Grocery Shopping in Detmold: No Costco here!

 We have discovered that we need to plan for several hours to get our weekly groceries. We love the outdoor markets in the town square here in Detmold. The food is fresh and high quality. We are finding the best green grapes we have ever had from our new friend at the produce tables. We learned her grapes come from Italy! We are going through them so fast I think she gets a good laugh at us!

We buy salmon from Norway here at the fish kiosk. 

The grapes are huge and so sweet and the blueberries are perfect...not sure where they come from.

The variety is overwhelming and always looks so good. The market sets up for a few hours about lunch time every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. Most people come for just a few items at a time, but with our work schedule, when we buy fish we need to get it to our fridge quickly. So, we buy our fish on Saturdays. We drive from our apartment in Hiddesen and park at the archive and walk from there. Parking in the little village is often problematic so we are grateful we have permission to use the archive parking on the weekend.

But during the week we will make another trip to the market to buy grapes!

Obviously this photo was taken during a cold snap. Winter is just around the corner. 

Of course, the Saturday grocery trip includes multiple places. There are a couple of nice grocery stores, Kaufland and Combi where we got for milk, eggs, and other items. Right now there are huge displays of Christmas candy. 

Ed standing in line to check out. The clerks are all in little cages at Kaufland. Also, there are no free bags, people bring their own carts or bags to gather their groceries in. 

Bakeries are the best here. We had always heard about the bread in Germany...lot's of sandwiches eaten here. 

We have our favorite bread kiosk. Ed has a become a favorite of the women at this place. We love their brown bread with lots of seeds. The only problem for us is that the bread is made without preservatives so it does not stay for very long before beginning to mildew in the humid air here. We usually buy half a loaf at a time and have them cut it in very thin slices for us. 

There are some challenges for me in Germany with regard to food... first, there are no chocolate chips in this country! Second, all baking ingredients are a little bit different so anything you try to bake comes out differently too. Flour is different, sugar is different and trying to find baking powder and baking soda is a real challenge.

One thing that we have loved eating here is bratwurst and french fries. We have one special place, an outdoor place where we eat once a week. It is delicious. We love the fries because they are not at all greasy. Surprisingly, the bratwurst is not at all greasy either. We with our fingers and don't have anything on our fingers. They are so good!!

Isn't he so cute? 

I think it is funny that they serve the bratwurst on a flat little tray with mustard on the tray and a roll and a napkin. But they serve a little tiny wooden fork with the french fries to eat with. They will serve fries with either catsup or mayo or both on the top. We on get the catsup. 

It is a good quick meal but with winter we are not sure if it will be possible for us to stand out in the cold and eat like this for a while. We will see what happens. 

SUNDAY SUPRISE!

Sunday, 3 November 2024

Ed and I went out for a little walk this afternoon. Wandering around is fun here as we are still unfamiliar with our area and never quite know what we will find. Today we found some fun places including homes, little personal touches, beautiful old trees, neighborhood parks, and churches. 

I was thrilled with the final surprise as we headed down the small hill to our little street.

We love sharing! 

A lovely home just around the corner from us

Unfamiliar red fruit splashes welcome color before winter.

Beautiful, delicate flowers along the path to the front door of another neighbor.

Families brought young children to this lovely neighborhood park surrounded by their homes.

I am always intrigued by the way words are used in advertising. (Ein Stein=a stone) 

Not sure because it is Sunday and everything is closed, but I think it is a restaurant we should try. 

Lovely little sitting area as the sun begins to go down today. This is in front of a small church. 

This is a perfect old climbing tree in front of the church. 

We turned the corner to head down to our apartment and after passing some children who had roller skates on I heard behind me what I thought were those kids skating over some pavers. But that rhythmic sound was not the children skating...it was the clip clop of hooves hitting the pavement, slowly and methodically. 

I turned around and there was this beautiful horse and rider having an afternoon walk together like us!

I asked if I could take a picture and she obliged by reining the horse in just enough so I could snap a quick photo of horse and rider. Then I took a few more quick shots as they continued the steady pace down the street with cars pausing to make sure there was enough room to pass without bothering them.

 

This horse and rider were supreme today on this little road. 

They continued on and went right by our apartment and headed down into the hollow just past our place passing a cute older couple out walking their dog.

What a lovely place to be!

ED AND THE GERMAN CAR WASH

 Sunday, 3 November 2024

The above photo is from the internet. It is a place we frequent. We did not take this photo. In the large picture the car wash in Ed's story is the white building on the right, behind the gas station. 

Enjoy Ed's story.😂

Yesterday, Saturday, Ed decided it was time to get our car washed while he was out running errands.

We were told by the office missionary in charge of cars, that FamilySearch has officially given our car over to the Hamburg Mission. They will now be able to see where our car is at all times monitor our travels, our speed and any violations. They will also make sure we obey the mission rules regarding the vehicles. Those mission rules include the care of mission cars which must be washed at regular intervals. Seniors have a little more latitude than the young missionaries who drive,. (One rule is that we should never exceed 130kmh, even on the autobahn. Nora did discuss this fact with Elder Wulfenstein because sometimes it is necessary to exceed the 130kmh just to pass someone on the autobahn!)

Anyway.....on to Ed's story...

The picture above  is of the gas station we have been using to pick up all our Amazon Germany packages delivered here to HERMES, a delivery company used by Amazon in Germany. We do this since we cannot guarantee we will be able to receive packages at our apartment. Ed has been getting to know the people there. They speak a little bit of English and they have been helpful in receiving packages and very kind in getting them to us, so Ed decided to buy gasoline.

They also have a “typical gas station car wash” so Ed decided to use it to get the car washed there.

He asked them how to use the car wash and they told him to pay for it there (inside), get the code, drive the car around to the back of the building to enter the car wash. Ed understood them to say, “The door will be down, scan the code and the door will open. Pull the car in and get out and press the “start” button.”

Ed felt confident he understood but, what Ed understood is not exactly the way it worked.

Ed drove around and there was a man (German man #1) standing outside the closed car wash door. Ed found the box, scanned the code per the instructions he understood but nothing happened. Ed scanned the code again at which time German man #1 started to speak in very passionate German to Ed. Also, a notice came up on the scan box in German which Ed did not understand. Meanwhile, the excited German man #1 waved his arm dismissively since it was obvious Ed did not speak German and he could not speak English so neither one of them knew what to do.

Ed then tried to figure out what was going on and now could hear washing sounds from the other side of the closed door like it was washing something inside. He scanned again and then noticed that a timer on the box was counting down. He determined that the door would not open again until the time ran out. There was about 4 minutes left on the timer so he waited four minutes and scanned the code again. The reader then read “0.01” which Ed interpreted as one second so he continued to wait a little bit. Still nothing happened so he then scanned again and he still got the same message with nothing happening.

Now there was another car behind our car and Ed was not sure what to do.

All of a sudden the door opened and German man #1, who had been standing there watching Ed, walked in, got into his very clean car and drove out the other side. 

Well ok! 

Ed now drove our car in, stopping at the indicated spot. He got out of the car and must have looked confused because he was looking around inside for the "start" button he thought was there. German man #2 began speaking excitedly in German waving Ed to come to him. So Ed walked out to him. 

He communicated without understandable words that he wanted Ed to give him his ticket which Ed did. German man #2 punched Ed'scode in, the door went down, and Ed could hear the sound of the car being washed.

About 6-7 minutes later when the car was washed and the door opened again, Ed walked in, got into our car and drove away, having now learned how to wash a car in Germany or at least in that place we frequent so much.

But here is the rest of the story:

What may have had German man #1 so excited is that his car was being washed and there is a red emergency stop button on the panel where Ed was repeatedly scanning his code. Ed never would have pushed that button, but sadly, German man #1 did not know that and must have been nervous that Ed was going to push that button and stop his car from getting the full wash. 

Fortunately, not only was it clear what the button was, but the people inside where Ed purchased the code had told him very explicitly,  “DO NOT  TOUCH THE RED BUTTON!”

We wonder what story German man #1 and German man #2 will tell their friends and family today about Foreigner #1 washing his car.

ALL SAINTS DAY IN GERMANY

 Friday, 1 November 2024

November 1 is the first holiday with the archive closing. We were told that it is a Catholic holiday and everythings would be closed for the day. However, we also found out that this Catholic holiday is really a very local day. Our supervisor in Frankfurt told us that it is NOT a holiday for him. We also learned that because the stores would be closed on this holiday in Detmold, many people would be driving to Hannover (1 hour drive) to go shopping!

I was told by our senior missionary, Sister Kelly (who is German by birthday but has been living in Tucson, AZ for many years) that we should try to visit a local cemetery on this day because it is a day not just for the saints and martyrs to be honored, but for families to visit the graves of their deceased family members and decorate the graves with beautiful flowers and wreaths. 

We decided to make a visit so we found the closest cemetery to our apartment and drove by. This whole area is full of woods and forests and fields so when we found the cemetery it was so beautifully situated. We parked the car and wandered around. We saw a few people who were obviously visiting family member's graves. Some were doing a lot to clean up and decorate with new foliage, wreaths, and flowers. 

Here are some of the pictures:

We were surprised to find that most of the graves were for people who had passed quite recently. Sister Kelly did tell us that many of the cemeteries in Germany are finding that they are running out of room even with burying four deep which means the most recent deaths are on the top and the others are below. When the fourth person dies, the bottom coffin is removed to make room for that person or they are now doing much more cremation and building walls to house the remains. 

We don't know the policies for this particular cemetery (Friedhof Detmold) but it was very serence and peaceful walking around for a little while. 

Because there were no stores opened we spent the day putting together the file cabinet to hold the printer and doing other things around the apartment. We are now at a stage where we are about done with adding things. (We did buy a new washer and dryer and there were young missionaries who were in need of them, so that was good. The new ones seem to work better.) 

Anyway, this is what the living room looks like today: 

Quite a liveable space for a year and a half! 

Now we can get to work!!

MY FAVORITE THING...WINDOWS, DOORS, AND SHADES!!

 Saturday, 19 October 2024

Seriously, my new favorite household thing are the windows/doors in our apartment so I thought I would briefly share about them. 

I'm sure they are available in the US, but I have not built or owned a home for a number of years now and I think these are amazing! So are some photos: 

So, above is a photo of the kitchen door to the little patio area outside. Below is a photo of that same door opened taken from the outside. 

Below, this same kitchen door in the photo below is now in the "venting" position. This allows the air in the apartment to "vent" to the outside, cooling off the inside, decreasing the chance of mold and mildew inside the apartment. These buildings are built so tight, that nothing escapes. We have come home from work to find that the apartment is so hot. 

Also, the bathroom can get very steamy so we just "vent" for about 10 min and all is well. 

The biggest thing is the windows do the same thing!!

Above is the window opened for cleaning! It's so easy! Plus, I can bend over and get the lower window (which does not open) cleaned as well.

Below is the same window in the "vent" position.

The other thing that is so cool for me, is the outside security curtains. I actually don't know if they are called that, but they certainly do keep us secure. These are on the outside of the windows and doors and are electronically lowered and raised by us inside at the push of a button. When they are down at night, it is so dark we have had to purchased night lights to put around the apt.

Anyway, I really love these windows and shades for our apartment.  I am curious if anyone I know has them in their homes. Let me know what you think.

TRAINING AND THE TEMPLE

 Friday, 18 October 2024 

After a few days of training I think our supervisor, David Schauperl, is confident that we will be able to remember everything we need to in order to accomplish this task. 

Above: David Schauperl with Ed and Nora

Above: David training Ed on the new machine which will be his. 

We already love the staff at the archive. (I would show pictures of them but I do not have their permission) We have our own room in the archive and work alone unless we have a question or they need to share information with us.  We have already built a relationship with Sylvia who is so fun. She is responsible to make sure we have trolleys stacked with the books we are to scan and that we don't run out of work. She is always cheery and likes to practice her English on us. She says we should only speak German to her and she will only speak English to us! Ha!  That only works one way! 

During training, David introduced us to two wonderful places to eat good German food. What is interesting is that both of these places seem to be owned by either Iranian or Turkish men who speak very good German and enough English for us to communicate with each other. 

Schnitzel Point in the market square downtown Detmold

Ed eating chicken schnitzel and potatoes with vegetables. Everything is very yummy. 

We also eat at this grill which we know will be open on Mondays. Most of the other restaurants are closed on Mondays so we know we can eat lunch at this place if we want. 

The Seval Grill has good food, chicken and lamb and excellent french fries. We have discovered that the fries are not very greasy here and most places (except the Burger King on our first day) have not disappointed us. 

We trained Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday and Thursday left in the morning for David to drive us to Frankfurt to pick up our vehicle from the FamilySearch pool. It was a beautiful morning and as we walked out of the apartment to get into David's car I saw a full rainbow! It was beautiful! I said something to Ed and he turned to me so I could take a photo.  If you look really close, you can see that the right side of the rainbow ends right on Ed's head.  I told him that he was my treasure, my "pot of gold". (I realized quickly that I needed to make sure I wasn't being wordly about my intended compliment.)

The three and a half hour drive was fun and uneventful except that David did get caught on camera speeding so he will have to deal with the ticket. He travels around so much, he was not the least bit concerned about it, but it was a lesson to me. 

W emade it to the Area office/FamilySearch complex in Frankfurt and met several couples there, some of whom will be doing the audits on our work when we send in the hard drive to them each week. We are not sure how many images we will be doing, but they will look at our first month or so to make sure our work is at the standard needed by the archive and FamilySearch. 

We got our car, although the person in charge of the vehicles was not there. We are driving a Hyundai. Not as nice as our Genesis, but it is a Hyundai so I am familiar with the placement of the instrument panel. That will be helpful so I don't worry about turning on/off lights, window washers, etc. because I will have to focus on the roads, the speed limits, etc.

We will not have trouble identifying our car: F=Frankfurt; FH=Family History.

We were sent on our way witht he address to the temple in our GPS so we could get there. We had already made reservations with patron housing for us to stay one night there which we realized later was a huge blessing for us.

The temple is only about a 10 minute drive from the Area Office. We made it quickly and found the temple, like so many others, in the middle of a residential area. It would be easy to miss if it was not known. The Church has done a great job of constructing housing around the temple for temple missionaries, patrons, and a lovely walking park around the grounds. One sign in German reads "Welcome to Temple Square". 

We parked and saw some missionaries coming out from the temple and greeted them. We ended up eating together at a wonderful place we walked to. (I saw a women in the parking lot and asked her if there was a good pace to eat closeby.  She told me about a little place and recommened Flammkuchen. She said it was her favoirte thing so I tried it!)

It was very good but I haven't found it any other place yet.

Above: Missionaries from the Frankfurt Mission although E/S Burke (next to Nora) are doing Humanitarian work for the entire Area.

Above: Flammkuchen - very large, thin pastry crust with leeks, spinach and salmon and some kind of light sauce. Excellent!!

Above: Patron and missionary housing

Above: The temple

Above: Nora & Ed before returning to Detmold

Above: Patron housing room 

The wonderful thing about this experience for us this time was that the building we were assigned to is the building that has a tunnel to the temple so you can dress in your white clothes and shoes, go through the tunnel and enter at the recommend desk. (Well, you actually enter at the baptistry, but you have to go up the stairs to the desk to get in. 

Today is my birthday and I got to be in the Frankfurt Temple with my sweetheart (who happened to forget that it was my birthday). I received many greetings from family and friends. Thank you so much.  It was a wonderful day. 

Above: Nora and Ed ready to go to the temple in their patron housing room

Above: Early morning sunrise from the temple grounds.