Markets Are Everywhere in Münster!

One of the best things about living in Germany are the open weekly markets in each town where you can buy fresh fruits, vegetables, meat, cheese, candy, flowers, spices, jams and much more.  One of the great aspects of these markets is that most of the goods come from local and nearby farms, so everything is super fresh and tasty, even though it's slightly more expensive than buying food in the store.  The difference of freshness and flavor is worth the premium.

It took us a while to figure out when Hiltrup's weekly markets were. In Borken, there were markets on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, but they were super small (in the winter, sometimes only 1 or 2 booths were open).  Hiltrup only has Friday markets, but they're packed with tons of vendors and you can easily get everything you need and much more in this one place. Last Friday I bought about 6 pounds (2.5 kilos) of fresh fruit - all of which was consumed by Tuesday.

Here's a photo of what I usually come home with:

Münster's main market is on Saturday's at the Dom Platz - a large open area in front of one the huge cathedrals in town.  This is really a "big event" compared to the smaller weekly markets and it seems like the entire city population makes it was to the market on Saturdays.  It stays open until around 3, but about an hour before closing the vendors start dropping their prices.  Last weekend we heard multiple vendors shouting things like "Peppers - 50 cents!" and "Two bundles of flowers - 5 Euros!" and really competing with each other for the lowest prices to get rid of their merchandise.

Münster's main Saturday market is also a great place to get lunch and hang out.  Bryan always goes for the fried fish since he knows I'll never make fish at home.

Bryan is about 4-5 people back in line waiting for his fish.  

This was taken as the market was closing down.  Earlier in the day, it was a sea of people shoulder to shoulder.

Nuts and spices

Homemade Jelly, Jam,  Honey and Mustard

Locally grown fruits and vegetables

Reasonably prices flowers, plants and herbs

We've also discovered that during the spring/summer months in Münster, they have several "Flohmarkts"which translates directly to "Flea Market" in English, and is excellent antique and bargain hunting.  Most towns have periodic Flohmarkts and Trödelmarkts (junk markets), but Münster's is particularly large and contains an impressive variety of goods.

Random chairs, windows and odd furniture pieces

Garden and patio furniture

Retro chairs, cool green trunk or gross ancient pram?

My favorite is the random box of creepy doll arms and legs

Buddhist / Hindu statues and goods

Huge collection of mini-antlers on the bench

The Flohmarkt is set up in front the Schloss (castle), so it's quite picturesque.

Busy Weekend on the Balcony

We never realized when we moved to this apartment in Münster how valuable our balcony would be.  We had a balcony in Borken, but it was off Dylan's room and we kept the door blocked most of the time to prohibit him from going out there alone.  But here, our balcony is off our dining room / kitchen so Bryan and I are finding ourselves out there quite a bit, especially after Dylan goes to bed.  We have a great view of Hiltrup's church and we get gorgeous sunsets, which this time of year is around 10:30 at night.

Because of our proximity on Hiltrup's main retail thoroughfare - Marktallee - we also find ourselves on the city's main parade route, so we see quite a bit of activity from the balcony.  On Friday night, Hiltrup had its annual Bike Race "Rund um die Marktallee" which consisted of smaller races for young kids (Yes, Dylan will be entering next year in the 3-5 year old age bracket - their race is only 100 meters long) and "seniors" (which insultingly is for people 35 years and older - since when is a 35 year old a senior?), and the main event for "elite cyclists" - 88 laps around our 1kilometer block.

Dylan will dominate this age bracket next year. (photo from Christiane Schräder,  MünsterscheZeitung.de)

The premise of the elite race - 88 laps around something roughly the same size as a gym track - seemed kind of odd to us, but they've been doing it now for 24 years so I guess it's a mainstay in town.  We had a blast cheering on the races from our 5th floor balcony, and of course, Bryan got to heckle the one or two racers who inevitably blew a huge lead in the seniors race and came in nearly dead last.  He reveled in his bellowing from our balcony in a southern accent, "You gonna get got."  It took every ounce of his self control to not say anything as this biker packed his car after the race right in front of us.  This is my husband.

The elite race unfortunately didn't make it through all 88 laps due to a huge thunder and lightning storm that came through right around lap #60.  We were pretty astonished at how quickly the entire town scrammed once the rain came, and we have no clue who won the race.

Elite racers at the starting line (photo from Christiane Schräder,  MünsterscheZeitung.de)

Elite Racers.

Also this weekend was Hiltrup's Schützenfest - an annual summer festival that pretty much every town in Germany celebrates with varying pomp and circumstance.  Hiltrup's Schützenfest seems like a hyper-local activity that doesn't have much social impact on us Auslanders (foreigners), BUT on Sunday afternoon their parade went right past our balcony, which was entertaining.

Horses are always exciting for a 3 year old to see.

After this weekend, Dylan is expecting bike races and parades to go by every day.

We've also discovered that we're on Hiltrup's Karenval Parade Route, which is super exciting because we really loooove Karenval season.  We'll see if anyone has a good enough throwing-arm to toss candy and beads all the way up to our balcony.

History is All Around (Including Under) Us

We are reminded each day living in Münster about the history of the city.   Whether we think of of Charlemagene’s missionary named Frisian Liudger, who founded the city in 793 while we wait for the bus at Ludgeriplatz or when we're reminded of the last  remaining Anabaptists in 1535 who were slaughtered with their corpses hanging in cages in the tower of St. Lamperti’s steeple, we see history all around us.  Last Saturday, as Dylan and I were trying to make our way to my office, we learned that history is also under us. 

Ludgeriplatz ring - scariest place to ride your bike through in the whole city.

 It started on Saturday morning, as Dylan and I headed for the train station to go to my office.  At our train station, there were hundreds of what seemed to be stranded travelers making their way in and out of our small train station.  To put things in perspective, we usually see 10-20 other people on the platform with us.  This particular morning, the trains headed to the main train station were cancelled for at least the next hour and this weird party train with nearly a thousand people dressed in 70’s clothes supposedly headed for Hamburg were stranded on our platform.  Dylan asked if we could go on the party train.  After a few long seconds of deliberation, I said, “No, son.  Not today at least.” 

Hiltrup-Münster Bahnhof - not suited for thousands of stranded passengers.

We waited an hour for the next trains to come, but once the time came, those too were cancelled.  At this point, we were approaching pandemonium on the Hiltrup train station platform.  I have never seen so much confusion in one place.  The buses were running, but they were packed with stranded travellers trying to get to downtown Münster.   We decided to head back home. 

I explained to Dana when we got home early what happened and she did the logical thing…she Googled what was going on.  Within seconds she said, “ There was a bomb earlier this morning and the whole main train station in Münster is closed.”  That explained it, but what kind of bomb scare was it?

Come to find out, a thousand pound bomb from World War II was discovered during construction under the platform that I arrive on every day.  They had to evacuate the entire train station and the nearby surrounding area.  Because it was a rare bomb with a highly sensitive detonator, it took the bomb squad nearly all day to diffuse it.  The Münster train station has been under construction for as long as we can remember (a much needed upgrade adding escalators and elevators to reach the platforms), it seems pretty miraculous that the whole place hadn't blown up with this massive bomb just sitting there for presumably 70 years.  

A photo of the bomb found under Münster's train platform (from www.wn.de)

Settled In

As bleak as our recent blog posts have been, the last couple of weeks have been really nice.  We feel much more settled (hot water and a kitchen help) in our new place and have seen that the people here in Münster are actually really nice, if a little unapproachable.  Maybe it was because of our high stress level, but I actually thought that it was illegal to smile in Münster because I never saw anyone smile.  I imagined that if a police officer caught me giving a stranger a polite nod and smile, I would get a 20 euro ticket.  Maybe there is a ‘mind your own business’ law or something.  Anyway, over the last couple of weeks, it doesn’t appear that way. 

This past weekend, we went on Saturday to the community pool (freibad.)   Community pools here in Germany are much more than that.  This freibad has 5 different swimming pools including a kiddie pool where we hung out (it’s the only place where it is acceptable for a 7 month pregnant Dana to rock a bikini and not get strange looks, although she did get a few disapproving glances from older German women), a large water slide, and a playground.  There is a minimal entrance fee and it is only a 10 minute (15 with Dana) bike ride there. 

Having fun in the pool.

In the kiddie pool

Yup, he's wearing a speedo.  

If you look closely you can see a big smile on his face coming down the slide. 

Lots of laughs for the big splash at the bottom. 

Dylan was definitely the only 3 year old (or person with Swimmies on) to be brave enough to go down this massive water slide.

On Sunday, Dylan and I went to the local golf course to practice on the driving range.  We have been there pretty much even weekend since moving here and we haven’t been banned yet.  We normally hit a bucket of balls on the driving range and practice on the putting green.  Dylan loves to practice and is becoming better and better with his little clubs.  I somehow got my 8 iron, pitching wedge, and putter in my luggage when we came home from Christmas, so I get to work on my short game.  It takes us 10 minutes to get there by bike and it is usually the highlight of the weekend. 

In addition to playing golf, Dylan’s favorite thing to do with ‘Daddy’ is to go to my office on the weekend.  He loves taking the train into the city and taking the elevator to my office.  He is normally occupied for 2-3 hours watching videos, which is wonderful for me because I get to put in some extra work and nice for Dana because she gets some time alone.  Two weekends ago, I bought Dylan some ice cream on our way to my office.  Dylan insisted on getting the flavor that was called ‘Mozart’, which looked like chocolate.  I ordered the ice cream cone and the ice cream scooper (the person working there) said something about if this was for a child (kind).  He was holding a cone in his hand, so I thought he was asking me if it I wanted a kids cone.  I said no, a normal cone would be okay.  He shrugged his shoulders and gave me the cone.

Fast forward 10 minutes later and Dylan is really enjoying his ice cream cone.  This is usually the time he asks me help him clean up the drips.  He handed me the cone and I proceeded on cleaning up his mess.  After two licks, this ice cream tasted different than most.  In fact, this tasted like liquor!  I had bought my three year old ice cream that had alcohol in it.  Suddenly, I realized what the ice cream store worker was trying to tell me.  Oops.  Reason #792 I feel unfit to be a Dad.    

Now We're Cookin'!

Our kitchen was finally delivered and installed last week, a full 6 weeks after buying the kitchen.  Over the last two months, we have a totally new Top 5 Worst Customer Service Experiences list, as our top 5 Worst Experiences have been completely replaced by new ones. 

The kitchen debacle was by far our worst customer service experience ever (even worse than trying to cancel our AT&T plans when we moved here), even though our service expectations were very low from the beginning.  The store that we bought our kitchen from, Poco, uses Daniela Katzenberger as their spokesperson.  This would be the American equivalent of Kendra Wilkinson from the Girls Next Door.  So ... not the highest end product.

On May 8, we bought one of the store's floor models in order to save some money and get our kitchen sooner than if we have purchased a non-floor model.  This way they assured us that by the end of the month at the latest our kitchen would be ready to be delivered, which was perfect since we were moving at the end of the month.  We needed to order a new countertop, however, because the sink was on the wrong side for where our water pipes were, but the salesperson told us it take "a week or two" to order and we could have our kitchen delivered soon afterward.  After two weeks, we followed up and learned that the "factory was busy" and it would take "a couple more weeks" before it arrived.  In America, we would have cancelled our order and found another kitchen somewhere else.  Unfortunately, we stayed with it. 

Trying to be proactive, we tried to get our delivery and installation appointment set before the countertop arrived.   But, for some reason, we could not set up a delivery appointment until the countertop arrived.  When the countertop arrived on June 6^th, the soonest installation appointment was … June 19^th!  Dana took that call and I promptly moved Dylan into the bedroom until that call was over. 

We proceeded with this horrendous service and our kitchen was installed on Tuesday, the 19^th, 6 weeks and 1 day after buying our kitchen.  When the kitchen was delivered, we were really surprised that the countertop wasn’t even cut!  Our installer had to cut it on our balcony.   In hindsight, we should have cancelled the countertop order and had it purchased at a different store (same day service).  Nevertheless, we have our kitchen installed and vow to never shop again at Poco. 

Out of spite, we bought the rest of our furniture on amazon.de.  Because we don’t have a car here in Münster, we would need to have the furniture delivered.  Interestingly enough, we made a huge furniture order on Wednesday night and most of it arrived Friday morning.  There is hope for timely service in Germany.

When we tell this story, the response is totally different depending on whom we tell it to.  Germans don’t even blink and tell us that "this is completely normal here."  They are not surprised or compassionate to our predicament.  Our American friends and family, are totally appalled and can’t believe how someone could stay in business with this level of service.  (They still can’t believe that we would need to buy a new kitchen for a new apartment, but we have already blogged about how weird that is.  Speaking of which, can anyone tell me another country in the world where you have to buy your own kitchen for an apartment.  I would be interested to know where else not to move.)

Latin Dancing ... in Borken?

Here's something that I forgot to blog about ... a few weeks ago when it was still cold, rainy and gross, our friend Martin called and told us about a National Latin Dance competition at Borken's SportHalle.  Bryan had a basketball game that night somewhere far away, so Dylan and I had nothing to do and decided to go and check it out.

It was kind of hard to take pictures in the gym, but overall the performances were excellent and very entertaining.  I never would have thought that I would see a Latin Dance Competition (a national, really good one, no less) in tiny little Borken.  Basically there were about 8 teams consisting of 10-15 partners per team.  Each team had well-choreographed, long routines that sometimes seemed to last as long as 8 minutes or more.  The costumes, hair, spray-tans, everything were all really cool.

We didn't stay until the end - 2 hours was long enough for Dylan to watch dancing.  He kept asking me "When is the basketball game going to start?" and "Where are the balls?"

 

Here is Dylan with our friend, Martin.

In order to get Dylan to sit still so we could watch the performance, I allowed him to play with my camera.  Normally my camera is strictly forbidden, so this bought us quite a bit of time ... and about 20 pictures that look more or less exactly like this. 

Borken Easter Market / Farmer's Market

Yes, yes, I know - it's been a long time since I last posted anything here and I'm not doing my duty of keeping all 2 of our readers informed on what's going on. Relax. Until about 10 days ago, it was still cold and rainy and we avoided doing anything at all because it was just too terrible to go outside. Then finally, the sun made its first appearance since last fall and started to thaw us out and we can finally go outside again. I think me, Dylan and Oscar all have had major cabin fever. Lucky for us, the past 10 days have been pretty consistently sunny and about 60-65 degrees (15-17 Celcius).

This past weekend was Borken's annual Easter Market / Farmer's Market. It's one of the 3 Sunday's a year where the retail shops are allowed to be open, so the open market plus the nice weather made for a pretty packed town square. Here are some pics:

Dylan's really into wearing his sunglasses these days.  He probably didn't understand the point of them until recently when the sun finally came out from hibernating behind thick clouds all winter.

There were more flowers for sale at the Easter market than anything else. 

One whole street was full of play houses, slides and cool things for kid to do.  

You could watch a blacksmith demonstration, although the only thing he would make were little "Good Luck Horseshoes."  It seems like he goes through a lot of work to sell little €3 trinkets.

Other things for sale were monstrous handmade benches, wooden shoes and handmade wicker baskets of all sizes.

An of course, where else could you buy your sheepskin-lined children's booties,  animal pelts and rugs?

No German market is complete without a massive bratwurst grill.

The highlight of Dylan's day was getting to drive the Santa Fe Express choo-choo-train.  When he got off he said "Wow, Mommy - that was fuuuuuuun!"

My (Not-So) Emergency Room Experience in Germany

Last Tuesday night immediately after basketball practice, we were in the locker room getting ready to take a shower and go home.  I found the towel in my sport bag and was rooting around the bottom of my bag for some shower gel.  After a few seconds of digging around, I felt a sharp prick in my right hand’s pointer and middle finger.  When I pulled my hand out of the bag, it took me a little while to realize what I had just done:  I had caught my two fingers on my razor lying in the bottom of my bag.  At first, I figured that the cut couldn’t be that deep.  After all, it was a shaving razor, not a chainsaw.  Then my fingers started to bleed… a lot.

Unfortunately, after 15 minutes, the bleeding was not letting up.  I took a one handed shower while my other hand bled into the public shower drain.  The blood trail looked like a shower scene from a horror movie.  If my teammates were not wearing flip flops in the shower before last week, they certainly are now.  After the shower, I put my clothes on and wrapped the injured fingers in Kleenex.  My teammates suggested that I go to the Emergency room to see if I needed stitches.  I initially refused this offer.  Every trip I had ever taken to the emergency room resulted in a minimum 5 hour stay and at least a $200 bill (this is with insurance.)  I really did not want to stay in the Borken Hospital until 4:00 am.  Based on my previous experience, my finger would have to be completely cut off in order to go to the emergency room at 10:30 pm.  

One of my teammates offered to go with me to the emergency room, which told me that a. maybe my finger really was hurt, b. maybe the trip wasn’t going to take as long as I feared and c. I would have someone to explain to the doctor, in German, how I managed to slice my fingers.  I agreed to go. 

We walked in the Hospital at 10:20 pm, checked in and waited for the nurse for 5 minutes.  When the nurse came, my teammate Dennis explained the story to the nurse while I sat there feeling totally embarrassed and stupid.  The nurse took me in to the examination room, laughed at me, cleaned my fingers, laughed at me, said that I wouldn’t need stitches, and laughed at me again (in that order.)  Soon after, the doctor briefly appeared and offered a tetanus shot.  After declining the tetanus shot, he was quickly out of the room. 

Before I knew it, I was at the checkout desk paying my quarterly co-pay of a whopping €10.   That was all I needed to pay.  At 10:40 pm, we were back in the car on the way home.  

The wounds on my fingers quickly healed and I was able to play basketball without any major disruptions. 

Next time, when I have an actual emergency, I will feel much more comfortable going to the Emergency room in Germany. 

DIY - New Chairs! Neue Stühle!

About 9 months ago, Bryan came home from work with a huge cache of furniture he picked up on the side of the road, also known as Sperrmüle. Several times a year here each neighborhood of the city has a Sperrmüle day where everyone is allowed to toss their old furniture and large household items (old TVs, computers, broken vacuums, etc.) on the side of the road and over the next day or two different official departments will come and pick it up.  Some trucks come through and only take appliances, others only take metal, wood, or plastic, etc.  But, usually the night before the official collectors come there, there is a frenzy of activity in these neighborhoods where thrifty people sort through everything and find treasures to bring back to their homes.  Until each neighborhood's Sperrmüle day, everyone is required to keep their old furniture in their house and it is absolutely not permitted to try to toss this stuff out with the regular garbage.

This one day, Bryan came home with several items - 4 dinner chairs, 2 night stands, and a small dresser.  Since we know eventually we will move out of this apartment and need to furnish our own apartment, we have slowly been collecting things and taking advantage of Sperrmüle whenever we can.  It always seems like Sperrmüle in our neighborhood falls on a super rainy day, and they're nothing worse than going through other people's trash, I mean Sperrmüle, in the rain.

These chairs that Bryan brought home were in good condition structurally, but they were really ugly.  The white paint was all scuffed up and the seat cushions looked like someone has systematically spilled a glass of apple juice on each one.  Realizing that I spend a ridiculous amount of my down time zoning out to other people's DIY blogs, I thought surely I can put some of this knowledge to use and improve on some of this stuff that Bryan brought home.  So, I focused my attention on the chairs.

Here is the before:

They were just really dingy and in need of a refresh.  So gave them a fresh coat of white paint and recovered the seat cushions and voila!  New chairs!

They're not perfect, but it was a good first effort at recovering a seat cushion and using spray paint.  My next project is to give this little bookshelf a new paint job.  Any color suggestions?

5 Tips for Eating At a Restaurant In Germany

Our monthly University staff meeting affords us a nice lunch at various restaurants in Munster. It's also a nice way to pick up on small nuances of eating a meal with my German colleagues. Based on these experiences, I have some small differences that I would like to pass on to Americans that may find themselves eating a meal at a restaurant with other Germans.   Here are the top 5 tips in no particular order: 

1. Conserve your Drink. There are no free refills here in Germany, even at a fast food restaurant. If you want another drink, it's fine. You will just pay full price for it. This is a tricky rationing situation, especially if you don't know how long a meeting will last. I usually allocate half of my drink to before receiving our food and the other half after we receive the food.
2. Don't drink the water. Not because it's harmful for your health, but because if you order a water, you will pay for a full bottle of tonic water.   The water here is usually just as expensive, if not more than any other drink.  There is no such thing as a free ice water here. I haven't asked for ice water directly, but I am pretty sure that the waiter would suggest that I take an empty cup to the bathroom if I really wanted a free water.   
3. Don't use your hands...ever. This nearly killed me the first time we had pizza. In Germany, the pizza comes whole, not cut into slices. Germans eat pizza from the outside in, with a fork and knife. I tried this tactic for a short time until I became so frustrated that I finally grabbed a big chunk and said with my mouth full, 'Forget this. This is how you eat pizza.'  The same rule applies to burgers. People eat their hamburgers with a knife and fork. At this point, I put my foot down and refused to even try eating a hamburger with utensils. I can't imagine people eating Five Guys Burgers with a knife and fork. I think they would get thrown out of the restaurant if someone would try.   
4. Finish your food and don't ask for a doggy bag. It is quite normal that everyone at the table, I mean everyone, eats every scrap of food on the table. I am not sure if eating everything on their plate is a story passed down from the grandparents ala a Wiemar hyperinflation story. No matter how much food is dished out, it gets eaten. I got laughed at when I asked for doggy bag. It's possible to get a doggy bag if you ask, but it is not a typical request. I would advise against it. 
5. If it's your party, you pay.   Normally, if you are hosting a celebration (graduation or birthday) at a restuarant, the honorary person (new graduate or Birthday boy/girl) pays the bill.  This shocked me at first when we had a dinner celebration for a two guys who received their Doctorates in the Finance Department. At the end of the meal, instead of the dinner party coming up with the money to pay the bill, the two new graduates grabbed the bill and paid for our night.  

Are there any other tips that I am missing? 

I know the first place I am going to eat when we land in America over Christmas..Five Guys. 

That's how you eat pizza.