Zungenwurst

I looked at three different apartments in the Eltville area today. All of them were nice and they were different enough to one another to make the decision seemingly easy. Seemingly.

The first one was a second floor apartment. The landlord and his family live on the first floor. It has a garage, but it is set back from the road so it will require backing up a pretty long way. Parking could be done in the rear of the house, but there is a cherry tree with branches hanging over the space. i.e. birdshit and fruit all over my truck. No thanks. The owner is in the process of redoing the kitchen and it should be very nice once it is complete. It has plenty of room and a washer/dryer hookup along with some storage space in the basement. He is also adding a stand alone wood fireplace. The view out the back of the house is right into the vineyards. Looks great now, but once the cherry tree has leaves it will reduce the visibility somewhat.

The second place was a townhome in the middle of Rauenthal, which is right next to Eltville. There is a garage, but I would not be able to get my truck into it. It is on Antoniusgasse (perfect street name, right?), which is a narrow cobblestone street. Actually, gasse means alley so it’s basically Antone’s Alley. There is a bakery just across this street. When I say just across, I mean like 20 feet away from the face of my building. The good thing is that I would be able to look out my bedroom window and be able to tell what baked goods were in stock. The bad thing is no one is getting a pickup into that garage. The owner of the property kept telling me to try it with his car, and I just kept pretending not to hear him. Finally we go over to his car and he tries to back it into the garage. He ends up gouging the side of his Mercedes pretty good. Like I said, no one is getting a pickup into that garage. There is a church just past the bakery, and the truck could always be parked there. But then what is the use of having the garage? The good thing is the apartment is right in the town, with a number of restaurants and wine houses within spitting distance. The bad thing is it has the highest security deposit and a basically unusable garage. It also has a very small yard, and the view is not great.

The third place was in Walluf and had the best garage access of the three. It consisted of the first two floors with a one bedroom apartment above it. The owner was willing to leave behind one wardrobe near the entrance, a large three unit wardrobe in the bedroom, a spare bed frame, and the washer & dryer. The washer and dryer however, would not be replaced by him if they broke down. The wardrobes are important because very few places in Germany have built in closets, so this would be one less item that would need to be purchased or borrowed from the base furniture office. He and his family lived in the apartment, but he has moved to Frankfurt. This place had a nice kitchen (small, but nice), and it had a gas stove. Almost every other place I’ve looked at or heard of had an electric stove. The building was set back off the main road in a sort of cul-de-sac. The bedroom is below the street level, but all of the windows have built in shutters. It is in a residential area, but there are restaurants and everything else nearby. Perhaps not within spitting distance, but definitely within walking distance.

The plan was to take pictures of each place so they could be compared later; however, I forgot my camera. Since my appointments were all one hour apart, there was no time to go back for it. So I jotted down some notes about each place when I left. All of them are relatively the same distance from work, so there’s not a nickel’s worth of difference in that department. The townhouse was the largest, but all of them were large enough for what I need. Most of my big tools are at my sister’s and it’s not like anyone is going to visit me here. Each place is in the same general area so there is not a real regional difference either.

I went back to the hotel and dropped off my notes, picked up the camera, and headed out to the Wiesbaden open-air market. It was pretty neat. A lot of people were there, and I must have seen 4 or 5 different cheese mongers and an equal number of butchers. The produce all looked very good, especially the Brussels sprouts, but all I bought was a couple of apples. There s no way of cooking anything at the hotel (besides a microwave – which doesn’t count, Beth!). I was looking for the Ostermarkt (Easter market), but am not sure where it is. I thought it was at this same market, but apparently it is not.

So, I went back to the hotel again to drop off the haul and make a zungenwurst sandwich. I had bought some zungenwurst (blood sausage with tongue in it) yesterday at a Metzgerei (butchery or meat market). I felt like a kid in a candy shop in this place. I kept asking questions and trying things, it was a beautiful experience. I need to get a list and start checking things off as they are tried. The variety they have in even the smallest of these stores is simply amazing. It’s a long way from Oscar Meyer.

After being sufficiently satiated with the zungenwurst sandwich, I hit the road again. The first thing on the agenda was to drive by the office and then out to Eltville to time the “best case” commutes. It turns out that it will only take around 15-20 minutes to get to work from any of the apartments. I then drove north along the Rhein River just to see the sites. After taking some pictures of some more castles from the roadside, it was time to turn around and head back. I went by the first apartment. This is the one that backs up to the vineyards. I drove past it and into the vineyard, and walked around the vineyard for a little while. Ahead on the path was a girl with an unleashed dog (it is pretty common to see dogs without a leash here, although they are always under the watchful eye of their owners). The dog must have had quite a workout because he was dragging ass up the hill almost as much as me. Only his owner wasn’t about to rub me behind the ears. I took some pictures from the vineyard of the apartment, and the surrounding area. There is a large house inside the vineyards that is also a restaurant; however it was not open yet. Someone said that it does not open until sometime in April. Later I remembered the apartment owner telling me about a bier garten located just up the road.

Once inside the bier garten, my decision was pretty much made. The dinner of prime rib with cabbage salad and a potato dumpling was very good. The place was pretty rustic, even having straw on the floor. While approaching the restaurant, a dark brown and black (almost brindle colored) long haired dog got up and lazily sauntered over to me. I put out my hand for him to sniff, and he licked it. I petted him on the head and opened the door. The dog walked right past me heading inside of the restaurant. No one paid him any mind, so neither did I. The place is full of rough hewn timbers, and the solid wood tables must be a good 3” thick.

The bier garten is maybe a mile from the apartment, and the restaurant within the vineyard is less than that. Putting it plainly, I think I found my new home. Now I just have to hope that no one else rents it before I can get my truck and all my stuff. The main thing is the truck, because it would mean a long term car rental if I don’t have a vehicle here. It should be here around the end of the month, so let’s keep those fingers crossed.

Click on the zungenwurst to go to my flickr page and see a veritable plethora of pictures from today.

Zungenwurst, es ist wunderbar!!