Schöne Wadeln

Sarah and I headed down to Munich on Saturday to spend some time with her choir and orchestra in a non-rehearsal type of setting for a potluck picnic/grilling on the Isar Flaucher. On our way down to the Regensburg Hbf to catch a train to Munich Hbf to catch an U-Bahn to walk to the bridge to the picnic island (whew!) a native Regensburger dude walking his two very nice dogs overheard us speaking English to each other and deduced that we’re not natives, despite my Lederhosen bought at the Dult this spring.

“You look nice,” he said gesturing at me and my garb.
“um, thanks!” I responded, if a bit quizzically.
“Nicer than a real Bavarian*.”
In wie fern?” I asked.
Die Wadeln,” he responded.

I raised my eyebrows blankly to signal a new vocabulary word.

“These ones,” he explained as he reached down to pat my exposed calf.

“Ah, danke.”

First time for everything, I guess.


Side notes:

So here are some shots from the Isar Flaucher yesterday with the choir and orchestra people. It was unseasonably cold. I might need to invest in a Weste or Strickjacke for all-weather festivities. Also, the first attempt at grilling our homemade Merguez, based on this recipe but stuffed into lamb casings was pretty much a success — we’d like it to be a little moister, which might mean more fat in the mix next time (meaning we’ve got to get friendly with a local lamb-supplied butcher; this batch was with pre-ground imported New Zealand lamb).

*For the very international-fashion-aware: that shirt I’m wearing is not Bavarian or otherwise Alpy at all (but I think it works well with the ‘hosen). Know what it is and where it’s from?

8 thoughts on “Schöne Wadeln”

  1. tqe | Adam

    What about a close-up?

  2. G

    That’s so funny! I asked the German about the word and he said, no- Waden(=calves). Then I looked it up and Wadeln means “taut calves” and he said, Oh, Bayerisch! So that was an even better compliment than I had thought for you!

  3. Carrie B

    MUHUHAHAHA! That was your new shirt for Puerto Vallarta. Mexico + Germany = Excellence.

  4. Yelli

    Oh so that is what those low whistles were for when we were hanging out with y’all…! :)

  5. Snooker in Berlin

    Ah! It’s the bicycling that does it. Very nice! You’re rocking the Lederhosen.Although I have to admit that the TALL part of “50% of my DNA” has probably the best calves (on a man) I’ve seen up close.Have you considered that he just wanted to touch your manly calves? (wink, wink)

  6. Martina

    Wadl is simply the Bavarian word for Wade, taut or otherwise. You need taut Wadl (as opposed to Grouawadl*) to wear Lederhosn though. Yours are just fine ;-)

    *calves like a crow

  7. Mom

    The fowl are swans! :)

    Great way to learn Bavarian German anatomical vocab. Probably don’t want to expose any other body parts for scrutiny or lessons.

    We’ve had weeks of 85+Fahrenheit even up here at the cottage and it’s a shock to see all those jackets and scarves and sweaters.

    Love,
    Mom

  8. cliff1976

    TQE: see ya at WEBMU, I’ll bring ’em for ya.

    G: there are a lot of expressions around here we can’t look up quite so easily on dict.leo.org — sometimes there are “südd./öst.” markers on entries there, but since no one really writes that language much, spelling varies quite a bit.

    Carrie B.: Correct, well done!

    Yelli: I thought for sure they must have been for someone else in our party.

    Snooker: I would have thought my Oberschenkel were benefiting more from the biking than the Unterschenkel (Wadeln). I would have preferred to pet the petter’s doggies in exchange for tapping my calfmeat.

    Martina: Thanks — are you a native speaker? I never thought my calves were anything to crow about!

    Mom: Thanks, I corrected the caption on the water fowl drunks. That’s all the exposure I’m comfortable with, except, I guess, occasionally in the sauna, and in there I definitely don’t want to learn any new words. It was freezing all afternoon; in the evening it started to warm up a bit, finally, but by then we were on our way.

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