oshlo.blogspot.com - Here are links to freelance articles I’ve posted since my last travel journal. Remember, if you click it nets me cash, so, THANKS!
How to Go Boating on the Rhine in Germany's Famous Wine Country
Pension Peters - Friendly, Cheap Accommodations in Berlin Germany
DIY: How to Cover a Garden Arch with Dried Vines for a Wedding
And here are a couple of Christmas market articles I wrote in the past because it’s coming up on the holiday season:
Bamberg Christmas Market (Weihnachtsmarkt), Bavaria, Germany
Medieval Christmas Market, Schloss Geyerswörth, Bamberg, Germany
Finally, buy my book! It really DOES make a great holiday gift and it’s under $10! Available in paperback and Kindle versions. Email me if you would like a PDF version. Free iPod or iPad app with every purchase!Here’s the personal story:
In July this year my German “parents,” Hilde and Adi, invited me to accompany them for a four-day trip to one of their favorite places. It’s located in the Bayerische Wald, or Bavarian Forest. Think of it as one of Germany’s national parks, similar to the Black Forest but not as big and on the other side of the country.
The closest town to our hotel was Furth im Wald, which has a fascinating festival every year. People gather on a warm summer’s night each August - I’m sure they’re all drinking local beer - and suddenly to everyone’s consternation a dragon appears breathing fire on a nearby hill. He creeps his way toward the crowd and the tension builds. At the last moment just before the terrorized onlookers are devoured, St. George gallops up on a mighty steed and slays the dragon with his sword!
The festival is called the Drachenstich, which translates literally as “dragon stabbing.” The dragon has evolved over the years, and in 2010 they got a new robotic dragon. You can see pictures of the dragons from 1864 to the present here. And there’s a video about the festival here. The voiceover is in German, but the pictures say it all. There’s even a Youtube video here where the new dragon dances (sorta) to AC/DC at his debut last year a few months before the fest. I can’t wait to see this fest in person! Who’s in??
But I digress. We were headed for the Hotel am Steinbruchsee a few klicks from the dragon’s den.
A little backstory: Hilde has been coming to this place for 50 years! She is very close to the Deglmann family that owns and runs the place. Back in the day, Anni and Alfons Deglmann were in charge. Alfons inherited it from his parents, and I think the place may have been in the family before then as well. Hilde and Anni are close friends today; Anni’s son, Alfons, Jr., is the same age as Hilde’s daughter. Alfons, Jr., and his wife, Christiane, run the place these days.
Alfons, Sr., was the one responsible for building it up into what it is today. In fact, the place is a veritable monument to him. He must’ve been one busy, creative guy. You can’t look in any direction without seeing something that he built with his own hands.
Today, Anni runs the Waldmuseum (forest museum) just down the hill from the hotel. The museum is chock full of preserved specimens of all the creatures of the local forest. Apparently Alfons, Sr., was quite the taxidermist - he stuffed all these animals himself! Anni lovingly tends the animals and keeps the place sparkling. For a Euro you can see everything.
I couldn’t help thinking of PeeWee’s Big Adventure!
There’s even a specimen of conjoined rabbit twins:
Adi, Anni and Hilde:
On the far side of the museum is a Wildgehege, or game preserve. It’s a fenced-in area with some walking paths through the woods so you can enjoy nature. If you buy the food pellets in the dispenser before you enter, the deer will eat right out of your hand.
Back up the hill on the other side of the hotel is a small trout farm with separated sections of a small brook containing successively larger sizes of fish. You can buy fish food and feed the trout who oblige you with a noisy feeding frenzy. On the other side of the boardwalk from the brook is an aquarium where you can visit a collection of local fishes.
Here’s an aerial view from the hotel’s tower:
Beyond the trout farm are a variety of animals to see and even pet. There were a couple of emus, ducks and geese and several gigantic rabbits. There was a donkey who brayed all night long because he was lonely for his wife, who was locked up in the barn with their new baby donkey.
Hilde fed the llama:
We watched the mountain goats climb rocks at incredible angles:
I wish to remind you that all the animal pens and such were built by Alfons, Sr. If you take the left fork before the trout brook, you head up the hill, again to see more of Alfons, Sr.’s handiwork.
There’s a display of different kinds of birdhouses he made. I like the skull with a hat in the window above. Also, it’s funny there is a plastic owl near the birdhouses to keep the birds away.
Alfons, Sr., built a Totenhaus (literally “Dead House”), a small wooden shed with a wooden marker for deceased ancestors. This is a tradition in the area. Because Alfons, Sr., passed away about eight years ago, his marker was added on the right. The blank spaces are for the next few that die out. Don’t you think it would be creepy to see a blank spot just waiting for you as you age?
Next to the dead house is a small wooden chapel that Alfons built as well. Inside are hand-carved stations of the cross, also done by Senior. In addition, there is a memorial to Senior himself now, complete with a photo and votive candles.
In the dining room of the hotel is a beautiful wooden hand-carved ceiling crafted by you-know-who. He did the ceiling when he was about 85 years old! You’ll see more photos of this room later in the journal, so notice Alfons’ handcarved dining chairs, too. The entire place seems a monument to this man.
We had rented an apartment on the top floor of the hotel across from the tower. It had two bedrooms, two bathrooms, a kitchen and a large living room. Here’s the view from my window. It looks down the hill toward the museum. The deep pond in the photo is Steinbruchsee, which means “Quarry Pond.” The accommodations cost us 25 Euros a night per person, or about $33. You'd pay at least $125 or so in the States for the same type of place.
Hilde introduced me to Alfons, Jr., and his family that run the operation now. Junior has formal training as a chef and runs the kitchen amid all the other wheelbarrowing, animal-feeding, stump-pulling and maintenance. Christiane runs the hotel, including the restaurant. Their son Benedikt, who just finished his formal chef training, is considering going into the biz, too. They have an older son who is trained as a chef and is currently doing internships in Austria.
That night, Alfons cooked us up a fantastically delicious garlic trout for dinner. Unbelievably tender with an exquisite subtlety of flavor, it was magnificent. It was so fresh we’d probably fed it earlier that afternoon!
Well, I had full intentions of describing the whole, charming trip to you in this journal. However, I find we squeezed so much into four days that I’m going to have to break the journal into at least two parts. So, stay tuned for a trip to glassmaking country!
Photo For No Apparent Reason (you know who you are):
How to Go Boating on the Rhine in Germany's Famous Wine Country
Pension Peters - Friendly, Cheap Accommodations in Berlin Germany
DIY: How to Cover a Garden Arch with Dried Vines for a Wedding
And here are a couple of Christmas market articles I wrote in the past because it’s coming up on the holiday season:
Bamberg Christmas Market (Weihnachtsmarkt), Bavaria, Germany
Medieval Christmas Market, Schloss Geyerswörth, Bamberg, Germany
Finally, buy my book! It really DOES make a great holiday gift and it’s under $10! Available in paperback and Kindle versions. Email me if you would like a PDF version. Free iPod or iPad app with every purchase!Here’s the personal story:
In July this year my German “parents,” Hilde and Adi, invited me to accompany them for a four-day trip to one of their favorite places. It’s located in the Bayerische Wald, or Bavarian Forest. Think of it as one of Germany’s national parks, similar to the Black Forest but not as big and on the other side of the country.
The closest town to our hotel was Furth im Wald, which has a fascinating festival every year. People gather on a warm summer’s night each August - I’m sure they’re all drinking local beer - and suddenly to everyone’s consternation a dragon appears breathing fire on a nearby hill. He creeps his way toward the crowd and the tension builds. At the last moment just before the terrorized onlookers are devoured, St. George gallops up on a mighty steed and slays the dragon with his sword!
The festival is called the Drachenstich, which translates literally as “dragon stabbing.” The dragon has evolved over the years, and in 2010 they got a new robotic dragon. You can see pictures of the dragons from 1864 to the present here. And there’s a video about the festival here. The voiceover is in German, but the pictures say it all. There’s even a Youtube video here where the new dragon dances (sorta) to AC/DC at his debut last year a few months before the fest. I can’t wait to see this fest in person! Who’s in??
But I digress. We were headed for the Hotel am Steinbruchsee a few klicks from the dragon’s den.
A little backstory: Hilde has been coming to this place for 50 years! She is very close to the Deglmann family that owns and runs the place. Back in the day, Anni and Alfons Deglmann were in charge. Alfons inherited it from his parents, and I think the place may have been in the family before then as well. Hilde and Anni are close friends today; Anni’s son, Alfons, Jr., is the same age as Hilde’s daughter. Alfons, Jr., and his wife, Christiane, run the place these days.
Alfons, Sr., was the one responsible for building it up into what it is today. In fact, the place is a veritable monument to him. He must’ve been one busy, creative guy. You can’t look in any direction without seeing something that he built with his own hands.
Today, Anni runs the Waldmuseum (forest museum) just down the hill from the hotel. The museum is chock full of preserved specimens of all the creatures of the local forest. Apparently Alfons, Sr., was quite the taxidermist - he stuffed all these animals himself! Anni lovingly tends the animals and keeps the place sparkling. For a Euro you can see everything.
Adi, Anni and Hilde:
Back up the hill on the other side of the hotel is a small trout farm with separated sections of a small brook containing successively larger sizes of fish. You can buy fish food and feed the trout who oblige you with a noisy feeding frenzy. On the other side of the boardwalk from the brook is an aquarium where you can visit a collection of local fishes.
Here’s an aerial view from the hotel’s tower:
Beyond the trout farm are a variety of animals to see and even pet. There were a couple of emus, ducks and geese and several gigantic rabbits. There was a donkey who brayed all night long because he was lonely for his wife, who was locked up in the barn with their new baby donkey.
Hilde fed the llama:
We watched the mountain goats climb rocks at incredible angles:
I wish to remind you that all the animal pens and such were built by Alfons, Sr. If you take the left fork before the trout brook, you head up the hill, again to see more of Alfons, Sr.’s handiwork.
There’s a display of different kinds of birdhouses he made. I like the skull with a hat in the window above. Also, it’s funny there is a plastic owl near the birdhouses to keep the birds away.
Alfons, Sr., built a Totenhaus (literally “Dead House”), a small wooden shed with a wooden marker for deceased ancestors. This is a tradition in the area. Because Alfons, Sr., passed away about eight years ago, his marker was added on the right. The blank spaces are for the next few that die out. Don’t you think it would be creepy to see a blank spot just waiting for you as you age?
Next to the dead house is a small wooden chapel that Alfons built as well. Inside are hand-carved stations of the cross, also done by Senior. In addition, there is a memorial to Senior himself now, complete with a photo and votive candles.
In the dining room of the hotel is a beautiful wooden hand-carved ceiling crafted by you-know-who. He did the ceiling when he was about 85 years old! You’ll see more photos of this room later in the journal, so notice Alfons’ handcarved dining chairs, too. The entire place seems a monument to this man.
We had rented an apartment on the top floor of the hotel across from the tower. It had two bedrooms, two bathrooms, a kitchen and a large living room. Here’s the view from my window. It looks down the hill toward the museum. The deep pond in the photo is Steinbruchsee, which means “Quarry Pond.” The accommodations cost us 25 Euros a night per person, or about $33. You'd pay at least $125 or so in the States for the same type of place.
Hilde introduced me to Alfons, Jr., and his family that run the operation now. Junior has formal training as a chef and runs the kitchen amid all the other wheelbarrowing, animal-feeding, stump-pulling and maintenance. Christiane runs the hotel, including the restaurant. Their son Benedikt, who just finished his formal chef training, is considering going into the biz, too. They have an older son who is trained as a chef and is currently doing internships in Austria.
Well, I had full intentions of describing the whole, charming trip to you in this journal. However, I find we squeezed so much into four days that I’m going to have to break the journal into at least two parts. So, stay tuned for a trip to glassmaking country!
Photo For No Apparent Reason (you know who you are):
other source : http://komnatachista.blogspot.com, http://hipwee.com, http://google.com
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