Special Guest Post

Jane here, posting aus Deutschland. I arrived the other day and proceeded to stay awake for 40 hours. What did we do in that 40 hours? We had wonderful fresh (still warm!) German bread for breakfast. Then Kate and I went on a walk in the countryside. She lives outside of Muenster, in Kasewinkel. Later, there will be an entire post on the whack-jobs that live in Kasewinkel. Here is a cool tree we saw, which is typical of the cool stuff you see around here. This does NOT depict the green that is all around. The very tree trunks are green! I was so goofy from no sleep I had to confirm with Kate that some of this stuff really was bright lime green. Maybe I'll get photos of that stuff later.



We also saw this Audi hubcap:
And this sign, which says something like "Your life is in danger if you enter here."

Then Kate, Martin and I headed into Muenster and met John, his daughter Josie, Josie's mom Nessie, Anna (Nessie's grown-up daughter) and Nick. At this point, I had been awake for about 24 hours. I had two mugs of Gluwein, which is warm red wine. At some point I switched hats with Josie, who is 6 years old. The hat is much more dorky-looking in real life. Here we are:



There was a band nearby playing Christmas songs. The best was when they played Feliz Navidad.
Here are some boots (mine are the burgundy ones):

Later we went to eat at some restaurant that was from 1609. I had some some food that was delicious, and consisted of two kinds of sausage, a pork patty that was great, but I found out later included liver and brains, and some blood sausage which no one touched. The obligatory sauerkraut and potatoes were muy excelente.

Kate, Martin and I returned to their place and somehow killed a coupla bottles of wine. It got a little crazy, and Kate and I busted out the gang signs:

Please keep in mind that in the above photo I had been awake for about 39 hours. In fact, just a few minutes later, I might have dozed off for a second:



I eventually went to sleep and slept for 14 hours. I had been waking up and falling back asleep all morning, and thought no one else was up yet, because I didn't hear them. I guess the walls are really thick in this house, and they had been up for hours. Kate said she was sitting there reading for quite a while, and suddenly mid-sentence she thought I might be dead, and she went to knock on my door. I had just woken up. Imagine my surprise to find out it was 2:00 in the afternoon!!!

So I woke up, Kate and her dog Aengus and I went on a walk, and then we went to the Nobis Krug, which is right around the corner. It dates from the late 1500s. The owner, Ulla, is also the chef. Her grandparents bought the place in 1914. The other four people ordered Sahneschnitzel, and I had one bite of it and can state categorically it was freaking delicious. I ordered the Rouladen, which is a sort of roast beef rolled around pickles and onions and then cooked to such a tender point you can't even discern the pickles and onions, but it tastes great!
Here are the potato croquettes, very delicious:
As you can see, the lighting was delightful and we were right in front of an open fireplace.


And for a coupla final pictures, here is my room:
And here is a big tin of pretzel shaped cookies Martin's mom Renate made for his birthday, which is today. They are excellent, a little bit like shortbread:



And now we are about to leave for another dinner, this time at Frankie's. As you can see, for me Germany is all about food, wine, friends, and food. Oh, and food. This morning at breakfast, Renate told some great stories about bizarre occurences in Kasewinkel (pop. 92), which I hope to recount in another post, if Kate will let me!