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Forty Days
Celebrating Forty Years!
Fall 2002
Maulbronn
We would overnight in Karlsruhe,
Germany, on our way to Zürich. A member of our travel
discussion group, Baerbel, suggested we take the train
from Nuernberg as far as Stuttgart, where she would pick
us up for a tour of the well-known Maulbronn Monastery
and then on to Karlsruhe.
Leaving Nuernberg at 09:43, we
arrived in Stuttgart at 11:53 to find Baerbel parked in
front of the train station rearing to go. It was a pretty
drive all the way. In the town of Muhlacher, we spotted a
cute ristorante pizzeria, La Grotta, at Loffelstelzweg 2.
It was a perfect pasta and pizza lunch stop. The
atmosphere was as congenial as our waiter and the food
was well-prepared with very fresh, quality ingredients.
The former Cistercian Monastery
at Maulbronn, which is over
eight hundred fifty years old, is acknowledged as the
best-preserved and impressive medieval monastic complex
north of the Alps. The Protestant Monastery School, which
was founded at Maulbronn after the reformation, was
converted to a Protestant Theological Seminary in 1807,
which still exists today. The school and seminary have
produced some famous people including Herman Hesse, Nobel
prize-winning author, Johannes Kepler, astronomer and
Friedrich Holderlin, poet, to name a few. The Monastery
at Maulbronn was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage
Site in 1993. The complex is protected by a fortress-like
enclosure of high walls, towers and wards. We highly
recommend taking the audio tour guide of the monastery,
which can be rented at the office for a reasonable price.
The monastery is a beautiful structure
inside and out with many architectural highlights. One of
our favorites was the three-bowl fountain with basins
from different countries. In the vault are interesting
red chalk paintings above the tracery windows. The
courtyard, formed by timber-framed buildings contains the
administrative offices and residences, some of which
originally housed the stables, oats barn, bakers and
servants quarters, and administrative offices of the day.
It's worth the trip to Maulbronn, particularly if you're
in the care of a Ziner as kind and enthusiastic as
Baerbel.
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Karlsruhe
It was a short drive to Karlsruhe
where Baerbel dropped us off at the Hotel Kaiserhof, ideally located at the handsome Marktplatz.
The Hechler family owns and operates this very excellent
value four-star hotel. From the courteous, helpful staff
to the well-appointed and maintained property, we had the
feeling the management was interested in our comfort. Our
large room had a generous sitting area with a sofa and
chairs. The furnishings and decor were top notch and the
well-equipped bathroom had room to spare. Too bad we were
only staying one night, not even time to use the sauna.
We had made plans with another
Internet friend who would pick us up to go to dinner. We
had an hour or so to peek at the city. On the north end
of the busy Marktplatz is the four-kilometers long main
shopping street, Kaiserstrasse. Walking east, we came to
Kroven Platz, which was hosting a live concert and a
gathering of in-line skaters, who soon dominated the city
center. Just north of the Marktplatz is the schloss and
schloss gardens, fanning out in a circle surrounding the
castle. Quite a sight.
This was our day for meeting
wonderful people. New "in person" friend, John,
picked us up at 18:00 for a short drive north of the city
to the small town of Friederichstal to the family-run
restaurant Linde. What a delight! The town gentlemen were
in their appointed chairs catching up on all that had
happened since lunchtime. This was obviously the town
hangout, kitchen and bar. We had told John that we like
small, family-run neighborhood restaurants with home
style cooking, typical of the area, at reasonable prices.
John delivered exactly what we requested. The lady of the
house brought us the short menu, schnitzel five different
ways, choices of spaetzle or fried potatoes with onions (which
John warned are habit-forming) and green salad. A soup of
the day was also available.
And so we began with soup, a meat
broth with maultaschen - square, meat-filled pasta
delights and tender balls of semolina, egg and butter - a
meal to start the meal. Tender filets of white pork from
local, naturally-fed pigs, with a tantalizing, thin
breading, pan fried to golden, were sensational. Each
portion consisted of two large cutlets accompanied by as
much as you want family-style side dishes. Everything was
delicious as John had promised and excellent with
Moninger Bier before, during and after. This fabulous
feast was about 11 EUR per person!
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Zürich
We took a streetcar (trolley) from
Marktplatz in Karlsruhe right to the train station (1.40
EUR). We left at 10:00 and arrived in Zürich at 12:58,
changing trains in Basel.
Zürich was our place of choice for
our birthday weekend, since we could celebrate with two
of our favorite people, Fabio and Cornelia.
Today we would
start with the mandatory grilled bratwurst at the "sausage
place' in Bellevue Platz. Crispy on the outside, tender
and juicy inside, each bite to savor with wonderful
mustard while munching on a crusty, chewy roll. At 5 EUR
each, it was a bargain compared to the 3.60 EUR for a
single espresso at Starbucks. We have been to and written
about Zürich many times. We love it here, patrolling the
streets on both sides of the Limmat-Quai, enjoying the
pulse of both the old and the new cities.
Our friend,
Johannes, an amateur astronomer and therefore fascinated
by astronomical clocks (he actually understands how they
work!), told us that we must visit Türler,
Zürich-Paradeplatz, Bahnhofstrasse 28, to see the
Türler Clock. Türler is an old, established maker of
watches and jewelry who spent a nine-year period of
design and creation to complete this horological and
astronomical millenary masterpiece. This is the team that
realized the dream: Franz Türler, owner of the Türler
company, had the vision and is the clock's "spiritual
father", Jörg Spöring, master watchmaker and
movement designer, and Ludwig Oechslin, science and
technology historian and master watchmaker. The clock was
conceived and built in Switzerland and will remain
forever in the center of Zürich. If you can't get to
Zürich and would like detailed information about this
stunning mechanical marvel, just contact Türler and they
will be happy to send you material.
Tomorrow evening we would have our
celebration dinner at Kantorei. Tonight we met Fabio and
Cornelia at the King's Cave restaurant in the basement of
Hotel Central in Central Square. It's quite an elegant
cave and the specialty is steak - very excellent steak.
The filet mignon was perfect as were the grilled
vegetables, baked potatoes and garden salads. Best of all
was being with our friends once again.
September 21, 2002, Happy Birthday
Linda! We drove with our friends to Appenzell, due east
of Zürich. Today we are charmed - it was sunny! You see,
it invariably rains when the four of us are together.
Must be Linda's birthday karma.
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Stein
and Appenzell
The town of Stein is home to the Appenzell Demonstration Cheese Dairy. We stopped to tour the Appenzeller Schau-Käserei
to see how the famous Appenzell cheese is made. It all
starts with the brown cows of Appenzell who range freely
through lush pastures filled with healthy, natural
grazing. This guarantees top-quality milk from contented
cows for the production of the cheese. Best of all, we
were quickly going to discover that all these contented
cows were coming home for the winter from the mountain
pastures, a time for festivities galore - coinciding
perfectly with our own celebrations. It's all in the
planning. ;-)
The Appenzell environs are
spectacular visions of Swiss countryside. Lush green
mountains and valleys that are not only so pleasing to
the eye but provide the nourishment for those contented
brown cows.
The town of Appenzell is the
epitome of Swiss culture. The beautiful and colorful
architecture and design is enhanced by paintings that
tell the story of the family to whom the buildings belong.
But most significant is the number of pastry shops. There
were two seasonal items being featured. One was chunks of
herb breads coated with a thin layer of chocolate (the
writer totally consumed the small package we bought) and
the other is a special bread in a variety of shapes
stuffed with marzipan and almonds.
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Leaving Appenzell we arrived in the
small village of Gais just in time to greet the cows
returning home. This was a ball! Not only were the
villagers dressed in traditional costumes, but there was
a cow beauty contest in progress. Stands were set along
the sides of the road with sausages grilling, beer
flowing, and tables and chairs were filled with
merrymaking townspeople enjoying the festivities.
The cows were gathered in a large pasture
and there was a ritual by which judgments were made and
the losers were led away, monopolizing the country roads
in the process. We could not have driven on if we wanted
to, but we didn't want to.
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The children were really special. Dressed in
their adorable attire, they either played a specific role
or just had fun with their friends and families.
Observing the children and adults playing their roles,
the cows with big bells clanging while being herded down
the road made us nostalgically aware that here we were,
far removed from terrorism and wars, with people who live
their lives as they always have, preserving their
traditional and happy ways.
It took us a while to drive back to
Zürich because the country roads were a continuous
stream of brown cows heading home for the holidays. What
a fun day!
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Zürich
Together with our friends, we had
discovered the Restaurant Kantorei last time we were in Zürich. We had enjoyed it so much, it was an easy
choice for our birthday bash. Thankfully, nothing had
changed. Thomas and Beatrice were on hand to greet their
guests and to ensure that all ran well. The pale yellow
walls, the crystal chandeliers, the shiny clean dark
wooden floors - all just as we had left it. Our waitress
this evening was different - and what a charmer!
We all selected Campari as an
aperitif and nibbled on delicious dark bread. Fortunately,
Fabio knows a bit about wine because this restaurant has
been acclaimed by Wine Spectator for its fine selection
and I would have been overwhelmed. Fabio selected a
Spanish red, Conde de Valde Mar Reserva, an excellent
choice. Kantorei did not let us down. Each and everything
we ordered was lovely to look at and a delight to consume.
Sweet corn chowder, served with a hearty corn pancake and
pureed gazpacho Andalusia as starters for us and tuna
carpaccio with ruccola, limes and grilled shrimp for
Fabio and Cornelia. As mains both of them ordered giant
ravioli stuffed with ruccola and mushrooms and we shared
grilled venison escalope on a ragout of morels with
spaetzli, brussels sprouts and red cabbage and rabbit
stew with the same accompaniments. Wonderful desserts and
coffees to finish - Happy Birthday and many happy returns!
Our last day together took us on
another Swiss beauty run, traveling on both sides of Lake
Zürich, southeast to Einsiedeln and the amazing Catholic
Abbey of Einsiedeln. The baroque design is stunning. The
symmetrical painted dome ceilings, grand archways and a
black Madonna were particularly impressive. The abbey and
adjacent monastery complex is quite large with a school
and gymnasium. The Slovenian community had a special
event in progress and combined with a triathlon in
progress the crowds were enormous. In fact we had to park
quite far away and pay the parking police to park at the
roadside.
We finished off the day at our
sausage stand where Linda had her last bratwurst of the
trip and I half of a grilled chicken, which is also
fabulous.
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