I am Dreaming of a White Easter…

As any of our avid blog followers probably have noticed (hi Mom(s) and Grandma!), we have not been very active this winter.  Partly this is because we burned ourselves out visiting 9 countries last year and we are saving up our vacation days to do it all over again in 2013.  However, another large factor of why we have not done much lately is that this winter has been very, very long and dark.  Julie and I had discussed that there just didn’t seem to be as much sun this winter as last year, and the German Weather Service confirmed our suspicions.  This winter was officially the darkest winter for at least the last 60 years (they have only been tracking sunshine records for 60 years). 

The temperatures have been relatively constant around the freezing point, which brought a lot of snow this year.  It seems the snow started in October (see previous blog) and has not let up since: except for Christmas of course when we had a freak period of warm, sunny weather.  We’ve had a few freeze/thaw cycles in March, but even this week, the first official week of spring, we had a little bit of snow.  So since our ventures began in Munich back in December 2011, there have been 0 white Christmases and 1 white Easter (last year, 2012).  And with just one week to go, the forecast has us dreaming of another white Easter.

So naturally we have spent a lot of time avoiding the darkness by staying inside where it is warm. But seriously, what have we been doing!?  We conquered a 5,000 piece puzzle, bought a Nintendo Wii, had Indian food delivered about every Friday, watched 3 seasons of Downton Abbey, and learned to play/became addicted to the strategy/conquer board game Die Siedler Von Catan (The Settlers of Catan, also available in the States).  Oh and I can’t forget the thrilling episodes of “Der Bachelor”, “Deutschland Sucht den Superstar”, and “Germany’s Next Top Model” featuring Heidi Klum.  Only a small price to pay so I can watch soccer once a week, and it’s good German practice…..don’t judge!  I went to the FC Bayern vs. Arsenal Champions League game...pretty much a soccer fan’s dream come true.  Meanwhile Julie was busy winning trophies beating her co-workers in Go-Kart races…..I’m just glad I wasn’t there to also be defeated.

I also spent a lot of hours this winter studying German and preparing for my B1 language exam in February.  Today I received my scores and found out I passed with 93% and received the Goethe Institute “sehr gut” (basically an A) stamp of approval!  Yay!  Now the Mt. Everest that is German grammar looks a little bit smaller.

But don’t worry; our blog is about to get new life because after Easter weekend we are booked for every weekend until July.  We are jet setting to Denmark and Iceland in early April, then we prepare for 12 visitors over the following 6 weeks while also making long weekend trips to Vienna, Dresden, and Hamburg.  And that doesn’t include the trip to Croatia in August we just booked.

It is bound to be an awesome spring and summer - we just have to get through the last days of winter/ our potentially “white” Easter.  Happy Spring everybody!

The dogs and their doppelgängers

Today we headed out on a normal Sunday walk over to the park.  What made today different than any other?  We stumbled upon Rita and Sadie’s doppelgängers – in cat form.  And this makes sense – because cats are the evil pets, and dogs are the good ones, so these had to be the evil versions of Rita and Sadie!  I am only kidding, all you cat lovers reading this. 

Here is photo proof of the show down.  Ok, so we couldn’t get them in the same photo because if we went too close with the dogs, the cats would run.  Noah had to photograph the cats first, then our girls.  Either way... eerie...  

At the Lone Star Saloon…. in Bavaria

We often find there are many similarities between Texas and the German state of Bavaria we live in.  The pride, historical sovereignty, conservative values, local traditions, the unique dialect, and in particular unique phrases for hello (howdy y’all = servus).  Well we found one more reason to stretch the comparison after discovering the Lone Star Saloon Steakhouse restaurant in a small town outside of Munich (Seeshaupt).  This place could pass for Texas in just about every aspect, until the people start to speak.

To provide some back story, my co-worker Andreas insisted on taking me to his favorite steak place after learning about my Texas roots.  Although he was being nice and showing me new places, he was more interested to learn my opinion on the steaks.  He wanted to find out just how good (or bad) his favorite steak really was compared to most reputable steaks of America.  It would be like having a friend from Japan tell you that your favorite local sushi restaurant is the best.  Another reason for the invite: I had told him our experience eating beef in Germany has not really been the best.  Julie, the true Texan, couldn’t even finish her 4 oz steak the one time I cooked it at home.  She said it tasted like steak that belongs in dog-food, and once she said it, it started to taste bad for me too.

So back to last fall: Once I realized how excited Andreas was to get my opinion, (plus the opportunity to eat a high quality steak) I went out with my co-workers for a steak dinner.  Upon arrival I was pretty much in a state of jaw-dropping awe the entire night.  How could a town with less than 3,000 people in the middle of Bavaria have a hidden portal back to Texas!?  Let me start with the photos so you can see what I mean.

The amount of Texas memorabilia is really, really unbelievable, but what you can’t see is that Billy Ray Cyrus music was playing in the background.  And just to make sure I got the full experience I ordered the biggest steak on the menu – a 16 oz rib eye which was absolutely delicious (surprising, considering this was German beef!).  This was one of those moments that reminds me just how out of control food portions are in America when my co-workers could not believe an establishment would sell (and that I would order and could eat) such a big portion.  Certainly, I would not normally order so much food, but if I remember correctly this is an average size steak at any American steakhouse. Everyone else ordered 8 oz steaks.  In the end I had to give Andreas credit: this is a top quality steakhouse and really represents Texas very well.

I was so impressed by the place I took Julie along with our American friends Eddie and Laura to share the joy a few months later.  That’s when I learned I found the key to a Texas girl’s heart – good quality steak.

But this place gets even better.  The second part of this story is that the Lone Star Saloon offers all-you-can-eat TexMex fajita buffet on Thursdays, which if you have not noticed by all of the tortilla delivery requests is probably the one food we miss most from the States/Texas. 

The other week I went out again with my co-workers and this time I made sure to bring Julie with me.  I’m glad she did not miss it because it was quite humorous to watch a few of my German colleagues eat fajitas for the first time (wait, you mean that exotic food we heard about in the movies once!?!).  Without any instruction their instinct is to spread out the sauce and toppings over the entire tortilla, like a pizza, and then roll it.  Then they would pick up a knife and fork to commence eating it.

Luckily our waiter was there to give them better instructions.  Though perhaps the funniest part of the night was when he encouraged everyone to fold the fajita in thirds - by tucking in the bottom (more like a burrito) to keep it nice and orderly.  He was particularly insistent that Julie do this too.  After she said “I’m OK. I am from Texas”, he said, “I lived in Texas for 5 years and you should fold the bottom”.  Julie laughingly replied, “I lived there for 22 years, so I really am good!”  I think then he got the point and everyone got a laugh out of the German trying to enforce his ‘true’ Texas methods on the only real Texan in the place.  This did make for some nice conversation when we learned the inspiration for the restaurant.  Our waiter actually lived his 5 years in the Houston Bear Creek Park area.  This is an amazingly small world. 

In the end the fajitas were some of the best we have eaten here, but relatively mediocre compared to good Tex-Mex.  But then again, nowhere does it like Texas.  It doesn’t matter though when there is some good old Texas flare to help wash it down.  No doubt this is now one of our favorite places in Germany and we strongly believe it should be in all guide books – at least for the steaks.