This is a summary of our trip to Germany, France, Denmark and Switzerland that we took from September 18 to November 5, 2006. We tried to hit the highlights – our mode of touring has changed over the years, mainly it is a lot slower pace. We usually only go to one “attraction” a day and we spend a lot of time drinking wine (in France) or beer (in Germany and Denmark) in outdoor cafes – absorbing the culture! (In Copenhagen our tour guide informed us that the Carlsberg Brewery was a major supporter of the museums, so we not only absorbed the culture while quaffing a brew, but also supported it.)
We would like to thank Wladimir and Gunda for the pictures that are linked to below.
We
landed in Frankfurt on September 19, 2006, picked up our rental car – a
very nifty Audi – and drove south to Speyer. This was the first time that we drove
out of Frankfurt without getting lost.
Speyer is a very interesting, historic city but the reason we went to
Speyer was so Pat could do more genealogy research at the Bischoff’s
Archiv. After a couple of tries,
we found our Ferienwohnung (literally, vacation apartment) Bernd
Zettler. It was an interesting
arrangement of a bedroom and kitchen, a separate bathroom down the hall and a
separate living room at the other end of the hall. The owners lived upstairs. It was in a great location – we could easily walk to
the heart of the town.
The
next day, somewhat recovered from our trans-Atlantic flight, we checked out the
town and then walked to the train station to get train reservations for our
next destination. All was not well
– the ticket agent said the computer indicated there were no reservations
available but suggested we come back the next day. He seemed a little confused about what he was seeing on his
computer.
The
next day all was still not well at the train station and we decided we would
have to go back to Frankfurt early to make reservations. Pat went to the Speyer
Bistumsarchiv (Speyer bishopric archive) during the day. In the evening we went to a restaurant
in the Füssgängerzone (pedestrian area) and a German living in Luxembourg
started talking to Pat in German.
He treated us to a beer and he and Pat had a long discussion including
how much he disliked the current American administration. After supper we went to a Mahler
concert in the Ratssaal with a mezzo-soprano, baritone and piano. While Mahler is not our favorite
composer, the concert was very enjoyable and very well attended.
Thursday
we went to the Technik Museum Speyer,
a museum that has a remarkable collection of trains, planes, boats and
automobiles. Some of the exhibits
are outside, including a Boeing 747 jumbo jet and a Russian An-22
transportation plane. These are
both raised high in the air and you climb two or three flights of stairs to get
to them. You can either go down
the same way you came up or you can slide down a long tube on a piece of
“carpet” – a super slide.
Pat took the quick way down along with several little boys – it
was quite a sight! We ate outside
at a restaurant in the evening; sitting next to us was a table of six people
and a dog. The dog was quietly
friendly which started a conversation and we were asked to join their
table. Some spoke only German and
some spoke both English and German.
By the end of the evening, Pat had been invited to play golf the next
day with two of the men.
Since
Pat was going golfing, Cynthia decided to go to the Historical Museum. Cynthia had been at the museum for
about an hour enjoying the special exhibit on Henry IV (not the English one)
and heard a loud bong over the loudspeaker system and then a loud voice saying
“Frau Cynthia Karl, Frau Cynthia Karl, bitte kommen Sie sofort zum
Empfang”. That is the only time
Cynthia has ever been paged at a public place, or any place for that
matter. Fortunately, she
understood enough German to know to go to the reception desk. Awaiting her there were Pat and the new
friend, Reinhard. It turned out
there was a tournament at the club and they could not play golf so Reinhard had
suggested he give us a tour of the “Weinstrasse”. It turned out to be a four-hour tour that included seeing a
lot of the vineyards in the area, seeing Hambacher Castle – the cradle
of German democracy dating from the revolution of 1832 – and eating a
local delicacy called “Saumagen”.
Saumagen means pig stomach – originally this dish of ground pork
and spices was cooked in the stomach and served. Today “fake stomachs” are used in the preparation. It’s a specialty of the area, and
Helmut Kolh would “treat” all of his foreign guests to it; it probably cut down
on the number of official visits.
After the late lunch we drove by the golf club and had a glass of
champagne; then we went to Reinhard’s house and met his daughters and then back
to our Ferienwohnung for a quick change of clothes before going to an art
exhibit where we were to meet Reinhard and his wife Claudia. Interesting local art talent, but we
were not tempted to try and get any of the art home. A crowd favorite was the Angelus – this consisted of
about 9 floor lamps that were placed before a window that looked toward the
cathedral. Every time the cathedral
bells rang the shades on the floor lamps undulated. After the exhibit we went with Reinhard and Claudia and
several of their friends to a restaurant in the area and had a late night meal
outside.
Saturday,
at the suggestion of our new friends in Speyer, we drove to the train station
in Mannheim to make our reservation
– here there was no problem.
We learned a lesson – don’t try to make major trip arrangements at
small town train stations. Then on
to Ruppertsecken,
a village of 384 inhabitants in the Donnersbergkreis,
a beautiful hiking area. Our Ferienwohnung here consisted of a
bedroom, living room and kitchen and cost about $26 per night. We had been invited for supper that
evening at Gunda and Willie’s (pic_1,
pic_2, pic_3, pic_4, pic_5, pic_6) in Kirchheimbolanden (pic_7, pic_8), a 15-minute drive from
Ruppertsecken. We had been
corresponding via email with Gunda, who is somehow distantly related to Pat
– probably 5th or 6th cousin - for the past two
years, so we were delighted to finally meet her. Gunda fixed a marvelous meal including wild boar and we
really enjoyed getting to know both Gunda and Willie. They have a beautiful, large home. They invited us to come back for a supper a few days later
and once again, Gunda fixed an outstanding meal (pic_9, pic_10, pic_11). After a walk around their area, we had
dessert and after dinner drinks on the third floor of their house which has a
lovely view of Kirchheimbolanden and the surrounding area. Here are pictures of the evenings. We look forward to seeing Gunda and
Willie on our next trip to Germany.
Pat
spent the next few days gathering information for his genealogy project but he
also drove back to Speyer and played a round of golf with Reinhard at the Golf-Club Pfalz . Cynthia spent a lot of her time walking and also watching
television in hopes of improving her German.
On September 28 we returned our rental car to the Frankfurt airport and then caught our train to Brussels – the first leg of our trip to Bordeaux. The closer we got to Brussels, the more we worried because the train kept getting later and our 11 minutes to change trains dwindled down to 1 minute. Fortunately the train from Brussels to Paris was right next to our train on the same platform and we ran over (with luggage) and hopped on. The reservations for this train cost a lot more that reservations generally cost and we did not understand why. It became clear when we were served a very nice lunch – we naively asked how much it cost and they said, “But you have already paid for it.” It also included as much wine as you wanted to drink, which Pat found out after he had gone to the snack car and bought another bottle of wine – the attendant said “You don’t have to buy that – you can have more wine!”. Oh well, live and learn. Now that we had made it on this train, we started worrying about transferring via subway from one railway station in Paris to another railway station. It turned out you could buy the subway tickets on the train so that saved some time. As it turned out it was a piece of cake and we made it in plenty of time for our train to Bordeaux. Now we could relax!
Bordeaux
is in southwestern France close to the coast in what was once know as Aquitaine
(remember Eleanor of Aquitaine in “The Lion in Winter”?). Based on an article in “The New York
Times” we had reserved a room at Un Chambre
en Ville. We were ideally
located here and could walk – and walk we did – through the whole
city. There are multitudes of
small, independently owned restaurants and the first evening we ate at A
la Table du Pecheur a small seafood restaurant. The next day we went to the Bordeaux wine headquarters and
signed up for a tour on Saturday.
Right across the street was a lovely wine bar, which introduced us to
drop stops. Cynthia’s personal
wine favorite was Moulis
Chateau Poujeaux; unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately) there isn’t
anyplace stateside in our area to buy it; Pat’s personal favorites were all of
them. We headed then to the
Aquitaine Museum, which turned out to be extremely interesting, especially for
people who knew very little about the history of Aquitaine.
Our
tour on Saturday was to the Medoc region and we visited two chateaus - Chateau Kirwan and Chateau d'Agassac. The chateaus, meaning vineyards in this
usage, go on for miles and miles on the flat land. The information on the tours was interesting but, of course,
the best part was the sampling at the end. At the second chateau we got several refills and the entire
group got a lot chattier toward the end.
The train trip on October 1 from Bordeaux to Paris was easy. Not so easy was getting to the Fereinwohnung where we were to meet Hanne and Klaus. Pat stood in line for about 20 minutes to get our tickets to the Paris Metro. He then proceeded to stick his ticket in the entrance and pull his luggage through the turnstile and gate. He got through but his luggage got stuck in the gate; he started yelling, “Help” but no one came. A French man came up and told him not to yell “Help” but to yell “Au Secours” – Pat started yelling “Au Secours” but still no one came. Cynthia decided to try sticking her ticket in, in hopes that this would release the gate and Pat could pull his suitcase out. No luck. Pat resumed yelling “Au Secours”. Then a man with a pass came up, sized up the situation, inserted his pass and for some reason the gate opened so Pat could get his suitcase out; the man got through too. Now Pat was on one side and Cynthia was on the other and Cynthia had used her ticket and didn’t want to stand in line again for 20 minutes. Some young French people came by and thought first that Cynthia did not understand the system; after many gestures, the young people decided Pat did not understand how to come through the exit gates. After awhile they just gave up. Then we noticed right next to us was a gate for people with baggage – why didn’t we see it to begin with? Pat told Cynthia to slide her baggage through and crawl under the gate since she didn’t have a ticket. Cynthia was not interested in this but after five minutes decided it was the only thing to do so under the gate she crawled. We walked away quickly, hoping not to get arrested. And thus began our life of crime in Paris.
We
located our Ferienwohnung, La
Ferme des Barmonts, but the reception clerk said he had no record of any
reservations. It took Pat about 30
minutes of talking with the reception clerk to get us a room. Hanne and Klaus arrived another 30
minutes later and had all of the documentation to show that a reservation had
been made and everything was resolved.
We then met Anna and Michael who were staying in a hotel in Montmartre
and all of us went out to eat. It
was really nice to meet good friends in Paris.
Our
first stop the next day was Pere
Lachaise Cemetery where many famous people are buried including Jim Morrison (the Doors), Champollian
and Edith Piaf. The cemetery is huge and, even with the
maps provided, it is difficult to find a particular grave. Michael was a big fan of “The Doors”
and wanted to see Morrison’s grave.
It is definitely an interesting experience to walk around the
cemetery. From the cemetery we
went to Musee National du
Moyen Age (national museum of the middle ages) located in an old
abbey. The highlight of the museum
is "The Lady and
the Unicorn" tapestries; these well-known tapestries are spectacular
to actually see; one room of the museum is dedicated to them. Dinner was at Restaurant Chartier, a place
Pat, Elizabeth and Cynthia had been to with Klaus about 20 years ago. It is a unique Paris restaurant not on
the usual tourist agenda.
At
Klaus’ suggestion on Tuesday we went to the Galeries
Lafayette; even if one is not interested shopping, the stores are worth
visiting. The rotunda is
spectacular and the view from the rooftop is excellent. We then took the Metro to Notre
Dame – one of Europe’s great Cathedrals. Then time for a pre-prandial libation – we went to Sacre Coeur; Michael fetched
cups and a bottle of wine and we drank wine and enjoyed the view. We found a
small restaurant in Montmartre
(the area where The Moulin
Rouge is – we walked by it several time but it is very touristy) with
good food and then we stayed up late drinking wine and talking.
Pat
had been to the Louvre
the last time we were in Paris but Cynthia had only spent 15 minutes there so
this was high on her list. Most
famously, the Mona Lisa is there, but the Louvre, originally a palace, is a
treasure trove of art up to the 19th century. After about 4 hours, one gets sensory
overload but it is a wonderful place.
Afterwards, we found another small restaurant in Montmartre. The restaurant was slow in taking our
orders but eventually everyone got their appetizers and entrees except Pat who
had ordered spaghetti bolognese – not a difficult dish to prepare. The waiter always said “It’s coming”
when someone from our group asked about it. Soon dessert arrived for everyone but still no spaghetti
bolognese for Pat. The waiter even
started clearing the dishes from our table. Finally Michael said, “I think we should walk out”! Much to his surprise the rest of us
agreed, and we stood up and left.
On the way out Michael said “Call the gendarmes”. The restaurant made no effort to stop
us or discuss the problem with us (and it wasn’t a language problem). Pat had still not eaten so we found a
little outdoor café where he could have a ham sandwich and the rest of us had
after dinner drinks - Pernod. We
laughed (some felt guilty) about the scene of these six older solid citizens
walking out of a French bistro.
Anna
and Michael left the next day to drive back to Münster. Pat and Cynthia wanted to go back to
the Centre
Pompidou – it was a happening place the last time we were there. It seemed a little quiet when we
arrived – only a couple of street performers and mimes were out. We went into the Bibliotheque to look around. When we all met up again after about an
hour everything was still subdued and we found out there was a museum workers’
strike that day which meant no museum visit and no street performers. All of us were tired – our legs
had been doing a lot of walking – so we hopped onto a Seine Autobus for a little relaxation. This water taxi is a great way to see
some of Paris; there are about eight stops and it goes by the Eiffel Tower,
Notre Dame and other notable buildings.
We got out at the Jardin des Plantes
and walked around and then headed back to the Restaurant Chartier.
Our
last day in Paris we went to see Napoleon's Tomb; it is
quite impressive. Pat said this
was what he would like to have. It
was a short walk from there to the Rodin Museum (think of “The
Thinker) which is located in his former home and gardens. It was a lovely way to spend the
afternoon walking through the gardens and encountering one Rodin statue after
another.
MÜNSTER
Saturday,
October 7 we made the 8-hour drive to Münster, Germany,
with Hanne and Klaus. We have been
to Münster several times and it is always great to be back. It is a city of
bikes; there are dual traffic lights – one set for cars and one set for
bikes and woe is the person who walks in the bike path! After arriving at their home, we went
with Hanne and Klaus to meet some friends at a local Kneipe (sort of like an
English pub) to play cards. The
specialty of the house is half a roast chicken, which is excellent, especially
with good German beer.
The
next day we spent with Anna and her daughter, Julia. Anna and Michael’s other daughter, Hanna, was pregnant and
close to her due date so did not join us.
We thought we had seen almost all there was to see in Münster but Anna
and Julia surprised us by taking us to The University of Muenster
Botanical Garden. It was a
delightful place to spend the day.
We ended up in a wine bar that had at the most eight tables. After supper they walked us back to
Hanne and Klaus’s.
Having
learned our lesson in Speyer about making reservations, we walked to the train
station and made our train arrangements for Copenhagen and in the evening Hanne
fixed a great meal. The next
evening all of us, which included Daniel and Birte, went to see Das Parfum, which stars Ben Whishaw,
Dustin Hoffman, and Alan Rickman.
The German was dubbed but well done; much of the movie has an off screen
narrator. Cynthia was interested
in seeing a movie in Germany and had read the book several years ago, so this
was a good choice. The book was
written originally in German and is a very unusual, powerful story; the movie
was very well done. Notable
difference between German and American cinemas - seats are reserved in German
cinemas and there are 30 minutes of general commercials before the movie
starts; you can also buy beer at the concession stand. After the movie we all went to have a
beer at a local pub and then Hanne, Julia, Birte, Pat, and Cynthia went pub
hopping until 3:00 AM.
Klaus
had found a special exhibition for us to go to and on our way we stopped
briefly at Freckenhorst
to see the 12th century church in this little town. Paderborn, a
beautiful small German town, was the site of a huge, interesting exhibit, Canossa, which focussed on the dispute
between Henry IV of Germany and Pope Gregory VII in 1077. The Pope won the dispute and Henry paid
allegiance to him by walking on his knees in snow at Canossa to ask his
forgiveness. This was a major historical
event that affected European political and religious thought and form for years. A rallying cry of Bismarck in the 19th
century to maintain German independence and encourage growth was “to Canossa,
we will not go”.
Anna
had a dinner at the Bali restaurant for her birthday- it was such fun to be
there and get to attend. Michael
was back from Hamburg and Hanna and her husband were there. We first met Anna and Michael in
Houston when their daughters were two and three and now Hanna, the younger
daughter, was soon to have her baby.
It was a lovely evening and a wonderful way to end our visit to Münster.
On
Saturday, October 14th, we took the train from Münster to Copenhagen
via Hamburg. We weren’t sure how
we would make the crossing from Germany to Denmark; it turned out to be a ferry
that accommodated cars and a train.
The crossing took about 45 minutes and the train doors were open so
people could go on deck to buy things and/or watch the ocean. Our hotel in Copenhagen turned out to
be about 6 blocks from the train station and within walking distance of central
Copenhagen. It was fairly late
when we arrived at the hotel, so we decided to eat at the hotel instead of
trying to find a restaurant in the dark.
We stopped at the bar and each had a martini – later we found out
the martinis were $16 a piece!
Copenhagen is very expensive!
Our
first day in Copenhagen we took a city tour; we are not generally into taking
tours but this is a good way to see a lot in a short period of time. It turned out to be worthwhile,
although “The Little Mermaid” is vastly overrated. Denmark is still a monarchy and the tour included a stop at
the palace to see the changing of the guard; the queen was not in residence at
the time we were there so there was an abbreviated ceremony. The security guards were very alert to
make sure tourists did not get too close to the military guards at the palace
entrances. After the tour we
walked along the world’s longest pedestrian street - Stroeget. We ended up the day at Tivoli Gardens, one of the world’s oldest
amusement parks that started in 1843. It is mainly an amusement park but also
contains theatres, mimes, ballets and concerts. There are also good restaurants there including the one we
ate at - Cafe Ultimo.
On
the recommendation of Hanna and her husband, the next day we took the S-bahn
(streetcar) 30 km north to visit the Louisiana
Museum (no relation to our state or the French kings; supposedly the
originator of the museum was married three times and all of his wives were
named Louisa). It was well worth
the trip; the museum is spectacularly situated on a seaside knoll. The collection is not huge but very
interesting. After we got back to
Copenhagen, we found this interesting restaurant - Peder Oxe. It is in an old building with wood
floors and you summon the wait staff by turning on a light at your table.
Tuesday,
we took in the National Museum
which had excellent exhibits – unfortunately, we can’t remember
everything we saw but we know it was great! That afternoon, we had our most memorable meal in Denmark
and maybe the whole trip. We got
to Ida Davidsen's around 1:00 PM and
were told there no places available until 3:00 PM and they close at 4:00
PM. We returned at 3:00 PM and it
was worth the wait. The only thing
they serve are smørrebrød; it is hard to explain
why these open face sandwiches are so good but they are – might have
something to do with the copious amounts of caviar but even the ones without
caviar are good. We each ordered
two; one was called the “Victor Borge”.
October
18th we took the train from Copenhagen to Celle to visit our friends
Sylvia and Harold. They recently
moved back to Celle after living in Lingen for ten years. They now have a lovely penthouse within
walking distance of the city center.
That evening at supper, Harold took Pat to see the kindling that he uses
for the fireplace. The previous
owners of the penthouse had a Blockflöte (recorder) factory and the kindling
was scrap wood from the manufacturing process. It turned out the previous owner and the factory is Moeck – the recorders that we have owned
for years. We went to the Moeck
showroom the next day and looked at all of the beautiful instruments. The rest of the day we filled with
visits to an orchid shop, a healing plants garden and a funky art museum billed
as a 24-hour museum. Indeed, the
tour was outside and the art works consisted of lighting in some way and
projected through the glass walls of the building. One of the art works showed the Morse code in lights; Pat
spotted a mistake in the rendition (the piece consisted of the letters of the
alphabet arranged in a circle, but the order of the letters was: abcdfgehijk…). Not sure how appreciative the tour
guide was in finding out about the mistake. We ended the evening with a good
dinner at the Ratskeller.
We
took the short train trip to Berlin on October 20th. The first time we were in Berlin, the
wall was still up and we remember looking out at a wall observation point at
the no-man’s land between East and West Berlin. The second time we were in Berlin the wall had been torn
down, but Berlin was not yet the capitol and former East Berlin looked run
down. We were interested to see
Berlin now that it is the capitol of Germany. Our hotel turned out to be in a section of former East
Germany about 10 blocks from the Brandenburger
Tor, the former dividing point between East and West Berlin. It is a very busy, active place now,
especially with government offices and embassies close by.
We were upgraded at the Hilton where we were staying (hotel points) and had access to the executive lounge that provided a great German breakfast and appetizers in the afternoon and free liquor anytime. What a deal!
The
next day we went to the KaDeWe (full
name: Kaufhof des Westens, i.e.
Department store of the West. It
was said to be a way of poking the Commies in the eye with a sharp stick back
in the old days because of the luxuriousness of its wares, especially when
compared to what was available in East Berlin.), but everyone calls it KaDeWe,
the glorious West Berlin department store, to see if it had changed. It is still as glitzy as it was and the
food/restaurant floor was incredibly crowded. Pat went to try and find a friend of his and Cynthia walked
through the Tiergarten,
which is roughly comparable to N.Y. Central Park in that it is a huge park in
the center of a big city. It is a
beautiful park where the city folk jog, walk their dogs, and stroll. Seeing it now it is hard to believe,
but after WWII all of the trees in the park were cut down to use for
firewood. We met at the Berlin
Philharmonic complex later that afternoon. Cynthia had read about the Berlin
Philharmonic building and the smaller, but same structural design chamber
music building in Berlin years ago and had long had a desire to hear a concert
there. A wish fulfilled this
trip! We went to a concert of “The
Four Seasons” by Vivaldi. The concert
hall is built in the round, so some of the seats are in the back of the
orchestra. We had seats in front
of the orchestra; the seats themselves are angled so there is ample
legroom. It was an excellent
concert.
Pat
had not been to Frederick the Great’s summer palace, Sans
Souci, so we took the train to Potsdam and walked and walked and
walked. The palace and gardens are
now a public park; it was a beautiful day and the park was crowded. Unfortunately, all of the tours through
the palace were full so we walked around it and looked at the extensive terraces
cascading down in front of the palace.
As palaces go, it is pretty small.
Frederick the Great built another palace on the grounds (about a ½ mile
away) for his guests. Pat opted to
sit and read a book while Cynthia walked to the Neues Palais. This building still needs extensive
renovation; it made one realize how much effort and money goes in to keeping
these historical buildings in good condition.
Pat
was tired of seeing stuff and walking so the last day in Berlin he went to a
bookstore. Cynthia trudged bravely
on to see the Reichstag, the renovated
capital. This was the same
building that Christo and
Jeanne- Claude wrapped in 1995 before the capitol was moved from Bonn to
Berlin. The biggest attraction to
visiting the Reichstag is the replacement for the dome that was burned during
the Nazi era. There were long
lines of people waiting to get in; Cynthia almost decided not to wait but
decided it would be worthwhile and it was. Fortunately, there was a young woman from Hamburg in line
that spoke excellent English and was interesting to talk to. At one point, a TV interviewer with cameraman
came up to her and did a “man on the street” interview about her feelings about
the German health care situation.
The glass dome is an impressive structure that one walks up on a
circular ramp; a different circular ramp is used for descending. The view is outstanding, and the
historical display about the Reichstag is also interesting. The lady in line said that the grounds
in front of the Reichstag had been planted with trees and flowers intentionally
so there would be no indication of power or a parade ground atmosphere.
It
was a short train trip on October 24th from Berlin to Dresden. Dresden was heavily bombed (that was an
understatement) at the end of WWII and much of the city was not reconstructed
until after German reunification, so a lot of buildings appeared new-old. As a result of the bombing and
rebuilding, the city lacks the usual small independently owned stores and
restaurants that we have found and like in other German cities. The city is beautifully situated on the
Elbe River; most of its early history was unknown to us so there were a lot of
interesting places to visit. Our
first excursion was a boat tour on the Elbe that gave us an idea of the lay of
the land and some history; also, it was just plain relaxing. That evening we went to an organ
concert at the Kreuzkirche,
billed as 4 hands and 4 feet. A
duo organ concert can produce quite a sound in a big building.
The
former palaces of the Saxon royalty called the Zwinger now house an art
museum which has the “Sistine Madonna” by Raphael, a Rüstkammer (armor and
weaponry) museum which has an excellent collection of weapons and coats of
armor and a mathematics and physics museum which has some really interesting
exhibits of early scientific instruments.
We saw them all – it was nice that all of the museums were in the
same area. It allowed us to take a
beer break after each museum!
Looking
for something a little different, Pat found the sächsische Landesbibliothek and he
also found the S-bahn (streetcar) and bus connections to take us there. The library has a rare book collection
and unbeknownst to us a very rare Mayan manuscript from the 13th
century – the Codex
Dresdenensis. It was exciting
to see this rare document that is still not completely understood. It is kept in a locked room along with
some rare, illuminated manuscripts.
A
long train trip on Saturday, October 28th – from Dresden to
Speicher to visit our nephew-in-law’s family. Helena and Wladimir met us at the train station in St. Gallen – we were glad they
recognized us after three years!
They took us to our hotel, Gasthaus
Krone, and 30 minutes later picked us up to go to a concert to hear Martina and Urs sing with their a capella
group. It was a real treat to
hear them sing.
Sunday
we walked the short walk from our hotel to Helena and Wladimir’s (pic_12, pic_13) to have fondue with everyone (pic_14, pic_15). Martina and Urs were there with their three children. Thanks to Wladimir we learned to dip
our bread cube in cherry schnapps before dipping into the cheese. After dinner, Helena and Wladimir took
us on a tour of the area; it is beautiful country. We went to Appenzell and had just enough time to visit the
folkart (pic_16, pic_17, pic_18, pic_19) and cheese museum (pic_20, pic_21, pic_22, pic_23) and walk around Appenzell. We went in to take a look at the big
church and it was totally packed.
Three choirs from area churches had joined to present a spiritual
concert – what a surprise for us to hear spirituals in Switzerland. It turns out, that singing spirituals
is common there.
The
next day, Wladimir took us to St. Anton,
a mountaintop area with spectacular views. The Swiss cattle really do wear huge bells – we had
seen some in the museum but it was surprising to see every cow had a big
bell. Then we went to Martina and Urs’ place. Martina had fixed lunch for us –
all of the children came home for lunch from school. Urs and Dominick also made it in from work (pic_24, pic_25, pic_26). After lunch the children headed back to school, Urs and
Dominick to work and the rest of us to St. Gallen . Pat
had read about the library, the Stiftsbibliothek,
a part of the former Benedictine abbey; it was a wonderful ornate wood paneled
library – even had a mummy at one end. We took the Trogenerbahn,
an intercity connection, back to Speicher and the next morning we took it back
to St. Gallen for the next to last leg of our trip. Wladimir met us at the
Trogenerbahn to make sure we made it okay!
We
had made no plans for our final week so decided that Nuremberg
would be interesting, and it was, although our tourists legs and minds were
getting pretty tired by this time.
We talked about just sitting around the hotel but it seemed a shame to
pass up a very interesting city.
Nuremberg was a Nazi stronghold and was almost totally
destroyed by the end of WWII.
The rebuilding and reconstruction of a city that was 95% destroyed never
ceases to amaze. We did our usual
strolling around the city center and getting a feel for the city. The next day we went to the Albrect
Duerer House, where he lived and worked for many years. Interestingly, there are no original
examples of his work there – he or his widow sold all of his drawings and
woodcuts. A few years ago we saw
an excellent exhibit of Duerer’s works in Osnabruck, so it was not
disappointing that we didn’t see any in Nuremberg. Right around the corner was a museum of local history, the Fembohaus. This museum also included film of the
Nazi era in Nuremberg; it was well done and sobering to watch. Earlier in our trip Gunda had shown us
her father’s genealogical chart, which was produced in the 1930s in order to
prove that he had no Jewish blood and was thus eligible for jobs (and not
eligible for the gas chamber).
Since
we had an unused Eurail trip remaining, we took the train to Munich on November
2. We didn’t do anything special
– just walked around the places that we remembered from previous
visits. Munich is one our favorite
German cities.
Our
last day we dragged our weary legs to the Germanisches
National Museum – we’re glad we didn’t miss it. The exhibit of old musical instruments
was fantastic. There was also an
excellent exhibit of dress/costume and rural homes and architecture.
FRANKFURT
And
then we took the train back to Frankfurt and on November 5th our
flight back home. It was a great
trip and most of it went very smoothly.
Looking forward to the next one!
