Requiem For American Bread

 I came. I saw. I ate bread.

German Brot. 

I now, I know. I should have been wowed by the cathedrals, especially the monstrously big one at Cologne. 

the castles,

the autobahn, the beautiful and quaint old streets and houses,

the beer.

 

I was...but.

The bread. 

How do we keep a country running on Sara Lee, Wonder, Little Debbie, and Dunkin Donuts?

*Embarrassed pause*

I think I just discovered the secret of the universe. 

You heard the one about the tourist who walks into a German bakery and asks for a loaf of bread?

Yeah, never happened. It was always two loaves or three if I could get away with it. I smuggled three loaves through customs. Everyone told me I couldn't. "Hid" one in each piece of luggage and they all made it through. 

So now I am attempting to make this delicious hearty food of the gods. The problem is it takes about 12-14 days all told to make. So my sourdough starter is fermenting on the counter, and I am salivating as I type.

More on this later...

Highlights from the trip to Germany that were unrelated to bread.

Cobblestone.

Beautiful. Hard to walk on for hours.

The castle at Krefield. A medieval castle complete with moat, turrets and a dungeon. When I walked onto the grounds, I felt for just a moment that I was a princess stepping into a dream.

Until I had to climb the steps to the tower. I remembered  I wasn't in tiptop shape. This was painfully obvious by the last set of quaint, winding irregular stairs. 

The Brandenburg Gate.

The Bundestag.

The complete lack of homeless people. Ok well, I did see three. And that was three total in three major cities. But for the most part I observed a lot less fear of crime as corroborated by my amazing, wonderfully gracious native German hosts. We left cameras in our car, with no problem.

 I entered a metal flying machine and was whisked away to another world. I will never be the same.

I even used a little of the German I've been working on. Ein bisschen. 

And now it's a memory logged in my heart and mind forever. And if I can manage it, in my digestive system in the future. Pictures of my sourdough starter to come in a future blog.