12-11-2015 MUNCHEN, GERMANY PART III

The Marienplatz is the center of the Christmas markets and it spreads out on the streets from there like the spokes of a wheel.  The Marienplatz is a huge plaza bordered on one side by a colossal structure called the Neues Rathaus, that is the “New Town Hall.” 

Neues Rathaus (aka Congress)

It is so massive and ornate that, at first blush, you would think it were a cathedral, not a government building.  And if this is the “new” one, built in the 1500s, what in the world could the “old” one look like?  Rob and I thought it was fitting, though, to call a building where politicians work a “Rat House.”  This building houses a huge glockenspiel with larger-than-life figures that twirl and dance to the music and the bells.  It doesn’t function every hour because it is old and fragile but we were lucky to arrive on the platz just as it began to play.  Thousands of people were stopped in their tracks, staring up in awe at the tower.

The glockenspiel

The Christmas markets are amazing.  They are created of booths made of wood, detailed and decorated with garland, trees, ornaments and lights.  (Where do they store this stuff for the other 49 weeks/year?)  Mile after mile you can stroll and admire the arts and crafts, all made carefully by artisans here in Germany.  You will not find “Made in China” labels here.  The organ grinders play carols and the bells in the towers peal.  The one thing you cannot do under any circumstance is sit down.  When you go to the Christmas Market, order food, have a glüwein, whatever it is you wish to do, you do it standing up.  There is no place, NO WHERE, to sit down.  At the end of a cold day walking on the cobblestones, it becomes time to find a warm place to plop down.  Which is where the gasthaus comes in handy.  We came upon the Andechser am Dom and decided to have a little bite for lunch.  Some friendly Krauts invited us to join their table and we were really glad.  It was cozy and the folks were smiling and happy.  Christmas time does that to people!  One lady was eating tartar and I was intrigued so I asked her about it and we all began to chat.  She was the most outgoing of the group and when Rob asked about the walleye on the menu, she cried, “Eeeeeew!  Ach, NEIN!  No fisch!  Ugh!  This is a bräuhaus!” 

"Nein, no fisch!" she said!

They wretched and we laughed.  We came back here for dinner and Rob ate (wait for it) schnitzel while I savored the tartar.   The locals are usually right.

At the Andechser am Dom

The Andechser am Dom - Yes, they eat
outside!  They think it's Summer!

We wandered home after dinner in the evening and all the Christmas markets were ablaze with Christmas lights and buzzing with activity under the watchful eye of the beautiful Neues Rathaus.  It was a happy day for us.

Marienplatz, Neues Rathaus
and Christkindlmarkt

Marienplatz Christkindlmarkt

The next morning, we arose and packed up.  Our next stop is Röthenburg and we took the back roads through the countryside to get there.  In a small town, Höchstädt an der Donau,

Hochstadt Palace in Hochstadt an der Donau

just around the bend a huge castle suddenly appeared.  It was built by Count Philipp Ludwig in 1574 for his new bride, Anna, the Duke’s daughter.  Thirteen years later, she was widowed and lived in the castle alone for 17 more years.  Now, the courtyard inside the castle is used for concerts, events and as a café/biergarten.  Continuing along the road, in Nördlingen, the locals sent us to the Red Ochsen Gasthof.  It is a tiny little room where an old fellow and his wife are the cooks and today’s fare is written on a blackboard.  We sat down at the old wooden table with a pretty little tablecloth in the middle and pillows on the chairs.  Rob chose rind goulash with spätzle and gravy and my lunch was a big bowl of suppe containing vegetables, many kinds of meat cut in tiny pieces and maultaschen (little raviolis containing meat and vegetables).  Like everything else we’ve had the pleasure to eat, the food prepared here was delicious.

I don’t know about the Krauts.  They’re petty gruff and impatient.  If the shortest distance between points A and B is where you are standing, you’ll be run over as if you are invisible.  We stepped into an antique shop in München and a crabby old Kraut asked for what we were looking.  We explained that we were just looking around.  He waved his arms and yelled, “This isn’t a museum!  I have to pay rent for this store in this building!  Do you want to buy something or not?!”  OK, auf wiedersehn, Herr Scheisskopf!  I’d like to find a wine glass like my Mom’s favorite glass but one thing is for certain:  if that crabby old bastard did have one in his store, he still does.

12-11-2015 MUNCHEN, GERMANY PART II

Our first whole day in München was ridiculous.  It was cold enough to freeze the nuts off a plow and raining.  I’m not a big fan of being cold.  Am I going to go out in this and wander around on the streets to look at strings of Christmas tree lights?  Already struggling with a cold?  I think not.  The least it could do is snow!

Rob suggested that we spend the day indoors.  Good idea.  We rode the sightseeing hop-on-hop-off bus to get an overview of the city.  It was so cold that the windows, covered with raindrops, fogged up and we couldn’t see a thing.  The guide spoke German and a bit of English so we didn’t learn a whole lot.  The bus stopped at the Nymphenburg Palace and we were invited to get off and tour the grounds and buildings.  “We’ll pick you up later, another bus will be by.”  I don’t think so.  The Palace does have some interesting history, though, and on a better day, it would have been a spectacular sight with vast expanses of lawn and fountains all surrounded by palace buildings.  There were a lot of Ludwigs, Maximillians, Ferdinands and Marias involved in the history and they were all by rights blood lines of this and that making them very, very important.  The one thing I did get from the broken English on this tour is that this chick from Spain, Maria, married this guy from here and they kept trying to have a son so she promised God she would build a church if she could get pregnant.  (Apparently she thought getting pregnant involved a church.  Maybe because everybody yells, “Oh God!  Oh God!”)  I guess she figured it out because she got pregnant and gave birth to Maximillian who turned out to be one of the greatest Bavarian rulers ever.  His statue is all over town.  Maximillian Street.   Maximillian Square.  Maximillian stew.  Maximillian E-I-E-I-O!  We dig Max to the max!  And that’s all I know about that.

Rob at the Bimmer Museum

Magnesium chassis

As I mentioned, it was cold and rainy, so a museum made sense.  We continued on the bus to the BMW Museum, led there by Rob’s built-in GPS system that runs on petrol.  Interestingly, the company started out in 1917 with an airplane engine that they marketed to the Prussians during WWI.  It was a big success and the company name was changed to Bayerische Motoren Werke.  It wasn’t till the 1930s that they created motorcycle and auto engines and later, race cars.  One of the chassis on display is made of magnesium, very light-weight but hard to weld because it’s flammable.  The entire chassis weighs about 75 pounds.  (And bursts into flame on impact?  They don’t talk about that.)   The museum is state-of-the-art modern and sparkling clean and the exhibits are polished with q-tips until they glitter.  Quite impressive.

Bimmer Museum

Rob and the 3.0 CSL

We waited in the rain and, finally, frozen and wet, we boarded the bus for the rest of the city tour.  It took us past many a fountain, monument and arch but all I was thinking about was drying out and getting warm so I must confess that I don’t have much to tell you about the city highlights.  I know that I dreaded the walk back to the hotel. Luckily, the Hofbräuhaus stood in the way,

Ein Hofbrauhaus!

holding a table, keeping the food warm and the beer cold.  To my surprise, Rob had something other than schnitzel!  He ordered roulade of wild boar!  I ordered  Bavarian deer stew.  Because we could.  Both were very good, the warm food felt good inside and the music cheered our weary souls.  Next stop:  hotel room.  Which reminds me:  why do people like down pillows?  You lay your head on them and poof!  They collapse into nothing.

Band at the Hofbraushaus!
Ein, zwei, g'suffa!

12-9-2015 MUNCHEN, GERMANY

The drive to Munich from Ulm is short and frightfully fast on the autobahn so instead we decided to take the little back roads through the farm land and small villages.  The broad leaf trees are bare this time of year, huge clumps of mistletoe cling to the branches and the fields are either plowed under or covered with green velvet.  There were blinds scattered here and there, maybe for ducks or venison on the hoof?  Little villages of white houses with red roofs dot the landscape, always a kirche (church) as the centerpiece. 

Curiously, every now and then, there was what looked like a cemetery headstone with a cross on it out in the middle of a field.  I had to know what this is and so we stopped.  On this particular stone were the words, “Gott segne u schutze die Fluren Kreigsjahr 1940.”  I couldn’t find the words in my book and the hotelier here in Munich told me this is Old German.  It says, “God bless and protect our fields.  War Year 1940.” 

A quiet, thoughtful prayer engraved on this stone.  Did the farmers in the back country, without TV or internet, even know what the war was all about?  Maybe not.  Only that their fields might be bombed and they and their families would be left destroyed, hungry and in despair.  If this little monument could but talk.

We didn’t really know where we were in the little town of Krumbach but we came upon the Munding Gasthof and it was open.  It is a lovely white building with green shutters, family-owned for generations.  The small restaurant has wooden tables and benches where you are seated with others. 

Munding Gasthof, Krumbach, Germany

The benches have simple quilted pillows on them for a little added comfort.  Ladies in pretty dirndls serve food and I hit the jackpot!  Leberknödel soup was on the menu!  It tasted delicious, similar to Mom’s but with a lot more liver.  I’ll have to remember that.  Once again, Rob ate schnitzel with fries, what else?  As we were leaving, we encountered an Advent wreath.  I haven’t seen one since I was a child.  Four candles stand amid the boughs of the wreath to symbolize four weeks until Christmas and the arrival of the Christ child.  Each week, one more candle is lit and so on this day, there were two weeks left until Christmas.  In grade school, we all assembled for the lighting of the advent wreath each week as we sang “Oh Come, Emmanuel,” and it was sweet agony for us little kids.  “Three more weeks to wait, I can’t stand it.”  In the Munding Gasthof, how pretty and peaceful this wreath was and it brought back a flood of memories.  (Some good.  Some bad if the good Sisters of the Holy Family of Nazareth were having a pissy day.)

Advent wreath at Munding Gasthof

After lunch, we pressed on through the farm country to Schwabmünchen and soon we hit the autobahn for the Platzl Hotel in München.  This hotel is luxurious in the extreme with tuxedo-clad doormen, everybody calling me “Madame” and piles of down-doobie-do-down-down on the bed.  It is no accident, either, that it was chosen by us months ago based upon its location about ½ block from the Hofbräuhaus, the happiest oompah saloon in the world.  We got settled into our digs and, well, we had to go somewhere for dinner, didn’t we?  Around the corner to the Hofbräuhaus!  Stephan, Gottlieb and Karl invited us to join their long wooden table to laugh and sing.  Food and big steins of beer were ordered.  My dinner was schweinhaxe, a rotisserie-roasted pig hock about the size of a football, and a potato dumpling with gravy.  Rob had… wait for it… schnitzel with hot potato salad.  Prosit!  Ah, lots more time to spend in München!

PROSIT!

12-7-2015 ULM, GERMANY

It was easy to pick up a rental car in Basel, one tram stop away.  Rob went and picked up the Audi Q3 and I finished packing, we loaded up and hit the road.  We brought the GPS from home with Europe loaded into it and Suzy-Q (the lady inside the GPS) actually spoke English!  Rob did all the driving (cheaper for insurance) and he averaged about 75 mph.  When driving 100 mph, we were passed like a dirty shirt by Porsches, Bimmers and the occasional Ferrari.

Now, we are in Ulm/Neu-Ulm.  “Eu” in German is pronounced “oy.”  Neu-Ulm is “noy ulm.”  You don’t say the word “euros” like “you-rows.”  You say, “oy-rows.”  So we got that part straightened out.

Tired and travel-weary, Rob fixed up a couple of cocktails and we ordered dinner in the room.  Rob was fine with this.  Wienerschnitzel mit fries, are you kidding me?  I was just glad to stay in and stay warm and call it an early night.  I slept peacefully and smiled in my sleep sometimes when, just beyond the window, the church bells rang through the night, reminding me of past times when I stayed overnight at my Gramma’s.

Ulm Cathedral (Munster) from the
bridge across the Danube

I don’t know how Neu-Ulm differs from regular old Ulm.  Maybe it’s a suburb or a sister city.  The Münster Cathedral stands majestically in the center of Ulm.  (I thought “Münster, sometimes “Minster,” meant “Monster,” which it sure could, but it really means something like “monastery” or “church.”)  It has the highest spire in the world at 528 feet into the sky and on the ground, it is many blocks around the whole structure.  The construction began in 1377 and the spire was topped off in 1890.  Interestingly, the cathedral was originally Catholic but a Bishopric was never established so it isn’t really considered a cathedral.  In fact, the town of Ulm decided that they (and you) should be Lutheran so the religion practiced in the cathedral now is Lutheran.  The cathedral is a major human achievement.  Benevolent dictators that we are, the Allies obliterated 90% of everything else around the cathedral and didn’t touch a hair of the Münster itself.  Currently, the Krauts talk a lot about how the Allies bombed the shit out of this and that during WWII.  Hey, they started it.

The main event, the Ulmer Weinachtsmarkt, takes place in the courtyard of the Ulm Cathedral, a brief stroll on the bridge across the Danube from our hotel through narrow streets and past one of the oldest buildings ever.

Yup, narrow!

  It might actually fall into the river, eventually.

Crooked old hotel and restaurant

 The marketplace is so big that a map pointing out all the specialties is provided.  Immediately, we zeroed in on brats for breakfast and, boy oh boy, they are everywhere, of every type and spice imaginable and lengths to include hanging out of the bun by about six inches on each end. 

Ulmer Weinachtsmarkt under
the watchful eye of the Munster

Lindy & Rob at Ulmer
Weinachtsmarkt

Sides include spätzle mixed with cheese and garlic, German potato salad and sauerkraut.  These are my people!  (Well, to a degree.  They’re pretty liberal over here.  One of our tour guides on the boat said that Germany must help the refugees, saying “These poor people don’t even have iphones!”  Gosh!  In other news, Obama says the White House “has a plan” for defeating ISIS and “it’s working.”  I wonder if one of you can tell me what the plan is, please?  And tell him to hurry up!)

On to München this morning.  A short distance and so we are taking the back roads.  

12-5-2015 BASEL, SWITZERLAND

Filling in the blanks:

Twice we did not go ashore when docked.  We didn’t go to Baden-Baden.  Almost 3 hours on a bus seemed a lot in the pouring rain and cold.  We took a time out.  We also did not go to Breisach on the last day.  The “disembarkation briefing” had us in a kerfuffle so we thought it better to stay put and pack our bags.  That afternoon, Rob went, instead, for a brisk walk in the dense fog and cold and ran into an old fort built in 1319.  We don’t have much information on this fort but Rob took a few photos.

In the end, a taxi transported us from the River Harmony to the Dorint Hotel An der Messe in the morning.  After settling in, we decided to explore a bit.  Dorint is located handily on the tram lines and we have already figured out how to hop-on-hop-off to see what’s shakin’ in Switzerland.  Mostly, whatever is shakin’ is expensive and they charge for everything.  The two mile taxi ride was $20.  At the hotel, buffet breakfast is served.  $26/ea.  We requested ice in our room for cocktails.  $5 for ice cubes. If desired, a bottle of chardonnay can be delivered to the room for $70 + $5 delivery charge.  Big Mac and a medium fries $13.  Martini in a bar $20.  While searching for lunch, a menu at one café had a cute little lunch for $58/ea.  No, we didn’t eat there.  After walking for more than an hour, a pleasant street worker in an orange suit sent us to where the locals eat, a little bierstube where homemade goulash is served steaming hot in big tureens with a fresh bread basket and cold beers for $30 altogether.  Perfect.  We thought we might go on a two-hour walking tour of the city which includes a cheese fondue lunch.  $280/ea. plus the cost of the fondue.  We obtained a booklet describing all 20 city tours.  The prices range from $150-600/person.  Apparently, there is very important shit to see here in Basel, Switzerland and the cheese fondue must beyond tasty!

Munster Cathedral

There is a curious mix of the ancient and the modern metropolitan.  The rathaus (town hall)

Rathaus in Basel

and the Münster Cathedral, both which overlook the city, were begun in the year 1,000 AD.  In the old town, half-timber buildings lean against one another for support and next door, one will find a modern fancy department store featuring models dressed in the latest blue jeans with holes all over them and stiletto high heels.  We rode the tram to the Christmas markets where we found pubs, cafes and hundreds of booths prettily decorated in lights, ornaments, garland, trees, wreaths boughs and mistletoe. 

Barfusserplatz Marketplace

In the background, the Music Grinder plays Christmas carols. 

Rob in the pub at the marketplace

We poked our heads into a little cubbyhole and found tables covered with red and white checked tablecloths where brats, beer, glüwein and hot chocolate were served. 

Lindy & The Music Grinder

At other booths, slabs of salmon were being smoked over open wood fires, long kebobs of pork, beef and veal were cooking on open flames and many different kinds of pastry were offered, baked right there before your eyes.  Cinnamon rolls, apfel strudel, quiche, pies, custards, cookies and cakes galore and of course, Swiss chocolates.

Suddenly, we heard loud thundering and what to our wondering eyes should appear?  A Harley parade through the marketplace!  Each driver was dressed like Santa and the Harleys were elaborately decorated.  This was an incredible sight!  The bikes thundered around town for hours and we laughed out loud!  American ingenuity!  Aaargh! 

Santa's sleigh a la USA

Santa on a Harley!  YAY!

Another Harley sleigh courtesy of the USA!

At last, completely worn out, we found our way back to the hotel.  Tomorrow, we will rent a car and we are off to Ulm where, they say, stands the biggest cathedral in the solar system (so far).  

12-2-2015 STRASBOURG, FRANCE PART II

A fantastic, colossal piece of art stands in the Notre Dame Cathedral:  The Astronomical Clock.  It was constructed in the mid-1500s by three masters:  a mathematics professor, a clock maker and an artist.  As the works became worn, the clock went silent ~1588.  The 70-80 foot tall giant stood

Astonomical Clock

quietly until the 1800s when a young boy proclaimed, “Oh yeah?  I can make it work again!”  Later, he became a mechanical engineer and at the age of 61, after having studied the mechanisms over his lifetime, Monsieur Schwilgué spent the next four years making it run again.  That was in 1842.  So there were no good engineers in France, apparently, for 300 years.  This is a phenomenal machine.  It tells you everything you want to know and so much more!  The time of day, current location of the planets, month and day of the year, astrological sign, season, phase of the moon to name a few, all displayed in 3D while music boxes play as figures circle about.  A mechanical rooster crows three times to symbolize St. Peter’s denial of Christ and human frailty.  Just the base is 24 feet wide and more than 12 feet tall.  It is safe to say that this incredible piece of art that tells time cannot be worn on the wrist.

The beautiful old city of Strasbourg is heavily populated by irregularly constructed “half-timbered” buildings, meaning that they are fortified with wood beams geometrically arranged in the primary structure for added stability and support.  If the buildings were all originally straight, then we suppose that time and wear have taken their toll because now, they appear to be leaning against each other to remain upright.

Half-timber houses along the Ill River

Typical half-timber
construction

  They are stunningly beautiful and at this time of year, decorated by mad elves.  In the center of town, the 98 foot tall “Great Tree” grows proudly, now draped in sparkles, lights and ornaments.

The Great Tree in the
center of Strasbourg, France (or
Germany depending on the century)

  The many Christmas booths provide happy people with every imaginable trinket and glüwein, lights, music and laughter fill the air.

Lindy and the Monster Nutcracker

Rob trying to find wienerschnitzel
at the Bierstub

We searched about for just the right restaurant to have a midday snack.  When the menu read, “Wienerschnitzel mit pommes fritts,” Spouse had arrived.  So, at the restaurant au Gutenberg, Rob savored that while I was lucky enough to find a beer and escargots for myself.  Everything is written in French and German so between the two of us we can figure most things out and get our point across.  Later, we found our own way back to the tram and the riverboat in time to clean up for The Last Supper.  This evening, the entrée for me was a fresh trout filet stuffed with spinach and for Rob, chicken cordon bleu.  Rob’s dessert was warm chocolate cake drizzled with yet more warm chocolate.  And of course the wine flowed freely till we fell into bed exhausted.  In another day’s time, we will arrive in Basel, Switzerland, pack up, depart the ship and launch on the rest of our adventure.

Restaurant au Gutenberg

On a personal level, we have mostly remained healthy except for the sore throat I developed.  Lift me out of the desert and drop me in the cold and wet and bam, I’m sick.  Lots of “Emergen-C,” Sudafed and throat spray coupled with good nights of sleep in our comfortable room and I have beat it.  On another front, the heartburn that I get nearly every day at home has left the building.  This can mean only one thing:  I have not been getting enough bratwurst, brötchens, beer and glüwein at home.  Easily resolved.

I can’t believe, after months of planning, that the Christmas Cruise is behind us.  I am sad but extremely gratified and looking forward to the next phase of our trip.

12-2-2015 STRASBOURG, FRANCE PART I

We sailed lazily onward today almost as if gliding soundlessly on glass.  The river borders were green with tall grass and small trees and on the rocks nearer the river, the occasional fisherman. 

Quietly, beautiful big white swans drifted lazily along the shorelines, in pairs on the Germany side of the river, three or five on the France side, observes my spouse.

We docked in Strasbourg, France mid-morning.  Security is tight, they advised, which is a good thing.  For the first time ever, we were instructed to pick up our passports at the desk and carry them in a safe place on our person.  If an authority figure such as a policeman or military person were to ask to see the passport, you should be cooperative and produce it.  But not to just anybody, they warned.  So, feeling a bit intimidated, we tucked all important cards, money and passport in inside pockets.  Rob pinned his blue jeans pocket shut.  Then we were off to the tram to the city center.  They were correct, security is tight. 

"No.  No smile," she said.

Les soldats

There are cops everywhere eyeballing everybody, usually traveling in pairs (not like the swans).  There are large numbers of military personnel dressed in camo fatigues carrying rifles.  This is supposed to give folks a sense of feeling safe, I think.  For this chick, it just rattled my cage.  On to the city.

Strasbourg was an independent city in the early 1200s.  Then, France decided it wanted Strasbourg and so in about 1400, conquered it.  Roughly 100 years later, Germany decided it wanted Strasbourg and overtook the city.  The French stole it back during WWI.  Then WWII happened and Germany conquered Strasbourg once again.  This time they were serious.  They not only confiscated Strasbourg but they got all Hitler-y and established some serious Nazification.  A concentration camp was established outside of town, the entire city was draped with swastikas and ordinary folks were encamped for the slightest infraction.  German was the language.  Off to the concentration camp you went if you spoke French.  Or wore a beret.  Or whistled “La Marseilles (French national anthem).”  The French can, at last, thank America for kicking Hitler’s ass, rescuing and returning Strasbourg to France.  (Pay backs.  If it weren’t for the French, we’d be speaking the Queen’s English and paying a tax on tea and stamps.  The French do occasionally come in handy.)  They say the town folk here keep two sets of car license plates handy, German ones and French ones, because you just never know.

Notre Dame de Strasbourg Cathedral is the centerpiece of the city. 

The centerpiece of the city

Notre Dame de Strasbourg Cathedral
and the Rose Window

It is an enormous structure, about the size of Delaware.  The first block of stone was laid in the year 1015 and the very tip of the highest spire at 460 feet in the sky was finished in 1439.  They aren’t really sure of the origination date but if it were to be true, the cathedral celebrates its 1,000^th birthday this year.  The detail of the sculpture on the exterior structure is breathtaking and impossible to describe in words.  Just the eloquent rose window is an incredible sight, maybe 75 feet in diameter.  I can’t imagine the construction of such a thing and how stable it has been over the centuries, how it has withstood the elements and the weight of the surrounding structure.  I’ve decided I want one just like it in our Pahrump house but we may have to raise the roof and I may need to go buy a little more glass.  It would take me weeks to assemble a rose window!

Rob before one of the entries to ND

-Strasbourg to be continued-

 

11-30-2015 HEIDELBERG, GERMANY

11-30-2015 HEIDELBERG, GERMANY

We are actually docked in Speyer and there are two excursions, today.  We opted to travel by bus to Heidelberg which was recommended by some of our seasoned shipmates.

Heidelberg Palace is a massive, majestic structure to behold.  Built of red sandstone beginning in the early 1200s, it has been established as a protected monument and some consider it the “eighth wonder of the world.” 

Wing of Heidelberg Palace

It housed, at various times over its functional life, kings (elected), emperors (selected and crowned by the Pope), queens, knights for offense and defense, a “house of ladies” (chicks trying to get picked up by nobles), a 58,000 gallon cask of wine

Rob atop 58,000 gallon wine cask

and of course servants galore.  At times, the occupation numbered 50-200 persons.  Striking by comparison, down the hill and along the river from the palace, villagers lived in cramped, humble quarters below the towering palace.

View of Heidelberg from the palace

Approaching the palace, you first see “The Love Gate.”  It was constructed with devotion by Ludwig for Elizabeth Stewart as a surprise.  She was to see this gate from the window of her private quarters and know at all times of his adoration.  Ludwig was very proud that he had built this gate in 24 hours.  The problem is that the ornamentation on the front side of gate faced away from Ms. Stewart’s window, so all she saw was the flat, plain back, which apparently just ruined her day.  She ordered that the architect of the gate have his head chopped off.  Bitch.

Back of "Love Gate"

Front of "Love Gate"

Moving along, a bridge crosses the moat.  It was not filled with water but pissed off wild boars.  Of course, there were no toilets or garbage disposals in the palace and so all waste was thrown into the moat as well.  And so the aroma, “eau de moat,” is a sensory delight one can only imagine.  Nevertheless, the inhabitants of the palace thought they were tray sheek.

Aromatic moat

The palace and the village lie at the foot of Heiligenberg Mountain (Holy Mountain) on the banks of the Neckar River.  Over time, the name Heidelberg evolved.  “Berg” means “hill or at the base of a hill” and “burg” means “fortified” as with a fort and a wall surrounding the town.  Heidelberg is now mostly a college town.  They even have a student prison, which probably doubles as a chemistry lecture hall, in my opinion.  Just sayin.’

Some other miscellany I learned today:

The Krauts think Obama is really “nice” and “cool.”  On the other hand, when asked about Merkel they say, “No comment.”  Exactly back-asswards.  Then they said, “We don’t have to go into detail about Bill Clinton.”  They got that part right.

The folks pay up to 8% in tax to belong to a religion and a Church.  If you become a Catholic, say, this tax is deducted from your paycheck whether you like it or not.  If you decide to quit being Catholic, it is nearly impossible.  Change your mind about paying a tax?  I think not.

For lunch today, we had maultaschen.  It looks a bit like large ravioli that they call “pillows.”  Originally, there was one day in a month and many days during Lent that were fast days, i.e. no meat.  So the folks created a mixture of things usually spinach, spices and various ground meats and wrapped this in pastry so nobody would know that they were eating meat.  We call this spiritual dedication.  They must have thought as I do:  “If God had not wanted us to eat animals, He wouldn’t have made them out of meat. (Especially deer.)”

Weihnachtsmarkt Heidelberg

Gluwein at the Heidelberg Christmas Market