Germany 14

I could literally spend hours talking about the experiences I have had in beautiful Cologne over the past 3 weeks, but I could spend days talking about all the food (yes, I have eaten that much). Right now I am too scared to stand on a scale as I have no idea what it might tell me, but I have not been this happy in a long time!

 

Aside from the most amazing breakfasts with the largest selections of cold meats, cheeses, breads and pastries. Lunch is a pretty serious thing here.

 

 Here we eat a warm lunch rather than dinner, and ignoring my Grans protests, I managed to photograph some of them.

 

We have eaten schnitzels with potatoes(Oh my Oh my do they have yummy potatoes here) and salad, kgs upon kgs of white asparagus, including an asparagus ragu with spinach linguine, Bratwursts, Braai's with ALL the trimmings(including South African style ribs which I made by Opi's request, as according to him- WE DO THEM BETTER!!!), roasted veggies with lentil fritters, dumplings, pizza's and so much more.

 

Schnitzel with Grilled Potatoes and Salad

Roasted Veggies with Lentil Fritters... AND BEER.

Aside from all the amazing cooking we have done(my gran has done and I have sat next to her in the kitchen so I could take credit), I have also eaten out a few times.

There were of course the impromptu visits to the chip stands for cones of pommes frites, and the sneaky little spinach and feta pastry from the bakery around the corner, but we also visited some restaurants... 3 times to be exact, and all 3 times happened to be Italian... Maybe I like Pasta???

 

Firstly we went to the cutest little Italian place down the road, with real Italians in the kitchen, where I had an amazing prawn pasta, set my mouth on fire with their "slightly hot" spice mixture and fell in love with the décor...

 



Tables were decorated with glass on top

 

I NEED THESE APRONS!

 

My delicious prawn and spinach pasta

 

The best kind of salad, the sauce is so yum you forget you're eating something healthy

 

The second time my sister took me to lunch in Bonn. We went to a more modern Italian restaurant and ate raviolis... She had Sundried tomato and fig ravioli, with sage butter and pine nuts and I had Salmon and cream cheese ravioli with lemon and herb butter. Unfortunately the food looked so amazing we swallowed it hole before either of us remembered my annoying habit of taking photos of food :/
 



I did how ever take a photo of the Menu

The third and last time, we ordered pizza... HOLY MOLY! I have never quite eaten such a tasty pizza with such yummy toppings, not even my home made ones...

 

Salami, mushrooms, olives, peppers and onions
 



Gran was slightly shocked at the size of her pizza and convinced they sent her a large instead of a medium. I jokingly suggested she just measure it... So she did. It was big, but it was medium :) I was happy because I had left overs.

 

As if lunch was all... We are also firm believers in tea time. Not just tea time, but actually tea and snack time... Tea and sweet snacks to be exact. Or coffee and sweet snacks for that matter.

 

We have eaten every variety of bought pastries and tartlets, as well as at least 10kgs of strawberries, but on the odd day where we thought the kitchen looked inviting we also baked...

Lemon Meringue Cuppy Cakes with Marzipan Roses and White Chocolate Shards

 

I've created the worlds youngest, and greatest cupcake fan :)

Because he was such a great fan, he got his own Teddy Bear





Super excited about his very own "African" Snake cupcake

Chocolate Brownies as per request :)

Recipe?? Check out the video ;)

CHOCOLATE BROWNIES

 

Cheese cake and ice coffee :)
 

 

Antique coffee shop where everything was for sale, and nothing matched

 

Let's not forget the tiny little Ice-Cream's we reward ourselves with after a 20km cycle...

 

Yes... That is what you think it is! Toblerone :)

And all the drinking... Punches and Hugo's and Beer... LOTS OF BEER... and Wine in 1l bottles and Liquorschens and and and...

Our Sangrea

 

All this, and the real adventure hasn't even begun. On Wednesday I am off to France, Bordeaux to be a little more specific, to spend the summer working at a Chateaux... Yes, summer. I am missing the miserable winter back home to have a year long summer. Man, I love my European passport.