Eating Fish

Living on the US-eastcoast brings lots of positve aspects with it. One is that fresh fish is always available. And the prices are mostly fair. Moving to the very middle of germany means "No fresh fish at all" . You can buy frozen salmon and other fishes that swim in the northern sea from germany. If you go to a bigger grocery storey you usally also get it fresh. But not this variety. You just buy what you get. Pretty sad you say. That was my first and second thought too. Till i looked on the packages of frozen fish where it comes from. So i read Vietnam, which is about 3 billion miles away. And guess what - its the cheapest fish you can get here. That always stunnes me, that goods that travel so far are the less expensive ones.
So beeing me ,and following my resolution to only buy regional, i am not buying that fish. I will buy some fresh trout or other fish that comes from hatcheries in the area.
And looking at that link here http://www.edf.org/page.cfm?tagID=17694 we learn more and more that all our fish is toxic, full with mercury.
So, yes i miss the fish-variety, but i just lost my appetite in fresh fish.

Mealtime prayers

There is a saying in germany which translates like that: We came to ......, like the virgin marry to her baby. And that's what i think every time we sit down to eat when Philip is forcing us to a mealtime prayer.

"We came to mealtime prayers like the virgin marry to her baby"..... Totally unexpected! We usally have to hold hands and ey!: There is no giggeling and god forbit that you say the wrong words. We are very proud that he just picked it up from kindergarten like nothing. Enjoy it.

With love from the Gebhardts

The weekend in K-town

Last weekend we went to Erikas house to celebrate her birthday. She turned 77 and we organized a sitter to go out for a nice dinner at an italian restaurant in her town. We had a great evening with too much wine and prosecco. The food was good and everybody ate too much.
The next day turned out beautyful and Wolfgang and me decided to go to the "Landesgartenschau" , the gardening show in Kaiserslautern. Kaiserslautern is also named K-Town from the americans, because the Airbase Ramstein is close by.
The Gartenschau is a beautyful place from spring till autumn. Thousand of flowers everywhere. They have special exibitions, for example about water or fishes. Philip always has to see the fishes, its a dark house so you can see the fishtanks better.
There is a big playground area, where you can spend hours. It's the usall stuff like swings and slides. But the slides are build on big wooden treehouses, which makes it little scarry. Philip never got on them so far, but he tried it this time and was very proud that he made it. The swings are huge, they look like big coccoons,

There is also a water-playing-area, where kids can pump water up and follow it down on the rocks till it ends in a little river, called the "Lauter" . There are waterfalls and a little pond and Philip was busy following this little river down to the lake. Of course IN the water.
The reason i like this waterplace so much is that at least half of the visitors and their children are americans. You see kids in Lands End clothes and daddys in John Deere caps. I feel very much home there and Philip is always excited to find kids who understand him :o)

Nicky enjoyed the afternoon sitting next to the waterfal and watching the flow of the water.

I guess for next year we will buy a year-round-ticket, because this is already the third time we went this year. I hope some of you will be able to enjoy it when you visit.

Have a great sunday .... and Go Pats!! :O)