Kopfkino – a very popular travel destination these days.

Today I was in little Amsterdam. Watching the tulips dancing in the wind at sunset.

As far as the eye can see: beautiful colorful tulips.

May arrived. One of my favorite months and not only because my birthday is coming up soon. It’s strawberry time & asparagus time. Summer is close. Great times ahead. Yeah!

„Der Mai ist gekommen, die Bäume schlagen aus, da bleibe, wer Lust hat, mit Sorgen zuhaus; wie die Wolken dort wandern am himmlischen Zelt, so steht auch mir der Sinn in die weite, weite Welt.“ Emanuel Geibel, 1841

Celebrating May 1 weekend and (early) Father’s Day.

Rain or shine – we had fantastic plans: „Spanferkel to go” in our camper van in the Black Forest.

Hubby & daddy brewing beer. In about 4 weeks it will be ready.

Cooking & eating together. Daddy making simply the best fried potatoes (the secret: cumin & onions).

Spending time with each other. The best gift ever. Happy Father’s Day!

Wednesday afternoon. Sunshine. Blue sky. 21C degrees. And an after-work date on motorcycles.

220 happy kilometers later: Yeah!

The Black Forest: curvy & challenging. Today was the 3rd trip since I have passed my motorcycle license last year in October. I definitely left my comfort zone today and proud that I made it.

Thanks guys, it was fun! Ready for the next ride.

All you need: Hiking boots. Camping Bus. A breakfast to go. Lemon tartlets. Best friend on board. An ice-cold bottle of Cremant and off we go.

Cheers to the birthday girl! Delicious breakfast in the green (all Stuttgarters who passed by were impressed and maybe a little jealous).

Perfect weather & time to start our wine hike, ehm I mean our 4-castle-ruin-hike (kind of missed the ruins but the wine was great).

Walking along vineyards with beautiful views (it felt a bit like Napa Valley…).

Passing the Golden Gate Bridge (of Stuttgart)… it’s all about your mindset, you know.

Chilling in the shade of apple trees.

Phenomenal spring weather.

Well deserved citron tartlets after a beautiful 8km hike.

The perfect finish of the day with a meal prepared by the BBQ master.

A beautiful Sunday with a best friend. Happy birthday!

I agree with the hint of other non-Stuttgarters: it takes a while to get warm with the town, but it has many beautiful places to be discovered! Stuttgart rocks!

Friday night. Beer in the fridge. Tasting glasses ready. Water ready (who needs water?). Cold cuts of meat & cheeses ready. Ready & excited for the digital „Brotzeit“ with delicious goodies from back home in Frankonia.

And so it begins: 2 hours livestream. 5 cold beers. 5 courses. All explained by 4 charming gentlemen in a bright Rhöner accent. Feeling like home.

Course 1 – the starter Pils (the Prosecco of the beer).

Course 2 – helles beer combined with „Pressack“.

Course 3 – monk’s beer, hay ham & cheese with herbs from the garden.

Course 4 – getting international: Kellerbier meets Ostheimer Leberkäs with French roots (a recipe from the 2nd world war picked up in France).

Course 5 – Bock beer (7.5%), 12-month aged mountain cheese & “Friedhelms sausage”.

And a dessert, of course.

That was umami! A delicious night is ending on livestream. We’ll continue with hubby’s Turley brew.

Happy weekend!

Bonjour! Petit Dejeuner with cafe au lait and a croissant on the Champs-Élysées, ehm, I mean on the Vogelsanstrasse in the beautiful West of Stuttgart.

French capital vibes & savoir-vivre in Stuttgart in Covid times.

Saturday morning. A walk in the West of Stuttgart with a baguette in my arms. A little break at the beautiful lake watching the swans.

My „Tour de France“ in Stuttgart.

We all miss traveling. Of course it’s not Paris but I discovered beautiful little corners which made me feel (for 2 hours) being in France. French charme. French vibes. French taste. French spots with Paris-Flair, Gourmet-Baguettes, Tartelettes & beautiful faces of buildings. Très bien!

„Le Tonneau“, „La Boulangerie“, „Chez Ginette“, „Pâtissier“ – more Paris or France is not possible.

Paris is always a good idea!

Au revoir!

It’s small. It’s local. It’s fantastic.

Friday is market day (since home office).

It offers anything your (at least my) heart & soul need:

French cheeses sold by a wonderful French lady. It helps to dream (and taste) about France without being able to travel there.

A wannabe Italian (with bright Swabian accent) selling Italian goodies: Buffalo mozzarella bringing my mind immediately back to Italy. And chocolate truffles. Fresh pasta. And he successfully sold me „Italian Obatzda“. We had fun and lots of heart warming laughter. And his stuff is super delicious.

I also enjoy buying vegetables from the local farmers who are fun to talk to. I purchased the last kilogram of local white asparagus (we agreed on a pre-order for next week).

Olives in garlic. And fish: tuna cream. Scallops. Graved salmon… 2 fresh lemons as gift included. Mmmmmm!

Is there anything better than watching people with a coffee to go and a fish roll? Or chatting with the sellers? And finally carrying a big basket with lots of delicious goodies home?

Hello weekend! Dinner plans are made after successful shopping at the market.

On the way home a quick stop at the flower shop: margaritas in pink for the garden.

Happy weekend everyone!

Get to know where you live. Inspired by a podcast. Set a radius around your home & start discovering. I promise, there’s a lot waiting for you. Latest experiment: Beilstein. 36km from home.

March 2021: originally a vineyard, now a BBQ drive-in selling amazing tasting burgers & wine.

And that’s how it works:

⁃ Choose any day between Thursday-Sunday

⁃ Get dressed

⁃ Be hungry

⁃ Get in your car

⁃ Choose your favorite burger & wine

⁃ place your order in the BBQ drive-in

⁃ Drive to the pick up station

⁃ Park your car

⁃ Enjoy the food, the wine & the view

⁃ Be happy

⁃ Repeat (the day after. Or the week after)

And that’s the view from the BBQ drive-in parking spot.

In April: the BBQ drive-in turned into a Swabian “Besen drive-in”. And we are back. Enjoying delicious food & (long time not seen) great company.

We are back in curfew as of last night. The only way to escape: finish work on time, have an early dinner. Why not meeting friends at the parking lot for company. Making the best out of current time.

That’s the good old COVID times.

It’s April. And cold. Winter is unexpectedly long this year. Our heating oil empty. And so is our fire wood. All of that noticed too late (awesome project management). The indoor temperature (11C degrees) is sometimes lower than outdoor (today 16C degrees). Even the dog is shivering. Brrrrr!

The options:

Take a walk outside to warm up.

Go to bed and snuggle into the heat blanket (doesn’t work so good with video work meetings. Lol).

Working dressed in winter coat (like in China not too long ago). My (Chinese) boss knew immediately what was wrong (and laughed). Ha!

I enjoyed negotiating oil prices today (passion for negotiating supplier quotes still available. Lol). Quote accepted but delivery only in 2 weeks.

Fishing out cashmere woolly jumpers from China again.

Hubby digging out Chinese heaters again (Chinese plugs not matching German plug socket though). We shared our Chinese sun instead.

Hubby cutting up Christmas tree (will never complain again that he keeps everything). Fire wood for tonight. Yeah!

It’s gonna be an early night with heat blanket! Don’t know how we made 3 Shanghai winters like that! Brrrrrrr!

Hang on, new idea: a weekend in the van with diesel heater (made in China).

Hey, at least the outdoor gastronomy had a guest this week. But where’s snowman’s mask?

It’s Wednesday. And snowing. Sometimes it just has to be a coffee klatsch with a favorite friend & grannies beautiful dishes!

Yes, we have April!