For two weeks we immersed our family (and my mother-in-law) in German culture, cuisine and the thrill of the Autobahn while visiting Reid (my brother) and Brenda, Avery (4) and August (1). We lived to tell and had quite the adventure doing it!
We flew out of Chicago after celebrating my niece's graduation from high school at LPS. Fran was already in town which made it easy to meet up. Brother-in-law, Jeff, was gracious enough to offer taxi services of drop-off and pick-up at a very reasonable fee (free).
We flew through Iceland and while our stay was short (as least it was long enough to change planes) it was surreal!
We arrived in Frankfurt and headed for the rental car station. There we were introduced to what would be our German chariot for the next two weeks.
Anyone that knows my husband knows he has a need for speed. While this was a stress for me early on in our marriage, I have since mellowed and he has since become a better driver. So between the two of us our experience with the autobahn was very pleasant, restful, challenging, efficient, and enjoyable. Wayne declared he felt "at home" (direct quote) and appreciated that drivers were trusted to use their own wisdom in how to maneuver the roads. While he was busy maneuvering said roadways, I fell asleep. That's right. Apparently I was enjoying the perfect conditions for a good nap: a comfortable car, the white noise of 200km speeds (although I never looked at the speedometer), and restoring my energy for the next adventure where we were headed. The Autobahn puts me to sleep, what can I say.
And just in case you were curious, the difference of 100km for the bugs meeting their unfortunate, untimely death to a car windshield is quite pronounced. The splat is intensified, the guts more spread out, and the whole scene quite disturbing.
We also throughly enjoyed our share of German food. I've never had so much pork in a two week period! Not that I'm complaining.
'Tis the season for spargel (white asparagus) and erdbeere (strawberries). Ain't nothing like some spargel topped with good 'ole hollandaise sauce.
They also do something awfully special with spargel when they make it into a cream soup. My sister in law would order it whenever we went out so she could compare it from restaurant to restaurant in her quest to find the perfect spargelcremesuppa. A noble quest, indeed!
Of course there was plenty of schnitzel wherever we went and I tended to favour the dishes that had plenty of mushroomy goodness!
We had plenty of sausages ending in "wurst" and it was all good! The picture above shows the famous Nürmberg sausages from the good town of Nürmberg. They did not disappoint! Especially when served with a traditional pretzel and cold Bitbürger.
One evening we were invited over to a friend's house for a German BBQ. Danielle and I go back to the sixth grade. Long story short, we reconnected over Facebook. She came to visit me for an evening about a year and a half ago while on business in Montreal. She lives about 40minutes from my brother's house and is married to a German!
It was a lovely evening sitting on their back porch overlooking the countryside and watching the sun go down. And what makes a German BBQ different from a North American one? Pork. Lot's of it. Several courses of it and in different forms. Her husband, Markus, did a phenomenal job of working that grill and keeping our glasses full of local German Riesling. We had such a great time catching up and reconnecting!
We also enjoyed something called Flammküchen. It is NOT pizza. Although truth be told there is a resemblance. But don't tell a German that! It's a flat bread with various toppings but it's not doused in cheese like pizza often is. We even had one with strawberries and ice cream! SO good!
Then there was currywurst. The best I had was from a food truck following the beer and wine hike Brenda and I went on our last morning. It was more of a traditional dark sausage that was covered with this curry gravy that doubled as dipping sauce for the fries. Health food it was not. Perfectly complemented by Riesling and finished off with cherry küchen. Um, yum!
Can I also say that I had the best salads when I was in Germany? Who knew but there was a handful of times I had one heck of a salad! I will forever be haunted by the memory of the most delicious dressing from the restaurant in Landstuhl. I tried to charm my way with the lady of the house to share her family recipe with me but it didn't work. Now I have sleepless nights. I hope she's happy!
My next post will tackle the culture and family part of the trip.
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