Happy Halloween y’all!

Happy fall y‘all!

Thursday night. Fun night in Stuttgart. Church night.

That church turned into a funky projection show about the creation of the earth – Genesis.

Pretty chilled. Mobile phones allowed. Laying on the church floor on huge seat cushions. Applause in the end. A modern way of showing Genesis.

A colorful spectacle.

Grande finale.

The end. The beginning.

Fall means… time for cardigans, time for afternoons on the sofa, time for candle light, time for a fire in the chimney, colorful leaves, pumpkin soup and other heavy delicious food, mmmhhh.

Wait. Not yet. Summer is somehow back. Blue sky. Warm temperatures above 25C degrees. Sunny days. Warm evenings. Beergarden is still open. Late summer days in Golden October…

The idea was born back in May when we discovered our common taste for “Prinz schnaps”.

Plans were made: let’s meet in Austria for Prinz tasting. One pair from Munich, the other from Stuttgart – Austria the goal.

Here we are. Combining a weekend in Austria, close to Lake Constance with visiting the Prinz tasting room, dinner in Lindau and a little morning hike on top to the Pfaender. Beautiful weather – a wonderful weekend in this golden October.

Beergarden is still open.

The Lake Constance area is always a good idea!

Now on the way home, packed with bottles of delicious stuff.

Yesterday was all about beer… today is all about wine. What’s the most exciting country for wine in the world right now?

France? Italy? Portugal? Hungary? California? Have a guess…

And the winner is…

Germany!!!

Believe it or not!

From seriously good riesling to juicy pinot noir, Germany now has plenty to offer. I agree, but I’m sharing David Williams opinion.

“I’m not quite sure when it happened. There was no moment of Damascene conversion, no single palate-altering bottle or preconception-shredding cellar tour but some time over the past couple of years, the weight of evidence (measured in the strictly scientific unit of empty bottles per week) began to point to an unexpected conclusion: the single most improved, exciting, and all-round high-performing wine country in the world right now might be Germany.

For drinkers of my generation (X) and older this is quite the volte face. We came to wine-drinking during Germany’s nadir as a quality producer – the second half of the 20th century when a kind of crazed, number-chasing ethos took over the country’s increasingly chemical-soaked vineyards. These were devoted to monstrous yields from lesser grape varieties grown in unsuitable places, the emblematic product being the bafflingly successful sugary acid-water sold as Liebfraumilch.

German winegrowers were also saddled with a technical, confusing labelling system that equated quality with the amount of sugar at harvest, a system that was increasingly out of step as the world’s taste grew increasingly dry. The top tier of producers continued to work their historic sites with the same diligence they had developed over centuries. However, the wines they made – adored by initiates for their steely-silvery acidity, sense of place, and remarkable longevity – were, for the most part made from a grape variety, riesling, that was the definition of an acquired taste.

Germany’s slow ascent from the reputational doldrums is partly due to more people acquiring that taste. Throughout the vinous world there has been a decisive swing towards the kind of high-acidity, cool-climate qualities that riesling embodies. At the same time, German producers have met the world halfway, producing significantly more wines in a properly dry style.

Riesling, in all its forms (and the best classic off-dry, medium- and fully sweet styles from the Mosel remain among the wonders of the wine world) still accounts for many of my favourite German bottles. Butthere has been a remarkable improvement in Germany’s other styles. Most impressive is the pinot noir (or spätburgunder), which has emerged in the 21st century as a genuine challenger to burgundy. The country’s best sekt sparkling wines are likewise a much more serious proposition, offering a steely alternative to champagne.

When it comes to stocking up at one of the UK’s excellent specialist German merchants I’d also want to make room in the trolley for creamy pinot blanc (weissburgunder), spicy pinot gris (grauburgunder), pristine, mineral silvaner and the grapefruit-inflected scheurebe. All of them suggest that German wine’s late 20th-century bad times were nothing more than a glitch.”

Article from David Williams

Sorry France, Italy, Portugal, Hungary, California and all the famous wine countries… Germany has some of the best wines. Here are our favorites:

I also think we make the most creative labels!

PS: you may find one or the other bottle from France, Portugal or Italy in our wine fridge… just saying 😉

Cheers 🥂!

Where do hops grow best? In our garden!

It’s September & we have well grown hop plants again this year.

Hubby has been squeezing the cones for weeks with his fingers to figure out if they are ready for harvesting. Once the cones feel light and springy, with a sticky sap coming out of it – it’s hops harvest season. And that’s now!

Next step: drying the hops in a little hop oven.

After that: sealing them & freeze them in little packages ready to go into the next beer brew.

Ready for another beer brewing season!

Hubby’s best ever birthday gift: concert tickets to one of his (and in the meantime mine too) favorite bands: „The Hives“ from Sweden playing their new album „The Death Of Randy Fitzsimmons“.

3 exclusive concerts in Germany (we even forgive you your comment about Germanys bad music taste…). Yeah. Let’s go Cologne.

And how lucky to find our absolute favorite „5 guys“ just next to the concert hall. What a perfect evening.

„Hate To Say I Told You So“, „Walk Idiot Walk“, „Tick Tick Boom“, „Go Right Ahead“…

Garage Rock. Show. Silence. Noisy. Black&White. Humorous. BAM! The concert was amazing.

A concert. 3 full albums on the way to Cologne. Same return. Yeah!

The Hives rock! They delivered! There’s still tickets for the next concert in Barcelona… tempted…

The only problem: all the speeding tickets from listening to The Hives 😯

It’s the „after holiday“ season. It’s late summer with perfect weather: blue sky, sunshine, nice temperatures in the daytime ~27C degrees.

And this is our beautiful garden.

Today, 4 years ago, we had our house warming party. That’s how long we have been already back in good old Germany.

That also makes 4 years living in Swabia (minus 2.5 years due to Covid). Well, we are still getting to know our old new home. Stuttgart is not a town to fall easily in love with. It takes a 2nd or 3rd trial. We keep finding our happy places. We love living in our old house, though. We love our garden and the fresh air (still appreciating after Shanghai).

Germany knows culture: Historically, Germany has been called „Das Land der Dichter und Denker“ (‘the land of poets and thinkers’).

We have our traditions: Oktoberfest and Christmas customs and usually the month of May is off, thanks to bank holidays & bridge days. Lol.

We are not the fastest, when it comes to digitalization (the pandemic has helped speeding up things a bit)… we are also not the fastest to finish up building airports (Berlin) or train stations (Stuttgart), but that’s another story.

Germany is culinary: 80 million Germans and I are convinced, we make the best bread in the world. Lol. I mean, who produces about 600 main types of bread and 1,200 types of pastries and rolls (Brötchen)?!?

Our national alcoholic drink is beer, of course! The German beer consumption per person: 110 litres per year and remains among the highest in the world.

We also have the most complex ticket machines… all you need is an Arbeitsanweisung (work instruction) and you are good to go!

*Arbeitsanweisung or Verpackungsdatenblatt are words all my international work colleagues know!

More fun facts about Germany:

Apparently our language is dead easy. You don’t need to learn vocabulary if you know how to play Lego. You just need to know a few words and you can create a lot more words: e.g. doc: Kinderarzt (child doc), Zahnarzt (tooth doc), Hautarzt (skin doc), Hausarzt (general doc), Tierarzt (Animal doc) – easy, isn’t it? Now you can make up your own doc. Practically, you can add as many words as you like and create nice (new) word combinations: Rinderkennzeichnungsfleischetikettierungsüberwachungsaufgabenübertragungsgesetz – yes, that’s one German word and makes 79 letters (it’s not the longest) and the meaning: a law for how to label & monitor beef meat.

Swabian dialect is even easier: you just add a „le“ after each word. And: it’s „Der Wasen“ (not die Wasen!!!) (Wasen = Octoberfest).

Well, to sum up: Germany is a great county and we love living here (the French border for weekend escapes is very close, lol) & Stuttgart is more than road work.

Leaving the French Alps region and traveling south. Lunch break in Uzes. Just west of the Provence lies a storybook sunshine-y village, wrapped in golden hued limestone and perfect for flaneurs — Uzes. We were delighted by the laid back little honeypot.

Arriving at the holiday house in the Ariège. I like that place, it’s quiet and just the minimum needed to have a peaceful time.

Vacation in France de Sud. Up to >40C – siestas, a dip in the water and ice-cream is all what helps to survive the day until it cools a little down for a nice cold glass of rosé. It’s summer! No bed duvet needed. Mosquito bites inclusive. Of course.

La Bastide sur-l’hers. Camon. Mirepoix. Carcassone.

Everything is a little more relaxed and laid back in the south of France.

Daily late morning strolls to the little bakery for croissants and pain au chocolat.

Spending a week with hubby’s family, Charlie’s new favorite drink: a cup of tea with milk.

A stopover between Montpellier & Avignon – or the end of our road trip in the southern Provence. Here’s the Camargue, a magical marsh area, with beautiful untouched nature, wildlife and bright pink salt lakes. Magnificent.

Once more, I’m very impressed about the diversity of the French countryside. Amazing.

That was a very much needed relaxing vacation. After our obligatory shopping, we are on the way back home, getting ready for my godchild’s wedding.

Arevoir, France de Sud!

Leaving with a lavender scent in the car. Mmmhhhhh.