The Mosel

Sunday, December 31

We have been staying in a house located on the banks of the Mosel River for the past three days, and tomorrow we move on to Belgium.  Before leaving, I wanted to share a little about the Mosel, which we are witnessing at flood stage as I write this.

The Mosel flows primarily south to north, beginning in the mountains near Alsace in France, and then flowing through Luxemburg and Germany before entering the Rhine at Koblenz.  We are in the middle section, which features a very winding section of the river with steep valley slopes. The region is noted for its highly regarded wines, most notably Riesling. 

Monorail for climbing vineyard

In this section of the river, nearly every wide spot near water level has a small community (or larger if there is sufficient land) and every town has several wineries.  The hillsides are covered with grape vines.  While some of the slopes are gradual, others are nearly vertical.  We noted that there are monorails installed at regular intervals in these steep areas and little vehicles climb the rail with the aid of cogs.

The river is navigable for large commercial ships (up to 110 meters) from its mouth well into France.  There are 28 locks along the river, including one just across the river from our home.  Today, as a holiday, the river is quiet (at least regarding river traffic), but on Saturday, we witnessed many barges, pleasure tour boats and other commercial vessels moving up and down the river.

The Mosel begins to cover the road about 200 

meters downstream of our house

Heavy recent rains upstream from us have caused the river to rise.  Earlier today, maintenance crews put up a barricade just outside our house warning drivers that the road ahead was flooded.  Kurt and I drove down and snapped this photo about 4 pm with the road half-covered. This shot was taken about 200 meters from our home.  The forecast calls for the river to rise another meter tonight, which will put the road between our town (Kövenig) and the next town downriver (Reil) completely under water.

Barricade just outside our house.  The signs read: "Flood"  

and "Detour"

Castling

Saturday December 30

(Note - due to poor internet connection at our current house, my Google photo library isn't syncing with my laptop.  I will be adding photos later.  The photos included below are ones I was able to find online and download).

We found a website listing the Top 10 Castles to see in Germany.  The number 1 listed was Neuschwanstein castle which was a couple hours drive from our Farm Airbnb.  We had decided not to visit it due to limited access in the winter.  Now we see that the #2 and #3 castles are both within an hour of our place on the Mosel.

Cochem Castle from the parking lot below.  

Imagine an invading army having to rush this

hill...

We decide to make an early start for Cochem Castle, which is down the river about 40 minutes. The castle opens at 10 am and we wanted to get there early enough to hopefully get one of the dozen parking spaces at the base of the castle.  Otherwise, it appeared that a hike from the town below up over 400 feet of steep walkway would be necessary.

When we arrived, we discovered that even from the parking lot, there was a steep climb to the castle entrance.  We walked up to the entrance and were informed we could drove those not able to walk to nearly the top and then turn around and park below. 

After successfully getting our whole crew to the entry, we were able to get a discount as  group of more than 12.  Cochem Castle (aka Burg Cochem) was originally constructed over 1000 years ago.  It went through a series of phases of construction and growth until it was nearly completely destroyed in 1689.  The castle sat in ruins until the 1860's when it was purchased and rebuilt by a wealthy merchant from Berlin.  The exterior was restored to its original state, but the inside is "modern" to 19th century standards.

Our guided tour was conducted in German by a guy with an accent so thick that Donovan and Jessie could only understand a fraction of what he said.  Fortunately, they had printed descriptions of each room in English so we could all follow along.

We left Cochem after our tour and continued down river towards Castle Eltz, one we knew from reading up was closed for renovation, but we hoped to get some photos of the outside.  The further away from Traben-Tracham we got, the fewer open places we encountered.  We wanted to stop for lunch and ended up having to backtrack about 10 km until we found a Greek restaurant that was open and serving a full menu.

Castle Eltz - view from the observation point
walking down from the parking lot.  The castle
is closed for renovation - note the scaffolding
on the right side. 

After a tasty lunch, we again headed downstream, until we reached the turn-off for Burg Eltz.  Unlike Cochem, which sits atop a mountain on a bend in the Mosel river, Burg Eltz was inland.  I recall visiting here more than 25 years ago and recalled it being deep in a forest.  Visiting in winter, the forest was bare of leaves, but the castle still seemed to be set in a very unusual location.  We reached the parking lot and then walked down a long hill until we rounded a corner. Suddenly, far below us in the middle of the forest was the castle with a stream surrounding it on three sides.  We all took photos from an observation point far above.

We took a long, lazy ride back along the river, arriving home and capping off a wonderful day with a dinner of hamburgers and chips.

Suits of armor in the weapons room. They say
the tall suit was for an Austrian Knight whom
was 7-feet.  

Hunting trophies and stained glass crests of the various
families that have inhabited the castle.

Examples of the wood carvings and ceiling art
visible throughout the castle.

View from the Castle courtyard

Looking up at the Keep.

Dining hall

Extreme GPS

Friday, December 29

Both vans are using Garmin GPS systems for navigation. Kurt has his that he brought from home and I have one rented from Enterprise.  While the models are similar, they tend to pick very different routes at times.  Last night, Terry decided ours must be set on "extreme" for route picking.

Friday evening we decide to go to a restaurant in the nearby city of Wolf.  If you look at a map, our place was due east of Wolf about a kilometer, but the river makes a sweeping loop south and then north making a nearly 9 km run.

As we pulled out to head to the restaurant, my van was in the lead and pointed us north.  Kurt turned around and didn't see us and his GPS routed him south along the river.  One turn into my ride and we are directed to turn up hill.

Perhaps at this point I need to describe the geography of the Mosel valley.  This is a truly V-shaped valley with extremely step slopes and every open square inch is planted in grapes--even slopes so steep that mountain goats may shy away.

So up one of these valley sides we go. In the dark.  On a road so narrow there would not be able to deal with a car coming down the hill.  With no guard rails. Oh, and did I mention that it had snowed and while it didn't stick on the valley floor, the higher we climbed, the more was stuck to the road.  It was only a climb of a couple of kilometers, and then a decent just as steep down the other side.  At least on the descent, we were on the inside nearly scraping the rock walls that retained the vineyards.

Imagine driving down this hillside in the dark and snow...

Not much was said on the drive over, but we all breathed a sigh of relief when we arrived in Wolf.  We decided to take the river route back after dinner.  

Where's Cherry?

8:46 AM

Friday, December 29

Our first full day in the Mosel Valley gets off to a rather slow start.  We have some issues with the Airbnb and wait around until early afternoon for the maintenance man, who eventually arrives with an entire new fold-out bed to deal with the broken leg on the existing one that Chloe and Terry are sleeping on (first night we used a stack of books to substitute).  The bed came unassembled, so Kurt, Terry, Cherry and I all assisted with bringing in the new, taking out the old and assembling the pieces.

About 2 pm we are finally ready to head to town.  We are in a little village about 2 miles from the larger town of Traben-Trarbach.  We are in the heart of wine country and the town was having a "Wein Nachts Markt" which was a play on words so that it sounds much like the Christmas markets in other cities but here there were four wine cellars that had been converted into stalls selling various crafts.

We found parking in a public lot and people decided to head off in various directions and to rendezvous at 4 pm back in the vans.  As people started heading off, we realized that Cherry was not with us.  Just about the same time as we make this discovery Donovan's phone rings. We've left Cherry behind at the Airbnb.

We had gathered on the front porch and I was counting people. We had 10 outside and Terry, Jennie and Kurt were still inside.  Somehow I had missed that Cherry ran back in to grab her glasses, and when the other three came out, we locked the door (locking her in) and left.  A quick drive back and we rescued her.  The manager had already let her out and she was waiting for us on the front porch.  The new plan is to count to 13 before we pull away from any location.

Herding cats across Deutschland

Thursday, December 28

Today is our travel day.  We are scheduled to drive nearly as far as the length of the German east-to-west distance.  Not counting pit stops and missed turns, the door to door distance from our Bödldorf Airbnb to our next house in Kröv is 581 kilometers (361 miles).  That's roughly the same distance as from Kurt & Jennie's house in Spokane Valley, WA to our house in Tigard, OR.

Because of the distance, unfamiliar territory and desire to get there early enough to see the area in daylight and make our necessary food purchases before stores close.  We set 8 am as our target departure time.  As morning arrives we awaken to something we hadn't seen to this point of our travels:  snow.  About two inches of really wet snow blanketed the farm.  I checked the road conditions and saw that no issues were reported anywhere in Bavaria, but the reports were limited to the major highways. And while most of today's journey would be on Autobahns, we were WAY out in the country and had about 20km to drive before we hit a highway. How challenging were the conditions going to be on the narrow country lanes getting us to Landshut where we get on the freeway?

In answer to my question, a county snowplow drove through the farm (which is bisected by the road).  So unlike a city like Portland which would be paralyzed by this much snow, life goes on as normal in Bödldorf.

We miss our departure time, but pull out just shy of 9 am.  Not bad considering getting 13 people and their baggage loaded, scraping snow, packing all the remaining food after breakfast and saying good bye to our hosts and their menagerie. 

Adding more AdBlue

As we start off, I notice that an alert on my dashboard that I thought I had taken care of has not gone away.  When my replacement van was delivered on Christmas eve, a notice appeared on the dash that more AdBlue (a diesel emissions additive) was needed in 350 km.  Our trip to Salzburg and dropped the remaining distance to add to 40km.  The prior day, when we had exchanged Kurt's station wagon for a van, we had stopped and picked up a jug which had been added the day before. I assumed that the system would identify that we had added the liquid and would automatically reset the notice.  Instead, as we drove to Landshut, the alert gave us updates every 10km that we were nearing the point of no return.  Terry looked up what would happen if we reached zero remaining and learned that for VW's, once the system reached zero, the car would continue to run until turned off, but would then not start again.  This was a problem.

Prior to pulling onto the Autobahn, we called the other car (which we had lost sight of) and explained our issue.  We pulled into a shell station and I purchased another, larger jug of AdBlue.  The info Terry read suggested that the system would reset automatically, but not if only small amounts were added.  I poured in nearly another 10 liters--which filled the reservoir and the alert turned off.

Now  we needed to find Kurt's van, which had taken a different turn than us and was nowhere in sight.  A phone call determined we should meet at a location we could both find that there would only be one of:  Burger King.  A couple minutes later both vans are reunited.  People decide a restroom break and a snack would make sense  before getting on the highway.  We have a small line standing at the front door waiting for the 10 am opening in two minutes.

Finally, at 10:15 we hit the road for good. And then the snow starts.  For about the next 300 km, we drove through flurries, but the highways were plowed and treated with road salt.  With the exception of one stretch, where the inside third lane (the fast lane) had some slush on the outer edge, the roads were not an issue.  We passed two bad accidents heading the other way where traffic was stopped for miles, but our way was smooth sailing.

We stopped in Karlsruhe for a late lunch, but our first two options were closed.  As we were walking back to the vans, we spotted a Döner Kabab shop.  According to Donovan and Jess, these are German's favorite fast foods and nearly on every corner.  The typical Döner shop is owned by a family--Turkish or Kurdish--and have a variety of meat and vegan-based sandwiches, salads and pizzas.  The shop we entered had a huge chunk of meat on a roasting spit and each dish was using shavings from the meat for the various dishes prepared.  It was REALLY good.  On the way out, I was talking to one of the regulars who was getting his meal at the counter, and he said the meat at this one was goat.  "Good goat" he said.  "Some places not so good, but good goat here."

We arrived at our new place on the Mosel River after dark. Despite the relatively early hour, most of us hit the rack after the long day traveling. 

Our home on the Mosel

Thursday, December 28

After our cross-country drive, we arrive at our next Airbnb stop.  We are staying in a little village called Kövenig, which has perhaps 30 homes and a seasonal restaurant next door that won't open again until the summer.  The town does have both a bus stop and a train stop with hourly service both north and south from about 6 am to 10 pm.

Our home is actually two apartments sharing a common front door. The downstairs apartment has one private bedroom, one bath, a kitchen and a living area with a fold-out couch.  The upper unit has a main floor with a kitchen and small eating area; a larger community room with a long dining table and several fold-out couches and a toilet. The next level up has three bedrooms, one with a double bed, one with a double and single and one with just a single. There is also a full bath on that floor. On the top floor is another bedroom with two singles.  It is far more cramped than the farm, but we are making do.  There is also a balcony that overlooks the Mosel River a few meters away.

Just a couple miles to the south is the town of Traben-Trarbach, which spans the Mosel and has a population of around 6,000.  This is the nearest place for any services we need. 

O Tannenbaum

Dec 22

Our hosts, Gerd and Silvia arranged for us to have a Christmas tree.  When we arrived, there was a slender cut evergreen leaning against a farm implement in the courtyard.  They loaned us a stand and Saturday night we brought it in and decorated it.

Tree and stockings for Christmas

Our grocery shopping yesterday included purchase of a string of red-beaded garlands, which now encircle the tree. Chloe also purchased a bunch of wooden ornaments.  Crowning the tree is a chocolate Santa head.

Hung behind the tree now are thirteen stockings, so we are all set for Christmas!

Christmas on the farm

Chloe, Terry, Jennie and Cherry look on as Gerd gets Coco 

back in the pen

We are not only sharing our Airbnb farm with our hosts Gerd & Silvia, but also with a menagerie of fury friends.  On Christmas morning, we had the chance to get up close and personal with the resident pig, Coco Chanel; and goats Antone, Emile, Max, Mortiz, Sonja and Sissy.

Jennie petting Coco Chanel while Cayden and Cody feed goats

A short time later, we opened the back door of our house and were greeted by the Bull Gustav and his buddy Mortiz.  Talk about a little awkward, I'm thin slicing beef for our Christmas dinner and a thousand pound bull sticks his head in through the kitchen door!

There are nine cats on the property, but all are pretty skittish.  Gerd gave Cayden a string with a wine cork on the end and he has been able to play with some of the kittens (Enrico, Babette and Pauline); while the older cats (Marlo, Fredrich, Benno, Mimi, Hugo, and Roger) are being more coy.

There are also some chickens on the farm, but they are being kept inside due to some recent attacks by foxes and hawks.

Gerd showing Kurt one of his seven tractors

Gerd is also an avid collector of old tractors.  He took Kurt out to the bard and fired one up.  He offered to give us rides on a couple that are licensed and insured for road use, but the chilly weather has kept us from taking him up on the offer.

The tractor collection.

Salzburg

Tuesday, December 26

Thanks to our decision to extend our stay in Bavaria, we now have another couple of days to explore the surrounding area.  Tops on our list is another attempt at seeing Salzburg, about a two hour drive from our farm home.

The distance is only about 100km, but instead of a route primarily on the Autobhan,  today we travel through the German countryside and dozens of small communities (and a few larger cities).  The weather has blessed us and while cold enough to require scraping ice off the windshields, the forecast calls for high clouds and partly sunny.

As we approach Salzburg, we are greeted with an incredible panorama of the Alps in the distance to the south.  Our main challenge once we reach the town is to find parking and the two vehicles split up and end up parking at opposite ends of the old town square.  We rendezvous at the tourist information center.  Nine of us opt to take the "hop on, hop off" bus tour of the town, while the other four decide to walk the central city.  The walkers stopped by Mozart's birthplace, toured the Salzburg Cathedral and the Christmas Market. 

Shamelessly reused tourist info photo of Salzburg city center

Those of us in the tour bus got to see a more extensive overview of the city.  Due to time, temperature and the fact that  several of the attractions were closed due to the Holiday, we only got off the bus at one stop, otherwise relying on the audio descriptions available over headset in our choice of a dozen languages.

Hop on - hop off crew at Maribell Gardens

Salzburg literally means "salt city" and is so named because for thousands of years humans have mined salt from the nearby mountains.  In times prior to refrigeration, the salt was so essential for food preservation that it was only surpassed by gold and silver in its value.  The salt from the area made the people of Salzburg some of the wealthiest in Europe and the buildings reflect this.

Salzburg is home to the oldest continuously operating Nunnery in the world (established in 713).

Capuchin Monastery on hilltop to left

Salzer River walk with castle in the background

Celebrating Christmas

Just to put a spoiler in:  nothing went wrong today.  Our biggest mishap being a shortage of cream which caused us to switch plans for our dessert.  May this be a sign that our travel woes are behind us!

We got our Christmas morning off on a sweet note, thanks to a large tray of homemade cinnamon roles Jessie prepared.  That was complimented by scrambled eggs and bacon.

Thanks to the shopping purge of the Shell station the day before,  the stockings were filled with candies, nuts, chips, crackers and tiny bottles of spirits.

We invited our hosts, Gerd and Silvia over to join us for Christmas dinner.  Our feast included two roast ducks (nice job Jessie!); Roll Fleisch or Rouladen -- a traditional German beef dish that my Grandmother used to make; apple red cabbage; roasted Brussell sprouts; mashed potatoes and our experimental dessert - a bread pudding made with the leftover cinnamon rolls and apples.  And let's not forget the wine, beer, Debbie's egg nog, Cognac and Polish vodka.  A truly great feast!

Walking tour of Erfurt

Now that my Google Photo app is syncing with my phone, I'm going to go back and do some photo essays of some of our earlier stops.  This is from our evening walking around the Christmas Market and town square in Erfurt on Dec. 21.

Cathedral viewed from the Christmas Market.

Bridge with shops lining each side.

Jess and Shirley in front of life-size Nativity

Chloe and Terry with a new friend.

Rathause - the main public building in town

Chamber of Commerce - Candy Makers Guild

Old meets new:  original cathedral door with 

electronic access system

Ferris Wheel at the Christmas Market

Kurt next to a tablet dated 1708

3D relief of Erfurt City Center

Gerd & Siliva

While our accommodations are charming, it is our hosts Gerd & Silvia that are really making our time in Bödldorf special.

Shirley toasting with our hosts Silvia & Gerd

They purchased this farm 25 years ago when an old man died and had no heirs wanting to stay on. They operate three businesses from the property now.  Gerd is a former professor of Occupational Psychology  and they continue working in that field as a book publisher and using their facility as a retreat and seminar location. 

They also use the farm for wedding receptions and parties and  they began doing Airbnb rentals about a year ago.

They have two grown daughters, one living in Munich and the other in Norway.  Shirley asked Silvia how old the daughter in Norway was and she replied 50.  Shirley, assuming she hadn't understood, said "no your daughter."  Silvia said, "yes, my daughter is 50."  Our hosts turn out to be in their 70s, but we would have guessed much, much younger.

Tonight, they came over at our invitation for a drink and brought with them two bottles of Champagne.  Gerd mentioned (I think as a joke), that if we needed a vehicle before our cars showed up that we could borrow his antique tractor to ride to town.

Replacement vehicles

December 24 afternoon/evening

For context, please read "The day we almost went to Salzberg" first…

Let me preface this entry with my thanks to Donovan for being our primary translator throughout this ordeal. While some of the customer service people on the phone spoke excellent English, the gas station attendant, two truck driver, cab driver and car delivery people did not.  He spent hours on the phone and in face to face conversations helping us work through this.  Danke sehr (thank you very much) Donovan!

We've now returned to the house sans our vehicles.  Given that Germans celebrate Christmas mainly on the 24th, we expected our prospects for getting a quick resolution slim to none.  We had sufficient food through to Tuesday morning, our planned departure day, so we began to think about contingencies.  If we couldn't secure new vehicles until Tuesday, we could see about extending our stay in Bödldorf and just waiting out the holiday.

I went next door to talk to Silvia and Gerd to see if that was an option.  A quick check of the board showed the place was vacant until Friday, so we could stay for up to three more nights if needed.  We had a quick pow wow and decided that we really liked it here and whether or not the vans were replaced right away, we would enjoy staying longer.  After double-checking the cancellation policy at our next stop, I sent a note to that Airbnb host explaining that we would be changing our arrival dates due to mechanical problems and formalized the Airbnb reservation changes.

We were just about to drop the matter for the evening when Donovan realized he had a missed call on his phone.  The main room of our house is deep inside thick brick walls and has no cell service.  He went outside and returned the call. We then learned that replacement vehicles were being arranged and would arrive this evening.  Given the holiday, we suggested that they not worry about it until Monday, but the agent on the phone said they could not guarantee which vehicles would be available by Monday, so it was better to do it tonight.

Two Mercedes vans become a VW van and BMW wagon.

The only problem was that our two Mercedes vans with a combined seating capacity of 17 were being replaced with a VW van (seating 8) and a Mercedes station wagon (barely seating 5).  While technically enough room for all of us, when our luggage was added into mix, we didn't think we would have enough room.  They explained that we could take the BWM back to Munich on Wednesday and there was a high likelihood that we could exchange it for a larger vehicle.

The VW van showed up around 7:30 pm.  The good news was that it could actually seat 9 and had a cargo area significantly larger than the Mercedes.  Whereas we could only put four of the large checked bags in the back of the Mercedes (standing on end), this one appeared deep enough to lay them flat, and by stacking 3-4 high, we should be able to get them all in.

The wagon arrived about an hour later.

Now with two vehicles capable of hauling our crew, we can potentially move on to our next destination and in the meantime make another attempt to see Salzberg.

The day we almost went to Salzberg

Dec 24

Saturday evening after returning from Munich the crew was anxious for more site seeing. And top of the list was checking another country off the list.  The nearest country to where we are staying is Austria and the nearest town is Braunau am Inn, about 45 minutes from us. The photos of the town did not show anything really interesting and the town's claim to fame is being the birthplace of Adolph Hitler, so let's keep looking…

Not much further away down a different route is Salzberg, a beautiful city that owes its ornate architecture to the nearby salt mines that once made it one of the richest cities in all of Europe.  We decided this would make a better destination and ten of us headed our in out two vans for a little day-trip.

Given that it was Christmas eve and we didn't know when gas stations would be closing, we stopped to top off both vehicles before heading out.  I pulled into the pump on one side and quickly fueled my van.  Walking back from paying, I looked over at Kurt pumping on the other side and noticed that the pump said E10--not diesel (despite having green-handled nozzles as had all other diesel pumps to date).  I looked around the corner and realized I had done the exact same thing!  Now both vans were polluted with gas and undrivable!

With Donovan and Jess interpreting for us, we first talked to the guy running the gas station who advised us to check our rental contracts for a roadside assistance number.  We found it and made the call.  While not an uncommon mistake, I think the people on the other end were a little shocked that we had been able to do this to two vans. Unfortunately for us, Terry (our resident mechanic) wasn't feeling well and had stayed behind.  Likely he would have spotted our mistake and stopped us before making it.

Stocking stuffer shopping at the Shell station

So now we have a tow truck (or two) on the way from the Germany equivalent of AAA called ADAC.  The person helping us on the phone said we would need to get back in touch with the rental company office at Frankfurt Airport to see about getting replacement vehicles.

Meanwhile, ten of us are hanging around inside of this small town gas station/convenience store.  It is soon apparent our trip to Salzberg is now cancelled and all the last-minute stocking gift purchases are going to need to be made here.  We haven’t opened stockings yet, but I half-expect to have an air freshener in mine.  :)

We call Enterprise back up and are greeted with a calling menu.  We press 4 for "other" because our situation doesn't neatly fit into one of the first three options.  The phone rings and rings. I let it wring for three minutes, but no one answers.  We hang up and try calling back and selecting option 3 "roadside assistance" - even though we've already called for that part.  The recorded message (in German) says that their offices are closed.  Try again, this time going for option 2 "Change a reservation", the call asks us to select our language and when we try English.  We are transferred to a pleasant but dim woman in the UK, who tells us that the alternate transportation is arranged through roadside assistance (who told us to call the rental company).  She gives us the number for "emergency assistance" for Germany and wishes us a Merry Christmas.  We try to call the number she provides, but the recorded message says it is an invalid number.

As we’re making these calls, it becomes noon and the gas station attendant comes out and closes up shop.  He has given us the phone number for the taxi service in the nearest town with a taxi.  So at least we have a way of getting back to the house which is about 7 kilometers away.  The temperature is hovering around freezing.  We can sit in the vans, but can't turn them on for fear of wrecking the engines.  Thank goodness everyone dressed for a day of walking around an alpine town.

We decide there is no reason to have the entire crew stay at the scene.  We call the cab and explain the number of people that need to be picked up.  They say a cab will be there in 10-15 minutes.  After about 10 minutes, a tab driver calls back.  He explains to Jessie that this will be a "really expensive" ride and is required to give us the opportunity to cancel.  What other choice do we have? 

About 15  minutes later a caravan of vehicles show up.  A large flatbed tow truck, followed by an ADAC customer support van, followed by a cab driver in a minivan.  The customer support van barely slows down when he sees the cab and speeds off.

The tow truck driver takes the keys to both vehicles and says we do not need to wait around.  We all squeeze into the van and head back to our Airbnb home.  The cost of the ride ended up not being as bad as we feared and when you consider that ten of us made it in one trip, it was even more reasonable.

So now we are home safe and sound.  In our tiny hamlet of Bödldorf.  At the start of a 3-day business holiday.  With no vehicles.

To be continued…

Our Day in Munich

There were three objectives for our day today:

1--get enough groceries to last us through the three-day holiday when all stores would be closed.

2--pick up Debbie at the airport--which would finally bring our group up to full strength (13).

3--spend some time in Munich

For the grocery hunting team (Shirley, Donovan, Jess, Chloe and me), it was an early start with a goal of getting to a supermarket in nearby Dingolfing when it opened at 7:00 am.  Armed with three shopping carts and two German speakers, we scoured the store and purchased most everything on our list in about two hours. 

We returned to our home-away-from-home and swapped grocery bags for the rest of our troupe and headed southwest to Munich, about 75 minutes away.

We weaved our way through the narrow streets of Munich to the Marianplatz, where the Munich Christmas market was set up.  We dropped off nine passengers and one van and then a few of us headed to the airport to meet up with our last arrival.

Debbie's plan landed on time and we found her in good spirits and wide awake despite not sleeping at all on her two Icelandair flights.  

We then drove back to the Marianplatz, but it was so crowded, we could not find a place to park our van.  By this time, it was around 2 pm and we had reservations at Donovan's favorite restaurant at 3 pm.  He had booked the reservations on line, but had yet to receive a confirmation, so we picked up a couple of the Christmas market shoppers and headed over to ensure our reservations were good.

Yummy!

Our dining location was the Augustiner Braustuben, a beer hall located at the Augustiner brewery.  Augustiner is the only large brewery in Germany still family-owned (by descendants of the composer Richard Wagner).  The brewery opened in 1378.  This place simply defines a Bavarian Beer Hall in my book.  It is located in an industrial district and is a local hang-out, not a tourist spot.  Donovan indicated that he thought we were the only non-Germans in the whole place.

Wooden keg being tapped

The food was fantastic, the beer tasty and plentiful, and the atmosphere just what you would expect from a Bavarian Beer Hall.  We were sitting at a table located between the exposed kitchen and a bar made out of a giant copper kettle.  The beer for the bar was delivered on a hand-crank elevator from storage below.  The beer came upstairs in wooden kegs and we could watch the bartending take a mallet to tap the keg.  The process looked exactly is it probably did several hundred years ago.

Kröning and Bödldorf

When I went to look up something on Kröning, I learned that there are more layers to the government organization in Bavaria than back home. While we have national, state, county and municipal levels of government, Germany has national, state, government district, county, administrative communities,  municipalities and then districts.

Kröning is a small municipality of about 2000 residents.  The population is spread out over an area of about 40 square kilometers and is divided further into 81 districts. We are staying in the hamlet of Bödldorf - which is one of the 81 districts.  According to my good friend Wikipedia, Bödldorf was originally a pottery-making community.  There are several buildings here on the Bavarian historic register, including this Chapel which is a few meters from where are vans are parked.  If the chapel looks small, it's because it is. One of the sides not seen in this picture is open to the elements and there may be room inside for a dozen people.

  

There were three pottery works in Bödldorf as early as 1474. From what I've read, the Kröning municipality was well known for their pottery made from a blue clay in the hillsides.  It was a predominant industry of the area. By the 18th century, annual production reached about 1 million pottery items.  Apparently the clay is still mined today, although it is now primarily used for roofing tile.

There is a Folk Museum nearby that provides much more information. However almost everything is closed for the Christmas holiday, so we won’t be able to go visit it before heading on to our next stop.

I haven't gone out and taken a head count, but I would guess the current population of Bödldorf is around ten or less. Our hosts Gerd and Silvia live in a large house next to the building we occupy.  There are several other very large structures which collectively make up a "building ensemble."  There is an open courtyard area in the middle.  Opposite Gerd & Silvia's home is a structure that perhaps once housed cows (there are still two on the property).  The building has been converted into an outdoor reception hall complete with a dozen huge picnic tables that could perhaps seat 20 people each.  At one end is a small elevated platform that could be used as a stage or dance floor.

As of this writing, we have mostly been in Bödldorf in the dark.  I hope to be able to explore a little more during daylight hours and meet some of the animals that also call this place home.

We've reached our Christmas Home

December 22nd--

We awoke in our quaint Erfurt hotel and enjoyed a really nice breakfast before heading back to the Christmas market for more shopping, food and beverage.

We had a 400 km ride ahead of us, but first we needed to find the key to Cody & Cayden's hotel room which mysteriously disappeared between leaving the Breakfast room and loading luggage in the vans.  Being an older hotel, we actually had real metal keys. Each opened a room and the exterior doors to the hotel. So losing one would mean paying to have that room and all the outside doors re-keyed.  According to Jessie, Germans take keys very seriously.  Losing a key to her apartment had a fine larger than a month's rent.  After pulling luggage back out of the car for more searching, the key finally turned up in Cayden's backpack with his homework. No one knows how it got in there, but all were delighted at it being found.

We almost made it out of Erfurt without another incident, but we did need to help Jennie out of the WC when she managed to lock herself inside.

We then somehow managed to drive four-plus hours without incident, arriving at our Airbnb home in the countryside near Kroning.

Our hosts, Gerd and Silvia welcomed us and showed us to our accommodations.  We are in a large building on a farm.  There are three entrances:  the one on the left is a bedroom wing with five single rooms, two pairs with jack-and-jill baths and one with a private bath.  The middle entrance (into the former pig pen) has a large kitchen and dining seating for at least 20.  It kind of looks like a small restaurant with four large tables and bench seating around the perimeter.

The right hand door leads to the upper level, where there are two double rooms, each with their own bath, and another single room with private bath.  There is also a large public room (the former hay loft).  Another set of stairs leads to the final double room in a loft.

Our hosts have been fantastic to date. They had a neighbor cut down a Christmas tree for us and they left us cookies and beer.  By the time we arrived, we only had about 30 minutes to grocery shop -- essentially for tonight's dinner. Tomorrow we will go to a larger store and stock up, as there will be NO grocery stores open Sunday, Monday or Tuesday.

So tomorrow is grocery stock-up day; pick up Debbie at the Munich airport; and then then Munich Christmas market and an early dinner at a Munich brewery.

Joy's Adventure

I mentioned in a previous post that Joy arrived in Germany on time and without incident.  And while that may be true, she did not want to be left out of our vacation misadventures.

Since the balance of us flying into Frankfurt were significantly delayed, Jessie suggested she take the train from the Frankfurt Airport to Erfurt.  Like in Portland, there is a train that goes directly from the Airport to the main Frankfurt station where she could catch an express train to Erfurt.

Her first challenge was using the automated ticket machine at the airport.  Although there was an option to view the instructions in English, there were options for both the (F-Stad)
and (F-Stat).  Before realizing that F-Stad was the local stadium she had purchased a ticket.  So a second ticket was purchased to the Station.

Once at the main station, she bought a ticket to Erfurt and went as instructed to Platform 8 for a 2:13 departure.  Shortly before the departure time, a train pulled in; Joy hopped on and the train pulled away.

Joy called Jess to tell her she was on the way.  Jessie asked her to make sure she was on the right train.  Joy read off the sign on the train as to it's destination:  Hamburg.  Unfortunately Hamburg is north and Erfurt is east!  A quick discussion with the conductor revealed that she could get off at the next stop and then take a regional train directly to Erfurt.  No harm, no foul. Just a two hour trip turning into a four and a half hour ride through the German countryside. 

December 21

Erfurt!

It took us about 24 hours longer to get here than originally planned, but twelve of us finally made it to Erfurt. And we now have an updated itinerary for Debbie, who will fly out of PDX on Friday and will meet up with us in Munich Saturday around noon.

The five arriving today showed up as scheduled. Cody, Cayden and  Cherry arrived on an early morning flight (landing before 6 am).  Those of us already in Frankfurt were just a kilometer away at our hotel, but sleeping dead to the world, so they waited at the airport for Kurt and Jennie, who arrived at 9:30.  That crew then rented another van and met up with us at our hotel. 

We then caravaned to Erfurt using the infamous Autobauns A4 and A5.  But except for a few limited stretches, we found the freeway to be heavily congested.  At one point, we were at a dead stop for probably five or more minutes. We never did find out the source of the slow-down.  A trip of 263km, which should have taken less than three hours stretched to more than four, and we arrived in Erfurt just as it was getting dark.

Donovan and Jess were waiting for us at our hotel along with Joy--who had the run of the place the prior night as four of our five paid-for rooms sat empty.  It's a cute place run by a Polish family.  We essentially have the entire first floor to ourselves. D&J had brought bottles of champagne to toast our arrival.  Jess had also made up some "travel bingo" cards -- created well before our misadventures of the previous days.  We all got a laugh at how many items we had already covered:  cancelled flights; delayed flights; lost baggage, etc.

Given that we now had one evening and a short morning to see their home town; most of us immediately went off with Donovan on a walking tour.  Our hotel is just a few blocks from the main square, which is set up with their main Christmas Market.  I say the "main" one, because there are special stands set up all over town selling crafts, food and beverage.  According to Donovan, Erfurt now has one of the largest Christmas markets in Germany and it is favored by the locals with tour buses coming in from all over the country to take in the festivities. 

The official drink of the market is Gluhwein - a hot spiced wine available either white or red.  Every stand seems to have their own mugs to serve it in. The mugs can be kept as souvenirs or returned for the 2 Euro deposit.

D&J had attempted to find a restaurant for us all to have dinner tonight, but we unable to find any place that could accommodate a group of twelve.  We assumed we would need to break into smaller groups, but while walking through town, Donovan went into one place to see if they would have room.  Sure enough, they could seat us all--right away.  We were in a downstairs room with arched ceilings that could have been a wine cellar at some prior time.  The food was very traditional; Bratworst, Sauerbraten, etc.  Kurt decided to be adventurous and tried the "Thoringen Spiced Meat" -- a decision he regretted when something came out that resembled spam with carrots added.  He won the travel-bingo space for "WTF Food".

Tomorrow morning, we will make a brief return trip to the Christmas Market--we got their too close to closing time to see it all--and then head south for our next stop in Kroning at our first Airbnb location.