Tag Archives: booze runs

Hessen, markets

A wine stand… and shopping at Fornara in Taunusstein…

If you are a regular reader of this blog, you might remember back in May, when Bill and I paid a visit to an Italian Feinkost called Fornara. I had discovered it a week prior, when Bill and I went to an Italian supermarket in Mainz-Kastel. I searched to see if there were other Italian markets near us. Fornara, which is a chain Feinkost, has a small satellite location near the train station in Wiesbaden.

After Bill and I shopped there, back in May, we decided we wanted to visit the flagship store in Taunusstein, located about 20 miles from us. The flagship store is much larger, and has space for events and classes.

I thought we’d get to Fornara’s flagship store before today, but then we got sick… and the fridge died… and we went to Switzerland. Thankfully, we now have a new refrigerator; we’re both over the sickness; and we had nothing else to do today. So Bill and I visited Fornara’s main location in Taunusstein, which is situated in a large industrial park with plenty of free parking.

I got some photos of the store, which looks like a larger version of the location in Wiesbaden. Once again, we enjoyed friendly service from an employee who speaks English. There’s also a restroom in the store, which they openly advertise. That’s a plus, although we didn’t avail ourselves of the WC today. Below are some photos. We came home with lots of wine, some olive oil, steaks, and Wagyu burgers.

This is actually pretty close to where we live. It reminded me of living in Texas!

As far as the shopping experience goes, I found the Fornara in Taunusstein to be very similar to the Wiesbaden location. It’s just a bigger space, and the parking lot is a little larger. They had many of the same products available. I probably wouldn’t go back to the Taunusstein location unless there was an event, or it happened to be handier than the Wiesbaden location.

On the other hand, the drive to Taunusstein is very pleasant. You go through forests and a cute little town with many buildings that still sport Fachwerk (timber framing). And you pass farms where you can pick up fresh items like eggs and wild meats, as well as an amusing graffiti project of a middle finger and the caption “Fuck the system”. To go to the location in Wiesbaden, you have to drive into the city, and it’s potentially more of a pain in the butt because of traffic.

Anyway, it’s nice to know that Fornara exists, especially for those who need special groceries or wines. I expect it’s going to expand in the future, which will be good for foodie snobs.

I also have some photos from last night’s wine stand. It was hosted by the local Volleyball Club, and was pretty well attended. It helped that we got a break in the temperature.

We saw our American friends, who told us they’d bought a house just across from where they are currently renting in our neighborhood. I think I also annoyed a crotchety old German lady, who gave me a dirty look as I spoke English to my friend. Sorry lady… I’d been mostly quiet during the two hours we were attending. If you were in the USA with one of your countrymen, you’d be speaking German, right?

Anyway… below are some photos. We had dinner there– We shared a pork sandwich and potatoes from Breck & Flame, which we couldn’t finish. I had ice cream in the afternoon, to celebrate the new fridge! The sandwich was really good, but it was a bit messy. The potatoes needed salt. But I would definitely get the pork sandwich again, only have them give me a plate, utensils, and the roll on the side. Also… plenty of napkins. One lady who witnessed my reaction to the messiness was laughing at me. Or… maybe it was because of my TRUMP SUCKS t-shirt. 😚

I’m not sure what we’ll do with the rest of the day. Maybe tomorrow we’ll have lunch somewhere. We’ll see.

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Hessen, rants, supermarkets

Going to the Globus is exhausting!

I don’t have a lot to report about this week. I mostly stayed home and wrapped Christmas presents, or otherwise tended to business as usual. I also made more videos than usual, although maybe that’s a lost cause. Every once in awhile, I make a video that resonates, which then attracts haters. The rest of the time, people don’t care about my videos… but they still get more hits than my blogs do!

We did go out to the Globus yesterday. I have written about Globus before, so I’m not going to get into the specifics of what it is. Suffice to say, it’s a huge store– like Walmart on steroids– that has everything from toys to household goods to groceries. I don’t think I’ve ever explored the whole thing. I find going there utterly exhausting. However, they do have a nice booze section, and sometimes it’s a good place to go if we need something unusual.

Bill and I killed what was left of our vodka the other night (it was about two or three shots). I don’t drink that much hard liquor anymore, because it really seems to upset my stomach. Lately, I have mostly been sticking to hefeweizens. But we do keep some of it around for the odd occasions when we have cocktails. So we went to Globus and ended up buying some toys for Bill’s grandchildren, candles in case we break out the fancy china on Christmas, some liquor and wine, and a chicken for last night’s dinner.

I’m not even sure how long we were in the Globus, but by the time we had crossed the store from the toy section to the meat section, I really felt tired, numb, and apathetic. There was a time in my life when I liked going to huge stores, but now they cause sensory overload and fatigue. It was bad enough yesterday that I worried about collapsing in the store! I’d hate to have to work there! I guess this is just one more thing about getting older.

I remember when my mom, an Air Force wife, was about my age, or a little younger, she didn’t like going to the large commissaries at Fort Eustis or Langley Air Force Base. About once a month, she’d make a trip to the Naval Weapons Station in Yorktown, Virginia, which had a smaller commissary that had pretty much all we needed. Back then, I never understood why she preferred the smaller store, which was closer to our house, too. Now that I’m 52, I understand it perfectly.

Of course, the commissary at the Naval Weapons Station closed many years ago, so my mom eventually did have to start going to Fort Eustis when she wanted to stock up and get somewhat less expensive military commissary prices. Now, she lives on Fort Monroe, which is no longer an Army post, and shops at a regular grocery store. Fort Monroe used to have a commissary and other military stores.

When we were at Globus yesterday, I was thinking about how I’d rather be at our neighborhood Rewe, which is much smaller, but has pretty much everything we need and isn’t quite as tiring to navigate. I mean, it takes energy just to walk the length of the Globus. When we got home last night, I needed to rest for about an hour! Below are a few photos from our trip… Yes, we did a booze run. Globus is better for booze shopping than Rewe is.

And below are a few goofy dog photos of Noyzi and Charlie… They were wanting a walk.

I’m not sure what we’ll do today, if anything. This is the time of year we tend to hibernate. It does look like we have better weather, though. I suppose we could decide to go out somewhere, although Bill says he wants to go on post today and order heating oil and get something for dinner. I think I’ll stay home and read.

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