Wilkommen to the land of leiderhosen, sausages, pretzels and Bavaria! The third stop on our travels took us to Germany.
"Germany is a Western European country with a landscape of forests, rivers, mountain ranges and North Sea beaches. It has over 2 millennia of history. Berlin, its capital, is home to art and nightlife scenes, the Brandenburg Gate and many sites relating to WWII. Munich is known for its Oktoberfest and beer halls, including the 16th-century Hofbräuhaus. Frankfurt, with its skyscrapers, houses the European Central Bank."
...and of course, here are some AWESOME facts we learned about Germany:
- Germany has a program targeted at pedophiles, who have yet to commit crimes. The goal is to help them find treatment, because many don’t want to harm others.
- Engineers building a bridge between Germany and Switzerland found that when the two halves met their elevations differed by 54 cm. Germany bases sea level on the North Sea, and Switzerland by the Mediterranean; someone messed up the correction, doubling it instead of cancelling it out.
- The population of Germany is in decline. It has fallen by 2 million in the last decade.
- Germany doesn’t recognize Scientology as a religion.
- First aid training is required to get a driver’s license in Germany, in order to ensure that in the event of an accident other drivers will be able to help.
- Regensburg Sausage Kitchen is a sausage restaurant in Regensburg, Germany which has been in business for 900 years. This means they were selling sausages well before the Inca Empire existed and are still serving 6,000 sausages a day
- In Germany your baby’s name must be the one on a pre-approved list.
- In 1561, there was a celestial phenomenon over Nuremberg. There was a reported incidence of a great space battle over Germany in the middle ages. It is said that there was even a crash landing outside the town.
- Bars in the Veltins-Arena, a major football ground in Gelsenkirchen, Germany, are interconnected by a 5-kilometre (3.1 mi) long beer pipeline
- Germany is the only country in which the McRib is available all year round.
- Germany was the first country in the world to adopt Daylight saving time
- Prison escape is not punishable by law in Germany – German law maintains that it’s a basic human instinct to be free and therefore, prisoners have the right to escape jail. Escapes, however, rarely go unpunished because prisoners are held liable if they cause damage to property or inflict bodily harm against any individual upon their breakout.
Who could ever visit Germany and not eat sausage? Neither could we! Se we had bratwurst for dinner. I learned brat comes from a German word about small pieces of of meat, usually pork, and wurst means sausage.. so there ya go! :)
After dinner we watched Run Lola Run., which is a German film and set in Berlin. It was awesome. It's funny because I've been told by several people throughout my years that I look like Lola..especially when my hair is red like that, but I always thought it was just the hair. I've also been told I looked like the chick from the first Bourne movies...come to find out, its the same woman. Her name is Frank Potente. I'm not sure I see the resemblance, but I don't know if you are ever really able to see your own resemblance to someone else.
Here are some photos of our night in Germany! :)
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| Helping me make the cake for dessert. |
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| I was amazed at how easy it was to find German products. I found these gherkins and the mustard below, both imports from Germany, at my local Fred Meyer. |
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| I'm not a huge mustard fan to begin with, but this had a bit of spice to it, almost like it had horseradish in it. It wasn't bad, but just a bit strong for me. |
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| German candy: Haribo gummies and Ritter chocolate...yum. |
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| German beer. |
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| German potato salad. Much different than the American mayo based picnic staple you may be used to. This is served warm and is quite tangy with a vinegar based sauce pour over it. Absolutely delicious! |
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| and of course the themed invite :) |
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| I prefer this picture of our night |
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| he prefers this picture |
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| dinner |
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| and for dessert- German apple cake. Moist delicious goodness right here. |
