Good morning my country fellow men and ladies! How is life treating you these days? I can’t complain. I am lazy every now and then, but most of the time I can’t sit still and I end up doing something, because, well, that’s me.
Therefore I always end up writing for the blog at midnight. That’s alright. I got my music on, a bowl full of apples I just picked from the garden today so it can’t get any better.
Ok, so here goes Day 2 and 3 in Germany. I have to do a mixed blog on the two otherwise I will never make it in telling you everything about the whole thing. I already tried with Brussels and out of 7 days I ended up with just one story haha Not that you need to keep busy with reading about my vacation, but my memory is not what it used to be. So this helps me remember details that otherwise I would forget. Ten years ago I just saved the pictures per years and months and recalled what they were about. Now they go down by years, months, events and locations. That should tell you something. So here goes nothing.
Sunday it rained. Awesome, I know. That’s alright too. God had not figured out yet that we had arrived and forgot to change the settings on his weather watch. Now we’re fine. As my folks always say: weather matches the souls of the people. We went to London and didn’t get a drop of rain all week long. I get to think this saying is true haha. Nevertheless, a little (more) rain didn’t stop us from exploring.
The day started with Finchen barging in our bedroom to take over the bed. She’s totally taking after her mother. She’s the most adorable and lovable dog ever. We manage to kick her out somehow, then we crawl out of bed and into the kitchen where Nancy is waiting for us with hot coffee and a rich breakfast. The family gathers around the table. Zoey takes turns from mom into my arms and then back to mom again. Haylee finally gets a break and conquers mom for herself and she sits on her lap until Nancy urges her to take her seat at the table. I love peaceful mornings. Finchen comes under the table and sleeps with her nose on my foot and it tickles. Rocky doesn’t care. He can’t hear anyway so he’s the happiest old guy ever ‘cause no one bothers his sleep.
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| Finchen giving the wake up call. Big dog, lots of love. |
Breakfast is done and we figure we should do something with the daylight. Daylight should never be wasted. It’s cloudy but the Romanians have an umbrella and feel courageous. Nancy advises that we should visit the nearby town called Dinkelsbuhl (and yes, I spelled that right!). She also says there is a shortcut through the field to get to the main street. That sounds like a plan, except for this minor obstacle called Mela’s orientation in space. Mom cannot understand Nancy’s English so we both have to rely on my crooked orientation abilities. People who know me would probably prefer to stay indoors than venture with me in a foreign country through a field thinking I’m going to get them to safety on the other side. But mom has to trust me. If she doesn’t, then who will? Haha
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| Out in the fields |
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| Two ladies, one umbrella |
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| Lots of artificial lakes for the farners to use. Also makes a nice sight |
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| I was trying to take a picture of the red things but the camera loves mom more |
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| There she is. Still dry hehe |
So we leave; we leave after I’ve asked Nancy a thousand times that I’m supposed to take a right the moment we step outside the yard. And then forward… somewhat. And then left and forward again. Sounds simple. We keep our step lively as we get out of the small village. Then mom says, “I think we’re supposed to go this way.” I say “Mom, that’s the car road we took last night with Nancy. We’re supposed to take the shortcut through the field.” Mom judges her level of confidence in my scout skills. “Are you sure? That way looks more… civilized.” I make a face. My self-confidence is shuttered. “Well, we’re not being civilized today! I’m sure she said this way.” Mom follows me reluctantly. The road is very clearly set ahead of us, sided by empty fields full of grass and various plantations. It’s impossible to miss it. As we go, the rain starts and soon we’re forced to make use of the umbrella, but we don’t give up the camera. We cross paths with a local walking his dog. We admire the difference in mentality. The dog was roaming free until we met them. When we got close he put the animal on a leash. Romanians would have never done that, especially in an open field. He salutes in a perfect German and we immediately nod and mumble a greeting in a superior breed of English-German and move on with a smile. We feel successful. The scenery is worth while the heavy rain and soaked wet elbows from the dripping umbrella. But we manage to get to the main road and I am proud. Ten more minutes on the sidewalk and we enter the small town.
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| Entering Dinkesbuhl |
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| The reception at the museum and tourist information booth. So welcoming |
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| Downtown next to the cathedral |
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| So here is a little tour of the town for your delight :) |
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| I love this picture for a reason. It's very inspirational to me, considering my old time stories |
Dinkelsbuhl has a long history and has preserved its medieval structure almost intact. It’s surrounded by a tall wall and a dozen towers defending its borders. The whole place has a very pitoresque, yet rather modern air to it. The houses have all been built together, like one big cluster crayoning the streets with great accuracy, yet this mathematical precision is smudged by the sweet look that lays in the detail. Little trinkets hanging from the doors, old wooden benches hidden under the oak trees in the shadow of the wall, a hospital that looks more like a spa house from the outside, many small cafés and restaurants, green plants crawling their way up to the pointy abrupt roofs. I am delighted and fascinated with their windows, small and garnished with small white curtains, always hiding some flower pots or colorful objects resting on the window frame. It reminds me a bit of the Hanzel and Gretel story and the gingerbread house.
Our good luck from the day before continues because as we enter the town we hit a tourist information center and people there speak English. The three floors on top are a history museum. Maybe not what we had in mind to visit, but whatever they had to show us up there was probably more attractive than the rain outside, so we take it. Mom is fascinated with the two robotic metal guards at the entrance who abruptly pull their spears to the side and let her through. Now she wants to go back for Mela to take a picture. “Mom, get back here please! What if they close again and you can’t get in anymore!” “But I want to take a picture with their spears down!” Yeah. My vacation with mom forces us to switch roles and I take over parenthood and child control while mom handles the joyful running around impulsive side. It’s a kind of crash course o how to be a parent using your own parent as a child haha
We find interesting things throughout the entire museum, very intricate and old paintings and objects, some of which we can relate to the Romanian culture. We pass by a cannon and mom is in love with it. We take a picture (one of many!) then we move on. As we come out of the second floor a young woman approaches us. She says she is from the local newspaper and that she would like to take an interview and find out our opinion about the museum. Uh Uh we’re excited now! Of course mom says her favorite thing was the canon, so we go back and take a picture for the newspaper there as well as one with the journalist herself. We exchange emails so hopefully soon I’ll be able to give you a German article on us. Whoever speaks German can translate it for me haha
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| The "doormen" at the history musem |
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| That;s just creepy! I wouldn't want to be carried in that stand-up coffin! |
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| The journalist and the "subjects" |
We then visit St. George Cathedral which is one of the oldest and most beautiful cathedral in southern Germany. It’s actually pretty impressive and we spent quite some time there freezing there, especially because mom notices a glass tomb with what appeared to be a Saint inside. A one legged saint and she asks me who that is. Of course I say, I don’t know. There is no name, no info, nothing for me to read. So she insists that I ask someone. I check a few people looking for signs of foreign languages but I feel kind of bad bagging someone about a tomb that is literally unmarked in any way. Most of the people there seemed to be visitors just like us. But sure. Let me try. I fail in my first two attempts but mom continues to push me. Eventually she spots this older guy with some papers in his arms from which she can tell the guy has something to do with the church so she hunts him down. I have to wait for the man to finish whatever he is doing and then I ask him and finally we know: Saint Aurelius. What he did, why he was there and what happened with his other leg, we will never know. I am not sure how his name helped mom in any way, but she was content now.
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| St. Aurelius. Will never be forgotten now. I need to Google him and find out what his life was about. |
Moving on, we went around the place a few more minutes until hunger took the best of us so we found a restaurant, that just happened to be in a 4 star hotel – but our German prevented us from seeing that. Nevertheless, it was a perfect choice, with a fire burning beside us, large spacious rooms and people chatting over tea and sweets. We order some local dishes and we are eager to discuss the recopies, the differences in taste as well as the environment all together.
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| Roast salty cheese with vegetables. Yummy. Had lots of water afterwards |
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| Crenvurts, sower cabage and mustard. Mom loved it! |
The day ends with us hunting for tea. So many tea houses and yet we could not find the tea flavor we are looking for. But there are advantages when it comes to looking for tea: you get to taste some! So we found this small family business (loved both the mother and the son and their way of conducting business) and we spend at least 10 minutes sniffing on all the tea pots, laves and packages until we finally decide to have two cups of Alpina and Liebefraude (that is a very rough approximation of the word haha – God knows what I’ve just said, but you’ll have to live with it like I do!). As we are about to take a seat, we pass by the sweets and this incredibly looking cake, chocolate, banana and cherry simply winks at me and I can’t say no. So we grab those on the way to the table as well. Mom and I share to check on the taste, and even though we like it, it’s still not the one we’re looking for.
Well, consider I’ve written 3 pages only on Day 2, I guess I have to write about Day 3 separately. Doesn’t that suck!? So I guess… I’ll be back! Haha
MUAH
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