Why me?

Rita and I go for long walks several days a week (basically every day once bad weather constrains cycling), so we're often approached for directions to some place. We get asked a lot! One of the favorite destinations is the office of the doctor who has evening hours. (While she's a GP, I suspect she must have a sizable prenatal practice because we're often stopped by seemingly healthy young couples.) We've also been able to point people to restaurants, the gun club, and the accordion festival.

I'm in Germany this week. On business. Yes, we just got back from vacation in Germany, but I did spend over 24 hours at home before returning. Sometimes it just happens like that. Anyways, tonight, on my way home from dinner, a couple of young fellers pulled up beside me and asked something I of course did not understand. I fessed up right away: "I'm sorry, but I don't speak German." Undeterred, one of them switched instantly to his best English IV English: "Can you tell me where is a place where I can find Leu?" He looked a little frustrated when he got to the Leu, and since we didn't know each other's word for the object of his query, I used my fall back: "I'm a visitor here." That seemed to bring him closure and save him a little face.

If it's not bad for him, I hope he finds it.

Castles

Linderhof is one of Ludwig's smaller castles. In fact, it's only one floor (if you don't count the basement level, where the kitchen and servants' quarters were). Ludwig had a thing for all things French so he modeled his castle on Versailles, complete with a hall of mirrors, formal gardens, a grotto, and a "play house".


Off in the distance here you can see what I think is Hohenschwangau. We were on our way down the hill to Neuschwanstein so it must be the other castle. What's most striking to me in this picture is the color of the lake. We had an absolutely gorgeous day for this outing.

Traveling in Europe

Today we came home from our Germany/Austria trip. We left Waldkirch, Germany in the Black Forest and passed through the Alsace and Moselle regions of France and drove through most Luxembourg before hitting the Belgian border; once in Belgium we drove pretty much the width of the country at its widest. Four countries in about 6 hours, including rest stops.

Living in this part of Europe is pretty cool.

Who Says You Can't Come Back?

In our quest to introduce Sarah to the Germany we love (ie, make her like Germany), we took her on a week's trip to various parts of Germany and Austria. Part of the trip echoes the trip we made in September 2006 with DeeAnne and Paige to Bavaria and the Tirol section of Austria, just across the border from Germany and within striking distance of three of Ludwig's castles. For this part of the trip we stayed at the Alpenhotel Ernberg in Reutte, Austria, where we stayed on the DeeAnne-and-Paige trip. And I'm here to say that the hotel is even better than we found it in 2006 - most of it having been refurbished - and the food is every bit as good as we remembered. So good that Sarah and I had to roll ourselves out of the dining room each night.

So in this case the reality of the return trip is even better than the memory.

Fastest ride ever

Ya know, that drafting thing I'm always hearing about really works. Tonight on my bike I tucked in behind a tractor towing a hay baler. It was pretty easy pedaling for a couple of kilometers. In fact, as I was coming back on the same road, without a baler to help, I realized that I was riding about 3 kph slower, headed slightly downhill, than I had been uphill--but behind my baler. Of course, going out I was fresher--and a little more motivated by the second tractor towing a second baler riding right behind me.

Or maybe he was drafting off me.

Road Trip to Poland

Armed with hand-drawn maps, information from the internet, and recommendations from experienced shoppers, Sarah and I drove to Boleslawiec, Poland to buy pottery. As many of you know, I already had a growing collection of items in various patterns. But I wanted to get enough pieces to feed a crowd with this sturdy-enough-for-everyday-use-but-still-pretty pottery, so we headed for the mother lode. And we found it. It's amazing we managed to buy as much as we did because it's simply overwhelming when you first get there - it seems there are stores everywhere.

Having left at 0130 Friday morning, we arrived at 1230 (every Autobahn in Germany is under construction), had a quick lunch at the hotel, and ventured out. Our first stop was Zaklady, which proved in the end to be our favorite. We also did a lot of damage (to my credit card) at Cer-Far. I ended up with 4 complementary patterns, one of which I already had several pieces of. See my four patterns below.

I also splurged on quite a few serving pieces in some of these same patterns but in others as well.

Of course we had no sooner left when I realized I should have gotten a teapot. And now that I've gone through it all at home I wish I had gotten some extra pieces of some of the patterns to make up for the inevitable breakage. Maybe there'll be another trip in the future...

Rome

The reason they couldn't get it built in a day is that the whole danged thing is made of brick! I always assumed Rome would be marble or some some such thing. But no, it's bricks. Bazillions of 'em.

I'm posting backwards. We went to Rome in late May, then Tuscany in June. (I actually started this post 6 weeks ago.) It looks like we're crazy mad about Italy all of a sudden, but it just kinda happened. We had already planned the Tuscany trip when one of Rita's brothers wrote to say he had business in Rome and asked if we'd like to meet him there, so we went to Italy twice in 3 weeks.

If you're interested in seeing Roman bricks and some other stuff, you can click on our Roman holiday picture book.