All vacations, even working ones, must end

We fly back to California tomorrow, so this will be the end of this series of posts.  Just a few random things to talk about.

We spent the weekend in Oldenburg, where we have good friends.  They had just remodelled their house, and we are among the first visitors to the new arrangement (arrangment doesn't do it justice: rooms were repurposed, almost all the floors were replaced -- with some wonderful light wood in the living area, skylights were installed, a very fancy exercise area -- complete with sauna -- was installed) -- all set up for the way they live (including two home offices).  We spent a weekend of "Gemütlichkeit", where we caught up on each other's various life activities, ate Kuchen (a necessary part of any visit here -- they have access to a fantastic bakery), went for a walk (between the rainstorms) and just relaxed.  It was an enjoyable time.  Unfortunately for the blog, I didn't take any pictures.

Now we are back, doing the last minute things we need to do before the cab picks us up at 7am (we will get to the Frankfurt airport 3 hours before our plane is supposed to leave -- I hope that is enough to get through security after all the crackdown due to the Paris attacks).  We will probably come again, so we have collected all the extra stuff we have accumulated (from tea to a can opener) for them to store for us at the university for next time.  I also had my last German lesson. I'm much more facile with both the passive and the subjunctive now, as well as maybe finally getting my adjective endings mostly right.

Yesterday there was a break in the rain, and I decided that I really needed a walk (those of you who follow me on fitbit will have noticed a real decrease in my daily stepcount since the rains appeared).  Here are some pictures of fall in Germany, just as eye candy

A typical path through the woods

German forests in the fall

Those are mostly beech trees

German "neatness" in planting trees.  

Almost all the trees in these woods were manually planted 

(You can see one older tree that might have naturally grown there in the background), 

but in such careful, regular rows.

This building, sort of like an old manor house, is in the middle of the woods.  

Even with Google maps, I couldn't figure out how you would get there in a car.  

It seems to be abandoned now -- you can sort of see the security fence surrounding it.  

I have no idea what it was before.

One of the random brooks I walk by.

Another brook. 

I have no idea what that piece of fence once belonged to.

Another visit to the wild pigs. 

Here are all the babies napping together to keep warm.

And to end with, random observations on Germany.

• the university here (Universitaet Duisburg-Essen) is pretty much a commuter school. They recently built some very large lecture halls.  Today I was walking by the Uni, apparently right before a class was to begin.  It was unnerving to see three buses stop by the big hall and unload about 150 students, who marched almost in formation to class (the way you could tell it wasn't a marching group is that most of them were looking at their phones :-).  Can't say I have ever seen that before, though I don't think I have visited commuter schools elsewhere
• I found a knitting/yarn store that has "knitting group" hours a couple of times a week. Next visit (we think we will be back -- science marches forward) I am thinking of bringing my knitting there and seeing if I can keep up with the conversation (and knit at the same time).  
• On our way to Oldenburg, we passed through Emden, where one great-great-grandmother was born and changed trains in Leer where my grandfather was born.  I think that next trip I may go back there and try to get permisson to go through old church records to see what I can find out about my ancestors who came from Ostfriesland to Iowa.  One thing I noticed is that, even though the part of Iowa I am from is arguably the richest part of Iowa (based on farmland prices), the farms here looked more prosperous.  Maybe my ancestors shouldn't have left.

Barcelona -- Gaudi, Gaudi and more Gaudi

Last weekend was Barcelona.  We really only had two days, because of the timing of flights -- we got there about 7pm Friday and left about 9am Monday.

We stayed in a short term apartment -- Erik Vökel Suites -- that was lovely.  The place was huge; larger than our apartment in Duisburg, with a completely separate bedroom, a very nice bathroom, adequate kitchen (well furnished, including a dishwasher, though the smallest I have ever seen), and a patio that would have allowed us to have a party for 20 people had we been so inclined.  It was cheap, though I'm not sure whether that was a statement about Barcelona right now or about apartments vs. hotel rooms.  It had fewer amenities than a hotel room (no maid service, though you could get cleaning once a week; receptionist only between 9am and 6pm, so we had to let ourselves in via a machine like an ATM that made us a key), but none of these were problems for us, so we had a delightful time.  There was a bit of a crowd at the (hard to use) checkin machine, with 8 German college students checking into two rooms right ahead of us, and a woman I would have called a business traveler right behind us.  It is in the Gracia neighborhood, which was recommended by a friend and a locale that I would highly recommend too.  Not in the midst of tourist central, but close enough to just about everything that we walked everywhere.

The first day was supposed to be old Barcelona and Picasso, which we covered.  The Barri Gotic (Gothic quarter) is quite nice, with the Basilica and lots of other old buildings to visit or just gawk at from outside.  And the Picasso museum is highly recommended -- for the most part it is Picasso's early work (while he was in Barcelona), which is much more realistic (almost photo realistic in a few cases) than his later stuff.  There are two paintings he did at age 15 which are incredibly impressive (The First Communion and Science and Charity). I don't think we had ever seen anything from that time in his life.  There are a set of paintings from later, donated by Picasso himself, that are mostly rifs on a famous painting by Velasquez -- Las Meninas.  Not as interesting, except maybe to an art student.

But we did find a small museum about the life and influences of Gaudi next to the Cathedral and we also went to Palau Guell, which is in that area (Gaudi's first major commission).  But Sunday was all Gaudi, all day.  We saw (not in this order): the Sagrada Familia (the church he spent the last 15 years of his life on, and which is unlikely to be finished in my lifetime).  The external facades were the best (though hard to see well without a ticket) and his use of light in the sanctuary was fantastic; La Pedrera, an apartment complex, where the entire first floor (in the European meaning) was reserved for the wealthy owner and the other floors had apartments for renters (also well-to-do, but not at the same level), Casa Batllo, another apartment complex with a rich owner taking up the first floor.  We also walked up and down Passeig de Gracia, looking at buildings by Gaudi and others that we couldn't go into.


Here are a few pictures.

La Pedrera (still a very fashionable address to have)

There are no straight lines to any of the walls.

Gaudi's trademark chimneys (here at La Pedrera)

Another La Pedrera chimney

View of Sagrada Familia from La Pedrera roof 

(the two cranes are a permanent part of the landscape)

Trying to capture the light inside the Sagrada Familia

Another attempt to capture how he infuses the place with light

A random building by another Modernista architect (not Gaudi)

This was originally an umbrella store.

The chimneys at La Batllo

Gaudi makes even the gulls look good.

(That is a live gull, not part of the art)

OK, now on to food (of course).  We mostly ate tapas, except for breakfasting on croissants and coffee/tea, of course.  We found an excellent tapas place almost around the corner from our apartment -- Restaurant Tossa.  Everything on the menu was great (we know this because we ate there twice, easily covering more than half the menu.)  We first thought the tiny squid were the best, but that was before we tried the octopus.  Even the croquettes (ground up meat and other stuff, in golf ball sized mounds, deep fried) were fantastic -- we only ordered them because the owner wouldn't take no.  While they have a pseudo-English menu that somewhat overlaps the menu board in Catalan, they aren't particularly touristy, as evidenced by the fact that our waiter didn't speak English (apparently he knew the menu by location, and we called the owner over for complicated orders).

Otherwise, we ate while walking around  I don't know that we chose particularly wisely, but we had several good things (mostly in the seafood direction -- some excellent sardines in vinegar) and some misses.  I wanted some paella, and what I got was a soupy rice mixture, with some good seafood on top, but not the crusty, flavorful rice that I was expecting.  If that had been my only paella experience, I would be saying "what's the fuss".  But maybe when you order paella as a starter (meaning it's a small portion), you have to expect this sort of mass produced result.

Overall, we found Barcelona a lovely city to visit.  The Gracia neighborhood allowed us to see ordinary Barcelonans going about their weekend errands.  We left with more Gaudi to see than we had time for.  So this is one city that is on our "we'll be back" list.

Cultural acclimatization at 20,000 steps per day

I'm definitely becoming settled here and a bit more like the locals.  I know where to find the "good stuff"  (wine, cheese, meat, produce).  But it takes a lot of walking to operate this way.  We don't have a car, but many of these I wouldn't drive to anyway.  About half are further than I typically walk in Palo Alto, but parking would be such a hassle that I would walk (or perhaps take the tram if the weather were really bad) anyway if I had a car.

Here were my trips the last two days.  Yesterday

• downtown, supposedly to pick up a pair of glasses (a friend asked me to order them for her, as she wanted a specific pair of frames that she saw in Germany last year).  I forgot the receipt, so I didn't get the glasses (the Germans are very picky about this -- even with better language skills, I doubt I could talk my way into getting something without a receipt), but I also needed to get the good loose tea from the downtown farmer's market, which is only open Tuesday and Thursday.  There was also a "farm bakery" at the farmer's market, so I got my breads there.
• on the same trip, to the department store downtown to get a gift for my German teacher
• Jay texted that he wanted to go to the wine store, and I didn't have enough bags for that, so we met at the apartment, where I deposited these things and went out again
• to the wine store (about half the distance to downtown) to restock our supply of wine. Four bottles of wine is heavy, so back home immediately
• to the local shopping area to get cash from the money machine (just about everything requires cash, so regular withdrawals from our German account are a necessity) and to the fruit stand to get veges for dinner (spaghetti and a salad).  Back home with a full load.
• to the supermarket (the one close to us re-opened yesterday, but it was a zoo, so back to the further one) to get yogurt, pasta sauce, and a few other things.

25000 fitbit steps

And today:

• back downtown.  On the way I stopped at a bakery we like and got the day's pastry and bread.  I picked up the glasses, looked for a book as a gift (they would have to order it, so on to plan B), got some Lebkuchen as a gift for the lab and a humorous postcard to send to my German teacher in the US.
• on the way back, stopped again at the vege stand (needed mushrooms for the schnitzel and some brussels sprouts) and at the butcher's to get the pork for the schnitzel.
• second trip was to the post office to mail the postcard to the US (just a small local branch -- I used the machine to buy a stamp.  Unlike in the US I could put in any denomination and get a stamp out of that value) and then to the grocery store to get some muesli that we had just run out of

15000 fitbit steps (but the day isn't over)

(I was going to go for a walk in the woods, but it's dreary and windy, and I need to catch up on this blog)

You can see why shopping takes a large chunk of my time.  

Other ways I have adapted.

• I am starting to take the good quality of the produce and the meat for granted.  I think the produce is similar in price to what we have (which in a sense makes it cheaper, as this time of year, a large fraction of it is imported from Spain and the Middle East, and we Californians still have a lot of local produce).  The meat is very high quality, and so much cheaper -- I paid less than 2 Euro for enough pork loin to make two generous schnitzels.  If I could get pork this good regularly (even at Dittmers), we would eat schnitzel more often.
• I buy bread daily at a real bakery (not the one in the supermarket or one of the German chains) every day.  I swear there is a bakery on every block in the commercial areas, though more than half are chains.  That gives you some idea of how important bread is to Germans.  I need 1) breakfast pastry, 2) lunch brotchen (roll) for my sandwich (with meat from the chicken I roasted Monday), and 3) some days dinner brotchen, because the whole-grain bread here is so good we are firmly entrenched in the habit of eating brotchen with dinner.  All of these are significantly better within 24 hours of purchase, so I need to get them every day.  We've tried about 6 or 7 different bakeries, and the one I like best has a branch in the train station, which I wouldn't have expected to be an indicator of quality (though I suspect it means they have been around for a long time).
• I don't bundle up as much as I did when I first came -- the weather seems less threatening, even though it is objectively more wintery.  All the locals are out without hats or gloves and so am I.
• My coin purse is a true necessity.  If you get less than 10 euros in change it will almost always be as coins (there are 1 and 2 Euro coins).  And people appreciate exact change and are willing to wait till you dig it out.  I sometimes have as much as 20 Euros in the purse.  So for most purchases, since a credit card is not welcome and I am buying in "one day" units, I use my coin purse, not my wallet (till I need to break another 50).
• I never go out without a cloth bag to put things in, 2 or 3 if I know I am going to buy a significant amount.  I do something somewhat equivalent at home -- I have a bunch of canvas bags in my car, but it doesn't seem quite the same.

Sculptures in the woods -- and a surprise

Our lovely fall weather has ended, with rain here in Duisburg starting today and going all next week.  Too bad.  Helps me remember why I like California, though.

Having seen the weather forecast, I made an effort to get out in the woods yesterday (which is why you didn't see a blog post from me).  I had found a map of the various statues in the Duisburger Wald.  I came across two of them on earlier trips (both versions of a female figure in a red dress), and had learned there were more.  Someone told me that they were by Regina Bartholme, a local artist, who calls these "sculptured plants"  (they are made of wood and attached to trees) and pointed me to a page of pictures and a map.  I had also been warned that a few of them had disappeared, which was sadly true.

The first one I looked for was called the "White cocoons".  Three white (rather faded) lumpy figures attached to adjacent trees:

White Cocoons

The next was one I had seen before, the large (maybe 12 feet tall) sculpture of a woman in red.  I could find the stump it had been on, but not the statue -- not sure if it was stolen or is being restored in some way. Next was one called "Blooming Beech" (those are wooden blossoms on the tree):

Blooming Beech

Next was the smaller woman in red (which I had seen before).  This is about 3 feet tall.  It's called something like "Looking down there":

Looking down there

The last sculpture, Blue Angel, was also apparently gone, though since I couldn't find the stump it had been set on, there is a chance that I missed it.

It was a fun romp through the woods, sort of a bit like orienteering (since most of these paths, while having names, are not signed).

Now for some gratuitous pictures of fall colors, for you Californians who don't have this sort of thing (much):

And then my final find of the trip -- wild pigs.  According to a woman I talked with at the site, about 2 years ago half a dozen wild pigs were found roaming in town.  They were rounded up (by some teenagers, if I understood right) and this pen was created for them.  They live on the acorns they find on the ground, and as you will see, they are multiplying.  Grown wild pigs are somewhat ugly, but the babies are adorable.  This woman said that they were not supposed to be fed human food, but if you must, only noodles (I swear -- I asked "you mean pasta?" and she said yes. )

Yes, that's an adorable baby wild pig.  You get an idea of the size of the pen here.

 Papa boar

 Babies of various sizes/ages

Mama (one of several)

Venice

We had a lovely weekend in Venice.  Sunny with highs in the mid 60s. Took the waterbus from the airport (it's a long walk from the airport building -- I can imagine that this could be a somewhat disillusioning start to a vacation if the weather were in the 90s).  The directions our hotel gave us were to get off at the Rialto stop, go along the canal a bit, turn on Calle Bembo -- which turned out to be an extremely narrow little passageway.  I estimated it with my foot, and it was probably less than 5 feet wide.  We continued down for a while, turning into an equally small passageway that was our hotel.  It was a great introduction to the "twisty turny passages" that make up Venice.

Jay, in the narrow alley in front of our hotel.  Note the classic Venetian streetlamp.

The hotel, really a B&B, was charming, and the hotelier was a great source of recommendations  (see food, later on).  We did the obligatory touristy stuff, plus a lot of random walking, because that's what we do.  We got advance tickets to the Basilica, saving time in line (but skipped the view from the Campanile, since we didn't think it would be worth standing in line), got a great tour of the Doge's Palace from a private tour company (a way of again skipping the line, but the tour was well worth it), and an "official" tour called the Secret Itineraries tour, that gave us a backstage view of the prison, torture rooms, etc.  We saw where Casanova was housed and where he escaped from.  I actually read his (multi-volume) journals when I was about 11 (shall we say, they were interesting -- he is not graphic, but his detailed discussions of things like how to remove a nun's habit, for obvious purposes, did shock this sheltered preteen).  

I'm not much for pictures -- too busy enjoying the sites, but here are a few obligatory views

The golden staircase of the Doges Palace.  Meant to impress, and it does.

 The clocktower in St. Mark's Square

Gondoliers at night

We went to two museums -- Ca' Pesaro and the Peggy Guggenheim.  Both turned out to be a bit too modern for our tastes (we thought they had some late Impressionists), but they were more appealing than all the medieval art elsewhere.  We took a water bus down the canal to see the front facades of all the Palazzos.  We went to the Rialto market.  We didn't get out to Murano, because the glass factories we wanted to see were not working on the weekend, but we did find some high end glass shops in the Dorsoduro, so we got to see plenty of well made stuff.  We also got to see a little "acqua alta" coming through the drains (and making it hard to get around St.  Mark's Square) due to the high tide.  We did enough walking in some parts of town that we could get around with only occasional glances at the map. 

I think the part I liked best was walking around in Cannaregio early Monday morning.  Even in October, Venice is full of tourists, though I am sure it is much better than in high season. Sometimes we really couldn't move, and once Jay got jabbed by someone who wanted to go past him, enough so that his shoulder hurt a day later.  But on early Monday there were very few tourists out, you could imagine this was a "normal" town, with people going to work (all walking, of course).  We saw how trash pickup works (large carts are taken off a barge on the canal, and the trashmen walk the streets picking up the plastic bags people have left out.  The carts are designed to be able to go up and down the steps of the various bridges without spilling their load.) We found that some Italians sit outside in cafes having their croissant and coffee for breakfast, while others sit outside having somewhat different mid-morning snacks a few hours later, the latter more often with friends. (all with warm coats and scarves on, but definitely outside.)  We even saw the kinds of stores that normal people frequent -- Tabacs, butcher stores, fruit stands, dry cleaners, etc.  We never saw any of these in the tourist areas -- just restaurants and high end clothing and tchotchke shops.

I was happy to see this evidence of normalcy, because my overall impression of Venice was of an old, decaying city that is (somewhat by necessity) living in its past.  It clearly exists primarily for the tourists -- I read that something like 90% of the residents are somehow involved in the tourist trade.  It was wonderful to visit it, to see some of these amazing buildings, and to see a city that really does exist surrounded by water at every step, but I found it somewhat more sad than thrilling.

Oh, the food.  We found three different places (two on the recommendation of our hotelier) to eat Venetian food.  Not Italian, but specifically Venetian.  The first night was at Cantina Do Spade, where the building at least, not sure about the current restaurant, is historically culinarily significant.  We had sardines and polenta as a starter, I had swordfish and Jay had pasta bolognese for the main course.  Some Venetian cookies and some local dessert wine were a great ending.  You can tell these people live on fish.  The second night we went to CoVino, a tiny "modern Venetian" place that got written up in the NYTimes (the map in the article also shows Cantina Do Spade).  It's a 3 course prix fixe, which started out with the maitre d' (guy who did everything from seat to serve to clear) giving us a glass of his father's "homemade" prosecco, that was head and shoulders above any other prosecco I have ever drunk.  I had a traditional Venetian dish of bigoli (pasta) with sardines and caramelized onions that was superb.  The third night was Osteria Antico Giardinetto, which while the least amazing of the three, was still an excellent meal. The mixed seafood appetizer -- about 8 different small tastes of every kind of seafood you can imagine -- was unique.  We loved very part of it.   So while Venice is not supposed to be a particularly foodie town, we certainly did OK. Note: none of these places are in a particularly touristy part of time -- I suspect that matters.

Now I can say that I have seen Venice.  I have read Judith Martin's No Vulgar Hotel -- a very funny paean to and sort of history of Venice by the woman who writes the Miss Manners columns -- but I didn't get Venetian fever from this visit like she has.  I also read another of the Donna Leon books (Commissario Brunetti) before this trip -- Acgua Alta, by coincidence -- and she always depresses me about the corruption and the Italian "that's the way it is" attitude that she so clearly demonstrates.  Oh well, apparently I don't have the right appreciation of the finer things in life.

Visit to Köln

Last weekend, our excursion was to visit Köln, where the professor who is hosting Jay lives when he is not at the university.  It is about an hour away by train.  He and his partner took us on an excursion to the Drachenfels (Dragon's rock), which is an old castle ruin at the top of a hill and a modern castle (built by some rich guy in the 19th century) about midway up.  It was about 30 minutes from Köln (at least without traffic) near Bonn in the Siebengebirge area. Of course there is a story about a dragon living there, perhaps the one that Siegfried battled.   We didn't encounter it, though there is a small reptile zoo on the mountain that might have the dragon or one of its descendents.  It was a great way to see the fall colors here, which we have so little of in California.

We were lazy and took the cog railway up, but we did walk partway down.  Of course, being with Germans, we had to have a bit of kuchen at the top (and of course, there was a restaurant there, just waiting to serve us).

Here are some pictures from the trip (taken with my cell phone, so excuse the quality)

The fall colors on the hillside

The path down the mountain

The ruin at the top

The more modern castle at midmountain

We all then went out for dinner (first discovering that German traffic on a weekend can be similar to the Bay Area) with another couple, where the husband is doing a sabbatical in the same institute. He has the strongest Canadian accent I have ever encountered -- you can tell within 1 minute that he is Canadian.  

The next day we wandered around a bit, visiting the Rautenstrauch-Joest Museum, which is an anthropological museum that was originally based on the collection of Herr Rautenstrauch-Joest. They take a different tack than most such museums, where they combine items on the same theme from different cultures to show how things are similar and different across the world -- at this time (it apparently changes all the time), it was "daily life", so we got greeting customs, clothing, weddings, funerals and beliefs about the afterlife. I thought the best exhibit (not part of this daily life theme) was about prejudice against black people (from a German culture perspective).  Some of it was showing really embarrassing old Hollywood movies, but they also showed a old German children's book called "Ten little negroes", that apparently is similar in content to our "10 little monkeys", though what the little negroes do is somewhat more negative.  And lots of "Aunt Jemima" type ads, but for German products, so very different uses of the idea of a black person symbolizing something important about the product.  The museum is also very upfront about the abuses perpetrated by visitors to the cultures they showcase, including missionaries and anthropologists.  Well worth a couple of hours.

Afterwords, of course, we met our friends for another Kuchen at their favorite cafe, and headed for the train station.

On return, I thought "now would be a good time to do laundry", but of course, this is Germany, and laundromats are closed on Sunday.  One really has to plan ahead.  Instead I roasted a chicken (because the oven works well here and because I had planned ahead for that) and we had a very nice, perhaps close to traditionally German, dinner.

Settling in

Obviously, I've gotten busy enough that I haven't found time to post.  This weekend we went to Köln, which I will cover in another post (with pictures I hope).

First, I promised some pictures of our apartment.  Here we go:

The kitchen.  You can see that we are pretty much settled in at this point -- using up all the available counter space

The living area.  A nice lamp for when I want to knit 

(though since we can't stream any shows or movies, and there is no English language TV, 

I don't spend much time knitting).

The bedroom.  Typical German coverlet.

My routine (which has me doing lots of walking) involves pilates (at home -- I haven't found a studio that will take me for only a month since everything requires a membership here, and I don't know if I would be able to understand the instructor, especially when holding a strenuous pose), going to the grocery, butcher, vegetable stand and baker every day (while I am trying out various grocery stores, the main one I use is close to the primary bakery I use, but the butcher and vegetable stand are in the other direction, though close to each other), cooking dinner, going to the wine store, going to the laundromat (about 1km away) 2 times a week, german lessons for 2 hours twice a week, german homework, writing this blog (obviously not daily :-), and walking in the nearby woods.

Apparently my German is getting better, as more people are willing to talk to me, not just about the carrots I am buying, and I get understood more easily.  But trying to get a refund for the money eaten by the laundry machines was a challenge. It ate 4 Euro in the washer and 1 Euro in the dryer before I figured out the secret. (you put your stuff in the machine, adjust the settings,  go to a central panel, put in money, get soap if it is a washing machine, go back to your machine, and hit start.  All within a short period of time, which was the ultimate cause of my problems.) I convinced the attendant to give me a refund for the washer money, but it was just too hard to explain what I did wrong for the dryer.   I've also been communicating with our landlady in German, about burned out lights and installing a wifi repeater, of all things, and she seems to understand what I say.

My kitchen here is better appointed than the previous ones -- I have a whisk!  Do you know how much easier it is to make salad dressing with a whisk? and sharp knives! they make all sorts of things easier -- but it's interesting what I miss.  The microwave is right now a bigger deal than the lack of laundry facilities.  I still have to take a lot of shortcuts here, since I don't have a complete kitchen, and a lot of those are best handled in the microwave.  And there are even a few microwaveable dinner items that one can buy in German supermarkets, which would be nice to make on a busy day.

A few random observations on German culture
    - I had a horrible time finding beer in the supermarket today.  There was a long aisle of liquor, from wine to gin, but no beer.  Then I found a bunch of beer bottles by the large fruit juice and soda bottles, but after careful reading, I discovered that all of them were "alkoholfrei" -- non alcoholic beer -- except for the Radlers, which are a combination of lemonade and beer (like an alcoholic Arnold Palmer), which apparently the Germans don't consider alcoholic.  I finally found the beer (in large bottles, not six-packs) where the bottled water was.  
   - I wanted to buy a small container of mayonnaise.  The smallest I could find was a tube (like the tubes of tomato paste you can find at Whole Foods).  I opened it today, and the tube has a star tip, like a frosting tip.  I think it's to make cute mayonnaise decorations on composed salads or deviled eggs.
   - Now that I am competent enough to have conversations with the butcher rather than just grab packages from the supermarket case, I am impressed with both the quality of the meat here (especially the pork, which I seldom buy at home, but which Jay loves) and with how cheap meat is.  Lots of the produce is more expensive here than California (and definitely more limited), and eggs are very expensive (perhaps because all the ones I find are free range, apparently this must be a big thing in Germany), but meat is maybe 20% cheaper than I am used to paying, with significantly better quality.  Too bad it was this week that the WHO decided to tell us that processed meat and red meat are bad for us -- I am turning into quite a carnivore.

Back in Duisburg

Yes, we thought our last trip to Duisburg would be the final one, but we are back again, for a month.  We have a few mini-vacations planned, so there will be some things to blog about.

We arrived yesterday.  Managed to stay awake till 9pm, so I think we will get on the timezone quickly.  We did that by walking all over everywhere -- I got over 20,000 steps on my fitbit.  To the grocery store, downtown to buy Jay an umbrella (he lost his in Italy, but he only wanted a "good German umbrella" -- the US ones weren't sturdy enough for him.  Given the cost of German umbrellas, they better be sturdy, and he better not lose this one), and to stock up on wine at our favorite wine store (the owner recognized us, and knew exactly what wines to show us -- of the five wines we tried, we bought three of them).  

We are in yet another "vacation apartment".  This one is in a duplex; it's the upper floor of one half of the duplex with our landlady living below us.  It is the largest yet, with a completely separate living room.  It's also much brighter, both from good lighting and two skylights.  I think I will be able to see to knit and read here in the evenings.  It also has a dishwasher (which Jay likes). The downsides are that there is no microwave oven, no freezer in the refrigerator, no washing machine and the nearest laundromat is a long walk, and the wifi is very slow.  We weren't supposed to have wifi at all, but that was a deal killer for me, so we are (with permission) camping on the landlady's very slow wifi.  We are seriously considering buying her a new router.  Especially in the evening, when she is using it, it feels like we must be using an old modem or something.  We can't stream netflix or amazon, which was our primary TV experience, since there isn't any english-language TV here.  Here are some pictures of our cosy abode.

[Well, I tried to upload the pictures, but google won't cooperate.  I think it may have something to do with the poor wifi -- it's trying to save my phone data, since I am on roaming, but I have unlimited (albeit slow) data here, so it's not the right thing to do.  Maybe tomorrow I will add some pictures of the apartment.]

Apparently it is this part of Duisburg's turn to be torn up.  Not only have we found at least 4 streets that are so torn up you have to detour around them, the supermarket that I have finally learned the layout for (the Edeka) is being renovated and is closed for most of the duration of our stay (and probably will have a completely different store layout, so I'll still not be able to find anything).  

I'll be continuing my German studies while I am here.  I will have the same teacher, but this time she will come to my apartment for lessons.  Maybe we will even go out in the "real world" and learn some practical skills.  

So for me this trip will consist of german lessons, shopping, doing laundry and vacations -- perhaps I will get some hiking in.  Hopefully there will be interesting things to blog about.

Comparing US and European ski areas

I've only been to one European ski area (the Trois Vallees), but my hubby and son have been to quite a few, and I did check with them about whether these differences were unique to the Trois Vallee area or general in France and Switzerland.  Here's what struck me as noticeably different.

The skirun rating system -- green, blue, red and black (easiest, easy, moderate and difficult).  I found the green to be like the bunny runs you find in the US, the blue to be the easier end of intermediate (blue runs) in the US, the red to be harder intermediate runs edging into the easier difficult runs by US standards, and black -- well, apparently, black is hard everywhere.

A typical lift has only two or three ways down from it, as opposed to six or seven at the typical US resort. There might be a blue run down the left side and a red one down the right side.  Or maybe the right side has both a red and a black run.  All of the runs I skied (not necessarily true for black runs) were very wide for most of their length, and extensively groomed.  Didn't see much in the way of moguls on blue or red runs. What in the US would be two or three runs, with trees marking the boundaries between runs, is all one run here.  It makes grooming easier, and also a lot of the terrain is above the timberline, so there are no trees to set things off (and I suspect there can be some really windy days).

 Typical blue run.  

This gives you an even better idea of how wide the runs are.  

This is a very easy blue run, at the base of the mountain.

My experience of a typical run was that there would be a face to navigate, appropriate to the level, then some sort of quite flat, roadlike path to get to the next face, and so on till you got to the bottom of the lift. When you went from one lift to another, you spent more of you time on these paths, often having to pole uphill in places.  My arms got a workout this week. Runs did tend to be long, though that might vary with the ski area.

There is also the concept of off-piste (off the runs) skiing, where you go, possibly ski-walking quite a way, to places that are not groomed.  The most apparent, given where I skied, were under the lift itself, which is common in the US, but usually that run has a name (and official status) even if it isn't groomed.  I think the closest to off-piste you see in the US are things like the bowls at Vail and Keystone -- once you get to that part of the ski area, you choose a place to launch yourself and ski down.  There is no grooming, but there is a wide area to explore.  Here, however, if you skied off-piste, you understood you were skiing at your own risk.

Some lovely off-piste skiing. 

And just for giggles, here is a picture of me on one of those road-like parts.

I'm the one in the middle of the picture, in case you couldn't tell.

Auf Deutsch:

Ich bin nur in einem europäischen Skiort (die Trois Vallees) gewesen, aber meiner Mann und Sohn haben etlichen besucht.  Ich habe ihnen nachgefragt, ob diese Unterschiede zwischen europäischen und amerikanischen Skiorte beschränkt auf die Trois Vallees sind oder allgemein in Frankreich und der Schweiz sind.   Diese sind die größten Unterschiede, dass ich bemerkt habe.

Die Schwierigkeitsgrade -- grün, blau, rot und schwarz (leichtest, leicht, mittel, schwer).  Ich fand, dass die grüne Pisten wie die amerikanische grüne Pisten waren, die blaue wie die leichte der amerikanischer blauer Pisten, die rote wie die schwerere amerikanische blau und wie die leichtere amerikanische schwarz, und die schwarz -- scheinbar ist schwarz schwer überall.

Ein typischer Skilift hat nur zwei oder drei Pisten darauf, in Gegensatz zu sechs oder sieben Pisten pro Skilift in einem amerikanischen Skiort. Vielleicht gibt es eine blaue Piste am links und eine rote Piste am rechts. Oder vielleicht gibt es am rechts beide eine rote und eine schwarze Piste.  Alle die Pisten, dass ich Ski fuhr, waren sehr weit für die meistens ihrer Länge und sortfältig gepflegt (das war nicht immer genau für die schwarzen Pisten).  Ich habe wenige Buckel am blauen oder roten Pisten gesehen.  In den USA wurde die einzige Piste zwei oder drei Pisten gewesen, mit Bäume zwischen die Pisten, aber hier ist es gemeinsam.  Das macht die Pistenpflege leichter, und viele Gelände ist auch oben der Baumgrenze, so es gibt keine Bäume für Grenzen zwischen Pisten (und ich meine, es gibt sehr windigen Tage.)

Meine Erfahrungen einer typischen Piste war, dass es eine Bergwand zu befahren hat, richtig für die Schwierigkeitsgrade, dann eine ebene Weg, wie ein Pfad, die nächsten Bergwand zu erreichen, usw., bis der Anfang des Skilifts. Wenn man von eine Skilift nach eine andere Skilift fuhr, man verbringt mehr Zeit auf diesen Pfade.  Oft muss man bergauf mit dem Skistock fahren.  Meine Arme bekam diese Woche eine Herausforderung.  Die Pisten waren lange, aber das ändert sich vielleicht mit dem Skiort.

In europäischer Skiorten gibt es auch Skifahren abseits der Piste, wo man nach Orte die nicht gepflegt sind geht, vielleicht weit auf den Skis gewandert muss.  Ich habe viele diese Pisten gesehen, die unter dem Skilift waren.  Dies ist häufig auch in den USA, aber diese Pisten haben gewöhnlich in den USA eine Name, auch wenn sie nicht gepflegt sind.  Ich meine dass die Ski-Schüsseln in Vail oder Keystone sind die ähnlichste wie diese Art des Skifahren abseits der Piste.  Man fahrt nach solchen Teil der Skiort, wählt ein Anfangsplatz, schiebt sich vor, und fahrt Ski.  Es gibt keine Skipflege, aber es gibt ein breit Fläche für Erforschungen.  Aber in Europa versteht man, dass die Skifahren abseits der Piste ist auf eigene Gefahr

Oben können Sie ein Foto von mir auf einem Pfad sehen.

Rosenmontag

We are back in Duisburg.  I have another post about skiing, but it will have to wait.  Monday was Rosenmontag (the best translation I could find was "Shrove Monday", the day before Mardi Gras, or Shrove Tuesday).  It is not formally a holiday, at least in this state, but the university closed, the stores were only open in the morning (unless they sold beer, of course), and everyone comes out for the Rosenmontag parade.  This is a small shadow of the one in Cologne nearby, but it was still a big deal.

Our small street turned out to be one of the staging areas for floats (apparently created by clubs that exist specifically for this purpose) and bands, so we saw the action early.  That caused me to hunt on the internet for the parade route and for us to decide we should see this in person.  The parade started at 1:11 (I have no idea why that time), and about 12:30 we walked along the route to the middle of town (and the halfway point of the route).  It was chilly, but above freezing. Apparently, we were the only people older than 20 who were not well fortified with schnapps and beer.  (We stood next to a cluster of about five women, all in costumes, ages maybe from 50-70, who were pretty plastered by the time the parade got to them.  The grandma was the keeper of the flask of schnapps. She was very generous with it.)

Pretty much everyone was in costume, if only flowers in their hair.  The attempts to be "American" were sort of funny -- not bad, but a little off.  Like the guy who was in what I thought was a photojournalist costume (vest with lots of pockets, etc), but it had a big logo that said FBI.

We got there about 30 minutes before the parade was to start, but it didn't get to us for another 90 minutes. The floats and bands moved with glacial speed. By then I was losing feeling in my toes and couldn't take it any more, so we walked back along the route. We did not have the front row location we had before, but we saw the entire parade -- longer than a kilometer, lots of bands, drum corps (again, special clubs organized to perform in this parade and maybe a few others), and floats.  The people on the floats all threw candy at the crowd; the kids had bags like for Halloween in the US.

It was much "fancier" than the May Day parade in Palo Alto (which is pretty much all kids), but obviously less than the parades in big cities like San Francisco or Boston.  I don't know that we would have a similar parade in the US, or for what holiday.  And certainly not in the middle of February.

I tried to take lots of pictures, but as a short person with a not great spot, it was hard.  Here are a few that give the flavor of it.

Random group in staging area 

Two kids in costume (hard to see under winter clothes) beside their float 

Parade viewers, not participants 

 Float with candy throwers

 Another float

Some floats were pulled by farm tractors, but others by big semi cabs like this one

Auf Deutsch:

Wir sind in Duisburg zurückgekommen. Ich habe noch ein Beitrag über Skifahren, aber es warten muss. Montag war Rosenmontag.  Es ist nicht ein offizieller Feiertag, zumindest in diesen Staat, aber die Universität war geschlossen, die Geschäfte waren nur am Morgen offen (außer dass sie Bier verkaufen) und jemand das Rosenmontag Parade zu sehen kam.  Die Rosenmontag Parade in Köln stellt diese in den Schatten, aber es war gross genug.

Unsere kleine Straße stellt sich als eine Sammelpunkt für die Festwagen und die Blaskapellen heraus, so wir die Activitäten früh gesehen haben (die Festwagen sind bei Gemeinschaften, die besonders für diese Parade bestehen, hergestellt.) Deswegen ich für den Paradeweg auf den Internet suchte und wir entschieden, dass wir die Parade selbst sehen müssen.  Die Parade began um 1:11 (ich weiß nicht warum), und gegen 12:30 haben wir den Weg entlang nach die Mitte der Stadt gelaufen (das war auch die Mitte der Paradeweg).  Es war kalt, aber über dem Gefrierpunkt. Scheinbar waren wir die einzige Leute älter als 20 Jahre, die nicht viele Schnapps und Bier getrunken hatte, um warm zu machen. Wir stand neben eine Gruppe von fümf Damen, 50 bis 70 Jahre alt, die sehr berauscht waren als die Parade kommt.  Die Großmutter war die Aufseherin der Schnappsflasche.  Sie war sehr freigebig.)

Ziemlich alle waren kostümierten, manchmal nur Blümen in die Haare.  Die Versuche 'Amerikaner' zu sein waren komisch -- nicht schlecht, aber ein bisschen aus dem Gleichgewicht.  Wie der Mann, die trägt was ich dachte war eine Fotojournalist Jacke (Weste mit vielen großen Taschen), aber es hat ein großes Zeichen, dass FBI sagt.  Echte FBI Menschen sind immer in schwarzen Anzügen mit Drähte in die Öhren.

Wir sind 30 Minuten vor der Parade began bekommen, aber wir können es nicht für zusätzliche 90 Minuten sehen.  Die Festwagen und die Blaskapellen bewegen am Gletschergeschwindigkeit   Bis dahin hatte ich in meiner Zehen keine Sinnesempfindung und könnte nicht mehr stehen, so wir sind der Paradeweg entlang bis zu Hause gelaufen.  Wir nicht mehr erste Reihe Stehplätze hatten, aber wir haben die ganze Parade gesehen -- mehr als ein Kilometer, viele Blaskapellen, Trommeln und Fahne Gruppen (auch spezielle Gemeinschaften in dieser Parade zu marschieren gesammelt) und Festwagen.  Die Leute auf der Festwagen haben Süßigkeiten nach die Ansammlung geworfen.  Alle die Kinder hatten Sache wie Halloween in den USA.

Es war extravaganter als die 'May Day' Parade in Palo Alto, an die nur Kinder marschieren, aber offensichtlich nicht so extravagant wie Paraden in San Francisco oder Boston.  Ich weiß nicht ob wir eine ähnliche Parade in den USA haben oder für welchen Feiertag.  Und nie in der Mitte Februar.

Ich versuchte viele Fotos zu machen, aber ich bin kurz und mein Gesichtswinkel war nicht so gut, so es schwerig war.  Oben sind ein Paar dass den Geschmack schauen.

So many (good) reasons to be tired

I guess the definition of a good vacation is that you end every day feeling as if you couldn't have done one more thing.  I have definitely met that goal today and yesterday, enough so that I've been too tired to post.

Yesterday was a moderate day of skiing, followed by a wonderful 75 minute hot stone massage.  I haven't had a massage in two years, and with the soreness in my muscles, it felt great.

Today was a very full day of skiing, enough so that I am exhausted today too.  My knees and thighs are screaming.  So that's all for today, other than a couple of gratuitous pictures of the local views.

Auf Deutsch:

Ich meine dass es gibt eine tolle Urlaub wenn jeder Tag endet mit dem Gefühle, dass man nicht eine mehr Tat getan könne.   Ich habe dieses Ziel Heute und Gestern erreicht, sodass ich zu müde ein Beitrag schreiben war.

Gestern war ein gemäßigter Tag für Skifahren, und dann hatte ich ein wunderbare 75 Minuten Heißsteinmassage. I habe keine Massage seit zwei Jahren gemacht, und mit der Schmerzhaftigkeit meiner Muskeln, sie war super.

Heute war ein sehr langer Tag für Skifahren, so viel dass ich bin auch heute erschöpft.  Meine Knie und meine Oberschenkel schreien. So ich bin für heute fertig, außer einem Paar unbegründete Fotos der örtlichen Blicke. (seht oben)

There's life in this skier yet

Those of you new to this blog may not know that I have an artificial ankle -- made of ceramic and titanium. I haven't been skiing much in the last 10 years and not at all for the last 2 years.  Furthermore, I am going to a women's ski clinic in Alta, Utah in March and have been somewhat worried whether I would be able to keep up.  Now I am not so worried.  My legs are killing me today, after 6 hard hours of skiing, so if I keep this up for 3 or 4 more days (and I'm not sure I can), I should have legs (and arms -- I do a lot of poling) in shape for the clinic.

My ankle has been doing well -- it hurts, but not badly, and it hasn't swollen up. The first day I could turn with my good leg much better than with my bad leg, but now they are about equal.  I found some silicone pads that sit on the ankle bones (both sides) and keep the ski boot from pressing on them, which has helped a lot.  I have skied steep slopes with moguls (probably easy black runs in the US system) and also icy runs without causing pain.

So Alta ski clinic -- look out.

View from yesterday's lunch spot

Auf Deutsch:

Als Sie an diesem Blog neu sind, wissen Sie nicht dass ich einen künstlichen Fußknöchel -- aus die Keramik und das Titan -- habe.  Ich habe seit 10 Jahren selten ski gefahren, und ganz nicht seit 2 Jahren.  Weiterhin gehe ich in Marz nach Alta, Utah an einer Ski-Klinik für Frauen, und ich ein bisschen besorgt war, dass ich so genau wie die anderen Studentinnen Skifahren konnte. Ich sorge jetzt nichts so viel.  Ich habe heute vielen Schmerzen in meinen Oberschenkel mit 6 Stunden Skifahren, also mit 3 oder 4 mehrere Tage so schwierig arbeiten (und ich weiß nicht ob ich dass tun kann) soll meine Beine (und Arme -- ich benutze häufig meine Skistöcke) für das Ski-Klinik gut sein.

Mein Fußknöchel geht gut.  Es tut weh, aber nicht so viel, und es ist nicht angeschwollen.  Der erste Tag konnte ich mit meinem guten Bein besser als meinem schlechten Bein wendeln, aber sie sind jetzt egal.  Ich habe Silikonstücke gefunden, dass auf die Fußknöchelbeine sitzen (beide Seiten), und der Skishuh gegen das Bein drückt nicht. Das hilft viel.  Ich habe steile Pisten ski gefahren mit die Buckel (in USA nennt man ihnen "leichten schwarzen Pisten") und auch eisigen Pisten ohne Schmerz.

Also Alta Ski-Klinik -- hier komm ich.

First day of skiing

Lovely weather (the high was just below freezing), great snow, and once we figured it out, some pretty good runs. A little bit icy, so I traded in my skis for stiffer ones for tomorrow. My legs seem to have held up better than Jay's. Thank you Marilyn (my pilates instructor).  That glacier I showed you yesterday -- Sean has already skied it.  Here is a picture of another lift well above timberline (no, we haven't skied that yet). The sun was so bright when I took it, I had no idea what the camera was looking at, but you can see the lift poles reasonably well

A nice part of being retired (besides the senior discount) is that we are content to ski at a more relaxed pace.  I skied from about 10 till 4, with an hour for lunch, and would have gone longer, but the clouds came in and it was hard to see very far.  We would have soldiered on when we were younger, but now we came in for a drink.

The Europeans understand how to enjoy the mountain.  Most of the on-slope restaurants have deck chairs, where you can sit out and just enjoy the sun after lunch.  I hope to try that before the week is over.

It's snowing right now -- new powder tomorrow.

Auf Deutsch:

Schönes Wetter (die höhe Temperatur war circa 0 Grad), superer Schnee, und nach wir es knobelten aus, tollen Skipisten. Die Pisten war ein bisschen vereist, deshalb habe ich meine Skis gegen steifere Skis für morgen ausgetauscht.  Meine Beine haben ziemlich besser als Jays angedauert. Vielen Dank nach Marilyn (meine pilates Lehrerin).  Der Gletscher, der ich euch gestern geschauen habe, hat Sean schon Ski gefahren.  Oben gibt es ein Foto eines anderes Skilifts, ganz über die Baumgrenze (nein, wir haben das nicht jetzt gefahren).  Die Sonne war so leuchtend als ich das Foto gemacht hat, dass ich wusste nicht was der Fotoapparat sah, aber Ihr könnt die Hubmasten(?) gut sehen.

Da wir in Rente sein sind wir zufrieden an einen entspannten Schritt Ski zu fahren. Ich habe von 10 Uhr bis 16 Uhr Ski gefahren außer einer Stunde für Mittagessen. Wir möchten länger fahren, aber die Wolken kamen, und es war schwer weit zu sehen.  Als wir jünger wären, würden wir weitermachen, aber dieses mal haben wir hereingekommen und ein Getränk getrunken.

Die Europäer verstehen wie man den Berg genieß.  Die Meisten die Restaurants an der Piste haben Liegestühle, wo man sitzen kann und nach Mittagessen die Sonne genießen.  Ich hoffe, dass bevor die Woche endet das zu versuchen

Es schneit! Morgen gibt den Pulverschnee.

Here we are in Meribel in Les Trois Vallees

Not much happened today, as we flew to Geneva, waited 3 hours for Sean, rode 3 hours in a van, then got our skis.  However, I have a couple of pictures I want to share with you.

 One of the mountains we have access to 

(I'm not sure I will be skiing up there, but Jay and Sean will surely do so)

From our hotel room balcony, looking at a similar balcony across the way.  If the skiing gets too tiring, maybe I will sit on the deckchair in the sun.

Auf deutsch:

Nicht viel heute geschah, als wir erst nach Genf flogen, auf Sean für 3 Stunden warteten, für 3 Stunden im Kleinbus führen, und schließlich unsere Skis mieteten.  Aber es gibt ein Paar Bilder, dass ich mit euch teilen möchten (schau oben)