More about biking & walking

I was extremely nervous about biking on roads (and still am not at ease by any stretch of the imagination), but it’s getting easier because of the respect that everyone shows for each other.

Cars yield to pedestrians AND to bikes that have the right of way, bikes yield to pedestrians, bikes and pedestrians obey the laws.

I’ve gotten to intersections at the same time as cars trying to make left turns and they get confused if I don’t step off the curb because, after all, I have a walk signal. Same is true on streets where there isn’t a light. It goes against all my years of living in NoVa to trust them (in Sterling I was once almost hit by a car making a right on red - they didn’t bother to check the crosswalk)  but they get indignant when I don’t.

Same is true on a bicycle. Bikes are everywhere and cars watch for them. I get nervous if I’m going straight across an intersection and I see a car with a left turn signal on - but the cars yield.

Jaywalking is extremely uncommon - and almost never done such that a car would have to slow down or stop if it has the right of way.  

To give you an idea of how deep the respect for the law:  there were some 11-13 year old kids riding their bikes (they were on the sidewalk, but it’s a really busy stretch of road) and I heard their brakes squeal as they got to an intersection just as the “green man” (walk signal) turned red.  How many American kids would have just barrelled on through knowing they had plenty of time before the traffic lights actually changed?  

Working for our food

Today we went to brunch - biked over 8K there, then walked pretty much straight uphill for another 1.5K to get to the restaurant.  Had a traditional weisswurst breakfast - white sausages, a good pretzel and a honey wholegrain mustard sauce then returned home.  

For you folks who know Mohonk, imagine the Sky Top trail from the hotel to the tower (not the Lemon Squeeze, not the carriage trail) - now imagine a restaurant with outdoor seating where the pond is.  

Amazing views, I just wish it had been a clearer day so that the pictures came out better.  

OK, if it were clearer, you'd easily be able to see the castle through the arch.  As it is, if you look carefully you can sort of see the outline.  

We even found the local super-villian's estate.

The trail we walked up to the restaurant.

More trail.

Outdoor restaurant seating

Across the Rhein

The vertical street we climbed to get to the vertical trail to the restaurant.

Drachenfells, cliffs and vineyards, oh my.

Hardware stores and bakeries, oh my

The local hardware store is, in outward appearance, a clone of Home Depot.  Inside, however, you find two little extra stores (like a Starbucks in Safeway or McDonalds in Walmart).  One is an honest-to-God newstand.  The other, a bakery.  Because - Germany.

And, just because, here's a picture of Sassy enjoying the balcony.

Beer Festival at the Park

A week ago Sunday we went to a beer festival in the local park - imagine a food area at a county fair where ⅔ of the carts sold alcohol.  No such thing as open container laws, so folks would buy a beer and wander around with it (they had hefty deposits on the glasses or bottles so they would be returned).  (Overall, the lack of open container laws still startles me.  Someone will leave the grocery store after buying a beer, open it and continue down the street.)

The food stands (which, as a non-beer drinker I was more interested in) were amazing.  The two that had the most versions:  wurst (shocking, I know) and crepes.  Crepes with fruit, nutella, liqueur fillings. They also had an amazing mushroom one - bowl of sauteed mushrooms with your choice of a garlic/ranch type thing or hollandaise sauce.  

They also had two of the neatest kid things I’ve ever seen (which I think fear of lawsuits would prevent in the US without huge signing of waivers) - one was a bungee cord & trampoline thing where kids could get a good bounce going then do flips and stuff, the other was sort of a hamster ball in a pool. Waaaaaay cool!