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.