Another week has flown by! Brooklyn is still playing softball every night, and piano and Girl Scouts have started again after the Easter break. Ryan also started playing baseball this week so he’s been super busy too!
The weather was so beautiful last weekend but crappy weather made a come-back during the week! It’s been cold and rainy, except for the day that the Sahara dust cloud came back over Europe and blocked the sky out again!
The most interesting (and annoying) thing for us this week is that we have no internet at home, and haven’t had it since the day before we left for Italy. The internet company has no idea what’s wrong or even how long it will take to fix. To add insult to injury, I’ve burned through all of my phone’s data using it as a hotspot for the TV. I’m truly unconnected and it’s so frustrating that it’s taking so long to fix. As bad as Comcast is, I can’t imagine having an outage for 3+ weeks with no end in sight! This is a good example of how things work (or don’t work) in Germany and a reason why internet issues are actually politically debated in the Chancellery elections.
In the meantime, they have mailed us a hotspot that we can connect one device to; a sign of how long they think it’s going to take to resolve. It’s better than nothing but we are hoping for a permanent solution as soon as possible!
Brooklyn had a scrimmage this week against a local German softball team. They scrimmaged the same team last year but didn’t play for long before pouring rain ended the game. This year, they were able to finish the game and Stuttgart came out the winners!
Friday, I had a day off. Matt was working and all of my friends were either working or out of town. Without internet, TV, or phone service (the hotspot had not arrived yet), I definitely did not want to sit home alone so I had to make some plans for myself. I took a look at my “Stuttgart To Do List” and picked something I thought would bore my family (which at this point, isn’t that hard 😉).
I picked Maulbronn Abbey because it was less than an hour from home, but in an area of the state I’ve never been to before. It’s a UNESCO World Heritage site and widely recommended. After I slept in quite late, I made my way there.
After rainy and dusty weather all week, beautiful weather made a return in time for the weekend. It was 70F and sunny!
The Abbey was founded in 1147. A group of Cistercian monks put all their treasure on the back of a mule (a Maul) and followed it until it stopped for water, and that is how they chose the location. Maul for ‘mule’ and Bronn for ‘well’ or ‘fountain.’ Hence, “Maulbronn.”
Maulbronn Abbey is considered to be the most complete and best-preserved medieval monastic complex north of the Alps.
The Abbey is surrounded by all the medieval buildings needed to run an abbey like stables, grain storage, and barns. All of this is surrounded by a fortified wall. The wall and the outbuildings were constructed in the 1100s and 1200s.
The two most interesting things for me were food related!
First: Cistercian monks take a vow of poverty and are only supposed to eat the most basic of foods. However, Maulbronn Abbey was so wealthy that the monks ate quite well. In order to hide meat in their food, they invented the “Maultaschen,” which is a popular ravioli dish in our region. ‘Maultaschen’ can be translated to ‘mule’s pocket’ and now we know where the name of this local specialty is from.
The second is regarding the wine that they drink. Wine was directed into mugs via the monks’ fingers from the barrel. One monk was really enjoying his wine and said he wish he had an eleventh finger, an ‘elf finger’ in German. And hence, Elffinger wine, another regional specialty, was born.
All in all, it was a very pleasant outing; I got the audio guide, spent as much time as I wanted in each place, and then stopped at the local Rewe to pick up the local wines on the way back to Stuttgart.
When I got back, Matt and Ryan were home and Matt asked if we could go on a bike ride. We biked all the way to Holzgerlingen to see the yellow rapeseed fields that are starting to bloom. Germany does not use a lot of corn syrup or soybean oil in its food. Instead, they heavily rely on canola, which is derived from the rapeseed plants. Each Spring, the golden fields brighten up the landscape.
After our epic 20km bike ride, we stopped at the Bootshaus and met some friends for dinner. It is Spargelzeit (White Asparagus Season) in Germany. Due to it being so labor intensive to grow, it can only be sold from mid April until 24 June and the Germans, and we now too, go crazy for it. The Bootshaus had advertised they had Spargel so we were all eager to try it out. Sadly, we were a day early so missed having some but did have a good dinner with good company.
On Saturday, Brooklyn and her team departed at 4am to make the four hour ride to Spangdahlem Air Base for another double header. Matt and I drove up a little later to watch them play. Stuttgart won both games and it was so fun to watch!
After the double header, Matt and I headed home and caught a nap before heading out to dinner with friends to try again to find Spargelsuppe.
This time, we chose the Seegärtle restaurant, on the lake in town and I’m happy to report, were successful in finding the soup (oh so good!) and having a great dinner.
Sunday was another beautiful weather day so a friend and I headed into the Black Forest in order to complete the “Blueberry Pancake Hike.”
Sadly, my friend is moving back to the USA soon, so I am helping her finish up her “Stuttgart Bucket List.” The Blueberry Pancake hike is near the top of every Stuttgarter’s wish list so I was happy to accompany her on finishing the mission. The hike takes you from the top of Bad Wildbad’s cogwheel train for 5 kilometers through the Black Forest to a small mountain hut called Grünhutte. Here, the family running the hut has served blueberry pancakes (and other flavors as well) for over 50 years.
We stared our hike really early in order to beat the crowds. On nice weather days, such as this day, the trails will be really crowded with hikers and bikers. Often times, people may have to wait up to an hour for their pancakes once they reach the Grünhutte. We arrived in perfect timing as we almost had to wait in no line at all and were able to find a table in the shade of the biergarten. As we were finishing up our pancakes, the line was around the corner and people waiting for seats to open up.
The pancakes were not like the ones we are used to in the US. Instead they are made from fried dough and have a similar flavor to funnel cakes. The dough is then topped with sugar and a blueberry jam, made from the local blueberries that grow on the mountain. It was so good and such a treat.
After our pancakes, we hiked the 5 kilometers back to the cogwheel train and rode back down to the car. It was an awesome day out in the sunshine! Matt and the kids spent the day relaxing around the house. I got home early enough that there was time for a short nap before dinner and getting ourselves ready for the week ahead.
Gilcrests Abroad 