Recap: Return to Barcelona Part 2 - Food

Recap: Return to Barcelona Part 2 - Food

We saw, did, and ate so much in Barcelona that I've had to split my recap into two parts. In Part 1 I talked about everything that we saw and did in the city, including our tasty cooking class with Espai Boisà and our tapas tour with taste Barcelona. In this part, I'll give you my recommendations for places to eat. 

It wasn't hard to make this list. We had so many good meals in Barcelona, that I'm actually a little sad to be back in Germany. The ability to taste so many small plates of tapas really fit with my indecisiveness and love of many different flavors. In fact, we spent the day before our return simply walking around the city and moving from one great tapas bar to another. It was a nice end to our vacation..

Recap: Return to Barcelona Part 1 - Sights and Activities

Recap: Return to Barcelona Part 1 - Sights and Activities

Matt and I celebrate our five-year anniversary this November (yay!), and so to mark the occasion, we decided to spend my fall break this past week in Barcelona, the city where we began our honeymoon. Everything was amazing -- the food, the weather, the sights -- and so I wanted to share some of our favorite sights and bites should you decide to go on a Barcelona trip of your own in the future.

Getting There and Around

Stuttgart offers direct flights to Barcelona, so getting there was very easy. We simply took the S-bahn to the airport from Stuttgart's main station and after a two-hour flight arrived in sunny Barcelona (which was a stark contrast to our already cold, grey Germany). To get from the Barcelona airport into the city, we took the Aerobús, which left the airport every 10 minutes and conveniently dropped us off in the center of Plaça de Catalunya for just 5,90€ one-way...

Upcoming Festivals and Events in November/December 2014

Upcoming Festivals and Events in November/December 2014

Following my last post about events in September/October, here is the next installment of my attempt to share some upcoming culinary happenings in and around Stuttgart.

Winter is a busy time for Germany as all of the Christmas markets roll out in full pomp. I know that the stereotype is to visit Germany (and specifically Munich) for the Oktoberfest, but really the Christmas markets with their candied nuts, wooden toys and nutcrackers, and glühwein (mulled wine) are really what you should visit for. 

So get ready for the Christmas season and look forward to these events coming up in November and December...

Bringing the Restaurant Home with Laxmy

Bringing the Restaurant Home with Laxmy

On nights when we come home and neither one of us feels like cooking, there are a few restaurants from which we can order delivery and still be sure to get a good meal. One of those places is Angelo's Pizza Taxi, but pizza can get old after a while. And so to add some variety to our idleness, we often turn to another favorite: Indian food from Laxmy. 

On principle, I do not like to order food that I can make myself. However, as well as I've been able to perfect the one chicken curry dish that I make, nothing can top the hours-long preparation of authentic Indian cuisine. And so, I prefer to order my Indian food from Laxmy, which, after several disappointing visits to Indian restaurants in the area, we've found to be the best Indian in Stuttgart...

The Liebster Award 2014

The Liebster Award 2014

It seems I've been nominated for a Liebster Award (thank you, Ami in Schwabenland)! To be honest, I really had no idea what this was until my nomination. A little digging around online suggested that the award is of dubious origins, thought it all seems rather harmless. 

Basically someone nominates you for being a small blog that they like (liebster means beloved in German), and you have to answer their questions and then nominate another five bloggers using your own 5-10 questions. I liked one description that I read about it being a cross between chain mail and a love letter. 

I really don't much like these sorts of things on Facebook, but I am very flattered to have been nominated my someone who likes my blog and is a reader besides my close friends. I also like having this opportunity to nominate and share with you some of the other expat blogs that I've been reading and enjoying lately...

Gemütlichkeit at the Cannstatter Volksfest

Gemütlichkeit at the Cannstatter Volksfest

Every year Stuttgart celebrates the change of season from summer to fall with a trip to the Cannstatter Volksfest. Colloquially called the "Wasen" (so named for the fair grounds on which the event is located), it's the second largest beer festival in the world after Munich's Oktoberfest. There are carnival games and rides, as well as plenty of food stands and beer tents in which you can order a mug of beer and sing off-key to a combination of traditional German beer-drinking songs and old American rock music. 

This past year the Wasen was held from September 26th to October 12th. I make it a point to go to the Wasen at least once or twice with friends. It's a fun evening, and I need a reason to wear my dirndl, a type of traditional dress in southern Germany...

Recap: A Weekend in Arnhem

Recap: A Weekend in Arnhem

While I feel like I've been working nonstop for the past two weeks, my current exhaustion is well worth it since I got to spend the past long weekend in Arnhem. It's one of the many perks of my day job that I get to travel on school trips when the kids need chaperoning! I've been to Arnhem, which is just across the German border in the Netherlands, twice over the past couple of years on school trips. You may recognize the city for the battle that took place there during World War II and that was dramatized in the 1977 film A Bridge Too Far. 

Despite the historical significance of the city, I'm not sure I'd make a trip just to Arnhem on my own unless I was already in the neighborhood. Still, I've enjoyed my time there on both occasions. The city is small, and has some beautiful examples of the typical Dutch architecture with its long, slender row homes. I also appreciate the variety and quality of the restaurants and shopping in Arnhem, which always seem to offer so much more than Stuttgart. 

These Are a Few of My Favorite Things at the Ludwigsburg Pumpkin Festival

These Are a Few of My Favorite Things at the Ludwigsburg Pumpkin Festival

One of my favorite festivals of the year has got to be the Ludwigsburg Pumpkin Festival. I'm just wild about pumpkins -- our wedding cake was even pumpkin flavored -- and this festival is completely dedicated to them. 

I remember our first fall in Stuttgart when we attended the festival for the first time. I was amazed how such a quirky event had become a staple here. The stately Ludwigsburg palace gardens were completely transformed into a wonderland of gourds, with fantastic shapes and carvings, all with the theme of Switzerland. We got to see the Swiss Alps of pumpkins, a Swiss army knife, and even a Swiss Alpine man blowing a horn made out of pumpkins. 

The following year we returned again, to the theme of the Olympics. We saw pumpkin skiers, pumpkin torch bearers, and pumpkin bobsledders.

This year, in keeping with our tradition, we returned to see the Royal theme...

A Treasure Trove of History at the Ludwigsburg Antiques-Mile

A Treasure Trove of History at the Ludwigsburg Antiques-Mile

This past weekend Ludwigsburg hosted their annual Antiques-Mile. During this event, the market square was filled with dozens, if not a hundred of stalls, all manned by local antique merchants selling a selection of their wares. You could find everything there, from record players to typewriters, kitchen ware to linens. 

While this event is not exactly food-related, I felt it worth a mention because you can find lots of great food-related antiques. I loved seeing old cookie cutters, measuring cups, bread boxes, silverware, and glasses. This was definitely the place to go if you're looking for something special for your home...

Checking Out the Czech Beer Festival

Checking Out the Czech Beer Festival

Last week after blogging about upcoming events in the Stuttgart area, a fellow blogger alerted me to a Tschechisches Bierfestival happening over on Kronprinzplatz, just off of Stuttgart's main shopping street, the Königstraße. Matt and I very much enjoyed our trip to Prague in the Czech Republic last spring, and so we decided to make it a point to check out the festival. 

While out with friends on Friday, we made our way over to Kronprinzplatz to see what the festival was all about. The company sponsoring the festival had set up a huge, though rather plain-looking, tent in the middle of the square. According to the company's website, they aim for a "rustic-style" which could be seen in the traditional(looking) outfits worn by the Czech-speaking servers, the large murals showing beer-hall scenes on the tent ceiling, and the rows and rows of beer tables draped in clothes from the Czech brewery on tap...