On Tuesday, Bryan's boss invited us to visit with him and his family at their garden plot. I met Bryan after work and we had some time to kill before we started our tram and bus trip to their garden, so we had a pint on the town square. All of a sudden, "Yellow Polka Dot Bikini" (in German) began playing over the loudspeaker and people began to assemble in the middle of the street, take of their street clothes (they had swimsuits on), and began to do the Macarena dance. No, I am not making any of this up.
Bryan's reaction to the dancing:
After recovering from all of the excitement, I did a little shopping (It's the most dangerous season here... summer sale season) and then we were on our way to meet Bryan's boss. We had a slight delay because Bryan helped an older gentleman figure out how to buy a ticket from the automated ticket machine, but we still made it to our designated meeting spot on time. Which is good, because we don't have phones and being late or having a change of plans is no good for us here.
Bryan's boss and his family have a plot in a large garden complex owned by the city. They rent their plot each year. There are hundreds of plots and each is unique. The garden plot movement in Germany began in the 1800s and is called the Schrebergarten Movement because of its creator. When Leipzig was a part of the GDR, the garden plots were crucial in being able to feed people, especially senior citizens. Now, it is more recreational, though 10% of each plot is required to be made up of edible plants. Some plots even have small structures on them and some people "move in" to their garden plots for the summer months. There were tons of bikers, people tending their plots, and people enjoying a cold beverage or two while children ran about.
It took about 10 minutes to walk from the entrance to the family's plot. We sampled wild strawberries, gooseberries, and peas. It was delicious! The family also gave us some homemade jam to take with us. Being invited to spend an evening there was an absolute delight; we chatted (with heavy translation duties for Bryan) for about 2 hours about the garden and different travel topics.
Here are some garden photos:
If you look closely in the photo above, you can see some awesome tomato stakes. Seriously, these little guys are like art! They are plain metal and swirl up from the ground. Too bad they won't fit in my suitcase! :(
It was a beautiful night, so we decided to walk the 4 km (roughly 2.5 miles) home instead. The route was through a park and featured views like this:
After grabbing a quick dinner from a doner stand, it was time to sit down and relax!
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