Monday, February 24, 2014
Sunday, February 16, 2014
Thursday, February 13, 2014
Strasbourg
Susi and I left Stuttgart in her car around 6 PM and drove to Strasbourg on the autobahn, where Eva met us at our hotel. Strasbourg is a beautiful old city in the Alsace region of France. From our hotel we could walk to the Notre Dame Cathedral along narrow streets lined with cafés, bars, and shops selling various meats, cheeses, chocolates, breads, and other wonderful items.
Eva and Susi are the daughters of Martin and Ursula, who I have known for over 40 years, since we met in Johnstown Pennsylvania as medical students so many years ago. This time Martin and Ursula watched the grand kids while we had our trip. After checking into the Hotel Gutenberg, we went out for dinner to the Café Klu, where I had a knuckle of ham braised in Pinot Noir sauce and roasted potatoes, along with an excellent Riesling wine. The dinner was delicious and the café was very atmospheric. After dinner we went looking for a bar, which was not hard to find. First we had a beer in a very crowded neighborhood bar and then went looking for another bar. The second bar had a bicycle theme, and I had one of the worst beers of my life there - just unbelievable. It tasted as if someone had poured sugar or sweetened syrup into the beer. Eva's beer tasted the same. We drank part of our beer and left, looking for a different bar in order to get something good on our palate again. We found one, where we had a good German beer, but by then it was 2 AM and the bars were closing, so we had to go back to our hotel to sleep.
In the morning we went out looking for breakfast. We had coffee and croissants at the first place we stopped at and then went to another coffee shop, where we had coffee and wonderful assorted pastries. After that we walked for a while and visited a museum dedicated to the works of Tomi Ungerer.. He was a cartoonists and artist who wrote children's books and also made cartoons and covers for the New Yorker magazine. It was an interesting museum.
Next came lunch. We went to the Brasserie Rissi, which offered a special two course lunch. I had foie gras for my starter and steak tartare for my main dish. The steak was a bit underdone but otherwise the meal was superb. After lunch we went shopping for sausages, cheeses, and chocolates, and then Eva drove me back to Stuttgart and Susi drove to her home in Nuremberg.
It was a great trip, one of my very best.
Eva and Susi are the daughters of Martin and Ursula, who I have known for over 40 years, since we met in Johnstown Pennsylvania as medical students so many years ago. This time Martin and Ursula watched the grand kids while we had our trip. After checking into the Hotel Gutenberg, we went out for dinner to the Café Klu, where I had a knuckle of ham braised in Pinot Noir sauce and roasted potatoes, along with an excellent Riesling wine. The dinner was delicious and the café was very atmospheric. After dinner we went looking for a bar, which was not hard to find. First we had a beer in a very crowded neighborhood bar and then went looking for another bar. The second bar had a bicycle theme, and I had one of the worst beers of my life there - just unbelievable. It tasted as if someone had poured sugar or sweetened syrup into the beer. Eva's beer tasted the same. We drank part of our beer and left, looking for a different bar in order to get something good on our palate again. We found one, where we had a good German beer, but by then it was 2 AM and the bars were closing, so we had to go back to our hotel to sleep.
In the morning we went out looking for breakfast. We had coffee and croissants at the first place we stopped at and then went to another coffee shop, where we had coffee and wonderful assorted pastries. After that we walked for a while and visited a museum dedicated to the works of Tomi Ungerer.. He was a cartoonists and artist who wrote children's books and also made cartoons and covers for the New Yorker magazine. It was an interesting museum.
Next came lunch. We went to the Brasserie Rissi, which offered a special two course lunch. I had foie gras for my starter and steak tartare for my main dish. The steak was a bit underdone but otherwise the meal was superb. After lunch we went shopping for sausages, cheeses, and chocolates, and then Eva drove me back to Stuttgart and Susi drove to her home in Nuremberg.
It was a great trip, one of my very best.
Monday, February 3, 2014
Saturday, February 1, 2014
Business Class
The business class lounge is a bright well lit room with wood floors, louvered ceiling, recessed lights, big windows, leather lounge chairs, high counters with stools, free coffee, beer, food, snacks - and people from all over the globe speaking a variety of languages - all sitting together in the Frankfurt Lufthansa lounge. Beer for breakfast?
Flight 491, nonstop from Seattle to Frankfurt. My console seat changes to a lounge chair or a flat bed. I sleep, wake up, push the massage button, go back to sleep. The stewardess brought champagne before takeoff and a choice of wines after takeoff, and again with dinner. I chose an excellent Riesling served from the bottle into a real glass. For dinner I had a shrimp cocktail, cod with noodles, and a cheese plate for dessert, all served on real plates and silverware, on a white tablecloth.
After dinner I started a new book; My Name is Red by Orhan Pamuk. The writing is great - dense, heavy - a three month book.
Flight 491, nonstop from Seattle to Frankfurt. My console seat changes to a lounge chair or a flat bed. I sleep, wake up, push the massage button, go back to sleep. The stewardess brought champagne before takeoff and a choice of wines after takeoff, and again with dinner. I chose an excellent Riesling served from the bottle into a real glass. For dinner I had a shrimp cocktail, cod with noodles, and a cheese plate for dessert, all served on real plates and silverware, on a white tablecloth.
After dinner I started a new book; My Name is Red by Orhan Pamuk. The writing is great - dense, heavy - a three month book.
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