Some Fantastic

My Mommy came to visit!!! Poor Mom arrived with a cold and was asleep on drugs the first night after I introduced her to the phenomena that is Spargel. We went to a restaurant in Wiesbaden and had asparagus creme soup. Right now asparagus is in season and the Germans are crazy about their Spargel. Ever place has a Spargel menu and you see signs and stands on the sides of roads with spargel. Spargel, spargel, spargel!! It's just like Forest Gump with the various shrimp dishes, as Mom joked.

Mom having apargus creme soup.

Friday we wandered around Mainz and Saturday we went to the weekly market in Wiesbaden for some fresh bread, cheese, strawberries, and freshly cooked chicken. We had that for lunch on the patio.

On Mother's Day, we headed to Holland. We stayed near the Keukenhof gardens, but Sunday evening we realized we were only minutes from the North Sea. It was really windy and subsequently very chilly, but we can now say we went to see the North Sea. Mom even bravely put her toes in the water and I think they were almost frozen when she took them out.



Monday we went to the tulip gardens at Keukenhof. We missed the peak of the tulips and didn't get to see the fields of endless tulips you see when you're driving through that region, but the tulip gardens at Keukenhof were beautiful and I think I got some great pictures.

Tuesday we headed to Amsterdam (hey, we had to pay for gas and the hotel somehow;) ) and got lost so many times I could barely stand it. As Mom pointed out, I'm usually good with direction and even I was getting lost. We took a couple of canal boat rides, saw the Van Gogh museum, toured a houseboat, and had Dutch pancakes. We stayed in a great bed and breakfast called The Flying Pancake, which was much better than the hotel we stayed in near the tulips. I really liked Amsterdam and definitely will make a trip back at some point.

On the way home to Wiesbaden, we stopped by Cologne so that she could see the Cologne Cathedral. It's an enormous church and I wrote a bit about in when Chris visited, because we did the same thing on the way home.

I have posted all of my pictures from Mom's visit, if you'd like to see them. I haven't updated them with captions or anything, but I think it's pretty clear where I took most of them.

Tea for Two

...or really for almost 30 guests. My boss, Chantel, had a women's English tea party today. Jen, Amy, Kim M., and I all met at Kim H.'s house and drove down in one car.

Kim H., Amy, me, Jen, Kim M.

Cocktails started at noon and we were offered drinks as soon as we walked through the door on one condition--we had to get our picture taken first. Chantel's son, Kaleb, and his two friends were the butlers, complete with tuxedo....t-shirts. We had an offering of mimosas, bloody marys, spiked lemonade, and there could have been something else too, but I stuck with the mimosas.

Me, Naymar, Jen, Kim H.

Although weather.com was calling for rain, it was sunny the whole time and the tables set up outside on the patio were gorgeous. Chantel has a perfect backyard for a gathering like this.

Carrie, Kirsten, Melanie, who are all pregnant.

Carrie and Melanie have about a month left.

After everyone arrived, we sat down and ordered from a list of teas. Everything was homemade. We were served little finger sandwiches with everything from egg, cucumber, and salmon. They were delicious. Next we had four different varieties of scones, but the one I tried first, basil and tomato, I stuck with. The desserts they brought out looked amazing, but I was so stuffed that I didn't have anything but a piece of chocolate. I think I saw homemade angel food cake and that's my favorite, but I couldn't even bring myself to get a piece of that.

There was a contest for the best bonnet and for best "tea outfit." I voted for Naymar and apparently there was a 4-way tie, so the butlers got to weigh in, but chose someone else. It was a lovely day and just as we were leaving it started to rain. We were lucky it held off for the afternoon.

Kim H. and Jen

Me, Amy, Naymar

Kaleb (middle) and his two friends, the hardworking butlers.

Chantel and Amy

Now it's time to get cleaning for Mom's visit. She arrives on Thursday.

Drive My Car

After work today I wandered down to the end of my street to the Kurhaus, where they were having an antique car gathering. It's something called Wiesbaden's Older Timer (which is the German word for antique car) Rally. It was much different than any sort of antique car gathering in the States, but then again, this rally lasts the entire weekend, they drive them sort of in a parade, and I don't know what else.

Today was also a holiday in Germany, so for all I know the cars and their owners had been doing things all day. However, the owners weren't next to their cars, there was no one to ask questions, they weren't sitting in lawn chairs with Corvette leather coats, and chatting with other car owners. No, they were sitting drinking beer, wine, and champagne with other rich people.

Rich people looking rich and being rich.

As cool as some of these cars were, and as crazy as Germans generally are about their cars, they weren't as shiny or as fantastically clean as the old cars you see in the U.S. There were a lot of old Mercedes, a 1955 Astin Martin, a lot of Alpha Romeos, some Skodas, a Porshe, Jaquars, a few Rolls Royces, and one American car--a Cadilac. It was interesting to see the cars, because they were different--they weren't the roadsters, the T-birds, or the Model Ts you see in the U.S.. I had never seen an Astin Martin that I know of and the old Porshe was really cool. It seemed like the cars you see in old movies. Movies with rich people.

Old car, modern convenience--cord for an MP3 player.

The following car is the so-called ‘Aluminium Sculpture’, a 40/50 H.P. Phantom I Open Tourer from 1926. The first owner had been the Maharadscha of Nanpara in India. It's made of polished aluminum, 6 cylinder engline, and weighs 1, 815 lbs.