It's still snowing out and most likely is very cold. Ted left to go to the base to get money exchanged and on to his work to pick up the plastic bottles to take them to the "Pfand" (the recycling place) at Netto, the local market where we shop.
While he was gone, I did a load of laundry, loaded the dishwasher, made the bed and generally cleaned up. I also managed to check bank balances and write some emails.
We first went to Netto to shop. Ted recycled the bottles at this machine. It's really cool how they do it here. You place the bottle in the machine and it reads the bar code and keeps a tab of what you are owed. When you are done, you push a button and the machine prints out a receipt. Today the receipt was for 3 Euro which we will use to offset our shopping.
We did our shopping and Ted paid the bill. The Germans do not bag your groceries nor do they provide bags. You have to either bring your own bags or buy them from the market. I usually bring cloth bags. Thehe checker was going SO FAST that we ended up having to rearrange our purchases in the bags we brought, otherwise they would be way too heavy to carry up the steps.
We then stopped at the bakery next door and bought some bread. Since we did not have breakfast, Ted wanted the bakery's wonderful chocolate-covered donuts. They are wonderful. Very chocolately but not very sweet. We both sat and had a donut. Ted had juice and I had a latte machiatto.
We decided to go look for the yarn place in Bernhausen on our way to Rewe (pronounced Rev-a) to get Nestea Peach Iced Tea, Ted's favorite. Earlier in the week, Ted went over to Mama Maria's to have a "Diesel" (half Coca Cola and half Beer). While there, he got the directions from Anna where the yarn place was in Bernhausen.
Where were were going didn't allow cars, so we parked the car and decided to walk around to find it. We started to ask a woman where the "Baumwolle Laden" (Yarn store) was. She wasn't from that part of town so she asked someone else. They said there wasn't one in Bernhausen. But we know that Anna told us there was one here. Oh well, back to the drawing board. It turns out, she speaks English! She told us that we probably would want to go to Metzingen. She said they have many outlet stores there and that we most likely would be able to find what we were looking for. We asked where Metzingen was located and she gave us directions. We decided it was worth a trip since it was only about 15 kilometers away!
While speaking to this woman we noticed a group of people in costume.
Men and women in the same type of costumes.
It turns out that every village has this own version of this event. This event is over 100 years old and each village has their own costumes and masks. These people are "witches". They are tasked with making winter go away. It isn't visible in this photo but there are clothes on lines just like in Neuhausen. And it has to do with Shrove "Fat" Tuesday. It' a Catholic tradition. Some villages are more traditional than others because some villages are very Catholic and others are more Evangelista (Protestant, i.e. Martin Luther).
She told us that there will be a parade in Neuhausen on Sunday. We may just take the bus over there and see it.
This 20 year-old man is dressed traditionally. He installs ceramic tiles for a living.
Here he is again, with his village's mask and clowning with another guy!
I had to take a photo of this costume. This guy was gracious enough to have his photo taken. The photo does not do this costume justice. It was exquistely made! It was wool and appeared to be very heavy. You can't see it in the photo but he had a coiled rope hanging from his belt.
We stood and had a very long conversation with the young man and the guy in the white pants. We talked mostly with the guy in the white pants. It turns out his uncle lives in the U.S. in Boston. We talked to him for over an hour!!
He told us about the snow and how this is a very hard winter for them. It usually doesn't snow this much (there's about four inches of snow on the ground right now). That was eye-opening! He also told us that the various communities are out of salt and because it's so late in the season, the communities would not be buying any more salt. The government has reserved whatever salt is left for the autobahn. He also told us that there is a law in Germany that who ever owns a property, they must clear the sidewalk in front of their home (or business) of the snow. Can you imagine being forced to clear the snow on the walkway in front of your home?
He told us of the parties that were happening everywhere in the region tonight. That if you showed up in costume, the entrance fee was waived. He said that they would bring their own steins to drink out of. (See the photo with the mask above and you can see his stein hanging from his belt.)
He also explained their unemployment and taxes. It's mind boggling what the government will pay for if you are out of work. Every school child goes to England to see how the English live and to learn the language better. (I'm unclear as to how old the children are when they do this.) If a person is out of work during the time the child has to go to England (or America), then the government pays for their trip!! That's above and beyond the call, I think! They also pay for your rent and give you money for food. Unbelievable!! And the rest of the working population pays for it. He also said this goes on for a year. Then the payments are cut proportionately.
I asked him what he thought about Hitler. He said most Germans were not a part of what happened then. He told us that there is a concentration depot (a holding post) somewhere between Bernhausen and Sielmingen (a town nearby). He said his grandfather would leave food out on the street for the people who were walking (herded) to the depot. He said the Nazi's would hit him for leaving the food. He also said that he doesn't think about it much and that it happened 60 years ago. I told him that it cannot happen again. And he agreed. But somehow, history has a way of repeating itself because people do not pass along the lessons learned from their ancestors.
The two young men had to leave and our feet were ice cold. We walked back to our car and turned the heat on. Ted needed the restroom so we went back to our apartment and we unloaded and put away the groceries before moving on the next store. We still had some time so we decided we would go find Metzingen and see what it was all about. We weren't going to stop, just see if we could find it. Being in Germany is truly an adventure!
We found it and was amazed at the number of outlets there were. La Coste and Puma were just a few. We definitely need to come back here and check them out. Perhaps next weekend!
We drove back and stopped at Rewe to get the peach tea. We had decided earlier in the week that we would go to Capri for dinner. Ted wanted to try their steak. I had linguini with fresh shrip and Ted had steak and potatoes. I was able to taste the steak and it was delicious. It was, by far, the best steak we had eaten here in Germany. It was expensive, but SO worth it!! The Germans just do not know how to grill beef. The place was pretty empty and it was because of "Mardi Gras". We sat and talked (or rather I talked) to Virna, the owner of Capri. We talked mostly about food. I told her about my family's traditional Italian cooking. She told me about some of their traditions. We also talked about missing our homelands. She does not miss her town. She said it was full of drugs, guns and to get into the bank you have to stand in a small cubicle and get your thumb scanned otherwise they will not open the door to you. She said she prefers Germany because there are more services than where she comes from in Italy.
At 8:30pm, we decided it was time to leave and we went home. We trudged the seven bottles of tea up the stairs and watched "The Hunt for Red Oktober" before going to bed.
Saturday 02/13/10
