On Sunday, I attended the Stiftskirche here while B headed south to play lacrosse. We were both pretty sore and miserable after covering a full 32 km/20 miles Saturday evening. We ran from Tübingen to Unterjesingen, to Pfäffingen, to Poltringen, to Wurmlingen, to Rottenburg am Neckar, to Hirschau, and back here. Although I got totally exhausted, and B ended up trying to steal apples from trees to sate his hunger, it was a lovely way to get a sense of the countryside. According to all the weather reports, we are coming to the end of the summery fall weather we've been enjoying, but the beautiful weather has been bringing out people in droves. Our run through Rottenburg was complemented by the presence of medieval knights celebrating medieval week in full dress.

While my Sunday was a restful recovery day, B headed three hours away to play lacrosse with his old team. They won both their games by a substantial margin, but he hasn't stopped moaning and groaning since. Last night, he was even doing it in his sleep, until I (mostly asleep also) tearily begged him to stop so I could get some rest! We both break out in longing exclamations whenever we see a bed larger than the narrow pallet that serves us on more or less alternate nights. We've even started imagining that a full-size bed might be large enough, while back in the US, a king-size was the minimum we could handle.

This evening we headed into the Altstadt to hunt for a grater. Ever since returning from this summer's trip, my favorite meal has been som tam (green papaya salad) and tom yum (spicy sour soup with mushrooms or similar). However, green papayas are quite expensive in Europe. In Norway, we paid 11 Euros for two, while here, the going rate is 1.30 Euros for 100 grams (a large papaya is about 500g). An unorthodox solution, albeit delicious, turns out to be buying very unripe papayas at the local supermarket (YES! there is one!! Right next to the historic nuns' house!!!), which cost 1 Euro each, and using those instead. However. The kitchen, to dignify it with an undeserved name, that we are currently using, does not include a grater. The other day, I made papaya/cucumber salad with a peeler, but it took about an hour and my hand was cramping for some time afterward. So, grater needed. Did everyone but me know that graters can cost over 50 Euros easily? Of course, the Altstadt tends expensive, but that is pretty out of control. Especially when the Verkäuferinnen give you evil looks for not wanting to spend that much! We did find a cheaper one eventually, and just gorged on papaya-cucumber-lime-lemon-habanero salad. Thankfully, the Asian market is just around the corner.

Everytime we go somewhere, we decide just to walk by the new place to look at it. Even though showering in the kitchen and using the bathroom in the room that leads to the attic will be somewhat inconvenient, and we'll miss the cable TV with 42 channels that has been keeping us updated on all soccer events (hello, Mourinho!! and will Klinsi be hired?), we cannot wait to be able to shut the door on each other. Our landlady was wondering how that can be such a necessity after only six months of marriage. Perhaps the camping mattress has something to do with it?