Playing Charades in Germany Part 1

Barges on the misty Mosel River.

Mosel River- view from hilltop castle.


Newest Disney ride through the steep vineyards.

Riverside town as seen from the castle.

Here in the Netherlands, we have several holidays in the spring-time. Thursday (May 12) was Ascension Day and Dennis and I decided to take the Friday off to make it a 4 day weekend. After our nice experience in Rothenburg a couple weeks ago, we thought we’d do a little more exploring in Germany. This time we targeted the Mosel River Valley, a prime wine producing region with a bike trail along the river.

We made our hotel reservations on-line because we figured it could be busy with the holiday weekend. A couple days before the trip, I noticed that the weather forecast was for 50 degrees and rainy. So I looked at the cancellation policy for the hotel and realized that we would pay 80% of the entire bill if we cancelled. Even when Dennis came down with a cold the day before, we decided to go anyway and try to make the best of it. Actually I couldn’t help thinking of so many Memorial Day weekends in Minnesota when it was cold and rainy all weekend until it’s time to go home – then the sun comes out.

We packed the bikes (hybrids for this trip) and a lot of cold medicine and drove the 4 hours to the Mosel. The TomTom navigation system didn’t even register the name of the small town we were staying in, but we did finally manage to find the hotel. I guess we should have bought a map of Germany at one of those rest areas – it might have come in handy.

Checking into the hotel was a bit of extra fun. First, there was a note on the door instructing us to go to a neighboring hotel. The note was in German, so we were pretty much guessing. With a little bit of help from an English-speaking person, we finally found the right place. Little did we know how rare it would be to find another person who speaks English there! The hotel lady only spoke German, but that didn’t seem to limit her talking. She just kept talking to us in German as she showed us the room, the honor bar, and the breakfast room. Everything looked fine so we just kept smiling and nodding. We did notice that some words in German are the same as in Dutch, so we were able to understand every 5th word she said.

By the time we were settled into our room, it was about 4:00 so we decided to walk around town and stretch our legs a bit. Well, that took about 5 minutes. So, we strolled along the river path until we got to the next small town. Here, we found some wine-tasting shops that were still open. One of them also sold homemade liquors from large flasks. We were able to taste before we bought some hazelnut cream liquor and chocolate orange whiskey. The best part was when she filled some small bottles and then labeled them with a marker. We saw marker-labeled bottles of liquor in some of the restaurants in France and we wondered what they were and where they came from. Now we know those bottles probably came from a shop like this one!

On Friday morning, we dressed very warm and got on the bikes. The bike path along the river was awesome. Between the river and the steep hills dotted with grapevines were quaint small towns with river-side cafes and wine tasting shops. This is a place that time forgot. The hills are too steep for modern farming equipment, so they still grow the grapes in the traditional way. We rode past many fields with little tram-ways running up the hills. We thought this would make a good Disneyland ride. We stopped frequently to visit the cafes and snoop around the towns. We found a cool castle on the top of a hill. It was a ruin, but the view was spectacular. We couldn’t help but wonder how much better it would look if the sun were out. By the time we were done with the castle, I was freezing and it was starting to rain just a bit. We realized we’d been out and about from 10:00 until 3:00 so it was a good time to head back to the hotel and clean up for dinner.

For dinner we went to a neighboring hotel restaurant, arriving at about 6:15, only to be told that they were full. We thought we were the only ones who ate dinner this early in Europe! He said it was too bad because they were doing a lovely 5 course meal of local favorites (only 13 euros per person – unbelievably cheap!). We were set to go somewhere else when the guy said he’d check with the chef and see if there was enough food. He came back with a smile and sat us in the bright dining room. We were still not exactly sure what we’d get, but at least we didn’t have to translate a German menu! WE had the following: salad with duck breast and orange dressing, fennel cream soup, fish with lentils, pork with gravy (naturally), and ice cream with berry sauce. Everything was pretty tasty and went nicely with the local Riesling wine.

Christmas Pyramid

Christmas Pyramid - heat from candles makes the propeller spin and it turns like a carrousel.


The angels are on the top layer.



The wise men are on the middle layer.


And the soldiers are on the bottom layer.

As promised, pictures of the Christmas pyramid. Obviously, this is not the kind of thing you can easily pack in a suitcase to take home. Most of the time when you travel, you can only bring home little things. We are collecting some of the bigger things while we can.

Giro d'Italia

Here are the race leaders - about 5 minutes ahead of the rest.


Here are the rest of the riders.

Yes, the Giro d'Italia started in Amsterdam this year. We had the unusual opportunity to watch the Tour of Italy in the Netherlands. Stage 2 of the race went from Amsterdam to Utrecht and passed within 5 miles of our town. We rode our bikes over the race course and watched them speed by.

Since I had the camera, I actually didn't see any of the race. I clicked as fast as I could and only got a few pictures. The whole group passed in just a couple of seconds.

We abandoned our plans to ride the train to Utrecht to watch the finish because I injured my leg this morning and can barely walk. Biking was OK, but walking was really a bummer. Utrecht would have involved a lot of walking and would have been pretty crowded. I don't do so well with Dutch crowds because I'm so much shorter than everyone else. Now, I'm trying to rest my leg so I can have fun for the long weekend coming up. Hopefully a few days of rest is all it will take.

Surprise in Rothenburg

Pretty view of the valley from Rothenburg.


The market square with some sidewalk cafes.



Walking around the city walls.


I think you can guess who these people are.

The fountain near the market square.

After months of working too much and suffering the cold and rainy end of winter in the Netherlands, Dennis and I finally had some plans to get out of Dodge. Susan, my sister-in-law, who lives in Tucson, was going to be in Germany for a conference at the end of April. She called us a few weeks before and we arranged to meet her in Rothenburg, a touristy town near Fankfurt. We were lucky because the last day of April is actually a holiday in the Netherlands, so we had a three day weekend.

On Friday morning, Dennis and I started driving towards Frankfurt. I was apparently too optimistic in my time estimates. It was supposed to take about 4 hours to get to Frankfurt and then another 1.5 hours on to Rothenburg. Unfortunately, the road from Frankfurt to Rothenburg was one non-stop traffic jam from all the road construction. It was a bit ironic to be stuck going 30mph on the aurtobahn. We finally arrived a few hours later than planned, but still earlier than Susan whose flight was delayed.

We got settled in the really cute bed and breakfast that Susan picked out. Then, we went to explore the town a bit. Rothenburg is an old Roman fortified city built in the 1600’s at the intersection of two major trade routes, the East-West route to Asia and the North-South route to Rome. The city still has the old wall all the way around it and a really cute and compact city-center filled with shops and sidewalk cafes. We had a quick look around town and a cup of tea and then went back to see if Susan had arrived yet.

Waiting around the room, I was just getting restless so I decided to take my book to the lobby and wait there. I opened the door and stepped into the hall and almost ran right into my mother. My mother?! Just a few steps behind her was Susan with a big smile on her face. That wasn’t the way they planned the surprise, but I was surprised anyway.

Since it was already dinner time, we found a nice restaurant and enjoyed the heavy German cuisine. As we were leaving, we noticed that it was almost 8:00 and there was a tour starting in just a few minutes. We decided to do the Night Watchman’s tour, billed as the best evening activity in town. We met the group in the market square and waited for the Night Watchman to show up. He was easy to spot in his period clothing. He told us about life in the city in the 1600’s before the streets were paved and before they had sewers. The town’s livelihood was textiles, mainly wool from the locally raised sheep. The city walls were built to keep out raiding armies, but they didn’t always work. The town was nearly destroyed in WWII by bombs from American planes. Just before the end of the war, the Americans had orders to destroy the town to catch some high level Nazi Generals who were hiding there. But the American in charge was of German heritage, his family from Rothenburg. He didn’t want to destroy such a beautiful city. So, he met with the mayor and they figured out a way to save the town. The mayor surrendered the city in the morning, a move that made him a traitor. The generals were not found and 3 days later the war was over. After the war, the city asked for donations to help rebuild the historic walls. People were able to buy pieces of the wall in 1 meter increments and get their names posted along their section of wall.

Knowing the history of the town, we spent Saturday exploring the walls and the cute souvenir shops. Since we had the car with us, we were able to buy bigger things than most tourists can manage. The Christmas shop is where I got in the most trouble. Every day is Christmas in this little town. I got a very tall pyramid decoration. The pyramid is typically German ornament made from wood. There are candle holders around the base and the top has a propeller. The heat from the candles makes the propeller turn and all the little hand-carved figures turn around like a carrousel. As soon as I unpack it, I’ll get a picture to publish.

We really had a relaxing day, stopping when we were tired for lunch or a cup of tea, enjoying the view of the green and yellow valleys, and simply taking the time to chat and enjoy the company. I have to also say how nice this town was for tourists. They had public (and free) bathrooms all over the place, as if they wanted us to stay a while. The hotel guy was very helpful and made sure we had a map of the town and a bed long enough for Dennis. The waiter and waitresses all took time to describe their food and encourage us to try some of the seasonal specialties. At the shops, they opened packages to let me see things up close. Everyone was super-friendly and seemed to welcome tourists and Americans. The level of service stood in contrast to the business-like Dutch waiters and the surly French ones.

I was sad to have to say goodbye to Mom and Susan so soon, but on Sunday morning, we had to start the long drive back home. We found a route with less road construction, so at least the traffic wasn’t bad.

Flowers for Nova

One of the cool things about living in the Netherlands is that buying flowers is an everyday thing and not just for special occasions. We ordinarily don’t partake in this cultural activity because of Nova. He’s always been a disaster with flowers and plants. One of his very first accomplishments was the utter destruction of a 3 foot tall peace lily plant. He followed that up by eating the 4 foot palm plant. Fresh flowers in a vase are even messier because the water just goes everywhere. We’ve tried every now and then over the years, but Nova has been very persistent.

Last Saturday, Dennis and I were tempted by the first tulips of the season. We figured that Nova is 12 years old now and we might be able to finally trust him. That and we got a really heavy vase that might be harder to pull over. When we bought the tulips, the girl told us to soak them in cold water for an hour to freshen them before putting them in a vase. The only thing big enough to hold the tulips is the bathtub, so in they went.

Sometime later, we were sitting downstairs watching TV when we heard a ruckus upstairs. We thought it was Nova rushing down the stairs after leaving a deposit in the litter box. Sometimes in his haste to escape the poopy-smell he races down the stairs and hits the bottom with quite a thump. Sometimes there is meowing involved (Nova IS a boy after all).

Oddly, when Nova arrived back to the ground floor, he had wet feet. And they weren’t just a little wet. And really he was pretty much wet all over. Hmmm, time to investigate…I went up to the check the flowers in the bathtub and I found the bathmat rumpled and water all over the floor. The flowers in the tub appeared untouched.

Apparently, Nova was leaning over the tub trying the reach the flowers when the bathmat slipped and he fell into the tub. Let me remind you that the water was very cold which elicited some meowing. He must have managed to scamper out of the tub and probably slipped again causing a big thump. Tulips 1: Nova 0.

Maybe Nova thinks the tulips are scary now. He’s left them alone for a record amount of time. Do you think we can finally have fresh flowers in the house?

Book Reviews

I’ve really been enjoying my Kindle reader and I’ve read a lot of books over the last year or so. I thought it would be nice to share my reading list for people who might be looking for some recommendations. I try to avoid depressing books and the very predictable murder-mysteries. I have recently gotten some free books from Amazon that tempted me to read outside my normal genre, though. If you know of any books that I may like, please let me know. I’m always looking for recommendations, too!

The Host by Stephanie Meyer (of Twilight fame) – If you liked the Twilight series, you will like this one too. It’s pretty much the same story with the same themes but with a different setting. This time instead of vampires, its aliens that take over the human bodies.

The Brass Bed by Jennifer Stevenson – This was a futuristic novel about how the city of Chicago deals with the new influx of magic and magical beings. It was a free book and got terrible reviews. The reviews were right – it was a waste of time.

The Angel Experiment by James Patterson – This was another free book from Amazon and it was given out as a teaser to get you hooked on the series. It was about a group of kids who were genetically modified to have wings. They escaped from the lab where they were kept in dog cages and hid out in the forest away from civilization (except for their internet access, of course). Like the Twilight series, this book seemed more geared to the teenaged set. It was fun, but like most first-in-a-series books, it left more questions than answers. I have not yet purchased the rest of the series – I’m still debating whether it’s worth it or not.

The Red Tent by Anita Diamant - A book based on the story of Jacob from the Bible, but written from the women’s point of view. It’s an interesting perspective and gives a glimpse of what life might have been like during the Biblical times. It was pretty entertaining, too.

People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks – Also a religious theme; this is the story of a Jewish prayer book that was rescued from destruction by a Muslim during the war in Sarajevo. In flashbacks, it tells how the book was written and how it was kept from destruction by the Spanish Inquisition and the Nazis over the years. I thought it was interesting to learn more about the history of Jews in Europe beyond the Holocaust.

Shanghai Girls by Lisa See – Lisa See has written some really good books over the years. This was not one of my favorites. This one was about two wealthy girls growing up in Shanghai. They immigrated to the US during the war and faced poverty and discrimination. It was OK, but not a very up-lifting book.

Sari Shop Window by Shobhan Bantwal - This was a stupid romance novel that took place in an Indian neighborhood in New Jersey. Skip this book – it was a waste of time and had nothing new to offer.

The White Tiger: A Novel by Aravind Adiga – This book was about a taxi driver in India who murders his employer. He describes his life from childhood in rural India with little education to adulthood in the city where he works for the Indian upper classes. If you’re tired of reading about the problems in America, maybe you’re ready to read about the problems of another country. This was an interesting read.

The Help by Kathryn Stockett - The Help was my favorite book of the year. It tells the story of black housekeepers in Mississippi during the 60’s. It described the rules the black women had to follow to keep their jobs including using a separate toilet. Some of the stories were sad, some funny, and some happy.

Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Hurston – I didn’t like this book as much as The Help, although it is considered a classic black novel. It uses the black dialect which makes it a bit more difficult to read. The story is not what you expect either. It’s more about feminism than race relations. It takes place in the 1930’s in Florida and is the story of one woman’s life.

The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett – Another really good book! This one is about a builder in the 16th century who dreams of building magnificent cathedrals. After seeing so many of these cathedrals in Europe, I was interested to learn more about why the Catholic Church spent so much money on the cathedrals. It explained the economic relationships between the church and the land-owners. It also explained how they were able to build such enormous structures. There was also a plot-line that kept the whole thing interesting for people who don’t like reading dry history books!

When the Elephants Dance by Tess Uriza Holthe – This was a rather dark book about the war in the Philippines. It’s told from the point of view of a family hiding from the Japanese and American soldiers. It mixes reality with the mythology of the Filipinos which makes the book more unique and interesting.

Three Cups of Tea… Greg Mortinson – This is one of the very few non-fiction books that I have read, but well worth reading. Greg Mortinson was attempting to climb K2 when he got lost and was rescued by a group of Pakistanis. After seeing how they lived, he promised to come back and build them a school. He has made it his life’s mission to build more schools in Pakistan and actually advises the US military on relations with the Pakistanis. If you want to learn more about what’s going on in the Middle East, this is a great book. It gives some hope that not everyone is a suicide bomber and things can get better.

Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister by Gregory Maquire - This book is just plain fun! Of course it’s the Cinderella story, but the characters are given much more personality and complexity than the original fairy tale. I was fascinated that the story takes place in the Netherlands and talks about the tulip trade and painting.

The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein – Written from the dog’s point of view, this book was rather disappointing. It was not nearly as entertaining or touching as Marley and Me and it was not really about car-racing either. Not worth reading…

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time: A Novel by Mark Haddon – Written from the unique point of view of an autistic boy, this book was rather funny and touching. Don’t expect it to be too deep.

My Sister’s Keeper: A Novel by Jodi Picoult – I actually avoided reading this book for a while fearing it to be too much of an Oprah Winfrey book choice. I was wrong. While the book is about the morality of raising a child to be an organ donor for her sister, it was also about how family dynamics are affected by having a sick child.

The Jungle by Upton Sinclair – This book is about more than how disgusting the meat processing industry was (and maybe still is). It also talks about the people who immigrated to the US to work in the meat packing plants: their hopes, desires, and disappointments. I was surprised how much of their experience was directly related to the recent home mortgage crisis. If you haven’t read this book – do so now!

Back in France for Skiing

Last winter we had a really fun time skiing with a British group led by my coworker’s father. Since we had such a good time with the group, we decided to go with them again this year. Our destination was St. Gervais, France a ski resort area near Geneva. There are actually several resorts in the same area and you can get lift tickets that allow access to all the resorts. That gives the benefit of having a huge area to ski and explore – important when you on a week-long ski trip.

While the rest of the group was riding a bus from the UK to France, Dennis and I flew from Amsterdam to Geneva. The flight involved getting up at 4:30 in the morning to get the train to the airport. We decided to give ourselves a lot of time before the flight because the local trains have not been very reliable in the snowy weather we’ve been getting. But everything went smoothly and we were in Geneva before we knew it. A one-hour shuttle bus ride got us to our hotel right around lunch time. The UK group had arrived a couple hours before us and was already out skiing. We decided to take our time getting lunch and arranging the rental skis so we didn’t get to the slopes the first day.

Later, in the day the UK group got back from the slopes and it was like meeting with family. Of course, not everyone from last year was able to join us this year and there were some new faces, but it was fun to see the gang again. Since we were staying in a larger hotel this year, there were other people around who were not part of our group. Everyone was from the UK and they were all friendly even if they had very loud children. The hotel served a tea in the afternoon (did I mention that it’s a British-run hotel?) and dinner at 7:45 for all the guests.

Actually, the hotel does require a bit more description. It is located in a town in the valley, so it was not really close to the ski areas at all. The hotel ran shuttle buses to the ski hills every morning, usually two different buses (8:45 and 9:15). In the afternoon, they drove the buses back to the hotel at 4:15 or 4:30. During the day, the drivers and most of the hotel employees went skiing. This arrangement seems OK on the surface, but there was no flexibility for bad weather or if you just got tired. One day, it so foggy we gave up skiing at noon. We had to wait in a bar on the hill for four hours until it was time for the bus. Since we were in ski boots and didn’t have street shoes, we were not even able to walk around the shops in town. The town was about ½ mile from the bottom of the ski lift, so it was too far to walk in ski boots.

The food at the hotel was really good at dinner. The tea was tolerable, but breakfast was a disaster. They normally had croissants at various stages of sogginess and some ham and cheese slices. For the hot breakfast, they had weird combinations like beans, hot pears, and fried potato cakes. They served oatmeal 3 days running. But they served sausage and fried potato cakes with it. They never remembered to put napkins out and if you were a little late, there was very little left for you.

Our hotel room was very small. At least the ceilings were high enough that we could stand up in it (unlike the chalet we were in last year). But there was absolutely no ventilation in the bathroom. We had a corner room so the bathroom was very cold. The heater was on the far side of the bedroom and the heat really didn’t reach the bathroom. When we showered, there was serious condensation collecting on the walls, floor, and the sink and toilet. Hang a towel in the bathroom and it would never dry. With that much cold and damp, the shower was pretty moldy. The shower curtain was hung too far into the bathtub so it would cling around your legs when you showered. Hard to feel clean when you can’t get away from the moldy shower curtain. Yuck! To make it even worse, the staff did not clean the rooms. They came in every day, but we decided all they did was make the bed and turn the heat off. Turning the heat off only made the moisture problem worse. By the middle of the week, the towels stunk, but they never replaced them. I was not impressed. It seemed like the staff was spending more time skiing than taking care of their customers.

But a fun ski group makes up for a lot, and we still had a great time skiing. I spent a lot of time with a group of about 7 people. I was the youngest and most of the time I was the slowest. The oldest in our group was 82. Did you know that when you are over 80, you get free lift tickets? Her secret for fast skiing was to not make any turns. You just make yourself tired by making all those turns. I probably skied 4 times further because I like to make a lot of turns to keep my speed under control. The only time I skied faster was when the conditions were challenging. In the fog, I was a rock star!

Skiing in the fog is really pretty fun. We got into a fog bank so thick, we couldn’t see anything but white. Thank goodness the run was groomed because that was our only slue that we were still on the run. We watched which direction the grooming lines went and followed them. Stopping was interesting, too. Without the visual clues, it was hard to tell if you had really stopped or not. It was like being drunk. We would try to stop and fall over because we were so disoriented. One person in our group got motion sick from the sensation. We also skied right past the lift that we needed and we ended up in the wrong place entirely.

We had a couple days with sunshine and it was really nice to be able to see the views. On one of the sunny days, I was feeling really good (finally had my new ski boots broken in and adjusted correctly) and we skied with a guide that day. The guide was awesome because he took us on all the best runs and we didn’t waste any time trying to read the maps. If you’ve ever been skiing before, you know that they mark the runs by difficulty – but there is no definitive way to rate how hard a run is so some runs marked as easy are really hard and vice versa. A guide knows which runs will suit your ability, no matter how it is marked on the map. That was our best day of skiing.

The last day we skied was also awesome. We had about a foot of fresh powder over night. Even though it was still snowing, the visibility remained OK. The snow was light enough that it just fluffed over the top of your skis like down feathers. As people skied on it, the snow started to pile up into bumps that made it a little more challenging. These are the kind of conditions that I’m more used to, so it was easier for me than the rest of the group. The others preferred the fast groomed runs with no bumps. It’s more common in Europe to have all the runs groomed every night. In the US, if there is fresh snow, they don’t groom the runs. So, if you like skiing in fresh snow, stay in the US. If you love skiing really fast on groomed runs, Europe is right for you.

Dennis was having a lot of fun on the last day and almost missed the bus back to the hotel. I was getting really worried because we had a flight to catch and limited time to get our shuttle bus to the airport. I shouldn’t have worried about Dennis, though. He made it in the nick of time to the bus, but our shuttle bus was a full hour late. It’s a good thing I always schedule to be at the airport 2 hours before the flight. Even with the hour delay, we easily made our flight home.