Sunday brought us a beautiful (kind of Canadian) winter day, complete with lots of snow, colder temperatures, incredible blue sky and blazing sunshine. Great guy and I headed to meet great friend, girlfriend and das kleines baby (as her father affectionately calls her) for a walk in the woods outside of Bingen on the Rhein - the Binger Wald. Great guy grew up close to these woods and so he has been saying, since I arrived in Germany, that we should take a walk through it. Yesterday was that day.
We hiked, well no, we slid along the icy trails, marveling at the cool wood faces randomly carved into some of the old trees. These carvings have been around for a eons, created by an old schnitzer (wood carver) from the area. The expressions are hilarious; funny, crazy, happy, or just plain weird.
After about an hour we ended up at the Gerhardshof, which is a quaint, old restaurant where people (lots of people) gather to eat or drink at the mid-point of their hiking day. After joining other couples on a long, wooden table, we were served radler (for me) and apfelschorle (apple juice with sparkling water), jägerschnitzle and spätzle. Yum. A very good, traditional meal for a very good, traditional berghütte (hut on a hill).
This was a good day; filled with good friends (Max and Bärbel also came by in the evening for lachs (salmon)), snow, sunshine, and a new year. I was very happy spending this day with these people...hope for many more like these this year.
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