The Coffee Shop

I've found a new place for coffee. It is large, bright, and new-looking and serves pastries, breads, pasta, and salads as well as coffee. I only go for a milchkaffee (coffee with milk.....cafe´latte in Italian) as I am trying not to eat out much. It seems to be a losing battle however. The weather here is Germany is much, much cooler than Italy. Cool enough, in fact, for me to wear my hideous turquoise jacket the past couple of days. Anyway back to the cooffee shop...there is a handsome man my age that works there....hes married, of course. I realized yesterday that he's Italian. Alessandro is his name. Having him there gives me an opportunity to speak a tiny bit of Italian so at least I won't lose the ability to order coffee.

There was a cute little baby girl at the coffee shop today. Mom and dad were holding her hands and helping her walk up and down the aisle near my favorite table. She had a whiff of duckling blonde fluff on her head, dark, sparkly eyes, and a joyful smile. What a doll!

I live to one side of a large church and every morning at 7:30, 7:00 on Sundays, the church bells peal for 5 entire minutes. I starting counting the chimes and lost track somewhere past 100. There's no sleeping through that!

Additionally, there are workmen working across the alley from me so each morning I still hear sounds of jack hammers, shovels, trucks, and masculine voices speaking a language I don't understand. I feel right at home! One of the older workers is usually shirtless, skin deeply tanned and leathery, head covered by a floppy hat, which is truly more excitement than I bargained for. The workers in Italy were always fully clothed...to my chagrin. With typical German efficiency, the workers begin their day promptly at 7:00 AM. If I sleep through that, the church bells get me.

My landlord has a cat. A dark, fuzzy, blue-gray color with light green eyes. He likes to jump onto a stone wall in the backyard, then onto the canvas patio cover where he lounges like the King of Siam in his improvised hammock. The neighbors also appear to have a cat, and although I have't actually seen him, I certainly have heard him. About 3 or 4 times per day terrible growling and yowling sounds issue forth from behind a wooden fence next door. This hideous screeching and caterwauling goes on for 15 minutes at a time and I sometimes wonder if its actually a cat or a lion. Whatever it is, it certainly is unhappy.