Easter Weekend 2013, Part Four: The Rhine Falls

On May 9, 2013May 30, 2020 By StevenIn International Travel - Europe7 Comments

The Friday and Monday surrounding Easter weekend this year were public holidays in Bavaria. Since I had a long weekend, I decided to do a whirlwind tour through Strasbourg France, Freiburg Germany, Zurich Switzerland, and the Rhine Falls near the Swiss-German border. The last stop on my whirlwind weekend was at the Rhine Falls!

On Easter Monday, the first of April, I boarded this adorable little Regional Express train from Zurich’s main station to Schaffhausen, in Switzerland. After a 40-45 minute train ride, another short bus took me from Schaffhausen over to Neuhausen am Rheinfall, to go check out the Rhine Falls, Europe’s largest waterfall.

When I was planning the trip, I discovered a nice restaurant directly overlooking the Falls, Schlössli Wörth. I made a reservation for lunch a few weeks in advance, and it’s a good thing I did, because the restaurant was completely booked when I arrived. The restaurant is in this structure. The docks are shared with tour boats that go directly up to the falls.

All of the tables in the restaurant line the outer ring of the building, and have great views out toward the falls. My table had a fantastic view.

This is what I was looking at while I ate. I couldn’t stop staring out the window. I’m extremely happy that the sun came out for this part of my trip.

My meal was amazingly good, also. This is a fillet of perch with saffron-butter over risotto. It was so good, I had a glass of wine. I almost never drink wine. This restaurant is a little pricey, but it was well worth it.

After treating myself to a nice lunch, I got on with the business of being a tourist at the Falls. From the shore, it looks very impressive. There are several different tour boats that go on different paths near the Falls.

I chose the yellow boats, which go to an outcropping of rock in the middle of the falls. You can climb up a winding stair to get a higher vantage point, with the waterfall on either side of you. The only way to get to this point is by boat. Here’s the boat.

In this photo, you can see one of the boats approaching the rock with the stairs. This shot gives you a sense of the scale and size of the waterfalls, since you can see tiny people on both the boat and the rocks.

“We’re headed right for the Falls!”

When we reached the tiny boat ramp at the base of the rocky outcropping, I was hilariously amused to note that standing off to one side, waiting to get on the boat to return to shore, were a pair of Mormon missionaries. The Mormons have been my constant companion as I tour all over Europe, Their little plastic name badges (Elder Smith, Elder Cunningham) are a source of bemused comfort now. But I digress.

The stairs are actually quite narrow and the entire structure is much smaller than it looks. It felt a little too crowded while I was there, and it was difficult to get good pictures from the stairs without other people in the frame. That didn’t stop me from trying, though.

Since I’ve been on the Maid Of The Mists at Niagara’s Horseshoe Falls, this seemed like a bit of a smaller waterfall to me. Still, it was damned impressive. I like waterfalls as much as I like tall places and trains. Now I need to see Victoria Falls.

What’s your favorite waterfall?

Raising A Maypole

On May 6, 2013May 30, 2020 By StevenIn Life In Germany12 Comments

On the first of May last year, I wrote a little bit about May Day, and about Maibäume, or maypoles. This year, I got to see the raising of a May Pole up close. My partner-in-crime Jenny and her boyfriend were planning on going to a raising in nearby Peising and invited me along to hang out with the Village People. (I mean the people who live in the village of Peising, not the band with the cowboy and the construction worker. I would actually have enjoyed having a beer with them too.) Since the day is a public holiday in Bavaria (no work!) I had nothing else planned, so I took them up on their offer. I’m glad I did, because it was actually a lot of fun.

First of all, a May Pole raising is often held with all the elements of a traditional Bavarian beer-fest. There are beer garden styled tables and benches, lots of people in Tracht (lederhosen and dirndls), and even some live musical entertainment.

This was also kind of a family event, and I have to just say- kids in Tracht are incredibly damned cute. These three pictures are proof of that. Also, the little kid on the scooter is kind of an adorable badass with the sunglasses and the spiky hair. He was my favorite Bavarian kid all day long.

At two in the afternoon, it was time for the Maypole to be raised. It had been stored a short distance from the place where it was to be raised, and there is a tradition where a group of people from the village guard their Maypole against theft by another village. This involves drinking lots of beer and hanging out overnight around the pole. If the people from the other village succeed in stealing the Maypole, it must be “bought” back for the princely sum of 50 Liters of beer and enough Bratwurst for all the members of the raiding party. At least this is how it was explained to me. As you can see, however, it wouldn’t be terribly easy to steal another village’s Maypole:

The process of raising the pole took around 45 minutes, but Robert says it can be done much faster if people really want to. It starts with everyone lining the pole up with its metal base so that a primary spike can be put through it to anchor it in place.

Next, they use smaller wood poles connected by barbed wire (seen below) to prop the pole up and to lift it in increments. These tongs are in varying lengths, and the longest are nearly as long as the Maypole is tall. The group would lever the pole up slightly, then move one or two of the sets of tongs further down the pole, then another lift. This is repeated until the pole is completely vertical. These next few photos show what I’m talking about.

There’s a secondary type of pole, seen here, which is used to help guide the longer sets of tongs when they’re quite a large distance above the ground. A “spotter” with one of these stands under the far end of the tongs to help steady them while they are being moved further down the Maypole. This is probably a very good idea, because it’s very easy to lose control of the longest sets of tongs when you’re only gripping it from the furthest end. As you can see, the tongs get very long.

Once the Maypole is entirely vertical, metal plates are bolted across the open side to keep it from toppling over again. A few pieces of wood are wedged into place to hold the pole steady. Finally, a quick bit of spot-welding on the bolts keeps them from coming loose for the next few months.

After all of this, Voila! A lovely Maypole has been set up in the village of Peising. The blue and white stripes are traditional; they’re the colors of the Bavarian flag. Once the Maypole is fully raised, everyone settles back down for beer and bratwurst. And, in my case, chocolate cake.

Have you ever seen a Maypole raising?

An unrelated announcement.

On May 2, 2013April 29, 2013 By StevenIn The U.S.5 Comments

Family is very important to me. You wouldn’t know it just from reading my blog because I don’t talk much about them here, but my family is pretty close and I do my best to keep that going. In corporate-speak, Family is one of my core values.

It is for this reason that I am going to interrupt my usual blog goings-on to announce, with immense pride and tremendous happiness, that my niece is graduating tomorrow from the University of Central Florida*. She earned a Bachelor of Science in “Education in Social Science Education”, with double minors in “English Language Arts Education” and “Hospitality and Tourism Management.” I can’t even begin to fathom how those all go together, but my niece can because she’s one smart cookie. I wish I could be there to see her graduate, but my team hasn’t finished with the teleportation prototype yet. Congrats, Rebecca!

(And as long as I’m giving shout-outs to family, today is also the birthday of both my sister and my sister-in-law. Happy birthday, y’all!)

Normal bloggy stuff will resume next week. I still haven’t finished talking about my Easter weekend trip!

*UCF is also where I earned my degree, so I’m pretty pleased about that too.

Easter Weekend 2013, Part Three: Zurich, Switzerland

On April 29, 2013May 30, 2020 By StevenIn International Travel - Europe12 Comments

The Friday and Monday surrounding Easter weekend this year were public holidays in Bavaria. Since I had a long weekend, I decided to do a whirlwind tour through Strasbourg France, Freiburg Germany, Zurich Switzerland, and the Rhine Falls near the Swiss-German border. I’m going to write about them one at a time, though. Next up is Zurich!

Sunday morning, I grabbed an early train from Freiburg into Zurich. If you arrive by train, you will find yourself in one of the busiest train stations in the world, with nearly three thousand trains a day. Hanging overhead in the main hall, you’ll see L’Ange Protecteur by French artist and sculptor Niki de Saint Phalle, a French sculptor. I hadn’t heard of her sculptures, called Nanas, until I saw this one. There’s a bunch more in in various places around Europe.

In front of the train station, there is easy access to the street tram system, and from there you can get almost anywhere else in the city. The street directly opposite, Bahnhofstrasse, is a very busy and fairly well known shopping street. I spent some time in the evening walking down this street trying to find the source of a tantalizingly delicious smelling food smell- I never figured out where it was coming from.

I took the tram to the Rathaus stop in order to see some of the more well known sights in Zurich, and that let me out in front of this building:

From there, it was a very short walk to most of what I wanted to see. First I walked up the hill to Lindenhof. This is a hill in the middle of the city, with a really spectacular view. Apparently it used to be a Roman fort, but honestly, this is Europe- what wasn’t a part of an old Roman fort? You can see Grossmünster, the church with the two dome-shaped spires on the right side there. That’s the next place I walked.

Grossmünster was a very impressive structure. I didn’t know until after I was gone that you can actually climb the tower. Blast! I missed a chance to go into a tall thing! I’m sure I’ll be back there in the near future, though.

The door of Grossmünster is ornate and fascinating.

Grossmünster is quite pretty inside, also.

Across the river from Grossmünster is a courtyard area that connects shopping streets (and the climb to Lindenhof) to Fraumünster. There are a lot of clocks in Zurich. I wonder how often one of them is wrong.

Inside Fraumünster there are four glass windows which were painted by Marc Chagall. You’re not supposed to take pictures of them from inside the church, so pretend you didn’t see this.

After a busy day of seeing churches and not climbing them, I stopped for lunch in a tasty place called Cafe Odeon, which has apparently been open for more than 100 years.

I had the Rösti, which is a common food in Switzerland, a fried potato dish which is somewhat similar to hash browns. In this case, I had it with fried eggs and a some vegetables. It was quite delicious.

Easter graffiti! I saw this while I was walking to where the Jacob Coffee Museum is. Unfortunately, the Coffee Museum is closed for renovation. The information I read said that it would be open in March of 2013, but it was most definitely not finished with renovations. Oops!

While I was walking to yet another closed attraction (stupid holiday weekend), I saw this lovely flowering tree. Someone tricked this plant into thinking it was already springtime.

The aforementioned closed attraction- This is the Polybahn, a 19th century funicular that goes steeply up and down one of the hills near the center. I like funiculars, naturally, but this one wasn’t running. Stupid holiday weekend.

That was the bulk of my sightseeing for the day. I went back to the hotel room for a little while to shake off a headache in the late afternoon, and didn’t go out again except for dinner, a little more wandering, and some dessert. Dessert was this amazing piece of apple pie at Hotel Schweizerhof’s Café Gourmet, a nifty little place for a snack across the street from the Bahnhof.

Have you been to Zurich?

Easter Weekend 2013, Part Two: Freiburg, Germany

On April 25, 2013May 30, 2020 By StevenIn International Travel - Inside Germany17 Comments

The Friday and Monday surrounding Easter weekend this year were public holidays in Bavaria. Since I had a long weekend, I decided to do a whirlwind tour through Strasbourg France, Freiburg Germany, Zurich Switzerland, and the Rhine Falls near the Swiss-German border. I’m going to write about them one at a time, though. Next up, Freiburg!

After spending Friday in Strasbourg, I got up early the next morning to grab a quick train into Freiburg. The weather had turned, so much of this day was moist and cold and overcast. I had been looking forward to some of the nicer views from hiking up the Schlossberg or taking the Schauinsland cable car, but since the weather didn’t cooperate, those will have to wait until the next time.

I did get to meet Andrew from Grounded Traveler– we had lunch together and he showed me around town a little bit. While walking to the town center to meet him, I passed by these fun little tornado statues:

During my minitour, we walked by one of the town gates, the Schwabentor. It was all scaffolded for construction. This happens a lot.

This is just a regular street in the town center. Freiburg is quite charming, and I’d love to see it again some time in the sunlight.

This is the other city gate, the Martinstor. While not in scaffolding, the McDonald’s logo on the gate has drawn criticism. (McFreiburg?)

My favorite part of Freiburg, to be honest, is the Bächle. These are small canals all over the city. The locals say that if you accidentally step into one, you will marry a Freiburg resident. Andrew says he’s stepped in them many times and he wound up with an American anyway.

One of the cool things about the Bächle, in my opinion, is that the locals have integrated them into their entertainment. I saw lots of kids with little toy boats on strings like these two. Incidentally, this is my favorite picture from the entire day in Freiburg.

My second favorite thing about Freiburg is the stonework in front of various shops around the old city. For the most part, the stonework is indicative of the business it sits in front of, although there were a few places where the business was relocated and the stonework remained. Even so, it’s pretty easy by the stonework to figure out what kind of business you’re looking at. Here’s three examples:

Another general shot of the city, with one of the church towers in the background for perspective of what the weather was like.

The Roter Bären is one of the oldest buildings in Freiburg, and is a well known hotel.

The front of the Rathäuser, the history city halls.

The Münster cathedral, with amazing gargoyles all over the structure. You can climb the tower, but I didn’t want to do that unless it was a clear day- the view just isn’t the same when you can only see a few buildings away.

Note the gargoyles in the center- the one on the left is just sticking his butt out. Hilarious!

Lastly, a short walk away from the cathedral is the 48th Parallel. I live close to the 49th parallel, and I know you can see the 49th in Karlsruhe, but I haven’t been there. I was also unable to see the Prime Meridian when I was in London because the observatory was closed due to the Olympics. But here, there’s a bar on the corner called 48 Degrees. And right in front of that bar, is the 48th Parallel. This is fascinating to me:

How many parallels or meridians have you seen?