Bread, Biking, Beauty, Brad

Today I headed out on the tram to meet Ursula at her house.  I had to switch trams halfway through! WHAT? I felt pretty confident about it, actually.  Ursula and Anton explained it very well.  So off I went! It's my last day in Augsburg already.

Me on the tram!  Feeling good about it!

Me on the next tram, feeling proud of myself for doing it!

Ursula was waiting for me at the station.  We walked to their house which is so close to the station! Very convenient.  We had some amazing German bread/pretzels/rolls.  I took a picture of this beauty. It's called a Laugenrosette but I am not sure if I spelled that right.  Laugen is a word often used with "pretzel" and I am not sure what it means? But this was that kind of dough, made into lovely little rolls, and each covered in seeds...poppy, sesame, or pumpkin (I think!).  It's all one piece.  I took 2 of these little "petals" and wow, sooooo good!

Next up was Ursula's plan for the day....a bike ride.  I warned her, like I warned Anja about the mountain hiking, that I don't do that much at home.  When I take a bike ride, it's around the block.  She promised I could do it.  And I did! But dang, I had some moments where I thought I might die.

We saw some very pretty stuff.  I didn't get to take pics of it all because I was riding a bike, haha. But we did stop for me to take a few.

This was a school at one time 

The water was very low as they were working on the dam, but this is part of the Lech River and is an olympic Kayak course! So cool.  Brad has seen people using it.  It was from the 1972 Olympics.  

Ah, Germany.  You even make a simple gazebo amazing.

Part of the dam

I may have put a filter on this one to make it more blue and pretty.  It really was pretty!

There is a pretty little lake near the dam! This one has no filter, the water was completely turquoise.

This was much prettier in person.  The water was turquoise, the leaves were changing.

A street like this, with trees on both sides, is called an Allee in German.

So we were biking through the woods on a path and there was a park there with this fountain.  It still works, but is off for the season.

So pretty!

A Biergarten in the middle of nowhere.  #germany

We biked for about 2 hours! For someone who doesn't bike much, this was challenging.  Plus, my bootie is KILLING me! Holy cow.  Why can't there be cushy bike seats?  It was worth it because it was so pretty, and definitely not a typical tourist activity!  I am reminded again of how blessed we are to know locals and get to do off the beaten path things.  We rode through a field, a forest, by a river and a lake.  It was very cool!

We stopped off at a bakery and got a few pieces of fancy cakes to bring back to Ursula's for a snack.

Quarkstollen

Apfelstrudel, and 2 other things.  Those 2 other things were my favorite.  SO SO GOOD.  We all had a bit of each.

Jakob was home now.  I hadn't seen him yet this trip. He grew a LOT in the past 3.5 years! He is 16 now.  

After that, it was time to head back on the trams to the hotel.  I did it! Yay! I am such a city girl now.

I was waiting for Brad to come home from the airport (from Hungary) and I laid down and put on a movie on Netflix. I passed right out!  I was so tired.  Nice little nap.  Then my honey came back!! Yay!  He had a great biz trip, and they even had some fun.  They got to do a group cooking class where they made Hungarian goulash!

How cool is that?

Anton had mentioned a restaurant/brewery called Bob's that he said we had to try. He said they make handcrafted beer there and that Brad had to try it!  (Oh, and Anton made some beer as a hobby and sent me home with one for Brad!)  We took the trams again into town and found Bob's.  It was very authentically American! Very cool place.  Brad did, in fact, LOVE the beer. He had a terrific burger and homemade chips.  I had a baked potato with fresh sour cream sauce.  They gave me 2 potatoes, though! Too much.  But very good!

Where Bob makes his beer.

My only problem with the place was the only table they had available was upstairs, right at the railing looking down 2 flights....I had to sit facing away.  It was making me feel dizzy.  After we ate, Brad had another beer and we moved over to the cozy little room up there that had couches.  We sat by Bob Marley.  Maybe he is Bob?

Back at the Rathaus tram stop to change trams.

Dogs in Germany.  They are everywhere.  And not always on a leash.  And always perfectly behaved.

So that is our last day! I can't believe it's almost over.  We are tired and have to get up early to finish packing and drive to Munich for our very last German day, spent with Anne and her husband Chris.  I am so excited to see her, I hope I can sleep! (Still tired from that bike ride, so probably.  haha)