Heavenly Flight - Thursday July 10

We got up at 7 and saw that Gerald was asleep on a chair at the neighbors'. We were pretty well packed up so we had some cheesecake for breakfast and some coffee. Gerald came up and allowed me to give him a hug and a kiss goodbye. We didn't finish the last disc of The Office, so I left that for Jane.

Drove off to Frankfurt Airport, with one bathroom stop. The bathroom stop was kind of interesting - after I was done and flushed the toilet, this thing came down and clamped onto the toilet seat, and then the seat rotated like a donut. It was some kind of sanitizing method. Those wacky Germans!

Just before the exit for the airport, there was a traffic jam. As we were sitting there on the Autobahn, I was looking at the exit sign and the sign for the airport just turned over and disappeared! At the same time, the sign to the left, which was for the next exit, suddenly had an airport exit sign on it! We got into the left lane and followed the instructions to get to the airport from the other exit, which took us around the very long backup at the original exit. Again, those wacky Germans.

All week we had been quoting Ray, "I hate people." Jane would then say, "Yeah, people are the worst." Our final motto was "Cats are the best, people are the worst." Live it, learn it, know it.

Jane dropped me off at the curb because she had to get to a meeting at Europa Park (Wally World.) I proceeded to the Continental counter with my bags and my e-Ticker. Because I was stupid and honest, the lighters Jane gave me were confiscated, but at least my bags weren't overweight. I passed through security with no problem, then paid $3E for a teeny-tiny bottle of water. This was really irksome because I know that Jane pays about 20 cents for a HUGE bottle of water. Kids are getting ripped off!

We boarded the plane and as everyone was getting settled they made an announcement that someone had left a book in the waiting area. I hadn't left any books there, and my one remaining bookcrossing book was in my bag. A woman two seats behind me spoke up, reluctantly. When the flight attendant gave her the book she said, "I left it on purpose so someone else could find it." The flight attendant said, "Well maybe someone on the plane wants it." My hand went right out! She was happy to give me the book, and I asked her if she was a bookcrosser. She wasn't so I told her a little about it so that in the future she can follow where the books she leaves go. I reached into my bag and gave her my final bookcrossing book. The book I got from her is an Elizabeth Lowell novel and she highly recommended it. It does look like something I'd enjoy, so I'll give it a go.

I had gotten a seat on the aisle in the middle section. When we booked the seat, it looked as if it might be possible that the middle seat would be free. A young man was on the other side of the middle seat. He had been sailing in a regatta in England, then he and his teammates had gone to the yacht factory in Germany. I mentioned that if no one came and sat in that middle seat we would be golden. After we were airborne and able to walk around, a man came up and told the young man that there was an empty seat in the back with his friends if he wanted to sit back there. I HAD THE WHOLE ROW TO MYSELF!

I decided to blow 4E on a glass of wine and ordered a red wine. GET THIS: It was Chilean wine. We are in Germany, near Alsace, and they are serving a frickin' Chilean wine. I don't get it. They served us the usual 1/2 a peanut and molecule of water.

About an hour later lunch was served - grilled chicken, mashed potatoes, green beans and carrots, a roll and a brownie. Not horrible, but pretty typical. I also had a Sprite with ICE. The flight attendant and I had a conversation about the ice problem in Germany and I told her my dream of getting a Big Gulp with 99% ice, 1% soda as soon as I hit the States.

My headset plug wasn't working, so I used the headset from the seat next to me which meant I had to use two remotes, making sure to change the channel on my monitor as well as the one next to me. No matter - the movies sucked. Started watching "Flawless" with Demi Moore and Michael Caine but lost interest when they tried to pass her 45 year old ass off as a 28 year old. I mean, she looks good, but she does not look 28.

After lunch, I read my book about Haut Koenigsbourg for a while and then stretched out across all three seats (!!!!!) and slept.

As I rested across all 3 seats (all 3 seats - did I mention that I had all 3 seats to myself?), I could hear the flight attendants in the cabin, which was only one seat away. There was one who sounded just like Jane. The timbre and inflection of her voice, and even her laugh was so much like Jane that I started getting a little freaked out. If I had heard her say she wanted "FRAAANNNNCH TOAST," I probably would have had a stroke.

The rest of the flight was uneventful and I passed through customs and got my baggage. Pat was waiting for me and we headed home in 83 degree New Jersey summer heat.

Got home and went up to my bedroom. Thomas was asleep on the bed. I walked in and didn't say anything. He said, "wow?" Then he looked over at me and said, "WOW!" We had a great reunion.

I had a brief nap and we went to the concert in the park and had dinner before I collapsed. We're getting up at 4:30 am tomorrow to pick Karen up from JFK.

Vacation is officially over. I think it was the best vacation I ever ever had. Thank you, Schwestie, for everything. I miss you so much!

The Odile-Ottilien Connection - Wednesday, July 9

St. Ottilien church behind the restaurant. The spring was down a set of steps inside the church.

Mural in the restaurant.



The SECOND spring said to have resulted in St. Odile (St. Ottilien's) miracle

Interesting little scupture at the St. Ottilien restaurant




Two shots of the community rental gardens






This illusion-style necklace is still in vogue in Europe.





Freiburg bead shop.




This was a piece of "art" in the church. It looked exactly like red wine puke.

Herz-Jesu-Kirche

Plague tower in Freiburg

Camembert lunch




My last day in Paradise. We breakfasted on cake, yogurt and coffee, while watching The Office, and printed out my e-Tickets for my flight. Jane helped me choose a seat. We lazed around all morning and then had baked camembert with fruit for lunch.

When we finally left, we stopped by the downstairs neighbors' to ask them to babysit Gerald tomorrow while Jane is at Wally World with her officemates. They invited us in and Charlie's mom and sister just gushed about Gerald. They kept saying how sweet he is. Jane said he is spoiled and I said, "genau," one of my few German words (it means "exactly") and they laughed.

We drove over to Freiburg and walked over to a church we'd seen from the train station - the Herz-Jesu-Kirche. It's beautiful, with two soaring spires of grass green tile but outside on the lovely grounds it's just teeming with homeless people, derelicts and crazies, and a lawn full of beer bottle caps (lucky for Cousin Dr. Donn. We looked like crazy people just going around picking them up!) Inside was not much better - apparently they are undergoing a major renovation and there was hardly anything in the church besides workers and equipment. There was one big sculpture/painting on the wall - it was the ugliest thing I've ever seen. It looked like Rasta vomit.

We left there and walked over to Freiburg's only real bead store. The door was locked, but there was a bakery just across the doorway, and they had REAL cheesecake, so Jane got a piece of that and a linzer torte (we call them "Lindsey Tarts" in honor of Susie.) By the time we were done getting the cake, the bead store had reopened.

I introduced myself and asked if it was ok for me to take pictures, and they said yes. One of the owners asked me where I was from and when I told him New Jersey he wanted to know if I know Bruce Springsteen. I was at least able to tell him that my sister in law went to high school with him and my nephew was one of his roadies last year.

We left the bead store and walked underneath the pedestrian bridge where we spied a very cool sculpture. Unfortunately, although the sculpture was cool, it had been abused and was full of garbage and graffiti. We walked back across the church lawn where one of the crazies was having a meltdown.

We drove over to Kirchzarten to pick up a package at Jane's work, and meet the rest of the guys. Chris showed us pictures of him paragliding like we saw when we were in Waldkirch last year. It was very cool.

Drove over to Aldi for the final shopping trip - cat sticks for Thomas, chocolate, good bread. While we were driving around we saw 4 accidents, 2 on the Autobahn, and then in town a 3 car and a 4 car smash-em-up.

I had seen one of the nearby "community gardens" from the overpass and I asked Jane to see if we could find it so I could get some pictures. I just love the whole idea of this. People rent plots of land to have their gardens in. They erect little shelters, decorate their gardens, and make their plots little getaway paradises. They come to their gardens in the evening and weekends and socialize with other gardeners, picnic, and hang out. It's really lovely. While I was taking pictures an old coot started following me and making angry noises, but he chilled out when I explained why I was taking pictures.

Stopped at home to drop off the cake and watched a half hour of The Office. We're down to the last few episodes and we are trying to finish it up. I've definitely made an Office fan of Jane.

We picked Gaby up from her office and drove up into the black forest above Freiburg. It was a beautiful evening and our last chance to meet the goal of having a meal at the forest restaurant of St. Otillien. Jane and Gaby had actually hiked there once before and Jane wanted me to go.

We sat out on a broad patio and ordered Radlers, Adalusian-style Gazpacho (the chef was from Spain,) a salad with walnuts, grapes and turkey strips, and flammenkuchen. A birthday party was forming at the next table, and they had brought two dogs. The dogs ran free and were having a grand old time. At one point I looked over and the large dog had the small dog's neckerchief in his mouth and was just trotting along side him as if he had the small dog on a leash. It was very funny. Unfortunately, he would not do it again when we filmed them.

Over by the restaurant there was another building and Jane remarked that it looked like a church. Gaby didn't think so, but she took a walk over there and reported back that it was indeed a church. We asked our waiter about it, and it turned out that this is where St. Odile fled to when escaping her father! Ottilien is the German form of Odile. He also said the source of her miracle (the spring) was there as well. (Second source. Hmmm.) The church was open until 7 so we decided to visit it after we ate.

We strolled over to the church and went in. It's small but with a lovely altar. There was a small door off to the side and when we went in, we found a staircase leading down to a grotto and a spring, with a statue of St. Odile. This grotto was originally formed in 679! It too is supposed to have healing powers, especially for the eyes. I STILL need contacts!

We went into the restaurant building as well, which is quite beautiful and old. We drove back down to Freiburg and dropped off Gaby.

At home we jumped into our jimjams and fired up the office, and Jane invented the "Figitini" made with Figgy Pudding (fig liqueur), vermouth, and a stachelbeere (gooseberry) as garnish.

The Search for Cheesecake - Tuesday, July 8

The hot tub

A couple of view of the outside pools



Actual stalactites formed by the mineral water.

View of the "Ricola" area of the baths

Jane relaxing at the Mineral Bad

The "He Pulled a Knife on Me" bakery.

This is our brekkies of baguettes, cheese, fruit & kaffe.


Up in the morning to breakfast toasted baguette and cheese.

S0... we're watching CNN and Larry King (aka Monty Burns) is interviewing Ringo Starr. Every time Larry asks him a question, it seems like he mentions Ringo's age. Finally Ringo can't take it any more, and he bursts out, "Could you stress my age enough, for christ's sake? What are you? 102?" We about died laughing.

We headed out to the Post Office and then Edika to pick up some Gummis for Karen and Mike, along with some German bath salts for me. Our main goal, however, was to find German cheesecake, which was still on our "to eat" list. With only today and tomorrow left, it was crunch time.

First stop at the Stehl bakery - no cheesecake. Edika - no cheesecake. We decide to drive over to Denzlingen to a bakery Jane really likes. Guess what? It's closed. Closed for good. We try another bakery - no cheesecake. Finally we find the DICK bakery. I swear I am not making this up. They had only one cheesecake and it wasn't the traditional one we were looking for - this one had apricots and cake along with the cheesecake. But desperate times call for desperate measures so we got a piece of that, and a piece of cake with Johannesbeer (red currants this time.)

We loaded up our bathing suits and headed for the Eugen-Keidelbad, the perfect antidote for all the walking and climbing we had been doing. We went right for the Ricola circuit, then headed outside to Love Canal. This time we called it "Lust Canal" because there were a few couples in there whoreally, really should have gotten a room. We were lounging in the center of Love Canal where the thermal baths erupt into full body massages when it started raining - really raining. People fled like like they were going to get wet! It was pretty cool to be outside in the hot water while the cold rain pelted down. After a while there was a boom of thunder and that's when we swam inside.

Jane whacked her toe really badly and cracked her toenail. So for a while we sat in our chairs and read and Jane took a nap. This time I brought my camera and got some pictures. While Jane napped, I went out for a swim, eventually joined by Jane. We finished up with the Ricola Pool and the hot tub and by then we had nearly used up our allotted 4 hours.

We showered and dressed and drove over to Denzlingen to the Kohler Eck, a pub. We got a nice corner booth and we ordered two dark beers, rosti with beef tips and gorganzola cheese, and a salad with homefries, turkey and beef fricadella.

Leaving Denzligen we saw the Krone hotel. There is also a coffee called "Hag." We thought we'd join forces with Nancy and open a hotel/coffee house and call it "Two Krones and a Hag." I'm not saying who is what.

We came back home and started another Office marathon, and after a while we had champagne (sekt) and our cakes. Went out on the balcony before bed and listened for the hedgehog, but it was no go. We think we scared them off.

Waldkirch & Wein - Monday, July 7

Our usual nightly ritual

lot of new faces...

Our curry feast

Our curry chef

Our curry translator!

Freiburger wine fest

Graffiti in Waldkirch

"Plague statue" in Waldkirch

Fountain of a jester being pushed in - I think they thought he was a mime.

This gorgeous window was on a house just outside the pedestrian area.



Another view of the pedestrian area with Kastelberg at the top of the hill on the other side of the valley


Cool stork sign

We were convinced this was a castle ruin - turns out just to be a bunch o' rocks.

A sign with a cool Moor

A little carpenter in his little carpenter clothes! Pat would be so cute in this.

the pot store?

Kastelburg ruine

a view down the pedestrian are to Kastelburg



This altar table was studded with ostrich-egg sized gemstones such as amethyst and rosequartz








Check out those socks


Me - at the Butt Store.

We slept late after an exhausting weekend. The weather has turned a little cool and overcast, and breezy. After we were up for a while watching The Office, Jane made us some Müsli with fruit and coffee.

We really had planned to just laze around all day pretty much and then go to the Freiburger Weinfest, but by 1 pm we were shpilkes (Yiddish for "ants in the pants") so we decided to go over to Waldkirch, where last year we climbed the ruin Kastelburg. On the drive over we saw a ruin we decided to pursue. Actually there was one ruin on one side of the highway, one on the other. Eventually we figured out one of them was Kastelburg. We never found the other. (I now think the other one was the rock formation across from Kastelburg that looks so much like a ruin.)

We parked in Waldkirch, which is a rather large village, and walked to the Fußgängerzone (pedestrian area.) It is a wide cobbled boulevard with shops and restaurants on either side. We went in and out of a few stores, including an antique store with some pretty jewelry and a picture made of human hair. Looking up one side of the boulevard, you had a breathtaking view of Kastelburg, which is undergoing some reconstruction. Looking up the other way, we could see what appeared to be another ruin. We stopped into a jewelry store (where a stuffed monkey whistled every time Jane wiggled her butt) and asked about the other ruin. It turned out to be just a pile of rocks, apparently. (I have since done a zoom-in on my pictures. It is indeed a pile of rocks.)

We walked over to a nice looking church and went in - it was an evangelistchurch, and from the outside it looked old, but inside it was quite modern with chairs that Pat would actually like to sit in. I dropped a bookcrossing book there (but not the one called, "Wife for Hire.")

We walked back up the Fußgängerzone where, along the way, we saw signs for "Ruine Schwarzenburg" and decided we would look for it when we left.

We walked up to a big Roman Catholic church and went in. It was the polar opposite of the evangelistic church - incredibly ornate with painted ceilings, faux marble altars, and two gold-colored wrought metal stands, which had large uncut gemstones in them. We sat down and a second later Jane got up and walked away. At that very minute I detected a horrible smell. First I thought Jane had floated an air biscuit, but nothing could smell like that and not leave a mark. As Jane walked up the aisle I even checked the back of her pants for a poop smear! Then I got another whiff. Uh oh. (We have a new gesture for that, by the way.) I looked at my shoes, and one sandal was covered with dog poop. I limped up the aisle trying not to set my heel on the floor. Outside I worked diligently to scrape it off, which didn't go very well. Too bad about those deep grooves in my shoes...

We went back into the church to take some pictures and sit. At 4 pm the dozen or so people stood and began reciting the "Our Father" and other prayers. We stayed around a short time longer and then walked back down the Fußgängerzone and off to one side we spied a courtyard near the Rathaus. There was a fountain depicting a jester being thrown into the water. I took off my sandal and washed it well. In a window of the Rathaus was a huge, spinning model of the Kastelburg as it was originally. We got a movie of it - you can see it at the bottom of this post.

We walked back to the car and followed the signs to the Ruine Schwarzenburg, but it lead us to another pedestrian area and then a dirt path up the mountain. Not wanting to repeat last Schwesterfest´s error of driving on a bike path, we did not pursue the ruin.

So we headed back to Freiburg to the Freiburger Weinfest. We parked near the old cemetery and walked over to the MünsterPlatz. All around the Münst there were tents set up with food and representing different wineries. There was also music, and long tables set up all over where you could sit and drink and eat. You go into one of the tents (or up to one of the kiosks) and choose the wine you want, and you get a nice wine glass etched with "888 Jahre" (888 Years) and "Freiburger Weinfest 2008". You had to pay a "deposit" for it, but you could not return it, you took it with you and continued to drink from it.

We stopped at one tent where there was a good people-watching spot and got a glass white wine for Jane and a red for me. Sat and enjoyed the crowd for a while, especially observing what our neighbors were eating.

From there we moved on to another wine kiosk and got another red and white (Gewürztraminer), and sat outside at a table with others. There was a table of men behind us, sharing a bottle of wine. They were about 20 years older than we are...but very interested in us. One more glass of wine and Jane I could have gotten VERY lucky. Nearby there was a musician playing a synthesizer and singing. Sometimes it was Brazilian music, sometimes it was oompah-loompah.

After a while we walked around to the other side of the Münst. On that side was band with a female singer. Jane correctly defined it as a wedding band. We got movies of the fest from both sides of the Münst. As we made our way along and across some puddles, we got hit on by another old man. It was our night, boy.

We walked down to a curry takeout and chose some Indian food. I had to keep asking the guy to tell me what the food is called in India, not in Germany - that's the only way I knew what it was. We got a chicken korma, a meatball korma (!), a chana masala, another vegetarian stew, a raita, basamati rice and some chutney. We had a nice conversation with a young man (he looked a little old to be a student, but was in full student mode) and then walked back to the car with our booty.

Came back to Jane's crib, set the table up for our Indian buffet and watched the scene from True Lies that has Netta (from Frankie and Johnny) in it, and then the Office and one episode of Dame Edna.