Month: April 2012

After a semi-successful night of sleep we are ready for new adventures. This morning we are going to the Marienberg Fortress in Wurzburg where the Mainfrankisches Museum is located. We are on the hunt for wood carvings by Gothic carver, Tilman Riemenschneider. We have discovered that there are 81 of his (or his workshop’s) carvings in the museum located high above Wurzburg in the fortress.

Breakfast is served at the Stadt-Mainz. For such a modest hotel, the breakfast is quite sumptuous. There are all kinds of cured meats, fish and shellfish, cheese, pickled vegetables, a whole pork roast, homemade jams, rolls, eggs, and cereal. We linger over breakfast discussing today’s plans under the watchful eye of a stag’s head.

We make our way to the Fortress and rent audio guides. There is a lot to see. It is hard to be choosey.

We wander through the rooms listening to our audio guides and finally make our way to the Tilman Riemenschneider hall. Wow, it is jam-packed with exciting wood and stone carvings. Some that we especially like are the St. Sebastian who was tied to a tree and shot with arrows (he survived, though), a lovely Virgin Mary and a frieze of the Fourteen Holy Helpers. (A list of the Fourteen Holy Helpers follows the pictures.)

The Fourteen Holy Helpers are a special group of saints who can be called upon to intercede with God to help cure various ills. They became popular in Germany during the Black Death. In case of problems, they are:
St. Margaret – protector in childbirth
St. Barbara – invoke for fever
St. Catherine – pray to for relief from sudden death
St. Christopher – the saint for plague and protector for travelers
St. Giles – also for plague
St. Denis – good for headaches
St. Agatha – also for headache relief
St. Blaise – reliever of sore throats
St. Elmo – takes care of stomachaches
St. Vitus – protector against epilepsy
St. Pantaleon – patron saint of physicians and prayed to for cancer and TB
St. Cyriacus – helper against temptation while on your deathbed
St. Eustace – invoke to keep safe from family discord
St. George – takes care of the health of your domestic animals

Leaving Wurzburg, we head to Creglingen, home of the Herrgottskirche or “our Lord’s church” founded after a farmer found an undamaged host in the field he was plowing. First we stop for lunch in the cute village. There are spargel (asparagus) specialties on the menu and we all start with cream of spargel soup. John and I have perch with fried potato puffs and Sarah has spaetzl and cheese. We decide it must be the German version of the blue box.

We head to the church with great anticipation of seeing another Riemenschneider masterpiece. Unfortunately, it seems someone quite beloved had died and there is a funeral going on. There are a lot of mourners. We decide to put off our visit until tomorrow and go to the Fingerhut Museum across the street. A fingerhut is a thimble. Inside there are a lot of thimbles, etui, needle holders, darning eggs etc. The proprietor has spent his life collecting this stuff. It is mildly interesting.

We reach Rothenburg ob der Tauber around 3 PM. We check into our hotel, the Burg Hotel, which is built into the wall of this fortified city. We decide to have a little nap and reconvene in a couple of hours.

Refreshed, we start a walk around the old city. We check out the schneeballen which are snowball-like pastries.

We walk up on the walls and enjoy the charming city.

But, oh no, what’s this? The wind picks up, the temperature drops, and it starts raining hard and cold, almost hailing. Best thing to do? Have a beer.

Later on that evening we have dinner at a local restaurant. We start with Franconian tapas which is a little soup, some smoked salmon, saurbraten bits and pork with lentils. It is quite good and tasty. I forget to take a picture. Then on to our spargel laden dinner. I opt for a salad. Sarah has spargel with bratwurst and potatoes and John has salmon with vegetables, potatoes and grilled white spargel.

Dinner is good. We are stuffed once again and head back to the hotel. Hopefully, a better sleep tonight.

Our goal today is to get to Wurzburg, check into our hotel, freshen up and go visit the Residenz, home of the prince-bishops of Wurzburg. We have rented a Ford C-max which has enough space for our luggage and us. There is quite a bit of traffic on the A-3 and we dodge between lumbering trucks and very fast Mercedes and BMWs. Sarah has had it. She can no longer keep her eyes open and drifts in and out of sleep during the hour and a half ride to Wurzburg. Jack, our GPS, does a good job finding our hotel, the Stadt-Mainz in the center of Wurzburg. The hotel is in an old building and is adequate. We enjoy the pretzel door handles.

We all decide that the best course is to perhaps take a little nap before we head out. Around 4 PM we meet up and walk the couple of blocks to the Residenz.

We find that there is an English speaking tour at 4:30 and we wander around taking surreptitious photos until tour time. Our tour guide is a handsome young man with a lot of information., He tells us all about the history of Wurzburg, the duchy of Franconia, and the incredible rococco decorations. There are two Tiepolo frescoes in the palace. They are tour de force of perspective. Figures jump out from the ceiling and the walls. The plasterwork continues the illusion. It is all pretty spectacular.

We head back to the hotel. All of us are pretty spent. We decide another nap is in order before dinner.

Just down the street from the hotel is the Goldenes Fass or golden spigot in a brightly colored building.

We decide to try some traditional Franconian food. We get a bottle of dry, white wine.

John has pork cheeks with noodles and a salad. Sarah has saurbraten with red cabbage and dumplings. And I, trying to pick something light, have chicken with mushrooms and noodles. I cannot help thinking that Jonathan would love this food. He is a big noodles and gravy fan. We all enjoy our dinners and deem the most unusual things are Sarah’s dumplings. They are like congealed balls of gooey something. Nobody likes them. We find out from the server that they are bread crumbs, cooked potatoes, and raw potatoes that are formed into balls and then boiled.

It has been a long day. We are glad we have not ventured too far from the hotel and look forward to a good night’s sleep. (hopefully!)

Today is the start of our trip to Germany, Austria, and the Czech Republic. We are all really enthused about our journey. John and I rise early and get on the road round 6:45. We pick up Sarah and make our way to the airport. So far the day is going smoothly. Little did we know what lies ahead.

We check in and start the process through security. Before we get to the secure zone, John gets a message. Our flight has been cancelled. We collect our belongings from the bins and tear back to the reservations desk. Indeed, our flight has been cancelled. We need to find a new way to Frankfurt.

Our problem is that we have purchased one ticket but used frequent flyer miles for the other two. We need to find a Star Alliance partner who will honor the two unpaid tickets. The agent at the United desk tries valiantly to rebook us. John is booked on a Lufthansa non-stop for 3 PM today. Sarah and I hang in limbo.

We receive food vouchers for our trouble. The agent suggests we go eat something while she tries to persuade Lufthansa to give us seats. We discover that food vouchers cannot be used for alcohol. Bummer. The call comes through around 11 AM that we should pick up our luggage from the bowels of the terminal and check in at Lufthansa. Hurrah!

When at last we get on the plane, there is one last snag. The jetway will not retract. We are delayed another hour while tow trucks are procured.

Finally we are underway. It is a long flight and by the time we take to the air we have already been at the airport for over eight hours. But, wait, food and drinks are coming. Something to look forward to. The wine is good. John and Sarah have a riesling and I have a chardonnay. We are handed a packet of nuts. What, is this Southwest Airlines? Soon the appetizers come and John and I have the tuna and Sarah has a ricotta, watercress and apricot puree salad. All are good. Especially good when accompanied by pretzel rolls, a family favorite. For the main course Sarah and John have a chicken cassoulet which is not really a cassoulet but tastes good anyway. I have the oddly named gnocchi with vegetables. The gnocchi (plural) consists of a singular potato pancake surrounded by vegetables. But once again it tastes good and what’s in a name anyway.

Now we settle down to grind through the next nine hours of flight. Amazingly I sleep for a couple of hours on the exceptionally uncomfortable seats. Sarah and John do not. Movies are watched. Puzzles solved. Music listened to. By the time it is the breakfast hour, we are all crawling out of our skin. Some eggs, a tomato, a few potatoes, a cup of cold tea and we start to get ready for descent. All goes smoothly. We get our rental car and hit the road.

Our Passover seder is moved to the earliest day during Passover that we can all get together. John and I bring most of the fixings from our house to Ryan and Jon’s house. We arrive mid-afternoon and get the food going and the table set. Now all we need is people.

Jon and the boys arrive home and Ryan follows soon afterward. Nathan is so excited about hiding the afikoman. He has told Sam that the way it works is that Zayde gives you a weird tortilla to hide and then later when Zayde can’t find it, he rewards you by giving you a truck in exchange. Nathan suggests that Sam distract Zayde so Nathan can swipe the afikoman. Sam does not have a clue but plays along.

Sam and Nathan are great participants. They enjoy making drops of grape juice. Sam picks up the chorus of Dayenu by the second verse. Nathan is a great helper with washing hands.

We do a shortened version so the boys can stay up for it. The afikoman is found. Presents are distributed and dessert is eaten. Some special treats this year were desserts made by Sarah and Ryan plus Ryan’s fabulous homemade matzoh.

What a great family celebration!

Apparently we have a new tradition when Jonathan comes to visit in St. George. On the way home instead of leaving at zero AM and driving the 660 miles in one fell swoop, we leave during the afternoon of the day before and stop overnight in Las Vegas. Since none of us are gamblers, the only possible reason to do this would be to dine out at some fabulous restaurant. So far we have eaten at Michael Mina’s eponymous Michael Mina and Bobby Flay’s, Mesa Grill. Tonight will be our foray into French food at Thomas Keller’s, Bouchon.

Keller, the chef behind the French Laundry, is supposedly the most gifted chef in the United States. Perhaps that’s true when it comes to the French Laundry. We find Bouchon very good but not cosmic.

On to the food pictures! First, Jonathan’s meal –

Jonathan’s first course is a plateful of three puffy beignets of cod over roasted tomatoes. He likes this a lot.

His second course is roast chicken which is good but the real stars for him are the vegetables.

John’s meal –

Both John and I have the foie gras as a first course. John’s is soft and creamy. Mine is much stiffer due to it being much colder. Two and a half ounces is way too much. Jonathan gets some foie gras love from both mom and dad. Jon declares mine to be delicious-er than John’s. Yum.

John continues on with two appetizers –

The best bite of John’s dinner? The tabouleh salad that accompanies his octopus.

My dinner –

As I said earlier I also order the foie gras. It comes in little crocks and you can get either 2.5 oz. or 5 oz. I think John and I should have shared one. Two and a half ounces of foie is like a whole meal. I pass off quite a bit to Jonathan.

The sturgeon is very good. It could have been cooked to a little lower temperature and been better. The star of the plate is the sauce Albert. It is a light cream horseradish sauce.

Other than the food, the service is a little spotty. The waiter does not approve of our wine selection and suggests something else. We say okay but end up not liking it and sending it back. Glasses are not filled promptly. Bread is not brought after inquiring whether we would like more. Sure, this is nitpicking but when you are eating at what is supposed to be a fabulous restaurant and paying some steep prices, you want everything to be perfect.

Next visit we will try somewhere else.

While Ryan, Nathan and Sam go to visit Ryan’s folks in Michigan, Jonathan comes to St. George for a visit with us. We pick him up at St. George’s swanky new airport. The fare from SFO is surprisingly affordable. Perhaps John and I will think about flying some time.

Our main activity for the week is tennis. We play tennis every day. We go to tennis clinic and Jon takes a lesson. It is a very strenuous week. Jon also finds time to play a couple of rounds of golf and we all have fun swimming and playing ping pong. And going out to dinner.

One day, as a break from tennis, we take a hike in Snow Canyon. The weather has cooperated and it is sunny although a little chilly. Unfortunately our outdated map leads us in the wrong direction and we never find the canyon overlook. But we all have fun anyway.

On our last day in St. George is the first day of Passover. Although our actual seder will be held on April 11 when the whole family can get together, we have a mini-seder and eat some matzoh, parsley, charoses and the world’s hottest horseradish.

On Saturday we leave for Las Vegas and dinner at Thomas Keller’s Bouchon. But that’s another post.