Upside Down

On Saturday my friend Kim and I took a USO tour called Riesling...something..something...wine tour. That's all I heard anyway ;) Erich "the Red" was our German guide. He got his nickname from President Kennedy, because he couldn't pronounce Erich's last name. So because Erich had (at that time) a red beard and red hair, Erich "the Red" he became. Erich took us through the Rheingau (Rhein River area) stopping in a few towns to explain different things about them and the places you can go to taste the small winery's product. He was a wonderful tour guide with a very dirty-old-man sense of humor.

The tour was mostly driving through the towns on a "bus." The bus, it turned out, was a 15-passenger van. I knew that was trouble in the making, since I tend to get a little car sick, but add windy roads and some incline to it and I wasn't enjoying the ride. Since it was bitterly cold, everyone opted for an old coffeehouse Erich offered instead of more of the tour in the middle of the afternoon. After that, it was more driving; however, we finally ended up at our final destination close to 4.



We went to a small winery where we were treated to 9 wines, plus dinner, and dessert. Everything was delicious! Erich described the wines, what food they went well with, and of course added his humor at any chance he got. "Nipple popper," we learned, was one of his favorite phrases and once he described a wine as a "triple nipple popper."

After dinner, we headed down to the cellar, which dated back to the 1200's. The owner of the winery told us that tradition was that when your daughter got married instead of a dowry, you gave several bottles of wine from your daughter's birth year. His daughter never got married, so he let us taste some of his wine from 1975. Delicious!

Kim thinks Erich had a slight crush or fascination with me, because he made note of my cold red nose while we were outside, remarked how good my haircut looked on me, and also called me "princess" and his "doll." Oh, and when Kim wanted a picture of the two of us, he insisted on kissing my hand.

I don't have any other prospects...hmmm.

Whiskey in the Jar

Last weekend we had a three-day weekend, so I planned a trip to Dublin, Ireland and my friend Pete came along too. Friday after work, we took the train from Wiesbaden to the Frankfurt airport and flew to Dublin. We got to the hotel around 9 or 10 and immediately headed out for our first Guinness. We were lucky enough to find a pub that had both Guinness and live music, which seemed, for the most part to be Irish, so I was thrilled. The guys were really good and they were selling CDs, so after their last song, we went up to talk to them. They told us some good places to go and told us that on Sunday they'd be playing at the bar across the street, which happened to be their favorite bar. We went to watch them play for a bit on Sunday too.

Live music our first night in Dublin.

The next day, our first order of business was to go to the Guinness Storehouse for a tour and a pint. It was a bit outside the city center, but the walk was good. Once there, we walked around the museum they had of the brewery, which included how the beer was made, its history, advertising, etc.


At the end, the ticket into the Guinness Storehouse included a pint, which you could learn to pour yourself or have one poured for you. I opted for learning to pour one myself. Once you had your beer, you could enjoy the views of Dublin from the 360 degree bar overlooking the city.

My certificate after pouring the "perfect pint."

We also visited the Kilmainham Gaol (jail) after the Guinness factory. I know nothing about Irish history, but taking the tour through the jail was really interesting and sad. Kilmainham is where many of the Irish rebellion leaders, to include the leaders of the 1916 uprising, were held and executed there.


Saturday night, we took a musical pub crawl. We went to two pubs and listened to two men talk about Irish music, its history, and a little bit of the musical history of Dublin. They played traditional songs and some different instruments. I really enjoyed it and would recommend it to anyone who goes.

We were there for 3 days, because we left on Monday, but in my opinion, that was too much and I could have seen all that I wanted to see in 2 days. I suppose the weather probably played a big role.

Easy

Today is my last day of vacation--I haven't been to work since the 24th. Soon-to-be former President Bush was nice enough to grant the 26th as a federal holiday, so I had a nice long weekend before my friend was to arrive for his visit.

Ready for the update? It's a long one, so take a deep breath...

On Christmas day it was very weird to wake up to an empty house, but I enjoyed my coffee and relaxed until I had to get ready to go. For Christmas, I went over to Amy and Will's house and joined three other couples, one kid, and one dog. We had three different types of lasagna, sides, good drink, and conversation. It was laid back and a lot of fun.

The 26th I took a little hike to this Russian Orthodox church above Wiesbaden. It was kind of chilly, but once you got moving, it was fine. It wasn't much of a view, but it was good to get out of the house and do a little exercise.

On the 29th, my Chris arrived for a wonderfully relaxing visit. We had no plans, but only a few thoughts on what we wanted to do. I've been running pretty much since July and he's tired of work, so for both of us, having nothing planned was probably the best thing we could do. If nothing else, it was just nice to have someone here who knows me really well. It's hard moving to a new place, trying to meet new people, and not letting them see how weird and nerdy you are until you know them. Luckily, Chris already knows I'm a nerd, so I didn't have to hide that!

After he was able to sleep a few hours, I took him out for the requisite German meal of Wienerschnitzel and a beer. Lucky for him, the ice skating rink was open and they were still serving Glühwein, which is something he really wanted, but missed because the Christmas market closed on the 23rd. So we stood by the fire, drank a few glasses of Glühwein, and watched the people ice skate.

Glühwein by the fire next to the skating rink.

Tuesday, we headed to this antique store that I had wanted to go to. I saw this really cool antique bar that I'm still considering. After that, we made the decision to go to Frankfurt to see where Chris used to live when he was stationed there about 10 years ago. First, however, we used my handy dandy GPS to find The Twelve Apostles--Frankfurt's first brewpub.

Chris outside the Twelve Apostles.

On New Year's eve, we decided to stay home, make dinner, and then go watch the fireworks in Wiesbaden. I made these delcious subs from Suz's recipe, the Roberts family bean dip, and champagne, of course. The first day of the new year was also spent relaxing. We took a walk around the park right next to my house that I've never been through. After our discovery that the Irish pub by my house was closed, I took Chris to this Bavarian place and we threw back a few dark Bavarian beers...yummmm.

Preparing the delicious bean dip!

Fireworks in Wiesbaden. (You can see the video I took in the previous posting.)

On Friday, we decided on a roadtrip--winging it with no plans, just a vague idea of where. Our first stop was in Hamm, Luxembourg where the American cemetary and memorial are, to include General Patton's grave. It was a lovely cemetary and memorial to the more than 5,700 American soldiers who died during the second World War.


Heading north, we stopped in a small town called Houffalize, with no reservations and no agenda. The reason we headed there was because my favorite beer I had at the Christmas beer festival a few weeks back was La'Chouffe and Chris just so happened to have drunk that beer at a local bar in Baltimore that same weekend. We found the brewery and although the shop and brewery were closed, the restaurant was open. The server was nice enough to let us use the phone to try and find a hotel and gave us a booklet about the area, but we still didn't have a place by the end of Chris's last beer and our delicious meals. We went back to the first place we stopped and they had a room and what d'ya know....La'Chouffe on tap in their bar ;)

Me with my new friend and number who knows how many.

The next morning, after stopping by the brewery to load up on 2 cases of beer and some souveniers, we went to Bastogne, Belgium for the day. This was the location of one of the battles in Battle of the Bulge. There we visited the museum the town has on the battle, which was great.


After lunch, we headed to Tongeren, Belgium, which supposedly holds the largest antique market every Sunday. After a nap, we took a really freaking cold stroll through the town and stopped to get some Belgian chocolates. I couldn't believe how cheap they were, because I was expecting to pay a lot more. For 7 Euro, you got a box with a variety 15 chocolates in it. And they are yum-my! That night we sampled some different Belgian beer over dinner.

The next morning after breakfast, we bundled up and headed out to the antique market. It apparently spreads throughout the town, with actual antique vendors and just regular Joes who have their things on display. I guess it's more of a flea market, but in Europe to an American, everything is an antique. We both found some treasures, but it was just too cold to keep going, so we left just before 12.

On our way home, we stopped in Cologne, Germany to see the Cologne cathedral, which is absolutely enormous! The construction of the cathedral started in 1248 and was completed in 1890.

Me dwarfed by the cathedral.

From there it was onward to Wiesbaden. You can see the route we took from Wiesbaden to the various places and back, by going here. We were greeted on Monday with snow!



Chris's visit unfortunately had to come to an end this morning. It was a great time, we had a lot of fun, and I look forward to the next one. Thank you for being my "wing" man, Chris!

Auld Lang Syne

Happy 2009!!

Here's what happens when you mix alcohol and fire in Germany on new year's eve.

In Heaven There is No Beer

Belgian beer is AWESOME!

On Friday, Pete, Reid, and I left work at lunch and headed in the direction of the land of beer. We drove to Bergen Op Zoom, the Netherlands and stayed the night in preparation for the Christmas beer festival in Essen, Belgium. Bergen Op Zoom wasn't just fun to say, but it was a super cute town too. The three of us thought it was sort of Disney-esque. Oh, and I fell in love with the doors there.



Friday evening, when we got there, we got into our hotel, which was really great, then set out on finding some dinner. It was bitter cold, but the numbness didn't kill our fascination in the town and how quaint it was. We ate at this great restaurant and for some reason were immediately recognized as English speakers when we walked through the door. The soup was phenomenal and dinner was great, plus the Westmalle beer was wonderful.

The next morning we trolled the town some more, because the festival didn't start until 2 in the afternoon, so around 12:30 we found our way to the train station and made the trek to Essen, Belgium. Essen isn't big and it was clear from the line of people leaving our train and the station that there wasn't much else in the town but the festival, so we just followed the crowd. At this point, and when we arrived to the line out the door, it was clear that the male attendees made up probably about 87%.


The festival was in a gymnasium, basically. For 15 euro, you got a booklet listing all the beer they had to try, tasting notes, alcohol content, etc. plus 10 tickets. 1 ticket got you 1 tasting, but some of the beer was 2 tickets. The glass was 3 euro, but you got that back when you returned it, and it held .15L. (That's about 5oz or almost 1/2 a bottle of beer. It would also be good to note that the average alcohol content of the the beer was probably around 8-9%, but I also had to try the one with the highest alcohol content at the festival--12.5%. I weigh 108lbs.)


We sat down at a table next to these other two Americans who are stationed in Mons, Belgium, and about 6 Dutch on the other side of us. Everyone was really nice and the Dutch kept sharing the food they brought, even though you really weren't supposed to bring outside food in. They had this great dried meat with a clove taste, eggs, cheese straws, crackers, and I don't remember what else.

Me after who knows how many.

I think by tasting number 3, Pete, Reid, and I were very happy. No one was out of control there and it never got terribly crowded. I had 10 tastings and never had a bad beer. I loved it and had a great time.

Me, Reid, and Pete--beer connoisseurs

Holly Jolly Christmas

I've officially made the crossover in the Mac realm.  I'm now one of the cool kids.  That would be one reason why I haven't posted much in a while.  The other is that I'm lazy.  The best part about opening the package containing my new computer was the first page of the instruction manual.  "Congratulations, you and your MacBook Pro were made for each other."  If only men came with such instructions...  

I'm still trying to figure some things out and I'm realizing all these little keyboard shortcuts I used to rely on with my PC.  I need to transfer all of my music over to the new computer, but I just haven't had a lot of time (and I'm lazy).

In other news, we had a dinner cruise on the Rhine for our work holiday party.  It was nice to dress up and I wore heels without injuring myself.  I met some new people, got a nice dinner, and saw nothing on the banks of the Rhine, since it was pitch dark outside ;)  I've been fighting a cold for almost a week now, so I was the designated driver and didn't get to partake in as much beer as I would have normally.  I stuck to one early on, then quit after that.

My friend Julie was in Germany visiting a variety of Christmas markets, so on Sunday, she trained it to Wiesbaden and we went to another in Ruedesheim and in Wiesbaden.  It was nice to have a friendly face around and she was my first official guest.  

The Ruedesheim Christmas market was great, because of all the little streets in the city and the food was awesome too.  We stopped in a little restaurant, tried a Ruedesheimer coffee (there was liquor, fire, and sugar involved), had a waffle and just caught up.  

This weekend myself and two other guys are headed up to Belgium for the Christmas beer festival.  What is Christmas beer, you might ask.  Well, Christmas beer usually has more alcohol and that's about the only difference I've found.  Sounds like reason enough to call it Christmas beer, right?  Sometimes you just need a little extra to get through the holidays, don't you?  Belgian Christmas beer could be different, however, since they don't have a purity law like the Germans do.  The festival is being held in a tiny town north of Antwerpen, but we're actually staying in the Netherlands.  This will be my car's first official road trip.  I'm sure it'll be a fun weekend.

Baby It's Cold Outside

On Sunday the 23rd we had our first snowfall. I walked down into town for dinner and I had to use an umbrella because it was so wet and coming at me with velocity. The pictures aren't very good, but here are a few shots--the first two at the park in down the hill from my place and the second two are my street.

For Thanksgiving I walked about 40 yards, two buildings down my street to Kim and John's house. They hosted 10 people and did a wonderful job. They fixed the turkey, the sweet potatoes, and John's famous sauerkraut, then everyone else brought a dish to share. They even had a table large for everyone to sit together. We talked a lot, played a few games of darts, and I believe there was even a game of Euchre! (I'll play next time.) The game came on a little later and John apparently subscribes to some NFL package online, where you can watch all the games up until Tuesday after those games are played. So we watched the Titans spank the Lions, who I might add, have a worse record than the Bengals. At least one team does!

Friday after Thanksgiving we were able to leave work early--well, those of us who were actually at work. Since I got home with lots of light still left, I put on some extra layers and headed down the street to the Christmas market. I just intended to grab a cup of Glühwein and walk around, then come home. As I was walking around, however, I ran into a girl I knew, then more people I knew showed up, so I ended up staying for a while and added a Käsewurst to my tummy. I stayed until my feet were so cold I couldn't stand it.

I think I'm going to try for a wurst and a Glühwein every night for the next month until the market closes. I'm not sure I can actually obtain that goal, but I'll probably do a good job trying. Saturday night I met up with my boss, her family, and their guests somewhere for a beer, but I really wanted to go walk around the Christmas market. I saw a crepe stand the night before and told myself that was going to be my dinner. Luckily, when I was about finished with my beer three people showed up who wanted to walk around, so I went with them.

It was really crowded, but we pushed through to the crepe stand I had seen the night before. I think we all had a banana and Nutella crepe. Oh man was it good.

After that, we all had a cup of Glühwein, which Mike and his wife Lisa had never tried. Lisa wasn't a fan.

Then, it was wurst time! This time I had a bratwurst and tried out the hilarious mustard teet!!