update .... finally

we've been without regular internet access for the last week, so sorry for the lack of posts. (we're at a nice place in florence now that has internet, so the posts should be more frequent again.)

here's what's been going on, part one:

we were in berlin, but it was cold and full of hippies, so we left. but not before having fun going to a rock n roll show at a punk squat and buying swiss army knives (our nails were getting long), among other things.

and I found this cool dill oil. like olive oil, but made of cold pressed ... dills?



it was delicious.

but again, berlin was cold, so after our week-long apartment rental ended (more on what it's like living in other people's homes for a week at a time in a future post), we rented this:



and headed to visit ann's friend steve who is studying at the bauhaus university in Weimar.

This involved me driving on the Autobahn. You know, the road with no speed limit ... Here's a picture of my foot on the accelerator, holding it completely to the floor.



Here's how much fun it was for me:



But I soon discovered the little rental Fiat was governed to a top speed of 170 kmh. (for the mothers reading along at home, don't worry - that's only 105.6 mph). Here's a picture of the speedometer feeling sad it couldn't go more:



We stopped for lunch at one of the Autobahn's famous "Rasthof"s (basically, truck stops). They look like this inside:



And yes, that's *a liquor-serving bar* right inside the door. Hello, drivers! Hmm ...

Anyway, we got food from the buffet. Its quality was comparable to, say, attending a modestly provisioned German middle class wedding. Ann's chicken leg was the best part. Here she is enjoying it:





I took this one for my brother: the Germans know how to make a heck of a white dinner roll.



Back in the car, we arrived, after a few hours of driving, in Weimar. That looked like this:



And featured wonderfully clear traffic control indicators, such as this:



Weimar is home to the Bauhaus, and also Goethe (I didn't know this going in, but having been a big fan of Faust, etc. in college, found it an added bonus) and a bunch of classical composers. It's a picturesque little town of sidestreets and small squares.



We stayed with Steve. His place looked like this:



That shot was taken at about, oh, 4:30 in the afternoon. Notice the world outside the windows? Yep, pitch black. It gets dark super early over here. We had thai for dinner. Steve recommended the duck. We got the duck. It was superb.



After dinner, we walked around and got some ice cream (which the Germans do remarkably well). I got After Eight mint flavor. Here's a slightly ominous photo of it:



Ann and Steve got some other stuff:



The next day, Ann ate another slapstick-sized sausage sandwich:



I ate another ice cream (this time, Toblerone flavor):



And we (very temporarily) sated our desire for Mexican food with this incredibly weird german salsa:



It had the consistency of sweet & sour sauce. yeah ...

But weimar is still in germany, and germany is still cold - and we were sleeping on a hard wood floor - so we left for what we hoped would be even slightly warmer locales ...



(that is ann's "I'm sooooo cold!" face)

Up next: Austria - surprise! - turns out to be freezing too!