Day 15: All Good Things

For 15 days, I unplugged and tuned out, save for a brief check-in at work and the odd news report that I'd accidentally run across while trying to find the weather channel. We spent most of our time touring the Old World, after all, and only a few intrusions from the current one were welcome. 

 

What you get out of the Old World is your business. I was looking for a different Old World, not all that old, actually, going only back to 1980, the last of the summer vacations in Germany I'd take visiting our Oma in Hamburg. There was a large nostalgia component for me on this trip, and even if I'd never been to the Black Forest (disputed by my mother, btw) I was looking to recreate a few general memories. A summer lightning storm, or a Capri Sonne after a long walk. Black bread and cheese for supper, perhaps with a slice of Pflaumenkuchen. Black Forest cake at 3:00 in the afternoon. All these were available and I hunted them down. 

 

Indeed, the world lends itself to this repetition, though not always in a good way. When I finally did plug myself back in to current events, the top stories were:

gun violence in the US

soccer hooliganism

misery in Africa

tribal violence in Afghanistan

That last point was so evergreen, in fact, that the BBC felt comfortable running stock footage from 1996 in the story, since no current footage was available. 

I have vivid memories of the German newspaper the day Elvis died, back in 1977. This time around, it was Ali. 

Ahh, you know, you can recreate certain experiences, but ultimately, you can't go back again. Even if you tune the world out, you carry much of it with you. Not the least of this was the two kids I was toting along. Well. If I can't go back again myself, I can pay it forward, so to speak. I'm pretty sure Holman will remember the cake from Cafe Schnurr for years to come. 

 

Anyway, to quote a recent movie I saw, there's no ever after, only in between. So, let's run the numbers. In between Day 0 and Day 15, the figures are:

Flight time (aggregate)                                   18 hours

Countries visited                                              3

Border crossings (excluding arrival)            11

Border crossing where we were stopped     1

Driving hours (approximate)                         50

Driving kilometers (approximate)                2500

Wine consumed (approximate)                     30 liters

Pretzels consumed                                           4

            Of which were sweet/fried                  1

Schnitzels                                                           12

Rösti portions                                                   6

Spaetzle portions                                              8

Sausages                                                            16

Asparagus Spears/soups                                14

Crepes                                                                4

Black Forest Cake (piece)                               3

Pflaumenkuchen (piece)                                 1

Nesta’s Apple Tart (piece)                              9

Schnappes                                                         6

Rodelbahn rides                                               7

Gondola/Cable Car rides                                0

Mountain Peaks trod                                      0

Castles visited                                                   3

            Of which were ruins                            2

            Of which were Neuschwanstein        0

Churches/Cathedrals visited                         4

            Of which were ruins                             1

Votive candles lit                                              6

Massages/mani-pedicures/spa/saunas       0

Swimming pool visits                                       2

Flea Markets                                                      1

Chocolate factories                                           1

Cheese factories                                                0

Wineries visited                                                5

            Of which had a person there              1

Waterfalls visited                                              1

Waterfalls skipped                                            1

Aggregate Michelin stars in Baiersbronn     8

Michelin dining stars gathered                       0

Boat rides                                                            3

Garden Gnome sightings                                 9

Zeppelin sightings                                             2

Total Expenditures                                          $$$$$.$$

Total Value                                            😄😄😄😄😄😄😄😄

There you have it, my loyal readers. I hope you've had some fun reading my blog, I've certainly enjoyed writing it. I will not shut down this blog completely, I'll have occasional updates on travel topics as they arise. I expect our next trip to Europe will be some time away -- we're more likely to take an extended domestic vacation next year. That has planning implications of its own.  

Day 14: To ZRH

It was a cool, gray day in Alsace when we made our getaway. I took a last stroll through the town to get the morning pastries – did I mention that I love walking through a European town early in the morning, watching the locals quietly prepare for the coming tourists, or even better, just going about their regular business?

Anyway, our flight back to the US was next morning at 10:00 am from ZRH, and we had reservations at the Novotel by the airport for the night. Colmar to Zurich is about a 4 hour drive, not too bad, with some opportunities along the way for a little fun.

For months leading up to the trip, Tom had been asking if we would be staying close to Mulhouse, or have time to visit there. Mulhouse is close enough to Colmar, but as a visit? It’s an industrial town, and not particularly handsome.

It has, however, the Schlumpf museum, aka City of Automobiles. A friend of Tom’s told him the car museum, a must see. Hey, on the Gray family tour, we try to accommodate everyone. Mulhouse was on the way, and the museum was open Sundays.

One of the impressive aspects of the Schlumpf is that the vehicles were all collected by one guy – I’ve never seen Jay Leno’s car inventory, but I can’t imagine it runs close.

The eponymous Fritz Schlumpf made a fortune (with his brother) in some industry or another, and decided to devote his spare time and loose change to amassing representative samples of all major European cars, past and (up to his death) present (with one exception, to come).

OK, not all major cars, generally speaking French vehicles are preferred, along with Italians, and mixed breeds like Bugatti. I always assumed the latter was of Italian make, and the founder was certainly so, but they’re build in Alsace, making them alternately French and German, depending on when the car was built.

You’ll see a lot of old cars, and if you’re knowledgeable, there will be rarities and surprises along every aisle. And racing fans especially will enjoy the serious collection of old Formula 1 cars lined up like a race. And some really weird vehicles.

For the rest of us…these cars weren’t as drool-worthy as the polished Mercedes we’d seen, with a few exceptions. A lot of them just looked clunky and uncomfortable, because that’s what cars often were back then.

A favorite Stalinism of mine is, “quantity has a quality all its own,” and this is where Schumpf beats the Mercedes museum. This place is *vast*.

The Schumpf doesn’t tell a story the way Mercedes does, but it belts you with sheer numbers. Of course Mercedes has the resources to buy a bunch of classic cars. But some textile magnate? It’s impressive.

The Schumpf does have one other thing that the Mercedes didn’t. Sure, the collection pretty much stops at 1970, and as I said, the Mercedes had several models that I would own ahead of *any* current vehicle.

Except, perhaps the only current vehicle on display at the Schlumpf – the Bugatti Veyron. There’s no “sticker” price on these – if you have to ask…you’ll get a figure somewhere over $2 million. It’ll cost you $20,000 to get an oil change. All that gets you 0-60 in 2.4 seconds. Fine, for $1 million less you can get a Porsche 918 Spyder, and shave .2 seconds off of that. I’ll be in my Veyron. (Stock image shown -- it was too dark to take a good photo).

Lastly: neither the Benz nor the Schlumpf had any American cars, and as neat as some of the Euros are, it’s a glaring omission. Certainly understandable in the Mercedes case, but had Schlumpf included a Stutz Bearcat or Studebaker Hawk? That would have vaulted them over the top.  

Enough cars. We had a quick lunch in the museum cafeteria (I know…) and were on the road. Our touring was done. Our next destination was the Novotel Glattburg, by the airport, where we were scheduled to meet Nonna and Nesta for drinks and dinner.

You know me, though. I like the… the lagniappe? The little extra? We had an hour or two – possibly the hotel rooms would not yet be ready – and we were still on vacation. I could have taken us into Zurich for a stroll along the Limmat, but, at the risk of insulting some friends and relatives, Zurich isn’t a tourist town. It has some serious restaurants and high end shopping – I know the city fairly well – but if you only have an hour, there’s not much to see.

So, instead I nudged the Transit further north, direction Schaffhausen, without much explanation, because it’s better to see this when you’re not expecting it:

The Rheinfall at Schaffhausen may not be the tallest waterfall in Germany (that was back in Triberg, you may recall), and in fact it’s not even in Germany, it’s all in Switzerland. But it’s quite dramatic, and doesn’t require a 45 minute hike.

 I’ve been here a few times, and someday I’ll be back, once more, and get out to that little Island. For now, we allotted ourselves the afternoon wine in the restaurant.

The Novotel is a business hotel, shiny and corporate. I would say sufficient for the task, but the shocking lack of air conditioning knocked it down a bit.

N&N met us in the bar where we were nursing our $12 cocktails. We were going to just eat in the hotel restaurant, but the menu had a $26 price tag by the hamburger, going up from there. Well, that happens at some hotels, I’m sure they get plenty of business expenses revenue. We decided to drive to a nearby Mexican restaurant, where we found…

…a $26 burrito. The truth that we had ignored at the beginning of the vacation is that Switzerland is crazy expensive. It’s their currency, their stable, fiscally sensible currency that does it for them. It’s been steadily appreciating by about a percent against the general western market for, oh, 100 years. Eventually that adds up. To a $26 burrito. We split our entrees and ordered water. Auf Wiedersehen, Nonna & Nesta, auf Wiedersehen, Zurich. May we see you again soon. 

Interlude: Countryside

I can’t tell exactly how many miles we put on our Transit  over the course of the two weeks – rough estimate would say 1,500. A lot of those were intended to be “scenic”. We took the Autobahn (and the French equivalent) a couple of times, but generally stayed on the blue highways. These will serve you well all over the continent, even if they’re not specifically designated scenic routes. Much of Western Europe is pretty enough to stand on its own.

I was hoping for better, along these lines, from the Black Forest. Mountains are prime scenic territory, after all. But we got our share of view-obstructing clouds on some days.

On non-cloudy days, we got tree obstruction. A gap would appear for a second, but before you could say “look, a valley” it would close, and you’d see more trees. We kept an eye out for local fauna – I’d seen a fat rabbit on an early morning walk – but not so much as a deer, and barely a bird, appeared on the drives. We would have settled for road kill.

One valley was pretty enough, the Wolfach valley, with cows and barns and all that straddling the Wolfach stream. But it came after a twisty turny drive, and there was more relief in getting out of that than happiness at the sight.

What the German roads did offer, one day, was a fun road rally. Classic 60’s sports cars passed us on the other side of the road, every 30 seconds, for miles.

The French countryside was an improvement. Colmar is on the east side of the very broad Rhine valley, and once you get beyond the industrial zone that abuts the river, you’re smack dab into wine country. Unfortunately...I have no good photos of this. Anyway.

Wine country is almost always scenic. I’ve been to a few, notably Champagne, Chiani, and the Moselle Valley. The regimented rows, muted greens, hills and dips, and regular sunshine work to give the firm impression of the good life. And the real promise of a good glass of wine, just a few yards away, helps spread good vibes.

Alsace hits all these marks. One further delight is the smattering of small towns (like Riquewihr) that you can see plunked down in the sea of grapevines. It’s not like Tuscany, where the towns are all on hilltops. These towns are just there, and easily visible from a few yards up. From a few hundred yards up, the effect is delightful.

But but but…for my Dollar Euro Franc, the best scenery is found in Switzerland. Didn’t I mention how every country has their own “Little Switzerland” area? There’s a reason for this, and it’s not about the size of the mountains (the Alps top out at 4,000m, not bad, but not all that much compared to the Rockies, Caucasus, or Andes, much less the Himalayas). It’s about the topography plus the flora and fauna.

The remarkable thing about the Swiss hills is how hilly they are. Their hills and mountains aren’t a long series of ridges and valleys, but a collection of individuals stuck together. The extreme example is the Matterhorn, sitting out there all by itself, but the theme is carried out throughout the country, down to little hillocks that sit within irregular valleys.

The effect, especially while driving, is remarkable. Instead of an endless but static scene, like you’d see atop a ridgeline, you drive around valleys and get ever changing views. The closer hills – rounded tops and sides steep enough to be a real hill, but not so steep as to keep grass and animals off of it -- will parallax against the mountains in the background for a constantly refreshed landscape. It’s as if the mountains are moving, too.

And what mountains! I don’t just mean the snow-capped peaks, which are stunning by themselves – steep and pointy and all that. It’s the lower, grassy, agricultural areas that are spectacular. Deep, rich green grasses (cows and sheep everywhere) – green without any hint of dullness or yellowing. Green that you can’t get from a golf course or a patch of astroturf. All populated by those happy cows, and the occasional town with its cute little church watching over it.

I was concentrating on keeping the Transit in the road, so I have no photos of out drive through the Appenzell. It doesn’t really matter, photos don’t capture the 3-D effect of the mountains in the foreground and background, and their interplay when you’re moving. You can see for yourself with this photo from Appenzell town – there’s no sense of distance and layers in the background hills.

For photos, stick with the vistas of wine country. For touring, go to the Alps.

Day 13: Eguisheim

Last full day in Alsace! Another pastry for breakfast, and we were off. Time to make the most of this day.

We’d seen the countryside, mountain, and the cute village. I had originally planned to take us on a circuit through the Vosges, perhaps even over to the other side in the Muenster valley. It’s on a nice route called the Alsacian Ring.

But a quick poll of the electorate revealed that more twisty mountain driving would cause general unrest. Whereas Annemarie had spotted a name of a town that was not in my guidebook (for shame, Fodors) but was on other tour lists.

For every San Gimignano, there’s a Volterra. For every Rothenburg, there’s a Dinkelsbuhl. Again with the second bests, a recurring theme here. If Riquewihr was the prettiest little village in France, Eguisheim was not far behind it, and may have been better for it. As anyone who’s gone there will tell you, San Gimignano and Rothenburg are crammed with tourists and the related shops. The second bests, the Volterras and Dinkelsbuhls and such, get to come off as a little more authentic. I liked Eguisheim more than Riquewihr.

Eguisheim also had a more obvious story to tell. During the 11^th Century, one of their own made good, extremely so, and became Pope. So pretty much everything in the town is named after or refers to him their favorite son, including their compact main cathedral and central square.

 Was he a good Pope? The town placards think so -- they say he spent ten years criss-crossing Europe, pleading for peace among warring Christian kingdoms. Well intentioned, but ineffective. It would be for the next Popes to direct the medieval bloodlust externally. Problem solved.

We had a casual lunch in town, but found a key item from the checklist: Crepes! You can’t go to France without having some crepes! Maybe not the best ever, but plenty good, and one more check off the list.

One of the other delights of Eguisheim is that it is home to a large population of storks. The stork is the traditional local animal, but they were elusive in Colmar and Riquewihr. Don’t like tourists, I guess. Eguisheim had them by the bushel. Authentic, right?

With the rest of the afternoon to play with, we decided – well, I decided – we had to visit a vineyard, or some sort of winery. We walked into two wine merchants in Eguisheim, and in both of them no one came to help us. This was just before and just after lunch (12:00-2:00 in France), so I guess the proprietors were taking a break. Must be nice to be able to ignore business.

We drove through the lovely countryside for a little while, along the Alsacian Route de Vin, in search of a promising spot. I was hoping for a winery with a view over proprietary vineyards, with an owner ready to tell us which rows of grapes went into the wine we were drinking. This does not exist, of course. It would be seen as a waste of precious space to plop a building into the actual wine growing turf, so all wineries are located in towns. Fair enough, we backed into a normal, non-tourist town where a wedding was underway outside the church, and I followed a sign to a vendor. I ended up nearly walking into a private house, whose wine-sipping occupants directed me around the back, where I found a winery with closed gates and a barking dog. Will no one sell us a bottle?

Someone did, at a little shop close by. It wasn’t cute or picturesque, just a little shop with boxes strewn about, and a bar. We tried a few varieties and settled on two whites and four rosé crémants, all for about $80. The latter we took back to the US, and as of this writing, one bottle remains.

A pretty good day. Crepes, check. Storks, check. Winery, check. What’s left to do? Well, while driving around we spotted a chocolate factory – remember way back in Appenzell, when I sacrificed the visit to a Swiss chocolate factory in favor of the (rained-out) coaster ride? You don’t? The kids remembered. This was a very last minute chance to make good on the Appenzell decision.

Being Saturday, the “factory” was closed – no tour. I’m sure the boys were expecting a Charlie & the Chocolate Factory experience, so there was some disappointment. But they watched a nice video of the chocolate making process, and we bought all kinds of goodies, so I’m counting it as being close enough. Chocolate Factory, check.

But wait! There's more! We got back to Colmar with just enough time left for Paine, Holman and I to take a quick tour on the river. Because we were on vacation, and had to squeeze everything in.

We were just about Franced-out after that, having packed very much into these last two days. No expensive farewell dinner – the hotel restaurant is quite fancy, but och, it was more than we can do. We purchased some baguettes, with cheeses and salami, and ate in our hotel room. No balcony, no view, it was a little cramped, but the cheese was good, as was the wine we had purchased earlier that day. France, we love you, but our time was up.

Day 12: Haut Koenigsbourg and Riquewihr

It’s the tail-end of the vacation. Those lazy days in Germany are gone. The urge to maximize our experience is creeping in. Our days get packed, and my posts get longer. Bear with me.

Le Marechal serves a breakfast, but it’s a wildly expensive one, so in the morning we struck out to find a local pastry. This wasn’t difficult, we found one, though we have to admit that their baked goods weren’t phenomenal. Eh. They were more or less as good as the stuff we get here at Continental Bakery. The main difference was the price. There, a croissant costs $1; at Continental, it’s $3. Next day a tour guide would tell me that, before the move to the Euro, they could get croissants for 25 cents. The increase nearly brought down the government.

Anyway, we still had things to see in Colmar, so we struck out to the far side of town and their highly regarded art and archaeology museum, the Unterlinden. And on the way we nearly struck gold.

A flea market was unfolding by the main church! All throughout the trip, Dottie was talking about hitting antique shops to find “cast iron jewelry” – supposedly, during WWI, patriotic German women had donated their real jewelry to the war effort, but made cheaper cast-iron knock-offs to keep for themselves.  I highly doubt this really happened – or, if it did, the cast iron jewel was made for public show, while the original was stashed in Switzerland. Anyway, Dottie claims these fake jewels are now highly sought-after by collectors.

Sadly, the women of Alsace, being French at the time, are even more unlikely to have done this. No such jewelry was found at the market. I did find an old Quimper bowl that I nearly bought for $10, and regret not having done so. My wife points out that the bowl was chipped and in poor condition, but those of you who know will recognize this as a feature, not a drawback.

Anyway, off to finish the morning with some more High Art. We’d seen the moderns in Stuttgart, and we couldn’t leave Europe without seeing some medieval stuff. The Unterlinden has the justly famous Issenheim Altarpiece, along with other works of note (and perhaps not – they advertise a tapestry of Picasso’s Guernica. Seriously). I’m no medieval art expert but even I can tell this work was of exceptional quality, especially compared to the usual gilt background Madonna and Child stuff.

Even all that – flea market, museum – we weren’t  yet at lunchtime. That would have been a whole day in Germany. Anyway, having wandered the breadth of the Colmar old town, we hopped back in the Transit and made for the village of Riquewihr, about 20 minutes away.

Riquewihr is one of those UN heritage tourstop sites, it touts itself as having been voted “France’s prettiest village” not too long ago. And why not – it sits, behind a few remaining walls, on a gentle upslope surrounded by vineyards, has maybe…5,000 inhabitants? One wide main street, cobbled, with two parallel side streets to that. Maybe 8 cross streets. You can walk it in 90 minutes if you don’t stop to smell the roses.

Those roses, in this case, are more bright half timbered houses crowding over you. It makes a convincing effort at being authentically medieval, though that’s quickly spoiled by the shops that line main street. These are mostly small wine shops plus the occasional souvenir shop and restaurant. The thing to do, in theory, is wander from one wine shop to another and taste each product. That all sounds good but our kids would have a fit after stop 2. Fair enough. We wandered, viewed, then picked out a restaurant, La Grenuille, off on a side street (basic rule, don’t eat on the main tourist streets).

After 11 days of German food, my family was in full revolt, and demanded they be served a hamburger. Don’t give me that look – to keep it local, an appetizer of escargot was ordered, too, and supposedly this was an outstanding hamburger (I had a cordon bleu) though that could be the “throw a starving man a cracker” effect.

Riquewihr was lovely, though by now I’ve seen more than a few of these towns – one gets jaded. Rothenburg in Germany holds the standard here, because of its size, walls, and layout. The Tuscan version is San Gimignano. These towns are delightful to visit, but the wonder wears off after a while.

It was barely 2:00 by now, and not too far away is another major local attraction, Haut Koenigsbourg. This massive castle sits on a commanding hilltop high above the Rhine valley, at the eastern edge of the Vosges mountains. It was another 30 minutes away, though we could spot it in 5, the rest of the time was taken up with a windy drive to the peak.

You would think that a sturdy castle atop this steep grade would be nigh impregnable, but this castle proved quite pregnable.

It, or some version of it, was destroyed three times – if I recall, twice by force, once by neglect. By the late 1800’s, it was close to being a useless pile of rubble.

Well. The locals down below thought up a cracking idea – why not donate it to The Kaiser? Show our loyalty, and get this eyesore off our hands. In 1900, they “gifted” the thing to Wilhelm II. I mean, that’s like giving someone a broken iPhone. Here, you fix it, it’ll only cost you more than it’s worth.

Willy Two was in a bit of a bind – Alsace had been in German hands for only a generation, and I suspect he thought this may be a good propaganda opportunity for him. “Look at what we’ll do for you,” I guess. So, he plowed millions upon millions to restore the whole thing, including hiring a team of archaeologists to dig through the site and salvage authentic tools and materials, and try to replicate original building construction.

 I have no doubt that the final result is an accurate rebuild. It’s also a little sterile, as opposed to the Meersburg castle that looked like it may have been in use a week ago.

And it has a lot of steps. Groans and complains from family were heard as ever more staircases appeared.

But the views were breathtaking, although the best were not from the top of the castle, but the base.

I wondered how the French feel about this site. Wilhelm II had it finished by 1908, at great expense, only to have it fall into French hands by 1918. They, in turn, can’t hide the fact that the restoration was done by Willy, their arch nemesis. It’s not like they can celebrate the end product. They have to treat it with a certain ambivalence, and I think that showed in the tour.

How do the French feel about this place in general? The whole area? “Haut Koenigsbourg” – really, they can’t pretend it’s not Königsburg, or that Keysersberg isn’t Kaisersberg, can they? Do they ever think, “hey, we totally stole this place from the Germans”?

Then I think of towns with names like Tuscaloosa and San Antonio, and figure it’s best to drop this line of inquiry.

Now, back into Colmar. Le Marechal’s failing was a relaxing place to drink wine; we had no balconies like at Lamm, and their front patio was usually crammed with guests plus people walking in and out. We gamely tried a glass before heading off to dinner at Winstub de la Petite Venise. Alsacian fare, delicious.

That night, the European soccer championship tournament began, with the French pulling off a victory in stoppage time. The locals hollered and honked into the wee hours. The tournament would end with the French losing to Portugal in the finals, but that was weeks away. For the moment, everyone was happy.