Yesterday we had four of our best friends here in Italy over to share lunch with us. We had invited everyone a couple weeks ago figuring we would be FINALLY past the heat. Hah! In our dreams. It was going to be 35. So I told everyone to just dress cool. Turns out, although it was warm, it was bearable. And my food was not hot. Here is the table.
We started with bruschetta. Three types. Tomato, cannellini beans, and avocado. Here is our gang. All of them live near each other, we are the outliers. From left, Steve, Doug, Luther, Roselyne and Jennifer.
Here is the secondo. It is a Paella Salad with Mussles, Clams and Shrimp. The marinated seafood is made a day ahead and chilled. The saffron flavored rice is made in the morning and left to cool after tossing with the dressing and vegetables. Served with a tomato, garlic mayonnaise. Also called a rouille in France.
Today, Sunday, the day after the feast, we are on the cusp of actual cooling. Nice. This week we try to get ready for our big, upcoming trip to Ireland with my sister and her husband. I am sure we will need coats for this trip!
The heat spell continues. Daily temperatures of 35C, 95F. Not quite as bad as the over 100 days. At night it cools enough to sleep well. Looks like we have another week of this heat and then it begins to cool to around 30C.
We get our errands done in the mornings. I need one more big pot and would like to get it from our Molini Popolari so it matches the one for the kumquat. But they are sold out and I keep checking to see if they got more. Anyway, they have not. But I did notice this whole array of chicken coops. From very tiny, how many chickens could they hold. One? Two? And up to very large. I have always wanted to keep a couple chickens. But on a roof terrace? I dunno.
I finally bought a cabinet that will hold all my garden stuff, brooms and dust pans. We assembled it on Sunday. I hate assembling things. But we managed with only one mistake and that one wasn’t our fault! Nothing makes me happier than organizing things and making things tidy. Check this out!
Umbertide has begun a major building project. I can’t make hide nor hair of how this is going to work. The aim is to integrate our collegiata, the 15th century round church, into the Centro more. They are separated from each other now by a parking lot and a road. I read they will change the traffic patterns and there will be more places to sit. Here is a scan of the changes. If you can figure it out, let me know!
And on a very sad (and angry) note. There was some major vandalism in the Centro of Umbertide. One of my favorite things was destroyed. It was a pretty Madonna in an arch on a building. They gouged out her face then spray painted all over her. Some people have nothing better to do.
Screenshot
Thursday is the beginning of our huge annual festa, Otto Cento. Merriment and mayhem will prevail. Food, drinks, stilt walkers, dancers, music, costumes. All in the spirit of the late 1800s when Italy became a country. It lasts for four days. We used to live just above it all and it was loud. Now, we have to walk in to visit. If you’re interested type Otto Cento in the search bar on this site to see other years festivals. Lotsa pictures.
I promised to write about our lunch today. It was a doozie. We went with our friends Jane and Christie. This restaurant we have visited twice before a few years ago. It is way out in the countryside south of Gubbio. A beautiful location on a ridge top with views of the very high Sibillini mountains in one side and Monte Acuto and the smaller mountains on the other. The food is innovative and uses much local foraged produce. It also uses a lot of fermented items. So, without further ado….
To begin, we had 3 small “gifts” from the chef. One was a take on sushi with cured pigeon for us meat eaters. Then a caramelized savory crème brûlée and the last was a bottarga covered unknown other but it was delicious. They all were.
I started with a grilled melon with a goat cheese schmear plus other delicious other bits to include fermented arugula.
Luther got the amazing tortelli di cacciagione, tobacco, e stracchino di capra. It was marvelous and weird.
I had the melanzana glassata – eggplant but so, so much more!
Finally we shared a dessert. Carota, mandorla e fava tonka.
We had arrived just when a ferocious thunderstorm arrived. It was very atmospheric. This was kind of a last supper, ok, last pranzo 😊 with our friends who return to the US on Wednesday after around 6 months here. We wanted to take them somewhere different. It was great fun. A delicious meal with good friends.
It is an August Saturday in Umbertide. As I always do on Saturday, I went in to the market. It is brimming with summer produce. I bought a bunch of tomatoes, zucchini, a big beet, lettuce, and half a sugar baby watermelon from one vendor, oh, and ten eggs from the nice Sardinian cheese lady. Eggs are sold in different amounts in the stores here. They sell them in a four pack, and in a ten pack. In the market you can just say how many you want. Like six, or three. I bring a box for them to use. Eggs are not refrigerated here because they are not washed. They leave the film that coats them when they are laid which keeps the bacteria out. Although sometimes, when it is very hot, I will pop them in the refrigerator to extend their life.
Here are some pictures of my town and of the market starting with my entering the centro. The Rocca, our fortress, there since the 800s, dominates the town.
Entering Piazza Matteotti the market tents take up the square.
The vegetables and fruits are beautiful! All the summer fruits. The peaches are in now, the pears just beginning, and the plums! Roma tomatoes dominate but some stands still have salad tomatoes.
There are vendors selling other things as well. All must be produced/made by the vendor. This first is the dried legumes for which Umbria is famous. The next one is the black summer truffles for which Umbria is ALSO very famous. Then jams and honeys.
This ceramics guy is always here. I have one or two of his pieces. They are made here in town.
Back home with my treasures I finished the tomato tart I had begun early this morning. I made the pastry and refrigerated it. When I got home I finished it and popped it into the oven. It heated up the house somewhat but not too bad. Since I had the oven on and heated I popped the big beet I had bought in to roast. It will make a nice salad with feta and toasted nuts. Here is the finished tart. A David Leibovitz recipe.
We will have the tart with a small salad and a bowl of the cold tomato soup that I made earlier in the week. Vegetarian to make up for the steak extravaganza last night! 😁
We paid a visit to our favorite butcher, Etrusco, this week. He was posting pictures of his amazing meats and this particular cut caught my eye. Picanha. A cut first popularized in Brazil, and adopted by Portugal. I had not heard of it. Apparently it is not common in the U.S. The steak comes from what was called a bue grasso, or fat ox. This is the huge white cattle they have here. A multipurpose animal. In the past they plowed the fields under harness and pulled the cart. They also gave milk in limited quantities, and they were used as meat. Huge gentle beasts, pure white. I could certainly never kill one. But, I am certain that this butcher sources his animals locally and that the animals are grass fed, happy during their lives, and slaughtered in a humane way.
We bought a steak and also some other meat, much of it from the bue grasso. Well veined with fat, I guess that’s why they call them grasso. (Sorry, my vegetarian friends) Tonight I built a wood fire in the outside fireplace, despite the heat, and grilled the steak.
I must say was one of the best steaks we have ever had. Very tender and oh so flavorful. I served it with a tomato mozzarella di bufala salad. The tomatoes are from my plants. They are sweet. The basil is from the basil plants that ate manhattan! 😉🤣
Buon appetito! ~~~~~~~ This weekend will be when the weather changes. Tomorrow is the kilo 0 market. I will buy more tomatoes while they last. They won’t be around much longer. On Sunday we are going to a restaurant with our friends Christie and Jane. It is the end of a long stay for them. The weather will be cooler, in the 20s. I will do a post about the restaurant for sure. Buon fine settimana!
A note to all. I was asked to publish the recipes, so I put the pickle relish recipe and the Tomato Butter Sauce from a couple posts ago on the Recipe tab in the top menu. I hope you enjoy them! ~~~~~~~ Today I am trying a new cold soup. Well, new to me anyway. Someone posted in a group I follow on Facebook that they were using up the bounty of tomatoes in their garden and this is what they made. Being as we are still in this dastardly heat wave I’m stressing my brain to make things that need little or no cooking. Cool cooking at its best! Super easy to make.
We are soooo lucky to live here where the produce is like diamonds, sparkling in the sun. The tomatoes are ruby red and plump with juice. I realized when we were in Germany that there was a huge difference in quality of products between Italy and Germany, which gets their produce primarily from Holland, notorious for its hothouse veggies with zero taste. I guess I am spoiled. I forgot not everyone has what we take for granted here.
So here’s the recipe for Salmorejo Andalusian Soup.
Take a kilo of ripe home grown tomatoes (2.2lbs). I used romas. The original recipe said you didn’t have to peel or seed them, but I decided to parboil, peel and deseed (I did this early morning when it’s not so hot). Apparently if you’ve got a blender you can just throw them in and whiz until even the skin is undetectable, but I only have a processor. Cut into chunks 200 grams (7 ounces) day old loaf of bread. Soak in water until soft and squeeze water out. Add to tomatoes. 2 garlic cloves crushed, add to tomatoes. 1 tablespoon vinegar (preferably sherry, but any will do), add to tomatoes. 120 grams (1/2 cup) extra virgin olive oil, add. A tablespoon salt and pepper. Blend all together until consistency of yogurt. Chill. When ready to serve, taste and adjust salt and pepper. Optional: serve with a sliced hard boiled egg and some prosciutto on top and drizzle with oil. Yum!
Buon appetito! ~~~~~~~ PS, the good news for us is that the heat spell will finally break starting Saturday. Next week I even see one day that’s supposed to be 29 degrees. Wowsa! Maybe we can actually leave the house and do something fun, imagine that! 😳
Maybe you all don’t use or like sweet pickle relish but our household always has it, and so did my Mother’s. We use it in tuna salad, chicken salad and potato salad. Thing is, you won’t find anything remotely like it here. Also you’ll never find nice dill pickles. Alas. So we make our own. I say we, because Luther uses it a lot in tuna salad so I told him there is a TON of chopping so you can help. And he does. He has gotten very good at the peppers.
Luther’s peppersCucumbers, cetrioli in Italian.Soaking in brine.Finito!
This is only one of the things we want that are not available here. I make my own ranch dressing too, because dressing isn’t a “thing” here. There are not shelves full of different salad dressings. In Italy it is oil and vinegar and that’s it.
I also make Bisquick from scratch. That’s probably weird but it is useful in some things I make. I make my own fish fry to coat fish. Buttermilk is not available here, but it’s really easy to make. I am sure there are more! ~~~~~~~ We are still living our heat spell — it has to have been three weeks solid (maybe four) with the exception of that one day of rain. It is said to be because of an African heat dome that is stuck. Here’s the forecast for the next 7 days…and it goes on after that. 🥵. 38C is 100.4F.
I got out early this morning to show some people an apartment that my friend, who lives in Wales now, is renting. Piazza Matteotti was deserted. But cool at 8:30. I said hi to Irene at Bar Mary, and my friend Angelo at his Alimentari. Nice to see old friends. Miss them!
Finally a little about the garden. Being on the roof and in full sun the tomatoes are suffering. I got past the blossom end rot problem with extra calcium. I water twice a day. Still they look like they are miserable. I need a sun shade or something. My first year is an experiment for sure. There are quite a few tomatoes but they are small. They taste really sweet though.
I will leave you with a picture of my kumquat tree which is doing really well. She seems to really like the sun. She’s covered with sweet smelling blossoms…and the blossoms are covered with…honey bees! (You can see one bottom center).
It is pouring outside! It has been dastardly hot and this so so refreshing. Also, as always, it has been very dry. I opened the windows. I’m upstairs where I can hear the rain pounding on the roof and on the awning. It just feels so wonderful. We have had 3 or 4 weeks of super hot, as in the upper nineties to one hundred. No break. And it is predicted to continue for two more weeks. So this wonderful storm is very welcome. It will continue for a few hours.
Dinner a couple nights ago, butter tomato sauce pasta. The Roma tomatoes are now in season. I like to make this sauce and freeze it for winter use but here is some I made today.
A couple other interesting observations that I forgot to mention in the trip report. One is the cash economy in Germany. We never encountered as many restaurants that would only take cash. Even in Italy, supposedly more backward than Germany I don’t know of any restaurant that won’t take a credit card. Second one was also about how you can pay. This time, in the Cologne Cathedral, we noticed that if you wanted to light a candle for a loved one or send up a prayer, they DO take a credit card! 🙂 How progressive of the Catholic Church! But in Boppard, to park in any of the pay lots you must have change. No bills accepted, and no cards. How odd. ~~~~~~~ It is still quite hot here. Running from 35 to 37 each day for at least the next two weeks. That’s 95-99 for those who are metric challenged. We do have to run errands but wow! So hot. It really takes it out of you. Yesterday we went to the local market in the piazza. Then to buy a crate of fizzy water, and finally to the grocery store to stock up. We were both whipped when we got home.
I have a sad tomato story. Last post I did on them they were looking good. But now I must report the tomatoes are ripening with blossom end rot. I found if I picked the tomato when it was just beginning to ripen I could still use them. But many I couldn’t do that with. I read it was a lack of calcium in the soil so I have been feeding them with calcium plant food. Also some people say too much water can inhibit the absorption of the calcium, but it is just so freaking hot on that terrace in the full sun, if they aren’t watered they shrivel up and look pathetic. I am cutting back a little on the water. Anyway here is a bowl of the ones I did get that are fine.
We have a new wine bar in the Centro! Labrusca Wine Bar. Right next to La Rocca, our fortress. Run by a couple of young ragazzi. They feature lots of local Umbria wines, many we had not heard of. Also artisan local beer, and very delicious snacks. They have a small plate menu as well. There is a beer fest in town now too, called UmBEERtide! So they weren’t serving the menu. We met up with Jane and Christie at the new bar last evening. Always nice to have a new place in town.
Photo credit Michaël Cloet
Today is Sunday. We had a lunch planned with our Canadian friend Karen, at Calagrana. She is a teacher and every summer she comes and stays (mostly) in Tuscany. So we get together. She loves Calagrana. Our main courses. I forgot to photo the starter of grilled peaches, cherry tomatoes, with ham and buratta. So good.
Tagliatelle with trufflesFegato (liver) with potato puree. I love liver and this was superb.Baby chicken.
…and for our salad tonight, borlotti beans from the local market which just came in season. In English they are cranberry beans. Too bad they turn brown when cooked! But they taste great!
Ciao for now! Stay cool all y’all! (That’s the Virginia in me coming out! 🤣)
Sorry I have been quiet. It is very hot in Italy. About 100 F here, 37C. So we pretty much do the shutter management and stay inside. We did get the chance to go on a ten day trip to Germany so this will be my Germany 2024 trip report. ~~~~~~~~ Monday 15 July We drove north to Bologna airport. Terrible trip. Accidents caused major delays. We had allowed enough time so we didn’t worry. We arrived at the Hotel Bologna Aiport about an hour after we had planned. They were keeping our car and we took their shuttle to the airport. There was no line at the Lufthansa desk so we got checked in quickly. That left plenty of time for a lunch in the airport. There is a restaurant in the terminal called Vecchia Bologna. Believe it or not it is really quite good. Luther had a big salad and I had a plate of Tagliatelle con Ragú. Very delicious. Bye bye Italia!
The flight was delayed and we arrived in Frankfurt a bit late. Then when we got to the luggage carousel the sign said our luggage was delayed. Sigh. Finally arrived at the rental car desk handily in the terminal. This time all went well and we were on the road at 5:30pm. The trip was uneventful and we got to Boppard Germany on the Rhine River at about 7pm.
We were meeting up with old friends who live in Australia. Kaye and Jeff, whom we knew from when Kaye worked in Washington DC at the Australian Embassy. And Steve and Shiromi who originally were Kaye and Jeff’s long time friends, who are now our friends. They travel together for long trips and we either meet them somewhere, or they have also stayed in Italy with us. So that is the back story. The first evening we just chatted and Luther and Steve had an adventure trying to get pizza for our dinner in the house. They couldn’t find their way home! 😁
Tuesday, 16 July Luther and I had tried to do research before we came on activities for us to do. The first day we had planned a trip to Cologne on the train. We are using only public transport because our car isn’t big enough for everyone.
The gang
We arrived with no problem in Cologne in the midst of a rain storm. The train station is right beside the magnificent cathedral. Really quite breathtaking. It was built between 1248 and 1560 it is 157 meters or 515 feet tall. It has magnificent twin spires. It was badly damaged in 1943 but was still standing after the bombardment. Most of Cologne was destroyed in the bombardment. We went into the cathedral and were there for noon prayers and were treated to two beautiful pieces played on the magnificent organ. Wow. Nothing quite like an organ played in a cathedral as tall as this one. Acoustics were amazing.
515 feet tall. Hard to photograph.After the bombing in 1943. Not much left.The interior is vast.Picture from the side.Picture from the side
After that the weather got quite nice and we did a nice walk around town. We stopped for refreshments on a big pedestrian shopping street.
Cologne streetStore selling sculptures – close out sale!
On to our very traditional restaurant Bei d’r Tant. They had every possible German dish. We had a real feast. Sausages, liverwurst, some had Schnitzels, some Pork Medallions. Much nice German wine. Then we headed back.
Our restaurant Shiromi’s leberwurst. She liked it.Luther’s Schnitzel mit schinken und käse uberbachen.My Wiener schnitzel
An eventful train trip ensued. We boarded our late train and off we went. All of us fell asleep and missed an important announcement. Turns out the train splits into two and we needed to be on the front half. By the time we were awakened by the cleaning crew the front of our train had left us behind. Next train one hour. One hour later, a pile of people exited the back cars for the front cars. I guess they got the memo we did not, and this must happen with every train! How strange.
Falling asleep on the train has consequences!
We went grocery shopping because we were going to eat in. I made some spaghetti amatriciana. We also had a nice salad. That was perfect because we didn’t want to go out again.
Jeff and Luther enjoyed Laphroig scotch courtesy of Jeff most nights.View from the house The garden and patio.
Wednesday 17 July This day was our ferry trip up the river to Bacharach. The house had come with guest passes that get you on all local trains for free. Only thing was we hadn’t figured out how to get them. So today we filled them all out with our names etc and took them to the tourist information center. They explained that we merely tear off the bottom and each person gets one of these. They are our tickets. We headed for the ferry dock. We got a 20% discount with our tickets. And off we went. None of the ferries were terribly full at all. I had visions of packed ferries. Easy to get good seats. It was a bit overcast but comfortable temperatures in the 70s.
We glided up-river, slowly, through the Rhine gorge. Castles were on many of the crags. two were the famous castle Maus and castle Katz. We passed pretty villages like St. Goar. We saw the famed Lorelei rock. The hills were lined with vineyards. Seemed to me that quite a few had been abandoned which is sad. In two and a half hours we arrived.
Our ferry arrivesReady to go!Sankt GoarRhine vineyardsPfalzgrafensteinThe Lorelei
We pulled into the dock at Bacharach. It was 1:30 and we were hungry. We had a reservation at Posthof Bacharach. In a pleasant courtyard with the ruins of an abbey above us on the hill. Luther and I had Wiener schnitzels. Others had a vegetarian pflame küche and a shredded sausage dish which was plain old weird.
Lunch in Bacharach Ruined church above our restaurant
After our lunch we walked around the pretty town. Very, very quiet. A surprise.
Gate.
Pictures in the town.
Loved this one. The pictures on the sign 🙂There were four of these in a shop windowLoved the beauty of this door with the wood and wrought ironSteve
Then we headed for the railroad station and after a while our train showed up. Technically we weren’t quite within the range our tickets covered but only by one stop, so we chanced it. Seems no train trip goes smoothly. Our train stopped and we all had to get off and board another one. But in the end, we got home.
Waiting as usual – trains always late.
This night we had left over pizza and cheese and fruit and meat.
Thursday 18 July This day we decided to go up the Mosel River. It is a smaller river and runs into the Rhine in Koblenz. We used our free tickets and went to Koblenz and changed trains to get on the Mosel Bahn. We enjoyed the very scenic trip up the river. This is also a major wine area which we loved to visit back when we lived in Germany. The slopes up which the vines are planted are incredibly steep. On some of them the harvesters have to be lowered on ropes with baskets.
Mosel vineyard.
We arrived in Cochem. It is a popular tourist town with a great castle looming above. Back when we lived in Germany we went to the Mosel in flames festival. They shoot off incredible fireworks from the castle. Anyway, the town was packed with people.
Wall beside the bridge to the other side of the river.Cochem square.
We couldn’t find a place to eat. Finally we saw a tiny bierstube and they could accommodate us. They had an extremely limited menu. We all ordered something and got fed and all the others felt they were having a very authentic experience. I was happy. Then we walked back to the train station and caught our trains back home. We stopped to shop for dinner. This time two chickens, pasta for a cold pasta salad, and a fresh salad. The chickens roasted were super easy. I used my Thomas Keller recipe. Fail safe and crazy easy.
Friday 19 July The weather is much cooler than in Italy but each day it had gotten hotter since we arrived. Today was hitting 90. We had planned a visit to Koblenz. We have been having terrible issues with the trains to Koblenz the last two days. They are always late and always literally packed like sardines. It comes from Frankfurt. Someone said a major rail line closed and everyone is using this line. Not sure. But it is horrible.
We arrived at about 11:15 and headed out for a walkabout. It’s not a huge city. It does have an old town but it was hit hard in the war so not terribly much was left standing. We went over to the Mosel and walked down that side of the city. You eventually come to the Deutches Ecke, literally German corner. It is where the Mosel runs into the Rhine. There is a monumental building to the second Reich just at the end. Then we walked along the Rhine and watched the river traffic.
There was a whole story with this one but I don’t remember it.The Palace in Koblenz
Lunch was on the bank of the Rhine at a restaurant called Pegelhaus. We sat outside and had a lovely lunch. We all had fish except Steve. Three salmon and one sea trout. To start there were only five choices. Two got the caprese salad. Luther got the beet tartar, and I got gazpacho. All were cool and nice on a hot day.
Lunch on the RhineMy gazpacho Luther’s beet tartar.
Then we started back to the station. It was a real slog. Hot hot hot. Once back we headed to our house to rehydrate, shower, and nap. It did take it out of us.
Saturday 20 July The little blue train. This was the plan. This is a one car diesel powered train that goes up the hill from the Rhine River to the plateau above. It takes about half an hour and is a bit scenic as it travels through tunnels and forests. A lot of cyclists use the train to go up and ride back down. There are also lots of hiking trails in the forests. The last stop was in Emmelshausen. From the train.
We all debarked and walked into what there was of the town, which was not much. It certainly wasn’t picturesque and being Saturday morning most stores were closed. We decided to have ice cream in the pretty town park. We left and went a different way back which took longer than expected and we nearly missed the next train, but we made it. Whew!
We rode back and then decided to walk around Boppard and find a place to eat. We did, in one of the grand hotels along the Rhine. This is a really pretty town with quite a lot to see. Many squares with cafes and tables and a lovely promenade along the river planted with red carnations in flower boxes. There was an outside restaurant and an inside one. It was very hot outside and there was no shade so we went inside. They turned on the lights just for us. We all had yummy things. Several fish dishes, sea bream and salmon. Nice tomato mozzarella salads with cheese that bore no resemblance to actual mozzarella. Hah! We had four bottles of wine! We went to the grocery store to buy dinner fixins and then back to the house and crashed for the afternoon.
The lunch bunchMy tomato mozzarella (?) salad.Sea bream My salmonSchnitzel
Jeff had foolishly volunteered to grill sausages for us that evening. I volunteered potato salad and Steve made a salad. We had the super sharp German mustard we all love. And all sorts of sausages from bratwursts, to weißwursts to the smaller Nürenberg type sausages. Quite satisfying.
Sunday, 21 July We started slowly this day. Some of us decided to take the ferry up river again to Sankt Goar, a small village up-river. The other two took the train. We all met at the dock. The town is quite small. We did happen upon a festival being celebrated by the local shooting club on the bank of the Rhine. They were all dressed in their green uniforms with a multitude of medals pinned upon them. They had a good band. We didn’t want to intrude so we headed back into town. Doing a bit of window shopping along the way.
Walking to the dockFrom the ferryShooting club party.Cuckoo clock shop. Never saw so many!
Zur Krone was our destination for lunch. It was a basic Gaststätte which serves the standard German dishes. We ordered only a main course each and it was too much food. Several got schnitzels, I got Sauerbraten with spätzel. And Shiromi got the diet plate, smoked salmon and potato fritters. 😉 The Germans have a strange definition of diet and fitness food.
Zur Krone for lunch.
We returned on the train only to find the supermarket closed. I figured it would be, it is Sunday after all. We did find a wine store open and bought a few bottles for dinner.
It was rather a disorganized dinner. I had volunteered to make pasta agli olio and I did, but only some of us ate it. We just kind of winged it. Monday would be our last full day here.
Monday, 22 July Last day with our friends. It has been a lot of fun. Three decided to go to take the chair lift to the top of the hill with a great view of the Rhine and Boppard. There is a sign that said “the bendiest bend in the Rhine” which is right here in Boppard.
The other three of us went into town to do some shopping and walk around. We all met up at the ferry dock and then walked to find lunch. Restaurant Severus Stube was our choice. On a tiny street with outside tables that took up the entire alley.
One of the squares in Boppard.
It was a very fun last lunch. Very unusual food. Some better than other. But overall really fine. The waiter, Alex, said the portions are huge. We tried to mitigate that by sharing courses. It still was too much. One of the funny things was the salads. There were salads everywhere! Everything seemed to come with a salad. Then any extra plate to share all came with an extra small glass of lettuce dressed with a lively yogurt dressing. I had a lovely avocado toast which came with a poached egg on top, a glass of dressed tomato and a glass of dressed lettuce. Yes a glass. They were served in glasses. Some had ravioli, we had a Tuscan schnitzel yes, Tuscan schnitzel. 🙄
Our last evening together was spent trying to eat the left overs in the fridge. Which we sort of made a dent in, but didn’t eat it all.
Tuesday, 23 July It was time to say goodbye. We all packed up. The Australians had been on vacation for a month. They started with a cruise of the Fjords, so they had cool weather and hot weather clothes. This works out to a lot of luggage. We left about 10:30 and drove down the lovely Rhine gorge and onward to Wiesbaden. It took a bit over an hour.
We checked into the Nassaure Hof the grand Dame of Wiesbaden hotels. It is just next to the Kurhaus which is where one used to go to “take the waters” now it is the convention center. And there is the famous Casino which is located in a wing of the Kurhaus. Very opulent. Been there since 1771. There are large parks nearby. We walked to a big pedestrian area with lots of restaurants. We chose Due Amici which was supposed to be an Italian restaurant. We each had a starter to keep it light. Mine was quite good. An avocado and tomato salad with 3 grilled shrimp and wasabi crème with a lime dressing which gave it a nice tang. Definitely not an Italian dish. Very light and perfect.
Dinner was at Benner’s Bistronomie. It was in the Casino building. We ate in this same “place” years ago with my sister and her husband but it was a different restaurant then. The room is lovely. They had a really good guitar player which contributed to the ambiance. The food was only ok but we had fun anyway.
Wednesday, July 24 Homeward bound. Everything worked for a change yet Lufthansa still managed to arrive late in Bologna. The 2.5 hour drive home was not bad, which is not always the case. It is always good to get home. Shout out to my friend Jen who cared for our boyz and our garden.
Observations We lived in Germany from 1989 to 1995. Much has changed. Germany used to have the reputation for everything working and everything on time. Not anymore. Late is now the watchword. We used public transportation for all our adventures. We never had a train that was on time. Both of our Lufthansa flights were late. Our luggage was late.
Aside from that it seems the Germans have an infatuation with Italian restaurants. Probably one out of two was Italian. But then I found out they’re all Mafia owned and it is a money laundering operation. Who knew? The only reliable transport were the ferries.
The house Steve found (great going Steve!) was perfect, aside from the stairs, but we all managed. Oh and the odd bathrooms. On the top floor where we were, there were two bedrooms and two baths. However one had a toilet, shower and sink. The other had two sinks and a bathtub. So we all had to share the toilet. But that was really fine. There was a spectacular view of the Rhine and the village of Boppard. It had a hot tub and a nice patio with a fully mature garden. There was a convenient grocery store, and lots of shops and restaurants in the town.
Best and worst
Worst transport – Lufthansa and the German rail system
Best transport – our rental from Enterprise and the two ferries we took
Best sights – Cologne cathedral and the Rhine gorge itself
Disappointment – the Mosel River valley and Cochem.
Best meals – hard to choose. Bei d’r Tant, Cologne. Pegelhaus in Koblenz. Restaurant Severus Stube in Boppard.
Worst meal – the little bierstube in Cochem
Prettiest location – lunch in the Posthof in Bacharach on the pretty patio under the ruined church.
Now to say ciao…or, as the Germans say, tschüss!
PS: We just found out the Frankfurt airport is CLOSED today! Climate activists are camped out on the runways. We all dodged THAT bullet. Whew!
