My New Best Friend Claudia - Saturday July 5

Storks on the way to the farm restaurant


Elvis Costello at the farm restaurant


Lenny & Squiggy at the farm restaurant



Our food - liver & onions and a flammenkuchen


Farm restaurant decor


Diners at the farm restaurant

Roadside farm market on the way back from Konstanz


Schmuck in Konstanz




Mom's favorite store in Konstanz





a view from the Cathedral





the Cathedral

a view from the cathedral of the Old Town Konstanz

a view from the cathedral of Austria




seen from the Cathedral - we never did figure out what this was





Lake view from the cathedral





Suzanne & Claudia in front of the gardens and the lake



Wedding car in Konstanz

This little building on the lake reminded me of a set from "A Series of Unfortunate Events."




The rotating statue of Imperia





See the video at the end of the bubble blowing guy



Many of the buildings are marked with these interesting symbols

Claudia and sister

Our lunch at a Turkish restaurant in Konstanz





"See Perlen," Claudia's bead store



Tiny "feed bags" of seed beads in Claudia's store







Claudia, sister and staff at See Perlen

View of another castle from Hohentwiel Castle

Hohentwiel Castle

Cemetery at the foot of Hohentwiel

View of a castle from the road

Another castle from the road



From the Hohentwiel castle at the top of this mountain, we could see Lake Konstanz




View of castle ruins seen from the top of Hohentwiel


Zeppelin seen from Hohentwiel

Hohentwiel information marker





cemetery info at the foot of Hohentwiel

Scene from the road of a castle ruin























Double-click this building for a close up.


This is what a hedgehog looks like!


Today is Konstanz day! With Brigitte at the helm, we got up early in order to drive through the Black Forest to the Bodensee, the beautiful lake bordered by Switzerland, Austria and Germany, to meet my eBay customer Claudia, and see her bead store.

The drive was fantastic - we drove up past Titisee (or as Lynn calls it, "The Tit") and through the beautiful forested mountains, through tiny villages with their red-roofed homes and steepled churches. Then near Singen we saw a fantastic ruin, and then another, and then another. We located one on the GPS and thought we would just drive up and take some pictures. It was the Hohentwiel Castle - and we had to really hike to get to it. Up, up, up a long steep road. This thing is a major attraction. It is huge. But by now we were invested and there was no way we were leaving without pictures. You have to have a ticket to go into the castle proper - in fact, a big sign as you start up the hill says, "DO YOU HAVE YOUR TICKET?" Good question - if you got all the way up there and didn't have a ticket, you would come back down and go home before you'd climb back up there again.

We got some great pictures, including pictures of the ruin across the way. We could also see lake Konstanz from the ruin.

By now we were running about 15 minutes late for our appointment to meet Claudia at her bead store, so we headed back out.

We arrived in Konstanz and headed right for the parking garage Claudia told us to use, it is only about 5 steps from her store. There was a line of cars waiting to get in, so I hopped out and headed over to Claudia's store, SeePerlen. Claudia and her sister were waiting and it was a very happy meeting! I had brought a lot of my jewelry to show Claudia, including the necklace which had just won the necklace competition at the Bead Society challenge. I think they enjoyed looking at my different pieces.

I got a chance to look around the store, which is really nice - airy, light, well-organized. Claudia's business is much different than mine. This has a lot to do with being located in a tourist area. The beads were sold individually, and the stringing material sold by the meter. You could choose your items and sit down in the store and make something.

I loved some of Claudia's display ideas, especially the seed beads in little sacks. She has a really nice variety of beads, too, including Kräuterbeads (herb beads) that she makes herself. I am so sorry I didn't get back to the store before it closed to buy one or 2 of these. Her prices were very good, too. She also had a nice variety of hand-crafted finished jewelry for sale.

Jane got there and met Claudia and her sister, and we headed out for a little touring and some lunch. We walked down through the Fußgängerzone to the lake. To one side is the Rhine, which runs through the lake. Ahead of us was the lake - huge and a beautiful sea green and turquoise. Claudia and her sister both said that it changes color every day, and that they enjoy seeing what color it is each morning. Jane said it was a mood ring lake.

It was an absolutely perfectly beautiful day - sunny with blue skies and just a few white clouds - the perfect day to be in Konstanz with new friends.

Along the lake there was a man blowing huge soap bubbles. When I say huge, I mean the size of a Volkswagon. We got a movie of it. On a pier jutting out into the harbor you can see a giant revolving statue of Imperia, a voluptuous prostitute. In one hand she holds the pope, in the other the king. She supposedly was a real person, and had relations with both the Pope and the King. On the other hand, it could just be a political statement! Peter Lenk is the artist.

We walked back past some large buildings, and Claudia pointed one out. She had gone to the International Bead and Beadwork conference in Istanbul and was disappointed in the organizers. She hopes to sponsor another conference in 2010 in Konstanz and showed us the building she hopes to use. I hope it works out, I have offered to come and teach and to get some of my bead friends to come and teach also.

We stopped at a Turkish restaurant and got a table outdoors. Jane and I had Radlers, and we had a dish we called "Borat" (Borek), and a noodle dish with Turkish wurst, which was a little spicy. We had a nice conversation, did a little people-watching, and then Claudia and I had some delicious Turkish coffee.

We walked over to the Konstanz Münster, stopping to make a movie of a cool revolving artwork in front of a jewelry store. There is a video below, but unfortunately I can't figure out how to put it on so it's not side-a-ways.

Claudia took us over to the beautiful Catholic cathedral because we told Claudia that we are unable to pass up the opportunity to climb a ruin, tower or cathedral. On the way she told us an awful story about a friend of hers coming into her store and bursting into tears. She had just witnessed a young man jumping from the cathedral tower. Naturally we couldn't stop thinking about that when we were up there.

Claudia kindly waited outside while Jane and I went in to climb to the top of the Münst. We had a nice long walk up, using, for once, well-made and fairly wide stairs (usually these walks consist of tiny, very worn stone spiral staircases.) We got to what I thought was the top, and enjoyed the views. To one side we could see Switzerland, all the way out to the Alps. Another view was the lake, and another was Konstanz on the other side of the Rhine, with vineyards behind it. Then we found another staircase and went up to another level, where you could stand out on little balconies and get another view.

We climbed down and explored the church a little. When we came out Claudia was waiting for us. We visited a little bit more and then Claudia left us. I just know we will meet again, and I hope she will take me up on my offer to come to NJ so I can take her into the bead stores in NYC. And I am counting on the conference in 2010.

Jane and I walked around the Fußgängerzone for a while, especially into Woolworths, which was Mutti's favorite store when she was in Konstanz with Jane. I found a few gifts in there, and bought myself a new purse for €12 (around $18.)

In the Fußgängerzone there were the usual street performers - an accordionist, and 2 didjeridu players. Got a movie of one of those. We went in and out of a few more stores and then decided to head back toward Freiburg and dine at a Strausse (farm restaurant).

After a stop at a farm market to buy some fruit, we drove straight to Griestal Strausse. We had gone there when Pat and I and the kids were here. It is a farm and during the summer season it is also a restaurant. There are some silly rules that allow it to have a restaurant inside, as long as there is no outside seating and they serve only wine, not beer. When we were here before, you walked over to a shed, picked out a bunch of wine crates and built your own table and chairs in the yard. This time they had a new system - there were several clotheslines which had picnic blankets on them. You could go over, choose your blanket, pick out a spot in the front yard and set up camp. We, however, had our lounge chairs so we set them up and started reading our books (duh).

It's pretty interesting - families and couples seated on blankets on the front yard of a farm house, overlooking the fields and vineyards. There is a picket fence bordering 3 sides, each picket numbered. The waitress comes over, and figures what numbers you are on the grid, and that's your table number. She gives you a ticket, upon which will be recorded your orders.

We ordered two glasses of white wine, a pitcher of mineral water, and the liver dish because I love calve's liver and Jane was being accomodating. Before it even arrived we decided we also needed a Flammkuchen. The food arrived and it was delicious. The liver was cut into strips and served in gravy, with homefried potatoes. We ate, enjoyed watching the other diners (especially an Elvis Costello lookalike and two "you know how I know they are gay" men). Read our books for a while and just relaxed.

Came home and watch a little TV (we are on an "Office" bender.) When we were ready for bed, Jane came in from the balcony and said, Come here, I need you to listen to this. We went out on the balcony and around one side. Jane said, Bend over here and listen. There was a big bush right below, and coming from it was a sort of snuffling sound. She thought it might be the hedgehogs she had seen cross the yard a few nights before. We got a flashlight, and in our jammies we came down into the yard and tried to look into the bush. The bush was so dense it was impossible to see anything, but we could still hear the oinky-sound. Finally I got all the way over to the back side of the bush and down low. It still took a minute to sort everything out, but there he was! A hedgehog about the size of a meatloaf, with a long pink snout! It was the coolest thing! Unfortunately, we didn't have sense to get a picture.