6 Germany – Free Time in Ulm
WARNING: The following blog contain scenes of extreme boardgame fanaticism. Reader discretion is advised.
I woke up early this day, around 8:30am. Dietmar was surprised to see me up that early.
I had eggs and Baileys again for breakfast. Not together, but that would be something I’d be up for trying.
Today was a day that Dietmar and Sara had to get some errands done for the wedding, so we had free time. We decided to spend it in Ulm, where the game store was.
The train ride to Ulm was quick and easy. The automated machines had an english button, but we couldn’t figure out how to change it to a kid’s fare. So Ekko was six years old this day, which made her free.
Most of the day involved exploring the city, and taking pictures of flowers. Not by me of course. Keren was in charge of the camera, so there isn’t much in this bunch except for plants. However, there are a few of the children, and also the pics I requested.
I was excited, because I had done some research on games, and knew which ones to buy. We stopped off in an all purpose store, called Müller, and they all had German games! Well, of course they had german boardgames, it IS Germany after all, but all these games are considered mainstream! They are there in the boardgame section as readily available as Monopoly and Clue in north america.
The games I wanted were Spiel Des Jahres 2009 contenders (well, at least, people were vying for them) and they were there in this Müller store. Except for Hab & Gut, so that meant we had to go to Morgenland!
This was the game store I went to two days ago, but had no idea what to buy. But I did my research this time. And I found a copy of Hab & Gut, but it was only the open playtesting copy. They didn’t have it in the story. How depressing.
The girls were highly entertained though, there were all sorts of toys to play with in this store. So as I searched the store with a goal in mind, the girls got into trouble and managed to knock the toys with the most spherical pieces onto the floor.
In the end, I was able to get the other two games: Diamonds Club and Die Goldene Stadt. I also got a copy of Bang! because the North American one seemed too unnecessarily over-produced. I have nothing against really cool games with cool pieces, Diamonds Club has a lot of cool pieces, but I wasn’t that pleased with Bang!’s North American counterpart.
The rest of the day involved entertaining the children. We had Indian food again, and for supper, I had McDonalds. I had a choice between having Falafel and McDonald’s, and I was sorely tempted to go for Falafel’s because I don’t usually go to McDonald’s. But gosh darn it, sometimes a man needs some fried meat in his diet! It was a week of mostly breads and cheeses!
That night, Sara and Dietmar had family and friends over for pre-wedding pizza party! Sara has been force feeding my videos to a few of her friends so a few of them approached me with a bit of hesitation but all in all it was a great night.
I did, however, find out that Sara was serious about me singing a song. A German song. Peter had brought his electric keyboard and the music, so apparently, I am going to completely destroy a well loved song and offend hoards of Germans at the same time. Good thing I have no shame. It’s not everyone that is obnoxious enough to play a song they don’t know in a language they don’t know to a crowd they don’t know. Will be fun!
Here is the song:
