chattius

holy -> Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation Wetzlar was the place of the empire's highest court. To be neutral Wetzlar was a free town. Goethe was an apprentice at he court. I had the bad luck (but only because of Goethe, town is beutiful) to be born in Wetzlar. I remember a train travel when I was 17. In my compartment with 6 seats were 4 girls from UK. They asked me where I would be from. Wetzlar Oh the sufferings of young Werter from Goethe - lot of quotes Actually Goethe hated Wetzlar Oh, why? Small streets with no canalisation. When he woke up late and walking to the court he always had to avoid waste from night pots raining from above on the streets... I bet nobody told it to them at school. Houses used to be bigger towards the top so you could pour water out without hitting the walls below. Street is to the old Lahn river bridge, path to the old city walls.

(Town)people are so used to a working internet. But if it is countryside it means radio and not wire. So it is necessary to have either a paper map or that you have a map tool which allows to store a map so you can use it in time of no internet access (storm). Second if you do a tour, don't calculate in distances - use time. If you have 4 hours: cycling with 30km/h with the wind and only 10km/h against it you should start driving home after an hour. They did both wrong.

We had a very quick change from bright sunlight to a thunderstorm with lots of rain. We were surprised when 4 families on a bicycle tour were ringing at 8pm at our lonely house in the forest. Storm prevented using navigation systems. They were totally lost, wet and frozen. Using all our towels and some clothes for the kids of them. Heated the field kitchen for a ghoulash soup. Used the team car of firefighters three times to drive them home, last after midnight. Bicycles are still at our place. We have unexspected guests around two times a year. Could have been worse for them.

Asparagus season runs second april week till rd week in june here in germany. Hop sprouds end of march till end of april. So yes, asparagus is cheaper here now and tastes better in my opinion because fresher, less transport, less storing. I prefer food when it is in season. But without a garden and farmers around, don't know.

We have wild hop around. It is season for hop shoots/sprouts. They can be used like asparagus. It was a cheap food for hop farmers. Too many hop shoots on a plant resulted in many but weak twigs. So only three were left on a plant. The shoots made a nice food. Today with cooling and faster transport hop shoots made it to noble restaurants and are really expensive. My wife will do trout with sprouts. Trout from rivelet, sprouts from wild hop near house. https://www.gone71.com/hop-shoots-hop-asparagus-humulus-lupulus-recipe/

I have to correct me. Over all the years we bought LEGO for around 4000€ for our kids. Robot, hydraulics, sensors,... Starting with our second Lego was used by school for different projects. Twins say they build a robot dog for a few says as it was on the manual. But they needed the parts for a maze solver robot for school. I was on a busniness meeting in Paris when the short lived dog was running.

king -> fisher Our wasterwater is filtered in a pond. There is a pair of Kingfisher having nestlings and they are very busy bringing food.

Marvelous -> fabulous The Fab 4, the Beatles I am best with the tuba. But with a guitar, my older sister taught it to me with a lot of 'Norwegian wood'...

Neither vampire nor werewolf. We are too friendly. Driving home the kids from a handball match we saw a snake warming up on the street. I stopped with warning lights, I made hand signs to the traffic and it took 10 seconds for my son to catch it and placing it in a box. Traffic stood still for some more minutes because everyone was wanting to see the snake. Released it near a pond. Ringelnatter because of the yellow ribbon behind the head. English is ringed snake.

Tarzan was our first Leonberger. Our oldest leaned walking while holding its fur, learned swimming while lying on his back. When we worked on our house, Tarzan was guarding her... Trained water rescue dog I think it will take some more decades till I trust into a robot dog to do the same for my then grandgrandchilds. In my opinion robot animals (which I know) are for the age group between mid-teen till family with yet no kids. We have two ecosphere and 3 baiosphere for having animals and plants with no need to care for them, Closed systems, selfsupporting.

Normally we paint easter eggs saturday, family meeting sunday with an ending at the easter fire by firefighters of 5 villages mid between them on a hill.

Just in time for Easter: Chicks leaving the eggs. Put most eggs in a breeding machine to have control over the time. Extented family with some young kids will come. So little chicks, coloring eggs in ant-hills, ... Think the eggs (added some fake eggs) in the nest with the hen will be ready easter monday. Prefer the chicks being raised with a mother hen. We have Deutsche Sperber (german sparrowhawk hens). Quite robust and can live outside, even hunting mice and such. Roosters can even fight with some success against fox and birds of prey.

Oppenheimer -> Hanau Lived there for 6 month when a teen. Oppenheimer's father was born in Hanau. Same as the Brother Grimm or Franziscus Sylvus (invented genever/gin)

black hole -> Karl Schwarzschild Did the early work on black holes and the event horizon. Died way to early on a disease he got while calculating artillery shooting at the russian frontier.

vending machine -> harvest yourself Some farmers around us have fields where you can harvest yourself. No control, just a moneybox in a heavy concrete block. Pumpkins, sunflowers, strawberries, ....