Bostalsee - July 29th

So this morning I woke up to more rainy weather. This was especially a bummer since today Werner and I had planned to travel to a nearby lake with a friend of his that he met in the American-German military social group. His friend’s name is Steve and he and his family are original from Oregon, but have been living here in Germany for the past two years. Steve’s wife’s name is Terri and their son’s name is Thomas, who is 12 years old. Together we drove to the Bostalsee which is about an hour West of Mainz near Kaiserslautern. The lake is man made and pretty small, but large enough to use sail boats and motor boats. In sunny weather I am sure the lake is spectacular, since I saw several beaches, volleyball nets, and camp grounds. Unfortunately in the rain, it was a bit dismal. Despite the rain we took a boat ride around the lake’s perimeter which took about 40 minutes or so.

After the boat ride we had lunch in the lake’s main town at a small restaurant. I forget the exact name of what I had, but it was the special of the day and also a typical meal of the region. Pretty much it was a giant Knoedel stuffed with meat and served with sauerkraut and a brown sauce. In my opinion it was a little piece of heaven, and I think most Germans would agree. After lunch we walked around the local Flohmarket or flee/antique market, but the weather was too grim to really enjoy what the market had to offer. We then returned to the lake to check out the festival that was going on, and ended up watching a choir of retired navy men lots of typical German songs. Werner sings in a retired police choir, so naturally he knew all the songs being sung, whereas I knew about none. The event was held in a great big tent with lots of tables and benches. It reminded me of what I have seen in pictures of other German festivals, and got me very excited for October Fest. I cannot wait to go to Munich for the celebrations!!