I had designs on going to the Humbergturm observation tower in the forest south of Kaiserslautern today. Out here it is like every town and village is surrounded by its own enchanted forest just waiting for me to go explore.

On Thursday the day had been clear and it stayed clear into the night. Since I’ve been staying so long in this hotel, I have been making friends with the owner and lovely staff here. The hotel owner hails from Siberia and is an incredibly interesting and sweet person.

For the clear night, we walked out north of Ramstein village on the fields to look at the stars. that night was the first totally clear night since I’ve been here, and I had not gotten an opportunity to see stars. They were breathtaking. It didn’t take us long to get out of the sparse lighting from the village, and we could see stars, planets, and the faint blue stripe of the Milky Way.

After our cold night outing, we came back and had Pelmini (Russian dumpling soup), and she invited me to go to Landstuhl with her on Saturday to check out the Russian grocery store there. I, of course, immediately took her up on the offer.

Come Saturday we piled into her car to head to Landstuhl It was early afternoon and there was still thick frost on the cars. The Russian grocery was super cool, full of all kinds of Slavic delicacies, various pickles, meats, breads, sweets. I got some Kefir and a meringue dessert.

After the grocery we went into Kindsbach to see the lake there, another enchanted forest setting that I am sure to go back to. The large rectangular lake had about half an inch of ice on it, which when hit just right made surreal musical sounds.

The lake was fed by a lovely running stream, and the path along it I’m told goes up to the origin of the spring where one can drink the cold water. German residents are justifiably very proud of their water. Many of the natural springs in this area were considered medicinal by the Romans, and likely the Celts before them.

The thick frost stayed all day giving everything a sparkly crystalline look, making the landscape and the towns really look like winter. It never got above freezing all day, but as the Germans say, “There is no bad weather only bad clothes.”