We had no real plans today since Ralph and Angelika are hosting a dinner party this evening, s everyone slept in this morning, some later than others, and enjoyed a slow breakfast.
Every morning Ralph and I ride bikes up to the bakery for fresh bread and rolls for breakfast. I borrow Angelika's "Dutch" style bike with the funky old lock (You must "feel" the lock to work it, Ed...) and we slowly wind our way five minutes up the brick street to choose what we want.
Today I could barely make it home with the bread; hot out of the oven I wanted to just tear into it right there at the counter.
I sure wish we could do this at home, go get fresh bread I mean.
After eating Angelika made a list, and Ralph and I drove out of town about two KM to a small, family run farm, the Dammer-Hof Metzgerei, where they shop.
Ralph handed over a wicker basket and list to the lady, and we walked up to the meat counter where another woman was busy butchering cuts of meat. Ralph ordered steaks and turkey, pork steaks and sausages, and the lady cut and bagged it all.
We went back to fetch up the produce filled wicker basket. Two bottles of wine and Ralph paid for it all. This is real "farm-to-table" eating.
We stopped at the regular grocery store for other items like jams and sauces, and more drinks. The shopping carts are chained and locked to each other, and you insert a coin into the handle to release the lock and get a basket. When you finish shopping you re-insert the "key" into the lock, a coin pops out of your handle and the cart is locked back with the group.
They do not have a problem with people stealing the shopping carts here.
The bottle and can recycling is pretty clever as well. They have a machine, and you insert bottles and cans on a conveyor belt. They are scanned, totaled, and a paper slip is passed out to you. Or, you can open a door in the bottom of the machine and insert an entire case of ten bottles at a time.
When you purchase food or drinks, you turn in the recycle slips for credit against the food bill.
I like this system much better than going to our recycle center, where Mr. One-Tooth Meth-Man may or may not be working, and then having to stand around waiting while he uses a calculator and takes ten minutes to figure out that twenty cans at five cents a can equals...
wait for it...
One dollar.
Cash.
And he wants a tip.
Well, all this German automation is very interesting to me. Extension ladders with little lifts attached to them so you can bring supplies up while you work. Custom "walk" signal lights at the crosswalks, so the little green walk-people represent their city. And so on.
We unloaded all the food and decided to take a walk in woods around their house.
If you read my blog post from our first trip to Neuss, you will see the Roman Ruins in and under the city, the old original coins which lead up to our dollar and penny, the port and cathedral, the shops and cafes.
This trip we are learning about the woods along the River Erft, which leads to Rhine.
There is the river itself, and playgrounds and a children's farm (to see the farm animals) with a "pacifier tree." There are paths for running and walking past a castle and herd of deer. You can hear some traffic noise, but it is very subdued, and the trails lead on for several kilometers.
Some of the trails are part of the Camino de Santiago, the local paths that lead to the main pilgrimage walk. The "sea-shell" trail markers are on the signposts.
Along one residential street, literally right in the neighborhood in front of the houses, there is a line of grave stones. When the street was put in and the houses built, they left the original farm graves in place. So there we were, walking down the street, past tombstones from 1697 like it was nothing. And I suppose in the context of 2000 year old Roman ruins and 1000 year old castles, a 320 year old grave is really nothing to be excited about. But I can remember as a kid going to see the graves in the Boston cemetery from the 1700s and thinking how old and cool that was.
You really start to realize that the US such a young baby of a country.
We returned to set up for dinner. I was put in charge of the "barbeque" which was an electric burner plugged in out back. I grilled up the meat as everyone set the table and prepared the salad and drinks.
The friends came over and we had a great time, eating and talking well into the dark.