Some Tips for Reading this BLOG!

One thing you need to know is that you can click on a picture to see it enlarged. Many of the pictures are well worth taking a closer look. Unfortunately, I never figured out how to put a caption on a picture, and wanted to publish this blog before my 75th birthday.

The pictures in each post are chronologically posted, with the earliest picture at the bottom of the pictures, and progressing upward.

For many of the major places we visited there is a link on the right, in case you want to read more about it, or see other pictures.

The list called "labels" - clicking on any of the labels will take to the post or posts where that item is mentioned.

Also, don't miss the movies that appear at the end of a few posts!

Day 1 - Meeting the Vicar of Gundelfingen

Pat dropped me off Wednesday night at Newark Airport to suffer through the long, long, long security lines. Every time they made me show my passport and ticket, I would then put them back into my purse. Two minutes later someone wanted to see it again. It was a pain. Bought a bottle of water for a shocking $4.00 - they really have you over a barrel with the "no liquids" rule - you are at their mercy once you pass through security, and they take full advantage of it.

Jane picked me up Thursday morning, after a not-so-bad flight (7 rather quick hours.) The meal was horrible but there was no one in the seat between me and my row-mate, so I had a little extra room, and slept fairly well.

On the way to Gundelfingen, I had to pee really bad. Jane pulled over into a rest area, but of course there were no toilets. So I had to go into the woods (and it was very apparent I wasn't the first.) Due to the steepness of the terrain and the angle of my sweatpants, I wet myself. Jane got a picture of me emerging from the woods, and thankfully it doesn't show my pee-pee pants. But I did have to sit on a towel all the way to her crib. Great way to start a vacation, don't you think?

Yes, at last I was to meet Gerald...of course, it wasn't until early Friday morning because he was out all night patrolling the perimeter, but he came in and curled up between my legs. He is so beautiful and so sweet, with a great purr. When we arrived he was out on his appointed rounds. He is the Vicar of Gundelfingen.

Jane and I walked through the village. It's really pretty with lots of flowers. I think everyone in the village has a few windowboxes dripping with flowers. I got some very nice pictures. Unfortunately, I missed the storks which roost on top of the church, they left for Africa 8/17. There is a big board by the church which lists the stork activities past and present. I got a picture of that and the nest, anyHOW. We walked up to the town center where I used my bankcard to get some Geoffrey Dollars and we had coffee and ice cream at an outdoor cafe. Gundelfingen is celebrating its 1000th anniversary in 2008! They are working on some of the older buildings in anticipation of the celebration next year.

The weather was sunny and warm - so lovely. We went over to the grocery store and picked up olives and chocolate, of course. I picked up one bottle cap for Cousin Dr. Donn.

Came back and sat on the balcony. Jane, Thomas and Gerald's crib is nice - roomy and with lots of light, a balcony that goes around 2 sides and has a nice view of the neighbor's garden, and a shrine to Aunt Evil's Mini-Me. It's like a Mike Hye Monkey Shrine. Unfortunately, upstairs is a family of mountain gorillas. They stomp, cry, whine, scream, hammer, yammer and yell in the stairway. Actually, I think mountain gorillas have much better manners.

Jane's next-door neighbors (the ones she calls "the kindergarten") called us over and gave us some of their home-grown grapes. We then went to the mineral bad (bath) and spent about 2 hours there. The water was fantastic. There is a circular area where there is an actual current. You don't have to do a thing and it just pushes you round and round. We made a lot of Germans laugh, I don't know why. There were a lot of young couples there who should have gotten a room, if you know what I mean. We left there around 9 pm. I released 2 bookcrossing books while I was there.

Came home and Jane made this really good stuff with sauerkraut, noodles (more like dumplings or gnocchi) and ham. She said it is a traditional festival food and that Thomas says she uses too much sauerkraut. What does he know? She had already made a terrific fruit salad. We got into our jammies and ate dinner in bed while we watched Ocean's 11, 12 or 13 (whatever it takes) until we couldn't hold our eyes open anymore.

Friday morning we had coffee and breakfast on the balcony. It was a little chilly. We planned on walking into the village to the Markt. Later, being the chips off the old Mutti that we are, we have a cemetery in Freiberg to explore. And we'll probably climb the Munst. And go to another grocery store. Or two.

We will meet up with Doo on Sunday. Tuesday and the rest of the week while Jane is working, Doo & I will explore Heidelberg. We'll come back here on the weekend and celebrate Jane's birthday with Thomas and Big G.

Sure miss my kitty and hope the bachelors are being good to him. The vet is supposed to call Pat and tell him what we should do next about his ear. His EAR, not his REAR.

Day 2 - It was a Graveyard Smash!

So…it turned out the baby storks may have flown the coop, but the big storks were still there! We started to walk up to the village center and I looked up and there they were! It was so exciting. Later I saw them fly into the nest. And Jane had told me that they make a clacking sound, and I was sitting on her balcony when I heard it. It is very distinctive.

There was a little Markt in the village – 2 or 3 cheese sellers, 2 vegetable sellers, a flower seller and a honey seller. We bought a bunch of cheese, olives, bread and other stuff (cheese-stuffed peppers, stuffed grape leaves, 2 kinds of olive tapenade) and the woman at the stand threw in a couple of containers of stuff. There is also a really weird fountain in the square, I took a picture of it. We went to a little grocery store and I got a pretty card to send to Aunt Bea. Also went into a book store where I guessed at the titles.

After we got back, Big G dropped by to give us the gift that keeps on giving – a tiny dead mole. G was so proud. He came in, let us fuss over him for a minute, then went right outside to the balcony and sat by his mole until we came out to admire it and him.

We drove over to Freiberg to the oldest cemetery in Freiberg (the Alter Friedhof.) It was bigger than it looked from the outside, completely walled, with a plain-looking (from the outside) chapel. We couldn’t go in the chapel, but we peaked in the windows and it looked beautiful. Many of the gravestones were pretty crumbly, but they were very interesting, dating back to the 1700s and into the 1800s, I don’t remember anything newer.

There was a gravestone which said, "General A.B.L. Riquetti, Vicomte de Mirabeau, with a date of 1792." When I got back from the trip, I looked him up and found out he was a leader in the French Revolution, fought against the British in the American Revolutionary War, was nicknamed "Barrel Mirabeau" because of his corpulence (due to drink and died of either apoplexy or a duel in Freiburg! You can read more about him by clicking on his name in the "Links" section.

Many of the gravestones were "weird-scary-weird," with lots of skulls, caskets, skeletons and other creepy symbolism. There were also graves in the wall which surrounded the cemetery. There was a monument, not really a grave, which looked just like the top of the Munster.

We sat on a bench and had a picnic of our Markt cheeses, bread and some wine. As we sat there an picnicked, once in a while people would come along the cross walk and start to turn down the path where we were picnicking. Each and every one took one look and changed their minds. Hunh. On our way out of the cemetery we saw an interesting tree - it was a huge tree, and it was completely fallen, and yet it was still alive, with branches growing out of it. There was a plaque in front of it. The plaque indicated that a level 12 gale-force wind toppled the tree in 1999. The plaque also held a quotation from Job as follows:

"At least there is hope for a tree:
If it is cut down, it will sprout again,
and its new shoots will not fail."

(Job 1, 14:7)

Then (Mom would be proud) we drove over to Freiberg’s biggest cemetery. It’s much newer but the graves did go back to the early 1900s. It's called the Hauptfriedof (Main Cemetery). There was an entire section of WWI graves. Another area is dedicated to the people who were killed in the air-raids on Freiberg. There is a WWII section too.

The graves here go up to the present time and are incredibly well cared for. The flowers were fantastic. We saw impatiens, deep red, the size of chrysanthemums. The cemetery is huge, and contains the graves of many Freiberg notables, and we saw one grave of a Nobel prize winner. There were gorgeous sculptures. There was one gravestone in the shape of a donut. (Mmmmm...donuts....) We walked in there for a long time. Jane noticed that in many of the very well-kept graves there were markers from grave-tending companies. She didn't think that was right, that they should advertise on the graves, so she picked them out and put them on graves that were in ratty shape.

Then we hit a major grocery store – it used to be WalMart when Pat & the kids & I were here – all we picked up was 2 bars of chocolate and a bag of fruit & nuts. I did pick up some Germany grocery lists - I continued to do this, as is my habit, throughout my stay. I am looking for the German equivalent of the grocery list I found in the U.S. one time. One of the items listed was "fucking rolls." Jane sometimes sends me lists she finds in German grocery carts. She writes "fucking sauerkraut" on them. I actually got so I could read most of the grocery lists I found. After all, I speak several languages, as long as they use only food words.

Came home and ate baked cheese with jam, leftover sauerkraut stuff with chocolate for dessert while we watched a movie.

BTW, we were expecting Mike to be in tomorrow, but we got a panic IM from him yesterday – he took a look at his passport and it was EXPIRED! He has an emergency appointment to get a new one (I guess he told them he was needed on urgent space business) but we won’t see him until Thursday of next week. Poor little chucklehead. Jane had to call his hotel and make new arrangements. So I will be all by my lonesome in Heidelberg for a few days next week. Jane says everyone speaks-a-da-English so I guess I’ll make out all right. The gardens by the castle are said to be beautiful…I’ll bring my book and chill out. I could use some chillin’ out, I’ll be honest whicha.

I miss my kitten something awful, but I got major mojo from G this morning – Jane put him on my bed and he immediately made himself at home between my legs. He is perfect in every way. Meantime, the gorillas upstairs have been sawing, hammering, screaming and moving furniture since o’dark thirty.

More tomorrow. We be headed out to the PO, then to Freiberg’s Munsterplatz Markt, then this eve to a festival at a nearby village.

Day 3 - PULL!

Got a little snuggle from G in the morning…not for long, he has an agenda. Places to go, people to see (what time does Oma Rose’s close?) We drove up to the PO to buy stamps and postcards and mail my card to Aunt Bea.

Went over to the Munst to walk around the Marktplatz and it turned out that there was a craft fair going on. It extended to the surrounding streets. Lots of nice but expensive handcrafts, including some beading. Saw some crocheted beadwork, some beaded beads and lots of felting. In the Marktplatz we saw Nancy’s olive boyfriend (he sells olives, he's not olive-colored.) Speaking of which, I found a glass marble with an olive in it. (.80 euro. Now mine.) We also bought some donut peaches. The only other place I have ever seen them (and Pat can testify to this) is at the Middlesex County Fair. Jane liked them. I took a picture of the gargoyle we call the "butthole surfer," (whenever I have my colonoscopies, I give a picture of this to Dr. Chen) and also for the first time spied a cool stork statue on top of the Munster.

We went into a fruit/veggie store and bought FRESH dates. They were incredible. I never tasted any before. They look like tiny yellow plums but taste like a date, except that they are juicy, not granular like a dried date.

I had to go to the bathroom for the first time in 10 hours and Jane accused me of having a bladder the size of a peanut but she took me over to the department store to use the potty.

Walked around some more and sampled but didn’t buy any cheese for raclette (which we plan to do today.) I was beginning to get peckish, Grommit.

We walked around the surrounding streets shopping for cards but we really didn’t find any we liked (besides some postcards.) It was crowded but a little bit chilly and overcast. No rain, though.

We walked over to Euphrat, a Turkish fast food place and got two HUGE platters of food. I got the camera out while Jane ordered so we could get a good picture of the food, but we were so delirious with hunger that by the time we remembered, the plates had practically been licked clean. The food was fantastic – we had a vegetarian platter with salat, zaziki, falafel, some kind of veggie dumpling, eggplant, hummus, and a similar platter that had the most delicious chicken. Dropped a bookcrossing book off there, too. On the way back we saw this display in a deli case of the most beautiful carved melons. I took a picture and you can see it here - click on it to enlarge it and you can see Jane & I in the window.

Came home and took G for a walk around the church. He only made it halfway before collapsing in the grass. Poor little t'ing.

Went to two grocery stores. First one, bought cheese for raclette, chocolate for scientific purposes and some gifts to bring home. Second one, bought some more stuff for our raclette and more chocolate. The chocolate aisles in Germany rock.

Took off for a fest Jane found listed in a little fest flier – it was in the nearby village of Denzingen. When we finally found it we were like, “oh man, it’s a SPORTS thing. Bummer.” We had expected food, beer, oompah music, a watered down Oktoberfest atmosphere. Turned out it was the German national championship TUG OF WAR! HAha. In fact, it was the "25 year tug-of-war Denzingen German Championship 2007".

First thing we saw this group of guys dressed in green Robin Hood hats, yellow jerseys, hiking pants, yellow socks and hiking boots. I went over and asked if I could have my picture taken with them and they were totally into it. They just grouped around me and one guy put his hat on my head. I look like a fat, demented Peter Pan in the photo.

We went into the tent to get a beer – there was lots of good looking German food but we were still stuffed from lunch – and the cool thing in the tent was that all the tables had pretty arrangements of sunflowers, and there were these awesome chandelier-looking hanging floral arrangements of gladiolas and other flowers.

We got a beer and went and sat in the bleachers to watch the action, and ended up not only being Tug-of-War fans, but trying to figure out how we can get jobs as Tug-of-War coaches. The teams were made up of either all men or all women, BUT they competed against each other. We watched for hours as the teams competed against each other and were eliminated or went on. Most of the teams were just wearing old clothes, but the 2 really good women’s teams had uniforms (matching jerseys and shorts and socks.) Only our favorite team had the funny costumes with hats, but we never saw them go into competition. One of the women’s teams was incredible – so focused and with a great coach, they were just pulling over the men’s teams one after another.

The way it goes is this: The rope is wrapped around the chest of the last person on the line. Then it is laid upon the right foot of the tuggers. At a signal, the rope is flipped up into their hands. Then the referee makes the teams move back and forth until a white line on the center of the rope is just over the center line. He raises his arms, and then yells "PULL" as he snaps his arms back to his sides. The really good female team all leaned back, dug the heels of their boots into the dirt, and when their coach told them, they inched back using their heels to dig in an leaning for leverage. At another sign from their coach, they would all simultaneously lean back. Eventually they would have the rope far enough over the center line to have won, and by that time many of the men on the other side had gone down.

After a while we decided we’d had enough and we got up to leave, but first I had to go ask our boys why we didn’t see them compete. They told us they had been eliminated early because “we are not so good.” We told them that as far as we were concerned they won for best costumes. They LOVED that.

We went to the car and then I realized I’d left my glasses on the bench, so we went back. We ended up sucked right back in. Watched our girls beat the crap out of another bunch of teams (we saw them lose only once.) Then there was an exhibition in which our boys in the hats competed. We jumped up and were cheering and screaming for them, which seemed to really tickle them. Then we got to watch the prize giving, and our favorite women’s team won the big cup! We are HUGE tug-of-war fans now. Who knew??? As we left, the band in the tent had started playing. Oompah music??? NO. “Take Me Home, Country Roads.”

There was another fest listed for the nearby town of Waldkirch which was going on 8pm – 3am so we decided to check it out. Got all the way over to the town but couldn’t find the fest. We did see a castle ruin lit up on the hill, so tomorrow we’re going to go check that out.

Got home, snacked on leftovers and then ate a chocolate buffet in bed and watched the rest of Ocean’s 13. Big G returned in the early hours.