Thrifting

I left the house in an effort to go to a used furniture store in Böblingen and possibly the Flohmarkt in Stuttgart if I got that motivated... Butch stayed home because he didn't feel good and claimed it was going to rain.  Well, duh, it IS Germany...it's going to rain a lot here!  Me?  I Was going OUT.

I got in the car and was headed to Boblingen when I saw the signs for a Flohmarkt right off the freeway... so I stopped!  Of course.  VERY small one as it was yucky weather.. but I found these:

 They were both marked with artist and name of the piece as well as the number of the item.  I don't think they are worth anything... the guy who had them at his booth asked for Euro 20 - meh, not for that!!  So he asked what I would give him... I said "10" and he said yes, then tried to counter for 15... nope, you had already said you would take 10, we're going with 10.  I had thought they would be worth 5 each... at most... so I was happy with the purchase and went on my way :)

 I cleaned the frames (they were filthy) and touched up a few of the spots where they had been knocked around and lost their color and hung them on the wall.  I think they look good there... what do you think?  They go well with the curtains up there as well :)

Looking at them in this pictures I may have to flip them top and bottom and put the one with the tree lower... just seems a bit more fitting... we'll see if I care that much.

So after my trip out to the Flohmarkt I did try to find that store... it's downtown in a hard to get to area where there was little to no parking... so I circled once, couldn't find it, circled again, found about where it was... then went to park only to discover I had NO coins to pay for parking... so I simply backed out and went on my way.  I went to the base...only to realize that the commissary on Panzer is closed on the weekend.  grrrr... so I drove BACK out and headed to Patch (it's only 15-20 minutes down the road... ) and decided I was hungry and I wanted nacho's from Taco Bell... sometimes you just have to have a bit of home.  I DID try to go to the thrift store there as well, but it's only open the 1st and 3rd Saturday... and it's the 2nd.  Sigh.  NO more thrifting from me.... so I got Taco Bell, went to the commissary and headed back to the house.

I got home, cleaned up the pictures, put away groceries and promptly took a LONG nap  What a lazy Saturday.

Last day of TDY

We went out with a bang.  The Una Hotel had a rooftop buffet breakfast that is not your normal buffet.  you order what you want and you order as much as you want all for Euro 25.00

 Awesome selections... I tried quite a bit but the one thing on the Savory side that actually desereved a picture was the rice balls with Squid ink.  Really stained the plate but not the teeth... it wasn't a fishy taste nor a taste at all really - just a deep fried cheese and rice ball.  Quite interesting  the other was the ragu based one... it definitely had a tomato taste to it however both were quite tasty.

AND with that it was time to get on a plane and head on home.  The sad thing is that I was in the  middle seat, the good thing is I was in a comfort seat so there was leg room.  That was nice.  Either way I napped all the way home - thank goodness for head rests that have the wings :)

And now it's back to business as usual.

Day two - Catania

Work took us through later in the afternoon today, but that's OK there was still more than enough daylight between when we quit work and when kitchens open here... so we took the 'Back" way out of base to repeat what we had seen the day prior with the following: 

Wild flowers abound in the spring.

 There is a red lichen in there with a single catcuts... aquaducts of old... filled with cacti.  What a juxtaposition....

 

 distance shot for reference...with Mount Etna in the back ground...  VERY LARGE nest...

 The day prior we were able to see  baby storks heads sticking above the edge of the nest... today, they were a bit shyer.  AND it's on a fairly busy road so impossible to really have a spot to pull off and get a picture... there were no true pull offs, so I just pulled over and snapped a few shots out our windows.  HUGE birds.  NOW I know why they thought they could carry babies for delivery...

 these flowers were outside my window while waiting to cross this bridge:

Back in town we discovered we would have enough time to walk up to the castle and get some pictures and tour the museum.  It was a wet rainy walk.. but as luck would have it where I was NOT prepared for cold weather, I WAS prepared for wet as I had a poncho in my purse.  Yep, I have been carrying that folding poncho in my purse for heaven knows how long and I put it to good use on the walk to the castle.  Hind sight being what it is I could have used that poncho for a wind break on the mountain... whoops!!  ha!

 why pictures of ceilings?  I'm amazed in the 1500's that they had the technology to erect such ceilings and how well they have stood the test of time. 

Also this castle was on the water front unil there was an eruption and lava flowed around it.. making it about a mile from the sea, but not touching the actual castle itself.  Amazing.

Art work... this one isn't crooked, I just couldn't get the panorama working right...

We also had a chance to tour a chapel while walking back into town...

 AND some snacking while having a drink and watching people go by.


Then off to the "twinkly alley" for dinner...

 SHE ASS meatballs... hahahahaaha!  I didn't get them, but it made me chuckle

 And because when you go to the potty, look up and see a MONKEY holding a light, you HAVE to take a picture - ha!!  I did comment to my co-workes that this was NOT the place to get drunk - good LORD look at those tiles on the floor!!!  urp!!!   *I was not drinking at this point, just pointing out that floor is quite scary!!

I guess the food was NOT impressive for this part of the trip - and it wasn't really... it was pizzas a lot of the time... I didn't take pictures because I was either hungry or they simply were NOT that impressive by now... it was just food... nothing to (literally) write home about! 

Day whatever... first day in Catania

 this is actually what I picked up at the airport - no price difference, so it was a win/win in a way.

these are all BACKWARDS....
ugh... so it ends the day?  I don't know... the road sides are full of wild flowers right now, but honestly it's just going to be overgrown weeds in time.  What is shocking about Sicily is that it has the potential to be SO pretty, but is SO dirty.  They have no streetside pickup for garbage, the freeways are very poorly maintained and when we were driving to the base the off ramp looked like a week covered path more than an official off ramp to the freeway...seriously the weeds were encroaching on the road on all sides.  There were times on the freeway where there was a tree sprouting from the cracks of the overpass that were at least two/three inches thick at the trunk.  SO obviously they don't maintain much.  Sad too.  Driving the beach road was shocking too - it was very dirty and the places that WERE open still looked like they were falling down and third world level - the ones across the street from the beachside?  Falling down and closed and gated off.  VERY depressed economy there for sure... but it has such potential....

BUT it was pretty and we did see quite a bit.

 and we got off early due to real world efforts keeping us from doing our job on the first day - we went, we tried, we talked to those who weren't running around like chickens with their heads cut off.  we went to get coffee to wait to talk to a third party who MAY have time to talk with us... he did not, and then were nicely told that they simply did NOT have time to work with us and could we come back tomorrow?  Uh, yeah!!

So we took the opportunity to sight see and go to Mount Etna - totally unplanned and I need to get a light jacket like Meagan has as it's a wind breaker/rain jacket and has a hood built in to be super helpful in times like these... BUT I am fat and have a lot of warmth built into me...thank goodness as I was wearing slip ons and a sweater but I was determined to DO THIS... shoot, we were there, let's see what we can see!!  So we did.

 Gondola to the mid way...

 Then bus to the top... well, close to the top.

 those are clouds blocking the view.. thank goodness HE can see where he is going... sort of.

 steam from the hills - one would think that much steam it would be warm...
NOPE!!!
Average temperatures are 37 in the full day...   You'll see the misery on my face as you progress!

 snow melt and my LOVELY non-existent shoes... but remarkably (or maybe not so remarkably) my toes were NOT cold... my fingers were another thing... but my toes were fine.

Dirty snow and a steaming Mount Etna in the background.

 vent hole from 2003 - it is slow magma so creates basalt (glass) and these won't reopen - they typically open down slope or further away...

 our guide is the man in the red.

 QUITE a bit more cloud on the way down than the way up.  Visibility was very poor going down.

 Looking rather "Mars" like through the old tint on the gondola LOL

After we made it back down we went for a hearty and warm lunch.

 Needless to say I did NOT eat all of that... the long skinny things I ate 1 and a half, the meat ball with cheese I ate all of it and a few bites of the pork chop... and the french fries were the bomb!

 I chose the Palombe thinking that it would be smaller sample sizes as it was the same cost as the pastas... things being equal one would think it would be tiny - NOPE.

 The shopping center that was in clear skies and had a view most of the way to the coast when we got there... there was NO view from here now!!  AND the parking lot was chuck full when we got there and had emptied out quite a bit by the time we left as it was late in the afternoon - those hiking had probably gone up early but we didn't have that option.  Oh, well, we DID get to go, so I'm happy with that!

I love the little peeks you get down alley of beautiful homes and gardens.  Here you would see some fabulous courtyards as well.. there were a few we would step into the entry and look at them... I think that was more more... I'm nosey!

 The twinkly alley with the good food :)

 So... what did I eat besides that HUGE lunch at Mount Etna?  we met with our other co-worker and I had some Bruschetta (toast with tomato) for dinner and that was it... oh and the obligatory gelato on the walk home. 

Spain had kitchens opening at 8pm.  Sicily had kitchens opening at 7pm.  better but not conducive to American work schedules.