Life is just a bowl of cherries June 29, 2011

So last year I wrote about how many fantastic fruit and nut trees are growing all over Würzburg, and our love of foraging for free goodies.  While I was excited about the plum, nut and the occasional cherry tree growing on our street and in our neighborhood, we’ve since learned that that was only the tip of the iceberg.

We found the motherload, kids.

A few weeks ago, the Mr. and I discovered a lovely walk through old orchards and vineyards down to a small village called Randesacker. You then can walk from Randesacker along the Main River into Würzburg. While it’s a very nice walk indeed, what is even more exciting about it from my point of view is the number of old cherry trees (and other fruit trees) growing along the way, particularly next to the vineyards. Last week, we did the walk and were astounded by all the cherries that we saw growing. What is even more astounding is that it appears NOBODY IS HARVESTING THEM.

I love cherries. In fact, I realized after eating some growing in the wild in Scotland a few years back that fresh, ripe, sweet cherries are probably my favorite fruit (with blueberries being a very close second.) So discovering all of these cherry trees, practically dripping with sweet, ripe, and plentiful fruit, was quite simply a little bit of heaven for me.

We greedily picked as many as we could eat (without making ourselves sick) and stuck some in our bag for later.  We then came back a few days later with a backpack.

When we tell people about these trees, they say surely they must belong to someone. Surely someone must harvest the fruit. But we’ve been back multiple times, with much of the fruit being at its absolute peak, and none of it is being harvested. The only cherries you *sometimes* see missing are the ones from lower branches (and after a few trips, much of what was missing could be attributed to us!) During our last walk up, we took a different path along the vineyards and found even more cherry trees covered in fruit. It was just unbelievable. What’s also interesting is that sheer variety of cherries; big, bright red fruit to small, almost black cherries, and each has a different flavor.

In addition to the abundant cherry trees, we also found walnut and hazelnut trees that we plan to return to later in summer. The Mr. cracked a walnut open discovered a soft, almost spongy nut forming inside. I took a tiny bite and it was very, very bitter.

At the end of the walk, close to Randesacker, we found a mulberry tree. The Mr. said he thinks most Germans these days don’t even know that mulberries are edible. The huge, old tree was also bursting with fruit so ripe and sweet, it would literally fall off onto your hand as you picked it.

On the one hand while it’s fantastic that we pretty much have these fruit trees to ourselves to plunder, I have to say it always breaks my heart a little when I look up and see all the fruit up high that’s just left to fall off and rot.  You don’t know how many times I’ve talked about buying a ladder, a fruit picking device and coming back in the dead of the night.

Dropping the H-Bomb June 13, 2011

Yesterday the Mr. and I decided to take a little day trip to Nürnberg, or “Nuremberg” as it is better-known to English-speakers.  I mentioned before that I visited Nuremberg the first time when I was 18, but I don’t think I’ve ever shared the details of that trip on this blog. Hmmm…sounds like another entry I need to work on soon!

Anyway, we decided to head to Nuremberg yesterday as I really wanted to see a film. I guess we’re fairly lucky that the cinema here in Würzburg offers an English-language film on every Monday night, but the problem is that often we either aren’t interested in the film that’s playing (Hangover II last week), OR they don’t offer an OV (original version) film on holidays. We had a long weekend here in Germany with today being holiday. (What holiday, you ask? Why, Pentecost, of course! It’s a religious holiday, but many Germans today don’t even know what it is or why it’s celebrated anymore. Now it’s just a day off.)  We realized that if we wanted to see a movie this weekend, we’d have to head out of town. Nuremberg has a big multi-screen cineplex in its city center, and offered three different OV films yesterday: The Hangover II (Here, too? Really?), Pirates of the Caribbean III (maybe…I do love me some Johnny Depp), and X-Men: First Class. Having read X-Men comic books throughout high school and college, I was most excited about seeing this one. So we decided to make a day of it. We’d first see something else I’ve been interested in checking out for quite some time and then catch the film.

Albrecht Dürer, Self-Portrait at 28

So what was first on our Nuremberg agenda? We toured the famous painter Albrecht Dürer’s home. Albrecht Dürer lived from 1471 to 1528, and is “conventionally regarded as the greatest artist of the Northern Renaissance” according to Wikipedia. I remember studying Dürer’s self-portrait in a college art history class and finding the level of detail and realism absolutely stunning. Part of the exhibit inside the house showed that self-portrait blown up, and I was still blown away by the detail and precision, even at a size way beyond the dimensions of the small, original painting. The way he painted his curls, for example, they shine and reflect light exactly the way real hair does. Beautiful. The house itself was very interesting. You’re given an audio guide in whichever language you prefer, and his wife, Agnes Dürer, guides you around.

Nuremberg's Imperial Castle

After the tour, the Mr. and I walked around the old center of Nuremberg a bit more, and then had dinner. I found myself really impressed with the area immediately surrounding Dürer’s house, which I’m fairly sure I had never been to before. While Nuremberg’s market square is a bit ugly after it was rebuilt quickly after the war, the medieval portions of the city that survived are really beautiful and interesting. Nuremberg has definitely grown on me!

After the film (which we both really enjoyed), we went to catch our train back to Würzburg at 11.35pm.  It was clear that with it being a long holiday weekend, many people were making the most of it in a celebratory (i.e. drunken) manner. Shortly after we took our seats, a group of teenage boys stumbled into our carriage in the seats directly opposite us, one of them almost sitting on my backpack that was on the seat across from me. He apologized, but it took me about 2 seconds to decide that I really didn’t want to sit across from him and his drunken friends on a long train ride when most of the train was empty. I quickly suggested that we could move so they could all sit together (aren’t I polite and thoughtful?) We then settled into our new spots,  next to a young couple, and I joked that if the train got crowded for some reason, I at least wanted to be next to sober people.

Well, we couldn’t believe what happened next.

At our next stop, the first out of Nuremberg, a flood – and I mean a FLOOD – of mostly 20-something guys and girls wearing lederhosen and oompfa loompfa big busty dresses PILED into our train. It was unreal. Suddenly, we didn’t have just a couple of people sitting across from us, we had four: a girl in a oompfa loompfa dress (it probably has an actually name, but I have no idea what it might be and whatever it is I’m pretty sure I’ll still like my name better) sitting on some random guy’s lap, and two girls in the seat next to them with one sitting on the other’s lap. The aisles filled up with beers, shouting, laughter and LOTS of lederhosen. If ever there were a time I wish my camera had had a little battery power left, last night was it.

Since I couldn’t take a picture, take this image below and instead imagine it on a crowded, tight train carriage and you start to get an idea of what it was suddenly like:

Got the image from here: http://www.thelocal.de/society/20110607-35507.html

Yup, it was pretty much like this. They didn’t have glass mugs, but many of them had stone beer steins. At one point, a drunken man in lederhosen standing next to my seat stumbled into me. He apologized and when I said no problem, he could immediately tell I wasn’t German and then starting asking me questions. He offered me some of his fresh, unopened beer, and told me he needed to show me how hospitable Germans can be even though they are often drunk and annoying. He popped it open, I took a swig, and everyone cheered. I asked him why everyone was wearing the traditional outfits as it’s something I’m genuinely interested in knowing. I’ve seen the dresses, for example, sold in normal clothing stores the last few weeks so I’m sort of wondering why, really. Is there a special event going on? Where did you all go to this evening? He then slurred out that it was “for Hitler. We meet for Hitler.” And then this gem: “Germans only care about Hitler and beer.” Really, I swear to you I’m not making this stuff up.  “Ohhh…” I responded. I mean, how do I respond to that??! Let me tell you something: if Germans ever want to make a non-German feel awkward during polite conversation, all they have to do is drop the H-bomb and bam! *instant* discomfort. Anyway, about five minutes later in the conversation he tells me “He was only joking earlier, of course,” and I tell him “I thought so. I hoped so.”  He then gets all serious on me: “Really?” he asks. “Why? Why did you hope I was joking?” Umm, can anyone say awwwwk-waaaard?  Thankfully, he loses interest in our conversation. Later, he literally falls onto my lap, but luckily that and the H-bomb were the worst parts of the journey. Oh, and the spilled beer on the bottom of my shoes. That sort of sucked, too. But at least no one hurled on them, so I count that as a plus.

Just another day in Germany.

I Feel the Earth Move June 10, 2011

Given how this past week has been less than stellar with the news I heard on Sunday, I thought maybe I’d share something that has cheered me up a bit. To some, it might seem a silly thing to get excited about, but to me, this was an amazing discovery of world-rocking magnitude.

I should first explain that we don’t own a car. I know a lot of my American friends gasp at this idea, but really, given that we live basically in the city center and there’s good public transportation, it’s not really necessary. We rent cars when we need to, and for us at the moment, this is perfect. Now, the only tricky part of not owning a car is that I have to go shopping just about every other day. I can only carry/haul so much at a time, so it means we have to make frequent trips to buy small amounts. At the moment, I go to class every weekday so it’s no problem to stop and pick up what I need before I go home; but when I’m at home, there’s only one small grocery store within a 10-minute walk from where I live.

Until now, that is.

We’ve discovered ANOTHER grocery store within a 10-minute walk from our house. No, that sentence didn’t really have the impact it should have. Let’s try again: There is another grocery store within a 10-minute walk from our house that we didn’t know existed until a few days ago after living here for MORE THAN A YEAR.  And hold onto your socks because it gets better, baby! Not only is there now a second grocery store for me to shop at, but it’s actually a pretty big one, too. In addition to all the normal stuff, it has a fantastic speciality item section with all sorts of delicatessen-type products from around the world. And it even has – you guessed it – an American section.

Look what I found:

The Mr. had to watch me literally do a little dance of joy when we discovered these items. Granted, the mac-n-cheese isn’t Kraft, and I haven’t tried it yet so I can’t say whether it’s any good, but given that it’s actually been imported from the US my guess is that it’s at least pretty similar. Now if I could just convince them to carry Milano cookies and Cheetos, too….

Here Comes the Sun June 8, 2011

We finally managed to get some new plants for our balcony a few weeks ago, and so far they’re doing really well. All of the ivy plants except one survived the winter in our basement, so we only had to replace the annuals that we had next to them last summer. This year, because we went to go buy flowers much earlier in the season, I couldn’t find any of the cool purpley-pink ones I loved so much from last year. The woman at the nursery suggested that with our limited sunlight on the balcony (only a few hours in the morning), we should try begonias and fuchsia. I wasn’t sure I’d like this combination as much as what we had last year, but I have to say they have really grown on me. And it helps that they are doing well, too.

Sadly, a blueberry bush and cherry tomato plant we also bought didn’t fare so well. I think I’m averaging 50/50 with the plants we buy, and I always feel guilty when something doesn’t make it, but hey – you do the best you can, right?

 

An Unexpected Goodbye June 7, 2011

“Tomorrow or the next life—which comes first, we never know.” – a Tibetan saying

I received some news on Sunday that I’m still trying to process as it just doesn’t seem real. A friend of mine passed away unexpectedly on May 30th. He was only 37.

I remember the first time I met Jeremy, or Jer-Jer, as I affectionately came to call him. I was still in college and had gone up to Chicago to visit a close college friend who had graduated the previous year, and he was at that party. That evening I didn’t say a whole lot; I mostly just watched all these people around me who seemed smarter, more witty and cooler than I’d ever be.  Jeremy was one of those people.  I wanted to be like him and the others at the party. I wanted him to be my friend, too.

It was another year or so, I think, before I met Jeremy again. What surprised me was that he actually remembered me from that brief introduction at the party. What surprised me even more was that he greeted me warmly, almost like an old friend. From that moment on, it was how Jeremy always greeted me: a big smile and a warm hug. We exchanged email addresses, and kept in touch periodically over the years. But we didn’t keep in touch the way most people do. While I might write a straightforward message to Jeremy, he would write anything BUT that back. His messages, usually hilarious and almost always over the top, often had me in stitches. Those of you who knew him will know exactly what I mean.

In many ways, I didn’t know Jeremy all that well; I didn’t know much about his family, his childhood, his goals…and he didn’t know that much about me, either. But it didn’t seem to matter. We had the bond of simply liking each other and laughing together, and that was enough.

I got to see him last year at the wedding of the college friend who introduced us, and I’m so grateful I had that time to reconnect with him in person. It still seems unreal that he’s gone.  I’m going to miss his off-beat, acerbic sense of humor that shone through best in his emails. I’m going to miss how, of late, he’d randomly start an IM chat with me on Facebook about some random topic. I’m going to miss how he would have given me that big hug and warm smile when we would have seen each other again. I’m going to miss my friend.

From Me to You June 3, 2011

In Bamberg

It’s been a busy past couple of weeks here in Würzburg as I returned to my intensive language course and we had a friend who lives in Edinburgh come to visit us for a few days. It was fun showing her around the city, and we took a day trip to Bamberg one day (which has become one of our favorite local destinations as you can read here). We had her try some of Bamberg’s famous Rauchbier (or smoke beer as it’s called in English) while we were there, and she quite liked it.

For me, one of the highlights of her stay with us was going shopping with her to the Chinese supermarket here in town and then learning how to prepare a few dishes.  I love shopping in Chinese supermarkets, but I often feel at a loss to know what to buy when it comes to ingredients to cook with. I’m not sure why it had never occurred to me to ask my friend to accompany me to a store back in Edinburgh for some tips, but hey – better late than never! It was fantastic having someone who could point out to me what’s good to buy and what to skip.  We bought some fresh tofu, bok choi, bamboo, spring onions, light soy sauce (it’s better for cooking with) seasoning packets and vegetable dumplings, which I spotted in the freezer and couldn’t pass up (my friend isn’t a huge fan of them…they can’t compare to her mother’s homemade ones.)

Stir-frying the tofu, bamboo and spring onions

It was fantastic to watch her cook and learn some of the tricks of the trade when it comes to authentic Chinese cooking. For example, I love tofu but never quite know what to do with it or how to prepare it. I learned that the fresh tofu you can buy at a Chinese supermarket is both inexpensive and usually good quality, and buying the pre-packaged stuff (which is what I used to get) is really just wasting money and most likely full of chemical preservatives, too. She took the fresh tofu, sliced it and then boiled it for a few minutes before setting it aside to add to the pan with the bamboo and spring onions. She explained that if you boil it first and add it to the stir fry later, it helps keep the tofu’s shape better.

Bok choi on the left, boiled mushrooms on the right

She also took some old mushrooms I had in the fridge and worked some magic with them. She washed them thoroughly, cut off any bad parts and then boiled them in water. She sliced the boiled mushrooms thin and then added one of the flavor packets we had purchased, garnished with spring onion on top. She then poured a small amount of sizzling hot oil into the center.  De-lish. We also had some sautéed bok choi to accompany the above dishes, all of which was served with rice. I was smart enough to remember to take a picture of the two flavor packets we purchased as I really loved both. Those would be the kind of thing I never would have purchased in a Chinese supermarket before she showed me what they were and how they tasted, so I’m really grateful to have had her shopping and cooking expertise.

The other new experience we had while my friend visited was a tour of the Staatliche Hofkeller (royal state cellar) here in town. It’s located in the vaulted cellars below the Würzburg Residenz and was founded in 1128. It is the oldest wine estate in Germany and today the third largest. It’s also the only wine cellar in the world that is a UNESCO world cultural heritage site. Simply put, this place was pretty darn cool.  In fact, the Mr. and I hadn’t gone to this cellar with any of our previous visitors, so we had no idea just how interesting a place it really is. We just did the short 45 minute-long tour with a tasting at the end, but they hold events throughout the year such as bigger tasting evenings, culinary dining experiences pairing food and wine, and even film screenings (we were told Frankenstein is a pretty impressive one to see down in the cellar.) This is a place we’ll definitely recommend future visitors see, even if for only the shorter 45 minute tour.

Ain’t no mountain high enough June 2, 2011

After coming up with that title, this song and movie are now going through my head….

Although it was sort of difficult to find the motivation to leave Sitges for a day as we loved it so much, the Mr. and I decided we should take advantage of our location and try to see something else in the area while we were there. My Spain guidebook had a spread on Montserrat Monastery about an hour’s drive from Sitges.

Montserrat (or  Santa Maria de Montserrat as it is officially named) is nestled in an incredibly impressive location, having been built right into the mountainside at the highest point in the Catalan lowlands. Originally founded in the 11th century, it grew in importance and became an abbacy in the 15th century. During the French War (1808-1818), all of the monks were slaughtered and the abbey was abandoned. In 1844 restoration began, and Montserrat was slowly transformed to the monastery-sanctuary of today.  It is perhaps most famous for housing the Virgin of Montserrat, and for its publishing house which is one of the oldest in the world that is still in operation. Its first book was published in 1499.

Montserrat's visitor's center with a cafe, cafeteria, restaurant and conference rooms

What was perhaps most impressive to the Mr. and I, however, was the number of tourists who visit Montserrat on any given day. It’s a popular stop for tour buses, and we counted bus after bus descending from the mountain while we drove up in the early afternoon. We were almost expecting it to be empty by the time we arrived, but we found instead the coach parking lot practically full, and many, many private cars as well. It was a weekday in April, and it was a very busy place indeed. But the monastery is more than able to provide for so many visitors. The first building you encounter after you’ve parked your car and head towards the monastery is a large sort of welcome center, which features a smaller cafe and gift shop on the first floor, as well as a large cafeteria-style restaurant and a more formal restaurant on the lower floor. Although the cafeteria we ate lunch in wasn’t full to capacity, one could imagine just how busy this place could be on a weekend in the summertime.

After lunch, we wandered towards the center of the monastery, although it was difficult to tell where one should go as the monastery is laid out almost like a small village with winding streets in between various buildings. Although in many ways Montserrat provides visitors with all the facilities they might need in terms of food, restrooms and gift shops, I was really disappointed about the lack of information about the site itself. I had expected we would be able to learn more about the monastery’s history (especially considering its tragic past), perhaps in a museum or even just on sign posting. But nowhere could we find information about the actual monastery. It was almost as if (apart from the Virgin of Montserrat which has a long history of pilgrimage), there was little to really see apart from the impressive location and the gift shops. Many people do come to enjoy the natural landscape as apparently there are good walks you can do in the surrounding area, and you can reach the monastery by a funicular which I suppose is an attraction all unto itself; but I felt like there was little to experience there that’s actually connected to the monastery and its history.

Still, I’d recommend Montserrat if only for its stunning location. And the cafeteria lunch was pretty good, too.