Last of the vacation shots

Yes, Lisa, we are back. Can you all tell since I've stopped blogging again? :-)

Here's the last of our vacation stuff...

We spent our day in Ruedesheim in the next town over...called Assmannshausen. Yes, you read that correctly. Is anyone else reminded of that Seinfeld episode where Kramer gets the wrong license plates?

Ah, anyway, we took the train over one town, and spent a couple of hours with a winemaker by the name of August Kessler. Our two hour visit was really a nice time, spent talking about the current economic status of the US, exchanging ideas, and of course, trying some of August's incredible wines. All of his stuff is very high-end, and we were surprised that he actually opened some of what he opened (read: the most expensive bottles he opened retail for over $100 in the US). We were sad to learn that he doesn't currently have a distributor in Illinois (or in Wisconsin for that matter) but were happy to be able to give him some suggestions of possible distributors.

The scenery around that part of Germany is beautiful, even when it's cloudy. Here's a shot of Assmannshausen from the road leading in to town:

In any case, by the time we were finished with our visit, we decided to walk back to Ruedesheim, rather than take the train. It took about 50 minutes, and would've been nicer if the bike path hadn't ended, but what can you do? I'm still glad we walked. By the time we got back, we had just enough time to pick up our luggage and grab some lunch before hopping on the train back to Frankfurt. Trey did take a few more pictures, though. Here's one of the Asbach vineyard:

Our evening in Frankfurt was nice, as well. Trey has a friend from college (or high school?) who went to grad school in Germany, then met a German guy, got married and now lives there. We found (actually I found (!)) a fun local place with good food (albeit no Semmelknoedl - those are more Austrian anyway) and good beer, and then went back to their place for some wine and horn playing.

The next morning we decided to head to the airport and do some last minute shopping there, rather than shop a little bit in the city before heading to the airport. Unfortunately, we discovered that the Frankfurt airport sucks, so sorry to those of you who were going to get gifts from Europe and instead are getting American stuff. Add to that the fact that our luggage ended up being overweight (Onkel Sepp just gave us too much chocolate!) and the trip didn't end on the best note, but what can you do? The rest of it was such a dream that I didn't care.

So, that concludes the vacation blogging. Usually being gone for a week is enough and has us ready to go home, but not this time. We missed our cats, but that was it. :-)

Trey got right back to work Saturday while I did laundry and housework, and I jumped back in on Sunday. Luckily next week is Thanksgiving and I get a little bit of a break again!

Munich & Ruedesheim

So, last night I almost suggested that instead of spending the morning in Munich, we caught an earlier train to Ruedesheim so we had a little bit more time here. Man, am I glad I didn’t actually voice that suggestion (Trey later said he was thinking it, too, but he was glad for the same reasons I am). First of all, Trey wanted to have a traditional Muenchener breakfast – Weisswurst, Weissbier and Bretzeln. Yup, you read that right – he had brats, beer, and pretzels for breakfast. Here’s a snapshot:



I decided to forego the big breakfast because a) I’m still full from eating all day Sunday in Marktle, and b) last night after we went to the incredible bier hall Trey found, I was even more full. I did have a bite of Trey’s breakfast just to try everything, though. Ausgezeichnet!

After breakfast we decided to walk around the old downtown one more time because we were picking up some gifts for folks, and ran into something that we first thought was random, but soon discovered was an event we were witnessing that we probably couldn’t have planned seeing if we’d have tried. For anyone who’s familiar at all with the German Mardi Gras societies, you know that the new Karnival Prinz & Prinzessin are crowned at the 11th minute of the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month every year. Well, it just so happened that we were walking past the Vitalmarkt in Munich at the 11th minute of the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month this year.

Trey heard a band so we walked over to where the music was coming from and we saw those great hats (although they didn’t have the really long feathers) and at that point I started to realize what was going on. Seriously, we couldn’t have planned it, but we saw Prinz Edwin der Erste & Ihre Lieblichkeit Natasha die Zweite come in with their court. They were from the Karnival Verein Narrhalle. Trey got a couple of pictures (it had to be around 40 degrees or less so the Prinzessin is freezing her butt off)…










We stuck around for a few minutes and then decided to go looking for a few gifts for folks. We actually stumbled upon another one of the Karnival Societies (apparently Munich actually has more than one) in front of the Rathaus (the town hall), and this one had their own Blaskapelle, but the court didn’t have the cool hats, so we moved on pretty quickly.

After another hour or so of browsing, it was time to head back to our hotel and pick up our luggage and get on the train…

Ok, diversion. As I’m writing this we’re back to watching MTV auf Deutsch. Right now Chapelle’s Show is on with German subtitles, and South Park is coming on next in German, but the funniest thing is the commercials. Think gansta rap in German. It’s wild.

Back to the blog. We were in transit for almost 5 hours, but most of it was on an InterCity Express train (ICE train) which is really a great way to travel. Going from Vienna to Linz on one of those, we went to the 2nd class section and had to do a double take because we thought we were in 1st. In any case, after a great train ride, we ended up in Ruedesheim just in time to walk around a little bit before finding some dinner.


Trey found us a great little spot, with Schnitzel specials and great wine. His schnitzel had cheese and onions baked on top, and mine had a peppercorn cream sauce. We decided to get the Zwiebel Kuche (onion cake) to go along with it all, and Trey had to take a couple of pictures of the restaurant…


More tomorrow, after we visit August Kessler in the next town over, and a couple of wineries here!

München blog

Ok, cool thing about being in Germany - you don't have to jump through hoops to type an umlaut. It's awesome that it's just another key on the keyboard. Not cool thing about being in Germany is that every time you try try to type a Y, youd end up typing a Z because the Z is in the same place the Y is in on a n American keyboard and vice versa. You have no idea how many times I've hit backspace trying to type this paragraph.

No pictures today because weäre (some of the umlauts are also normal keys like parenthases and unparaenthases) in a hotel without free internet, but weäll have more tomorrow. Last night we got in and got standng room tickets for the Bavarian State Orchestra doing some really weird piano thing and Bruckner 7. Really a fantastic concert - I think the brass was a bit of a let-down for Trezy because it wasnät perferct, but when is everything perfect?

Today we spent doing some shopping, including a 2 hour detour getting Tony a special jersey from the FC Bayern München fan shop at the stadium and a couple of dirndls for me (2 for less than €200!) before meeting Heidi& Laslo for dinner and more drinks at the Augustiner Bierhalle. Trey found the good Augustiner Bierhalle that was out of the city center - the food and drink was all about 2/3 of the price (or less) of the one at the Marienplatz and it was a better atmosphere - and I think everyone liked it better anyway. :-)

Ok, thatäs enough for now because this Z and Y thing is driving me nuts! More tomorrow from Rüdesheim!

Marktl blog

This'll be another quick post since it's late and I want to get to bed...of course, I say that but I'll probably spend the next half an hour typing.

Friday morning we left Vienna for Salzburg, with a stopover in Linz to see some cousins. We had a great day with my Ota's cousin Joseph (who I've never met before), Tante Gitti & her husband Helli (I'm not sure if I spelled their names correctly), and Christian & Anita, who were here for Mark & Karen's wedding. Christian & Anita have a little girl, Valentina, who's about 10 months old and a doll.

Anyway, when we arrived Christian took us to Franz Joseph's Turm, a historic tower that gave us a great view of Linz, and told us all about this history of the city. After that we had a wonderful lunch a traditional restaurant for that part of Austria, and tried Most, which is cidar made out of apples & pears, and pretty much what that part of Austria drinks instead of beer or wine. Yum! We spent the rest of the afternoon doing a little more sightseeing and having Kaffee & Kuchen before getting on the train again. It was a lovely afternoon, and I'd post pictures but I don't think I got any with everyone in them.

We had a short trip from there to Salzburg, where we stayed in the Altstadt, the old part of the city. It's absolutely adorable, and sort of built into the side of the mountain. Many of the roads up are very narrow, and as a result, no tour buses are allowed into that part of the city. If groups want to stay in the hotels, they have to park their buses outside and walk in. I was lucky enough to find a good deal on a hotel inside, and much to my surprise, the room was not only cute, it was huge! The picture is below, but you can't see the extra day bed in there, plus there was a fairly large entryway and bathroom. Did I mention it was adorable?

After we checked in we walked around the Altstadt for a long time, looking for a traditional place to eat. I'd wanted to go to the Stiegl Keller, a very famous restaurant operated by the brewery, but we discovered it was only open from May to September. Instead, we found a place with very traditional food that also appeared to be full of locals. Trey had something neither of us had ever heard of - meat filled dumplings that were out of this world - and I had some kassler ham with Semmelknoedl. I love Semmelknoedl!

The next morning we went up to the Festung, the fortress at the very top of the mountain. Instead of taking the Festungs Bahn, the tram that goes up the mountain, we walked all the way up & back down. It was a little steeper than I remembered in parts but was great exercise and totally worth it. We stayed for about an hour to enjoy the view and take a picture of Godi's Brunne (her well), and then came back down. On the way to our next stop we had a great photo op...here's the Festung down below...

From there we had a nice walk over to the Stiegl brewery, something Trey had been looking forward to for a long time. Now, I've done a lot of brewery tours, but this was one of the coolest. As much as you learn on a tour with an actual tour guide, I think I'm enjoying all of the self-guided tours, as this one was, even more. The tour through the Brauwelt was laid out so that the first part took you through the building as if you were the beer being made. That was followed by the beer's recent history, comprised of what were some pretty neat marketing campaigns. The last part was the museum, which contained some beer-making artifacts dating back to the 1600s - Stiegl actually celebrated their 500th anniversary not too long ago.

After that it was on to tasting! Their "tasting room" is actually just their restaurant, which is open to the public and was obviously full of locals. There was a large group (the 3 tables behind me - I think I'm blocking the accordion player) who'd break into song every once in a while. It was too neat.

After our visit there we had a leisurly stroll back to our hotel to pick up the luggage before heading back to the train station & out to Marktl. I was a little worried that my family hadn't gotten my last e-mail that had our arrival time in it, but I knew how to get to their houses from the train station and remembered their being only a few minutes away. Not to worry however, because as the train pulled in we could see Onkel Sepp & Onkel Peter waiting for us. :-)

We had a nice quiet dinner at Onkel Sepp & Tante Susi's and talked the evening away. This afternoon we met the whole family for lunch at the local Gasthaus, followed by Kaffee & Kuchen at Susi's daughter Susi's haus, followed by a light dinner, and then back to Onkel Sepp & Tante Susi's for another long chat. I think Onkel Sepp would talk all night long if they let him, but I think Trey and I both are enjoying it. Last night we heard the story of how he and Tante Susi came to live in the United States, something I'd never heard before - now I have to go ask my Ota more about his own journey and about how he and my Oma met & all that.

My cousin Annemarie asked before we came if we wanted to do anything special while we were here, and I replied that we really just wanted to see everyone. This visit has really been perfect, but I hope no one thinks we're boring because we've mostly been sitting around talking!

Here's a picture of us from this evening...I'm sure we'll take more of them tomorrow but in this one none of us are crying, which I'm sure will happen as we're leaving.

Vienna on Thursday - a quickie

This'll be a quickie because it's 12:30am, I only have half a glass of wine left, and we need to be out of the hotel around 8:15am. I also want to work out before we hit the road so I want to be up by 6.

In any case, today was a good time - we started by visiting the Haus der Musik, a 5 story museum dedicated to music. We spent most of our time on the 1st and 3rd floors, which had exhibits on the history of the Vienna Philharmonic and on many of the major composers who lived and word in Vienna respectively. Trey took pictures of Leonard Berntstein's tux (he was a lot shorter than either of us thought) and Richard Strauss' baton, and we got to make up our own Viennese Waltz by throwing some dice (neat exhibit).

The funniest part, in my opinion, was the little section in which you could "conduct the Vienna Philharmonic." You could pick the tune they were to play, and for a few measures they'd follow you at whatever tempo you took (this type of software has been around for several years - it's actually really cool)...then someone from the orchestra would stand up and say something to the effect of, "this guy doesn't know what the hell he's doing, we can do it without them." We just about fell over laughing! Here's a picture of Trey at the exhibit, though...

After that we ventured to the outskirts of Vienna to a Weingut, or winery. This particular winery was just outside of the Vienna city limits, but most of the grapes were grown inside the city. The picture below is one Trey took just as we jumped off of the bus (public transportation to a winery!). We probably would've gotten to more than one, but we got a little lost on the way to this one, and had dinner plans.

Our dinner plans were with Katrin & Martin. We went to a little place that served traditional Austrian food, and it was wonderful (I've been craving Knoedl ever since I got here, and I got at least a taste of them :-) ). Even better was the company - we actually had an early dinner around 6:30, but went for some drinks afterwards and ended up heading our separate ways at about 11:30. It makes me wish that we were here for a few more days so we could hang out a little more - and it makes me wish that they come visit in the states sometime soon! You guys would love them all!

I'll stop writing pretty soon, but not without posting a picture I've been meaning to all week - our shower is completely see through - here's me standing in it earlier today...

Bizzare, but it's so cool!

Ok, enough for tonight - good night, and it might be a few days before I post again - I don't think we have free WIFI until next Wednesday...

Vienna on Wednesday

This post won't be too long because it's already after midnight for us, but I was able to upload a bunch of pictures!

Today was supposed to be entirely musical, only I planned a little too much and the weather didn't cooperate. Since it was still raining in the morning, we decided to wait on our trip to the cemetary and visit the Mozarthaus first (where Mozart lived from 1784-1787). What a neat museum! I'd totally forgotten about having gone through it in 2001, and I know I didn't learn as much that year. They've got an audio tour now, so that helped with regard to learning things, too.

After that we stopped for some coffee and were going to visit the Haus der Musik, but the rain had cleared up a little so we ventured out to the Zentralfriedhof. The Zentralfriedhof is the main cemetary in Vienna, where the presidents of Austria and some other notables are buried, including several composers. Trey asked if he was strange because he was taking pictures of headstones, but I didn't think so...considering the headstones.

This one belongs to Johann Strauss - the waltz composer.

This one, right next to it, is Brahms'. I thought it was interesting that Strauss' was so flashy and Brahms' was so simple. True, Strauss' music was flashy, but Brahms' was anything but simple.

Anyway, we also saw Beethoven, Wolf, some more Strausses, and a few more. I know what you're asking: Did you see Mozart's grave? No. Some of you will know why. Others will not - feel free to ask.

After that we took the scenic route back to the hotel - we went via the Strassenbahn instead of the U-bahn, which took twice as long, but had us above ground and going through neighborhoods the whole time. Once we got back to the hotel, we were contemplating searching out the Haydn haus, which is only a couple of blocks away, but decided to chill for a little while since tonight was our opera night (I'll give a review later if I have time, but all in all I'm really glad we went). After Salome, we stopped at Figlmueller for some famous Wiener Schnitzel (read: really thin, but bigger than your head schnitzel) before heading home. :-)

Since I promised, here are a few pictures before I go to bed...

Here's me at the gate of Schoenbrunn palace...

And the cheetahs we saw cuddled up at the zoo. The lady (on the left) was grooming her guy.

The cutest animal at the zoo was the Kleiner Panda. He/she had a buddy, too, but this was the best picture we got. The white things in the picture are snowflakes going by.

Hopefully we'll get a little more in tomorrow, but we've got a lot we want to do, so no promises!

Vienna, day 3

Before I start, 2 disclaimers:
1-I'm sorry if I have some dumb misspellings - the spell checker isn't working
2 - I'm sorry I only have 1 picture up, but Blogger is being uncooperative in that respect as well

Today we set out to visit Schoenbrun, the summer palace of the Hapsburgs. I was really excited to see this palace, a) because Maria Theresa is my hero and b) because I haven't been inside. When UD Chorale visited in 2001 we sa, but I want to say we just walked around the grounds. In any case, I was really looking forward to it.

We started off doing a tour of about 40 rooms in the palace - not even close to half of it. most of it was decorated in the 1700s, so you can imagine the Baroque extravagance. Glossy white walls, or expensive Rosewood walls, with gilted gold trim. We did the audio tour, so we got a fairly detailed description of what each room was used for, when it was decorated, and that sort of thing. I think some of pieces I enjoyed the most were the portraits of all of the royal children - little kids sitting for portraits in those powdered wigs? I wonder how the royalty got their kids to sit still.

Something that struck me was that each room connected to the other. It wasn't like there were really hallways or anything. In order to get to one room from somewhere else in the palace, you had to go through someone's bedroom or study - I guess if you're a king you've got enough people around that you can partially ensure your own privoucy. Something else I thought was interesting was that Franz Joseph, who was emperor of Austria until 1916, worked about 16 hours a day from the time he was 18 until the time he died at 86.

Ok, that's probably enough about that. After about an hour and a half or so inside the castle, we moved on to the Tiergarten, or the zoo. Since it was snowing we tried to stay inside when possible, the first building we found being the rainforest haus. In there, we discovered that the folks around here are serious about hands on exhibits - on the first floor of the hothaus there's a little room that's billed as a bat exhibit. What they don't state on the sign is that the bats are actually flying around in the room with you. When we started to pull the partitions aside, I could've sworn something was flying at my so I didn't want to chance it. There were some other folks, however, who were trying to go in, and a few seconds after we turned to walk away we heard a lot of screaming. You couldn't have paid me to do that!

We spent the rest of the afternoon walking around and saw some really cute stuff. We got pictures of Eisbaeren for Kristin (no, not Knut - he's in Berlin), Elefanten for Karen, and got a really cute picture of some cheetas cuddled up together for ourselves. We went into the Vogelhaus, and Trey was whistling back and forth with a parrot -that was cute!

I think one of the highlights, though, was going to see the Orangutans - the zoo here has a fairly new habitat for them, though they were all in the indoor portion because (again) it was snowing. In any case, one of the cutest things was when I walked up to one portion of the glass and Sol, their youngest orangutan by a couple of decades came up to the window to pose with us. Here's a picture of her with Trey, although in her picture with me she was even closer:

After a bit more time we decided to come back to the hotel, and we decided on dinner in, too. We stepped out briefly to get some kabob (no, not shishkabob - this is totally different) and spent the evening munching while watching The Simpsons, Family Guy, and now South Park in German - though most of it is dubbed, Timmy's voice is not. :-)

Tomorrow's a musical day for us. Keep your fingers crossed that the reports of sleet aren't going to materialize because we're hoping to visit the cemetary, too.