Trier Day 3

We went to a neighborhood sauna filled to the brim with naked old people eating french fries and ice cream.


We'll spare you the photos.

Trier Day 2

On Day 2 in Trier, we took a mammoth bike ride through the breathtaking wine-growing landscape of the Saar river. [Warning! It was a gorgeous day with fluffy Boucher clouds!]

Our first idea was to bike to a castle that is supposed to be on the Mosel toward Luxemburg. According to the map on the side of the bike trail, it was in the town of Konz. Of course, when we go to Konz, the tourist office told us that the castle was really close to Trier. We decided to press on, having found the beginning of the "Saar Riesling Road".

A note about German bike trails: they give you information, but sometimes not enough. Sometimes, you are biking around, trying to follow a sign for a certain winery, and you end up riding up and down a street in a tiny town, feeling like an idiot because the winery is really just somebody's house.

Which brings me to our first victim:

Weingut Parmesang.

We were riding up and down the streets of this dusty town, looking for the winery that was promised us way back in Kronz, after our crushing (ok, not so crushing-- and I think Jeremy was relieved) castle dissapointment. We finally spotted the place, and I went to ring the doorbell. "Hi," I said to the confused man who opened the door, "can we buy a bootle of wine?". "One bottle?" he asked, and then led us across the street into his wine shack/cellar. He gave us a bottle, and told us it was 5 euros. "Could you maybe open it for us?" I asked (we wanted to drink some for our picnic!). More strange looks, but he obligingly went back into the house to fetch their wine opener.


Some time later, we rode into the Prize-Winning town of....ummm....Kleezelbach, and saw it was filled to the brim with wineries. We repeated the procedure and rang the doorbell of yet another unsuspecting German. This time, an 8-year-old boy answered the door. "Hi...ah... can we buy a bottle of wine?" "Grandma!!" Five minutes later, the grandma came to the door, and very nicely went into the back to give us the wine. (Jeremy by now is edging farther and farther away from me). It seems that one is supposed to call ahead to the little family wineries. Luckily with my American-accented German, I can get away with not knowing anything. I mean, there were signs on the road! Are you a business or not?

We hit the end of our trail at Saarburg, where we took the cable car up the mountain for some ice-cream refreshment.


You could even bring your bike up the mountain! The cable car was almost totally open, and it freaked us out, so we closed the windshield causing us to simmer in our our juices (it was hot!) and all the 5 year-olds to point and laugh at us. We were a little braver on the way down.

NOT "Sideways" auf Deutsch

I just saw Sideways for the first time last night. So depressing! Our trip was definitely more fun.

Day One in Trier

After Jeremy and I arrived in Trier last Friday, we kicked off our romantic weekend by visting the post office to mail my application for the dance festival in Cologne. I am such a pain, but we couldn't find the post office in the Cologne central station!

As we walked into the gorgeous old center, famished and admittedly a little cranky, we were greeted with giant piles of cherries at the farmer's market. We ate a charming lunch of rotwurst, french fries with mayo/ketchup/onions (especial!), with cherries and wine for dessert.

We then took in the sights-- the Cathedral (check out the organ!), where I lit candles for my grandma and Aunt Colleen, the confusingly multi-century palace (Medieval in the front, Baroque in the back!) with its delicious gardens, the ruins of the Roman Imperial Sauna, and we spent an embarrassingly long time trying to find Karl Marx's house (like all good liberals).




































We finished off the day by tromping back into the center to eat wild boar cold cuts and drink more Mosel wine.

And in the Glarnerland Newspaper...

It's a long, boring story,

but the Swiss pictures are below the "delays" post. Danke für Ihre Verständnis.

Delays

Oh heavens, I can't believe I still haven't put the pictures from Switzerland up. They are not really so astounding, so I feel a little silly. The pictures are on Jeremy's work computer, and he has been working like a madman, etc. etc.

Anyway, it has been pretty full steam around here. I have been writing a proposal to dance in another Cologne group show, and I had to put a video of my work up on facebook for an application in NYC. This necessitated untold hours making the video edit and then trying to figure out how to upload--- Chuckie even had to help me by magically getting on my computer from Ohio. (It's weird! He can move my cursor!) We took a little break from staring into our computer screens to learn how to gut fish at the family fish store of one of Jeremy's fellow scientists. Fun! However, they gave us the fish for next to nothing, so I became obsessed with baking a thank-you present. After nixing a mildly burnt strawberry rhubarb cake, I found success with my new favorite, brownie-like Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies.

And Jeremy, of course, is still writing his paper, planning the tribolium meeting in Cologne, and working on a grant for his lab. Whew!

I decided a couple of weeks ago that Jeremy need a little mini-break (especially before the summer really gets going--- we are going to barely see each other from July until October), so we are heading off to Trier tomorrow for the weekend. Trier is a city in south western Germany on the Mosel river known for its Roman ruins (supposedly the best place to see them outside Rome). We're going to ride bikes, go to the sauna, sample some local wines, see the ruins, and maybe take a boat ride.

Les Photos Suisse

Here they are! Most of the pictures are of Glarus, a town in the south-east mountains.















































These pastel hamburgers were delicious! Luxemburgerli (remember, everything in Swiss-Deutsch ends in -li) are macaroons filled with different kinds of creamy goodness. The strawberry filling was especially bursting with fruity flavor.

New Video!

My unbelievably tech-savvy brother has just put up the "highlights" video (it's a separate tab on the sidebar) from A Profound Bagatelle up on The Punks Delight website. Check it out!

Me and Dad!

I'm dancing again at Hillwood this year, and when my parents went to their website, they found this.

The work in Switzerland is going well. I am kind of trapped in the choreographer's house until he comes home from his day-job, but there are kittens here (the kittens are in the guest room, and I am sleeping on a mattress on the floor of the office), a coffee machine, internet, and a terrace, so I am doing fine.

Hint for riding on German trains: surly girls sitting in your reserved seat will not become less surly when you break out your runny cheese lunch.

Experimental Kitchen Highlights

I'm wondering if I should make a blog sidebar of recipes that have been unusual successes...

Really, I shouldn't go on and on about the wonders of the farm box, but it has been such a great way to find new directions in cooking. This weekend I made:

radish leaf pesto
quite good-- I served mine on polenta with cherry tomatoes. I also didn't make it so paste-like-- I'm only working with knives here.

Persian Pickled Turnips
We can eat these in about a week. The turnips that came in our box were so tiny and cute, and they are supposed to be just perfect for pickling.

Ricotta Gnocchi
I wanted to be a Daring Chef, but the homemade ricotta was really so-so. Maybe I cooked it too long or the taste of our refrigerator got to it... The gnocchi were also just ok.

Chilled Radish Buttermilk Soup
The buttermilk saga continues--- actually this soup was refreshing and delicious. This may be the only way I will eat radishes.

I'm heading off to Switzerland tomorrow-- wish me luck!