At the End - Oh and Elvis Lives!

Tuesday was a nice day spent in downtown Stuttgart in the shopping gallery area.  It was pretty busy for a "work day" and makes one wonder if Germany's money woes are because no one works?  We took the tram from Renseck (Joe and Anya's village) and got to have a nice walk through the village on our way.  They have a couple nice bakeries, a really great looking butcher shop and of course some small grocery stores and other small places.  The tram ride was smooth and easy and we walked through the gallery area and headed to find a place to have some lunch.

We had a nice Italian lunch with a couple glasses of wine and finished with a free round of espresso coffees from our nice waiter.  I even drank most of my little coffee, of course it had as much sugar as I could fit without the coffee turning to syrup!  It was pretty good.  From there we headed to an Australian restaurant for some dessert and dessert drinks before checking out a REALLY nice fur shop on our way back to the tram.  Man, there were some pretty coats and jackets in there and of course our favorite, a beautiful sable coat was only 35K Euros - not bad eh?

The plan for Tuesday night was to tour all the little bars (3 of them) in Renseck village, this would come to be much like a night in small town Iowa.  Starting out, we headed to Joe and Anya's favorite, a greek place owned by a great greek family that have become Joe and Anya's friends.  We had a nice meal there of Souvlaki and Lamb and the most wonderful fried potatoes along with some beers and drinks and a nice chat with Stella (only she speaks english and of course we don't speak German or Greek) and her daughter Katerina.  It was very pleasant and we can definitely understand why they love this place!  We picked up a bar local, Dieter, toward the end of our dinner and he was very entertaining!

Joe and Dieter - Can you believe Dieter is 4 years younger than Joe?

Dieter, Joe, Anya, Stella and Trav

From this bar it was on to the next...  Anya just kept saying that the next bar had a woman owner, Ziggy, that was strange, that she was always "done up" but it a weird way.  We entered the door of this VERY SMALL place and Ziggy's daughter was behind the bar, so Anya immediately asked where was "mom", and down the stairs she came.  The only thing missing was an announcement, "ladies and gentleman, Elvis Presley", yes he is alive and living as a woman in a small German village - no kidding.

Joe, Anya, "Elvis", and me...

So, a couple quickish drinks here - it was very smoky and we were all starting to get tired and of course we had one more bar on our tour.  I didn't really even want to go to this next bar - the neo nazi bar - after Uncle Joe told us his story about the owner and of course constantly referred to it as the nazi bar, but Anya insisted we needed to see all the places in Remseck so in we went.  Instantly I think all of us were a bit on edge, but we sucked down (literally) a shot of Jagermeister each and headed back out the door with a huge sigh of relief - not really a nice place and not one I would go to again.

Wednesday became a bit of a "chill day" with Trav staying at home reading while Anya and I went to do some shopping for a traditional Ukranian dinner that night.  We had a nice bit of tea and hit up the outdoor markets and went to a great bakery and the russian store before heading back to the apartment to a refreshed Trav - he got a nice quiet nap - and had a quick bite for some lunch, then we were kicked out of the kitchen while Anya made Borscht.  It was a really great dinner of Borscht and some russian pasta that is like a ravioli and of course, no russian meal is complete without plenty of vodka!  After dinner, a few sweets and a bunch of tastes of some Czech Republic liqueurs...  put us to bed quite handily!

Yesterday we had a leisurely lunch of leftover borscht before getting in the car to head to Frankfurt.  The original plan was to visit Heidelberg castle, but we ran into traffic that added an extra couple hours due to construction and scratched the plan for just getting to the airport and finding a hotel for a good night's sleep before our flight today.  We take off in just under an hour and it is time to come home - we are ready!  So, hope you all enjoyed the vacation and we will see everyone at some point this summer if not this weekend!

Au Revoir!

American Cop Out

Upon waking in Epernay we were both still a bit under the weather and in particular my nose thought it was running a marathon.  It wasn't appropriate to go to breakfast with toilet tissue stuffed up my nostril (the way I slept the last few hours of the night) so I stuffed the toilet tissue in my bra (ala my friend Kelly who has LOTS of things stuffed in her bra) and headed to breakfast.  After excusing myself 3 or 4 times to go blow, Madame seeing me using toilet paper (pink) brought me a pack of travel size kleenex, what a nice gesture and a life saver for the remainder of the day.  Still thinking it was allergies I popped a Claritin and with my runniness in check we headed out of Epernay towards Verdun.

In Verdun the weather was quite cold and rainy so we enjoyed a quick lunch at a tea house and then towards the Verdun Memorial and the Ossuary of Douamont.  The Ossuary is a cemetary for ~ 15000 unknown dead, again very like our Arlington Cemetary and Trav wanted some pictures.  He took a few, trying to keep the camera and lens dry in the rain and then tired and still feeling under the weather we decided we didn't have the umph to visit the inside of the memorials and museums and marked those for a return trip. 

We decided not to show up at Uncle Joe and Anya's house sick, so a stop for the night in Strasbourg was the plan.  Finally we were getting close and Travis looked on the GPS for a hotel and he found a Hilton - well, we really needed a night with American spaces, a big nice bed, and a big nice bathroom and most of all - room service!  It is funny how when you don't feel well or you are tired towards the end of a trip, money doesn't matter as much, only comfort and knowing what to expect.  So, that was our American cop out - an american hotel and room service - not so bad and so worth everything except the breakfast which was also "american" and not of good quality, runny eggs, not good croissant and pain au chocolat, bad coffee - so we paid a little price in the morning.

I called Uncle Joe in the morning and woke him up... in the Czech Republic, thank goodness we decided not to proceed to Germany the day before!  Maybe he forgot a little that we were coming, and we didn't ever make a solid plan on when we would arrive, so he and Anya went to a spa town in the CR for the long Memorial weekend (he gets american holidays since working for an american company).  So, after a pause to think "who is this woman Jess calling me Uncle Joe" he remembered and said he and Anya would be back to Stuttgart in about 4 hours.  Travis and I headed to the Alsace Wine Route and tooled around through the vineyards, but of course we were slow getting started and headed out at noon, right when the French countryside shuts down for lunch, so we mostly drove around and looked and took pictures and then finally at 3 PM, just when the French country restaurants all close because lunch is over, we were hungry and desperately looking for a place to eat.

We found a nice German style restaurant in a bit bigger village and had some wonderful puff pastry entrees, Trav had chicken baked in his and I had veal and a wonderful sauce in mine with some noodles to soak up the extra sauce.  Just as we were ordering, Joe called to let us know they were close to home and that we could come anytime we wanted.  So, after lunch we headed across the Rhine River into Germany and a FAST trip on the auto route with Trav behind the wheel.  Of course there was tons of construction and at times the lanes get very tight and passing is extremely scary - see the pictures, it is amazing I was able to take these because the rest of the time I had my eyes closed!

After arriving at Joe and Anya's we had bratwurst and other german sausages on the grill with fried potatoes and some vegetable kebabs and of course a few welcoming vodka shots, maybe more than a few, and a bottle of champagne we brought with us to share.  It was a great welcome and nice to be with other english speaking people!  Time for bed and of course maybe a headache or two in the middle of the night (Trav) due to the few shots of vodka.  Anya was nice enough to cook for us in her David apron she got in Italy on their honeymoon - too funny!

Welcome to Germany and the Joel Dougherty residence!

Don't Be Mad

After checking out of Cheval Blanc on Saturday morning, we didn't really have a plan...  We took a walk around the village and took some pictures of areas we saw as we drove into town the day before.  I Love Love Love the French gardens (yards) with all their beautiful flowers.  They take such care with everything and I swear the could grow a rose bush right out of the concrete and some actually do...

We walked out of the village a bit to a war cemetary on the edge of town, it is like Arlington National cemetary (on a smaller scale), with a memorial and sign representing World War I veterans from the area and of course Trav took a lot of pictures while I read (sort of) the signs.  It is really interesting for me the amount of strife that France took in a 35 ish year timeframe with both world wars.  We tend to not understand the French people in the US and think them snobbish and weak and probably many other things, but we forget that their country (within a generations history) was under siege twice and during WWI alone lost 1.3 million military men.  I realize this is "a price of war" but statistically it was the highest percentage of deaths per population for all the countries involved in WWI.  It hits home as you travel from small village (maybe 100-300 population) to small village and in each town is a memorial to those lost in each world war and there are 15-30 names on each statue which may have been 50% of the population of young men in each of these villages.  And then, less than a generation later another world war and more casualties, such a great loss in such a short amount of time, maybe we shouldn't be so judgemental.

After our walk, we were off in the car with no real destination in mind, but after a conversation with the Brits we tasted champagne with yesterday, we really were wanting to do a Champagne cellar tour.  I tried before leaving to line up tours with a couple smaller producers (Agrapart & Fils and Camille Saves) but struck out with both being out of town for the weekend.  So, after discovering that most of the small producers speak very little english, we caved (no pun intended) and headed to Epernay to the famous Moet & Chandon for their Cave tour in english - sorry Sam, don't be mad...  It was a very worthwhile trip and just amazing to see the caves in Epernay - they were started by Napoleon and all dug by hand and under the big Champagne houses along the Rue de Champagne there are 28 KM of caves, and A LOT of bubbly.

Because of my studies the last year, I knew much of the "how champagne is made" talk, but it was great for Trav and great to see much of the process in real life.  And just the imensity of the caves and the millions of bottles that are below ground in Epernay is amazing and ultimately we were very happy we did the tour even though it wasn't what I ideally had planned.  We payed to have the vintage tasting after the tour which included a glass each of the 2003 Blanc de Blanc and 2003 Rose of which I thought the Rose was better, but neither was as good as some of the small producers I have tasted in the last year.

Following the tasting, we needed some food and headed down the street to a cafe with a plan to eat some lunch and then head east towards Germany to get a bit closer to Joe and Anya's.  I checked out the wine list and what did I find?... 

But, only in the bottle, not by the glass - what a dilemma...  Drinking and driving in Europe is HIGHLY frowned upon and I was the driver, but I also REALLY wanted a glass of this champagne, so Trav says, order the bottle and I will drink the most.  So, we ordered the bottle and of course I drank the most and so our next stop - Office of Tourism in Epernay to get a room for the night...  We were very luck as all the hotels I had been recommended were full, but one B&B right up the street from M&C had a couple rooms available - so we took one.  It was really a quite lovely place with Madame and Monsieur being a great little French couple in their 70s I would guess and of course spoke only French - luckily they spoke very slowly and were SO NICE. 

Our B&B with Madame out Front

The room was on the top floor (up 2 flights of a steep, winding staircase) with a small but very nice bathroom included and a king size bed and really a quite large space.  We settled in, meaning to say we took a nap, and then headed out for a quick bite of pizza and ice cream and then crashed out for the night.  Something got to both of us on Saturday, and we both ended up with a stuffy/runny nose and a scratchy throat and we hoped it was just allergies from all the mold in the caves...  but figured a good nights sleep would do us good.

The Black is Mold on the Ceiling of Caves

We had a wonderful breakfast in the morning and with a "merci beaucoup" to Monsieur and Madame, we headed east out of Epernay toward Verdun to take in some WWI history...