Barbeque

It's sunny and 70 degrees today.  I went for an early morning walk through some side streets in town.  I stumbled upon a bakery and there must have been 20 or more different kinds of breads and pastries.  The bread here is amazing.  When you talk to the Germans or Austrian natives, bread -- whole grain, dense, but tasty breads -- are a staple in their diet.  We have it with every meal.  So, I continued on my walk and on the way back, I passed several groups of children going to primary school (about 6 through 10 years of age).  They are all chattering in German, ready to start school at 7:30am.  I headed back for breakfast after reading on a park bench for a bit.

A typical breakfast is a fresh bread or pastry, yogurt, granola, juice.  Today, we had fresh croissants.  Oh, so good.  Then there's always three bowls of cereal to eat with plain yogurt.  Usually muesli and two others.  And there's always tee and kaffee.  Dani and I have been searching out mugs so that we can take a cup to go (some habits die hard).  We have a break during lecture around 11am and have a piece of fresh fruit and tee and kaffee.  For lunch, it is a hot meal, like pasta, salad, and dessert.  All very fresh and very healthy.  But today for lunch we had a barbeque.  Not your typical barbeque.  They prepared fresh salads, like cucumber, carrot, cabbage, and of course German potato salad.  Then there's the sausages, all different varieties.  And fresh bread.  For dessert, we had ice cream.  In talking to the German and Austrian students, they would call an ice cream shop an 'ice dealer.'  And I learned that when something is really delicious they say, 'lecker.' 

Barbeque lunch

For dinner, we have a hot meal, like tube pasta with peas, beans, ham with olive oil and fresh spices, or spaghetti with cheese sauce, or even rosemary potatoes and meatloaf (the guys say that it's the best that they've had).  Or we've had pinapple pizza and ham or even leftovers.  Tonight we had camenbert cheese rounds with pomegrante sauce and leftovers.  And there's usually a salad that's prepared with a light oil dressing and boston bibb lettuce.  For dessert, there is something light like a pudding salad with fresh fruit and light cookies.  In my opinion, it's all very gourmet.  And we eat in two dining rooms with about 6 to 8 people at a table, making coversation more intimate.