Last night, we went to see our old friend, The Mad Scientist, at Agais in Entringen.  We hadn’t planned to go there.  We were going to go to Taverne Beim Griechen, which is located near us.  But when we got to the parking lot, we noticed it was really full.  We weren’t in the mood to battle a crowd and we knew Agais would not be busy because it almost never is.  It had been awhile since we last went down to Entringen to visit our old friend.

So we went down there and arrived at about 7:30 or so.  Just as we suspected, the lights were on, but no one was in the dining room.  We were warmly greeted by The Mad Scientist and his wife.  We decided to have gyros last night, along with small salads and our usual wine.

A couple of young guys showed up while we were eating.  One of them was wearing pants that threatened to fall down.  I will never understand this style of low seated pants that look like they’re about to drop.  They look uncomfortable to me.  I noticed the two guys who came in had the same dinners we were enjoying… the gyros platter.

After we ate dinner, we drove back to Unterjettingen.  I was telling Bill that I thought it was funny that we decided to go down there simply because we wanted to eat dinner in an uncrowded restaurant.  There are other places we could have gone that offered better food, lower prices, and a romantic ambiance.  Agais is just a place we love to come back to because we used to eat there so much when we lived here the first time.  It’s the one place where we feel a connection to our first time living in Germany together.

Now that we’ve been here for nineteen months, I can look back on this experience and realize that it’s very different from our first two year tour here.  I didn’t get a Facebook account until 2008.  Back then, there weren’t any Facebook groups for Americans living in Germany.  I relied on Toytown Germany, which was an interesting group of English speakers.  In some ways, I liked it better than the Facebook groups.  There was less drama… or the drama was more entertaining than annoying.  Also, no offense to my many military friends and family, but sometimes folks in the military community can be a little narrow in their perspective.  Toytown Germany was refreshing because there were all kinds of people there.  The one thing they had in common was being able to speak English.

Bill and I didn’t do as much traveling around Germany during our first time here.  We didn’t see many of the sights that can be accessed within an hour or two.  We did go to a lot of other countries and took advantage of long weekends more than we do now.  It’s a good thing we did, too.  Especially since we didn’t get to stay for our third year.

Now it seems we could be in Germany for awhile, so we’ve been enjoying more of the local flavor.  I have put more effort into learning German, though I doubt I’ll ever be fluent in the language.  At least I understand more than I used to, though.  And this time, I even have some German friends!  Last time we were here, I only knew a couple of Germans besides our landlord.

We still like to go see The Mad Scientist when we want a quiet dinner, though.  I genuinely like him and his wife, especially now that my German friend, Susanne, found out what their real names are!  I like to give him business.  Besides, Entringen is a beautiful little town.  Sometimes I miss living down that way.

Where we ate last night…

Tonight, we have plans for dinner in Tubingen.  We will be visiting a restaurant we’ve never tried before.  It’s attached to a hotel, but looks like it has some potential for a good date night place.  Stay tuned!