two day trip. Hope you all had a safe weekend!

Until next time...

Some things are universal

So, today is Good Friday. For some reason, here, at the Skribbe household, this is the most important of the religious holidays. They're Catholic, so one would think Easter Sunday would be the most celebrated day, but here in Kasewinkel, it's today.

Anyway, Renate made her traditional meal for Good Friday, which is called Stoeven. I've probably misspelled that, but they're traditionally Jewish pancake things with yeast - some with raisins and some without. It is a beautiful day here today, so I sat for almost 5 hours outside with Martin's family listening to a lot of German. At some point, one of Martin's sisters started talking about how the kids from Kasewinkel are now bussed to school, which is in the neighboring village, 3 kilometers (2 miles) away. She thought that was ridiculous, and then Martin's mother chimed in with "when we were young, we had to walk to school, through the snow!" I wanted to ask if it was uphill both directions, but held my tongue. Never mind the fact that here in the Muensterland, snow that lasts for more than one day is record-breaking.

I'm taking a bit of a road trip to France on Sunday. I'll be sure to report back with tales of our adventures!

Take care, and have a safe and happy weekend!

Photo dump

Hello!

I have a ton of photos I'd like to share from the last few days. There isn't really a consistent theme, although the sun was out during each of those days, so I guess they all have that in common! The weather here has been absolutely beautiful for the last week - I needed that! I even have a bit of a tan already....

So the first thing I'd like to share is from last Monday. Aengus has had his first couple of ticks already, which even the people who live here are saying is really early, so I went to the pet store to buy him some anti-tick stuff. While I was there, I saw this:

Yes, that's Hunde-Bier. Dog beer. Beer for dogs. I swear, only in Germany.

Moving along... I meet every Thursday with Anke, a neighbor here in Kasewinkel. She is a German teacher by profession, and is also interested in improving her own English, so we meet once a week to speak a little English, for her, and a little German, for me. She is really helpful. We usually met at her house, although this last Thursday she called and asked if I would like to take our meeting on the road to the Baumberge, or "tree mountains." I had driven by there - it's about 30 minutes away by car - but had never hiked there, and was excited to go! It was beautiful. Here are a few pics from our trip:

We walked for about an hour and got to this awesome restaurant/cafe where we sat outside for a bit on the patio:

It was great.

Then Friday was school again, but it was the last day before "Osterferien," or the Easter holidays. It lasts for two weeks (so I don't have school again until the 20th of April), and for the equivalent of high school students here, it marks the last day of classes before they head to University. They still have tests to prepare for and take, but their classes are now over. The diploma they receive is called an Abitur.

Martin picked me up after class on Friday, and we walked through the city with Inma, my friend from Spain, to meet John at the Stuhlmacher - that old bar/restaurant I have mentioned before. When we arrived at the Domplatz, where the huge farmers' market is held, we saw this:

It's traditional for the "seniors" from different schools to meet there after class on Friday, to celebrate being done with classes. They had whistles and were shouting and seemed to be having a great time. The German "Ordnungsamt," or state office that maintains order in German life, was there to be sure nothing got too out of control, but the students were living it up.

From there we walked to the Stuhlmacher, and encountered these students along the way:

Each group of students from each school had their own t-shirts made up for that day. This school's shirts say "Abibama - Yes We Can!" Their diploma, remember, is called an Abitur. I'm sure the rest is obvious...

A bit later in the day, John, Martin, Aengus, and I rode over to Handorf to visit Martin's dad in the cemetery. Friday was his birthday, and because Martin's father was a lover of schnapps, Martin goes there every year to pour a schnapps on his grave.

The day before was Aengus' first time walking next to a bike, and he did amazingly well - like he's been doing it all his life. It is so common here for people to bring their dogs along on the bike, and it looks like Aengus will fit right in! We'll still get our daily walks in, though.

And lastly, here are a couple updated shots of my garden:

I didn't finish it until dusk, thus the dark photo. So far I have carrot, leek, and tomato seeds planted, as well as zucchini and cucumber plants. Those tomatoes in the foreground will go in pots, as well as peppers. I'll keep you posted on the progress!

Hope you're all well!

Miscellaneous bits from the last couple days

Guten Tag! Hope this finds you well.

Unbelievably, the sun has been out here for the last three days! It has jump started my spirit a little bit. Today was the nicest of the days, though, and probably reached about 70 degrees. I'm so sorry to say that - I know it is snowing in Minneapolis today!

I went to a neighboring town called Wolbeck today, and took a few pics along the way. Here's a brief tour of our adventures:

I thought this was kind of a pretty doorway:

The gate into a pretty little park:

That building in the back was built a long time ago, and was the home for a relative of the Bishop, I guess. I'll try to do a little research and come up with a better explanation for you! It's a pretty building, though, and is now a museum. Here are a few photos of it:

From there, we walked to a beautiful wooded area, so Aengus could have his daily exercise.

And along the way, we encountered this little fellow:

It was Aengus' first experience with a frog. Once he got used to the (infrequent) hopping, Aengus was enamored.

A little further along he rolled in a dead fish, which really wasn't as pleasant for me as it must have been for him. Bath time again tonight.

After we returned from the park, and given the beautiful day, I dug in (wow - no pun intended) and started my garden! Martin and his mother have four big garden beds, and have kindly allowed me to make use of one of them for vegetables. I'm planning on planting tomatoes, red, yellow, and chili peppers, carrots, leeks, beans, green and yellow zucchini, and cucumbers. I'll probably have to do the tomatoes and peppers in pots, though. In addition, I have dill, parsley, and basil to go into an herb garden. I'm excited! Here's how the garden is coming along so far....

Awww....

Here's the finished bed, but I haven't planted anything yet. That's tomorrow's project!

I have a few more things in mind to post here, in addition to the too many updates on the garden you'll probably get, but dinner is calling! I'll write more soon.

Take good care! Spring is on the way!