I’m an awful blogger

November 28, 2010 at 1:58 pm (Europe, Travel) (art, France, German festivals, German food, Germany sights, Live Music, Ski Club)

Cannstatter Volksfest, Mark II
Okay, so since the last post, about TWO MONTHS ago, we’ve done some travelling. We enjoyed our first trip to the Cannstatter Volksfest with the Tannenbaum Ski Club so much that we went back down the following weekend with another Tannenbaumer, Ken. The three of us didn’t have tent tickets, so we just wandered around the fest grounds, enjoying the sights, atmosphere, food, bier, and spent some time in a small biergarten tent. It was a completely different experience from the week before, and was just as much fun.

Wetzlar, Germany
A couple weeks after that, George and I drove to Wetzlar, the small town northeast of Frankfurt where the Leica camera was born. It’s a pretty town in a river valley, and we had a beautiful day for wandering around it. Other than the Leica history, though, there’s not a whole lot happening in the town, so it’s not really a tourist draw.

Strasbourg, France
We went to Strasbourg, the capital of the Alsace region. Unlike Metz, there was no military objective in Strasbourg, so it was spared during WWII, leaving the altstadt (old town) area largely intact. It was the first city we’ve been in where the entire alstadt is half-timbered buildings and narrow cobbled streets. It’s a truly beautiful city and has surpassed Metz as our favorite in France. Unfortunately, it was freakishly overcast and dark that day – not terribly conducive to photography.

A relative finally visits!
Last week, my cousin Rachel was here. She was in Villseck, Germany, visiting a friend, then took the train here to Kaiserslautern. We picked her up at the train station Monday night. Tuesday, she and I hung around downtown K-Town, meeting George and some coworkers for lunch. Wednesday, Rachel and I went to our neighborhood metzgerei (butcher shop) to pick up a schweineroll for dinner that night, then we went to Metz for several hours. We stopped at the Cora supermarket on the way back and got some wine, baguettes, and dessert, then picked George up from work. We had a really great evening drinking wine and eating Boursin (herbed cheese spread) and crackers while dinner cooked and music played. George took Thursday and Friday off, and the three of us went to Strasbourg Thursday. It was chilly, but just as beautiful as the first time we were there. As we wandered around, we found ourselves on a street we’d been on the first time we visited the city, where there’s an art gallery (Carré d’Artistes). In our first visit, I’d found an artist there I really liked, but I couldn’t decide on a painting, and wasn’t sure I wanted to spend that much money on one. This time, it seemed like it was fate that drew us to the same gallery. George found an abstract painting he really liked (and it looks fabulous in our living room, where we’ll surround it with prints of his black and white photography), and I found a painting I love by the same artist to whose work I’d been drawn the first time, Chérifa Bounab-Wexler, so we bought both, with frames. We got a later start leaving the city than we wanted and had to hurry back to K-Town to meet a couple friends for dinner at Hotel Idyll for my birthday. The schnitzel there is the best George and I have had anywhere in Germany. Friday, we all slept in a bit, then Rachel and I took a last little walk around Erfenbach before I drove her to the train station.