Song Stuck in my Head

The Banana Boat Song... enjoy!

Blackberry Temptation

As part of B's recuperation, we head to the nearby beergarten in the afternoon - he calls it his Krusovice (in Czech) therapy. On our way there, we have noticed bushes laden with huge, sweet blackberries. Despite his leg injury, B resolved to pick some of them, crossed a ditch, climbed up a steep incline and managed to pick a bowl full of berries before sliding down the slope into a thicket of stinging nettle plants.

While European stinging nettle plants look the same as their North American counterparts, B claims they are about one-hundred times worse. For five hours, his arm looked like a Klingon disease, covered with huge welts. He was in a lot of pain for most of the night and was a bit worried about the numbness but, having been through this experience myself before, I reassured him that it would be gone the next day.


We have been making mango lassies and adding the blackberries as decoration on top. The picture shows a wine glass filled with leftover from the blender (imagine blackberry on top). Recipe is as follows:

1 ripe mango, peeled and cut into chunks
4 ice cubes, crushed in blender
1/2 container of 1,5% natural yogurt (see picture)
2 tsp powdered sugar (see picture)
1 cup of skim milk
1 blackberry (as decoration, optional)

Combine all of the above in a blender and mix until smooth. Enjoy two tall glasses of mango lassi!

On the Mend

Last week was spent in and out of the orthopedic department at the university clinic in Frankfurt. I wanted to give a glimpse into how treatment differs a little from the US. As detailed in a previous post, B's leg was broken in Italy.

Upon our return to Oberursel, he first called up our "Hausarzt", or general physician. It is not unusual in the months of July and August to have to make appointments with alternate doctors because a lot of Germans (including physicians) are on a "Urlaub" (vacation). His general physician gave him a referral for orthopedic treatment.

B had to draw a number at the university clinic. We waited a while before the electronic display in the waiting showed his number and directed us to one of four "Schalter" or admission counters.

Once there, we presented the referral form from the general physician, B showed his TK insurance card and explained the reason for his visit. And then we waited, and waited, and waited... Waiting became the name of the game for four days. We would wait to see an orthopedic surgeon, for X-rays, for MRIs, more MRI's and finally to have his leg brace fitted. Occasionally, we had to wait at other locations to have MRIs done, for example.

Most striking was the fact that we only payed a total of 20 Euros co-pay for pain killers and the leg brace. Despite some of the waiting we had to do, we felt that B received good care, equivalent to the US. In fact, he got the MRIs immediately and they were better than one I had had in the US on one of my knees a number of years back. Plus, he got immediate results from a physician after the MRI, who then passed the information back to the orthopedic surgeon.

Some points worth noting - German physicians seem to prescribe Tylenol (Paracetamol) more often than any other painkiller. You have to insist on stronger stuff if a) you do not tolerate acetaminophen or b) your pain warrants something stronger. Be sure to ask a physician or pharmacist for drug interactions. Medication is described in German and dosage may differ from what is described in the printed material that comes with it as opposed to what your doctor recommends.

Mad King Ludwig Lived Here

Neuschwanstein

Funny how I have low expectations for places I know to be touristy and high expectations for places I've never heard of.

I meant to blog about Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau before but never got around to it. We were pleasantly surprised upon arriving in Hohenschwangau by the fact that there weren't nearly as many tourists as we thought. The service in our hotel was very courteous and dinner (trout with parsley potatoes) was excellent. We had a perfect view of Neuschwanstein floating in a patch of fog at sunset.

While some visitors opt to take the horse-drawn carriage up the hill, I recommend doing the 20-minute hike by foot unless you are medically unable to do so. The horse carriage doesn't drop you off the front door of the castle. You have to walk another ten minutes after getting off. Also, it takes much longer to wait for the carriage then it does to just walk up the hill.

We arrived in the early afternoon on a Sunday and had pre-ordered our castle tickets through the hotel. Because we delayed by a traffic jam on our way to Hohenschwangau, we asked the hotel to change our pre-assigned tickets to the castle from 3pm to 5:45pm, the last time-slot for the day, and they were kind enough to take care of it for us.

Order tickets a day in advance of your arrival and you should be fine. Also, I recommend to see Hohenschwangau castle before Neuschwanstein. Hohenschwangau is more complete and detailed in its presentation and it paints a whole picture of King Ludwig of Bavaria and his family. If you are fairly fluent, request the German tour as 95% of tourists are from elsewhere and lines for the German-speaking visitors are much shorter. Once you arrive at the castle entry point, your ticket number will appear on an electronic display for your time-slot and you file in the appropriate line.

See Neuschwanstein castle from another angle by taking the path to the left of the exit and walking to the Marienbrücke, a bridge suspended almost 300 feet above the Pöllat waterfall. Also worthwile doing is the paddleboat (5 Euros for 30 min.) or canoe rental on the Alpsee nearby.

Now I can say - been there, done that and liked it.

Lookey, Lookey Italy

Italy

Traveling by train in Italy, you become very familiar with one word - ritardo. It means "delayed". And delays become even worse when there is a train strike, a common occurence in Italy.

Vernazza, Venice and Bolzano were our planned destinations. We made two out of the three before our vacation was shortened in Venice. But more about that later...

Vernazza, our first stop, is located in a very scenic part of the Cinque Terre region. A trail connecting five cliff-side towns is what draws nature lovers to this area. The five towns - Monterosso, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manerola and Riomaggiore - are overrun by tourists (mostly Americans).

The food in most of the restaurants was poorly prepared and pricey. If you are not shocked by paying 10 to 15 Euros for a plate of pasta, then maybe an unsolicited 3 Euro per person bread and seating charge will do the trick. You can refuse the bread but they will still charge you.

Throughout this seven-day trip, we encountered various methods of being scammed and inconvenienced. In Vernazza, we went to a bakery and were harrassed by the owner for wanting one kind of pastry and not the one he suggested. He continued to harangue us even as we sat down to eat. At another restaurant, B ordered pasta with clams. What he got was mostly empty clam shells...

Venice, our second stop, is full of illegal street vendors peddeling counterfeit handbags. It's illegal to buy them and illegal to sell them and you don't want to be caught doing either. B was run over in a narrow alleyway by an illegal street vendor who was being chased by police. This happened fairly early on so we did not see very much of the city.

B was transported by ambulance boat to the hospital. An X-ray determined that his leg was not fractured and that he suffered contusions to his knee. On the second day, we had to find a place that sells crutches and we filed a police report against the vendor. The vendor had been arrested but they let him go with the ridiculous excuse that "he said he was under 18". He looked like he was in his late 20s.

We got a couple of souvenirs from Italy - crutches and brown socks. B had to buy brown socks because his were stolen from our room in Vernazza. We are glad to be back in Germany after this experience even though it took us 14 hours and an expensive train ticket to get back.

Koblenz

Koblenz, Germany

I visited the city of Koblenz a couple of weeks ago - much of it is under construction in preparation for the BuGa or Bundesgartenschau 2011. Preparations are under way for this huge event on both the river front, the Ehrenbreitstein fortress and the electoral palace. Entrance to the fortress was free, as it is undergoing construction. It was difficult to keep scaffolding and cranes out of my pictures so I didn't take that many. I had taken a video of the Rhine in Flames fireworks last year and it will take place again in Koblenz on August 8 of this year.

Oberusel has its own celebration this weekend called the Oberurseler Brunnenfest(in German). The three-day event includes music, food, even a couple of marathons.

Berlin - Rathen - Dresden

Berlin

I have a new favorite European city. I LOVE Berlin! We spent 5 beautiful days in Germany's capital before venturing south to Rathen for a short hiking trip and taking the train to Dresden.

We saw Berlin from above and below - literally. We went up on the TV tower to get a panoramic view of Berlin and on an underground tour of a defunct part of the U8. The "Berlin von unten" guided tour was unsual in that the 2.5 hour tour led us through dark tunnels of the underground and ended in a WW2 bunker in which part of a hallway was blocked off by an original piece of the wall. For this tour, we had to bring a bright flashlight and wear rubber boots (boots were provided for us).
While many tourists head straight for the museum island, we only saw two museums - the Dali museum on Potsdamer Platz with a large collection of Dali's drawings (no oil paintings) and the DDR museum, which provided a glimpse into what life was like in the former East Germany.
The weather was picture-perfect so we took a boat tour on the river Spree which is lined with cafes and beergardens.

Rathen

We then took the train to Rathen, a little town on the Elbe river known for the "Bastei", or sandstone rock formations, towering over it. Hiking in this area is just breathtaking and trails of varying degrees of difficulty lead through woods, towns, meadows and - inevitably - the next beergarten. We booked a room in a 13th century "burg" with a beautiful view over the river valley.

Dresden

Our last part of the trip was spent in Dresden. We went on a special 2.5 hour guided tour that took us to Kurt Vonnegut's famous "Slaughterhouse 5". Vonnegut was a POW in WW2, survived the decimation of Dresden in the meatlocker of this slaughterhouse and later became a celebrated American author. Our guide, Grit, did a great job explaining the architecture of Dresden, its history and its ties to Vonnegut's novel.
Dresden is an eclectic mix of architecture - what's old is new and what's new is old. We were fortunate also to catch part of the Dixieland music celebration on the river. Dozens of dinner boats and a few real paddlewheel steamboats float up and down the Elbe while people listen to the music onboard and from the shoreline. The evening culminated in fireworks over the river.