Day 4 in Deutschland, Hanging About Kemnath

Day 4 in Germany was designated a relax day. I am not staying at a hotel, after all. I am invading a family. Laundry must be done, food shopping, etc. Today I spent the day the day hanging about Kemnath. Starting with a walk to the recycling bin. This is the view from the babbling brook on the way. See those orange roofs? That is my home for 10 more days.

Bugs here seem to be different. I caught these two zany blue dragon flies fluttering about the brook close to the house.

This town is very quiet and isolated. Here is the view behind the town square.

Bright wild flowers grow about, creating a cheerful bouquet against the neat and tidy German backdrop.

We took a quick hike to Bayrueth, the nearest larger city, to food shop and stop for a bite to eat. We stopped at Kraftraum, a hip cafe with and extensive menu of omni delights. Luckily they had English menus so I could ascertain what vegan option was the best. I chose the Bruce Lee, a salad with tofu, quinoa, mushroom, sesame seed, and soy sauce on top of greens. It was the freshness I needed. Along with the fresh-pressed orange juice–so invigorating.

A shot of the cafe from afar.

We went food shopping at Bio Bio so we could cook–and not spend as many euros. From the top left: Nagel barbecue vegan cheese, vegan cream cheese from Soyana , Wheaty (“The Vegan Way”) vegetarian sausage, curry tofu cutlets from the all-vegan Taifun, Heirler vegan cold cuts, and Calendula Naturkost veggie burgers. Sure, this is all packaged goods–but with GMO’s banned in Germany and none of these brands being related to American big food companies, I’ll give them a try. Seeing vegan products here is exciting! But translating the ingredients was a bit time consuming. But look at all those different helpful vegan markings!

Naiobe, a doggy that thinks it’s a cat. She’s a sweet girl but she makes me miss my buddies at home.

The delicious dinner my host whipped me up: Curry tofu on wheat noodles with sauteed vegetables and cilantro. It was so yummy, much in thanks to the curry sauce she made with coconut milk to cook the already curry-flavored tofu! The plan was I was to do some baking after dinner, however the neighboring children and their young Army parents congregated for raucous social interaction. It is a fascinating world here–a cross-section of cultures, ages and  backgrounds tied together by their service. But this evening’s mission, thankfully, was just to let loose and have fun. Goodnight!