BIKE RIDE TO LADENBURG

At last "Das Wetter war gut."

I had so much fun I feel guilty.

Today the sun was out and it got up to about 50 on our balcony in the afternoon and it wasn't windy.  I left about 11am to take my bike to the bike shop in the next town of Waldstadt.  I left it there and I'll pick it up tomorrow afternoon.  Steve will go to the dentist in that town so we can go at the same time and I can show him where I found the dentist office.  I'm having a back rack with basket and new grips put onto my bike.  I bought a bike trails map.  The owner, doesn't  speak any English but we communicated, he was nice and said something like "hier warten eine Minute" and went into the next room and brought out this nifty little bike to loan me.  Hey, "das sehr gut" I said and then planned to go take that bike all over the county.  I left the bike store and rode off into the country.  I even ended up taking off my heavy gloves, scarf and down vest, the weather was so good!  I went to a nice old town called Ladenburg.  It is about 10km to the south east of us. 

Nifty little bike the bike shop owner loaned to me.  He didn't even ask me for my name or anything.

Another cute Kinderplatz

A fish ladder

Ladenburg square

typical narrow cobblestone streets.

1620 is the year of this building.  Many of the buildings in this town have very old years on them.  That is a wine barrel in the door.

Down at the Ladenburg Neckar River Park, I saw 13 swans in this one place.

This is the first black swan I have seen in Germany.

This guy was really friendly and wanted me to feed him.

This is the inside of the swans mouth as he trys to taste my camera.

The black swan is smaller than the white ones.

This is a small car ferry.

The cost is really reasonable.

LAKE WALK
Ah, The sun finally showed itself on Saturday March 2nd.    So we made a point of walking around the lakes.

Handsome man in black.  That is our apartment in the background.  There is only one patch of ice left on the lake.

The remote control boats are eager to get back onto the water.  This is a neat sailboat .

SNOW
It snowed all morning.  I probably won't ride my bike today.  I'll go to the grocery store, study German, do laundry, clean, do projects, make a cheesecake, and .... hmm I'm never bored.

View from our guest room balcony.

Looking down at the white trees.

PINEWOOD DERBY
Our church had a Pinewood Derby event up in Darmstadt about 47 km or about 30 miles north of here.   The Bishop invited us to go along.  He told us that Darmstadt means Intestine City.  Wonder how they decided on that name?  This was the first Pinewood Derby they have had and surprisingly there was a big turn out.  We had a fun time.

This is the Bishop Jürgen Broo's entry car named "Chicken Wings".  Day-Ji Broo is next to Jürgen.

Myles and Christy Watson, Jürgen, Steve, Day-Ji.

The set up was very nice with electronic timers and live data to calculate the places of the cars.  Kids caught the cars and shuttled them back to the starting line in plastic boxes.  All very organized.

The track and projection screens with the movie "Cars" going for pre-race entertainment. And a close up live video of the finish line.

Jürgen and Miles

PROJECTS - gloves and yogurt and Family History Book
While it is still pretty cold outside, in the high 20's and windy today, I choose to say indoors.   I'll work on a few projects.   I would like to repair my glove liners that have worn through at the fingertips.  I use these under the gloves I've been using while riding my bike.   I have a polypropylene pair and a silk pair.  I wasn't sure if I could repair them because it looked like the fabric that covers the open areas was gone.  But I like them and really wanted to save them.  With the holes in the fingertips like this, the glove fingers slide way down to my palm when I put on the outer layer glove.  So here is the before and after shots of the gloves.

See how the fabric is gone from the finger tips. 

I wasn't sure if I could fix these.

But hey, not bad.  Not beautiful but functional.  I'm happy.

The silk liners are actually in worse condition.  The fabric is very thin.

more results

Again not beautiful but it should work for while.

Next I'll make some yogurt.  I have such and easy way to do it.  I brought my Donvier yogurt maker from the U.S.  I have to use a big transformer that weighs about 20 lbs but hopefully nothing will blow up, over heat, or make the circuits breakers flip (I've had them flip several times using the transformer).  If you haven't tried making your own yogurt, try it, it is very easy.

Boil the milk until it reaches 185-190F (85-88C).  If you have an instant read thermometer that clips on the pan make sure it isn't touching the bottom.  I don't have one so I am using a meat thermometer propped up by a couple of utensils.

Then cool the milk down to 110-115F (43-46C).  Add a few heaping spoons of live culture plain yogurt, stir well.   Put into yogurt cups in yogurt maker.  Time for about 10 hours.  Store in Frig or put it out on the balcony like I do here in Germany because the frig is so small.  I can eat this plain but I know a lot of people like to add fruits or jams or sugars to make it taste like fancy yogurt from the stores.

Watch the temps.  Stir frequently, don't leave it, it will boil over in a lot of pans.

Poor into yogurt cups. 

Cover with lids. Put the timer on for about 10 hours.  Refrigerate or put out on the balcony like I do here in Germany because the frig is so small.  

FAMILY HISTORY BOOK
My mother made a family history book for me many years ago.  What are the odds, but a few years ago I found the exact same book (blank) in the Salvation Army store not long after telling Christina I would make one for her.  I wasn't looking for it and I wasn't looking for the same book but it was there so I bought it.  I've had it in the cupboard for a fews years now and I'm finally transferring all the data over to her book.  I've worked on this all day and have writers cramp in my hand so time to stop and continue on another day.  The bottom one is the new one for Christina, the top is the one my mom made for me.

books

A COLD BIKE RIDE

The morning looked petty nice with some SUN!  Wow I thought I'd better get on my bike and go.  I had planned to go to the bike shop to get a basket to carry groceries from the big store but the bike shop is closed on Wednesdays.  It is also closed for 2 hours in the middle of each day.  But I was going for a ride so all was good.  I didn't go far or for very long.  The clouds came in and the wind from the North picked up and it was so cold.  When I left I think it was maybe 40 degrees F, so I was thinking, WARM.  But out in the open snow fields it was about 31 degrees with wind chill even lower.  I started out going south.  But I could tell the wind was at my back and I was already feeling the cold so I turned around and went North but that made me realize just how cold it was, as my face and hands and feet got colder.  I did try out the hand warmers in my shoes, that did help, these where not expired.  The warmers where soon overpowered by the cold and I didn't feel any warmth from them until I stopped.  So I decided to just go to Real (the big store) , warm up, and buy some spare ribs. I came home and made the sauce and put them in the oven, first step, then I'll put them into the pot for the long slow cook.  This is the Polynesian style rib sauce.  I used to make it in the crock-pot and liked it.  We'll see how it comes out now with the pot in the oven.  Good day to have the oven on in the apartment.

GERMAN LANGUAGE CLASS
My last day of the first German class was last Friday.   I have decided not to sign up for the next one for  awhile.  I didn't like the the teaching method and I think it costs too much plus it was not really a beginning class.  It was more geared for someone who already knows almost all the vocabulary and needs to get the grammar correct.  I will work with the materials I've collected so far and re-enforce what I've learned.  I've ordered another set of CD's and I can always buy the next course book if I need more exercises.  One of the last things we did was to write on 4 pieces of paper in our native language "I" , "want to", "learn", "German" and lay them on the floor.  So here is a sample of some of the languages.  There where about 4 or 5 students absent this day so we didn't get all the languages.

Frau Geronti is in the center in black, she is from Greece.  The rest are students.

Greece, Iraq, Syria, Romania, Poland, Spain, Greece, Poland, Poland, me-U.S.A., Russia?, Thailand, Poland, Montenegro, Philippines.  Absent was India, Georgia, Korea, Turkey, I think that is it. 

What we do when it is too cold to go out and play.

jigsaw puzzle

BIKING IN KAFERTAL WALD PARK

On Saturday Steve and I rode our bikes over to Kafertal Wild Park, about a 20 minute bike ride from the apartment.  This is a big forested park that has a ge-zillion bike trails.  Most of them are dirt though so even tho our intent was to stay on paved paths we ended taking muddy ones too.  Our bikes were covered with mud by the time we got out of the park.  We washed the bikes with buckets of water from the apartment before we brought them back into the building.  We don't have a hose or water spicket to use.  We had a good time and saw a little of the wildlife but the animals where in fenced in areas.  We saw the wild pigs, Bison and goats.  This will be even more fun when the temperatures get higher and the trails dry out a lot more and the vegetation grows back in the spring.  The temperatures where between 35 and 43 degrees.  I dressed in layers and was warm except my feet.  I tried a set of the air activated heat pads in my shoes but this pair must have been expired because there was NO heat from them, I had the package for a very long time.

Kafertal Wild Park and just a portion of it! Showing the bike trails from google maps.

Still a little snow on the ground and the trails are very muddy

Bison

Bison

Wild piglet

Here is my layers for riding a bike when it is about 35 degrees out.  Black silk turtle neck, bike knickers, thick leggings, black silk leggings, yoga pants or crew insulated pants, PV Bike Chicks jersey, PV Bike Chicks arm warmers, down vest, grey rain parka, black knee sox, PV bike chicks sox, bike shoes, glove liners, Steve's big warm gloves, yellow neck scarf that I wrap over my ears under my helmet to keep my ears warm.

I wear all this and it works to keep me warm when it is just above freezing

me with all the stuff on

CHURCH -  Missionary Elder Sleeman left last week for his next city assignment.  We had him and Elder Lyons over for dinner.  Sleeman brought over some extra neck ties for Steve to select from.  Wow now Steve is all set with a nice selection.