Bilder - Pictures!

Sandra and Cristof's church in Wiedenbrück,
and the Saturday farmers market.

The view from my window!

The flowers and the book
that the Niemeier's gave me!

The waterwheel in Wiedenbrück!

Castle Rheda - which is over 1000 years old!

Rheda during Altstadtfest - Old City Festival

I finally had time to let all of these pictures load! This weekend there were a lot of festivals happening in the city, so there was a lot for me to see! On Saturday Christof and I rode bikes into the city to see Altstadtfest. That sounds easy enough, but riding bikes here is a whole new ballpark. They go so fast and they are all street bikes, not the leisurely one speed light yellow bike I had in Charleston! You have to abide by all of the road signs religiously, or you'll get a ticket for a lot of Euros. I did pretty good, except I was wearing a dress. That's the worst part about living in a place where you can only understand about half of what is going on (I'm getting better now!). You end up standing out even more because you are trying to ride a bike in a dress.

The festival was cool and I got to see a lot of German people. I have a feeling the same type of people that go to the SC State Fair are the same type that frequent all of the German festivals. They had unstable rides, just like in the US, and had all types of German food for sale. I had just eaten, because, big surprise, I hadn't been aware that we were about to go to Altstadtfest, but it still smelled good. After explaining how much he loved hotdogs, and eating a hotdog, Christof and I walked around all of the Kindermarkts, which are basically flea markets where children try to sell their chewed on old Barbies and baby books with important pages ripped out. 

We had a beer, of course, and on the way back home we made a stop at a soccer pub (for only men over 80, from what I could see) to meet the one younger guy that was in there, Christof's friend Patrick. We kind of stood behind the bar and watched soccer because Patrick's favorite club was playing. He explained to me that he was focused because it was soccer time, but I've come to realize that it is never not soccer time here. Christof asked permission to have another beer and I said, in pretty good German I might add, that "of course he could. I was not his Mom." Which made all the old men laugh. Yes!

Sunday it was Sandra's turn to go to Altstadtfest and this time we took the car. We were trying to go on a tour inside the castle, but we were too late. Sandra kept apologizing until we saw that it was pretty much every Sunday. We went into a cool working art studio to look an exhibit, and Sandra asked about art classes that I could take. They are always so good about thinking of things I can do. It's really great. 

Back at the festival, we ran into their neighbor, a really large woman with a course voice, and the only neighbor Sandra had warned me about. Within two seconds of talking to me she was telling me all about when she was breastfeeding her kids, and taking inches from my face while patting my lower back and somehow holding my hands at the same time. I could hear her tell Sandra that I was sweet though, so I guess that was nice of her. 

Last night we had out first German meal of Rotkohl, Bratwurst, and some sort of potato dumplings. It was good, and even though Christof can still not stand to see me drink water out of the faucet("What is wrong with Mineralwasser, Ginny?") I think we pretty much like the same types of food. Which is not saying much because I like all foods.

Speaking of that, to the grocery store!