‘Rest Day’

Today was a rest day from racing around and seeing sights.
The 10 yr old was coughing and not 100%, so after some fast-paced days it was good to have a day of nothing.
I however, did not have a day of nothing. I went grocery shopping. Shopping in foreign supermarkets is one of my favorite things. I am definitely not a shopper in any other respect, but supermarkets- bring it!
As you would imagine, the range of sandwich meat and cheeses was vast.
In contrast, I did not see many and go meal options at all.
I wandered around the the store several times in my search for milk. I walked right past milk several times as I was looking for a large range and there were only 4 types!
It took ages to gather supplies partly because everything was new and fascinating and partly because of the language barrier No internet meant that Google translate was out of the question. What I thought was a yummy strudel turned out to be a rather dry chocolate cherry cake that won no points with anyone.
Once we ate breakfast, I set out once again with a backpack packed to bursting with dirty laundry, hunting for a laundromat (waschsalon). I put the address of the closest known one on offline iPhone Maps and arrived optimistically on the young man’s doorstep after about 10 minute speed walking. It turns out that he is a tailor who DOES wash and clean clothes but only fancy ones. The poor man spoke no English, but we communicated via sign language and my insistence of the word ‘waschsalon’, which I was beginning to suspect may not be current German, as the man seemed a little confused.
I headed off again in a different direction this time, looking for a street which he said had a waschsalon, 20 minutes walk away. That laundry-filled back pack was starting to feel heavy.
2 friendly locals helped to steer me along in the right direction and it didn’t seem too long before I was stepping over the threshold into to Freddy Leck’s waschsalon! I walked in and was greeted in German by a cheery employee. I began to attempt my horrific German on her, but she quickly changed to English. Freddy bustled over and guided me to a written English guide to life in Freddy Leck’s waschsalon. It basically said that I could chill and they would do it all for me! Woohoo!!! The waiting area is very much like a cafe with coffee options and cake. I at first thought the food and drink was free- it isn’t, so I’m glad I didn’t help myself.

Freddy was extremely friendly and we chatted away about travel and foreign supermarkets. Once my sweet smelling laundry was dry, I paid, the then Freddy took my hand in both of his and said ‘God bless you on your trip’.
Aww!
Nothing much else of note happened today. Lots of lying around and wishing we had packed cards and more books for downtime!
I cooked up a creamy sausage and bacon sauce as well as frying some German beef goulash to go with spaetzle (hand made egg noodles) It was delicious. When I went back to the supermarket later, the yummy smell had wafted all the way down the apartment complex.