Last week Shanna was in Schwetzingen for the week for training. I had considered taking the dogs and coming up with her, but a few days after we got back from Amsterdam my foot started to really hurt. There was no visible swelling or bruising, but I could barely stand on it. The strange part was it would hurt more if I was laying down. It had improved, but was still pretty sore the Sunday Shanna was driving up to Schwetzingen, so I stayed home. That night it was feeling better, so I walked down to the train station and went in to town to meet some friends who were going to watch the Bears/Packers NFC Championship game. All season I'd been trying to find a bar in town that showed NFL games, and finally found this place. It's an Irish Pub, and most Irish Pubs are popular with Americans in the area due to the fact that the bartenders are all Irish, so they speak English, and they have a different variety of beers instead of the usual German beers (although they have those too). It was fun, it was nice watching the game with a group of people, even if the crowd was much smaller then you would have found in a bar back home.
The rest of last week was pretty boring actually. I didn't have the car, and since my foot was in a lot of pain, I couldn't really go out either. Shanna got home Friday afternoon, and by then my foot was feeling much better. It was still a little sore, but I could much more easily walk around on it. Since that was the case, we headed up to Schwetzingen on Saturday. Shanna had found a few places in the area she wanted to visit, and a brewery. The brew pub had some really good food. I ordered the Texas Burger, which was by far the best burger I've had since we've been here. Shanna had the Mexican Flammkuchen, which is basically flat bread with cheese, jalapenos, and mexican spices on top.
The beer was really good too, and we were both proud that we were able to order food, converse (in small sentences) with the waitress, and pay, all without speaking any English.
After lunch we walked around town. We had considered walking through the Schloss, but it wasn't cheap and it was FREEZING outside. We decided we'd come back in the Spring time when things were warmer to take the tour. We walked around town for a bit, stopping in various shops, then headed home for the day.
Sunday was a lazy day, but one thing I finally got around to doing was brewing beer with the kit Shanna got me for Christmas! It came with two different kinds of beer to brew, and Shanna bought me an extra pack to brew an IPA, which is my favorite kind of beer. I figured I'd start with what came in the package first, then my next brew will be the other packet that came with the kit. That way I'd get to practice and when I felt I had it down, THEN I'd give the IPA a shot. It was a lot of fun. My first brew is going to be a Blond Ale.
It wasn't as difficult as I thought it would be. I'm sure as I get more comfortable with the brewing process I'll branch out in to more complicated brews, but for my first one I wanted to keep it simple. The keg it comes with is plastic, but it makes cleaning pretty simple. Who knows, if I really get into it, I'll probably buy a metal or wood keg.
Once the beer was done, I put it in our basement in a room that never sees sunlight and only occasionally has artificial light turned on. The instructions said to let it sit for 14 days, but I might just let it sit for 21 instead. Then I bottle the beer and let it sit for another 14-21 days, and it'll be ready! Actually by the time it's ready we might back in the US, but that's ok, the longer it sits the better it'll taste.
That's about it, not much else going on. Sunday night I'm meeting some friends who don't have work on Monday out for the Super Bowl. It's starts at 12:30am (technically Monday morning), and all of the bars on base are having something for it. It should be fun!
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