Shayne's Visit...

Shayne's Visit 9 -13  May 2011

Don’s best friend and best man from our wedding came to Germany on business this previous week.  Our kids were very excited to have Mr. Shayne here for the week - they have always liked Mr. Shayne and in truth all of our children have been very friendly w/ Mr. Shayne when they would not even speak w/ other friends.  Its quite sweet. 

On his visit here, he had hoped that he could rent a racing bike and ride through the Alps.  Unfortunately, the passes for this did not open until June.  In addition, renting a bike in Germany is not like it is in France.  Renting a bike in Heidelberg is possible, but they are commuter bikes and bikes for touring, not speed. 

So, we went out a couple times as a “family”… Shayne did really well being around our kids.  Our kids had just got back from a weekend in the Netherlands and were ready to let off some steam.  Quiet…they were not!  Mr. Shayne does not have children and so this can be pretty stressful for one who does not have children to suddenly be around them 24/7!  Sorry Shayne!  LOL

We took Mr. Shayne to a nice little restaurant in Eppelheim called the Schutzenhaus.  We have been to this restaurant before, Don a few times.  He truly enjoys their cuisine.  I have not had anything bad – but have a hard time ordering.  They are one of the few restaurants in the area that do not offer an English version of their menu.  So I have no clue what I am looking at!  Well, I have a small clue…but not much!  I have learned that pork is Schwen, chicken is Hänchen, veal is kalbfleisch, fish is fischen, mit is with and so forth… so I am getting there J…but still hard to order when you cannot compare.  We rely a good bit on Don for this as he has learned more at this point.

The Schutzenhaus has some pretty good beers, so of course, you cannot come to Germany w/out us forcing beer on you! J… not really.  It just so happens that both Don and Shayne completely enjoy beer

On another night we drove to the place where you buy alcohol… ok, we call it a Liquor Store in the States…but they call this a getrankemarket (drink store)  Don and Shayne picked up 12 bottles of different beers.  Here, similar to a store called Jax back in Cumming, you can buy beer one bottle at a time; but they are mostly .5L bottles.  Well, when they checked out the cashier told them it was 10euros.  Both Don and Shayne had to do a double take – and the clerk just smiled and nodded his head.  So they came back to the flat – put the kids down for the night, put in the movie Stripes and drank beer and ate popcorn!  What a hoot!  Not too exciting, but they seemed to enjoy themselves!  I had never seen the movie (don’t say it…) so it was interesting…of course, being my normal self, I fell asleep ¾ he way through!  LOL

Another night Don took him to the Schwetzengen Ritter zum Brauhaus, which translates Knights of the BrewHouse… Don and I had been here before, it had pretty good food and really good beer.  I decided Shayne needed a good break from the kids, so I dropped the boys off for dinner and drinks and then we picked them up a while later.   

We were wise one night and got a babysitter for the kids – Ms. Roxanne has been a lifesaver!  We took Shayne downtown to Heidelberg to the Castle, and the Old Bridge.  I have yet to tire of this place.  It truly is fascinating.  Because we didn’t have the kids we took the hike up the hill to get to the Castle… wow – I was tired!  We saw areas of the Schloss that we had not seen before and didn’t know we could see.  There was even a museum that was very fascinating – many forms of distillers there!  Within the walls of the Schloss is thought to be the worlds largest wooden wine barrel ever to be filled w/ wine.  It held something like 300,000 L of wine!  Huge!  Unfortunately, my camera batteries ran out!  We ate at a brewery called Vetter’s something or other.  They are popular for their strong beer.  They will advertise as 33% beer…but really it is only 11.9% alcohol the 33% is its specific gravity.  I am not a big beer person, but apparently brewing beer at a high specific gravity alters the denser the beer.  I do not think either of the boys liked the beer – but they had to try it ;)... me, I had my typical, really expensive Coke Light - grossen (large)    

Don was able to take a little time off while Shayne was here (he happened to be the “senior guy” that week and had a hard time getting off).  On this particular day, Don and he went to Rothenberg ob der Tauber.  We went back on this trip 2 weeks later over Memorial Day weekend – so you can see all the cool pix in that blog when I post it.  They enjoyed themselves, but really had a hard time of it.  Places in these little towns close much earlier than back in the States…often shutting down as early as 4 and 5 in the afternoon!  So just as they would get to one place it had just closed or had closed 15 min. prior… this was not pleasant b/c they did not get into some very cool museums.  We were able to hit them on our weekend there though.  Sorry Shayne! - you can see the pictures though! :) 

On another night, I decided again, Don and Shayne needed to go out – w/out wife and children!  Again, they enjoyed themselves, but instead of me picking them up they decided to take public transportation home.  Unfortunately, when they got off the streetcar (Straussenbahn) to catch the bus that stops off on our main road onto post, they had also missed it by 20 minutes!  Bummer!  So they walked.  They had tried to stop and buy some beer but get this…the getrankemarket closes at 10pm on weekdays!!!  So, back in the States – midnight is not all that bad! LOL… we had a few left over so they were not out and truly, after walking a couple miles after some good beer and good food – the boys were tired! J

We enjoyed Shayne’s visit – wish his original plans could have worked out better for him, but hope he enjoyed his time regardless.  He is seriously funny though, several times he had mentioned…”Children in Moderation”…LOL!  Thank you, Shayne for detouring to our little town of Heidelberg. 

Oh, one more thing...our lesson learned w/ this visit- we CAN get special ID's for friends to help w/ the speed at which we get on the posts around town.