2024 March: I’m Back In Business; Post’n, Cook’n & Tour’n!

Sorry about the 2024 February Newsletter being hand-addressed to you all. Anyone familiar with programming sites and domains knows how crazy this can get when new legal procedures are set in place. I’m all set now and ready for some more adventures!

We’ve been preparing for our next trip this last month, and once again, we’ve created a rollercoaster tour. As soon as we arrived home, we had a few days to unpack, wash, clean the dust out of the house, and repack for a trip to Bavaria. But before we took off, we were able to attend one of the most exciting events of the season in our small town of Wolfach, along with Lutz’s nephew and family, Fastnacht.

It is 3 to 4 days of festivities and parades. This happened to be the surf and rescue crew! It was freezing out, so these guys were brave!

Each village has its costumes and activities to celebrate the coming of spring and the end of winter.

The costumes are over 200 years old, and special artists carve the masks for new generations.

My favorite costumes are covered in bells or walnuts. As they march down the street, they jump to the music, and the sound is tremendous!

We even attended the “Fools Awakening” at 5:30 in the morning…don’t ask. I haven’t seen that time of day in years. But it was worth it, and the street was full of fools like us!

Breakfast of liver soup was served in all the local restaurants! I did taste it, but it’s not my cup of tea.

Spending time with Pia, Thomas, and their two super kids, Isi and Yannick, is always great.

Later that week, we met up with Philipp and his wife Anne and two grandsons, Alexander (7 years old) and Federick (9 years old). Philipp and his family are excellent skiers and look amazing on the slopes. Lutz gave it his best shot! But he was down more than he was up, and poor Philipp was there to pick him up!

Lutz is so brave. He made great attempts to participate, but I fear his days are over (sorry for the pic…but it was the only shot I got before he quit).

We took a six-kilometer walk through Breitachklamm, which was amazing. It is one of the deepest gorges of the Bavarian Alps and the deepest rocky gorge in Central Europe. It was spectacular.

The pictures do no justice to the beauty of this place. It has been formed over the last 10,000 years after the ice age. Glaciers had eroded soft rocks, and hard rock remained. Miners and geologists would come and gather stones and gems.

The walls are 150 meters (490 ft) deep. Yes, that is the path in the picture below. I took it, looking down at where we had been, hundreds of stairs and ramps overhead.

On our way home, we drove through a village showcasing the old rail trains. It was pretty cool.

They had several different trains come through.

We quickly stopped in Lindau Insel and walked around before visiting our friends, Andres and Anne, In Friedrichischofen, near Lake Constance. Lindau is a quaint location and, in the summer, crawling with tourists, but for us, most shops were closed, and very few people walked around.

Meeting new friends was one of the most exciting things that happened to me while living in Wolfach. Doris, Lutz’s sister, has been my dining out, exercise, and swimming buddy. Now I have some cooking buddies. I met them at the street market. Julie is from Canada, Schookie is from Japan (I think), and Kelly is from Twaiwn! I got a new tortilla press from the USA and lugged it back. I made tacos for Doris and Deiter the other day.

The press came in handy for our day of cooking dumplings. I made gluten-free wraps the night before, and Kelly was the teacher.

These things were delicious, and Kelly is not just a pro; she is skilled in this cuisine! I learned how to steam them and how to make the bottoms crunchy. The sauce was so good…next cooking trip, an Asian grocery store!

I’m looking forward to our next adventure this week…pottery making!

Oh yes, I even had an opportunity to cook with Julie’s sons, Toby and Dominic. They were a hoot. We made sweet potato bread and chocolate chip cookies. Plus, they helped press the tortilla shells.

One of my dear friends and her husband, Gaby, and Erich, came for the weekend. They are so fun to be with. Gaby is learning English, and I am STILL working on German. We laugh our heads off, trying to explain things to each other.

One thing we don’t need to explain is cooking. We work so well together creating exotic, fun meals. First course, cold Tapas!

The second course is warm Tapas! I hope to have some of the recipes up by next month. All gluten-free!

We spent the rest of the month planning our next trip to Vienna to visit Lutz’s other son, Dominik. We also plan the four-hour train tour through the Swiss Alps on the Panoramic Bernina Express Tour and a month in Croatia. More to come on all these adventures. Stay tuned!

We are also making plans for a few weeks in Croatia and looking for places to visit on the way and while there. Please send us your travel dreams and suggestions, especially in Europe! We would love to hear from you.

Until next month, thanks again for hanging out with us and touring the world through our eyes. I’ve got a new recipe below that will knock your socks off and a new resource that needs to be read to enhance your sleep!

Fave Recipe: Lemon & Pecorino Chicken Meatballs

This recipe was so quick to whip up and serve in 30 minutes. Serve over gluten-free pasta or mashed potatoes. They are so filling without any carbs as well. It will become a weekly meal.

Fave Resource: Sleep Like a Swede: 7 Cozy Bedroom Hacks From Scandinavia

I don’t know about you, but the older I get, the more trouble I have sleeping. This was a surprising article I received from Doctor Hyman’s weekly health tips he thinks worthy (one of my favorite web Doctors)!