Christine at the Restaurant Schwabenstube

Since I did not travel for this holiday weekend, I decided to indulge in lunch.  I visited the Restaurant Schwabenstube.   Michelin awarded the restaurant 1 star.  The restaurant is located near Ludwigsburg, about 18 miles (this may be because of my unique way of navigating) north of Stuttgart.    

The amuse bouche:  I can't remember the description.  But I enjoyed it.

The first course consisted of salad with celery and venison.  The jam on the meat added a nice touch.  I would say, of the 3 courses, overall, I enjoyed this one best.  But this is not the best picture ever.  

The main entree included pork medallions, carrots, and I'm not sure.  But those were not french fries.  I do not know what they were, but they were delicious.  I could eat just those and be happy.  That gut (good).

Finally, I ate plum ice cream, with vanilla creme, plum composite, and cake.  Shockingly, the ice cream was not that good.  It was flavorless.  I was disappointed.  I did like the chocolate cigar though.  Best part of dessert.  Even if it was white chocolate.  

The Nuremberg restaurant is still number 1.  It will be really hard to beat the chocolate bars.  But I am trying.  ha ha  Guten Appetit.  

Christine

Checking to see if my blog is back

That's all.  I hope this works.  And this is not cool that it disappeared for a while.  Google is going to have trouble running the world if "things" just disappear from it.

Christine in Bad Urach, Germany (or the Swabian Alps)

I'm an urban dweller, building loving, pavement kind of person.  But the color of the leaves on the trees in the Swabian Alps are breathtaking.  I enjoyed my hike this weekend.  With a group from the MWR (Morale, Welfare, and Recreation) on base, I visited Bad Urach, Germany, which is 45 minutes to an hour away.  First, we hiked (well this was more of a walk) to a Wasserfullhutte (waterfall).

I heard that the waterfall freezes in the winter and looks like Luthor's lair in Superman.  How cool is that?  Return in January or February to see more pictures.

Then I hiked up to the ridge line (shown below):

A different view:

The view from the ridge line:

The tour guide practiced force protection on the way down to the beir garden for lunch.  This means we took a wrong turn and walked 10 minutes out of way and then back.  Thanks for the extra exercise.

We then hiked to 11th Century Ruins, Hohenurach.  This walk was relatively flat, until you got right before the ruins.  Then it was practically straight up:

The Ruins were originally a fort.  Later, they were used as a prison.   This time, I took a picture of the ruins information, so there is no need to retype it for you.

I took a picture of the English side.  You're welcome.

After hiking for a couple of hours, we visited a Thermal Spa.  This time I hung around the pools instead of the spa.  They had wonderful heated pools, outdoors.  Reminded me of hanging out in the hot tubs outside after skiing.  Skiing...  Soon it will be ski season again!  Can't wait.

Christine

Christine at the Great Market Hall, Budapest, Hungry

While in Budapest, I visited the Great Market Hall.  I love farmer market-type places.   According to Wikipedia, the Hungarians constructed it around 1896.

Still loving the tile roofs.

Inside the market hall:

And they sell stuff like paprika.  Which is not a spice.  But another name for peppers.  In accordance with my trying to expand your horizons, paprika is also German for peppers.

Interestingly, I found the following selling as well:

Now, I can't read Hungarian.  But clearly, around the world, people care about Aston and Demi.  I don't know why.  But they must.  (I'm thinking that Michelle, Colleen, and Marcie will appreciate this most.)

Christine

Christine in Budapest, Hungry

Today we start with a geography lesson for you.  Budapest is actually two cities:  Buda and Pest.  The Danube River separates the cities.  The hills on the Buda side are the foothills of the Alps.  I actually climbed Gellert Hill to get a picture of a statue (you can kinda see it to middle below) and the Buda and Pest city views.  A king brought the monk, Gellert, to Budapest in year 1000, after he converted Hungry to Christianity.  Some rebellious Magyars did not care for the change, put the monk in a barrel, drove long nails in from the outside, and rolled him down the hill.  He is now the patron saint of Budapest.  He probably would have preferred anonymity and living then this legacy.  I'm just guessing at this point.  

Gellert Hill

And this is what the walked looked liked:

And as I approached the top, through the trees:

And then:

Yep, the tour buses will take you up the hill.  Who knew?  Apparently everyone but me.  It is good I enjoy walking.  Everywhere.  Behind the statue is Citadella.  This was used during WWII.

The view from up there

Pest, Hungry

The other side of the River (side I was standing on):

Buda, Castle Hill (see green dome in middle)

More after the jump...

Notice Anything Different?

I'll wait while you check the picture.

Outside Demel, in Wien, Austria

*

*waiting*

*

*

 My eating gelato in Europe is pretty normal, so that is not it.

Try again.

*

*

It's chocolate chip gelato, that's normal (when orange gelato is not around, which I'm learning it is not usually around).

*

*

I have on the backpack while traveling.  Yep that's normal.  Gotta carry water somewhere.  But closer.

*

I'm not wearing my normal navy Hoyas sweatshirt.  

*** Ding ding ding Winner ***

I'll wait here while you look at some other posts to verify I normally wear it.

When I visited Wien, it was their turn to have summer for a week.  The Temperature generally reached 90 degrees each day. 

I loved it.  I love hot.  And sunny.  

It literally cooled off as I reached the train station to go back home.  It started raining and then the temperature fell to 60 degrees or something.  It turned back to Europe cold weather again.

Christine

Christine in Wien, Austria

A band in Wien (Vienna) welcomed me to the city.  What a great place.  (Not really sure why there was a band, but it's my blog so I'm going with it.)

Wien is now my favorite city in Europe.  To start, it is famous for it's pastry's and especially it's chocolate torte cake.  I sampled many pieces of cake to determine the best one.  It's a tough job, but someone has to do it.  I liked the Demel version best.  I had the sample piece there.  I'll be honest, the icing is to die for.  The cake is wonderful.  But the jam they add, not my favorite.  Hotel Sacher is known for the original torte (pictured below with whipped creme).  

Demel chocolate torte

I did more than eat (I know, hard to believe).  I visited various churches so I could get the money shot of the city.  The St Charles Church is beautiful inside and out.

Outside St. Charles Church.

Inside the very top dome of the St. Charles Church.

However, I have now determined that living in Europe is making my fear of heights worse.  In my head I know that it is safe to visit the top of the churches.  But my heart says, Christine get down now.  And my heart usually wins every time.  But this time, I think I am in the right to be nervous, at least for the St. Charles Church.  This Church lets you go to the top for an amazing view of the city.  It even has an elevator.  I tried 3 times, taking the elevator, to go to the top.  But seriously, it is on scaffolding.  I mean it moved when I was walking up (see the very top there--yes up there).  I just couldn't go up to the top of the scaffolding.  Really, who would do that?  Not me.  That's for sure.





As soon as I get to the top of the Church/high building/vantage point, I just want to get to ground as fast as humanly possible.  I hate waiting for elevators/people to move.  And once I get on ground again, I think, Christine, you should have stayed up there and took more pictures and took in the view.  It is safe or they would not let you up there.  I'll keep trying, but I'll also take suggestions on how to make this better.

St. Stephen's Cathedral (South Tower is the skinny tower on the left side).

St. Stephan's Cathedral is beautiful.  The city is in the process of cleaning the church.  I'm guessing it has not been cleaned in 700 years.  Half of the cathedral is black.  The other half is white, as they are trying really hard.  The front of the cathedral (pictured) is Romanesque.  The first structure was completed in 1160.  Of course a fire burned the church and the rebuilt church was finished in 1263.  The south tower was completed in 1433.  I still wonder how people accomplished the task of building a tower of 445 feet.  It is high.  I climbed up the steps of this tower.  I actually prefer to climb steps.  Because they start from the ground and are attached to the building.  And it is generally dark in the stairwells.

Steps.  Lots of steps.

I walked up to where the black part ends and the white part begins.

The view from the south tower.

I took the elevator up the north tower for a picture.  But this tower had a steel walkway that was attached to the church.  I HATE this feature.  I stopped right after the elevator, took a picture, and impatiently waited for the elevator to go down.  The picture has mostly the roof of the cathedral, which is a lovely tile.  It also has the steel cage.  Sorry, I just couldn't go father.  

My reward for being brave and taking pictures:

 and:

I did more that just eat and look at churches.  See after the jump for just how amazing Wien is.

Christine in the Black Forest

Some days you take the road less traveled.  When I went to Strasbourg, France, I decided to drive through the Black Forest.  This is the alternative route to the Autobahn.  Since no one has visited me in Germany, I am sharing some pictures.*  But the Black Forest is exactly how you would imagine it.  Except you have never seen so many trees in your life.  They just go on and on.  The road was generally 2 lanes, with many more curves than the autobahn (which is built with few curves and gradually changes unless you are going on an onramp).

Christine
*Arlene may have visited the Black Forest when she was here visiting Shaun.  Cough *you don't want your sister to out do you mom* cough.

Sneak Preview for next time:  my visit to Wien.

Christine in Strasbourg, France

I learned yesterday that after you eat a 7 course lunch, you do not have to eat again for the rest of the day.  Good to know.  But first, a mountain view picture from the drive.

Back to eating.  I ate the tasting menu at Restaurant Buerehiesel, my first 1 star restaurant in France.  This time I took the menu with me so that you could know what I ate.  Of course, it is in French.  So I will kindly translate.  You are welcome, my 2 followers.  It include:

-Blue lobster jelly and roasted tomato tartare of beef heart coriander
-Fried frogs legs
-Roasted sea bass with fennel mousseline has olive oil and shellfish swimming
-Apple sweetbreads sautéed boletus Rhône-Alpes meuniere capsvinegar veal jus
-Bareges lamb roast, shoulder confit with chermoula, hummus, artichokes in oil and juice of sweet spices
-Plateau de fromages (cheese platter-just sounds better in French so I'm keeping it as such)
-Strawberry juice reduces Alsace capricette, verbena ice cream 


I enjoyed my 2 1/2- 3 hour lunch.  And a special thanks to my mom for buying me the French guide book.  It's how I found the place.  Very useful present.


The Restaurant:

Some pictures of buildings in Strasbourg, France (last time you received photos of Notre Dame, so I refrained this time):

And finally, a sheep herder in the rain.  I'm not making this up.  This is what happens in Europe.  We may not have had a small hurricane, but we did get a sprinkle in Germany.

Christine