cheddar: the finest of all cheeses.

Ok, so it's probably not, but it is SO nice to get a fix every now and then. I finally found a store near our house that carries this amazing white cheddar that our friend Jen introduced us to, HOORAY! And now we're having it on Mexican food for dinner. Yessssss. (FYI, the Swiss and French--and, I'm sure, to some extent, the rest of Europe--look down all their respective noses at our humble American cheddar...they think it's pedestrian, at best. So finding a good cheddar here is fairly exciting, and fairly rare!)

In other news, Tuesday our 8th anniversary, so Mike and I went out to dinner at this small-ish Asian place called Anthony's Kitchen. Their menu--and gimmick--is fairly simple: you either choose the multi-course surprise menu; you select your meat and they surprise you with appetizers and desserts; or you just order the meat. Naturally, we went for the all-surprise menu, and BOY was it tasty. Maybe not the fanciest food we've ever had, but quite solidly good, and the waitress was absolutely delightful (and English-speaking, wooo!). The first starter was a papaya salad with tomatoes, onions, and some sort of fishy flavor; next came the fantastic spring rolls with three sauces and candied ginger; then the dim sum dumplings (chicken, pork, and shrimp); then the fish dish (no idea what fish it was, but it was nice and white and well cooked and floating in this delicious broth with onions and carrots); then the meat dish (cubed beef in a tamarind sauce); and, finally, dessert: fresh diced mangoes in mango sorbet. YUM. Here are the two photos I actually remembered to take.

DIM SUM!! 

Fish dish. Fish dish. Fish dish.

In conclusion, a lovel dinner on a lovely little outdoor patio with a lovely waitress. A nice anniversary, indeed.  :)

Next up: Germany! Freiburg, to be exact. A little off the beaten path, to be sure, but quite charming. We made another one of our lightning-fast, overnight trips to a town not so far away, but this time on the bike. Wooo! I am so glad we bought that thing: it opens up all kinds of travel possibilities for us, not the least of which is being able to avoid the tourist hordes in places that are more accessible by mass transit. But I digress. Freiburg. A nifty little college town, right on the edge of the Black Forest, supposedly the most environmentally friendly town in Germany, with an OLD cathedral (dating back to the 1200s, probably). We meandered around the city, had a hearty south German meal (fresh local fish, Black Forest ham with apples, really good grainy bread, pork chops with black pepper gravy) at some cute little restaurant off of a street garlanded with wisteria, and had a generally relaxed and interesting time.

A neat feature of Freiburg: lots of the main pedestrian streets have these little man-made canals? brooks? running through them. Very cool.

Giant sandstone cathedral. Naturally, the spire was under construction when we visited.

Square around the cathedral.

If I'm not mistaken, this inscription dates to 1295. Seriously. The date is the only part I can read.

The entrance to the cathedral--lots of carved statues and arches and doors and things.

They had some amazing stained-glass windows. Really beautiful.

I love gargoyles, and this place had some doozies. (I chose not to post the slightly more lewd ones...)

One of the big tower-gates, under which the city's trams drive. (A few cars, too.)

I love these iron signs...they seem to be all over Switzerland and Germany. (I'm sure they're elsewhere, too...I JUST HAVEN'T BEEN THERE YET.)

You, too, can venture all the way to Germany to buy Native American jewelry. Awesome.

This building was some sort of cloisters, and then the seat of the Archdiocese. And it was all carve-y.

And it had these amazing green doors...

...with these doorknockers. I want them for my house in Denver.

The pedestrian streets also had these cool pebbly inlays: most were just random patterns, but here, a pretzel.

And beer. It is Germany, after all.

Pretty building. There were a handful of these painted ones scattered around, and they were ALL beautiful.

A sign that makes Mike truly happy. I just like the illustration at the bottom.

In the beer garden. It was quite lovely.

The other big tower-gate. The Golden Arches are sadly ubiquitous in Europe. (Why couldn't we have exported the good fast food, like Taco Bell or Wendy's? Or even Arby's? Good Times? Sonic, for crying out loud!)

Pretty river running through.

This mural wraps around the building corner. I thought it was pretty hilarious.

How European is this? They have a castle on their sewer covers.

If your'e going to have bars on your windows, this is the way to go.

Two cappuccinos, two delicious and fresh sandwiches, and one slice of Black Forest cake, all for the bargain price of 11 Euros. It's true: everywhere is cheaper than Zurich.

Just...pretty.

I liked this town. Plus, it was full of really interesting jewelry stores that were all closed for a holiday, so we may have to go back... and also maybe to eat more of that cake. :)