Jim & Loraine Head to Germany: Ice Ice Baby

We made it. It wasn't the most perfect example of cross-Atlantic travel, but we made it.

Greetings from Leipzig where, after 48 hours in airplanes, airports, trains, subways, security screenings, and that special eighth circle of hell known as Heathrow Airport, we are finally in the city we'd visited three and a half years ago and had hoped to return to in April of 2020.

You know what happened in April of 2020, right?

Anyway, we finally got into Germany at 9 o'clock last night after spending nine hours stuck at Heathrow because our original flight to Berlin was one of over 10,000 British Airways canceled a few months ago because--and I'm not joking here--the airport was so overtaxed this summer and workers lost so much luggage that one American airline actually had to fly a plane back to the US with nothing BUT lost luggage in it.

Don't believe me?

Thankfully, our luggage wasn't lost, and just a mere 90 minutes behind schedule we arrived in Berlin last night, slept a few hours, and then hopped on an ICE train, one of the wonders of Modern Germany-

Where, just over an hour later, we ended up an 150 miles away in Leipzig, home to one of the most unique looking universities on the planet-

Leipzig is one of the coolest places in this country, offering Ukrainian refuges a place to stay

And Loraine a visit to her holy place, the RB Leipzig fan shop--

Believe it or not, we didn't buy too much there, although we did stock up on everything we may need for the match we're attending on Saturday. But more on that later.

While Leipzig is a great place, today wasn't the best weather day we've had here (I mean, it was 50 and occasionally raining) but we made do by visiting some of our favorite stores in search of chocolate, yummy goodies, and even more chocolate. However, I would like to speak with Leipzig's manager, because one of the things I had looked forward to purchasing here was a 2023 cow calendar. Every time we've come to Europe I've tried to find a calendar featuring those animals I (for some strange reason) so like, but you know what? We visited five bookstores (like I said, it's a university city, so there are a LOT of bookstores) but you know what I couldn't find?

A cow calendar

Oh, you could find cat calendars, dog calendars, horse calendars, squirrel calendars, wolf calendars, penguin calendars, koala calendars, kangaroo calendars, and even pig calendars. In fact, one bookstore had a shelf full of nothing but animal calendars--

But a cow calendar? Nope. Zip. Zilch. Nada. There were plenty of castle calendars, lots of calendars with beauty shots of Leipzig, and even a couple of calendars with topless women and train cars (which, apparently, is a thing around here). But one single calendar with cows?

Leipzig. You disappointed me.

8-)

We did, however, find a beer that we had been searching for since the Before Times, a cherry flavored version of an adult beverage Loraine likes-

And even I, an admittedly non-avid beer drinker, enjoyed it, especially with the Indian food we got from our favorite takeout place just down the street.

So in that respect, today was a good day.

A few random thoughts, observations, and pictures--

If you think gas prices are still a little high, take a look at this sign-

Now please don't think to yourself "that's not too bad", because those are prices in liters. There are approximately four liters to a gallon. And with the dollar and the Euro about the same in value, that means that Germans pay about eight dollars a gallon for gas.

See? $3.84 doesn't seem so high in comparison, does it?

However, while gas prices are bad here, food prices (which have hit the US hard) really aren't too bad over here. Most things we picked up today were around the same price as they were in 2019; in fact, we got all this for seven Euro--