Trippstadt "Hike"

About a month or so ago, Todd and I were fortunate enough to be invited to go hiking with our neighbors Freddy, Beate, and their son.  (Really they saved us from a pointless trip to the BX.)  So we all loaded up in Freddy's wagon and headed to Trippstadt.  For those of you who don't know or haven't seen the pictures we were lucky enough to find a house surrounded by the woods (German word = Wald pronounced with a "V").  Trippstadt is only about 10 or 11 km away and it has a pleothora of hiking trails.  Now back to the story ...

The hike we did started at one place and ended at another.  Freddy & family had already planned to do the hike with another family, so we actually go to meet some new people!   After the cars were put in place we were off!  The hike overall was pretty much a leisurely walk without any difficulty.  Todd and I cherished the opportunity to meet, talk with, and hopefully make friends with more germans living in a little tow.  We didn't really see too much on this hike, but we did see an old cave that I think was used as a burial site of some sort (Todd disagrees) and some swans (with their wings clipped) that were swimming with giant goldfish.

We finally reached what I consider to be the best part of the "hike" - this tiny little run down shack.  This happens to be a pretty happening place considering its in the middle of the woods and its a tiny run down shack not to mention it was also a Sunday.   Turns out this place has a small trout farm.  After Freddy's recommendation Todd and I both get our very own fish to eat.   Now I know what you are thinking ... geez, I hope this doesn't turn out to be like their fish eating adventure in Luxembourg!!  Well, this was in fact way different, and way better!!   If you want you can pick out your own trout, then its seasoned with paprika, and wrapped in aluminum foil (whole).  After about 15 minutes on top of an open fire pit/grill thing the fish is served .... whole (skin and all) with a basket of bread to share.  I will be the first to admit that even though I LOVE to eat fish, I don't really like to touch it.   Needless to say I had a difficult time skinning the little booger without touching it.   But, after some help skinning and de-boning (is that a word?) from many different people I ate the fish with great pleasure!  It was without a doubt the best fish I've had since moving to Germany.  Even just using the paprika as seasoning was awesome!

After lunch we continued our "hike".   Shortly after starting back on the trail Freddy said he needed to lighten his pack.  He then proceeded to pull out 3 beers and a full bottle of wine.   It was at this point I realized this wasn't going to be much in the way of exercise!

Betina, Beate, and I 

We eventually got to the end of the "hike" only to be at a restaurant.   Todd and I both caved to peer pressure and ordered more food we everyone else.

I can say for a fact I've never eaten more calories on a hike than I've burned until now.  But, it was an awesome day and it taught us to always say "yes" to Freddy!