David's Meisterwerk

One of the big events of this trip was nephew David's completion of his meisterwerk for the Master Craftsman program at Handwerkskammer Wiesbaden. This is a big deal for David who came into this program after years pursuing a university degree, working as a bartender and eventually finding his way to Germany to work as an apprentice in his uncle George's cabinet making shop. He discovered that he loved working with wood and began the program a little older and wiser and probably more motivated than many of his peers.

The final project was a custom designed piece that included various elements of design, cabinet making and joinery to demonstrate the full capabilities of the student in all aspects of furniture making. There were many exceptional pieces among the 15 or so student works, but David's desk stood out with a simple outward design that reveals it's complex yet elegant inner functionality as it is opened up. The beautiful design and execution of his piece, along with David's unique story of coming from America to Germany put him in the limelight as he was interviewed by one of the school officials in front of a live audience at the reception celebrating the completion of the projects. David was asked about various aspects of the design, his experience and his future plans, including moving back to the US to pursue his vocation.

Hearing German

The last couple of days we've been visiting various aunts, uncles and cousins of Barb, so my German is getting a decent workout. Initially, I was understanding many of the words, but totally missing the broader meaning and not getting the story. But little by little, my brain stops taking the extra step of translating everything to English and I start to hear in German! This gives me back a little brain power to decipher things and after a day or two I can actually follow some of the conversation. But taking part in the conversation is another step and I am often at a loss for words to express myself. It's hard, stopping and starting and hearing things coming out all wrong and messy, but you just hack away because it's the only way to develop fluency. It also helps if you have an uncle handy who is knowledgeable in multiple languages, (including ancient Greek!) and is always ready to explain it all…

Brotchen

I don't know what it is about the bread here, but oh, so good and the variety is just mind-boggling. Even coming from Berkeley, where we have lots of bakeries and breads to choose from, the choices here are overwhelming. In town, there seem to be several bakeries in every block and every grocery store has one. We have fresh brotchen every day for breakfast, thanks to our wonderful hosts who go out every morning to fetch them! Then, of course, there's no shortage of things to put on your bread…

Wanderwege

Back in the hamlet of Lenzhahn (near Idstein), one of our daily treats is a walk in the woods of the surrounding Taunus mountains, serene with fresh fallen snow casting a soft foggy light deep into the woods with a quietness and stillness that almost makes you want to whisper so as not to wake up anything that might be sleeping.

Kaffee & Käsekuchen

We spend a typically delightful German afternoon enjoying cappuccinos, cheesecake and children.

Zak takes a second helping from Mimi… Kalyan is bored stiff.

Chiron and Malachi turn up the volume.

Twisty treppe

Bremen Rathaus

A tour of the Rathaus (town hall) of Bremen was quite interesting. Bremen is one of the few remaining city-states in Germany (along with Hamburg and Berlin), so this serves at the seat for the president of the senate as well as the mayor, who happen to be the same person. The Rathaus was built in 1405-1409, and thanks to citizens who boarded it up in the 1940's, it survived bombing during the Second World War that destroyed more than half of the city.

The Bremen Cathedral as seen from the Rathaus.

The famous Town Musicians of Bremen, the donkey, dog, cat and rooster who escaped their fates on the farm and went to Bremen to seek freedom and become musicians.

Exterior of the Rathaus

Interior of the Rathaus.

Peter's Pfad

Hohenpfad 28…

Cafe Bremen

The snow follows us around Europe and we arrive in Bremen to huge dumping flakes, so off to the nearest cafe, Coffee Corner, a favorite of Peter's probably because of the amazing huge cookies, big warm cappuccinos (espresso for Peter), electric beat mood, and large windows with a theater-like view of the street.

Altenberg Abbey

Wednesday morning things had cleared up a bit, the snow stopped and we headed out once again to the north, where we planned to visit Peter in Bremen, about 4 hours drive on the autobahn. Along the way, we of course had to visit Altenberg Abbey, in the vicinity of Köln.

Altenberg Abbey was founded in 1133 and inhabited by monks for many years and created half a dozen daughter abbeys (on the map, below). With the secularization of Germany in 1803, it fell into ruins and was nearly destroyed by an explosion while being used as a chemical factory in the production of Prussian Blue. Restoration started in the mid 1800's and Altenberg Dom (Altenberg Cathedral) is now an interdenominational church used by both Roman Catholics and Protestants.

It's kind of hard to imagine such a long history of things, especially coming from California where 10 year old computers are believed to be from the stone age.

Altenberg at the center of things in Europe!

The spectacular nave and stained glass of Altenberg Dom

Iron work on the door handles at the cathedral entrance 

Kremer Haus

We arrived at Barb's sister's house yesterday in the tiny hamlet of Lenzhahn, a short distance from the famous middle ages towns of Idstein and Limburg and between the larger cities of Wiesbaden and Frankfurt in Germany. It's a typically solid duplex house of modern German architecture with warm radiant underfloor heating backed by a geothermal heat pump system that keeps it warm and cozy in winter (and cool in summer). Lots of space and light, sparsely and simply decorated. Very comfortable. We enjoyed a typical Germany breakfast with fresh brotchen, cheeses, hams, salami, and other fixin's, but it's those fresh brotchen (and vollkorn brot) that are so good here and rather unlike most anything we get in the states (unless you live in the Berkeley area and have had breads from Firebrand or Octoberfeast, which are pretty darn authentic!) The coffee is good, too, but it's the butter, milk and eggs that all seem a bit richer that our typical dairy products back home. The cream is especially noticeable when it's schlag or whipped cream. Soooo good! A good brisk walk in the woods with Charlie the dog helps work a bit of it off, but what we really need is a nice 30-40k on the bike! 

And then the snow starts to fly. 

Over night, the region was blanketed with at least 2-3 inches of the white stuff and it continued to snow all throughout the next day, accumulating another 5-6 inches. We headed out late that evening to Bremen, 4 and half hours to the north, only to turn around after a few slow miles on the snowy A3 freeway towards Köln. A radio report of a 100 car pileup in Hannover that evening didn't add to our enthusiasm for the road. No reason to slog it out, we'll wait until tomorrow with reports and hopes for less treacherous travel conditions.

Autobahn Overcast

We made our way from France, through Switzerland, with many tunnels, and into the gray, bleak, overcast of Germany. Once into Germany, the speed limits disappear and the Audis and BMWs fly by like it's a runway for Lufthansa or something.

The Col

Finally, on our last day of skiing, we find Col de l'Isèran, which we rode over on bicycles, way back in 1985. It's the highest paved pass in the Alps (at 2770 meters… just a few meters higher than Passo Stelvio in the Italian Alps, which we also rode that year.) The memories came back little by little. This was the last pass on one of the longest days of the 1985 Super Tour of the Alps, a day which had over 200 km with 5 big passes that totaled more than 4000 meters of climbing. We passed by this bleak outpost with the little chapel at the top late in the day and rode the long winding descent down through Val d'Isère, finally ending the day at Bourg St. Maurice.

Today we skied by the same pass, with the same bleak little chapel on the windswept pass. But the sun was out and the snow was good, so we skied down and took a few more runs and finish off the afternoon of skiing on the other side of the mountain in La Daille. What a week!

Col de l'Isèran, 2770m, highest paved pass in the Alps.

View down the pass to the north (the road is there somewhere under the snow).

Cusine de Savoyard

As you have no doubt learned from my previous missives from our temporary abode in the French Alps, the skiing part of this tour is simply a front for enjoying incredible food on a daily basis. This, our last evening in Val d'Isère, was not without exception as we enjoyed the fondue aux morilles and pierrade (meats barbecued at the table on a hot stone slab) at the superb little hole-in-the-wall restaurant of Le Bistrot des Cimes, Zak's fav!

We came to eat

Val d'Isère seems to have a restaurant at the top of every other lift so we stop at almost every opportunity for a snack, lunch or a drink or just to warm up or take in the view. Our balanced diet usually includes something from at least 3 of the 4 French food groups: bread, cheese, wine and frites.

Monday Market

Every Monday an outdoor market comes to life throughout the main village in Val. Offering substantially different fare from our vegetable and fruit filled market's back home, this winter market is filled with booths of sausage, cheese, nuts and candy in addition to many booths with clothing and souvenirs for tourists.

This dried fruit and nut vendor had a vast assortment… it was hard to pick just one.

The candy booth flew straight out of a dentist's nightmare.

Getting Up the Mountain

The size of the Val d'Isère is simply overwhelming, especially compared to our humble little Sugar Bowl back home. The vertical is at least double that of Sugar Bowl: over 4000 feet of vertical are achievable in one run down. Barb's ski tracker recorded that run to be 5 miles long!

Val d'Isère and adjoining Tignes have no less than 42 modes of transport up the mountain including an assortment of rope tows (yes, these mitten shredders from my childhood still exist!), Poma lifts, T-bars, chairs, some holding up to 8 people, gondolas that hold from 4 to 12 and cable cars that hold dozens. Additionally, there are a couple of funiculars – cable pulled trains that go straight up through the mountain and come out on the other side. No orderly lift lines here… the French method of getting to the lift is to push your way through to the front, then wait for your friends.

This gondola, known as Vallon, with it's rose tinted windows, wrapped around the mountain for several miles and it was just the middle lift of 5 lifts to get to the top! That included one of the longest Poma lifts that I've ever been on, which had 2 Pomas, side by side, and included two curves and a steep upper section… no wonder it said 'experts only' at the bottom.

Sur la Montagne

We had dinner tonight at this whimsical restaurant 'On the Mountain' (actually in the village of Val d'Isere) which had an amazing wall of plants growing on a wall of dirt, a toy area for kids (rivaling the Circus Pub, at home), bird cages filled with colorful stuffed birds, and sheepskins on many of the chairs. Oh, and good food!

Coca cola deck chair monopoly

All of the slope side decks at Val d'Isere are blanketed with these things... and eventually we are seduced into taking more breaks and more vistas.

One of the largest restaurants, Le Folle Douce, high on the mountain, puts on a big dance production in the afternoon, capturing hundreds of skiers with loud pumping music, flowing wine and champagne, and of course, live dancers. Meanwhile, small planes land and take off nearby and hang gliders, parasailers and ultralights cruise the skies overhead. 1000s of skiers and boarders complete the winter circus. And this is a light weekend crowd... the real craziness apparently starts tomorrow when all of Paris goes on spring break.

Zoë's friends

Hanging out with Zoe and a couple of her good friends in Val d'Isere and Tignes.