Trip to Scotland

We arrived back in Maastricht at about 8:00 on Tuesday night, just in time to do some laundry, pack, and head out again early the next morning. When we woke up in the morning, we discovered that Erik had lost his hat. I guess we left it on our last train. He was pretty sad. I guess he'll be needing a new one soon. After we gave up looking for it, we took a few buses and trains as we made our way to Brussels Charleroi airport on our way to Scotland! All of our travel plans worked out perfectly, and we arrived at the Perth train station to meet Aunt Susan just a few minutes behind time.


It was so great to see Aunt Susan again. It had really been awhile. Erik thought it was really great that she introduced herself this way: "Hi, Erik, I'm your Aunt Susan." By the time we left, he was wanting to pack up both her and the dogs and bring them home with us.

Aunt Susan took us to the Bridge of Cally Hotel for dinner. Erik was especially keen to try haggis and really liked it. He ordered it again at some point during our trip.

Dinner at the Bridge of Cally Hotel.

Attack Hounds: Sam and Skye

Erik was really tired and not feeling too well after our long days of travel, so he headed for bed soon after we returned from the restaurant. Aunt Susan and I stayed up for a while to talk, but then we turned in since we'd have an early start the next day.

Taking our Leave

We spent our last morning in Glucksburg visiting everyone one last time and walking around the town. First we walked across the street to visit Dr. Rust's mom. It's really nice how she is able to live right across from Thomas and co. like that.

Oma Rust with one of her babies.
Can you believe she's 93?!

Next we walked over to take a look at the church where Thomas is pastor. Erik did some neat trick photography here. He was really confused when he was taking the photo, because Thomas had been complaining to us about how modern and ugly his church is. Erik was thinking, "This church isn't ugly at all!" But it wasn't the church; it was the old train station with the church steeple sticking up behind.

The ex-train station (or some such) and church steeple.

The actual church.

Then we walked around the Glucksburg peninsula and the lake/pond around the castle where we had eaten dinner the night before. We cut our walk a little short because rain was threatening, but it was fun.

Glucksburg Castle.

Happy Ducks

From late morning on, we spent some time with Dr. Rust's older brother, Thies, and his wife, Heinke. We went over to their house to have tea and cakes and then talked with them for a few hours before coming home to pack. Unfortunately, we forgot the camera, so you'll just have to imagine it.

After a candle-lit dinner (Think more pagan bonfire than romantic. Erik says it was cozy, not pagan. It was fun, either way.) with the Thomas Rust clan, we headed up to pack and get ready for an early train ride.

Jakob with his "Autoooooo"

Sunday with the Lutherans

Dr. Rust's younger brother Thomas, with whom we were staying, is a Lutheran minister. Not wanting his two week vacation to end any sooner than necessary, Thomas wanted to be as far from his parish as possible on Sunday. So, we decided to fire up the family bus and drive over to Denmark.

Thomas insisted on our first stop; we simply had to try the best hotdogs in the world. Final vote was that Erik and I liked them, but Dr. Rust didn't. I contend that he was just upset with his hotdog because it was dripping everywhere.

At the hotdog place.

Thomas and Dr. Rust. See the family resemblance? Neither did we.

The summer home of Denmark's Queen Mother.

Düppel, where Denmark lost to the German Confederation in 1864. They got part of the land back in the aftermath of WWI, so this place is now called Dybbøl. But, you know, "Danzig ist Deutsch," after all.

Pretty scenery on our way to visit Sønderborg castle.

Sønderborg castle has interesting displays about the history of the area. Even though most of the displays were in Danish, we could easily figure out how the Danes feel about the whole thing. On the way home, we ate great "black bread tart." Yum.

We returned to Glucksburg just in time to meet up with Beate and Dr. Rust's younger brother Hans Jürgen with his girlfriend. We all walked over to the nearby castle for dinner in the recently refurbished cellar restaurant. Erik and I both got fish platters of mostly locally (grown?) fish. It was a really nice night. Thanks, Oma!

Saturday in Germany

After eating breakfast with the family and visiting Dr. Rust's mom on Saturday morning, we met up with Heinz and Petra, friends Dr. Rust hadn't seen in quite a while. We went out in their car and drove all over the north-easternmost part of Germany, really. The scenery was really pretty, especially when we were along the bay or the Baltic.

A sign in Low German. Just how do you pronounce this? Tyooooooonlyoooood?

The bay with the Baltic way out there, I think.

Erik dubbed this natural feature "Sand Spaghetti." I hypothesize that it's a mollusk of some kind down there blowing out air and pushing up the sand. Dr. Rust had seen it a billion times but never really cared, apparently. I guess familiarity breeds contempt, even against sand spaghetti.

Bivalve carnage.

After lunch and some more touring around, we stopped off at Kappeln (I think), where we saw a church where Dr. Rust's dad was once pastor. We also saw the house where Dr. Rust lived with his parents and brothers for a year or so.

The steeple and part of the church. Dr. Rust wanted to hang a ham radio antenna from this baby, but his Dad wouldn't let him.

We also saw the building where Dr. Rust attended gymnasium (German high school for smarties) and visited the gravesite of his father before meeting with a few more of Dr. Rust's friends for tea and cake.

Trip to Germany

Early in the morning on the 2nd, Erik, Dr. Rust, and I headed out for the train station and thus began our trip to Germany. It was a long trip, but we had no problems along the way. We are really lucky that our train trips both there and back were problem free; the German train system was between strikes at the time. If we had tried to go this weekend, for instance, we wouldn't be going. The trains are pretty much all canceled.

One of our train changes was at Cologne, and Erik and I took the opportunity to go out of the station to see the Cathedral. The Cathedral was badly damaged during the war due to its proximity to the train station (the next picture was taken from the station entrance), but it is in good shape now.

The Cologne cathedral. Huge both inside and out. See me at the bottom of the photo?
Where's Waldo now?

One of the windows.

Just for a sense of scale, me with a piece that came off the roof.

Erik really likes this picture.

After a few minutes in the cathedral, we met back up with Dr. Rust, who had been watching the bags. After a really interesting exchange between Erik and Dr. Rust about the gender of "wurst", I had a hotdog while we waited for the train.

Erik snapped this pic from the train as we passed the station in Solingen. This company made his beloved straight razor, right there in Solingen. A touching scene.

We eventually made our way up to Flensburg, in Schleswig-Holstein, the area of northern Germany where most of Dr. Rust's relatives live. Beate, Dr. Rust's sister-in-law, picked us up from the train station and brought us to the house, where she and her husband, Thomas (Dr. Rust's brother) live with their five kids, dog, birds, Martin from Poland, and a hamster (in no particular order). It's a wild and wonderful place, with all sorts of people, animals, and especially babies walking, scurrying, or crawling through at all hours of the day and night.

Gretel, the fierce attack dog. Erik liked her especially, since she looked like his grandparents' old dog, Buck.

Zurich

The weekend of October 19th, we traveled to Zurich, Switzerland to meet up with Dr. Ellis and Mark Wyatt. We weren't there for too long, but it was nice. We ate lots of good desserts and things took a little cruise on the lake. It was really pretty, if chilly.

Waiting for the boat.

Cold but enjoying myself.

DDD

Just for dear old Dingbat Daddy Douglas, who can't wait for a blog post until we actually have something to say, here's an update.

The two of us are headed to Zurich tomorrow by train to meet Dr. Ellis and Mark Wyatt, who will be in Europe for a few days. Their plan is to get over their jet-lag in Zurich and then fly on down to Rwanda, their ultimate destination. We're only staying a night, so it will be a whirlwind trip, but we should have a good time. Then it will be back to Maastricht to do some grading and put the finishing touches on this version of Erik's thesis.

Ducks

On Friday, we went with Dr. Rust to 's-Hertogenbosch, a city about an hour and a half north of here by rail, to attend a klezmer concert. Dr. Rust has the group's first CD and really loves it, so he was excited to go.

We came into town about four hours early so that we'd have time to pick up our tickets and snoop around the city a little bit. The concert venue, an old synagogue, ended up not opening until about an hour before the show, so we had to spend most of our time walking around.

We decided that we'd like to eat some dinner, so we headed down a promising-looking street, one lined with cafes and restaurants. Most of them seemed way too expensive, so we were happy to find a place that was selling entrees for around 10 Euro apiece. Good deal! Erik ordered the "confit du canard" (duck something-or-other) with truffle sauce. Dr. Rust and I both ordered some fish fillet with risotto. Sounded good and especially appropriate for Erik, since the group we were going to see was the Vilde Katshke, the Wild Duck. Unfortunately, when our food came to the table, we realized why we were getting cheap prices on an expensive street. Quality over quantity, you see. Dr. Rust and I each had an okay-sized fish fillet on about two spoonfuls of risotto. Erik had a duck leg with a tiny triangle of puff pastry perched on top. Okay, it was a duck leg and part of a duck thigh. Have you ever seen a duck leg? Imagine a chicken leg, just 2/3 the size, at best. I really wish we'd had the presence of mind to take a picture of that thing. It tasted good, apparently. There wasn't enough to share, for sure, so I had to take Erik's word for it.

After leaving the cafe, we headed straight for Subway.

The concert was really fun and good. Unfortunately, the group tells stories along with the music. Everyone else in the audience seemed pretty amused by the stories and jokes, but none of us speak Dutch, so we were pretty lost. The group has an accordianist, a violinist, and one guy who can play anything even remotely related to the clarinet. It's kind of like Fiddler on the Roof music, I guess. Think Motl and Tzeitl's wedding reception, before the police come and break up the party. We'll be buying at least one of Vilde Katshke's CDs soon and will probably subject you to it at some point. Forewarned is forearmed.

Beer, Waffles, and Lace

Erik and I decided to take off yesterday after breakfast and travel over to Brussels, Belgium. It's less than two hours each way by train, and I slept most of the way anyway, so it really wasn't a bad trip.

There isn't too much to see in Brussels, really, since they destroyed most of whatever old buildings they used to have there after the 1830 revolution. There is one really nice square, though, the Grand' Place (or Grote Markt too, I guess. They speak French in the capital but have to use Flemish/Dutch on the signs, too, so the rest of the country's citizens don't freak.)

Erik with the Maison des Brasseurs - the Brewer's Guildhall. He was pretty excited to be in the Capital of Belgian Beer. I can't post a picture with him more than an inch high because he wants all of you to "See the Majesty of the Guildhall." So, there it is.

The town hall. You know, just one of those big Gothic buildings. No big deal.

250 Beers of Belgium. Erik didn't buy anything, but we'll probably end up going back. Looks like a possum eating bumblebees to me.

The Royal Gallery. You know, just your regular shopping mall. Europe is such a strange place.

Drinking Kriek Lambic brewed at the restaurant. Yum and not too sweet.

A real Belgian waffle. Whatever you're imagining, you're way off, because this was the most delicious dessert I've ever had. The waffle was sweet, and the cream was all melty, and the strawberries were yum. I think I might have to go back to Brussels just to get a Brussels-style waffle. Far superior to the Liege Train Station at 11:00 PM variety.

I also used up all my spending money for the trip in Brussels, but that's okay since I was planning on doing so. Want to see what I got?

Handmade Princess lace mantilla, in cream.

Handmade Princess lace mantilla, cream on black. I need to get that central crease under control!

And just because there's weird English pretty much anywhere you go in Continental Europe:

Lord Applecake, at your service. His American cousin, Mr. Muffin, was on display nearby. For only 1 Euro 20, either can be yours.

Thursdays

I start out every Thursday we have in Maastricht (well, after breakfast and all) with a three-hour Dutch painting lesson. It's kind of furniture painting, I guess - tables, boxes, trays, anything made out of wood. It's pretty fun. I spent several weeks painting on construction paper because I was too inept to work on wood. But I'll hopefully be finishing my first project tomorrow.

My first Hindeloopen project, almost finished!
Also, check out the new haircut.

Our Thursdays end with marathon card-playing nights. We solve the problems of the world through conversation and play pretty much every card game known to Man (besides poker.) Dr. Rust has been teaching us the German national card game, Skat. We've been teaching him Casino and Gin. Dr. Rust also knows about a billion Solitaire and competitive solitaire games. Here we are playing his version of Russian Bank. It's called Zank-Patience - Zank means spite. And oh, is it spiteful. Erik won't play.

Don't let the smile fool you. This is an evil, evil, spiteful man.

Here I am just having won a really fun Solitaire game Dr. Rust taught me. It's called the Switchyard, and you have to get all your "trains" in order. Or your "choo-choos," as Dr. Rust would say. Erik says that Dr. Rust even calls trains "choo-choos" in class. What a weirdo. :)

I shouldn't say too many mean things about Dr. Rust and how weird he is, because he bought us these really cool little cards! They're for playing Solitaire, especially for games that use two decks. They take up less room, so your game fits on the table. They're really pretty - one pink deck and one blue. The face cards are pretty, too. Erik says that they're the Habsburgs - it is the "Empire Deck" made in Austria, after all. The blue card there on the left is just for an idea of scale.

With Love from Erik

Erik wants YOU to leave a comment!

September 24

We slept in a little and then had breakfast at the hotel before taking the train a few stops back, deeper into the Black Forest. We stopped at Titisee, a lake there in the forest. It's apparently a pretty touristy place on the weekends, but we were there in the morning of a weekday, so it was nice and tranquil, for the most part. We mostly walked around and looked at the scenery. I looked at some kitschy gifts but couldn't quite bring myself to buy any of them. Then we sat on a bench and watched the boats on the lake. That was probably the best part.

Boats for rent, lined up on the shore of the lake.

The water was so clear. Look at the fish.
Just so you know, German ducks say "kwak, kwak."

We were all standing there enjoying the peace and quiet when a tour group showed up and piled onto a nearby boat. We'd all had enough of tour guides the day before, so we were pretending to be annoyed. Dr. Rust dreamt up a good newspaper headline. We thought maybe the story could run in the Lariat:

CRAZED GERMAN NAVY VETERAN TORPEDOES TOURBOAT ON LAKE TITISEE. 27 CHINESE TOURISTS DEAD.

Okay, I'll admit that this is still cracking me up, a week later. Maybe you had to be there.

Trying to restrain the crazed Navy vet.

After we had enjoyed as much of Titisee as we could stand, we got back on a train and traveled over to Freiburg, where Dr. Rust does research in the naval archives. He was pretty excited to show us around a city he loves, and we had a good time. Our visit began with trips to five or six bookstores. Erik was way too happy, and we finally had to tear him away so that we could get some lunch. We went to one of Dr. Rust's favorite restaurants, a pizza place near his normal hotel, and split a few pizzas.

Afterwards, we visited the Freiburg cathedral, which is pretty neat. It's built out of a red stone that I didn't recognize, and the gargoyles are really low, where you can see them well from the ground. After that, I looked through a bunch of sheet music for sale in the cathedral square. Some of it would have been nice to have, if it hadn't mostly been transcriptions for bassoon!

The Freiburg cathedral

Gargoyle Row

This is the really impressive portal to the cathedral.

Dr. Rust and I dwarfed by said portal.

The church had lots of really neat side chapels, all the way around the back of the sanctuary. This altar was amazing, all carved so delicately from wood.

We spent a little time wandering around Freiburg and then decided to head back to Kirchzarten for dinner. We ate at our same place from the night before. We spent three or four hours solving the world's problems over dinner, as usual. They probably miss us there now. And our hotel probably still hates us for not eating at their restaurant.

September 23

After yet another great breakfast courtesy of Inge (just laugh at anyone who calls the breakfast offerings at an American hotel "Continental"), Inge, Dr. Rust, Erik, and I hopped in the car and drove over to a nearby park, where we explored a really neat cave. We can't remember the name of the cave right now - we'll ask Dr. Rust. Anyway, the cave is part of the same system as the Blautopf and Urspring. All the springs and caves in the area are connected, whether the connections are big enough for people to crawl through or not. They've done some tests with colors in the water. I think soap in the water would be better.

Checking out the "cauliflower" stalactites. Do I always look so slack-jawed?

The cave was drippy and wet and pretty chilly, so deep in the earth. We climbed down, down, down on ladders, traveled laterally for a ways, and then climbed back up, coming out at a different spot from where we descended. Dr. Rust stayed up top in the park while Inge went with us. Dr. Rust had bad memories of being put through the paces in this cave by his boys two years ago. I guess they rushed through the whole thing in about 15 minutes, while we took almost an hour. He said he was pretty sore for days after that! Inge was happy to be down there with us, though, since she's a science teacher. Things like stalactites and erosion really get her going, though she can't stand the English names for a lot of them. German is much more scientific, you see.

These stalactites look like frozen water.

Because of the day before at the cathedral, Erik got a lot of ribbing for actually making it all the way into and out of the cave. Poor guy. Dr. Rust had collected some beech nuts to show us. I ate one. Apparently, the Germans ground them for flour during the tight times after both world wars.

We stopped for a few minutes to check out the park's year-round ropes course. It seemed like a really nice one. Inge brings groups from Urspring's sister schools here regularly. Erik and I should do something like that sometime.

We went back to the Banholtzers' place and sat in the garden until dinner. Dr. Rust and I paid Schildy a visit at his turtle pen. Schildy was initially a bit worried but decided that we were okay. Inge and her mom fixed us a really good dinner (Germans eat their big meal at noon), including lots of home-grown and locally-grown stuff. We had rouladen, a chanterelle mushroom dish, mashed potatoes, wine, etc.

After lunch, it was time for us to take leave of the family and head to the train stations. Inge's mom was really sad to see us go and gave both of us big hugs. Our train ride through to the Black Forest was really beautiful.

We checked in at our nice hotel and decided we probably couldn't afford it for supper. So we took a walk and checked out Kirchzarten. It's a pretty small place, so our walk took about 10 minutes.

A stork! We saw this guy and his wife (or perhaps the other way around) a lot while we were in town. Dr. Rust says that in his hometown, everyone has a platform on top of the house to encourage stork nesting. Cool.

We managed to find a good and cheap restaurant - Spritzen Bier- und Weinstube. As could be expected from the name, they have tasty beer. Erik had new wine, something he'd tried the night before. It's the grape-harvesting season here, and you can get some of the newly-pressed, not totally fermented wine. It's sweet and cloudy. We spent about three hours eating and talking and decided to come back the next night.