Family News

Home to Savannah

I try to see my father at least once a year.  My mother died at a fairly young age - younger than I am now! - and that taught me the importance of not putting things off.  She always said she would come to Europe after she retired but she didn't make it to retirement so she  obviously never made it here.  I wonder sometimes how she imagined my life in Germany.  I doubt she had a very accurate idea of what it is like to live here.  At least Daddy and Lanie were able to spend time with us here over the years, but at 85 Daddy no longer wants to make such a long trip.

Anyway, it had been almost a year and a half since I had seen my father and step-mother and six years since I had been back to Savannah, so I booked a ticket for the 24th of October.     (We had met every year at different places in the intervening time, Rhode Island, Virginia, Florida.)    I bought an e-ticket for the first time.  I had always felt more comfortable with a paper ticket in my hand to prove I really had a seat on the plane, but I realized there are several disadvantages on our trip to San Francisco.  Not only does it cost more, but you can't pick out a seat when you book and we had really bad seats both ways.  Check-in seemed to go a lot faster this time too, but I'm not sure that had anything to do with my ticket.  Unfortunately, it doesn't improve the food.  I had the absolute worst piece of chicken imaginable.  It had the consistency of pudding and I have no idea what you have to do to achieve this.  I would also really like to know how you are supposed to wash your hands when you have to use one hand to press the lever for the water to flow.  Filling the basin with water and using that is just not an option.

Because I was flying alone and since the plane wasn't full I was lucky and had two seats to myself both ways.  I bought The Devil wears Prada at the airport to read and that was one of the two films they were showing, so I watched it.  Meryl Streep was very good and I enjoyed the film, although I though I might be losing my hearing because I had such a hard time understanding everything.  It wasn't until after the film was over that I realized that the headphones were not functioning properly and one ear was dead.  The second film was The Lake House with Sandra Bullock and Keanu Reeves, but I decided not to watch it after I read the blurb in the flight magazine.  I'm not into the dead communicating with the living and every time I glanced at the screen Sandra Bullock was in tears.  Not my kind of movie!

Another annoying thing happened.  I bought Lanie some perfume at the duty free shop in Frankfurt and since obviously my bags were already checked I put it into my carry-on.  When I got to security they discovered the package in my bag.  They tore it open and dropped it into a clear plastic ziplock bag.  I was allowed to keep the box.  Now I'm all for security and any measures that make flying safer for all of us, but can someone explain this to me.  Why was the perfume safer in a plastic bag, when no one took the trouble to check if there really was perfume in the dispenser?  Because no one smelled it or even look at it closely.  And they put it back in my carry-on.  Then when I got to Atlanta I immediately had to go through security again, although theoretically I had just come in on a "secure" plane.  Here the security guard told me I couldn't take the perfume with me because the container was too big.  I should have read the signs that were posted a few feet away.  I told him I had bought it at the duty free shop in Frankfurt and he replied that there was no law against buying it, there was a law against bringing it into the country.  Luckily, he seemed to have some leeway on the matter because in the end he let me keep it - again without smelling it or looking at it closely.  Why do I not feel very secure?

I knew my father had had minor surgery on Friday morning but that everything had gone well and he had gone home the same day.     So I was shocked to learn from Lanie when she met me at the airport Tuesday afternoon that he was back in the hospital with a bad infection of his incision.     We went straight there to visit him and he was glad to see me, but he was not happy about being in the hospital at all.   He was pretty heavily medicated so we left for home to get rid of my bags, take care of the dogs  and get something to eat before we returned to the airport to pick up my brother, Gary, and his son, Adam.

I hadn't seen Gary since May 2005 when we had had a big family reunion in Virginia, but I had NEVER seen Adam, so it was a big treat to finally meet him and have some time together with him.  He's 21 years old and an engineering student at the University of Houston.  (It runs in the family.)

We spent most of the next day at the hospital and Gary's daughter, Shannon, drove down from near Atlanta to see all of us.  I hadn't seen Shannon since she was about 10, so although she was only able to stay for a few hours it was great to finally see her again.  She has four (!) very nice-looking children and she brought pictures for all of us to have.  It's too bad she had to work the next day and couldn't stay overnight.  She also had to leave before Diana arrived in order to make it home  before dawn.

Frank and I had met Diana and her husband for dinner in San Francisco in July and when we said good-bye we thought it would be quite a while until we saw each other again.  Luckily, when Diana heard I was planning a trip to Savannah, she was able to arrange to be there at the same time.  She hadn't seen Gary in decades and of course didn't know Adam at all.  She had been to Savannah several times to visit in the past and she maintains regular telephone contact with Daddy and Lanie.  It was so much fun for all of us to be together and so sad that Daddy couldn't enjoy it too.  We spent a few hours on Thursday at River Street, just like real tourists.  I bought some very cool t-shirts for the boys with alligators on them that change colors in the sun.  Now all we need here in Germany is some sun!

Gary, Adam and I spent several hours cleaning up the yards.  Gary mowed back and front and Adam trimmed the hedges.  I cleaned up the back porch and swept out the green house.  It all looked much better and Daddy and Lanie won't have to do anything for a while. 

By Friday night we were ready for a treat and it was also Gary and Adam's last evening in Savannah.  We decided to have dinner at the Shrimp Factory on River Street.  I had never eaten there and Lanie really likes it, so I was happy to try it out.  We all had a good meal and the service was fine, but best of all was the company!  We laughed so much I wonder what the other tables thought of us.

Diana, Lanie and I took Gary and Adam to the airport on Saturday morning and said good-bye.  It was sad to see them leave but we had such a good time together it was worth the many miles we all had to travel.  Diana wasn't leaving until the next day, so Lanie called her friend Betty and asked her if she was interested in going to the Crab Shack that evening with us.  Luckily she was free so the four of us drove out to Tybee.  I had never eaten there either but I had seen pictures of it when Lee and Alex had eaten there two years ago.  Of course Alex loved it.  Where else can you feed alligators?

Unfortunately the food was not very good and the atmosphere was fast foodish - paper plates and plastic cups and cutlery with a big hole in the middle of the table to throw everything away.  I don't think we will be going back any time soon in spite of the lovely view from the deck.

It was too cold for us to sit outside anyway, although there were people braving the elements.  Actually it wasn't too bad, but we weren't dressed for outside dining.  In spite of everything we had a great time together.

Diana left the next morning for home and we were keeping our fingers crossed that they would finally release Daddy from the hospital.  Late Monday afternoon they let him come home after they had arranged for nursing service to take care of his wound.  He was so happy to be home and see his dogs again! 

I had some shopping to do and on Tuesday Daddy was feeling well enough to go with us to the mall.  We had lunch together and I got some shopping done.  The weather had turned really nice and Daddy was even able to get out in the garden for a while to putter around.  On Thursday afternoon it was time for me to leave and they took me to the airport.  It's always sad to say good-bye but I'm glad I took the opportunity to visit.  The latest news is that Daddy is doing well, which is good news indeed.

 

Music and the Moselle

Frank, whose favorite activity is playing the violin, has talked for years now about taking part in a music workshop in Tuscany, but as much as the idea appeals to his fellow musicians nothing has ever come of it.  However, we still get the catalogue every year and e-mails regularly, notifying us that there is still an opening for French horn or jazz tuba or medieval choral singers in one of their courses.  It was Frank's brother, Ingo, who suggested a chamber music course in what the catalogue called the "German Tuscany".  It was only for a long weekend from September 30th to October 3rd  and it wasn't very far from us, so it seemed like a good opportunity to test the waters, so to speak.  So the two of them signed up and Anne and I decided to go along and do our own thing while they were busy fiddling.

The guest house chosen for the course was Landhaus Arnoth, in the middle of the Hunsrueck, a low mountain range defined by the Moselle, Rhine and Nahe river valleys.  I have to admit that there is some resemblance to Tuscany when the sun is shining brightly, but it is an area that gets a lot of rain so it's in no danger of replacing Tuscany in the hearts of Germans or anyone else.  Frank and I arrived on Saturday afternoon and after we had settled in, the musicians got together and Anne and I had time for a short walk.

The Landhaus, or "country house", is composed of several buildings and a dozen or so hotel rooms.   Upstairs in the building above there is a very nice library and downstairs is the restaurant.  The food was exceptionally good and very creative.  I ate several things I had never had before, like red rice and sunflower petals.  I want to try cooking the red rice myself as soon as I can get to a health food store to buy it, but I think I'll pass on the sunflower petals.

Sunday morning after breakfast the musicians broke up into groups and Anne and I were free to do whatever we liked.  The weather didn't look too promising but we didn't let that bother us and took off for the nearest town on the Moselle River, Traben-Trarbach, about 15 minutes away - all downhill it seemed.  Actually it's two little towns connected by a bridge, thus the double name.  When we arrived fairly early on a Sunday morning, there was nothing going on.  I think everyone was still asleep or having a late breakfast.  We almost had the whole parking lot next to the river to ourselves.  We could see our goal though and began the climb that would take us there.

 

The path we took wound through the vineyards and eventually we reached the top where the scant remains of a castle stood.

This was what the Grevenburg looked like at one time.  It was built in 1350 and destroyed in 1734.

                                                                                                                      

                                                                                                                      

                                                                                                                      

And this is all that is left today. 

However, there is a very nice restaurant next to the tower.  I'm not sure it is part of the original castle or not.  As you can see the weather had improved tremendously although it was quite windy in the garden.

Nonetheless we sat outside and shared our table with a very nice couple that was spending the week in the area.  They were dressed appropriately in hiking boots and backpacks and had come a lot further than we had.

This was the view from our table, which was directly on the edge of the plateau we were on.  From the other side of the restaurant there was a lovely view of the Moselle that shows what a winding route it takes.

After our delicious lunch we walked back down to the town, expecting it to be as quiet as when we left it.  What a surprise!  It was full of people and the shops were open!  This is more unusual than it may sound because shops are very seldom open on Sundays in Germany, even in tourist areas.  There are all sorts of laws and regulations against it, which are now being relaxed a lot but still it was a surprise for us.  We had a lot of fun wandering through the town and looking around in some of the very nice shops they have there.  When we had had enough of that we crossed the river to the half of the town that got the afternoon sun (I think it was Traben) and found a very nice garden where we sat in the sun and had coffee and cake.  Altogether it was a very nice day that made us eager to do something similar the next day too.

So after breakfast on Monday morning we set off again, this time for Bernkastel-Kues, another double town connected by a bridge.

We weren't as lucky with a parking place as the day before and had to park a bit away from where we wanted to be, but the path along the river was very pleasant.  I had put my hiking shoes on because I wanted to get used to them again since we were soon going to the Black Forest, but unfortunately I hadn't found my hiking socks.  (I did mange to find them later.)  After a very short time it was clear to me that it was a bad idea to wear the shoes with the socks I had on, so I returned to the car and Anne sat and waited for me.  She didn't mind at all because she had a good book to read which I had given to her, Almost French by Sarah Turnbull.

Now outfitted with normal shoes, we continued on our way.  We could see where we eventually wanted to be, at the Castle Landshut on top of the hill, built in 1277.

This time we went to the Tourist Information first and got a map, but we managed to take an entirely different route after we evidently missed a turnoff.  It didn't matter in the end because the path we took was lovely and probably not as steep as the other one.

By the time we arrived at the castle it was lunch time but there weren't any tables available in the courtyard and the menu didn't appeal to us anyway, so we followed a sign pointing down the hill to another restaurant.  The path was very steep and we were glad we had taken a longer, more gentle way up the hill.

As you can see the hill was full of grapes right up to the castle.  We didn't ask, but I could imagine there is a well known wine with a picture of this castle on it.

The view of the Moselle was similar to what we had seen the day before in Traben-Trarbach, just not as sunny, and in fact it began to rain a little while we were at the top of the hill.  Luckily, it let up when we reached the other restaurant and we were able to sit outside and have a very nice lunch.

After lunch we continued down the steep path back to the town, which was full of tourists.  We weren't as enthralled with Bernkastel-Kues as we were with Traben-Trarbach, although it is quite pretty.  We did find a jewelry shop that sold colorful stones that had been made into earrings.  It was just what I had been looking for for a long time so I splurged and bought three pair.

The rain began to come down in earnest so we got in the car and drove to a café we had noticed the day before hanging on the side of a cliff.  It was warm inside and a nice cappuccino and a piece of cake did the rest to restore our flagging spirits. 

Tuesday morning, a holiday in Germany to celebrate reunification, was stormy and Anne and I decided to leave right after breakfast and head for our house.  It was a good decision because the weather didn't improve and we could snuggle in with hot vegetable soup and a nice afternoon nap.  Fall had definitely arrived.

Georgian Wedding

Rob and Tika's wedding took place during the afternoon of August 12th, and it was just as hot on this day as it had been all week with temperatures in the high 90s or low 100s (39-40°C).  Every day we watched the weather report on TV on Euronews (the only station we got in English) and almost every day Tbilisi was the hottest city in Europe and when they showed the world map, it was the hottest city IN THE WORLD.  Only once did Sevilla beat Tbilisi when there was a cold spell and it only got up to 38°C. 

The ceremony was held in a small church called Dshwari just outside of Mzcheta, the ancient capital of Georgia, about half an hour west of Tbilisi.  Dshwari was built in the 7th century and remains one of the most important churches in Georgia to this day.  These first two pictures were taken during the week, when we were on our way to the Causasus mountains, but on the day of the wedding there were hundreds of people in and around the church, mostly wedding parties waiting to go into the church to be blessed.  It's a little unusual to actually have a wedding ceremony in this church and I think Tika had to pull some strings to make it happen.

The view from the top of the hill the church is on is breathtaking and offers a beautiful panorama of Mzcheta.  According to legend, the robe Christ wore at the crucifiction is buried in the church you can just see in the middle of the town.

Rob tried to explain to Giorgi what a wedding was and ended up telling him it was something like a birthday party.  Since Giorgi just turned two at the beginning of July he knew what was expected of him and sang "Happy Birthday to you" throughout the ceremony.  I think he was a little perplexed that he was the only one singing.  (That's Mangelica holding him, Rob and Tika's housekeeper/nanny from Sri Lanka.)

Naturally we didn't understand a word the priest said, but he was reading so quickly and in such a low voice I'm not sure anyone did.  Of course the Georgians knew what he was saying and Rob acted like he knew too.

This was taken during the ceremony.  I was a little reticent about taking pictures but everyone else was doing it so I joined in.  The "best man" on Rob's right is a very well known soccer player, Archil Arveladze, who has played for teams in Germany and Holland as well as the Georgian national team.  His twin brother is even better known and still plays in Holland.  Their older brother also played on an international level and Archil told us that it was a world record to have three brothers all playing international soccer.

The ceremony was of course different from what we are used to but they did exchange rings.  They were crowned for a little while and walked around the altar.

It looks like Rob is taking this all very seriously.  I should have had him explain everything to me afterwards, but there wasn't really any time.  Things got very busy.

This is Rob's family,  his parents from NewYork and his sister and her husband from Ohio.

This is Tika's family, her parents and her brother with his family.  They all actually live in Holland, which is where Rob and Tika met and unfortunately her parents don't speak English.  They seemed so nice it was a shame we couldn't talk to them.  Tika's nephew David is an amazing boy whose English is very good for a ten-year-old and after all it's his third language after Georgian and Dutch.  He plays the piano very well and is a thoroughly nice young man.  His sister is really beautiful with gorgeous eyes that enchanted Frank.  Tika's brother George is a big businessman who helped to arrange the wedding and the week's activities.  His wife is wonderful with children and even put a spell on Janne to get her to take a nap one day.

This of course is Rob and Tika with their German family.

Here are the newly weds, although actually they were married three years ago by Rob's Aunt Pam at his parents' house in New York.  But now they are also Georgian married.  (Notice the man in the background with the ubiquitous cell phone.)

Giorgi is not happy because he had a terrible diaper rash and did I mention it was at least a hundred degrees?  Luckily, his grandmother Candy had a good remedy in the form of a cream that they picked up from the hotel on the way to the reception and Giorgi regained his sunny disposition.

The next wedding on the agenda is Tom and Anja's in October.  And Janne's - she says she's getting married too.

If you're going to a wedding in Georgia it's important to go in style and we rode in this 1946 Cadillac that was previously owned by the President of Georgia and now belongs to George.  Thanks to Brian, who is an expert on old cars, I can tell you all about this one, but I don't think I will. If you really want to know anything about it maybe you should ask him.

When Rob and Tika arrived at the restaurant where the party took place there were men holding swords for them to walk under. Unfortunately I couldn't get far enough away to take a picture of them.

There was also this quartet singing Georgian songs.

A little while later there was a Georgian dance group who performed several traditional Georgian dances.

There was more food than an army could eat, as there always is at Georgian festivities.  The tables were piled high with all sorts of delicious things and more kept coming all evening, but Frank and I hardly ate anything because something (maybe the local water) didn't agree with us.

However, we had a lot of fun watching the show.  This dancer is balancing a bottle of cognac on his head.  He also tried the trick of picking up a glass of cognac without using his hands, but unfortunately the glass broke. The Germans say broken glass brings you luck, so most likely that was a very good omen for Rob and Tika.

The Georgians take toasting very seriously and there are a lot of rules about how to go about doing it.  The most important man at a celebration is the "Tomada" or toastmaster who makes sure everyone is toasted who should be (including dead ancestors and unborn children) and that it is done in the correct order.  Our Tomada for the evening did a very good job.  He even had a professional English translator so we always knew who was being toasted.

Our German group had its own "Tom"ada who offered a very nice toast on our behalf to the newlyweds...

...after which our world famous German quintet sang Beethoven in a slightly modified form to fit the occasion.  I have to say they were very well received!

It was now time for the parents to begin the dancing.  As you can see, they were really into it.

They were soon joined by Giorgi and Marie.  Giorgi loves to dance and begins whenever he hears music.  He's very good at following rhythms and is no doubt musically very talented.

On the music front there was another highlight, a very popular Georgian pop singer, David Gomartelli.  He had a very nice voice that was powerful enough to fill the whole room without the help of a microphone.  With the microphone it was too loud for us and we went and sat outside on the balcony, where a short time later we were treated to fabulous fireworks that were set off on the street below us right next to the river.  This must be a Georgian tradition because someone said there were a lot of fireworks that evening, but I'm sure none of them were as impressive as Rob and Tika's.

There was also a very good magician who asked Rob's Aunt Pam to assist him. She did a very good job but she couldn't tell us later how he managed to do any of his amazing tricks. 

Towards the end of the evening an animal was wheeled out.  I'm not sure what it was but it certainly looked like a goat.  At the same time plates of meat were served.  Was the meat from this little guy?  I'm not sure what the significance of this was.

The significance of the next item to appear was clear though and I'm very glad that at least one person was evidently still hungry enough to appreciate it.

The cake cutting ceremony followed and was quite elaborate.  We didn't stay to taste the cake but it certainly was pretty.

All in all it was a most memorable wedding that we enjoyed very much and will be talking about for many years to come.

ALL OUR BEST TO YOU, TIKA AND ROB!!!

Georgian Baptism

The seven of us (Anne and Ingo, Tom and Anja with Janne, and Frank and I) arrived in Tbilisi right on time at 2:30 am, which is not as horrible as it sounds because it was just 12:30 am German time.  I promised I would never say anything negative about Turkish Airways if all of our luggage made it to Tbilisi and it was there waiting for us, in spite of the fact that we had had less than 15 minutes to connect in Istanbul, because both of our planes from Frankfurt and Hanover were an hour late.  So in order to keep my promise I won't mention the food we were served!

After we got through immigration and customs there were two big cars waiting to pick us up and whisk us to our hotel and we got our first taste of Georgian driving.  It's just as well it was dark and there was almost no traffic.  It gave us time to transition to racing riding through Tbilisi without any seat belts.  We soon arrived at our hotel and could sleep as long as we liked, except that breakfast was only served until 10:00 am, which of course was 8:00 am German time.  No problem.  We all made it in time to be introduced to Georgian breakfast food.  Not a highlight of our trip!

                                                                              
While we were all still at the breakfast table and had met Rob's aunt Pam, who was also staying at the same hotel, Rob showed up with Giorgi, who had just turned two in July.  What a sweet little boy!  He was a little shy at first, but later played and talked like a big boy.  It was great to see Rob again since we hadn't seen him since he moved to Singapore and before he had even met Tika.  He explained the arrangements for the baptism that afternoon, where we later made our way very punctually like good Germans.      

The baptism was held in The Holy Trinity Cathedral "Sameba", which was just consecrated in 2004 and was not very far from our hotel, although it was far too HOT to walk.  We were there right on time, but no one else seemed to be present.  We had a look around the church, but saw no one we knew.  Were we at the right church?  Finally, Pam, who had arrived in Georgia a day earlier, recognized someone she had met the evening before, a Georgian heart surgeon who is living and working in Moscow and is Giorgi's godfather (if that's the term they use).   He and his wife  were also waiting, but since they were Georgians they knew that there is no such thing as a tight schedule.  Things happen when they happen.  No need for any stress!

At some point everyone showed up and we finally got to meet Tika and Levani, along with Tika's family and friends. 
Levani looks a little disheveled - a long day at the office?

Here are Rob and Levani, beautifully color coordinated as you can see.

The priest was very colorful himself but he was sweltering in that long heavy robe.  After all, we were all roasting and we had on much lighter clothing.  He read the service in a very low mumble and paid no attention to what was going on around him.  I think the little girl is about to give him some pointers on public speaking.

Here Rob is preparing Giorgi for his baptism.  He's probably telling him it's just like going into a wading pool in Singapore.  I think Rob might have lost some credit with Giorgi because he didn't like the water at all and flailed around so much that the pictures came out completely blurred.  (That's his godfather standing next to him.) 

But before they went into the water they had to be "painted" by the priest.  I'm not sure what he brushed on them or the significance of it, but you can see how seriously Levani is taking it.

Rob had to be baptised too so for a little while Giorgi got to watch.
Giorgi is holding the LEGO police car with the blue light that really flashes that Frank and I gave him.  This was one of Max and Alex's favorite toys when they were toddlers.

Giorgi wasn't the only one who wasn't very happy to be dipped into the water.  However, I do think most of the adults in the room would have loved to join him.  Did I mention how HOT it was?

Rob didn't have to climb in.  However, I imagine it felt good to have the cold water poured over his head. 

At least afterwards he looked refreshed and happy.

It looks like Marie was expecting to go swimming herself and someone just informed her she couldn't!

The proud wife/mother (in her gorgeous dress) was also busy taking pictures.

The children quieted down and were distracted by the candles.

After the ceremony we all climbed into cars and drove off in the direction of Mzcheta (if I remember correctly), the former capital of Georgia.  Anne and Ingo and Frank and I rode with Natasha, who is the representative for Hugo Boss in Georgia.  She speaks very good German and she gave us a lot of background information.  We managed to get lost, an easy thing to do considering the complete lack of signposts, but after asking a number of people we finally found the place where the feast was being held. 
I'm not sure what to call it because I've never seen anything like it.  There was a restaurant but most people sat at long tables hanging on the cliffs.  There were dozens and dozens of such tables and they all looked occupied.  Getting to our group was like climbing through a warren, up and down and all around.  Our table was at the far end right over the river.

As at all the feasts that we enjoyed while we were in Georgia there was a lot of food on the table to start with, always delicious tomatoes and cucumbers, usually different kinds of fish and khachapuri, a kind of cheese pie sometimes offered in several varieties. Throughout the evening more and more food was brought out.  However, nothing was ever removed from the table so that in the end the food was piled high, enough for the proverbial army.  Plates of fruit signaled the end of the meal, always with big pieces of watermelon and often with several other kinds of fruit as well.
(Tommy took this picture and sent it to me.)

There was plenty to drink too.  A good thing in the HEAT!  There were pitchers of red and white Georgian wine, several different kinds of soda (Have you ever had tarragon soda?), and of course mineral water.  This first evening we hadn't yet learned not to fill ourselves at the beginning because there was a lot more food coming.

The river was just too enticing for some of our group. Unfortunately, none of us had swimsuits along, which wasn't a problem for a few of the bravest. Tommy and Alex were the serious swimmers - the rest just dunked their toes in. 
You would think with all the food and the river right next to us there would be swarms of insects, but except for a few flies there were none at all.  My theory is that it was just too HOT!
After it turned dark and the children began to droop we all piled back into a convoy of cars and drove back to Tbilisi.  What an adventuresome first day in Georgia!

Birthdays in Berlin

Way back in November of 2005 we were invited to a birthday celebration by our friend Wolfgang.  He had decided to have a big party because he was turning 55, but since his birthday is in January and the weather isn't usually very nice then, he chose to schedule the party in May.  When we got the invitation it was something of a shock at first because it was so close to my birthday.  In fact my party was the Thursday after his, but only eight people (including us) were at both parties, so it wasn't a problem.

Frank arranged to have business in Berlin that week, so on Friday I hopped on a train and met him there.  We spent Friday night at Jenny and Ulf's and since we are planning to be in Turkey this summer I chose to go to a Turkish restaurant just around the corner from their apartment for supper.  The food was very nice, but don't ask me what I had.  I find it almost impossible to remember the Turkish names. 

The next morning Frank and I paid a visit to the market that we had liked so much the last time we were visiting Jenny and Ulf.  This time I was looking for presents for two couples who just recently had babies and I was delighted to find a stand with hand crafted toys from a women's workshop in (I think) Malaysia. 

After a lot of looking we decided on a really cute book about the elephant Elmar with a stuffed animal that looks just like him.

There were a lot of nice things to look at, especially things to eat, but we really didn't need anything more to eat after our big meal the night before and the feast waiting for us that evening.  The fresh pasta did look tempting though.

Ulf had to work even though it was Saturday but Jenny had arranged something really interesting for the three of us to do.  There was open house in a lot of the embassies in Berlin and Jenny had bought tickets for us.  There were shuttle buses to the embassies and we hopped on one and just happened to get off at the Indonesian Embassy so that's where we decided to go first.

Actually we spent quite a while there because there was so much to see and also to eat.  We had a light lunch of Indonesian food and a look at all the things on display.

Of course, Jenny and I had to have our picture taken.  Don't we blend in well?

After the Indonesian experience we wanted to go to the Georgian Embassy to prepare ourselves for our trip in August. The Georgian Embassy is a looooong way from any of the others.  It took quite a while to get there and we were very disappointed.  Other than a soccer goal in the garden and some meat on the grill there was really nothing going on.  I hope this is not an omen for our trip!  When we got back downtown Frank abandoned us because he wanted to do some shopping and Jenny and I waited for a long time for a shuttle bus. After a while we gave up and decided to go home and rest a little for the big party that night.  But not before having a scoop of what Jenny claims is the best ice cream in Berlin.  It was really good.

That evening the four of us drove to Potsdam to the Insel Hotel where the celebration took place.  Unfortunately the weather wasn't very good so that we weren't able to enjoy the island atmosphere as much as we would have liked, but there were a lot of friends at the dinner and we had a really nice time.  Of course there were lots of good things to eat and drink, too.  Frank and I spent the night at the hotel - Jenny and Ulf drove home - and the next day we all met again at Christine and Wolfgang's for a short house concert followed by another delicious meal at a swank Italian restaurant right next to the Brandenburg Gate. (I don't remember the name.)

The next day was my 60th birthday and before we went to bed Jenny and Ulf gave me my birthday present, a ticket to the Robbie Williams concert in Berlin in July!  My first pop concert!  When you turn 60 it's time to do all the things you never got around to doing before. 

The day of my birthday Jenny and Ulf had to work but Frank had arranged to have the day off so we went to the exhibit of "Egypt's Sunken Treasures" in the Gropius Bau.  This is an unbelievable collection of objects found in the bay near Alexandria.  A whole city sank into the water around 800 AD and about 500 of the objects that have just been discovered in the past ten years were on display here.  There were a lot of videos documenting the discovery and recovery of the objects, some of which are huge, and all of which date from 700 BC to 800 AD.  One interesting thing is that the Frenchman who went looking for this sunken city was not an archeologist at all. It's a fascinating exhibit that is going on a world tour when it ends in Berlin in September.

Later we went for a walk to explore Berlin Mitte a little more. We had only gone a short way when we noticed the street sign: Rosenstrasse.  It's just a tiny side street but we saw a movie not too long ago about this street during the Nazi period.  The Nazis rounded up a lot of Jewish men who were married to German women and kept them in a building in this street.  The women organized a protest and in the end were successful in freeing their husbands.  It's a true story and a very good film.

There were a lot of other things to see too though.  As you can see from this picture there is quite a lot of building going on in this area.  This was one of the centers of East Berlin and looks pretty desolate now.  In a few years it will be transformed.

The TV tower is the middle of this area, Alexander Platz, and at the moment it is decorated to look like a soccer ball because the World Cup is taking place this summer in Gemany.

There are still a lot of Berlin bears around but I heard they are being collected soon and will go on a tour somewhere.

That afternoon Frank and I walked to the post office to pick up a package for Jenny and on our way home just as we came to Jenny's street, who should we meet but Christine, Gabi and Fridgard who were having a look around Berlin Mitte and were headed to the candy factory nearby.  We decided to have a birthday party instead and all went to the café on the corner and had coffee and cake and a fun hour together.  What a nice coincidence!

That evening Jenny, Frank and I went to a gourmet restaurant for dinner.  Jenny and Ulf had been there once for lunch and Jenny liked it so we decided to try it.  Frank wasn't too happy with the atmosphere or the food and thought it was terribly overpriced, but it was my birthday so I just decided to enjoy it.

I just wish I had been hungrier.  We had had so much to eat that weekend that I wasn't very hungry, but there were so many things to eat.  The bread alone was nice enough for a whole meal, fresh from the oven and with several different spreads. 

This was the kind of restaurant where I have to pick my food by the process of elimination.  I was still a little wary of the first course but the waitress claimed I wouldn't regret ordering an octopus salad and she was right.  It was delicious.

The main course didn't quite live up to the starter but it was still nice.  I had lamb but it was on the bone and I prefer fillet.  They brought us a number of things we didn't order to try and that was fun.  There was one dish with the tiniest little egg on top that I have ever seen.

In spite of the fact that I was pretty full I decided to get dessert because Jenny said Ulf had eaten the chocolate soufflé and it had been wonderful. The waitress warned us that we had to wait half an hour for it to be made but we were in no hurry. Yes, Ulf was right, it was fantastic.

But that still wasn't the end of it all.  As a final touch they brought us a selection of pralines but although they looked very nice we couldn't eat anything else. 

All in all it was an interesting experience that we won't repeat any time soon.  Frank turned a little pale when he got the bill.  But then you only turn sixty once - and only if you're lucky enough to live that long!

Stopover in Strasbourg

On our way home from our adventuresome weekend in Alsace we decided to stop for a while in Strasbourg, which we hadn't visited in several years.  The first place we went after finding a very nice parking space (it was a holiday after all) was the Gothic cathedral begun in the 12th century but not completed until the 15th when it became the tallest building in the world and remained so for several centuries.

The amazing thing about this cathedral is the lavishness of the work done on it.  It's really no wonder that it took centuries to complete when you consider how many figures went into the constuction of just this one portal.

The detail is mind boggling with whole stories carved into the stone.  I'm sure you could spend ages studying the meaning of all these figures and in fact, I'm sure that people have done just that.

Of course the inside of the cathedral is also stunning, especially the stained glass windows.

The real tourist draw however is the
astronomical clock constructed in the 19th century, able to calculate leap years, equinoxes, Easter, the phase of the moon and the position of several planets, among other things.

I also particualarly liked this baptismal font which was carved in stone in layers a little like a Chinese puzzle.  Unfortunately, the photo doesn't really convey the workmanship involved.

We spent the next hour or so wandering around the old town, which is really quite charming, although not very large.

It was getting late and we wanted to have lunch before continuing on home, but since this was a spur of the moment visit I hadn't prepared by choosing a place to eat ahead of time.  We had to go by instinct, or maybe more aptly, sheer chance.  After studying the menu we walked into a restaurant that was less than half full and sat down at a table for six.  There were tables for two but they were the size of small handkerchiefs and even the table for six was a lot smaller than our dining room table.  We waited for a minute and nothing happened.  Frank went to the back to the restroom and a waitress came to the table and told me (in Frence of course) that we couldn't sit there, it was reserved for groups.  I couldn't argue with her so I just nodded and waited for Frank to return.  When he got back I told him what she had said and went back to the restroom myself.  I had to wait for a while and when I returned Frank told me that a waiter had come to the table and told him to leave!  Frank doesn't like to be treated like that and told the waiter he would have to call the police!  However, after being treated like scum we weren't really interested in eating there and gathered up our things and left.  It really put a damper on the whole day and we decided to leave Strasbourg and drive home.  Although actually, to tell you our dirty little secret, we passed a McDonald's on the way back to the car and had lunch there.  The experience certainly left a bad taste in our mouths.  I have no idea what their problem was.  I hope that by the time the Tour de France begins, they will have learned better manners!

Culture in Alsace

The next morning there was some talk of another hike but the group had dwindled to three.  There was no way I was going on another hike - so soon anyway and in any event Frank and I were interested in seeing more of the sights in Alsace.  Elisabeth and Martin had several good suggestions and Steffi, Dorothea and Veit decided to join us after all, although I think Veit was disappointed not to be able to climb another mountain. 

These cows, who look like they are happily grazing in the pasture across the street from our hotel, are actually cutouts.  I'm not sure what their purpose is other than to give tourists the impression that they are part of an idyllic landscape. 


We decided to go to Eguisheim, a pictoresque town founded in the 8th century about 45 minutes away from where we were staying.  Evidently the inhabitants are particularly proud of the fact that Pope Leon IX was born here.  That's a statue of him in the middle of the picture.

Eguisheim is a lovely little town, colorful and inviting with lots of places to eat or have a glass of wine, but unfortunately we had just had a big breakfast and it was too early for wine.

I especially liked the often elaborate signs that hung over the entrances of some of the shops and restaurants.

Eguisheim is originally a Roman town and still retains the basic concentric shape it had in Roman times.  (If you click on the link you can see an aerial view.)  As a result the streets are circular.   This is comforting as it makes it almost impossible to get lost.

We spent a good hour or so wandering along the streets and enjoying the good weather.  It was still fairly quiet because it was Sunday morning and almost every thing was closed.

In one street there was a woman selling sausages from a booth in front of her house.  There was an amazing selection, everything from duck to wild boar.  I wasn't tempted though, because I don't usually like sausages. 

I was impressed with the variety though.  I mean, how often do you have the chance to buy pheasant or goat sausage?

We decided to leave Eguisheim, making some people very happy who were able to park in the two spaces we vacated.  We drove to the former Benedictine abbeyof Murbach, pretty much in the middle of nowhere now, that had from the 8th to the 18th century been the center of the whole region.  Basically only a very small section of the church is still standing.  It's impressive from the front but looks very strange when viewed from the side.

We were feeling a little peckish by now,  in spite of the big breakfast we had had, so we hopped backed into our cars and took off for Dorothea and Veit's favorite Ferme Auberge in the area (Ferme-auberge du SCHNEPFENRIED), not far from the hotel we were staying at.  Since we had been cheated out of our mountain meal the day before, it was only fitting that we enjoy one on this day.  The picture, taken from the Auberge, is of the peak we had wanted (??) to climb the day before when we had been stopped by the snow (I think, second from left).

If you have never had the pleasure of eating at an Auberge, let me say that they are often very simple farms with a very basic menu, but usually all the food served comes directly from the farm produce.  When we arrived (rather late for lunch) there were only two things left on the menu, meat pie and salad.  I think originally there had been three choices.  Everyone except me chose the meat pie, but I am wary of Frence meat dishes and chose the salad.  The salad was very good, but so was the pie and since Frank and I shared I got the best of both. 

However, the main attraction here is the cake or pie with whipped cream which they make themselves from their very own happy cows.  They had a choice of apple or plum cake and I can only describe them as absolutely delicious!  I'm not a big fan of whipped cream and usually pass on it, but this was worth every calorie.

I particularly liked the nice collection of cowbells hanging over the counter.

After we had all finished, Steffi decided to pay the cows a visit and thank them personally for the delicious whipped cream.  She came back to report that they were listening to music.  That explains it!

Hiking in the Vosges Mountains

Many years ago (1979-80 to be exact) Frank and I lived in Viernheim for a year, a town in southern Hessen. Frank was sent there by Lever Brothers, the company he was working for at the time, and the plan was to be there for about three years. After a year he was transferred back to the headquarters in Hamburg and we moved back to Adendorf. Of course, if we had known, we would never have moved, but it all worked out for the best for reasons I won’t go into here. While living in Viernheim we made friends with a family there. They introduced us to quiche and the Pfaelzer Forest, among other things, and since they had five children who were all older than Lee and Jenny, we had a seemingly endless list of babysitters, who taught the girls to crochet and who made clothes for their Monchichis. We’ve kept in touch over the years and joined them several times on their annual family hike in the Vosges mountains of Alsace.

                                                                             Frank and I are not so much into hiking, both of us being flatlanders from way back, but we have managed to keep up, especially since several of the group were quite a bit older than us. However, this year over the long May Day weekend when we gathered for the hike in front of our hotel things had changed. Several people I had counted on to be with us had cancelled at the last minute and the parents, Elisabeth and Martin, didn’t feel up to the hike that was planned. So it was just Frank and myself and three younger, fitter, hobby hikers who think nothing of climbing mountains for fun and do it regularly. I was way out of my league.

                                                                            Our intrepid leader was Veit, Dorothee’s partner, and I think if you look closely you can see that he is a little diabolic. Or maybe it is just that he can’t imagine anyone being a lot less fit than he is. (I’m going for the diabolical explanation!)

                                                                                                                                                     The rest of our group consisted of Frank, Dorothea and her sister Steffanie. (That’s a horrible picture of Veit, but I cannot be denied a modicum of revenge!)

So I had a plan. We were hiking to the top of a mountain where there is a restaurant and Elisabeth and Martin were meeting us there. Maybe I could make it that far and then I could ride back to the hotel with them. Good idea!                                                                    Elisabeth wished us a good time.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           So we started on our way right from in front of the hotel. Perhaps you can judge the steepness by looking at the mountains in the picture.

                                                                                                                                                                                                   

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        I have to admit that the path we took was very nice and at times breathtakingly beautiful, but did it have to keep going up and up?

There were fields of daffodils. (Those little yellow dots on the bottom right are daffodils. You'll have to take my word for it.)

There was also a waterfall that we heard a long time before we saw it.

                                                                                                                                                     About half way up we reached a reservoir....

                                                              ....where we stopped for a short discussion of world events.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         From here there was a noticeable change in the path. Things got a lot more difficult.

Time for a little rest.

We continued on.

Sometimes there was a bridge.....

..... and sometimes there wasn't.

The climbing got a little harder.


OH!!!  (Attention! Passage Difficile)

We're close to the top now.

Time for a break to enjoy the view.


We were late getting to the place we wanted to meet Elisabeth and Martin and where we wanted to have a nice bowl of hot soup and maybe a delicious piece of cake and where I wanted to climb into a warm car and be driven down the mountain. But in the end it didn't matter.

They were closed until the middle of May. (It was April 29th.) And when we managed for the first time to call Elisabeth and Martin on the cell phone, they told us all the roads were closed due to the snow! So I had no choice but to climb back down the mountain.

It wasn't easy.

We had to take a different path down than the one we had planned to take because we weren't sure of the way through the snow. Luckily Martin came to pick us up at the bottom because I could hardly walk any longer. We had been gone for over eight hours and my knees were killing me. After a very long, very hot shower I had recovered enough to eat most of a six course dinner that Veit and Frank ordered for us as soon as we got back to the hotel. (I had to skip one course, actually it was the main course, but I had to have room for dessert.)
It was by far the most difficult hike I've ever been on, but as you can see I did live to tell about it.

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Biking along the Main

Frank has been talking about a bike tour along the Main River for years now, but we have never gotten around to it. After our Easter plans for a week in Paris were squashed by events beyond our control, we tentatively decided to sample the tour.  We had to wait until the weather cleared up though so it wasn’t until the middle of the week when we hopped on a train with our bikes and bike packs and headed for Bamberg.  It took us several trains and several hours because we had to use the local trains.  If we had been more organized we could have taken a faster train, but with bikes you have to reserve at least a day in advance and you can’t do it online. Next time we will arrange for speedier travel.

                                                                                                                                                           We left Wednesday around lunch time and were in Bamberg in the late afternoon. I had chosen a hotel from the internet that looked very nice and reserved a room (Brudermuehle).  It was such a nice hotel I would go back to Bamberg just to stay there.  We had a corner room so we had a view to two sides.

                                                                          Right outside one window was a lock (at least I think that’s what it was) with lots of water rushing through it. It was very loud but it was nice once we got used to it.  Especially during the night it sounded like we were sleeping underneath a waterfall.

                                                                                                                                              To the other side we had a beautiful view of the old town hall.  It was built right on the water as you can see and the bridge practically goes through the building.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                    The room was very nice with a lot of attention to detail. In one of the window casements on the wall was this very useful figure.  If you look closely there is everything you might need to do a quick clothes repair.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          We had a very nice meal in the hotel restaurant.  We don’t usually eat at the hotel we stay at because it’s so unadventurous but the smells coming from the kitchen convinced us that we should make an exception.  After dinner we went exploring.  Frank wanted to see the cathedral, which he didn’t tell me or we might have found it, but in that case we would probably never have made it to the top of one of the seven hills that Bamberg is built on.  There we walked around the monestary and had a beautiful view of Bamberg in the twilight.  We wandered back to the hotel through the old town and had a very good night’s sleep.

Breakfast the next morning was just the way I like it.  There was a lot of fresh fruit, yoghurt and all sorts of grains and nuts to make muesli and there was even fresh strawberry sauce to put on top of it.  Of course I ate about five times as much as I normally eat because it was all so delicious, but we were about to start biking, so it was easy to convince myself that it was necessary.

Well, actually, before we started on our biking tour we wanted to see the cathedral.  It turned out to be only about a five minute walk from the hotel and when we got there we found out that there was a guided tour at 10:30, which we decided to take.  It was one of the best and most interesting tours we have taken recently.  The young guide was very knowledgeable and had a lot of interesting things to say.  The cathedral is famous for a number of reasons.

Founded in 1007 by Heinrich II, a Holy Roman Emperor, it contains his tomb, where he lies along with his wife, Kunigunde.  (I love that name. My daughters can be happy I never heard of it before they were born!) Both of them were sanctified but Kunigunde is considered the more important saint.

Their tomb was sculptored by Tilman Riemenschneider, a very famous German artist most known for his wooden carvings.  It's hard to imagine how anyone can create such plastic images out of stone.

                                                                                                                                    These two pictures are details from their lives  from the sides of the tomb.   In the picture above Kunigunde is walking over hot plowshares to prove that she is innocent of adultery.   In the one to the right Heinrich is being judged by the Archangel Michael and there are demons on one side of the scales trying to influence the judgement and send him to Hell.   They didn't succeed though.   The other half of the scales was heavier.

Another reason the cathedral is famous is because it contains the Bamberger Rider, a full size statue of a man on horseback from around 1230.  Even I had heard of this statue, but the reason it’s so well known is that the Nazis used it for propaganda purposes.  For them it was a symbol of the German soul or something like that and it appeared in school books and on posters and basically wherever they could make use of it.  No one is really sure who the Rider actually is and I’m not sure it would be so well known without the help of the Nazis.

There was quite a bit more to see, for example the tomb of Pope Clemens II, the only Pope buried north of the Alps, and a crypt.  After the tour we returned to the hotel and picked up our bikes and bikepacks and headed out of town along the river in the direction of Würzburg.

The first stretch still within the town is called “Little Venice” although “Teeny-Tiny Venice” might be more appropriate.


An hour or so after we started we stopped for a picnic lunch and Frank finally had a chance to read the newspaper.  I know it doesn’t look very comfortable – it wasn’t.  But Frank didn’t seem to mind!

                                                                                                                                                            The bike path was often quite idyllic, especially when it led us right along the water.

The route took us through some nice towns, although I'm not even sure which town this was without studying the map. We spent the second night in Hassfurth. The only really good thing about this little town was it had a very good bike shop and they took in Frank's bike for an overnight stay and made it well again.  It had fallen over several times and the hand brakes were scraping the tires.  We also bought Frank very nice new bike packs there.  However, we had a hard time finding a decent place to eat and in the end, after eating at the best place in town, decided there probably wasn't one.

                                                                                                                                                                                                  All the nicer when we found a good spot for our picnic the next day.

                                                                                                                 We reached Schweinfurt and had a look around.   It's not a particularly nice town, having been destroyed in the war, but there is a fairly new museum there that we spent some time at.  It's the largest private collection of 19th century art in Germany, which belonged to Georg Schäfer, an industrialist, and in 2000 the city of Schweinfurt built a large building to house the works. We particularly liked the works shown of Carl Spitzweg.  Saturday morning we had just decided to continue along the Main, although the next rather long stretch offered no possibility of hopping on a train until sometime Sunday afternoon in Würzburg.  While we were sitting at the breakfast table, there was a loud clap of thunder and soon it started raining.  So much for continuing on. We waited for a while, hoping the rain would abate.  We biked for about 5 miles to the train station which was quite a ways outside of town, unusual for a German town, and got pretty wet in the process.  Luckily it wasn't very cold.  While we were standing in the station waiting for our train, Jenny called to ask if we would be home any time that day.  She was invited to the birthday party of a very close school friend on Sunday and she had considered flying, but decided to drive, which meant that she could spend the night at our house.  So it was all for the best that our bike tour was cut a little short by the rain.

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