Christine in Lego Land

Well, not really.  But very close.  When I was little, my Dad use to take me to downtown Pittsburgh to make a donation to Children's Hospital.  KDKA radio broadcasters would set up shop in a different department store window each week (or maybe it was just each Saturday--I was little back then and I don't really remember the exact specifics) and collect money for the Hospital.  You said your name and who you wanted to wish Merry Christmas too.  I always said my family and grandma since I knew she listened to KDKA.  She also lived downtown so afterwards we would visit her.  Then she would ask why didn't we stop at her apartment first (she lived across from Heinz Hall) and get money to give.  We usually gave at the Horne's Department store, which was a block or two from her place.  The best part about giving was not the radio.  It was the amazing cookies they gave you.  I don't remember the name of the cookies; maybe something to do with stars.  But I loved them.

During my walk tonight, I saw Christmas windows at one of the Department stores in Stuttgart.  I bet that Nathaniel, Jake, and Q would love it here:

Yes, that's right.  They did a Star Wars Theme.  How awesome is that?

It was not all R2D2.

So Maddie and Olivia would also enjoy a visit.  I would say that Santa was a bit shorter than me in real live.

The Truck's arm actually moves.

Christine
p.s. There is a Lego Land in Germany.  Maybe it will make my to visit list.  I am easily amused.

Christine in Stuttgart

Stuttgart is my "new" home town.  Although I have lived here for *almost* a year.  It is the 6th largest city in Germany, generally considered industrial.  This is why we bombed it heavily during World War II.  As previously written, we are home to Porsche, Mercedes, and maybe Bosch (think home appliances).  But we are so much more than that.  My apartment building:

I live in the apartment with the 3rd set of windows (either direction), right side.  It was obviously very warm the day I took this picture as the windows are opened.  I never open windows.

There is a church down the street from me.  Around the lovely church is fire lake.  And as you can imagine, the lake around it was originally used to put out fires.  It is Feuesee Church.  The saying goes that we may have bombed it as well.  And the Germans did not finish rebuilding the top tower.

The Church in the middle of the Stuttgart Mitte (City Center) (two different styled towers):

There are a couple of castles in town as well:

The main castle (now I think it is now government offices but whatever):

Statute of someone (I just kinda like it):

The Hauptbahnhof (Main Train Station).  It was the first thing built after WWII.   As a side note, Germans like long words.  So they put all the words together to make up one word.  This may be why I can't speak Deutsch.  Just throwing it out there.  

This is not an in and out bahnhof (train station).  The trains pull in and then there is a separate engine in the back that takes the train out again.  So essentially, every train has at least 2 engines.  This is not very economical.  Years ago, the powers that be decided to expand the Hauptbahnhof.  And make it a threw station.  So that a train could come in and leave without backtracking.  There is a group called Stuttgart 21.  They are "environmentalist" who protest the expansion.  It is suppose to be done in 2021.  Hence the name.  They camp in the park next to the hof (station).  (It is to the right in this picture.)  The park will be gone once they expand the bahnhof (train station).  The Germans love trees.  They are quite upset that very old trees will have to be cut in order to expand the station.  They should have cared back when the vote was taking place.  (My free advice.)

Sometimes they march through town as well.  Germans have to obtain permits to protest.  The polizie (police) always know when there will be a protest.  And they have enough in case things get out of hand.  Which I doubt they ever will here.  (There is a cop on the right hand side.)

One guy does chalk art work on Koenigstrasse (King Street).  This is the main shop street, where the castle is located.  No cars allowed.

 

There is some interesting architecture as well.

I'll post more pictures of the city another.  Something to look forward too.  Ha ha  I look forward to Mayrhofen, Austria and skiing this Thursday, Thanksgiving.

Christine
**Pictures were taken on different days.

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

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*waiting*

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

Try again.

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

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

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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.