Muddled Musings.

Danish Countryside

Travel day again today.  Another 350 kms but the Germans who had clogged the roads yesterday had mostly settled somewhere by today & the Danes weren’t moving far so we got along quite nicely, really beating the 8.5 hrs it had taken to come less than 500 kms yesterday and so we struck Denmark well before we thought we would, which was a bit of a fright, because we had planned to buy diesel on the German side of the border, owing to everything in Denmark costing the GDP of a small country.

Anyway, it wasn’t too bad & we had just decided that we wouldn’t have to sell a child to pay the bill, when we arrived at a sign saying that if we intended to cross the forthcoming bridge from one island to the other- & we did, because it was much too far to swim & tow the car- then we needed to pay 220!!!!!! 

By the time we recovered & had worked out just what that meant we were on the bridge & had to go with the flow (pardon the pun.)  However, the view and the experience were well worth the money which turned out to be somewhere in the vicinity of 35.00AUD & still not cheap.  And we have to do it again because I want to visit Odense, the home of Hans Christian Andersen & it’s back over the bridge so the day we do that excursion we will also do whatever else there is to do over there and make a good day of 

it as it’s $35.00 each way.

Denmark surprised us geographically.  Germany has mountains and hills and many wonderful forests but Denmark is really very like western Victoria- lush and green with lots of dairies and cereal crops ready for harvest and low, undulating country.  Germany, France & Italy all have many villages within a few kilometres of each other, but the countryside we encountered today was open and clear and had only large towns that were quite far apart.

We stopped for lunch at a Macca’s!  We, of all people, who don’t eat Macca’s at home even & really relish the ability to eat the local food whenever we get the chance, but Denmark is very short on the wonderful Auto grills that line the roads in France & Germany & Italy so when you’re starving, anything goes.

I really must have needed coffee, because I’d forgotten that Denmark, although part of the EU, doesn’t use the Euro & when I was looking at the menu, which I’m here to tell you is the same as any menu in any Macca’s store in the world, I could hardly believe my eyes!  There, on the wall for all to see, was an illustration of a box of Chicken Nuggets with 65.00 beside it!!!!  When I recovered enough to do the maths, I worked out that it was around the $10.00 mark- to get somewhere near our money, you divide the Krone by 5.5.  I can also vouch for the fact that not only does the menu look the same anywhere in the world, it also tastes the same! And I didn’t have chicken nuggets!

Our Bedroom at Tivoli Hotel

Our Bathroom at the Tivoli

Our hotel was a surprise. It’s called the Tivoli Gardens Hotel & Congress Centre and all the rooms are furnished with a carnival theme - very new & built near the Tivoli Gardens which are very old & are home to the second oldest amusement park in the northern hemisphere. The oldest is just up the road, on the northern side of Denmark.  We have free tickets to these gardens & having Googled them this afternoon we can’t wait to see them as they are certainly very different and special.

 The hotel was designed by the son of Mr (forget his first name) Utson who designed the Sydney Opera House.  He also designed other buildings in Copenhagen which we will see during the next few days. I’ve taken pictures of our room because it is so different.

Very Expensive Bridge

We are off to explore the city tomorrow, including, of course, the Tivoli Gardens. 

  

Kaleidescopic Koln

Cologne (Koln) certainly lived up to expectations and we were so glad we had decided to return.  We had time this visit to wander the streets and the parks and to soak up the atmosphere of this ancient, yet modern city.

We found churches and chocolate, bridges and barges and Bill even found another mustard factory!  He fortunately refrained from buying any more- really, how many more flavours can one enjoy or take in?  That’s rhetorical, because with Bill & mustard, we ( & he) could go on forever. And he would be delighted to do so!

Cologne Cathedral

Chapel of the Three Magi

More Stained Glass History

Chapel of St Michael

The Dom (cathedral) has been a cathedral since around 300AD and is just steeped in history and once again, we learnt much of the history of the times from the beautiful stained glass windows.  As you know, many people in the Middle Ages couldn’t read, so church windows were the illustrated stories from which they learnt about the bible and the stories of their own towns and times.

  The remains of the Three Magi are buried there- bet you didn’t know that! And we could work out how long the present bishop has been in residence by counting the number of gold rods hanging over the Treasury door- one for each year of his tenure. They hang from a long, gold bar which is only about half full so no prizes for guessing he’d be hoping to fill it up before he goes off to the great cathedral in outer space!

We are into history of all types and like to think we are open minded, not just wanting to learn about people and churches, but other areas as well, hence Bill’s falling on the mustard factory, so of course we took ourselves off to the Lindt Chocolate Museum, which is in the centre of Cologne.  Just so we didn't appear biased & so we could chat to the grandchildren about what a great time they missed out on!  Sorry guys!

Not only is this place a museum, it’s also a factory and a fairy tale shop.  We found out that Cologne is the home of Lindt chocolate and that the factory has been there since the late 1700’s.  The cocoa was then & still is brought in through the ports in Hamburg and one of the shipping companies then is still importing the cocoa beans today. It was this company that also started a quality control system for the beans.  Another point of interest, but a rather sad one, is that many of the workers on the cocoa plantations have never tasted the finished product because they can’t afford it.

No shortage of helpers with these tools!

Old age never seemed so good!

Cologne is, as you know, one of the important ports on the Rhine and we saw a diversity of interesting river craft.  One of the floating hotels that sails the European rivers was in port for the day & it was just breathtaking.  All of the top deck was restaurants and bars, both inside and out, the second story was bedrooms with wonderful appointments and big windows as well as lounge areas and other restaurants and the lower deck was also suites.  It would have catered for hundreds of guests.

On the other side of things, we were really interested in the barges that carried many different types of cargo up the river- cars and grain amongst them.

Barge on the Rhine

Other Observations

Eating out is great in any European city, especially when the weather is warm which it isn’t but then, we can’t complain, hearing what it’s like at home.  Every mall is filled with tables and chairs and so many different types of food.  It was raining when we arrived in Cologne and so we ate at the restaurant next door to the hotel & it just happened to be a really good, Italian restaurant with really good Italian food. Many locals eat there and it was so good to hear a language that I could understand! And I was very pleased when I heard two of the waiters chatting in Italian and one said to the other that the signora speaks Italian and will translate for the signor!  What a pity I didn't think to tell the signor something other than what he wanted to know!  Could have fed him anything!

Today we spent 8.5 hours driving less than 500 kms!  All the Germans & most of the rest of Europe were on the autobahn (get the German bit there) that we were on & they were all travelling north.  So glad we decided not to drive all the way to Copenhagen in one stretch.  We would still have been on the road.

Off to Denmark tomorrow so we had a really good dinner tonight because we have heard that everything in Denmark is 5 times as expensive as anywhere else in Europe, so will let you know.  Hopefully, the roads will be a little less packed than they were today.

Speaking of cars, it fascinates us to see the taxis here.  They’re all Mercedes and Audis and Peugeots!  Like the driving schools in Italy.  They’re all the same as well.  Mikaela was amazed.  As she said, why would anyone use those cars for kids to learn on? But here, they’re just like our Fords and Holdens, I suppose.  Mind you, if you asked me which I preferred- the ones here or our Fords or Holdens.... mmm...   bit of a hard choice?  I don't think so!

All Things Bright And Beautiful

We have come to the end of our Black Forest sojourn. And what a fabulous time it was.  We had visited here with the kids some 20 years ago, but on a bus tour, when if it was Wednesday, it was the Black Forest etc.  We had always said we would come back and we have!

Flowers everywhere

Our time here has been a kaleidoscope of colour- flowers everywhere, on walls, on bridges, on footpaths and shops.  We are thinking that as Europe has such a short time to celebrate summer and all things warm and cheerful, that they really enjoy emphasising colour.  The rest of the year here, as we all know, is pretty stark and very black & white.  As well as being very, very cold!  And certainly not colourful!

Yesterday, we got lost- again- but getting lost often means finding things that we would never have known existed and this was true of Hammersbach where we happened across a costume museum which had life size tableaux of all the costumes worn in the Black Forest area over the last 200 years.  Today, when we stopped at Mummelsee, I tried on one of the hats- very fetching- I didn't let Bill take a photo in case you were all jealous!  They are so heavy!  I can't imagine why women would wear them & they did, because we saw photos of them!  Here's some to prove it.

Bet you thought Davy Crockett was American.

Just don't ask me to smile.

 Can you imagine how fetching you'd look with these?  And how good you'd look going through the door sideways?  Because you certainly wouldn't have got through any other way!  Puts an end to the idea of the grand entrance!

The family ready for an outing.

We were trying to guess what these were.
Various suggestions included baskets or vases, but as they
were hollow, that didn't (or wouldn't) hold water. You're
right- they're hats!

This is interesting.  The pale item in front, that looks
like a Ry-Vita biscuit, is a stamp that was used for
printing the material behind it.  Clever! And this was  around the 17th C.

A case of kissing like a porcupine.
Very carefully! Or you'd be in danger of
knocking out the Beloved! Great
way to start a relationship.

Folk lore is a very big part of the Black Forest culture and the costume museum exhibited some of the more colourful characters from their literary heritage.

The retention of the old carnival traditions is very important in the Black Forest and Black Forest people seek to distinguish their own carnival traditions from the more recent Rhenish influenced carnival.

With Fasnacht (or Fasnet), on the 6th January, the Swabian-Alemannic carnival begins. The Häs, which are the traditional costumes of the carnival revellers, are dusted off on this day. The heyday of the Fasnet begins with the Schmutziger Donnerstag which means literally dirty Thursday, and consists of six days of crazy and mad activity on the streets of the Black Forest communities!

The whole spectacle ends, just as it does in the Rhine River area, on Aschermittwoch (Ash Wednesday), the first day of the season of Lenten. 
However, there are still some relics of the former carnival to be found in the Swabian-Alemannic carnival: The Buurefasnacht carnival in Weil am Rhein and Sulzburg lasts until the end of the first week of the Lenten season.

A cache of colourful characters from Black Forest folklore.

Tomorrow, we're of to Cologne, en route to Denmark by Sunday.  We met a very nice guy, Martin, at dinner tonight & he has given us some good things to do in Cologne.  He suggested a tour of the Lindt factory which includes a free tasting at the end, so you can imagine Bill's reaction to that!  I think that's one of the things we might find time for!  He also gave us suggestions of where to eat as he & his family often go to Cologne for the weekend. It's always fun to go where the locals go as it usually means a more "local" experience and that's what we're here for.  He also gave us some good leads for Copenhagen, so will keep you posted.

Halloo, Hallay O Frabjous Day!

Well, what a day!  Every day has lived up to expectations, but this one exceeded them all. It was warm!!!!  And finally, I could live out one of my European fantasies- to sit in the sun in a cafe & have a drink (beer, of course, because when in Rome- no- the Black Forest, one does what the good citizens of the Black Forest do).  How good was it to just sit and watch the world go by & Wolfach is one of the most picturesque places in the world in which to do this.


Being in the Black Forest is like living in a 3D postcard.  Every village is something out of a story book & every one has so much history and is so proud of its heritage and  culture and history.  

Street scene in Wolfach

This morning, we went to the tourist office in Freudenstadt where we are staying for 4 nights and found information to get us started.  Off we went on the tourist route to find Triberg, which we subsequently didn't get to by car because on the way, we took a right turn instead of a left and ended up in Schilbach.  What a find!  Living history & a much better tourist office, where we gained heaps of fresh information which then led us to Hornberg where, courtesy of our visitor tax, we were able to take a free train to St Georgen, passing through Triberg on the way.  Bill was in his element.  There were 36 tunnels and a number of viaducts. Apparently, this route is a very famous tourist one so it was a real "boy's own" train adventure, almost to rival the one he & Michael still talk about from Greymouth to Christchurch in New Zealand.  Of course, he emailed Mike to let him know!

While we were waiting for the return train from St Georgen we found a DFO for clocks!  We had a great time talking to the guy who manages the outlet and may go back to buy a clock as there are some that are "one offs" and they are beautifully made. You can also shut them up at night which would be a great advantage.  Saves building a sound proof room to store them in!  Why didn't we think of that when the kids were small!

After consulting the guide book, we decided to move on to Wolfach, which has a mind blowing, glass blowing factory.  One of the mind blowing bits is that it is actually open every day all day.  Many places around here are literally open half a day during the week & on bank holidays whenever they occur so it was great to find somewhere so user friendly & we showed our gratitude by taking lots of photos & spending lots of money on their really beautiful things.

Glass eyes- circa 18thC

Much more beautiful glassware circa now.

After consulting the guide book, we decided to move on to Wolfach, which has a mind blowing, glass blowing factory.  One of the mind blowing bits is that it is actually open every day all day.  Many places around here are literally open half a day during the week & on bank holidays whenever they occur so it was great to find somewhere so user friendly & we showed our gratitude by taking lots of photos & spending lots of money on their really beautiful things.


Wolfach is a very old town and still has markets but not today and it was there that we finished our day's touring with a local beer at a biergarten (note the German slipped in there) while we sat and watched the world go by-in the warm.  The weather really turned on a great day for us & the temperature exerted itself to around 21 degrees!  In fact, I took a plunge this evening and wore a short sleeved top & sandals to dinner!


Speaking of the German language- not in it- managed that in France but it's all a mystery from here on- we learnt today that any names ending in "ach" mean that the place has something to do with water, and we proved this when we were at any place with the suffix "ach" as everyone was on a river or had a canal running through it.  So- there's your bit of education for today.


Oh, & I must also tell you the other great news- there is Black Forest cake, in the Black Forest!  And boy, is it good!

Typical Black Forest architecture

Hotnberg

Delicious Dijon & other great news for girls.

Maille Mustard Original

Food- glorious food!  And that sums up Dijon.  Yes, it is where Dijon mustard originated & it's still going strong- in every conceivable flavour.  It can be bought- & we can seriously vouch for this- in flavours that range from cognac through to chocolate & every flavour in between, including fruits and spices and herbs- flavours not sold in any other part of the world- a bit like Lindt chocolate, but that's a story for future times.  The ancient truck is a symbol here of all things marvellously mustard.

We also visited Les Halles, the food market. There is one in every major town and we visited another yesterday in Troyes but I wasn't game to take photos.  However, I decided to go for broke today & can now share some fabulous photos of food. 

 We are staying at the Holiday Inn while we are here & couldn't believe the food.  We ate in both nights because the food and the presentation were just unbelievable- lots of ideas for Mikaela and I to try out in the holidays when we're together again.

Anyone for olives?

Every conceivable cheese & more

A good European mix

And now for the really good news.  There is life after size 42!  I have living proof and it's here for you to see for yourselves.  Mind you, the stuff still isn't an excellent fit- due chiefly to the fact that even French women don't seem to have the same thunder thighs that I do, but the facts are there- I checked them out.  Here you go! You just have to go to the right shop- heaven forbid that these sizes would be cosied up with anything smaller, but for we girls who are not wee, it's possible to dress like the French-just not in French labels, however!

Off to the Black Forest tomorrow.  Will be interested to see if we can actually get Black Forest Cake there.  Might be like a friend of ours who is/was very keen on Mongolian Lamb.  When he visited Mongolia on a business trip some years ago he asked in several restaurants for Mongolian Lamb only to be told, much to his great disappointment, that there was no such dish in Mongolia!  Will let you know if the same is true of the Black Forest Cake in the Black Forest.

Toying with Troyes

How opportunity presents itself!  While we were having our final breakfast at the hotel in Dizy this morning, we realised that the people at the next table were speaking English- a rare find in a foreign town away from the main areas.  We got chatting, to find that they are Welsh and come often to France & Germany as the guy used to be a  French/German teacher at a school in Wales.  They suggested we might like to visit Troyes (Twaa- pronunciation) and as it was on our way to Dijon, of mustard fame, we decided to call in & have a coffee and a look.


It was amazing.  Troyes is a medieval town and the guy had said that some years ago, when the good citizens were renovating the town, they found that underneath the stucco were wonderful examples of medieval architecture and he was absolutely right!  We had been going to stop for maybe half an hour but this turned into about 2.5 hours, including lunch which, for moi (get the French bit here) was a pot of at least 4 dozen mussels!  Heaven in a pot!  Ohhhh  les moules!  (More French)  and classique ( the French just keeps coming!) And the wine... but enough about the food. 


We also found a really old church, again thanks to the Welsh couple whom we came across again while we were eating lunch in a little cafe in a tiny street. (This is not about the food!)  They mentioned the church which had been started before 500 AD!  Such history.

Bell from ancient church

Anyway, we captured the day & the special parts of it in photos as usual, so, you lucky lot, here's a soupcon (yessssssssss  more French!  I'm really good at this- & mind you, I must have had good teachers 50 years ago because the French is really coming back & if I were here another month or so I'd be giving as good as I get.)  The remainder of the countries will be a different matter.


And now for the pictures.

The houses of Troy

Close Up

Street Decoration

We are off to tomorrow to check out Dijon, a city of 150 000 with a culture of food and wine dating back to medieval times so stay tuned....

Remarkable Reims & why can't a French woman be more like an Aussie one?

We decided during dinner a couple of nights ago that we would leave visiting Paris for a day during this trip as we want to see the Louvre which was closed last time we were here. It was Christmas Day which I supposed at first was the reason, but no- the actual reason was that it was Tuesday & guess what?  The Louvre is always closed on Tuesdays!  We will visit Paris and Versailles another trip- probably the one where we also visit the very top of Scotland & also Spain.  So....


We went to Reims and fell in love with it immediately.  It has such a sense of place, it's a happy city- a city that understands its place in history and embraces the world with open areas full of cafes and bars and happy people.  We felt it was the first city we've seen in France this time that encapsulates the essence of Europe.

Reims Cathedral- the OMG moment!

The cathedral is set at the end of an avenue and provided an OMG moment when we turned into the opposite end of the street en route (good French term, there) to the parking station.  The Gothic aspect of the cathedral is dramatic & its history is, too.  The first church was built in around 500AD and since about 1060 it has been the site of the consecration of every French king bar about four.

Ancient block & tackle for raising the roof.

Bill admiring the architecture

Charles Macquet (I think) and his wife, Brigitte Simon were the window artisans during the last century. Their son is still a glass artisan in Reims but we didn't get to his work shop. Much renovation has taken place & even one of the Rockefellers was a great feller & gave much money to assist with the stability of the new roof. and the work is spectacular.   Although we have seen many churches, we always seem to learn something else about the architecture etc and this time we were very interested to learn that the Gothic era was the first time the architects had designed the position of windows to highlight and light up certain important areas of the church.  This was clearly demonstrated in the Reims Cathedral.




This is a beautiful blast from the past!  A double- decker  merry-go-round in the Venetian tradition.  I wanted to have a ride, but it was for "real"  kids- not just kids at heart.  No thought here that growing up is optional!




Now... on quite a different tack... we, in our naivete, thought that as we were coming to Europe in the northern summer it would actually be warm enough to wear summer clothes.  Not so!  Beware O Fellow Travellers.  After wearing my jeans for much longer than I would have in Aus without subjecting them to a good old Aussie wash, I decided I would buy some more.  


Bill said it's a toss up in France whether every town has more bars/cafes or women's clothing stores.  And he's right.  However, they don't have any clothes in them for women over about size 6.5.  It's true! I was so desperate, I swallowed all sense of pride & tried on something that said size 42!!!!!  How depressing is that?  Not nearly as depressing, I'm here to tell you, as finding that I couldn't even get my left-or right- leg into it!  It was enough to make any woman find the nearest boulangerie ( cake shop to the uninitiated) or bar or even both- why rein in at just one- & drown one's sorrows.  But did I? No! Even the thought of food & wine was not enough to quell the disappointment & also the rising tide of panic at the thought of maybe having to stand in the shower, fully clothed, in order to wash my outer garments.


We are moving on tomorrow & have upgraded the upcoming hotels a little, so maybe, even if they don't have any washing facilities, they may be able to provide the address of a laundry.  The language has been interesting.  I can read/understand French but can't speak it & after we leave France, between Germany & Italy- a time span of about a month- we will really be at the mercy of the language gods. Smiling & miming always seem to work, though!


We're off to sort out the red wines in Dijon tomorrow, so keep in touch.  We may end up in some Bacchanalian state- maybe like Bacchus' friend Pan, in the old poem where we remember " What was he doing, the great god, Pan, down in the reeds by the river?..." he & Bacchus were together if I remember so I imagine as long we stick together it's all good! And no, I won't tell you what we were doing down by the river!!!

Day of Wine and Roses

Epernay, Dizy, Chouilly- the names go on and on.  And the synonym for each of them is Champagne.


Today we visited the celebrated champagne areas of France.  The names say it all.  Epernay is the epicentre of the champagne world. We walked the Rue Des Champagnes this morning & found that we were able to do a tour of Moet & Chandon with the added benefit of a wine tasting (degustation) at the end.  Bill very generously decided on the tour that included not one,but two glasses of vintage Moet- what a guy!  The wine is kept underground in caves which cover 28 kms! While we were waiting for the tour to start, we read that the champagne area sells over 5.5 million bottles of champagne each year around the world.


We learnt that the winery is named after the son of Moet who started the dynasty and also his son-in-law, whose surname was- yes, you've guessed it- Chandon.  We were also very interested to learn that Moet is pronounced "MoyET" with the accent on the second syllable. And here was I, always calling it "Mowey!"

30 000  Yes- 30 000 bottles of Moet!

One of the galleries of wine

Bill communing with Dom Perignon

Dom Perignon was associated with Moet & Chandon & although he was a monk, it was through his work and influence that champagne first started.  Moet bought Dom Perignon's vineyard.

We drove through many little towns and villages on the champagne trail.  They were small and cute but not very atmospheric as most of them were reasonably new- result of either being bombed out of existence during the world wars or being purpose built to service the wine regions.

Those of you who know me well, understand, or at least indulge my fascination with all things historical, including cemeteries and that was the source of our roses today- we found a lovely little, peaceful cemetery on the outskirts of a small village & spent time wandering its pathways & learning about the dynasties buried there. Every country does its cemeteries differently and we always learn so much- not just of the history but of the customs of the area.


Tomorrow we are off to explore Reims.

Pussycats, Pussycats, Where Have You Been?

We've been to London, & here's what we've seen...

Tower of London

We caught a Big Red Bus around all the sights this afternoon after bidding a reluctant farewell to our wonderful friends, Tony & Michele in Warminster. 


 Although we had seen many of these sights before, we had never been to St Paul's Cathedral, which really surprised us- as Bill remarked, it didn't look like a church from the outside & I was surprised at how small it appeared inside- we also didn't realise that it is a military cathedral, with lots of important military people buried there.

Bill & Ben...

Cruisin' Down the River Thames

St Paul's Cathedral

Westminster Abbey, The Tower, Big Ben.....

Tower Bridge London

London Eye the new with the old