A Tour of the Family Bakery

Uschi, Opa, me and Marius 

This past weekend we were lucky enough to take a tour of Derek's German family's bakery. In case you didn't know, Derek's great-grandfather came to the United States from Germany and the two families have stayed in contact ever since. This past week, Derek's Opa and sister visited Germany, spending a majority of their time in Oberstenfeld, the place where Opa's father grew up and where our current German family ties reside.

On Saturday morning, we awoke very early at 5:30 am in order to tour the Nestel Bakery at 6:00. And at 6:00, the bakery was a busy hub of mixing, baking, kneading, packaging and anything else that is required for a bakery that has about six additional stores in the area. The bakery employs close to 100 people and is of course, the most popular and delicious in the area! Christian, the son of the bakery owner, gave us the tour in German with Marius as our translator. There was just so much bread! And, fun fact, the flour machine holds up to 13 tons. The bakery uses more than this each week!

My two favorite parts were:

1. Attempting to form our own pretzels. We each tried to twist the pretzel dough into the right shape. The dough comes out from a processor into the perfect piece of dough about 1.5 feet long and it must be twisted the correct way in order to look like a pretzel. Pretzel making is an art form!

2. Seeing some of our favorite breads during the baking process, specifically the Berliner and pretzel rolls.

 I'll let the photos do most of the talking. Just imagine the smell wafting through the air!

Bread waiting to be baked

More bread dough

Huge loaves of bread

If I form my arms into a circle, these loaves would be larger.

Some sort of wheat bread

Pretzel rolls before...

And after

Pretzel makers at work

Non-pretzel makers attempting to twist the dough into the shape of a pretzel. If you zoom in on mine, I'm not sure what I was doing!

Our sheet of pretzels pre-oven

And post-oven!

Berliners in the fryer

And on my breakfast plate!

Derek and Opa enjoying coffee and Berliners in the bakery's storefront

Any kind of bread you desire!

Decorative Gingerbread

And our bakery collection on the table for a second breakfast!

Look out for another post soon of our adventures with Opa and Rachel! Happy Thanksgiving to all!

Nine Months in Germany: Time, Slow Down!

Heidelberg in the mist

They say as you get older, life goes faster. Well, can't it slow down?

Autumn has been good to us here in Germany. We've had two sets of visitors from home and are welcoming more tomorrow. Derek and I have had the opportunity to travel, meet with friends and just relax. Yesterday was the last day of my "internship" in Heppenheim. On and off since March, I have been able to "help out" around the study abroad office and aid in editing, blog writing, project coordination, etc. I plan to write a separate post detailing my time at DFSR, but I can at least say that it's been a great experience, and something I had never expected but certainly hoped for during my time here in Germany.

The farewell party at DFSR tonight for 75 Americans. Yes, those are Bavarian felt hats.

Derek's Grandpa and sister come tomorrow for ten days and then I'll have about a month before Derek's brother comes in December. I started regretting my decision to leave my internship as I walked home yesterday, but I will take that month to apply for jobs and apartment search, while also taking some day trips by myself. I don't want to spend so much time planning for our return while still living and exploring Germany, but it will make our lives easier in January.

Derek and I went with friends on a wine walk in early October.

I've joined a dance school for Zumba classes with my close friend Nadine. They offer the classes every day except Sundays, and we have dedicated Monday and Thursday evenings to attempt the salsa and butt-shaking dances. The thing I love about zumba is that you can dance like no one's watching, and it's a good workout! I've also started knitting. Yep, that's right. Any requests? Send them my way. I have a "Knitting for Dummies" book on the iPad and so far, I've only been able to "cast on" to the needle. I'm struggling with the actual stitch. Perhaps next time I'll have a better update!

Last weekend, Derek and I visited Mannheim for a date night of the new James Bond film, Skyfall, and a pizza at Pizza Hut. Talk about something I would never do in America. On Sunday, we visited DFSR for a welcome dinner for 75 Americans visiting Heppenheim, and then had a nice dinner at Eva and Philip's. Oh, and we also picked up two movies and a season of Prison Break. Derek and I sometimes struggle with German-only TV.

On Monday I visited Heidelberg with Nadine and the 75 Americans. It was a wonderful afternoon. Nadine and I gave everyone the meeting time, dropped many off at the walkway to the castle, then the train up to the castle, and then the bank. We had a nice lunch, shopped a bit, and then tried a brew at a local brewery. We managed to get everyone back on the buses and then headed back to Heppenheim! I realized my German is still nicht so gut when I tried asking the bus driver to turn up the heat. I'm getting good at charades I guess.

Create your own caption.

Simba is doing well. He gets very moody when he's begging for food, which is very often. He tried cauliflower this past week and decided that he likes vegetables. This morning he tried some oatmeal. He really wanted to help me bake cookies this afternoon but got booted from the kitchen.

"Why do they do this to me?"

Give me more cauliflower! 

"What? They're just flowers!" (beautiful bouquet for my last day at DFSR)

So, what's up next?

Well, we will be spending the weekend in Oberstenfeld with our German family and taking a tour of Stuttgart on Sunday. I am planning a Thanksgiving dinner for the end of November and then the Christmas markets start! While Adam (Derek's brother) is visiting, we're road-tripping up north to the port city of Hamburg and then over to Berlin. We'll spend Christmas in Oberstenfeld and plan to visit Spain in January. If we had more time, I would love to visit Croatia, Scandinavia, and Greece. We'll save those for next time, I suppose!

A Weekend with Friends in Freiburg

In front of Freiburg's Rathaus

Last weekend we ventured two hours south to Freiburg, Germany on the edge of the famous Schwarzwald. With snow in the forecast, we packed our winter gear and when Nadine and Dennis picked us up at 7 am, we were ready to go. After a two hour drive and a stop at an Autobahn rest stop to meet up with Nadine's dad, Anne, and Jorge, we arrived to our hotel. We caught the tram into the town center and started a tour of the cobbled-stone university town. It snowed the entire day, so we spent much of the day exploring the inside of cafes and pubs. Nadine's dad provided us a tour of the Market Hall, Rathaus, beautiful church and market. Every day, outside of the Gothic church, a very large street market takes place. They were selling flowers, bratwursts, spices, olives, and many more enticing products. It made me very excited for the Christmas market atmosphere in December. Freiburg offered many shopping streets, restaurants, medieval buildings and towers, and an overall friendly, cozy feeling.

Busy daily market next to the church

Handmade Advent calendar chocolate

After a about 1.5 hours of walking in the snow, we settled into a very attractive cafe, with its display window filled with mouth-watering kuchen. We all ordered a different type, and I tried the famous Schwarzwald cake, a layered chocolate and cream cake with cherries and liquor. Accompanied by a shokochino (hot chocolate with coffee), my little snack was very sweet and heavy, but nonetheless very tasty. Derek tried a different type of cream cake, and the others tried everything from mandarin to raspberry. It was the perfect morning. 

Right: Derek, Courtney, Mr. Gehrisch Left: Nadine, Anne, Jorge

Derek with his raspberry cream cake

Schwarzwald kuchen with a Schokocino

The rest of the day was spent in the Market Hall and an Irish pub. It was game day in Freiburg with Freiburg playing Dortmund in town. While Mr. Gehrisch and Jorge went to the game, the rest of us found seats at the Irish pub and watched the game. Later in the evening, we ate dinner at a quaint, German pub and shut-down a local university bar.

Wine time in the Market Hall!

Game time

Out for dinner 

I ate a German style of mac and cheese, and Derek had a ham leg.

Derek's dinner

On Sunday, we packed up the cars and headed into the Schwarzwald, or Blackforest. We enjoyed breakfast at a tasty cafe in the town of Titisee-Neustadt and then headed to the main road of town, famous for its cuckoo-clocks and lake view. We spent the next 1.5 hours walking five kilometers around the lake, and I couldn't stop taking photos. The snow and chill in the air added to the charm of this town, and the lake shimmering against the snow-covered pines was enchanting. I would love to visit this area again this winter, and I wish we would have come during the summer. After our stroll around the lake, we stopped in a cozy, Blackforest cabin for some hot drinks and soup.

What a lovely weekend thanks to our travel companions, tour guide and the beautiful scenery. I'd highly recommend a visit to Freiburg and the Schwarzwald. I hope you enjoy the photos:

Anne, me, Nadine 

Beautiful Blackforest

Path around the lake

The guys walking around the lake

Titisee

Derek and I

The cabin where we stopped for  a snack;  my lens was foggy

So much snow!

A foggy lens on a snowy day

Town of Titisee- Neustadt

Snow!