Prague!

Dave and I went out last night for beer(s) for the first time. We went to a bar/restaurant that Dave noticed days before because of the sign outside boasting "Mega-schnitzel." The bar plays straight 80's metal music and our server spoke pretty good English. When he came to take our order he said 'okey-dokey!' and then when he brought my left over mac n cheese he called it a 'doggy bag'. I think his English teacher may be from Wisconsin. He also taught me how to ask for no ham in my mac n cheese (bitte kein Schinken) and helped Dave pronounce Käse. The food was super greasy, but I'm sure we'll be back.

Yesterday I woke up and walked with Dave to work and then went for a run. I noticed the leaves were starting to fall and wanted to catch some photos of these trees up at the top of a hill. Mid-day the sun usually pops out for an hour or two, so that's when I headed towards the hill. Without really meaning to, going towards the hill meant going a long way up it. The hill was another winery, of course, so I snapped some photos of the town and my unexpected hike.

Today is being spent researching and booking our trip for this weekend, Prague! Dave has Tuesday off work so like many of his coworkers he also took off Monday. I immediately thought Paris, but planning a trip to Paris last minute was very expensive, even for Paris standards. So we're renting a car for an awesome price and heading to Prague tomorrow (Saturday morning) and coming back Tuesday. Even better, his coworker and wife have decided to join us. They're from Chicago and have been here since '09 and always wanted to go to Prague.

Things have been going really well. I'm settling in and Dave is doing great at work. He had a meeting at Bosch yesterday and they picked one of his designs for a new line. We will download Skype and call our families soon (sorry mom, yes I do miss you) .

Kara

 (St. Dionys pictured above on the left and below)

(Joe, the above is your photo!)

Sprechen sie English?

Hallo!  

It’s Wednesday and I’m sitting in the back of a cute, modern café in Essslingen. It’s a really beautiful day and I spent the morning walking to the top of a hill/winery. The town is surrounded by wineries and this one used to be a fort (I think) at the top of a very long and steep staircase (I know). I'm not sure if you can visit the wineries and have a glass because they're family owned and don't actually make that much wine. As of now, I don't have the courage to figure out the answer, but the view and winery are beautiful. The photos don't really do it justice. When I went this morning around 10am there were about 10 people picking grapes, all spanning across three generations. I creeped a bit and listened to them and took photos. It was really nice. This might be my go-to spot.

  

(Foreground- wine, middleground-Esslingen, right-side- my new StairMaster)

  

I picked up a German book yesterday and I’m going to try to learn as much as I can. Within the first 24 hours I was here I had 3 different people come up to me and start speaking German, so I guess I still look the part after two generations of Americans. Unfortunately, I can't say anything and very few people here know English. If they do, it's a very little bit. Ordering food and reading menus has proven to be the most challenging. Though, 'vegetarische' is pointed out on some of the menus, which obviously means vegetarian but is difficult for me to pronounce. The 'g' in German is hard like in 'dog' and the end sounds like 'ish'... so it's something like 'veh-geh-tahr-ish-eh'... I just met Dave for lunch (pictured below) and then came to this cafe to start planning our weekend trip. Dave's pronunciation is really good. I sound like I'm from Milwaukee…

 

Dave has Tuesday the 1^st off of work. His coworker said it’s for Halloween, but we’re not sure if he was kidding or not. A lot of his coworkers are taking Monday off, so he’s going to ask for it as well, which will give us a four day weekend. 
 

Auf Wiedersehen!

Kara

Ps. I used all my German in this post.

Esslingen, Germany

Side Street

Der Schtarbucks

It's Sunday, and in an attempt to go grocery shopping, I have arrived at the only place I could find that's open:

I've also only eaten Margherita Pizza for the past 2 days, because it's the only thing on the menus I can read.

2 out of the 6 people I've tried to talk to spoke English.

They both worked at Starbucks.

Our Room:

Here are some shots of our room at the extended stay hotel in Esslingen. The kitchen has a double range, mini fridge, and extensive selection of one pot and pan. The living room, also shown in this photo, houses our free internet, and large flatscreen TV (hidden behind my 10" notebook.)

The master bedroom is outfitted with not one, but two single beds, and is accented with a matching headboard and wardrobe - with a total of 5 wooden hangers in it.

...and this is our thrown:

Yea, that's a real starfish, solidified forever in this gorgeous blue-to-clear gradient acrylic mold. Click for a sweet high-res. of that thing you can use as a background.

In reality, I'm very happy to have a kitchen and to be in such an awesome location. The entire city is very walkable. It takes me about 25min to walk to work, and there's an abundance of shops, restaurants and grocery stores on the way.

I'm going to bed now. I've been up so many hours that I can't calculate it with the conversion rate.

I Have Arrived!

Well, I didn't sleep at all on the 8.5 hour flight from Chicago to Frankfurt. Neither did I on the 1.5 hour train ride from the airport to the hotel. I got here and was absolutely exhausted, but I've been forcing myself to stay awake so I can handle the jet lag as soon as possible. It's now 6pm.

I forced myself to walk around the city for an hour or two and snapped a few photos. Everything is very walkable. There are tons of shops and restaurants right out our doorstep. The city is surrounded by hills lined with wineries. In the city, there's a good mix of historical buildings along with very modern architecture.

Here's a glimpse of the historical street walks that snake through the town:

And here's the Esslingen University of Applied Sciences, in the center of downtown.