This will probably be one of my shortest posts ever!  We just heard about this new dining spot in Clermont and one day later, we stopped in for dinner on a ‘date night’.  While the location is nothing special, in a strip mall with a sports bar around the corner, I liked the atmosphere and décor inside.

When we first arrived there was a large group of ladies (at least 20), celebrating the holiday with a number of tables put together.  Yikes.  They had enjoyed their evening and were a bit noisy. Good news for us…….they were eating dessert and within a few minutes started to depart.  Whew!

Talking to our waitress, we discovered they had been open less than 2 months.  My only worry is that Clermont won’t embrace the concept and they won’t be able to stay open.  The above photo was taken after our dinner (on a Friday night) around 7:45pm.

Their goal is to deliver locally sourced food with integrity in an inviting and service oriented atmosphere.  That nugget of info was straight from their website.  This is a ‘farm to table’ concept, with them purchasing premium products from local grown farms, serving fresh and organic foods.

We started with wine – me a french white from Bordeaux and Eric a French red, Cote du Rhone.

We ordered a series of small plates to share and said they could come out as they were ready.  First to arrive was fried green tomatoes.  It was topped with boursin cheese, arugula and a sliver of red pepper.  The flavor combo with the toppings, really added to the overall dish.  Three slices were enough to share.

This was followed by pimento cheese hush puppies.  My first impression was huh, okay.  Then I dipped it into the accompanying sauce (tomato mustard) and it went up significantly.  Trust me-the sauce makes the dish.

The best small plate were these pulled pork tacos.  OMG!  The flavor was perfect.  They were topped by pickled red onions and thinly sliced radishes – delish!

The tacos tied with dessert for being the best selection.  We selected the cranberry bread pudding.  I’m a big fan of bread pudding and having the cranberries included was a first for me.  The orange sauce surrounding the pudding was good enough to lick the plate clean.  The pink, cranberry flavored whipped cream was good, but not outstanding.

They’re open for lunch (11am – 2:30pm) and dinner (5pm – 9:30pm, Friday & Saturday until 11pm).  Saturday and Sunday they add a few entres for their Brunch menu.  We will have to stop by one Sunday.

This is Clermont’s first casual fine dining experience and I hope it makes it.  The portions were spot-on, not too big but I’m afraid that too many Americans will not appreciate that fact.  If anyone comes to this part of Florida, please consider stopping for a meal.  If you don’t live nearby, think about visiting one of your own local places, especially if they source their food supply locally.

Until the next post.………

 

Ginny

 

 

 

I was getting ready to write my annual Christmas letter, sketching out the basic topics and checking my facts through this year’s posts.  Then it hit me – why am I recreating essentially the same thing for a Christmas letter when it already exists electronically via this blog!  Work smarter, not harder.

Sooooooo, this year, I sent a note with the blog’s address, inviting those on my Christmas list to check out this site if they want to see what the Dardens were doing in 2018.  It would have been so easy to go out, buy cards and write the blog address inside, but I have these card-making  supplies – a craft that ebbs and wanes in the Darden house.  I’ve made a few birthday cards and gift tags but the most use comes at Christmas when I create tags for Christmas gifts.  Now was the time to get them out and put them to use!

After a bit of trial & error and checking my collection of Pinterest photos and digging through (somewhat) organized supplies and finding some graphics on-line……………..I got a design I was happy with.  Oops, no photo of the back side.  That’s where the blog address is listed and a short message from us.

I may gain a few new followers (or not) and while some might consider making tags a chore, it was an easy way to wind down after a long day at work.  I had an assembly line going and worked in stages, completing them over a few nights.

 

So, here we are.  There will probably be another Christmas post, but since I mailed out the cards, I thought I better explain why people on my Christmas list got a blog address.

Let’s start at home.  We try to go for simple and classic.  My goal this year was to spend no money on decorations:  recycle, re-use and re-imagine (kind of like what I did with the tags  🙂 ).  Eric was responsible for the lights outside and I generally work inside.   He starts with lighting up the bushes.

Followed by hanging this garland around our front door.  I’ve got to share………we had this at our first house in downtown Orlando, so it has to be almost 20 years old – shockingly the lights still work and yep, that’s the original light strand.

Over the past weekend, I added this pine swag, since the wreath I normally hang, finally bit the dust and was retired.  We don’t have any pine trees in our yard so we had to go on a reconnaissance mission around the neighborhood and find some pine trees.  We were successful!  Looks like it needs a little ‘bling’ – probably a project for next weekend.

In the past we always purchased poinsettias, but this time a velvet bow around existing potted plants sufficed (remember: recycle, re-use and re-imagine is my theme this year).  Another fun fact………we have two of these pots and they were wedding presents, almost 25 years ago.  The green patina on the pot is real.  🙂

I wanted to add a touch of whimsy, so the rabbit was decked out with a velvet bow.

The last piece I layered in was this stack of three logs.  Everybody comments about them, I can’t believe it – so simple.  They cost nothing – unless you count Eric’s sweat a few months ago as he cut up the branch when he ‘played’ with his chainsaw.

Inside, we have a few trees, the first being my Grinch xmas.  I love the Grinch story and watched it every year growing up (and down here as an adult 🙂 ).  It wasn’t Christmas unless I saw the Grinch – then I bought the dvd so I can see it whenever I wanted (and now it can be streamed, ha!).  I have a small collection of Grinch plush and was just given the sign a few weeks ago – thanks Karen.  🙂

Another tree has turned into my ‘country’ tree.  And while it’s not a popular decorating theme, it’s what I grew up with.  Many of the ornaments were hand-made and it remains a collective from my past.

 

• Garfield’s creator (Jim Davis) was from Indiana and I have a signed copy of his first cartoon book.
• There’s a tribute to my university hidden amongst the branches.
• Most importantly, most of these were made when Grandma visited me and we did them together.

The last item of note is the paper chain.  A number of years ago, our young godchildren lived nearby and this was their contribution to the Christmas tree.  It was going to be a rough Christmas due to personal circumstances and decorating was not high on my list.   On December 24, Eric stopped by Home Depot to find a tree. He ended up getting it free since it was so late and the worker couldn’t believe he was there.  Our friends came over, strung popcorn into garlands, we cut cards and hung them on branches while the boys put together this paper chain from printer paper.  This was the only paper we could find around the house and it worked.

 

Our main tree sits in the library and has evolved into a small section of the original 9′ tree.  I like to think of it as ‘vintage’.  We (and by that I mean Eric) has to string lights around the tree, connect several strands together and find an extension cord to plug them in.  Every year he says we are going to buy a new one that is pre-lit.  And, we haven’t.  We place it on top of a nearby table.  Here’s my aunt posing for a photo.

There’s much, much more going on and here’s a bit more to the story…………..

Our black cat (seen in the last post in her ‘new’ chair) likes to climb – always has.  We have to strap the tree stand to the table and in years past had guide wires securing it to the bookcases behind it so it wouldn’t fall down.  We would come home and see her peeking out at us between the branches.  Aarrgghh!  Not only that, she’s no small kitty and the wire branches would be bent at an odd angle under her weight.  Most ornaments put on the tree now are break-proof or wired to a branch – which is a pain to do.   She still climbs it when she wants our attention.  She looks so innocent here  – not.

It’s not Christmas without baking cookies.  Yes, I should have made them from scratch, but I read about this mix, found it at our Lucky’s Grocery Market and baked them.  The selling point was no artificial ingredients or corn syrup.  OMG times 3!   They were excellent.  Eric does not like sweets and he keeps stealing them from the plate.  There won’t be any left for Santa – just saying.

No post from me would be complete without a few Disney Christmas photos and mine are mostly plant-based, found at Epcot.  Are there better photos, probably so, but here are a few quick shots.

The main entrance has Mickey and friends.

The back side has a few more Disney characters.

A little further inside the Park you can find more of the gang and they are followed by the snowman.

Even something as simple as a round, ball topiary turns into something special at Christmas.

The Epcot tree is the centerpiece where World Showcase meets Future World.

Some friends sent photos from Shanghai Disney, so I’m passing them along.

And this one from Disneyland, CA.

And a fitting end to this post – Magic Kingdom’s castle.

Until the next time.…….

Ginny

 

 

 

 

 

 

Eric headed to visit his family during their deer season and I headed towards Jacksonville.  The reason for my road trip was two-fold:  our friends are moving into another house so I offered to ‘schlep’ boxes between their places AND I was asked to burn six more vacation days before the end of the year, so there you have  it.  Oh yeah, and maybe just maybe visit the Jacksonville bead show which was going on that weekend (more on that later).

Their new place is great.  We got there in the dark, so I couldn’t really appreciate the outside character……. until the next morning.  Wow!

I went out for a morning walk – secretly checking out their neighbors – turned around to see what I couldn’t the previous night and again…….wow.   I think it’s going to be  nicknamed it ‘the castle’.  🙂

And at least for this trip, I got to sleep in the upstairs turret.

They haven’t moved in, so I have a temporary bed in the upstairs front room that will probably be Connor’s – lucky guy.

Naturally with any journey, there’s food involved and this trip was no exception.  Since they haven’t moved in, cooking in their kitchen wasn’t really an option.   Karen was disappointed.   However, we (and by that I really mean me) had the most important thing……….

We had a variety of meals during my six days but there was one repeat – Donovan’s Irish Pub.

We shared several appetizers, starting with the pretzel bites.  Pretzels chunks, cheese dipping sauce and frying was involved = the trifecta, right?

Ugh!  I don’t know.  There was something about them that just didn’t appeal to my taste buds.  😦    I kept trying to like them – honestly.  But after a (small) handful, I didn’t want to waste any more calories on a dish I didn’t enjoy.

However, the fish fingers and ‘chips’ were spot on.

On the repeat visit, I added the fried green tomatoes – yum – and more fish fingers.

Tried a different twist on my beverage.  Yes, yes, it’s been around forever, but I’ve never ordered it since I started visiting microbreweries.   I’ll get it again.

I have two favorite eating places I always like to visit on my trips here.  We were able to squeeze in one of them.  Are there better places to eat – probably.  Do they have this place in Orlando – not that I’ve heard. LOVE their side dish of mac & cheese.  It’s just the right size, especially when you get half a sandwich (avocado & turkey was my choice this visit).

Moving to a new address you always want to check out close restaurants.  One afternoon we had a craving for pizza and stopped at a nearby pizza place – and ordered calzones.

And then, there was this amazing breakfast place, or put another way, a place we could order breakfast 24/7.  My nutty waffle had three different nuts involved which I hadn’t seen before.  Not rocket science putting the three nuts together, but I hadn’t seen it and waffles are pretty much the first thing I look for on a breakfast menu.  There was nothing left on my plate.

One evening, Rich made this amazing dinner…….but I forgot to take photos.  Sorry Rich.  It was so tasty, that I recreated (somewhat) the recipe later in the week when I got home.  I had to make do with a few substitutions and while my version was not as good as Rich’s, it was definitely a hit with me.  I’ll make it again, maybe some night when Eric says it’s my turn to cook.  I’m still waiting for that to happen, ha!

So the Jacksonville bead show, OMG! I had never attended one and while Karen said this was small, it was initially overwhelming.  Yep, forgot to take photos.  😦

It reminded me of my time in China when I would visit the pearl market.  Strands upon strands upon strands of beads were available in booths (tables here).  I bought some beads during my visits.  Ooops, okay, there was more than one visit.  Our ticket was good for both days and we wanted to get our money’s worth – just saying.  My last two mornings in town, we used our time to craft some jewelry.  I was able to complete this necklace – love it!  It’s long enough to wrap three times or as a lariat.  Two other necklaces were 90% finished but not ready to bring home and wear.

Sorry, Sis.  While this posting isn’t titled as another ‘ale trail’ subject, the next topic to be discussed are local Jacksonville breweries.  Go ahead, skip to the bottom and check out my last photo if you want.  First glance, the photo doesn’t appear to fit in with the blog, like maybe some random photo slipped in………….. but let me get there after the breweries.

 

Karen was a good sport and accompanied us on most of our excursions.  First brewery visited was Ancient City Brewing.

• Opened summer of 2015 and wanted to give a shout-out to America’s oldest city, which is the owners home town.
• Guiding principles are (1) their beer has to be the best and (2) they gotta have fun.
• Goal is to use funky flavors like fresh organic coconut & key lime which is representative of Florida.

Another visit was to Bog Brewing Co.

This building was originally a historic pharmacy with exposed brick walls inside, large bay windows and an inviting atmosphere, truly.  While some of those descriptions were found on the internet, the last three words (truly inviting atmosphere) should be underscored.  It just had a good, comfortable vibe.  It’s probably a good thing it’s not close to my house.  We enjoyed our time in this building (yes, drinking beer).  And, yes, they have my ‘baby’ pour.

• Opened in March 2016.
• Mantra is ‘Florida Beers x Old World Inspiration’.
• Serves classic beer styles, Belgian-inspired ales using Florida inspired seasons.  

LOVED their logo.  Notice the beer suds…………Florida!  That reason alone was the deciding factor to add a growler to my collection.  Yep, I’ve started collecting – thanks Adrienne.

Oh yeah, the second photo……….you get in my photos, you own the consequences – just saying.

One night, we let Karen off the hook and visited Old Coast Ales by ourselves………

………sharing a flight.  After a sip of each, we easily divided the pours.

It was hard to find many details on the internet about this place, but I picked up a few nuggets of info.

• Brew on an in-house 7 barrel system.
• Seems like they opened in 2017 (yes, kind of vague).
• Known for a variety of ales but their ‘Kookaburra Brown’ ale is infused with locally roasted coffee.
• They share a roofline with a taco business and I read numerous references to their deliciousness – they were closed when we arrived.

On my last night in Jacksonville, we stopped at Engine 15 Brewing Co.

They have two locations, one of which is in the heart of Jacksonville Beach – which was our destination.  Our selections this evening were:

While trying (kind of) to keep an open mind about Rich’s selection of Raspberry Peanut Butter Nutsack brown ale, it ended up being the better of the two beers we ordered.  A few details about this local brewery:

• Became a reality in 2008.
• They carry 50 tap lines from beers around the world while also serving a pub menu.
• The name?  One of the owners had a 1962 Ford Fire Engine.  I saw it in the parking lot when we left, but didn’t get the significance, until I got home.  Wow, that was too easy and I missed it.

With 50 beers, there was way too many photos involved, so here is a sampling of their offerings when I visited.

Earlier I referenced my last photo which seems to have no connection.  A few facts, (1) I drove a truck,  (2) My friends are moving into a new house and (3) Ideal time to add new furniture to new living arrangements.

While Karen perused local ads for furniture during my visit, one ad talked about some office chairs.  Upon meeting the folks at their storage unit(s), they said ‘Want to see if anything in our other unit interests you?’  Karen spied this chair, turned around and said………this is you.  After exchanging some bills, we loaded up my new chair.

My cat has now claimed it as hers.

Until the next post.…….

 

Ginny

 

 

Back in Florida and we’re on the Ale Trail again.  I believe we will only have one more outing after this and the Ale Trail will be complete!  Or at least the map version I have.

First stop was the Persimmon Hollow Brewing Co. in Deland.  Again, we’re using the tactic of picking a location (#13) the furthest from home and making our way back.

Using my favorite internet source (Wikipedia) I discovered the origin of the name, which is not mentioned on their website.    Apparently DeLand was once known as Persimmon Hollow and the brewers wanted to honor their home.

The brewery was the dream of two home brewers that were best friends.  They received a $20,000 underutilized building grant from DeLand and converted what was a 5,000 ft, 1920s-era parking garage into a state-of-the-art brewery.

If you look carefully at the floor, you can still see remnants of directional lines from the garage.  A glass wall divides the two spaces with the brewing process visible to guests.

As you can see in the photo above, the furniture is a mish-mash of styles – I like it!  They had fans to keep the air moving and the open garage doorway invited all to enter.  This place had good vibes!

But, on to the beer!

While they didn’t have a ‘baby pour’ for me, they had a half-pour and I got the 3 Wise Guys, a coffee porter.  Eric and Adrienne tried the Paddle Wheeler and Beach Hippie.

So I was curious about the phrase ‘Drink Sensibly, But Get Weird’.  Further research came up with their mantra:  ‘Craft beers should be fun, a little weird and truly a work of art in every glass.’  Their brewery became a reality in October 2014 and they canned their first beers (3) for distribution in October 2015, primarily throughout the Daytona Beach and Orlando areas.

Food is a part of most of our excursions and this was no exception.  Eric googled best lunch spot in Deland and we were within walking distance of a top-rated place and more importantly, it was open on a Sunday.

Okay, I’ve got to say, this place didn’t look like much and I wasn’t exactly thrilled to be going in to eat.  It was a former gas station, but had none of the ‘charm’ that is occasionally seen at unique renovated places.

We started with Mexican cokes, taking a break from beer.

Naturally you need chips and dip to start a Mexican meal. It was an interesting presentation, but one we all enjoyed and I could see doing this at home.

We got soft tacos to eat (chicken, pork) and mine was mighty tasty.  Okay, so you shouldn’t judge a restaurant by outside appearances…………….but it might be an easier sell with your dining partners, like me – just saying.

On to our next stop………….Central 28 Beer Company (#5 on the map above).

It was located in an industrial park, literally at the end of the road.  There wasn’t much info on their website and the lady serving out beer said the info was waaayy outdated. My beer was Miss Mary Brown – the baby pour.

No food was served, but their website indicates a food truck is there most evenings.  The bucket above was full of Halloween candy.  Can I just say that Reese peanut butter cups go really well with dark beer – just saying.  Yep, who knew.  You’ve got to try it before you disagree.

As seen below, they can some of their beers and the waitress said one of theirs was being featured at Epcot’s Food & Wine Festival this year.

We still had one more brewery to hit this day and we continued our drive.

We headed back into Orlando, on the east side for a brewery named Ocean Sun Brewing, #10 on the map.

We enjoyed the place, but I’m thinking that all of the breweries we experience at the end of our day gets a less than glowing review.

Looking over this list, I can’t even remember which one I drank.  Not because I had over indulged, but because nothing was remarkable.  Eric and Adrienne tried a variety of the beers listed, because they could.

They had a nice facility where you could easily see their brewing equipment.

Now this sign did catch my eye.  How fun……..yoga, then beer.  🙂

We winded down our ale trail with one last shot.

My research says:

• This brewery started as a dream and a hobby and they opened their doors in March 2016. 
• Their mantra is ‘Great beer and great memories go well together’. 
• Their beers are brewed true-to-style and hand crafted in-house to ensure deliciousness in every pint. 

While our time there  was fairly quiet, I read that between trivia nights, yoga sessions, live music and much more, there’s always something going on in their taproom.

A few more posts will be coming before we hit the final two breweries and complete my version of the Ale Trail.

 

Ginny

 

 

 

 

 

 

While our friends took thousands of photos and many were much more interesting than mine, I still had a few photos that invoked some fond memories of our time in Italy and Germany.  They didn’t seem to follow any flow when I was writing these posts to be included, yet I didn’t delete them, even once I got home.   Thus, here’s a post dedicated to my randomness of photos.  If there was a story, it’s included in the caption below the photos.

 

 

We kept running across (and up and down) spiral staircases.

 

 

Even their cross-walk signals were unique.

 

Insect houses abounded.  I hope to see some in my future (at home).

 

 

Never expected to see a ‘squatty potty’ or cloth towel dispenser.

 

 

Snowball cookies, dry but addictive.

 

So there you have it – finally.  Last post from our trip to Europe in 2018.  We really didn’t expect to have back-to-back trips to Europe, but once the door opened on an opportunity, we couldn’t let it go.

 

Ginny

 

 

What to do on our last day?  Find more castles and/or ruins? See more churches? Take a hike?  Yes (for the hike)!  Knowing that we would be spending a good amount of the following day on a plane, hiking sounded like the perfect activity to stretch our legs and get a bit of exercise before crossing the Atlantic.

Across the river was a series of hiking paths, including a garden area called Philosopher’s Way.  There was also a biergarten near the top so this was going to cover all of our  interests.  First task was to cross the river, guarded by this statue.

We started early in the morning, as eventually the weather was going to be rather warm for hiking mid-afternoon.

We found some interesting sites along the way.  First this tree house, and then several gates.  It seemed (though confirmed by no one) small sections on the hillside were being cleared by individuals for their own private enjoyment.  I’m going to assume they were renting the spaces, much like the community gardens we’ve seen in the past.

We walked past this kids rustic play equipment with a nice covered area for the parents to rest and watch.  Great theming and placement as it was a natural fit for the area.

We found the Philsopher’s Walk Garden and I grabbed a few photos.  Most of the plants I could identify, a few I could not.

Just up the hill, we came across this interesting structure.  I said “Karen, come on, we’ve got to try it!”.  OMG!!!!  It was an absolute hoot!  Just in case the video doesn’t work, I included a few photos.

 

 

Nature was definitely the inspiration for everything from fences, directional signage  and sight-seeing lookouts.  It was nice.

We (finally) reached the biergarten.  It was a nice break in our hike and a well-deserved break.  We had a few wrong turns and after asking a few other hikers, we still weren’t sure we were headed in the right direction.

Naturally, beer was involved.  🙂  Along with sausages.

This is one of the best things I like about Europe – we’re always eating outside.  If the weather is chilly, you need to bundle up.  Sometimes there are blankets available for warmth, but I love eating out in the open.  We don’t have enough of that in Florida.  We’re just heading into Florida weather that allows for eating outside.

A short distance away from the biergarten was an amphitheater (Heidelberg Thingstatte) with an unfortunate past. It’s an open-air theatre, built during the Third Reich for propaganda events, seating 8000 people.

I’m sitting about halfway up the venue.  It is now used for a wide range of summer concerts.  It was a cool place.  The day we were there, very peaceful, but I can see this being a real jammin’ place.

Sorry to say, Eric and I had reached our hiking limits.  While Karen and Rich went further up and saw some ruins, Eric and I headed down.  It didn’t take nearly as long to get down as going up – go figure.  We finally made it to the bottom and while enjoying the hike, realized we are out of shape, way out of shape.

We did a little more walking around town, getting one more gelato before leaving Europe.

I wanted to visit this Heidelberg church that we’ve been walking around all week.  It’s surrounded by small markets selling a variety of souvenirs.  Sad to say, I never discovered any of the history surrounding it.  I went inside our last day in the city and there was a christening taking place, thus I couldn’t get past the vestibule – darn it.

We had a nice European meal that evening and packed for the plane ride home.  Read – some in our party were tired of sausages & sauerkraut, I was not.  The next morning we got up early to drive to the Frankfort Airport.

It’s never fun when the trip is over.  It used to seem like the flight home took forever.  This one took longer than expected.  That tailwind that helped us get to Europe quickly,  several weeks ago……………….became a headwind and made our flight back over an hour late.  Uugghh.

One thing I try to keep in mind…………………Europe is a short hop, compared to traveling to Shanghai.

While I expected this to be my last European post for this trip, I found some photos that I  took, but seem to have no real home.  Be prepared for some randomness.

 

Ginny

A part of our European trip was spent in separate locations.  I most definitely did not want to go to Munich with all of the crowds – no thank you.  Many years ago we were in Munich the day before Oktoberfest – aacckkk!  Eric loved it, I did not – too many people, too loud and too much noise.   We looked at a map of Europe, discussed several possibilities (Prague was my first choice – too far away  😦 ) needed an airport nearby and ultimately  selected Freiburg.  I’m glad we did. Karen and I really enjoyed our time in that city and the boys enjoyed their time in Munich  Here’s their story, written by my husband.   Ginny

 

Rich and I sent the girls on their own adventure and we finally headed to Munich for Oktoberfest.  Truth be known, this was the genesis for our entire 2 week trip.

The trip from our apartment to the Venice airport was a little stressful, but once we arrived things went smoothly.  We saw the girls off then had  hours to kill, which was done in the Priority Lounge.  I did not take photos of the lounge but it was the largest and nicest yet.  I did manage to get a photo of the girls flight to Freberg taking off.

 

Our flight from Venice to Munich was only an hour on Air Dolomiti, which is actually owned by Lufthansa.  It was an uneventful flight.  As was the train trip from the Airport to the Munich City Center and our home for the next 3 nights, Hotel Concorde.

The hotel was nice and had a very nice breakfast.  The best part was the location.  It was 2 blocks from this famous location!

We quickly settled into the hotel and headed out for our dinner reservations at Ayinger  which is right across the courtyard from HofBrauhaus.

Our meal was a dramatic change from the cuisine in Venice:  roast pork, roast duck, crispy pork skin, sausages, potato dumpling, bread dumpling, and gravy.  Good German fare!

After dinner we crossed the courtyard and finished up the night in the Hofbrauhaus beer garden.

We quickly made a new friend.  Not surprising since neither Rich nor I have ever met a stranger.  Santosh asked if he could share our highboy and of course we obliged. We quickly got to know him and his story.  He lives in southern Sweden and came down alone just to experience Oktoberfest.  His wife and 6-year-old boy live in India, where he is originally from.  Not surprising, he is in IT while his wife is a lawyer.

We were up fairly early Saturday  morning and after a nice breakfast at the hotel we were to see some of the sights of Munich.

Ginny and I had been here before but it was a first for Rich.  We hit the daily market, the Rathaus with the Glockenspiels as well as the Duke’s residence.

Next we wandered thru the Residence Gardens and right into the Englisher Gardens, one of the largest municipal parks in Europe.

We ended up at the famous Chinese Tower.

And how lucky!  It has its own beer garden!  The second largest in Munich.  We enjoyed typical German food then was joined by some boys from Denmark and Germany. We visited with them for a couple of hours.  And had a few more beers.

After wandering back to  our hotel room we got ready for our dinner reservations.  We are dining at Augustiner Keller which is hard to get into during Oktoberfest.  I made the reservations in June.  It was a great meal with way too much food.  We each had pork knuckle (schweinshaxe) and half a duck with all of the fixins. Rich cleaned the plate.  Me, not so much.

I am afraid that Karen would have hated the place.  It was a good 20 feet underground and definitely had a cramped feel to it.  These are the cellars where Augustiner used to age their beer.

We were again joined by our friend from the night before, Santosh!  I had made the reservation for 3 so we had an extra spot.  Santosh has plans to bring his family Disney next year and if he does Rich will come down for a Oktoberfest reunion!

We made a stop at Der Pschorr Hall where we all had one.

It was getting really, really cold, so we made plans to go back to the hotel, get our jackets, and then meet Santosh back at the Hofbrahaus.

 

We made it!

Facts about Oktoberfest.

• First held in 1810 celebrate a royal wedding.
• Is held on the Theresienwiese (Theresa’s Meadow) a 90 acre field near the center of Munich. Theresa was the royal bride in 1810.
• It is actually a fair with rides and other attractions.  And 36 beer tents.
• It runs for 16 to 17 days with the majority of the days in September.
• Only Beers conforming to Reinheitsgebot and brewed in Munich city limits can be served limiting the choices to 6.
• Over 70% of attendees are actually from Bavaria making it a very local event.
• Seats in the 36 beer tents are free, but most are reserved months in advance for very loyal patrons.
• Beer is served Die Masshich is a regulation size beer mug in Bavaria and part of Austria.  It is just over a liter in size.  Almost 8 million liters of beer are served during Oktoberfest.
• Food is a big part of the event and each tent specializes in certain traditional dishes.

Both Rich and I had read that getting a seat in a Oktoberfest tent is very difficult on weekend days and the only way is to get there early.  So we arrived around 10am or so.  We passed several tents that had lines then we saw Ochenbraterei, commonly called the Spaten tent.  We entered and made our way to an empty table.  We were intercepted by a waiter who had us sit with 7 other folks, mostly from North America.  Regardless, we had done it!  We had a seat in a tent at Oktoberfest.  Our goal for over a year. You can see how happy we are.

The tents can be almost overwhelming.  The Spaten tent we were in holds most 6000 people, has a huge kitchen with hundreds of wait staff, a band, sound system and giant bathrooms which are necessary with 6000 people drinking copious amounts of beer.

Our first order of business was eating so we ordered more roast meat.  I had suckling pig and Rich had duck.  Sorry no photos, but look at the previous photos above.  It looked the same.  We were soon joined by a German (Bavarian specifically) who was friends of one of the Americans at our table.  Matthius was his name and he was dressed in true Bavarian fashion.  Very sharp and very expensive.  All the gear he is wearing would push $1000.  Which is why Rich was not sporting the same fashion!

Matthias and Rich. Yes standing on a bench.  At a certain time that was a mystery to us but Matthias knew, everyone stood on the benches. Eventually half of the beer hall was bench standing.  That I or anyone else manages to stand on those narrow benches after consuming so much beer is surprising.

What kind of beer am I drinking?  I went to Oktoberfest expecting to be drinking lots of Marzen, the beer called Oktoberfest in America.  It is slightly dark and very malty.  Also normally has over 6% alcohol.  But that is not what I was drinking at all.  No one was drinking it.

What we were drinking was a Munich Helles, the original one. I found that I could still order a Marzen or strong beer but that was not normally served.  I had a great one at Ayinger and Hofbrauhaus.  Apparently about 150 years ago Marzen became the most popular beer replacing the dark beer it started with.  In the 1970s Paulaner Brewery began the move away from Marzen with a new style of beer called Festbier and everyone followed to the point that by the 1990s it was the only beer being served.  Festbier is more malty than a Pilsner but less malty and heavy as a Marzen.  With significantly less alcohol.  Another thing about the beers at Oktoberfest is that they  not artificially carbonated. Which means not nearly as fizzy (or filling) as many other beers.  The perfect beer to drink in quantity but potentially dangerous.

By 6:00 pm I was done.  Totally done.  We had started before 11:00am and drank beer almost non stop.  Rich called Uber and we headed back to the hotel.  We were in bed by 9:45pm.

Last order of business in Munich was to pick up our rental car and head to Frieberg to meet up with the girls.  We picked up this beauty, set the GPS to Frieberg and was on our way.

Oktoberfest is something  every beer lover should experience once in their life.  Not sure I need to do it again!  But if the opportunity presented itself, I could.

The Husband

 

 

Our last week in Germany was spent tooling around in a rental car.  While we love walking around historic sites, touring churches, signing up for local tours and utilizing public transportation, sometimes you just need your own wheels.  🙂

Our first castle was the one that overlooks Heidelberg.  You could take the easy way and ride the funicular to the top, or walk the stairs – which was our decision. Yep, we’re stopping for photos, not because we’re out of breath……..

Then, we saw this amazing biker.  He and his friend were going down the stairs on their bikes – crazy.  At least they have helmets on.

We get to the top and find this great photo spot.

Here are a few historical facts:

• Construction started before 1214 and dominates the view of the town.
• Has a history of construction, numerous attacks, lightning strikes, abandonment, demolition, re-construction – you get the picture – always changing or being attacked.
• It was only partially rebuilt since demolition in the 17th & 18th centuries and a portion has remained as ruins.
• It’s considered an architectural masterpiece of the Renaissance and attracts over a million visitors annually.

We were able to participate in an English-speaking tour and go inside the parts that had been rebuilt.

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The wood architectural elements were amazing.

We finished in the chapel……….

……before seeing one of the castle’s inhabitants.

Some of the overlooks seen in the first photo at the top, allows photos like the one below.

We continued our search for castle ruins by heading out-of-town with our first stop being the city of Dilsberg.

This ruin overlooks the Neckar Valley and the houses surrounding the ruin on the hilltop are fully livable and it’s basically a small town.

Continuing the trend of historical facts:

• It was a medieval fortification with the first documentation dating to the 1200s.
• It was the administrative authority for the surrounding villages.
• During numerous fierce battles and defeats, the fortress remained largely undamaged.
• It appears as a ruin today due to the past practice of impoverished people, tearing down castles to build their own houses.

It appeared we were the first visitors that morning and had the site to ourselves.  I didn’t expect to find this staircase and get another view of the surrounding area………..from the very top!

From above, I saw this interesting pattern of branches.  We ran into someone and he explained it was a well and it was to prevent kids and others from getting too close and possibly falling in due to the unstable groundwork.

Eric and I found this chocolate shop as we were heading out and couldn’t resist a mid-morning treat.  What’s a little chocolate after breakfast?  🙂

Naturally I found some floral shots as we walked around the small town and this mural on the side of one of the houses.

When on top of this castle ruin, we could see other structures in the distance, which possibly could be more castle ruins – Rich was right, they were.  After a little internet research, we discovered four castles, their location and their story.  They are called ‘The Castles of Neckarsteinach’.  This ensemble of four castles is unique in Germany and attracted attention in the early 19th century.  They were built between the 12th and 14th centuries and while they were built by different nobles, ultimately they were taken over by one family.  Today, two are ruins and two are in private hands and not available to tour.

We first reached The Hinterburg castle ruins.

Then it was on to the next castle ruins further up the hill.

After an upward trek, we found Castle Schadeck – The Swallows Nest.

It is considered the youngest of the castles of Neckarsteinach and the emblematic landmark of the town.

Again, surprisingly, we found a staircase and were able to reach the top for more amazing views.

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Now I’m turning to the part of the title that is ‘not’.  We found several palaces that were built, kind of the next upgrade from a castle.  The first one we visited was the Mannheim Baroque Palace and it was built when the Prince Elector in the 1700s transferred the center of power from Heidelberg to Mannheim.

The complex is used for a variety of offices and only a few rooms and floor were part of the tour.  A nice part of this tour were audio guides in English – love it!  At the beginning of the tour, you listen to some history and see some amazing chandeliers.  I think I have more than six photos of different ones we saw on our tour.

This dining area had another chandelier, but also a full setting of dinnerware.

There were lots of molding all around these rooms and I couldn’t resist these few shots.  This was in the alcove for each of the windows (and there were numerous windows).

A lot of the details were directed by the widow, Katherine.

 

So here’s a bit of info:

• Intended to be the second largest Baroque palace complex in Europe, after Versailles.
• Interior was one of the ‘wonders’ of European architecture for the time.
• One interesting visitor was Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
• Unfortunately it was severely damaged during WWII.  Any remodeling has tried to stay true to the original design.

At the end of our tour, we saw the library.  It was beautiful.  Where are the shelves or bookcases for the books?  The walls were designed to hide them.

We also saw these amazing tapestries.  The more you looked at them, the more animals you saw.  Karen and I just stood looking at them and comparing notes for the number of animals we saw.

 

 

Our last palace to visit was the Ludwegsburg Residential Palace in Schwetzinger.  Tours were only in German, unless pre-arranged.  That left the gardens for us to tour – which were impressive and far-reaching.

I enjoyed the palaces, but I think I like the ruins more.

Auf Wiedersehen.

 

Ginny

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We had some amazing meals during our five days in Heidelberg.  We used Trip Advisor when seeking places to eat and most did not disappoint.  Here’s a snapshot of the places we visited for a meal.

As you saw in the last post, after lugging out suitcases to our new apartment for 6 days, walking to two other highly rated restaurants- with no luck – we settled on Heidelberger Schlossquell and were happy with our choice.  It was a good introduction to Heidelberg.

Our breakfast was generally coffee or cappuccino and pastries.  After the first day, Eric usually went out and brought them back.  Thanks hon.  🙂

Vetters was the original brewery in Heidelberg, started by Klaus Peter Better in 1987. It was born out of his private passion and has turned into a family affair.  The motto is ‘Every guest is welcome’ and they feature handcrafted beers served with traditional German cuisine. We were able to find a table in the corner.

First thing to order……………….beer of course!

We were enjoying the jovial atmosphere and admiring their copper tanks and the hops hanging from  chandeliers.

Karen was good and ordered the salad.  Rich and I both ordered the Nuremberg sausages with sauerkraut while Eric ordered blood & liver sausage with potatoes.

Oh yes, we had to ‘fill in the cracks’ with some gelato.

While Rich and Eric found another brewery down by the river to visit. That’s my drink on the right – coke with no ice.  For those that haven’t visited Europe, most soft drinks do not come with any ice cubes, even those areas that have a high tourist visitation.

One evening we ate at Bier Brezel. We’re pretty much staying close to the 1.6 km pedestrian zone which is part of the ‘old’ part of the city and are trying not to repeat any place.

Yes, I got another dark beer.  I’m still surprised at myself that I like dark beer better than most anything else.

We took a break from sausages and ordered a flammekuchen, tomato soup w/cheesy bread and this salad.  In case you haven’t noticed, many times we split our entres between each other and tasted everyone’s choice.  Okay, I guess I really meant to say that many times Karen and I split our meal.  🙂

 

We kept walking past this next place and the inside decor looked intriguing (not to mention the smell of meat cooking).  Early in the week we said ‘Didn’t come to Germany for a hamburger’.  Later in the week, it was ‘Hhhmmmm, what would a hamburger taste like?’

Birch trees were used as a major part of their decor to delineate spaces between booths and each table had this wooden try with a rosemary plant and four sauces to accompany any meal.

Yep, we got burgers and shared a pound of fries between the four of us.  Yes, I said a pound of fries.  Each of us easily had enough fries to split between us.  This meal was a nice departure from our European norm.

Schnitzel Bank was one of those places we tried to get into our first night in town.  Eric had no luck getting us in, so he had the concierge service from our credit card make a reservation for later in the week.   Success!

This place is one of the top rated restaurants in Heidelberg.  Some research revealed this was originally a barrel-making shop and local wines were being stored in their barrels.  They discovered that selling wine in barrels was more profitable than selling the barrels.  Incorporated into their tables was wood from the original workbenches and only adds to the small intimate feel – yes, it’s very small, hence the situation with getting a reservation.

We all enjoyed their salad and Eric ordered their bread soup.  He asked ‘What is in bread soup?”  Our waiter said………….bread, of course. Ha!  Our table and the water got a good laugh.  He shared it was a very old recipe, that nobody remembers its origin and they continue to have it on their menu.

You guessed it……………….we all ordered schnitzel.

Nobody wanted dessert but me.  I had seen the apple strudel on their menu and after my first venture with this earlier in the week, I wanted another version.  I told the waiter – 4 spoons.  It was excellent!  I believe all of us wanted to lick the plate after it was gone.

So looking at the reviews, most were extremely positive, but there were a few unhappy customers.  Many restaurants in Germany are communal dining – which we love, but others do not!  We enjoy talking with anyone that joins our table, which we did that night.  A couple from Northern Germany was here on holiday, put at our communal table and since the wife spoke really good English, we had a lively conversation throughout the remainder of our meal.

 

Another one of our good meals was in a nearby village, sitting outside in their biergarten.  We had visited some castle ruins and needed the refreshment after our (exhausting) hike.

This was the first time our lack of German caused a slight situation.  Karen and I were going to split the flammekuchen, but instead we each got one.  Oh well, we ate the best parts and left some.  The boys ordered brats and Nuremburger sausage.

Before eating, we had visited a castle ruin.  Rich and I wanted a photo with our beer with the ruin in the background.  It’s there between us – way, way far away.

The last dinner in Heidelberg was the place we tried to find our very first night – Schlossberg Keller.

At the time of our visit, it was the second highest rated restaurant in town.  Eric started with a cream of spinach soup, accompanied by pieces of smoked trout in the soup.  We all had these great salads before our meals.  I would like to say they were ‘light’, but pork schnitzel w/ fries and schnitzel, fries with mushroom sauce don’t exactly qualify.  Eric ordered the pasta with smoked salmon.

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Believe it or not, we were too full for dessert.

I know there are many more places in Heidelberg that should have been visited, but these were (mostly) within walking distance and my idea of German food.

There’s a few more posts coming to wrap our latest European travel adventure.  Still waiting for my guest blogger to regale some Munich beer stories……………just saying.

Auf Wiedersehen

 

Ginny

 

 

 

 

Once the boys arrived, we wanted to show them our town Freiburg and how we had become comfortable with the older parts of the city and what has turned out to be a favorite restaurant for Karen and I,   Schlappen.  Okay, maybe we were a tiny bit obsessed with it.  🙂  Before they arrived, we ate there for lunch Monday and I found a beer I loved!

Since I got Karen to sit in the bar area (but not at the bar, I’m still working on that) I saw another customer with this good-looking dark beer.  I asked the waitress about it and voila!  I’m drinking the Schwarzbier aus Tschechien.  Delicious!!!  And of course, we had to have our pizza again.

Okay, I can be honest.  This version wasn’t quite as good as our first one.  Today’s cook put waaaayyyy more spices and sauce on this one.

Back to the boys……………………after our initial choice, then our second choice and then our third choice for dinner didn’t pan out Monday evening, we walked to Schlappen.  It gave me a chance to drink my new favorite beer again and also to get those delightful, crispy tasty potatoes that are their specialty with both choices of dip – spicy garlic and also the ketchup.  We like to dip the potatoes in both.  Yum.

A salad, flammekuchen and lamb were our dinner choices.

The beer got the Munich stories started and we started hearing all of the tales and people they met over the weekend.  There was talk of a ‘guest’ blog post on my site, so we’ll see if it happens.  In the meantime, I wanted to include a few photos they sent.

Before getting on the road, we walked down to the morning market at the church.  The boys wanted to start the day with a local sausage.  Karen and I visited a bread & pastry truck, but alas, no photos.  Karen got a delicious cinnamon roll while I selected a pastry that included raisins.  Oh yes, and we both got pretzels to munch on throughout the day.

You might notice that they are wearing coats – it got cold!  At least for us Floridians who aren’t used to the chilly temps.  Overnight the temps got down to the low 40s and this was one of the few overcast days we experienced during our two weeks in Europe.

They also enjoyed visiting some of the produce shops and after hearing my initiation to ‘new wine’, 3 selected new wines were purchased (and drank) for the remainder of our vacation.

All too soon it was time to leave this part of Germany and head to Heidelburg since the boys picked up our rental car for the remainder of the trip.  We wanted to make the most of our drive and found the ‘Black Forest Open Air Museum’.  A few facts:

• Founded over 40 years ago as a museum of architecture while also experiencing living history directly.
• Six furnished farmhouses along with numerous outbuildings such as a sawmill, storehouse, distillery and chapel to name a few are available to view and walk through.
• It showcases how in people in the Black Forest lived in the last 400 years.

This barn is featured prominently in all of their advertising and looks  beautiful with their flower pots.  Unfortunately, they had been removed due to the lateness of the season. It was still a fun place to wander through, all the way up to the 3rd floor.

Also saw other interesting sites on the grounds.  Had to throw in a few flower photos – of course.

This is where I finally got to eat my Black Forest cake.  It was very good………but not my favorite dessert on the trip.  I’m afraid I’ve been too Americanized for the Black Forest cake we serve in the US.

We got in later than we wanted to Heidelberg, mostly due to the traffic we encountered.  Our instructions were to park in a nearby garage and our apartment would be within a few blocks.  We walked through the pedestrian zone with our suitcases, dodging all of the people traffic.

We’re staying in another apartment in their mile+ pedestrian zone of the old part of town.  Once we entered the hallway we were supposed to look for  red staircase.

Good thing we only had to walk up one flight – carrying the suitcases up was still a struggle- or maybe we were just tired.

Now the apartment.  Sometimes it’s amazing what living quarters we can create in unique spaces.

Bedrooms were on the second and third floors.  Bathrooms on the first and second floors.  Oh well, you can’t have everything. I did get the one photo of the Heidelberg Castle the night we arrived.  This is from an outside seating area on the top floor of our apartment.

While that outdoor seating area looked really cool when booking the place, the weather didn’t encourage outdoor eating and did you notice that stairway…………………….you had to carry everything up, enjoy your goodies, then (carefully) go back down the spiral stairway to the bottom where the kitchen was located.  My photos truly don’t give you any idea how skinny it was, especially between the second and third floors.

We were hungry and we were tired.  We walked to two different highly rated restaurants (one of which we couldn’t find) and  settled on this place.

The waiter took pity on us and said if we would wait 10+ minutes, he thought he could seat us as a few tables were getting ready (he thought) to pay.  He was right.  Ultimately, we enjoyed our meal and was happy with all of our selections.  They were a salad, wiener schnitzel with mushroom sauce, Nuremburg sausages with potatoes and lamb w/fries.

We topped off the meal with apple strudel.  It was very good, but……..

……the strudel was accompanied by a vanilla sauce (okay) and fruit salad with watermelon and cantaloupe.  You can just see the cantaloupe peeking out from under the strudel.  So I’ll repeat, it was very good, but a bit odd.  I’ll also share that there was nothing left on the plate by the time we were done.  🙂

Auf Wiedersehen!

 

Ginny