Friends, Food, Spätzle Cooking

This morning, I got up early with Brad and we went down for the hotel breakfast together. WOW is not sufficient to describe it.  I was too embarrassed to take pictures of it because it's a huge buffet spread out all over the restaurant.  But I did take a pic of my plate.  haha

I can explain.  I wasn't very hungry, it was too early!  But this was perfect.  A Semmel roll, a tiny pretzel roll, and do you see that tiny bowl of jam? I don't even like jam.  But the bowl is edible!  It's like a tiny ice cream cone.  So I ate it like a little pie.  haha

My friend and former neighbor Johanna picked me up to hang out.  It was SO great to see her again! She is friends with Karen from earlier blog posts :)  She found our rental house for when we lived here, as it was one street over from her. We met the first day we arrived in Germany in Dec. 2012! They have a very cool family.  And dog.

So Johanna took me to a super cool new bakery/restaurant called Himmelgrün that is organic.  It was really good!  And very nicely decorated.  I loved it!

I FINALLY GOT MY BIENENSTICH! It's my fave.

Great company!

Look how cute....

We went to the City Center of Augsburg for a bit. We walked through the market area that the girls and I always loved when we lived here.  Veggies, fruit, flowers, cute little boutique shops.

Look at those crazy shaped cabbages!  They are white cabbage.

I took this one for Lea.  It's a little angel ornament made out of a Fanta can.  She loves Fanta!

I couldn't help loving this lamp.

The city of Augsburg is just as beautiful and charming as I remember!  I really love this town and feel so comfortable here.

 I love these pedestrian zones!

I LOVE that building.

We went to Johanna's house to hang out.  I got to see our favorite German dog, Linus! He remembered me.  I am sure of it.

Johanna made homemade Spätzle! She is a pro!  She gave me some lessons.  I have seen a few Germans make this, and all have been totally different!  I did like Johanna's method.  So I went online and ordered the same kind of Spätzle maker that she has.  It will be home before me!! Haha

Flour, eggs, water, salt.  I think that was it!

The dough goes in the cool Spätzle maker

Then you move the container back and forth over the grate.  Boom!

Ready for the cheese!

She made it into Käsespätzle which means it has cheese in it.  SO good!  I told her I was scared to eat it, because she uses Limburger cheese.  It was SO stinky.  But it didn't taste like it smelled.  It was so good!  Plus it was covered with fried onions.  Mmmm. 

It was nice to visit with 3/4 of Johanna's kids as well.  One was still in school.  They are a very beautiful family!

I took a few pics outside her house because it was so pretty.

Even their woodpile is pretty!

We drove by our old house on our way back to the hotel.  I wish I could go inside!  It was a nice house and we have a million great memories there!

Haus Sterntaler

I came back to the room and relaxed and maybe had a short nap :) before Brad got home.  We then walked back over to where we were last night, but this time we ate next door at a place recommended by Johanna called N8Stallung.

Crossing the Lech River

I almost forgot the pic!  We shared a yummy pizza.

The sink was very odd....since this was also a slaughterhouse, I am wondering if this was a trough? 

On our way back home, we stopped at a grocery store called Lidl.  It's a chain here and seems as popular as Aldi.  It's very similar.  We got some snacks, just in case.

Paprika chips which taste like barbecue.  And OH YES the peanut butter cheetos!!  Woo hoo!

We are sitting in our room watching the news which is in English, but is not from America.  It's BBC or others.  Watching the world's take on Trump....it's interesting to say the least.

Getting to sleep soon, we are so tired!! Less than a week left here!