Bikes, Beers, & BBQ

Guten tag, Kate here!

It’s another busy week here in Germany. I wanted to drop a quick note about the events of the week thus far.

On Sunday, Kenne and I decided to check out the Lauter Valley Bike Ride. The event shuts down a 31 kilometer stretch of federal street B270 between Kaiserslautern and Lauterecken. There are lots of stops along the way with music, food, and, of course, beer. We hopped on our bikes and off we went! We didn’t do the whole 31K, but it was certainly a good workout for this girl.

Tuesday night, we were invited to the open house of a local restaurant that just opened within walking distance of where we live. The new place is called Heimspiel, which translates to ‘Home Game.” Very appropriate since the restaurant’s patio is adjacent to the Rodenbach soccer team’s home field.

We checked out Heimspiel for the first time a few weeks ago. We couldn’t decide what to order for dinner, so being the adventurous couple we are, we said ‘surprise us.’ This is what we got:

So other than enormous plates of food, you’re probably thinking ‘What’s so special about this place?’ I’ll tell you. The owner, Timo. He is so friendly and hospitable – a pleasant change from some of the other places we’ve visited here. He makes us feel welcome and at home, much like our favorite place back in Indy – Chef Joseph’s at the Connoisseur Room (miss you John, Tom, Chef, Sara, Sammy, and gang!). On Thursdays, Timo fires up his smoker out back and features a special for the day. We’ve gotten to sample his ribs and pulled pork, yum!.

So, back to the open house. It was a flying buffet – in other words, passed hors d’oeuvres. Here are a few pictures of the pulled pork and roast beef: