December 22, 2003

Wir sind das Ruehrgebiet!

Ahhh...we've made it into Christine's old stomping grounds in Northrhine Westphalia - to the home of Peter and Henni Scholz who have the knack of Southern hospitality even here in cold Northern Germany.

Anyway, we left off in Nuremberg, so we'll start with that. We made it into the city on the evening of the 19th. We drove out of the snow of southern Bavaria and into the (somewhat) warmer northern Bavaria. Besides being the site of the famous Nazi trials, Nuremberg is very well-known for its Christmas market. Christine had been there back in 1997 and was anxious to share its beauty and excitement with Toli.

Christine had booked us into a backpacker's hotel within the walls of the old city - great location, but it made parking with our enormous Ford Focus Tournier a bit of a nightmare. We did manage to park the car, though, and made it to the Christmas market as it was closing down. :( But we persisted, and we ended up taking a long walk through the city, visiting the castle in the center of the city and the various shops and sights nearby.

We must have covered a lot of ground, because we managed to sleep more than 12 hours that night to wake up at 1pm in the afternoon! We blame it on our lodgings, because they placed us in the relaxing "Dionysos Garden" room with a view of the opera house and these funky green leaves hanging over our bed. (Imagine something out of A Bug's Life, if you will.)

Anyway, we spent what remained of the day at the Christmas market, exploring the different stalls and trying the famous Nuremberg sausages and lebkuchen (a kind of gingerbread). We took a short break in a little Viennese-style cafe, where Toli commented (rather appropriately) that Christine was more European than him.

The next morning, on the 21st, we set out to drive the 400 km to Dortmund, located in northwestern Germany. We experienced all kinds of weather during the drive, from rain in Nuremberg to sunny skies in Wurzberg to snow and ice in Siegen. We also stopped for gas, which cost us about $50 to fill just three-quarters of the tank! And this is diesel fuel - the real gas costs a whole lot more.

And since reaching Dortmund, we've been thoroughly enjoying the company and hospitality of Peter and Henni. (Christine met Peter while interning at the state Ministry of Technology, Economics, and Traffic in Dusseldorf.) We've enjoyed exploring their favorite neighborhood bars and local sights with them. Last night, they took us to their favorite Greek restaurant, where we experienced a sort of "EU-United Nations" evening. See, Christine speaks German and English. Henni, mostly German and some English. Toli speaks Greek and English. And Peter has the great advantage of speaking German, English, as well as some Greek. Throw in Simela, the restaurant's Greek and German speaking proprietor, and we had an assortment of languages and translations going all night long. There was not one single common language, yet we all had a great time laughing and eating away the entire evening.

Which brings us to today, which again has been full of sightseeing and good company. We saw the Sauerland (the hilly countryside on the outskirts of Dortmund), which gave us a beautiful view of the area. After some attempts at visiting some local industrial museums (which were all closed on Monday), we at least got to see the largest Christmas tree in the world (according to the Guinness book of records) at the Christmas market in Dortmund. I'm sure there's much more to tell, but the smell of goulash (a typical German Christmas dish - like tamales in Texas) is filling the air, and we will be eating soon!

Posted by Christine at December 22, 2003 01:19 PM
Comments