Randecker Maar

I have been meaning to write a post about our walk around the Randecker Maar a few weeks ago.  It was the first of the cold days after the unseasonal heatwave, but still sunny which made it perfect for a walk.

The Randeker Maar is a nature reserve situated on the top of an old crater lake, formed by volcanic activity about 17 million years ago.

View of the Randecker Maar from the road below

There are two circular walking paths around the top, which start and finish next to a Restaurant with a handy Biergarten attached.  I would say more but I think the pictures speak for themselves, a great place for an afternoon of walking.

Hi-de-Heidelberg

For the first time in a very long time, I did not want to get out of bed this morning which is unlike me especially as today we had a castle to see, and I love a good castle me.  I was all warm and snugly, I didn't want to be parted from my Uwe or my duvet.  Neither did the sun as this picture from the balcony demonstrates that she still had her snugly foggy duvet wrapped up tight.

Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

The car thermometer reinforced why I didn't want to get out of bed by reporting it was 0.5 °C, but as we drove through Stuttgart the skies turned blue and the temperature raised to a head 3.5 °C!  It took us about an hour and a half to get there and it had turned into a quite beautiful day.  We managed to park quite easily in the multi story attached to the funicular railway taking us up to the castle, although this was quite by accident but I think we were both pretty relieved when we realised we wouldn't have to walk up by foot.

View from the road below

It cost us €5 each for a return journey to the castle stop and entrance to the courtyard, Apothecary Museum and to see the giant barrel. We didn't go on a guided tour of the castle itself, so I think a future visit would be lovely.  The building varies in style because as with many castles it was in use over many centuries and bits were added and bits crumbled away though attack, accident or lack of repair.

The stonework is ruddier in colour than the greys of castles I've visited back home in England and is certainly very decorative in places.

This seasons latest must have, a bird hat

But there was something even more stunning than the building, the views of Heidelberg and the River Neckar.

Some other treats I saw today included the castle's resident cat, a very large barrel and a stuffed crocodile...

soft kitty, warm kitty...

this wasn't even the large one...

Not sure what stuffed crocs were actually used to cure, not sure I want to find out...

And an extra bonus for everyone a clip from 1980s English slap stick comedy show Hi-de-Hi:

My First Festivals

The past weekend has been a packed one, Friday and Saturday evening was spent in the company of Uwe's friends two of whom were celebrating birthdays and Saturday itself was spent doing my second German oral exam and driving about doing some furniture shopping.  We finally found a suitable Schriebtisch in an amusingly named store called Hofmeisters, which of course meant I had to bring up the old "all Germans are obsessed with the Hoff" chestnut.  Which in itself is quite topical as the Hoff himself believes he is the one solely responsible for toppling the Berlin Wall, and today is a bank holiday in Germany commemorating the reunification.  To be fair he did have a pretty flashy jacket on when he played on the Berlin Wall back in 1989.

Yesterday we visited the Pumpkin Festival in Ludwigsburg, I have been itching to visit since we went to the Blühendes Barock in July 2010, that day was in the middle of a summer heatwave and it was about 36°C, absolutely scorching! I had seen a leaflet for the Pumpkin Festival and thought it looked amazing in a kitschy surreal kind of way, and the bonus is that being held in Autumn it would be a much more reasonable temperature (unless, like this year, it happens to be a freakishly hot heatwave when it should be about 12°C, but is instead 26°C!!).  I had read the lovely Laurel's post on last years festival and last week she posted her review of this years and with this theme being Dinosaurs I knew I had to see it for myself!

The place was absolutely rammed with visitors, it was hard to take pictures because of how many people were there, and even in the areas of the vast Gardens which were not pumpkinified one could hardly move.

That's right Pumpkinosaurs!!

The Pumpkinasaurus Rex was my fave.

After looking around for a while we were delighted to see a hut selling ice lollies, but as we approached the counter they closed, so instead I took a picture of an amusingly named icy German treat:

Just to prove my sense of humour has not moved on much since I was a toddler...

Something I found even more amusing than Dinosaurs made from Pumpkins and an Ice Lolly called Bum Bum, was the children's entertainment area, no bouncy castles or noisy fairground type attractions needed here! Pop up a wooden hut area, cordon it off and add some bails of hay and let the kids chuck it at each other, brilliant!  It looked really fun and I was tempted to join in :D

I wouldn't want to be the one cleaning up after that!

After a tip off from Laurel we sat down for some refreshments and I had some of the Pumpkin wine, which does sound wrong but is in fact very, very right!  I promptly visited the shop and bought a bottle to take home, which sadly I have already finished while catching up with the last two weekends of X Factor.  I did want to bring home some of the wonderful varieties of Pumpkins on offer, but towards the end I was so hit I couldn't be bothered to queue up again but I did take some nice pictures.

Sure to make someone some lovely soup one day.

Originally I had pencilled in the Göppingen Weinfest for Sunday, but I decided to let fate decide - okay the people on Facebook - and oddly enough they chose Pumpkins.  However i had forgotten that it was a Bank Holiday and we could do both, so to honour the people who had voted in my Poll we did that on Sunday and today we visited the final day of the Weinfest. I had my first taste of Zwiebelkuchen, which is a quiche-type thing but instead of pastry the case is a savoury sponge cake kind of affair.  It was a gorgeous day drinking cold wines in the Sun accompanied by a live Volksmusik band, perfect!

Bizzler!!

I had been hoping to find some Federweißer as recommended by the delightful Frau Dietz but we were out of luck, talking of luck the Frau herself has an exam coming up so send her some happy thoughts!

GOOD LUCK FRAU DIETZ!!

Things that make you go wowzers!

The past few days have been dotted with unexpected surprises.  Sunday I was woken by the doorbell ringing, I padded down the hallway in my PJs to have a nose through the spyhole at the cold Jehova Witnesses but it wasn't them.  It was the postman!! My immediate thoughts were that I must be mistaken and it is Saturday, or that I had managed to sleep right through to Monday, but no it really was Sunday and the postman handed me 2 packets.  One of Uwe's crimbo prezzies had arrived and so had my new glasses! On a Sunday!!

I excitedly explained to Uwe what happened and he being used to the 'odd' things we can do on Sundays in England said "wow and even you are surprised by this happening on a Sunday"  In Germany Sundays are still days of rest, not only do the shops not open but well anything that involves too much noise as I can see is also a no go.  It is actually one of the things I am looking forward to, enforced laziness!  Seriously though it gives people time to do non-shopping-related stuff together as a family, besides café's and restaurants are open so what better time to discover new towns?

My gorgeous new Black/Brown Jessica's from Glasses Direct, a bargain to boot!

Yesterday I was surprised by my Mum, I had spent about 3 hours trying to teach her how to use MSN Messenger a week or so ago.  I thought it best to get as much practice in before I go to Germany rather than afterwards, this way I am actually here to sort out any problems she has in person.  I wasn't entirely convinced she had the hang of it, especially as later the same day she'd logged into msn, I sent her a message which she seemingly ignored before logging off.  Later she told me she'd seen the message and was replying but nothing had got through, a quick explanation that using the 'enter' key is a work around for a lack of a 'send' button solved this problem the next time.

I hadn't moved on to the more complicated step of sending me a message without being sent her one first, but she managed it anyway! Her and my step Dad have been in Scottland for the last week and I have received a couple of email updates telling us what she's been doing.  Yesterday I saw her log on and about 20 minutes later a message box popped up which just said "Love Mum xx" an admittedly odd opening line to which I replied "Hi Mum xx" which she followed with a "This is so much quicker!", although at her typing speed that is slightly debatable (love you Mum!!).  I find it very cute that she does a proper written ending to her messages, more as if she were writing a letter or an email instead of a phone call.  This makes me feel much more confident she'll be pro by the time July comes.

This morning I woke up to the sound of excited children squealing outside my bedroom.  In a B-movie zombie like style I dragged myself to the bathroom, noting that the light outside was brighter than the past days.  You could see the cogs moving in my brain.  Screaming happy children... brightness... the rest of Europe being covered in snow... **CLICK** omfg we have snow!!  A whole inch of white fluffy loveliness!! As an adult my inner child is always impressed that having my own garden means I have my very own personal patch of pure, white, uninterrupted snow.  It has had the added side affect of the temperature warming up from a chilly -6 to a heady -1 degrees.

I had hoped that the surprises would continue and I'd log on this morning to find out my English assignment had been marked but nope not yet.  However my first OU German mark is awaiting release so I will be staying up late tomorrow night to grab it the minute the submission deadline passes!!