day started out with breakfast salad.. a creation by Diane. Weird but good !
we drove to Bamberg.. about an hour away.. and about an hour to park ! beautiful city right on the river Main like Würzburg. One of its distinctions is that it was hardly bombed in WWII .. so many of the medieval structures are still standing. Whereas Würzburg was supposedly the most damaged in the war.. with 77% of older uildings badly damaged.. Always weird to read that stuff
Its ‘Asparagus time’ all over the country. there are stands everywhere selling homegrown asparagus. But our quest was for the famous. Rauchtbeir (smoked bier) that Bimberg was famous for. We found it and it was delicious!
we went for a nice longish walk along the public gardens on one of the tributaries of the Main.. it was beautiful and quiet
Nova still doesnt speak german.. but she’s stilll finding ways to commincate witht he locals
I’ve seen a sign some so we back there. It was kind of a fun band two guys and a girl playing old American pop songs and kind of a bluegrass way.
Today was the day we aarrainged the insurance for gabes car. .. normally not fun.. but in this case it was
We wnet to our new freind and owner of Kara Auto , Talat. his son was there.. and he spoke Englidh wheich was nice .. so far i’ve been doign all this car shopping in German. I continued in Grman.. and Talats son did the tranlation for Diane.. it was fun and funny
then a quick stop at the hardware store.. with a rainbow of dog poop bags .. and lots of sticky things to keep your plants from fallign over . We sent Gabe pictures so he could choose the sticl of his dreams
Mid afternoon we picked up gabe and went downtown and met with really nice woman at Alianz insurance company… She also spoke English, which was really nice because they were all sorts of trade-offs and stuff that Gabe had to make, and that would’ve been clunky for me to do in German
then afterwards we went to the weird but nice Greek restaurant that’s in an old town soccer hall where kids soccer is still played. It’s the weirdest place. It’s decorated with 1970 kids soccer medals
We had a great meal and luckily they forgot one of our dishes cause we were stuffed. On the way home we went by this really cool refrigerated/freeze vending machine and got some ice mochi.
now that we have the insurance binder Gabe can do the car purchase and registration and get the license plates. It is quite a process here in Germany… Gotta love it.
so we’ve been doing research.. and gabe and we feel that the 2009 golf is liek the perfect car for him.. We’ve really enjoyed workign with Herr Kara,, and owrkign with him has been fun. It’s been a greta workout for my german,.. and I know he’s enjoyed it too..
we went back there today to get some info about the VIN m the inspection a, etc.. in prep for getting an insurance binder
we did soem shopping on the way home .. and relaly had to admire the wall of bacon that they havd at the store.. these folks really love their meat.. especially pork !
On the way home we walked down Stuckacher Strase.. and heard Gabe playing mandolin out on his balcony.. it was beutiful..
the plan for tonight was to go hike up to the capella Chapel with Nova and eat up there // It was a beutiful night and a beautiful hike
the hike up had a very eleaborate stations of the cross theme
what a view !
the pub next to the capella had a great view and great food .. souch a nie way to spend an eveing !
Super busy day.. Our mission today and for the next few days is to see if we can fhelp find gabe a car. He been making work on foot, bike and train.. but having nova here.. and wanting to get out of tawn for hiking, camping , snowboarding etc is making it seem important to get a car. .. He doesnt have a ton of money to spend.. so he’s lookign for soem thinginexpensive thats still reliable and safe. >> Diane and I set ou t this morning to check out the Besuchwagons (used car) lots around town.
On our way to what turned out to be our favorite, we cam acrosss the old jewish cemeteryIt was a surprise to find it.. and as you might expect the grave markers in there were either before the 2nd world war.. or well after it. I was quite surprised to see how many were fairly recent. THere was a big memorial in the middle for the many thousands from this region that were murdered in the holocaust. ..
Diane an I spent soem quiet time exploring the place.. it was beutiul and quiet.. it touched me deeply to be here ..
it was quite a contrast to walk out of that cemetary , cross the street and be in a used car lot..
but thats life
we had stopped at several other used car places, but theu didnt have anythign in Gabe’s price range.. it was still helpful to check them out.
It was Chatgpt that pointed us at this lot.. Kara Automaile. A place run by the very fun and friendly (and 100% non english speaking) Tarat Kara
He had exactly the kinds of cars we were looking for.. older, higher milage cars, that were weell kept up.
We had fun checking out his stock.. and getting to know him. We took a bunch of pictures to show Gabe .. and research
we picked out a few that matched what Gabe was looking at.. We really loved a 2009 VW Golf Mk 6 1.4L with standard transmission,. it was super clean,. relatively low mielage (80K miles) and had a peeling paint job, but no rust at all.
We went home feeling that we’d at leaast started the process for gabe.
Around 6 we walked to Gabes work and he showed us around. I saw it last time, but this was DIanes first visit. it was sogreat to see him settled in so muc more than when I was here last.
we even got to meet his PI Dr. Martin Eiler.. He’s an amazing man.. speaks better english than we do, is super animated, funny.. and very well respected in his feild. THis is a perfect palce for Gabe !
We left straight from their and hiked back to Radersaker.. about a 25 minute hike. We went to the same Wine Celler/ Resturant that Gabe and I ate at with my friend Laura a couple of weeks back. We wanted diane to see it..
It was another great meal.. and great company of course >>
after dinner we explored Randersaker and ist river walk. we even got to try their public zipline !
The a stop at St Urbans that over looks the city, then a beutiful evening walk home
