Saturday shopping in Munich
Part of getting settled in is finding things that work in your new location. It's both fun and frustrating, as anyone who has ever moved as an adult can attest.
The car-buying process is very different here and MUCH more lengthy (maybe we'll talk about that in detail in a future post). We've now made the decision about what car to buy and have obtained insurance. It's in the registration process as of Thursday, and we'll pick it up Monday.
A car is useful, but most places in Europe are super bike-friendly. I've been itching for a bike for a couple of years, and now the dream is a reality. It's a reality in almost Pepto-Bismol pink, in my case.
Yes, I bought a pink (PANK!) bicycle. No, it wasn't an accident. I'll explain.
We went to the bicycle superstore in Munich -- probably a couple of acres of bikes. The store is big enough that you can test-drive inside the store. There's even a small track where you can build up a little speed.
I quickly found that all the bikes were 3-7 speeds, and all had the pedal-backward-to-brake function. As a child of the '70s and '80s, I want to be able to pedal backward. That sounds bratty, but consider that I also want to be able to position the pedal in such a way that I can take off easily. That's much harder if you can't pedal backward.
I finally found one model that pedaled backward. It's a 21-speed, which is overkill, but pedaling backward, yay! I had three choices in this bicycle: spring green with a white seat, creamy yellow with a brown seat, and pink with a gray seat. None of these is what I would choose if I were choosing, but they were my choices.
Add to that the fact that bikes are stolen at a staggering rate, and the pink became the clear choice. Who wants to steal that? Plus, I can find it easily when it's parked amid dozens of other bikes. So pink it is!
Next up was looking for a fridge. We have one in our current place, but our possibly-but-not-sure-yet permanent-ish house needs a fridge. It has a tiny one in a room off the kitchen, but we spoiled Americans like our fridge room! What do you think of this?
We'll probably buy something closer to the silver one on the left, but these cracked me up.
We also stopped in at a grocery store. The one near our house is a Lidl -- a small discount grocery store. I've also shopped at Kaufland, which is possibly the biggest grocery store I've ever seen. But last weekend, we discovered an Edeka that's like Baby Bear's chair -- not too big, not too small, but juuuust right. Even in this medium-sized store, they have more than a full aisle of different varieties of chocolate. Don't believe me? Here's proof:
There's more chocolate in other places, but that's most of the good stuff. In the Kaufland, there are three full aisles of nothing but chocolate. It's ridiculous. And delicious. Here are some of my favorites so far:
The Crème Brûlée Lindt bar is one of the best things I've ever tasted: creamy chocolate with crunchy and waffle-y bits inside. Happy sigh! The KitKat is like it is in the US, only with real chocolate rather than that waxy stuff I used to call chocolate. The Knosperflakes is reminiscent of a Nestle Crunch, only the crunchy bits are cornflakes, not crisped rice. And the Milka bar has strawberry yogurt and crunchy bits. Hmm, I'm sensing a theme here!
What have you been shopping for lately? What's your favorite chocolate bar? Throw me a comment!
The car-buying process is very different here and MUCH more lengthy (maybe we'll talk about that in detail in a future post). We've now made the decision about what car to buy and have obtained insurance. It's in the registration process as of Thursday, and we'll pick it up Monday.
A car is useful, but most places in Europe are super bike-friendly. I've been itching for a bike for a couple of years, and now the dream is a reality. It's a reality in almost Pepto-Bismol pink, in my case.
Yes, I bought a pink (PANK!) bicycle. No, it wasn't an accident. I'll explain.
We went to the bicycle superstore in Munich -- probably a couple of acres of bikes. The store is big enough that you can test-drive inside the store. There's even a small track where you can build up a little speed.
I quickly found that all the bikes were 3-7 speeds, and all had the pedal-backward-to-brake function. As a child of the '70s and '80s, I want to be able to pedal backward. That sounds bratty, but consider that I also want to be able to position the pedal in such a way that I can take off easily. That's much harder if you can't pedal backward.
I finally found one model that pedaled backward. It's a 21-speed, which is overkill, but pedaling backward, yay! I had three choices in this bicycle: spring green with a white seat, creamy yellow with a brown seat, and pink with a gray seat. None of these is what I would choose if I were choosing, but they were my choices.
Add to that the fact that bikes are stolen at a staggering rate, and the pink became the clear choice. Who wants to steal that? Plus, I can find it easily when it's parked amid dozens of other bikes. So pink it is!
Next up was looking for a fridge. We have one in our current place, but our possibly-but-not-sure-yet permanent-ish house needs a fridge. It has a tiny one in a room off the kitchen, but we spoiled Americans like our fridge room! What do you think of this?
We'll probably buy something closer to the silver one on the left, but these cracked me up.
We also stopped in at a grocery store. The one near our house is a Lidl -- a small discount grocery store. I've also shopped at Kaufland, which is possibly the biggest grocery store I've ever seen. But last weekend, we discovered an Edeka that's like Baby Bear's chair -- not too big, not too small, but juuuust right. Even in this medium-sized store, they have more than a full aisle of different varieties of chocolate. Don't believe me? Here's proof:
There's more chocolate in other places, but that's most of the good stuff. In the Kaufland, there are three full aisles of nothing but chocolate. It's ridiculous. And delicious. Here are some of my favorites so far:
The Crème Brûlée Lindt bar is one of the best things I've ever tasted: creamy chocolate with crunchy and waffle-y bits inside. Happy sigh! The KitKat is like it is in the US, only with real chocolate rather than that waxy stuff I used to call chocolate. The Knosperflakes is reminiscent of a Nestle Crunch, only the crunchy bits are cornflakes, not crisped rice. And the Milka bar has strawberry yogurt and crunchy bits. Hmm, I'm sensing a theme here!
What have you been shopping for lately? What's your favorite chocolate bar? Throw me a comment!
Milka bars are amazing - if you can find it try the oreo kind. So good.
ReplyDeleteToblerone and either KitKat or peanut butter cups with dark chocolate as a close second. ;)
ReplyDelete@Viina -- found it! Delicious. Thanks for the rec!
ReplyDelete@Skibby -- PB, for me, is for a sandwich, but Robert loves it with chocolate. I actually haven't bought a Toblerone bar since I've been here. I'll have to do that.
Look for Toms Chokolade Palaeg (I got this in Denmark) It's thin wafers of chocolate that you put on your toast or warm bread -- think chocolate croissant! SOOOOoooo yummy!
ReplyDeleteI'm trying to post a pic but doesn't seem to work.... so a link..... this is the milk chocolate - I like the dark chocolate which has a blue band. :-)
http://www.konditor-bager.dk/roedding/webshop/1744-toms-chokolade-palaeg-maelk.html
Looks delicious! Not sure I've seen it -- doesn't look familiar -- but I'll keep an eye out for it. Thanks!
DeleteThat sounds fabulous! @Lisa -- if you do find some, bring extra back here! :)
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