After the busy-ness since my parents arrived of traveling to Innsbruck, having Lasik, and then going to Iceland, we finally enjoyed a full week at home with my parents. While I worked, my parents enjoyed lots of long walks around town and catching up on their rest. In the evenings, we ate out at many of our favorite restaurants.
On Monday night, we tried a restaurant we’ve never been to before; Da Gianni’s. I spotted it, slightly hidden off the road on the way to the supermarket and dragged the family back to try it. They had all of my favorites; Mozzarella Caprese and Italian style pizza, and despite being an Italian restaurant; they also had French Onion soup. This place is definitely going onto our regular rotation of restaurants.
Tuesday, we headed back to Sindelfingen to eat at the Hüttenzauber, aka the Winter Hut. My parents have never been before and we enjoyed the Alpine atmosphere and German food.
Wednesday, we took a break from eating out to catch up on all the leftovers that were steadily building up in the fridge, and to do some shopping at the mall with my mom.
Brooklyn left on Thursday to attend the European Wrestling Tournament with the wrestling team.
Thursday, I also had my next follow-up with the eye doctor. The good news is that I am seeing clearly from my right eye. Unfortunately, my vision in my left eye is hardly improved from before the Lasik revision. I think after the tear occurred to my lens, the doctor did not do much lasering. The laser center seemed to think it was enough though and told me to follow-up with a regular eye doctor. I am not really happy with that response and plan to get a vision test over the summer and return for another Lasik revision if necessary. It is really disappointing to still not have clear vision after all this. However, I am extremely, extremely grateful to at least not need to wear glasses anymore.
That evening, I had to work late so my dad cooked us a spaghetti dinner; so good! And, we enjoyed an evening of not having to leave the house.
Friday, I took the day off and Matt and I took a day trip to with my parents to Soufflenheim, France. Soufflenheim is were soufflé dishes were invented. Now, the town is still famous for making the pottery dishes they are made in, using the clay from a nearby bog.
We stopped in the first pottery shop we came across, Poterie Erneheim Haas, and it ended up being such a gem. We talked to the owner, Mr. Haas I guess, who was running the shop while still wearing clothes covered in clay, for almost an hour. He told us about how his family was one of eight families that Barbarossa had granted permission to, to use clay from the Soufflenheim bogs. Barbarossa was one of the first Kings of Germany back in the 1100s and the permission he granted to the family still stands today.
He also explained how the light beige clay from the area is special in that it does not crack when heated to high temperatures. Darker clays from across the Rhine River in Germany are a darker beige color and cannot stand the heat. Those shopping for clay can tell the difference when looking at the unglazed side of the pottery.
The shopkeeper also showed us a dish that he had invented for cooking poultry. The dish is shaped like a plate with high edges and in the center is a cup that can be filled with the cooking liquid of your choice; water, juice, wine, etc; and then have a bird placed on top of it for cooking. Of course, we bought one and got some recipes to try at home.
Overall, the pottery in the town was much cheaper than the same pottery being sold in other towns around the Alsace region, which makes sense. We still have a short list of dishes to shop for so will definitely come back. However, we found that the town itself did not have the cute appeal of other Alsatian towns like Ribeauville and Riquewihr. After our stop at the pottery shop, we did a short walk around town but found that just about everything was closing up at noon for lunch. We checked out a few restaurants but found that just about everything in the town center was white tablecloth so I found a restaurant a short drive away called the Potters’ Tavern. When we pulled up, we were surprised to find we were at a grocery store. We were a little nervous about entering the restaurant, which was attached at the front, but were pleasantly surprised to find a bustling bistro. Even better, they served a dish called demi-pizza/demi-salad (half pizza/half salad) and I was able to get my favorite; half a Margherita pizza and half Caprese Salad.
After our lunch, we did a little shopping in the wine section of the grocery store and found bottles as cheap as 1,33! We bought a variety and then drove home via the town of Huspach, voted the most beautiful village in France in 2020. The town was cute, but not in the way I was expecting. It was 100% half-timber, with all houses following the same color scheme of white with dark timbers. I’m thinking they won just due to the uniformity of the village. Once we were home, we finished the evening with dinner at Brauhaus back in our town with our neighbors.
Saturday, we headed into downtown Stuttgart with Ryan, who had been promised a trip to the Lego Store by my parents. He had been eyeing a new Lego Star Wars set for a couple of months and with the help of his grandparents, was finally able to get it. We had lunch at Subway. After all the eating out, we all wanted something lighter.
Then, we headed to the Stuttgart Pig Museum. Apparently, this is the largest pig museum in the world; I had no idea there was even a category. But, the huge building has everything from scientific displays on the anatomy, to entire rooms dedicated to piggy banks (there were over 2000 in that room alone). There was even a “Pig Porn” room filled with X rated pig memorabilia.
I have so many questions about how this museum came to be. Who started the collection and how does it continue to grow? Currently, there are over 40,000 pigs in the one 800 square meter building. It was something that is not be missed and we are glad to be able to cross it off of our Stuttgart to-do list. After the museum and a short nap at home, we headed back to Sindelfingen for dinner at Corners. Brooklyn finally made it home at around 11pm after a successful championship.
Sunday was Brooklyn’s 16th birthday! We had orange rolls for breakfast and then we picked up her friend and headed to Weil der Stadt for their Fasching parade, which has the reputation of being the best of the best.
The parade seemed a little tamer than its reputation had me believe in that I was expecting more pranks from the witches and fools. It was still really fun! We still did see a couple of people have their shoelaces stolen and a couple of kids kidnapped by the guilds. My mom and Ryan both got their faces painted which increased everyone’s enjoyment.
For dinner, Brooklyn chose Block House in downtown Stuttgart. The dinner was great, and Brooklyn even had a beer as she is now of legal beer and wine drinking age in Germany. To our surprise, the restaurant turned on the Happy Birthday song and brought out a dessert with a mini-firework. She was so embarrassed and it was great!
We ended the day with cupcakes and ice cream back at our house. It was a great day!
Gilcrests Abroad 