Elephant bites: Beer, Roman soldiers, bugles, evacuations, and biking bliss (and we never did make it to the castle).

Hey y’all. I am finally back online after a couple of weeks of waiting for our connection in our new house (which I will blog about later). I have been buried under boxes without phone, computer, TV, newspapers or radio. I couldn’t have told you what was going on in the world to save my life until a few days ago. It’s so depressing, though, that I kind of want to crawl back in my hole and be ignorant of earthquakes, elections, and war. But other than that life is pretty good around here.

I have so much to tell you. It’s like that old joke: “How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.” I’m feeling a bit overwhelmed because I have so much I want to write about from the past few weeks and so little time. But if you will hang with me, I’ll try to take a few small bites of this big ole elephant.

I’ll start with today and catch you up on the rest later. Dave returned yesterday from Virginia (his second US trip since we’ve been here). We got up and I made crepes with fresh hot strawberry and peach filling and whipped cream. Then we set out to tour the Schloss (castle) in Ludwigsburg.

We drove to Ludwigsburg and stopped at a biergarten on the Neckar River where had a very European lunch of beer, coffee, champagne, roasted mushrooms, pizza toast, and an assortment of cheeses, breads, and sliced meats. The kids ran back and forth between the table and the playground. Their favorite part was the sculpture of a naked rear end that supported a drain pipe that emptied from…well, you know.

Then we went downtown, intending to go on an English-language tour of the Schloss but instead got sidetracked by a very cool Pferd Markt (horse market) and parade. It was so neat! The parade featured the history of Ludwigsburg marching in chronological order. We caught it beginning with the Romans. The people were in amazing authentic-looking costumes. There were centurions, medieval monks, a king in an ermine robe, men in powdered wigs, women in bustles, horses in full regalia, and all the way to modern times with ballroom dancers and even an American square dancing team!

Instead of passing out candy to kids, the marchers handed out cups of beer and wine from old casks and glass yards to the adults. Some people got souvenir glasses and others got plastic cups. We got neither because we were too far back. But after beer and champagne at lunch that was probably a good thing.

My favorite part was the marching bands. I always tear up when the horns and drums pass by. I can’t help it. I loved marching in bands when I was younger. I didn’t see any of my beloved French horns, but I did see wonderful drums, bugles (you have to respect marching while playing without valves!) and fancy scrolled vertical bells. The uniforms were incredibly ornate. And I really loved the multi-generational aspect. These were not high school bands. There were young people marching next to seniors and they were so precise and professional-sounding. Gave me goose bumps. But then, so did the rain, which came in buckets and drove us running, diving under awnings and splashing through puddles all the way back to the car.

Then we went to Panzer Kaserne to the PX since on Sundays all the German stores are closed. While we were there an alarm sounded and we had to evacuate the building while the MPs looked around. Nobody ever said why. So Dave drove the kids and me home where I roasted chicken for dinner, which is harder than it sounds given that I have to get used to low altitude cooking, converting Fahrenheit to Celcius, the martian symbols on German ovens (and the user’s manual is in German of course) and electric versus gas. How many people do you know who cook with an oven mitt on one hand and an English-German dictionary in the other?

Meanwhile, Dave drove back to the PX to pick up (oh I’m so excited I can’t stand it) MY NEW BIKE! I have not ridden a bicycle since I was 12 years old (that's 24 years ago, y'all). When he got home I jumped on that sucker in my sandals and in the rain, throwing caution to the wind, not even stopping to put on my helmet and pads. It was so energizing! I rode and rode along the bike trails, past the mustard fields and apple orchards, totally exhilarated. I’d have whooped and hollered if not for the German quiet laws on Sundays. The kids joined me when I returned home and we did a few loops around the neighborhood together. Then I parked, stirred my rice, and ate a nice dinner with my family. And my dear hubby is now getting kids to sleep so that I can write this to you. You gotta love that.

So, we never did make it to the castle, but it was a truly great day.