This past weekend was pretty busy. On Saturday, I finished my Budapest series, we dropped off some art at Kunst-Schaefer to be framed, and we attended the annual Oktoberfest our village holds. I bought a couple of prints in Budapest, plus we had some other art that needed new frames. The proprietor recognized us before he even saw us. He heard Bill’s voice and handled us personally. I think we give him a lot of business, plus he likes to talk about Donald Trump.

Yesterday, we went to lunch at Villa im Tal, which is one of my favorite local restaurants. The weather was gorgeous on Saturday, and kind of moody and weird yesterday. Fall is now upon us, and the temperatures are fluctuating. Last night, I even closed the balcony door, mainly because I’m tired of being bitten by mosquitos. They are particularly bad this year, and I have a bunch of itchy, painful bites from the blood sucking pests.

I remember earlier years in Germany, when by mid Germany, it would be decidedly chilly. This year, the weather has not been chilly, but it’s definitely pleasant. Saturday’s weather was a bit warm, but otherwise perfect. Some people wore Trachten to the Oktoberfest. I have a dirndl that could use a wearing, but I don’t know if it fits anymore. Menopause is a bitch.

I took some photos of the Oktoberfest celebration. It was very small, and they changed the location at the last minute. It was going to be in our Dorfplatz, which is very close to where we live, but they ended up relocating it to the place where the chicken raising club meets. There’s a German name for it, of course, but I don’t remember what it is offhand. They had beer, wine schorle, water, and other stuff, plus sausages, pork knuckles, and other delights. We didn’t eat anything at the fest, but we drank lots of beer.

While we were there, after we were greeted by the city manager, only one guy spoke to us. He was a very pleasant older man who came alone and was hoping for company. I had never seen him before and wondered if maybe he was a widower. It was awkward, though, because our German isn’t nicht so gut. He finally excused himself. Before he left, he came over and said goodbye. I thought he was nice and felt bad that I couldn’t have a good conversation with him. But then, as we were leaving, we ran into a very friendly German couple who always talk to us, even though they don’t speak English! Every time we run into them, there’s an enthusiastic greeting!

On Sunday, we had our lunch date at Villa im Tal. I even wore a new dress. When we walked in, the wait staff immediately welcomed us warmly. There’s one lady who works there who always greets us by name and is so nice. They invited us to sit down, and the male half of the wait staff immediately knew to bring us sparkling water.

The meal was excellent, as usual, but it was a little difficult for me, because many of the selections had mushrooms or truffles in them. I get that it’s fall, and a lot of people love fungus, but it’s the one thing I can’t eat under any circumstances due to embarrassing childhood trauma, and the fact that I just don’t like them at all. Even if I didn’t have a phobia, I don’t think I’d eat mushrooms. I don’t like earthy flavors.

Anyway… I had a delightful pumpkin soup and Iberico pork, which Bill had on our last visit. The soup was so good– I am always impressed by Villa im Tal’s soups, which are velvety smooth and packed with flavor. It came with a tasty Parmesan “cracker”. The pork was very tender and delicious, and came with ratatouille and a potato pancake with chorizo sausage.

Bill had Tyrolean ham as a starter, and ox cheeks with truffled celery puree. The wait staff brought out extra bread for Bill’s appetizer, which was pretty filling. I was glad I had the soup!

Bill ordered a lovely bottle of Tuscan wine to go with our lunch. The waiter praised his choice, saying that it was a popular entry on the wine list. I enjoyed the wine very much, but then, when it comes to wine, I’m not super hard to please.

We had dessert, which kind of put us just over the edge of fullness. I had a tart made with Pink Lady apples, a scoop of homemade vanilla ice cream, and berries. It also had a couple of dollops of chocolate mousse. The tart was very good, but I think I would have been just as happy with some chocolate mousse!

Bill had vanilla ice cream with pumpkin oil and toasted pumpkin seeds. He said it seemed odd to put oil on ice cream, but the combination worked beautifully. We didn’t need any more food for the rest of the day.

I got up to go to the bathroom, and when I came back, Bill had an amused look on his face. He said the credit card machine wasn’t working and he didn’t have enough euros to pay the bill. So, because we are “regulars”, the waiter just took our address and got Bill’s email. He said they’d send him a bill and he could do a bank transfer. If they hadn’t known us, Bill would have had to go to an ATM! He did have enough euros to give the waiter a “Trinkgeld” (tip).

I’d say Wiesbaden is starting to really feel like home. This is where we’ve lived the longest as a married couple. In my lifetime, it’s the place where I’ve lived the second longest length of time in one stint. And yet, I feel like I don’t know Wiesbaden that well, mainly because of the pandemic, and the two years we spent holed up in our house, avoiding the virus and face mask mandates. We spent a total of six years in the Stuttgart area, but in two different stints and two different towns. I feel like I know Stuttgart a lot better.

Anyway… it’s a really nice feeling to be so warmly welcomed at a restaurant, and even nicer to know that they trust us to pay them when their credit card machine malfunctions. I know I’m not German, but Germany, and its people, have been welcoming… for the most part (we won’t discuss the ex landlady… 😈). We’ve been talking about a move to Italy, but maybe we should just stay here… if they’ll have us, anyway. 😁

Well, that about does it for the story of our weekend. Time to move on to heavier matters on the main blog. See you next post!