Cologne - Dusseldorf - Hockey

Our good friend, Sherry Danielsen is visiting and we took a weekend trip to Cologne and Dusseldorf, just a few hours north on the Rhine. We were invited by Pete's customer to see a hockey game at the ISS Dome, home of the Dusseldorf Metro Stars.



First we visited Cologne's massive Dom which is one of the five largest cathedrals in Europe (depending on who's measuring). The inside is massive and there are hundreds of stained glass windows


Apparently the economy is doing just fine here in Dusseldorf. The shopping district was absolutely mobbed with people on Saturday. This was just prior to Halloween and the following Monday is a holiday in most parts of Europe.



The game was between Cologne and Dusseldorf so it was a huge rivalry and at capacity. For hockey in Germany, that's about 9,000. The crowd is just as intense as a soccer game. There was an ex-U of MN Gopher hockey player on the team and we met his wife in the hospitality area; she was the only person speaking minnesotan in the room...that was our first clue.


On Sunday, we did a self-guided tour of Dusseldorf which is really very interesting - a nice mix of historical and modern architecture. It being late October, the colors were at a peak. And of course, more beautiful churches to visit.


On the river there were 3 interesting apartments designed by Frank Geary. They are considered here as sculptures and the new landmark in Dusseldorf.

We are headed back to South Dakota for a few weeks to get re-acquainted with friends and family. Pete will be back here in between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Mary is staying home through Christmas. Hope to see you or hear from you over the holiday season.

Tschus!

It could only happen here...

Mary and I went out on her birthday to our favorite restaurant here in Wiesbaden, Germany. We met our friends there: a local expat American couple; the wife (patty) works for Opel – the GM sub in Germany. During dinner, a large group of men showed up and our friends immediately recognized them as some of the worldwide managers who were meeting that week at GM. As they walked by our table, Patty waved to one of her colleagues she knew from the USA and began to introduce him to her husband and Mary and me.

As I stood up to shake hands, Patty introduced him: Jerry Piecuch. We both stood and shook hands and stared in a trance. Just then Mary said: “Jerry? Pete, that’s Jerry, Jerry Piecuch!” Jerry immediately recognized us and my mind was still reeling in the years until it finally clicked…

Jerry lived in a house with me and other friends from Notre Dame high school in Champaign, IL. I have not heard-of nor seen Jerry since I left Champaign in 1978! 32 years later, he walks into a small restaurant halfway around the world, and happens to know the people we are sitting with who we’ve only known for a few months. There were at least 20 GM guys at this restaurant. If he hadn’t said hello to our friends, we might not have even realized he was sitting in the same room with us.

Jerry is now living and working in Shanghai for GM. Within minutes of us seeing each other, Mary and I were on the phone with Joan, his wife and yes, original girlfriend from Marillac High School near Chicago who would often come to visit the house in Champaign, just like Mary used to do!

There must be a name for this... karma, serendipity, absolutely unreal coincidence.
Small world indeed.

Munich - Berchtesgaden - Rhine

Post concert, we and our friends the Foreman's did some sight seeing down near the border of Austria. The town of Berchtesgaden is near Munich and nestled in the mountains. It was here that Hitler had his famous mountain retreat built, the Berghof.



It was another feat of German engineering - first they had to build a road to the top then figure out how to assemble a home there. In the picture on the right, you can barely see it at the top of the mountain.

We also visited the town of Bad Reichanall that we remembered from our first visit here about 30 years ago. The town is known for producing salt for the entire country. Of course you can buy huge chunks of the stuff for decoration.



Closer to Wiesbaden, we took a trip up the Rhine to visit a vineyard in a castle... any excuse for drinking wine in the middle of the day. This area of the Rhine is the most "romantic" with castles and vineyards everywhere.



What you see on the side of the this home is actually all a mural painting. You can even see the actual rose bush in front compared with the painted version.


And, of course, we stumbled on a wine festival going on in another Rhine town. This one had the full German a cappella oompa band... if that's possible. Check out the vineyards on the banks of the Rhine in the distance over the stage.




Now it's time to stumble home, via rail.
Tschus!

A Night with 3OH!3

Our friends from Boulder, Colorado have a son who plays in the "electronica-rap" band named 3OH!3. The band was on a European tour so Gary and Michelle decided to surprise their son Sean in Munich 2 weeks ago - needless to say, we joined. We met in the Marienplatz - the centre of Munich featuring the Glockenspiel. Of course, there were disguises involved.
After the surprise, we had Bavarian beers with Nat and Sean (the nucleus of 3OH!3)and their UK road manager. The band is recognized everywhere by kids much younger than us.



The venue they played in was standing room only and smaller than most but sold out. You can see the hand sign used by the band and fans forms the 3-0-3 symbol (303 is area code for Boulder). It was HOT and stuffy and we found refuge in the DJ booth. We looked and felt like moms and dads, which of course, we were. But, it was rockin' and we were too. From Dead concerts to electronica rap... it almost works.


After the show, most of the fans cleared out, and the band had an impromptu celebration and dance-a-thon. Nat mixed tunes on his Mac while the band and friends danced and rocked the house...much to the amazement of the German proprietor trying to close down. He gave in and let them dance on.

After all this, the band marched back on their bus for a long trip to Leeds, UK for a few festival appearances. We crashed in our hotel about 2 blocks away from the venue. As Dylan says, "May you stay forever young."
Tschus!

35th Rheingau Wine Festival 2010

Over 100 vineyards from the Rhein region come to Wiesbaden for 10 days with their portable wine bars. This was the event we discovered last year on our first visit to Wiesbaden. Wine can be tasted at any booth in real wine glasses. Pay a small deposit and fill your glass anywhere.
In true festival style, there are 3 music stages with bands representing all types of music each night. Disco here, classic rock there, and all playing American and British cover songs from each era. The wine is generally rieslings but you can order dry, half-dry or sweet. The dry Rieslings are our favorite.

The food booths sprinkled around the many wine stands offer all types of typical festival food. We had to take a few pictures of our favorites: Flammkuchen which is like a really thin crust pizza layered with a white cream sauce, sliced tomatoes, mozzarella (tomato caprise) and topped with fresh arugula. Simple and really tasty. There are other versions with prosciutto, panchetta and onions.

Another favorite are the antipasta plates. Little pretzel sticks are used like spoons or toothpicks to pickup the food.

During this season there are wine festivals in many of the Rhein towns in the region. This area seems to be perfect for growing grapes along the banks of the Rhein river.

Saturday night we went down with our BFFs from America (Gary and Patty) and we met other Americans working here for GM (Opel) and the military. We managed to snag a stand-up table near the band playing soul and blues. The lead singer reminded us of the over-the-top wedding singer at the end of the "Hangover" movie.

The festival surrounds our Market Church which always seems to look like a painting against the blue sky. This week we have some visitors from Colorado and will be heading to Munich and Austria. After 10 days, the festival has come to an end... and probably just in time...too much of a good thing.
Tschus!

Summer Visit from the Girls

Emily and Katie came to visit last week. Our first trip was to Bingen, a small town on the banks of the Rhein just up the river from Wiesbaden and surrounded by vineyards. Once the girls got their sea legs, we headed off to Switzerland - about a 6 hour drive south.

Our destination was Zermatt, the last village before Italy and just below the Matterhorn. It's almost 15,000 feet high and is instantly recognizable. The town is only accessible by train, there are no cars allowed.


There was a local saloon having an outdoor festival on the main pedestrian walk. The girls took to that right away. We took off the next day for a hike under the shadow of the matterhorn. We cheated by taking a tram up the mountain and hiking back down.

Through the mountains you come across these goat herder shacks that form little towns. Of course, they are all still there for the benefit of us tourists. And some house kitchens and restaurants. They look archaic with huge pegs for nails but they don't fall down.
Our hotel rooms bordered the main walkway in town. We heard some bells clanging and looked out to see a small herd of mountain goats being led by young boys up to the mountainside.

After Zermatt, we headed north to Lucerne. The way there is scary and beautiful at the same time. Roads get extremely narrow and wind their way around the mountains. The Swiss have become the best tunnel builders in the world but they still like hairpin turns.

Lucerne is just a perfect little city built on the river flowing from Lake Lucerne. It is THE cleanest river we have ever seen. The famous wooden Chapel bridge across the river constructed in the 14th century has historic paintings inside illustrating local history.
There is even a Mt Rushmore-like monument carved on a rock hillside. The story is convoluted but basically the Lion symbolizes the memory of 200 swiss guards who died defending the King from a revolutionary mob in 1792.



Finally back in Wiesbaden, the girls made good on a promise back in March to take out a paddleboat on our Kurpark pond with a bottle of wine.
Tschuss!

Good Times in Baden Baden

Last Saturday morning we woke up to a beautiful day. Unlike the past month, there were no clouds and very little humidity. So we decided to go visit a city at the foot of the Black Forest that we have heard good things about - Baden Baden. On the way there, we stopped for lunch in Heidelberg. It was the first city in Germany we fell in love with when we visited way back in 1981. The castle is still there but there are a whole lot more people.

After bees attacked our croissants and jam, we headed to Baden Baden. It had been settled in Roman times and was well known for it's mineral baths and Roman spas (Baden is "bath" in German). There were still ruins of an original Roman bath that we toured. The technology they used to heat the rooms and bath were amazing for the time.

Since it was Saturday, there were weddings in every church. This one was ready to go and we even caught a glimpse of the bride and her getaway car. Vintage VW of course.










A stream runs through the middle of the town and is bordered by a long park designed by some famous German. We came upon a beautiful open air building built in 1840 (Trinkhalle) with tall Corinthian pillars and large murals on the walls.


When we got inside, we realized they were holding a chess tournament with hundreds of players and a few professionals. Each pro walked around making one move on each board. Hard to imagine this game ever ending... we didn't wait. We hadn't had any wine yet.

So we stopped at the flower-covered Lowenbrau - a traditional Bavarian restaurant. Mary had fried goat cheese salad and Pete had pork loin with gravy and fried potatoes. Both were awesome. We headed back home before dark and realized we could visit a few towns in a day.

Our girls are visiting next week and we are planning to visit Switzerland for a few days - Matterhorn in Zermatt, and the swans in Luzern.
Tschus!