Brussels

This morning we had another great breakfast – omelets with veggies, spices and peppers. How I have missed spicy food. Crystal is craving Mexican and we have all so enjoyed the wonderful Indian food. We have again enjoyed such wonderful hospitality that is so much more than we expect. It was great to meet Ashwini and get to catch up with Ravi. After breakfast we packed up sandwiches for the road and said goodbye to our friends until we meet again.

Our drive to Brussels was a nice one through the countryside overlooking valleys and rivers. After we left we realized that we had three postcards to mail with German stamps on them! So, we stopped in a small town and after wandering lost with limited directions to the post office went in a gelato shop. No one there spoke English but after some limited conversation and pointing one of the locals said that he would mail them for me! The people here have been so lovely to us all the time.

Arriving in Brussels and locating Eva’s apartment was a little confusing, but we made it. Once there we happily left the car and went to find her place, but we couldn’t find the address. I ended up calling and shortly after she was hanging her head out of the window right over our heads!

Eva and I worked together at the Cuyahoga Valley Environmental Education Center and spent three seeks traveling together along with Bob in the western US. We were very close friends in Ohio, but it has been nine years since we last saw each toehr. Remarkably, it felt as if it could have been a matter of months rather than years.

We ate lunch and caught up at her apartment before walking down to the park near her house. At the east end of the park there is a beautiful three-arch monument. Within the park there are lovely lawns and also a car museum and an aircraft museum. Apparently in the area between the museum they have drive –in movies in August.

From the park we walked to the EU buildings where Eva works in the environmental division for Eastern European EU countries. The buildings are very large, modern offices that Eva is disgusted with as they look nothing like the glorious Brussels’s buildings with age, architecture and character. On the circle in front of the EU there was an Iranian protest going on and many people wearing green arm bands and speaking.

We hopped on the metro and headed downtown where we visited one of the largest buildings in Europe – the Belgian Palace of justice and shortly thereafter the city center where we window-shopped for incredible chocolates. Some of the are made with saffron, lavender, roses and other odd ingredients you might not expect. You can buy a box of chocolates representing flavors from around the world. Each country of origin is labeled in edible print on the chocolate. Some of thesee stores looked like jewelry stores in décor, uniform and ambiance. Fascinating!

We made our first real stop to try a Belgian beer at a corner café. I had cherry, Bob raspberry, Eva had peach and Crystal had a Duvel. The fruit beers are remarkably smooth, not sweet and extraordinarily fragrant.

After our beer we wandered through the narrow streets past an incredible garden and the building “Old England” a very famous example of a Belgian architectural style. Our next stop was for waffles. The waffles are very, very light and come with any topping you can imagine. I had fresh fruit, Eva strawberries and whipped cream, Crystal nutella, Bob had vanilla ice cream on his waffle. All delicious and all very much enjoyed.

From there we walked through the tiniest winding streets of restaurants I hav ever seen. Every restaurant has sidewalk tables but here is no sidewalk and the tables from one place nearly reach across the narrow street to the next one. The bonus here is that you can see everyone’s food up close and what each place is serving. There are a lot of mussels, prawns in the shell, fish and other seafood delights everywhere.

We popped out in the remarkable old town square and marveled at the expanse of the space and the unique old buildings. Every other August the square is covered in an intricate patterned flower blanket and people climb city hall to view it. Maybe next August we can see it for ourselves.

Our next stop was for the next Belgian specialty, fries – or rather frites. Fries are NOT French, they originated in Belgium and they take them very seriously. They fry them twice, once before you order them, a second time right before they are served. They are excellent and we did eat them with mayonnaise, as the locals do.

We also stopped to see the Mannekin Pis, a slightly ridiculous statue of a naked little boy peeing. Apparently it used to be a water fountain where you could drink from the stream. That would have been a little unnerving. These days he is dressed up in various costumes that change several times in once weekend. We unfortunately just missed him dressed for the start of the tour de France in the golden jersey. Darn!

Our next stop was in a very old bar that serves over 2000 different beers from all over the world. We sat around a large wine barrel that had been converted into a table and enjoyed more edible art in Brussels. I had a passion fruit beer that was so incredible the fragrance alone was delicious. We all sampled something different before picking up the next metro to Eva’s apartment and turning in.

Roll out the barrel

This morning we slowly woke up and enjoyed several cups of good Indian tea.  Ravi made breakfast and was as impressed with his cooking skills as the rest of us.  Indian scrambled eggs with spices, veggies and hot pepper – delicious.  After breakfast we slowly got ourselves moving and finally hopped in the car to Heidelberg.

 

Heidelberg is a beautiful town, not bombed during WWII and so in incredible condition.  The university there is the oldest one in the world and stretches to many parts of town.  The streets are medieval and narrow with many closed to traffic entirely.  It is a great place to walk.

 

Most prominent in Heidelberg is the castle on the hill.  It dates to the early middle ages and went through many different periods of building.  The castle is very large, a small town in itself with multiple gardens and places. Rather I should say that they are the remains of palaces as the French destroyed the castle fortifications, turrets and many palaces in the the 30 years war.  Afterwards it lay ruined and forgotten unless someone needed building stones in which case it was a convenient location to pick up materials. 

 

Sometime in the 19^th century it became the subject of romantic poetry and the town began to slowly work on preservation and restoration.  Today you can see three eras of protective walls surrounding it, ruined turrets, half-standing palaces and incredible fountains.  You can walk through the “stag garden” where wild deer were caught and kept for hunting parties in the castle grounds. 

 

WE took the tour of the castle and enjoyed the restored section of one palace very much as well as the original wine barrel.  The barrel was where local vintners had to deposit 10% of their wine as a tax.  It is large enough to hold 60,000 gallons of wine and was connected to he dining halls by a pump system.  I cannot imagine how this wine tasted as it would have been a mix of varieties from all over the region.  The barrel itself is incredible and hard to imagine full of wine – it is larger than some Lakeside cottages easily.

 

After a stroll around the grounds we found “Father Rhein” the sculpture and fountain.  The fountains were full of newts, dragonfly larvae and water boatmen. Very cool.  We strolled down the steep hill to town and found a table at a café for a snack of german-style (alsatian) pizza and beer (Crystal) radler (lemonade and beer – me) and Orangina (Bob). 

 

We headed back to Ravi and Ashwini’s for another fantastic Indian meal, wine and greatconversations about life in Germany and with Germans.  We are amused by many of the laws here such as apparently you cannot vacuum after 7 pm or on Sundays.  You cannot make noise after 10 pm, including dogs that cannot bark after that hour.  If you disrupt your neighbor with a party you must arrange for a hotel for them. 

 

Also, the homes near the elementary schools are the cheapest, the ones near graveyards are the most expensive.  Spouses often take vacation separate vacations to be “quiet” which also applies in kindergartens where there is a tunnel/cave area kids can go to be alone and think. And I thought Americans liked their space… although I knew we didn’t value quiet much I had no idea how much Germans do. Very interesting.

 

We took another walk to the gelato place and walked around the shops looking at the displays of clothes, jewelry, shoes, shoes, shoes and novelties.  Back home we all retired to a nice cool night for sleeping.  Tomorrow we are leaving Germany for Belgium and a visit with Eva.

 

Mannheim... home of the steamrollers

Today we had our last cup of coffee gazing out of Thomas and Emmy’s windows watching the apple and plum trees.  We drove through the area where the archaeopteryx was found and marveled at the sandstone outcroppings.  Everywhere around were fossil museums (you can even see the archaeopteryx) and parks to stop and fossil hunt. Poor Bob, it was killing him to just pass through the area and not stop.  Next time we visit we will certainly spend some time there.

 

In Mannheim we found Ravi and Ashwini’s apartment easily.  I was thrilled to see my old friend that I last visited in 2000 in Tulsa.  I can’t believe it has been that long – in the intervening time he married, moved to Germany, finished a Ph.D. and got a job working at BASF.  The campus is apparently ENORMOUS covering roughly 6 square mile with 32,000 employees and somewhere around 200 chemical plants.  Incredible. Ashwini works in human rights for Southeast Asia, specifically India. She travels to India for work with some frequency and is able to visit home as well. They are expecting a baby in mid September.

 

After a fantastic Indian lunch Bob drove Ravi, Crystal and I to Laden burg while Ashwini rested.  Ladenburg is famous for being the home of Carl Benz and the place that he developed the first gasoline powered automobile.  We were able to see the car in the benz museum which keeps limited hours but displays the vehicle in a large window.

 

The town is also well known for the Roman ruins in the town center. Layers of local red sandstone walls, wells and fortifications c an be seen between the buildings.  The streets are narrow cut stone lined with shops, restaurants and homes. The buildings are half-timber construction with slate roofs and lovely shutters.  The shutters are held open by latches outside that are decorated with a knights head.  It is a quaint town and we enjoyed walking around and seeing the river and parks as well.

 

That evening we returned and had another fantastic Indian meal that Ashwini prepared for us.  After dinner we walked through Mannheim to a gelato store owned by an Italian (Bob was so happy).  Mannheim was almost completely destroyed during the war but had been rebuilt nicely.  Just down the street  from Ravi and Ashwini’s apartment is the water tower, an incredible stone structure with decorative embellishments and lions with men’s heads guarding it.  A huge fountain rolls downhill from it into a large pool.  Gardens around the fountain are incredible with so many different flowers packed into a tiny space and bunnies covering the lawns. 

 

We enjoyed our gelato from the steps of the fountain and watched the locals clown around in the water.  Back home we stilled in for a good night’s rest to prepare for the upcoming trip to Heidelberg.

Domingo's cave-like atmosphere

Today we woke up late owing to the overwhelming hospitality we have been experiencing and our distinct lack of Bavarian genes. Thomas and Emmy seem bright and chipper in the morning... I am told by Crystal who wakes up early enough to see them off to work.

We enjoyed our coffee and watched the robotic lawnmower roll around the yard like a tiny android. Thomas calls him his "cockroach". Bob went out to the cherry trees and picked about 3 lbs of red and yellow varieties for our trip today.

Thomas had set up the GPS to take us directly to Schwangau so we hit the road ready to enjoy our first navigation-free day. I need to add here that the GPS was entirely in German and none of us really read the language or understand the voice. Long story short it told us the trip was 19 hours and 2500 Km long and we accidentally took a detour. Almost four hours later the long-abandoned device rested while we took to the castles (that are a 2 hour drive away)!

The first stop was to Hohenschwangau, situated in the area known as Schwangau on Lake Forggensee which is curiously enough full of swans. The castle was the residence of King Maximillion and his wife Marie and the home that King Ludwig II grew up in. It is lovely, filled with the original furnishings and paintings. The second floor is the queen's floor, the third belonged to the king. His ceilings are much higher and the rooms are grander but both floors are impressive.

The next stop (after the purchase of some desperately needed umbrellas) was to Neuschwanstein castle that sits atop a cliff above Hohenschwangau. The castle was one of many that King Ludwig II built during his brief life (he died at 41) and the inspiration that Walt Disney used for Cinderella's castle. It was extraordinarily expensive and along with his other projects left him in great debt at the time of his mysterious death.


The castle itself is remarkable and wildly over-the-top. It was intended to bring to life many of Wagner's operas in both style and vast murals depicting scenes from various works. Wagner was a great friend of the King who obviously was what we might consider an obsessed fan today. The throne room is likely the most stunning decorated like a Byzantine church, gold everywhere around the paintings of the apostles and Jesus. The floor is an intricate natural design with a wide variety of animals done in over 1 million mosaic tiles.


The most interesting room to me is the "Winter Garden and Grotto" which looks remarkably like Domingo's Restaurant in Raton, New Mexico. Apparently it was not unusual to have a cave in a castle but I walked through there thinking, "maybe he really was crazy". There is also an enormous music hall painted with a scene from Wagner that looks incredibly like Bambi. I think that Disney really liked Bavaria, we also saw dwarf characters working in mines on various artwork here.

Each room is more spectacular than the last, unfortunately no pictures are allowed inside either castle but I will try to drag some off the web.

We drove directly back to Thomas and Emmy's for another great evening. We ate and (shockingly) drank well into the night. Bob's stein magically refilled so regularly that it was almost a joke. We shared ridiculous jokes and enjoyed our last evening to visit.

Munchin' in Muchen

Today we were thrilled to have Emmy with us for the day to tour Munich. We packed up after breakfast and Bob drove us all into the city. We walked from the parking lot down Maximillion street, the Park Avenue of Munich. Any high dollar store imaginable can be found on this street. We chose to visit the quintessential German gourmet food store – Dallmayr.

In Dallmayr you can sit down and have an incredible meal choosing from the incredible food in the cases. The food is VERY fancy in appearance and quality. Everything is beautiful in this store. You can also buy chocolates, candies, pastries, liquor and liqueurs. Some of it is shockingly expensive – cognac for €1755 for one bottle.

From Dallmayr we visited King Ludwig II in his tomb underneath St. Michael’s Church. Many other members of the Wittelsbach dynasty are buried here. Emmy says that you cannot see Munich without visiting the last King of Bavaria.

We stood on the Marienplatz at 11 am and watched the Glockenspiel in the Rathaus (city hall) perform an incredible dance. It shows the story of a big wedding that took place in the square including dancers and jousters on horses. Very impressive clock indeed.

In the square we joined a “free” bicycle tour of the city. Our tour began with the history of the city (begun by monks – hence Munchen) interspersed with many beer jokes. For example, any time a building took more than a few years to build they must have been having a beer in between each stone they laid or cut. Emmy was amused by the jokes and said that now she understands why all Americans think that Bavarians do nothing more than drink beer. I think there might be another reason. Our first stop was the Hoffbrau house. Case closed.

During the tour we saw Feldherrnhalle where Hitler attempted to seize power in 1923. Also, we saw an alleyway that Germans resisting National Socialism took to avoid saluting the fuhrer. They have honored these brave resisters who were sometimes shot for disrespecting the Reich by lining the path in bronze. We also visited St. Cajetan’s Church that has a beautiful dome and understated artistry.

We rode through the sprawling Residenz that was occupied by royal family members and is being continually restored since WWII. It has many plazas and wings as it was expanded over the years starting in the 14th Century. We visited the site of the American troops’ barracks during the occupation.

We visited the English Garden and enjoyed the lovely buildings, statues and vegetation. We cruised by the “naked meadow” where locals bare all or most, laying in the sun and drinking wiessbier. Stopping at the Chinese tower we shared a beer and pretzel and rested in the shade.

Afterwards we stopped to watch the river surfers ride their boards on the artificial waves produced by concrete structures in the river. We continued over the river and back to near Marienplatz to return our bikes.

The four of us then sat down for a great beer and lovely food at a famous restaurant in Munich, Andechser am Dom. I had chanterelle mushrooms cooked in a cream sauce served with a bread dumpling, Bob had an assortment of sausages and sauerkraut and Crystal had hot potato salad and what looked like SPAM but apparently tasted like a really good sausage. Emmy ordered an assortment of Bavarian appetizers for us to try, cheeses, chives on bread, a cheese spread.

We left the restaurant full and toured the church it faces, Frauenkirche, or basically Church of Our Lady. The church is very tall, gothic style, and very large. The most famous thing about it is that supposedly the devil’s footprint is in the stone at the back of the church. Apparently the place made him angry… hulk smash!

Afterwards Bob drove us back to Thomas and Emmy’s and there was another night of food, beer, pear schnapps (not sweet but they could easily start a campfire) jokes and conversation. We went to bed full and tired looking forward to the next day.

Three days in Bavaria... day one

I am sorry to have not been able to update all of you since we left Switzerland. The internet at our friends' house was incapacitated by a lightening strike and we have been handicapped due to the overwhelming Bavarian hospitality.

After meeting Crystal at the train station in St. Gallen we had an uneventful drive to Germany. The only issue we encountered was in trying to get through the corner of Austria without getting on the turnpike. There is a fee to drive on the turnpikes in Austria as well and Switzerland and for just a few miles it seemed hardly worth the expense. With directions from Sabine we made it through easily.

Thomas and Emmy's home is in Attenfeld, near Neuburg, near Inglostadt north of Munich. It is a lovely part of Germany with rolling hills and farm fields dotted with patches of forest. The fields are very different from what I am used to as the crops are planted in much smaller sections. Driving along the country road you could easily pass 5-10 different crops in less than a minute. They grow wheat (for beer), barley (for beer), hops (for beer), corn, beets, grapeseed, strawberries and more plants that we did not always recognize.

Upon our arrival Emmy came home and toured us through Neuburg. It is a lovely little medieval town with a castle (built by someone who also built the castle in Heidelburg I think) and there is currently a "Schlossfest" going on. I thought that this was a festival where everyone gets "sloshed" but as it turns out Schloss means castle. I think that my meaning may be more on the mark however.

The town also has an ancient wall around it, in fact the parking lot is in the moat (drained). There is an incredible library done in the rococco style that was actually originally at a monastery and relocated to a Neuburg church when the monasteries were closed (I think under Hungarian rule, but I am not sure) that we toured. We also visited the outside of the castle and St. Peter church. It is a beautiful town.

We topped off our visit with a peak at the baths that are a key component of the festival. Large wooden tubs are filled with hot water, oils, flowers and scantily clad guests that are scrubbed by the staff. There is also a large biergarten to watch the people bathing while you have a tall frosty beverage. Believe it of not you must make a reservation for the bath and it is difficult to get on the schedule.

We returned to Emmy and Thomas' house for the evening. They had ordered us a wooden barrel of beer. A barrel. Seriously. We tapped the barrel and toured the backyard that is connected to Emmy's family farm. They have apples, plums, raspberries and cherry trees. We ate raspberries off the vine and picked cherries from the trees.

Emmy's father also gave us cherries he had picked. He is in his late 70s and still farms along with Emmy's brother. He is truly a sweet man and at the risk of being disrespectful totally adorable. He was wearing blue overalls, a white t-shirt and a straw Bavarian hat to keep off the sun. I found him charming, but maybe the fact that he thought I was 18 helped a little.

We had a great evening finishing the barrel with Thomas, Emmy, Emmy's cousin Steffie her husband Reinhart and their daughter. There was a lot of food, lively conversation, jokes, chocolate and above all beer - from real beer steins. I always thought they were just for show and the lids were useless. As it turns out the lid keeps the flies out (or did in the old days) and the ceramic mug keeps the beer quite cool. We were up way past my bed time visiting with these lovely people.

I will be trying to get caught up today - hope to supply the details of our next days in Munich and visiting the castles of Schwangau soon.