Blue Mountains, Hunter Valley & Sydney - 1994

  

We started Saturday morning driving north from Canberra to Goulburn and stopping for coffee at the "Giant Merino", a four or five story building built in the shape of a giant sheep.  From Goulburn we headed north on gravel roads through pretty but sparsely populated country.  We did see colorful lorikeets and green parrots and stopped to stretch our legs at the Bummaroo Bridge.  We pressed on through Oberon, Hartley, Mount Victoria, and Black Heath, now in the heart of the Blue Mountains, so called because the eucalyptus trees (also known as blue gums) give off a blue haze.  Our weather was nice but cool and became cloudier and cooler in the mountains.  At Black Heath we stopped at Govett's Leap lookout to view a canyon carved into the earth and a long waterfall.  From there we drove through Katoomba to Leura, where we checked into our bed & breakfast inn called Megalong Manor.



Megalong Manor has only three rooms and we had reserved the "Lindsay Suite", named after Norman Lindsay, an Australian artist who is the subject of a movie soon to come out.  The room was decorated in Victorian style with a four-poster bed and antiques.  It was very nice and Robin, the owner and host, was very friendly.  Leura is one of the prettiest towns in the Blue Mountains and its main street shops are all part of the National Trust of historical buildings.  We walked around Leura (it doesn't take long) and looked in some shops.  Then we drove to Katoomba, the main city of the Blue Mountains.  We walked along its main street, which isn't quite as quaint, in a cool drizzle.  Then we went to Echo Point on the outskirts of Katoomba and looked over the valley below and the "Three Sisters", which are eroded rock outcroppings.  They are the subject of an aboriginal legend of three sisters turned to stone by their witch doctor father.  The view is beautiful even in cool, cloudy weather.



We went back to our inn and made dinner reservations at the Bon Ton restaurant in Leura, just a short walk from where we stayed.  We had an excellent meal washed down with Australian white wine.



Sunday morning we took our time getting up and out.  Our room and bed were so comfortable we began a week of sleeping late and relaxing.  The weather was still cool and cloudy but we went back to Echo Point and the Three Sisters.  We went to other lookouts in the area and took lots of photos.  We went into Katoomba and to the famous Paragon cafe.  It is famous because it was built in the 1930s and still retains its charm and art deco design.  Their specialty is chocolates so, after coffee and mud cake, we bought some chocolate candy to carry around with us.



We walked around Leura some more and drove to Sublime lookout for a photo op.  From Sublime lookout we drove the Cliff Road, which has several lookouts over the valley/canyon, to the Scenic Railway, an old coal miners train that carried miners to the valley floor.  We took the exciting ride down.  It's said to be the steepest train ride in the world with an incline of 51% in places.  At the bottom we hiked along trails and saw Katoomba Falls from the bottom.  We went back to Katoomba for a good dinner in a Thai restaurant.



Monday was our 30th anniversary.  We drove to Black Heath and found a deli where we bought breads, pates and cheeses for a picnic lunch.  Robin, our host at the inn, had given us a bottle of champagne so we took that as well.  Near the town of Bell, we went to Wall's lookout and had our picnic lunch.  This area had bad forest fires last Christmas but is already showing signs of re-growth.  We drove to Lithgow and then headed south to the Jenolan Caves, a very large network of caves with several different tours.  We took a tour to the Cerberus Pool, a clear blue pool that is a part of a large underground river.  We drove back to Leura and were surprised by another bottle of champagne and a dozen red roses provided by Robin.



We had a very nice dinner at the Rooster restaurant in Katoomba.  It was strange because the restaurant was empty except for us and we had the waiter all to ourselves.  It was a small restaurant but I guess Monday night is an off night.  After dinner we drove back to Echo Point to view the Three Sisters by floodlight.



Tuesday morning we checked out of Megalong Manor and headed east on the Great Western highway towards Sydney.  In one of the Sydney suburbs near Paramatta, we stopped to visit the Featherdale Animal Park, a recommendation of friends at work.  It is like a large petting zoo which our niece, Morgan, would love.  We got to hold and pet koalas and kangaroos.  There were other Australian animals and birds as well but those were the highlights.



Rita navigated us through the Sydney suburbs and we headed north towards the Hunter Valley, home to about 30 wineries.  Here we checked into the Casuarina Inn which has about seven rooms, all decorated and named according to a theme.  Ours was the French Bordello room - enough said!  We drove to Maitland, nearby, to look into the George and Dragon Inn for dinner but decided on the restaurant at our inn.  We had a nice meal with local wine at the Casuarina.



Wednesday we drove to several wineries nearby to sample and buy wines to take back home.  We went to Lindemans, McWilliams, Brokenwood and Tyrells.  We also stopped at the Small Winemakers office for tastings and lunch.  We drove up in the hills for a scenic overlook of the valley.  And we drove to the small, historic town of Wollombi and had a beer at the Wollombi Tavern, home of Dr. Jurd's Jungle Juice.  Of course I had to buy a bottle to take home.  We purchased altogether about a case and a half of wines to take back.  For dinner we ate at Roberts of Peppertree, a very nice restaurant.  It will be a long, long time before I forget the chocolate dessert I had there!



Thursday we checked out and headed towards Sydney.  Heading through Cessnock, my mind went blank and I turned into the wrong lane at an intersection.  First time since driving here that I reverted to driving on the right.  Normally I'm used to driving on the left now.  But there wasn't much traffic and the locals just figured I had too much wine sampling that morning.



We made our way into Sydney and across the big Harbour Bridge, only to be in the wrong lane at the wrong time and got lost in downtown Sydney.  But we found our hotel, parked the car for three days, and checked in.  In Sydney we stayed at the Ramada Renaissance hotel where they put us on the 24th floor overlooking the city.  We were only a block away from Sydney Harbour and Circular Quay.  We walked to the Opera House and picked up tickets for the next night's performance that we had purchased earlier.  We picked up a sandwich and ate in a park nearby, then walked around the oldest part of Sydney, The Rocks.  The Rocks today is a mass of shops and restaurants.  We spent a lot of time walking around this historic district and looking at shops.  We watched the dockside party as a cruise ship departed and had dinner at Caminetto Italian restaurant.



Friday was a long day starting with a walk part way across the Harbour Bridge.  We had excellent views from there and took several photos.  The Sydney Harbour with ferry boats, opera house, bridge and Circular Quay is so scenic that we felt compelled to take photos from every conceivable angle.



We signed up with a harbour cruise, one which we could depart and reboard at about five stops.  We headed towards the entrance of the harbour and departed the boat at Watson's Bay.  We had an excellent seafood meal at Doyle's on the Beach, a Sydney institution, with excellent views of the city.  We took a short hike up the hill for views of the Pacific Ocean and the entrance into Sydney Harbour.  We boarded the next boat, which stopped at the Taronga Zoo then went under Harbour Bridge to Darling Harbour, where we departed again.  About this time we realized that we had forgotten hats and sun screen and we could tell we were very burnt.  We walked around the shopping malls at Darling Harbour, had some ice cream and took a ride on the monorail that went over Chinatown and part of Sydney.  We caught the next boat back to Circular Quay and went back to the hotel to clean up.



We were both sunburnt and Rita had blisters on her feet but we managed to get ourselves ready for a night at the opera.  We saw a Gilbert and Sullivan operetta, The Gondoliers, that was lively and fun.  The Sydney Opera House has two main auditoriums, the opera hall and concert hall.  We were in the larger opera hall but it was not all that large.  The acoustics were good and we had a very nice evening even though we were tired.  We ordered a late night dinner in our room after we returned.



Saturday was our last full day in Sydney and by now we were tiring.  We followed our guide book and walked along Bridge Street and then Macquarie Street, looking at historic buildings along the way.  We stopped to tour the Hyde Park Barracks, one of the oldest buildings.  It had several uses but its first use was as a prison for the early prisoners sent over from England.  We looked into the oldest church in Sydney, St. James, and walked to the Queen Victoria Building.  Pierre Cardin called it the most beautiful shopping mall in the world.  It is very nice, built in the 1880s and recently restored.  We looked in some shops but didn't feel like shopping.  We had lunch there in a Viennese coffee house.  Then we walked to Hyde Park and rested on a park bench for a while.  After a while we walked again along William Street to Kings Cross area.  This is the wild side of Sydney with hookers, adult stores and strip bars.  There are also some good restaurants in this area but we weren't impressed much with the area so we didn't make any reservations.  We walked to the Elizabeth Bay area with nice views of the harbour.  Then through Woolloomooloo and the Botanical Gardens to The Rocks where we ate pizza for our last Sydney meal.  It was a long and tiring day.



Sunday we took our time checking out and headed back home on the Hume highway.  We stopped at an Ikea store in the suburbs to buy a small rug and desk lamp, then pressed on.  Halfway home we stopped in the pretty, historic village of Berrima.  There are lots of little shops here and we had a Devon tea with scones.  Then back home where we unpacked and settled back to normalcy, whatever that is.

Bavarian Oktoberfest - 2001

Rita and I finally made it to Munich’s Oktoberfest.  We have been to Munich many times but never for this famous event.  And we have been to many other Oktoberfests at various places but this one is the original.  The first Oktoberfest began in 1810 in Munich and has grown so much that today Oktoberfest and Munich are synonymous.  This year was probably a good year for these two senior citizens to attend since crowds were down to a manageable size.  We were told that last year there were 11 million people attending the two-week festival.  Last year there were 2 million attendees in the first weekend while this year there was about 550,000 in the first weekend.  Much of this is attributed to the drop in international travel since the September 11 attacks in the USA.  We noticed that there seemed to be very few foreigners in attendance and the crowds seemed mostly German, young and drunk.



Our trip was sponsored through the US Embassy’s Tri Mission Association (TMA) but is not limited to Embassy employees, especially if the trip is not filled up.  This trip was on a very comfortable bus with music, videos, and plenty of space since it did not fill up.  Rita and I were able to spread out to two separate seats for the trip.  We left Brussels early Thursday morning and headed on motorways to Luxembourg and into Germany gliding past Trier, Kaiserslautern, Mannheim, Heilbronn, Stuttgart, Ulm, and Fussen where we took back roads to the village of Oberammergau.  This village is so picturesque that it doesn’t look real.  It is home to the well-known Passion Play, which is done with the local village residents every ten years.  It derives from a vow made by the village inhabitants in 1633 when the plague epidemic miraculously stopped short.  Oberammergau is also known as the center of Bavarian wood carving with dozens of shops and carvers in the area.



We checked into our comfortable Hotel Wolf and soon had to get on the bus for a short drive to Garmish-Partenkirchen.  Earlier in the day we all voted for going to this town to a Bavarian restaurant with “live music and great German food”.   Our bus driver, who was also the organizer, called ahead on his cell phone and we had reservations for 8:00 pm.  The entertainment and beer were good, but the food was just okay.  Here we had Paulaner beer served in half-liter sizes – a special Oktoberfest brew.  I had Wiener schnitzel and Rita had sauerbraten.  The entertainment was a gentleman with accordion who yodeled and sang German beer-drinking songs while playing.  Two teen-aged boys came out at 30-minute intervals to do their Bavarian slap-dances in lederhosen.  We all sang along even though we didn’t know the words.  We had the spirit!



Friday morning we had about an hour after breakfast to look around town and do a bit of shopping if we wanted to.  We departed at 10:30 and headed into Munich.  Traffic was heavy and we arrived at the Oktoberfest fairgrounds about noon.  People went their separate ways instead of staying together as a group.  Rita and I went around with Mike Bretz, with whom I work.  Mike had been to three Oktoberfests when he was posted to Germany years ago in the Navy. 



First we stopped at the Paulaner beer tent for a liter beer.  At the Oktoberfest beer tents, a liter is the only size beer that can be purchased.  A liter is slightly larger than a quart or about the size of three bottles of US beer.  We also had a lunch of wurst with sauerkraut and a big pretzel.  We listened to the oompah band and watched people singing along as they drank.  It was not crowded yet.  We wandered to the Lowenbrau beer tent, which was more crowded, and then to the Spatenbrau beer tent for another liter.  Each local brewery sets up their own, huge beer tents.  These are not really tents but large buildings with Plexiglas roofs, with the interiors decorated to look as though they are tents.



We decided to walk into the center of Munich about a mile away.  On the way out, Mike and I decided to ride the Euro Star inverted roller coaster.  We waited for front row seats for a thrilling ride.  Then we continued into Munich, arriving in time at the Marienplatz to witness the 5:00 o’clock glockenspiel demonstration at the town hall.  Next we hiked to the famous Hofbrauhaus beer hall.  We had beautiful, mild weather so we sat outside in the beer garden and had another liter of beer.  We were feeling pretty good by now and getting hungry.  Just a short distance away was a good restaurant called Orlando where we had a nice meal.  Mike had a half-liter beer while I had a glass of white wine.  Rita had sips of my beer throughout the day. 



After dinner we walked back to the fairgrounds and to a couple of other beer tents.  The crowds had more than doubled in the time we were in town.  Some of the beer tents had shut their doors because of over-crowding.  We walked into the Hofbrauhaus beer tent and it was packed with drunks standing on the tables and dancing to the music.  Smoke was so thick you could barely see the band from the back of the tent.  We decided to sit outside where we all three shared one last liter of HB beer.  I was surprised that I drank that much beer – probably the most beer in one evening since high school.  I was also surprised that I could handle it as well as I did.  Probably because we paced ourselves, walked a fair way and ate plenty of food with the beer.  We all met back at the bus at 10:30 for the ride home and exchanged war stories before falling asleep on the ride.



Saturday morning we all stumbled into breakfast dying for coffee.  But all in all, nobody was sick and we didn’t really have major hangovers.  I didn’t feel like going for a run but I didn’t feel bad.  We departed the hotel at 9:30 and headed for home with a couple of planned stops. 



Our first stop was the beautiful, Rococo style Wieskirche or Wies church near the small village of Wies.  Built from 1746 to 1754 by Dominikus Zimmermann, this church is a very sweet piece of eye candy.  I find the Rococo style too ornate for my tastes but this was a “piece of work” as they say.  My guidebook defines Rococo as “ornamentation that is both exaggerated and asymmetric”.  Good description.





 After a short while here we headed out to Neuschwanstein castle.  Everyone has seen a photo of this castle, which is a modern castle, started in 1869.  Built by “mad” king Ludwig II, it is a tribute to Wagner with scenes of his operas painted throughout the castle.  The castle looks terrific from a distance and is in such beautiful settings that it looks like a Disneyland affair.  We toured it but the tour is short since it was not completed.  Mainly you get to see the third floor, which was completed.  Rita and I had toured Neuschwanstein back in 1977 with Rachel and Gretchen while we camped around Europe for three months.  It hasn’t changed nor have they finished it.



It was finally time to head home.  We could relax, read a book, sit back and doze off.  We were in good hands and our driver made the trip back without incident.  We arrived home about midnight and were happy to fall into our own beds.



Rita and I decided that Oktoberfest is for the younger crowd.  We did enjoy it and we are happy to say we have experienced it, but we think we would have enjoyed it more when we were in our 20s or 30s.  I guess we are showing our ages.

Christmas in Bali - 1996

     This Christmas vacation was planned back in October, 1996 when we decided that if we weren’t going to have company over the holidays, we would go somewhere else.  Everywhere in Australia is crowded at Christmas as that is the school summer vacation time and we decided we wanted to go somewhere with different culture and food and yet close by.  We decided on the island of Bali which is part of Indonesia.  Ansett Airlines has direct flights so we planned everything ahead through Ansett and American Express.



     We did okay with our hotels - well three of the four.  It’s hard to tell much about a hotel from their slick brochures showing a lovely swimming pool.  We did well by paying extra for air conditioned rooms as it was hot and muggy.  Bali only has two seasons, wet and dry.  We knew it was the wet season but Christmas doesn’t fall in July here.  As it turned out, we only had rain three nights and that was late in the evening.  We did talk with our doctor and, on his advice, took oral typhoid and anti-malaria pills.  Good thing, too, because we did get bit by mosquitoes some evenings.



     Our vacation started on Saturday, December 21 when we flew from Canberra to Sydney to get our direct flight to Denpasar, Bali on a nice Boeing 767.  We arrived in Bali late at night, stepped off the plane into a sauna climate and a bus whisked us off to the terminal.  We had a 30 to 45 minute wait in line for immigration. Then we collected our baggage (yep, all there), walked through customs, and into a humid sea of little, brown faces.  Visions of third world countries came to our minds and we immediately checked our wallet and purse to secure them.  Everywhere we looked was a little brown face pushing a sign in front of us with someone’s name.  Eventually our hearts skipped a beat when we saw our Ansett brown face with a sign that read “Franks”.  Close enough.



     Our transportation, which was all pre-arranged too, took us to our hotel, the Nusa Dua Beach Hotel.  Nusa Dua was formerly a coconut plantation that has been turned into a premier resort location with hotels represented by Hilton, Hyatt, Sheraton, Intercontinental, Club Med and others.  Although it may seem a bit sterile, the police have sealed it off from the hawkers and touts so you can go on the beach without being accosted, unlike most places in Bali.  Our hotel was very nice with good room, food and staff.



     The next day our hotel was having a blessing ceremony on the front lawn that included a priest (Bali’s religion is primarily Hindu with a bit of Buddhism thrown in for good measure), prayer chants by the staff, band, feast tables, incense, and cock fighting.  There is something in the ceremony that called for blood (animal sacrifice?) mixed with the Balinese love of a cock fight.  Rita did not like or watch that part but it was quick and the loser went into the pot for dinner.  We took a car and driver into Kuta Beach, the Coney Island of Bali, with crowds of people, gazillion shops with the same souvenirs, touts selling you watches out of briefcases and the best of America’s exported culture such as Pizza Hut, McDonalds, Chi-Chis, Hard Rock Cafe and Kentucky Fried Chicken.  We also had a laugh when we saw Texas Chicken and found out that it was really Church’s of San Antonio.  An hour would have been enough but we told our driver to pick us up in two so we walked in the heat some more.  How did we ever grow up in Texas in this kind of climate with no air conditioning?



     That evening we had a good dinner at our hotel, wary of the water and ice cubes.  It is not recommended that one drink the water out of the taps in Bali.  As a result we drank a lot of beer (wine was too expensive) which goes well with the spicy Indonesian cuisine.  Indonesia has some good beers and we sampled all of them - Bintang, Bali Hai and Anker.  After dinner we watched a formal Balinese dance called the Kecak dance or sometimes the trance dance.  But this one was done without the hot coals to walk on.  It was great sitting outdoors watching the dance with a full moon and sweet incense in the air.



     On Monday we checked out of our hotel and our transportation took us north into the mountains to the town of Ubud, a sort of artist colony for local wood carvers, stone carvers, painters and other craftsmen.  Our hotel, the Chedi, was actually about 20 minutes out of town in an isolated country setting.  The Chedi was outstanding, perhaps the best hotel we stayed at, with a great chef, pool and rooms.  The view from our room was of a ravine with palm forests and terraced rice paddies across the way.  Sunsets were beautiful.  Oh, and they brought fresh cookies to our room every day!



     Christmas Eve was a busy, busy day for Sneefy and his wife.  We were awakened by a rooster crowing so we decided to have eggs for breakfast.  We had signed up for a 3½ hour trek through the Bali countryside.  Our guide, Putu, met us at 8:00 and the group consisted of the three of us and another guest, a German named Klaus who lives in Australia.  Of course he had to be Santa Klaus today!  A van took us past the village of Payangan where we started our hike down a country road which soon turned into a muddy path.  We soaked up more than local culture.  We hiked through farms, villages, jungles and rice paddies.  Putu was raised nearby so he pointed out all the different plants.  Rita and I made a list of what we could remember when we returned and it goes something like this:  different types of rice in various stages of growth, bananas, coconuts, betel nuts, peanuts, avocados, limes, mandarins, jackfruit, choko, guava, tamarind, cloves, lichees, tapioca, lemon grass, wild onion, basil, bubble plant, orchids, ginger, breadfruit, coffee, snakeskin fruit, bamboo, peppers, corn, pineapples, and pumpkins.  We sampled raw peanuts right out of the dirt and, at one point, Putu asked a farmer to climb a coconut tree and get us some fresh coconuts.  He cut off the tops and we had fresh water which went down well. 



     At another stage, Putu lead us down a long trail to a small river where he wanted us to take off our shoes and wade upstream against a fairly strong current to see a waterfall.  Rita and Klaus declined but I went in the river and went to see the waterfall.  A few minutes later Rita and Klaus had to take off their shoes anyway to wade across another small creek to get to our next trail up the other side.  As we get out and are putting on our shoes, Putu says, “Be sure to check your feet for leeches”.  Now he tells us!  It was a very hot trip up but we were met by the car with cold bottled water and scented washcloths.



     Back at the hotel we had beer and pizza for lunch followed by a shower and short nap.  At 4:00 we had our scheduled “Ultimate Indulgence” at the hotel spa.  Bali has discovered that spas are “in” so every reputable hotel has one and overnight thousands of Balinese became masseuses or therapists.  Our ritual started out with tea and cookies, always a good sign, and our choice of spices and scents we wanted them to use on us.  We were taken to an outside table where two therapists worked on each of us simultaneously for our body scrubs.  Rita had chosen the Javanese Lalur scrub which had turmeric, cloves and other spices.  Mine was the Royal Balinese Boreh with pepper, cinnamon and cloves.  First I lay on a table with what looked like aluminum foil draped over it.  I was scrubbed down with lavender water then generous amounts of the scrub applied to my legs, arms and torso.  Next I was wrapped up like chicken shake and bake.  The pepper soon came through and I heated up fast remembering the mustard plasters Mom gave me as a child.  Soon I was on fire and baking nicely.  When it appeared I was well done, the ladies washed me down with lavender water again and pulled the flesh from the bones.  We showered in an outdoor shower then were led to an outdoor hot tub covered with floating flowers.  While our bones boiled in the tub (making stock?) they brought us more tea and cookies.  When we were ready we went inside to the massage room where two masseuses worked on each of us on side-by-side tables.  The massage was a mixture of different styles and all were nice except the accupressure and reflexology (my feet are sensitive).  At one point it seemed as if one lady was pressing in on my feet, the other on my shoulders and they did a high five somewhere near my kidneys.  After the massage came a facial with cucumber cream on the face and cucumber slices on the eyes.  Two and a half hours later we stumbled out into the sunlight looking for our room.



     For the evening we had signed up for the Christmas Eve program which involved another formal Balinese dance called the Legong. We sipped on our eggnogs, hypnotized by the graceful movements and haunting music.  After the dances we went to the dining room for the special meal.  We chose salmon steak for our main in the five course dinner.  The meal was delicious and afterwards we were ready to hit the sack.  In our room the hotel had placed a stocking filled with candy, tropical fruits and gingerbread cookies.  It was a different Christmas Eve and a very nice one.



     Christmas day, in comparison, was anticlimactic.  We slept in late - no treks today - and rested our feet.  Before leaving Canberra I had made e-mail contact with a woman named Carla who managed a restaurant in Ubud.  She told me they would be open Christmas day and, since she had lived in the USA for 25 years, she would have an American menu.  So we took the hotel van into Ubud and walked around looking at the many souvenir shops.  We went by the Bridge Cafe and made reservations for Christmas dinner.  The cafe was full of expatriates that night and we were seated at a table for four.  Soon we were joined by an Australian couple who teach school in Papua New Guinea.  We had good turkey and dressing with mashed potatoes, green beans, corn and cranberry sauce but the conversation with Peter and Christine was better than the food.  We stayed late and missed the shadow puppet show we had intended to see.



     On Boxing Day we decided to see more of Bali and hired a car with driver to take us around.  He was a quiet, shy type and didn’t offer much conversation or information.  He drove us past pretty scenery of terraced rice paddies through the villages of Payangan, Tegalalang, Sebatu, Penelokan and to Batur.  Here we had to don sarongs and sashes in order to visit the Pura Batur temple, Bali’s second most important temple.  We weren’t impressed.  But we did have great views of Mt. Batur, an active volcano, and Lake Batur.  We drove down to the lake through lava flows created when the volcano last erupted in 1967.  Next we drove to Besakih and the Mother Temple, Bali’s most important temple.  Again, we were not impressed.  Their temples don’t seem to have the class or grandeur of temples we’ve visited in Sri Lanka and India.  The day heated up quite fierce.  We drove on to Bukit Jambul for lunch at the Puri Boga restaurant.  A few beers with spicy satay was very nice and we didn’t get Bali belly in all our eating on this trip, although we worried about it sometimes.  Next we went to Klungkung where we saw the Bale Kerta Gasa or Hall of Justice with old painted scenes of the Hindu versions of heaven and hell.  We had enough touring and went back to the hotel where I opted for a massage before dinner.



     On Friday we regretfully checked out of the Chedi hotel and were taken to the airport in Denpasar.  We flew the questionable Merpati Airlines to the island of Lombok, a short 40 minute flight in a twin prop aircraft.  We were met by our talkative agent, Eddie, who spoke good English and informed us he hoped we liked Lombok and would spend some of our money to build a hotel on Lombok and hire him as our manager.  He also said he had lots of relatives he could hire to help him run it.  He was direct if nothing else.



     We were taken to our hotel, the Intan Laguna, and realized how the slick brochures can deceive a person.  Actually it wasn’t that bad a hotel - we’ve stayed at worse.  It was air conditioned and after a little discussion they switched our room with two single beds for one with a king size bed.  And it was the first room we ever had with an arrow on the ceiling pointing the direction to Mecca.  Did I mention that the people on Lombok are mostly Muslim?  It also was the first hotel we’ve stayed in where we had to go outside to  public five gallon water bottles for our drinking water.  My main complaint was that the bathroom was sort of outdoors even though it was connected to the room.  Because it had an open ceiling shower so you could look at the stars or sun while showering, it wasn’t air conditioned.  It also had lots of creepy crawlies like spiders and the such.  Our house boy came through each evening to spray for insects.  Lombok is also a malaria area.



     But the restaurant was adequate and the pool was very nice.  We spent a lot of time relaxing around the pool, reading books and getting a little tanner.  We walked along Senggigi Beach where our hotel was located.  It is the only tourist area of Lombok now but that will change.  Soon Lombok will build a new international airport and several big name hotels are planned for the Kuta beaches on the south side of the island.  It’s also rumored that the president’s family owns much of the property in that area.


      One day we hired Eddie and his driver, Hamdoon, to take us on a tour of Lombok.  We drove through the main town, Mataram, to Banyumulek where their pottery center is located.  We saw pottery being made by hand and bought a few items to make everyone happy.  Next we went to Sukarara where we saw an interesting outdoor market and went to their weaving center.  We watched the young girls weaving on their looms and bought some material to make them all happy.  Next we stopped in Rembitan where we toured a “traditional” Sasak village.  It was indeed and we got to go into their thatched-roofed houses to see the design with inner bedroom for women and outer bedroom for men.  We saw lots of little kids, scrawny cats, and mangy dogs.  And to keep everyone happy we only had to donate a little to our guide and sign their guest book.  But it really was interesting.  The people of Lombok are called Sasak and have their own language outside of Indonesian.  Then we drove past Sade to their Kuta Beach and Tanjung Aan where the Japanese are getting ready for the tourist trade by building a new golf course.  Of course it’s best to see it now in its natural beauty before the hotels are built but I suppose it will make for a nice resort area too.  We had a good meal at a little “warung” or Indonesian inn and we didn’t get sick either.



     We had lots of good Indonesian foods and I fondly remember my meal of rendang daging, a very spicy beef dish.  That was a two beer meal!  I also had a good dish of spicy prawns, potatoes and beans over rice called udang sambal and another called mie goreng, a dish of fried noodles with meat and vegetables.  The best known dish, and one of my favorites, is satay which is grilled beef, chicken or prawns with a spicy peanut sauce over rice.  But Malaysians will tell you it is their dish.



     On New Year’s Eve we checked out of our hotel and caught Merpati airlines back to Bali.  We checked into the Sheraton Laguna hotel, a very nice resort.  We had a very nice room with fresh tropical fruit and I sampled each one.  But don’t ask me what they were, I don’t know.  We debated if we should pay big money to go to a New Year’s Eve party with huge meal.  We quickly decided we wouldn’t know anyone and chose room service instead.  We had nice steaks in our room and at 9:00 p.m. celebrated New Year’s since it was midnight in Canberra.  At 10:00 p.m. a great thunder storm developed and we went to bed sleeping into the new year.  I guess we’re getting old.  But we felt good next morning.



     We started the new year off right with a big breakfast and at 11:00 a.m. we each had another nice massage in the Sheraton spa.  We spent the rest of the day relaxing and had a nice dinner at the Cafe Lagoon.  We had a late checkout since our flight left shortly after midnight.  Our transportation took us to the airport in another great thunderstorm which lifted by the time our flight left.  There were no problems with our flight back except that we missed a lot of sleep.  We flew a short 2½ hours to Darwin where we cleared customs and immigration before boarding another flight to Sydney and a third flight to Canberra.  We arrived home the afternoon of Thursday, January 2 and all was fine at home.  It wasn’t a typical Christmas but one we enjoyed anyway.  It’ll be interesting to see where we are next Christmas.

Conversation with Mozart - Austria & Germany, Nov. 2005

I had an opportunity to attend a work conference in Vienna so how could I turn it down?  Rita agreed to accompany me and I took an additional week of leave to make it a two week vacation.  We left Athens on Austrian Air on Sunday, October 30 and checked into the SAS Radisson Hotel where the conference was held.  The first week in Vienna was sort of boring for me having to sit in and listen to work related topics that will not affect me for very long.  It is difficult to get worked up about the State Department’s five-year IT strategic plan. 



There were old friends to see and some brought their wives whom Rita knew from Canberra.  We enjoyed going out to eat with them and did some fine dining on our own as well.  We did make it to the Hawelka Café but found out it did not really have much of a dinner menu so we ended up at the King of Hungary restaurant which turned out nice.  In the autumn, most western European restaurants serve game of some sort from October through Christmas and Austria is no exception (Greece is though).  So I ended up with a wild boar fillet with dumplings, lentils and red berries similar to cranberries.  Rita enjoyed her goulash which was thick and spicy.  She was surprised when her salad was served to find a jalapeño pepper in her raw vegetables – that’s not like Austria.



Over the rest of the week Rita spent her days hand-quilting or walking around with one of the wives.  She hit a few konditories and in the evenings we usually had schnitzel at our favorites like Figlmuller or Central Café.  One day we finished early so Rita and I walked to the Naschmarkt, an open air market with meats, fish, vegetables, flowers, etc.  After working up a hunger we went to Haas and Haas, a nice restaurant behind St. Stephan’s cathedral. 



This was our fourth trip to Vienna – once in the Hilton hotel, twice in the Radisson and, our first time in 1977, in a campground somewhere in the city.  We’re not tired of Vienna but we’ve seen it pretty well and we don’t get as excited about the city as we once did.  It is a beautiful city on a par with Paris or London.  Our weather in Vienna was overcast with some drizzle most days but it improved greatly as the conference ended.  Mozart informed us that Vienna had a very wet summer but a dry, mild autumn.  However, I’m getting ahead of myself.



Friday, November 4, our conference ended at noon and most everyone scattered.  Rita and I left our big suitcase at the Radisson and caught a cab to the south train station (Sudbahnhof).  We purchased round-trip tickets to Bratislava, Slovakia, a new country for us.  The train passed through pastoral farm country and we arrived in Bratislava in about an hour.  I have read that Vienna and Bratislava are the nearest two national capitals in the world.  Back in the days of the Austrian Empire, Bratislava was run by Germans who called it Pressburg. 



We stayed at the nice Carlton Hotel which is owned by Radisson and central to the small Old Town.  We checked in and immediately started walking the Old Town, stopping at St. Martin’s cathedral where Hungarian Kings and 8 queens (including Maria Theresa) were crowned.  The Old Town is nice and compact and can be seen in about half a day.  We had dinner at Slovenska, a “traditional Slovak restaurant”.  Rita had pork tenderloin encrusted in pepper with a saffron sauce.  I had the “farmer’s platter” which was a large wooden platter filled with sausage, pork ribs, beef tenderloin, chicken and different potato dumplings along with sauerkraut, gherkins and peppers.  It was too much but delicious.  We also found an inexpensive Slovak dry red wine that we liked – Frankovka Modra.  I did have room for a few bites of Rita’s fine apple strudel. 



Saturday morning we found Bratislava a ghost town.  We hiked up to Bratislava Castle, which has a commanding view of the city and Danube River.  We found a nice konditori, Maximillian, where we had thick, rich cocoa.  We toured Primatial Palace with a pretty chapel and Hall of Mirrors.  We had lunch at another Slovak restaurant, Staroslovenska Krcma, which was located in an old cellar.  I had the Slovak national dish of bryndzove halusky – potato dumplings (gnocchi) with melted sheep cheese and bacon sprinkled on top.  Yummy!  We also had Zlaty Bazant Slovak beer.  Then we checked out of our hotel and caught the train back to Vienna.



Sunday started off with a light drizzle in the morning which was the least of our problems.  We rented a car and were given an Alpha Romero 147, a mid-size four-door sedan with a control panel similar to a 747.  It had built in cell phone, and a GPS navigational system that we never figured out.  It had a CD already inserted and a woman (Helga?) kept giving us directions in German which, as best as we could understand, was telling us to get off at every exit and turn around.  It must have been programmed for somebody else, some other trip, and she didn’t like my driving.  We didn’t need that when Rita was trying to navigate us through Vienna onto the A-1 autobahn.  Finally Rita discovered the CD and took it out, silencing Helga for the remainder of our trip.  There were many other features on the car which we never figured out as all the manuals were in German – not our strongest language.



We headed west out of Vienna and stopped at the town of St. Polten where my great-great-grandfather, Ernst August Franke, mentioned he lived and worked for a few months in 1825-26 when he was a youngster rambling around Europe.  It was Sunday morning and the town was dead – about as dead as Bratislava Saturday morning.  We did find the nice Konditori Pusch open and had coffee and pastry along with a few other souls.  We walked around the pedestrian area with pretty, old buildings, churches, and Rathaus that would have been standing when Ernst Franke lived here. 



We returned to the autobahn and headed past Linz and Wels to Passau, Germany where we stopped for lunch.  We had lunch at Die Heilig-Geist Stiftschente, a guest house dating to 1358 with lots of character and adequate food.  Passau is a pleasant town situated at the juncture of three rivers – the Danube, the Inn and the Ilz.  Passau deserves a return visit with more time to spend strolling along the river walk.

We took a short ride in the country to “leaf peek” at the changing colors in the Bavarian Forest or Bayerischer Wald along the Czech border.  We took a back road, highway 85, to Schonberg and then highway 533 back to the A-3 autobahn.  We arrived in Regensburg as the sun was setting and checked into the Maximillian Hotel.  Soon we were walking the town where my ancestor, Ernst Franke, said he visited.  He mentions that he traveled from Regensburg to Vienna along the Danube River so he must have passed through Passau as well. 



Regensburg is much larger than I expected, especially the old town with narrow alleyways and charming medieval buildings.  There are many old churches in this town with St. Peter’s cathedral being the largest.  We stopped at the Baroque Alte Kapelle, as well, and walked across the old Steinerne (stone) Bridge, built between 1135 and 1146.  For dinner we ate beside the Danube at historic Wurstkuche, the oldest cooked sausage kitchen in Germany.  We had sausages, sauerkraut and beer of course.



Monday morning we walked the old town once more but with enough light to take photos.  We finished by 11:00 am and hit the road again.  We stopped in the pretty town of Landshut and walked through the town center with colorful medieval buildings.  Then we pressed on along highway B15 to Wasserburg and highway 304 to the pretty Chemisee lake with the Alps visible in the distance.  Chemisee is very scenic but built up as it is a major tourist area.  We tried to catch the boat to Herreninsel (men’s island) with its castle resembling Versailles but it was closed for the afternoon. 



So we continued the short distance to the village of Aschau and our destination for this evening, the Residenz Heinz Winkler.  Since today was my birthday we splurged and stayed at a nice hotel with a Michelin three-star restaurant where Heinz Winkler is the chef and owner.  The hotel was first class and a pastry was waiting for us in the room on check in.  We dressed up for the only time on this trip for a super dinner in the comfortable dining room.  Let me bore you with the menu.  We started with a flute of champagne and, as nice restaurants do, were offered a couple of free mini starters called amuse bouche, in French.  First was a cup of cream of arugula soup then a plate of three small samples, smoked salmon on cucumber salad, tomato and olive mousse, and a fried croquette of vegetables.  Next Rita ordered a starter of carpaccio of lobster with lemon grass vinaigrette while I had three kinds of goose liver – fried, mousse and pate.  For main courses Rita had saddle of veal with spinach while I had saddle of lamb in Mediterranean herbs with mixed vegetables.  For dessert Rita had lime parfait with mango and raspberries while I had a cheese soufflé with strawberries.  A bottle of Italian Russo de Montecino wine and coffee afterwards rounded out the meal.  Coffee came with chocolate truffles.  It was my nice birthday dinner but I felt over the top.



The next day was back to reality day.  We woke to howling winds which died down by the time we checked out of the hotel and were on the road.  We stopped for coffee and pastries on the road called the Germany Alps highway or Deutch Alpenstrasse.  The weather was excellent and the views of mountains superb.  We arrived in Berchtesgaden about noon and drove into the city center to look for hotels at the information center.  They were closed for lunch so we consulted our guide book and went looking for a place to stay out of town and up in the hills.  We found the Alpenhotel Denninglehen in the small village of Oberau.  It was remote, secluded and had great views of the valley below and mountains in the distance.  In fact, we could see Hitler’s Eagle’s Nest (Kehlsteinhaus) on a ridge from our balcony.  There were very few people staying at the hotel which is situated on the Rossfeld Panorama Strasse, a famous mountain road with views of the Salzach Valley.  We remained here for five days and four nights, sometimes the only guests in the hotel.  This just wasn’t the high season for this area which is mainly busy in summer and winter ski season.  We had exceptionally fine November weather.



We spent that afternoon with a drive over the Rossfeld Panorama Strasse but couldn’t visit the Eagle’s Nest since it closes in October.  You can’t drive your vehicle there but only visit via bus.  So we drove to Lake Konigssee and took a boat ride on this majestic Alpine lake to St. Bartholoma church and returned on the last boat just as darkness set in.  We made it back to our hotel room and balcony to watch a pretty sunset behind the mountains.  We ate at our hotel restaurant which was pleasant with good food.  On most nights we were the only patrons in the restaurant.



We both woke up in the middle of the night, too warm as the heat was beyond our control.  Rita opened up a window and called me to come look at the billions of stars in the clear mountain sky.  The weather was so mild that we slept with windows open most nights except toward the end of the week when it turned a little colder (near freezing).  We did, however, have a mild frost most mornings.



Wednesday we spent the entire day in the city of Salzburg, one of the most beautiful cities in Europe.  We haven’t returned since our first visit in 1977 when we camped around Europe for three months.  It’s still beautiful.  We visited the Dom or cathedral, St. Peter’s church, the Franciscan’s church and Petersfriedhof or St. Peter’s unique church cemetery.  Here is where we found a historical movie about Mozart being filmed by a German TV crew and they were spraying artificial snow in the graveyard.  And this is where we met Mozart.  Actually he was the actor playing Mozart and we watched a scene that was filmed several times.  On one occasion he walked over in our direction and I asked him if he was Mozart.  He said “yes, indeed” and spoke good English.  So we struck up a short conversation with him and told him we thought he resembled Mozart.  He told us a little about the film and was very pleasant to talk to. 



We did our hike up to the Hohensalzburg castle fortress that stands out looking over the city.  The funicular was closed so walking was the only way up.  We recalled doing this same walk with two little crabby girls back in 1977 and realize now it must have been fairly difficult for their little legs.  We were tired when we reached the top but enjoyed a tour of the castle starting with the tallest tower with great views in all directions.  We saw the torture chamber (misnamed), old state rooms and the Rainer museum.  Finally we hiked back down into the city and had lunch at what some think is the oldest inn in Europe.  We dined at the Stiftskeller St. Peter which has been an inn since at least 803 when first mentioned – over 1200 years old.  I had schnitzel and Rita had roast pork with bread knudle and sauerkraut but the main course was dessert.  We ordered a Salzburger Nockerl, a large soufflé with raspberry sauce that is the dessert of this region.  It was delicious but was way too much for two persons. 



We toured the palace known as the Residence with beautifully furnished rooms.  After that we stopped at Café Tomaselli, opened in 1705, and had a coffee.  We saw the pretty horse trough called Pferdeschwemme and walked down the pretty Getreidegasse past Mozart’s birth place.  Next we walked down Judengasse, or the Jewish quarter, and finally back to the car and back to our hotel.  All we had room for at dinnertime was a bowl of soup.



Thursday we drove south past industrial areas along the Salzach River until the scenery became pretty once we crossed the Lueg Pass.  We saw the impressive Hohenwerfen castle but it wasn’t open to visitors.  We stopped at St. Johan in Pongau where we first skied as a family in 1980 or 1981 when we visited from Saudi Arabia.  We reminisced about skiing there and the Prem Hotel we stayed at and had our first Salzburger Nockerl.  The Prem Hotel burned down in 1983 and a plaque is on the new building that stands there now.  But the town has built up so much we hardly recognized it.  It was a small, Austrian farm village just 25 years ago and I had to park my car in a barn at that time. 



We pressed on through beautiful countryside over Pass Thurn, where I’ve skied a few times, and into Kitzbuhel where we’ve skied before too.  Kitzbuhel was quiet and pretty much closed down until the snow starts falling.  I wanted to eat at the Landstuhl but it was closed for the month.  We had an adequate meal at the Goldener Gans restaurant and drove back to our hotel via St. Johann in Tirol (where I’ve skied as well) and Berchtesgaden. 



Friday we drove east to the Alpine lake area of Austria.  We took the autobahn around Salzburg and east, exiting at the pretty town of Mondsee on the lake Mondsee.  We drove along the lake on highway 151 to the town of Au, then north alongside the Attersee lake through Seewalchen.  In Weyregg we stopped for coffee and pastry and bought some Mondsee cheese which tasted good but sure smelled up the car.  In the town of Steinbach we headed inland through pretty forests to Altmunster and Gmunden where we stopped for a walk.  All these lakes were very pretty and scenic but at times it was difficult to see much because of fog.  Gmunden had some fog too but we walked the pretty old town which must be very pleasant on a warm summer day.  We drove back to Altmunster and took highway 145 to Bad Ischl, a spa town with many bath houses.  This area was known for its salt mines and salt trade in the Middle Ages.  We had a good meal at restaurant Sissy then pressed on to the town of St. Wolfgang on Lake St. Wolfgang.  In 1977 we vividly remember waking up in a nearly deserted campground with the most beautiful views of the lake and surrounding mountains.  That view is still there but St. Wolfgang and the pretty nearby town of Strobt have built up for the summer tourist trade and seem to have lost their charm.



We continued back to our hotel where we thought we were the only guests for the night (we were the night before).  It is a common German/Austrian custom for adults to go swimming or to the sauna sans clothes and since I didn’t bring a swimsuit I asked if that was okay.  The lady at the desk said “sure, why not, I think you will be alone”.  Well Rita and I went down to the basement swimming pool.  She watched while I went skinny dipping, thinking of joining me, and sure enough a German couple walked in and they had swimsuits on.  Rita gave a laugh and deserted me right away – she wouldn’t even acknowledge knowing me.  I swam a short time and as they started to get into the pool I quietly walked out and wrapped myself in a towel to return to our room.  I was a bit embarrassed but not as much as Rita was to be around me.



Saturday we said our goodbyes to the hotel staff and checked out.  We headed east on the A-1 autobahn and stopped in Melk to see the beautiful Baroque church at the Melk Abbey.  We also discovered they had a nice restaurant so we had lunch there before pressing on.  We took the scenic drive on highway 3 along the Danube River, dotted with castles and vineyards but unfortunately the weather was foggy and overcast.  It would have been nicer in bright sunshine.  In the town of Krems we re-crossed the Danube and headed back to the A-1 which we took into Vienna and the airport hotel.  We turned in the rental car, spent the night at the airport hotel and flew back to Athens Sunday morning.



It was another nice visit to an area we like and where my ancestor visited nearly 200 years ago.  Oh, and Mozart says hello to all.

Altenburg & Leipzig, Germany - 2002

Rita and I had traveled to this area before.  In 1977 when we were camping around Europe for three months, we drove from Nurnberg to West Berlin, passing within a short distance of Altenburg and Leipzig.  But at that time we didn’t have the information about where the Franke family originated.  The East Germans didn’t give us freedom of movement and we had only four hours to make the crossing from the border to West Berlin.  In August 1983 we had learned much more about my family background and we visited Altenburg for the first time.  We met the genealogist Gerhard Porzig who was our guide around the city.  Then again we visited in summer of 1999 when Rita met me in Amsterdam (I was on a business trip) and we rented a car.  Altenburg was improving from the Soviet era when a large Russian air force base was located on its outskirts.



This time even more improvements can be seen in this part of what was East Germany.  Mainly the old buildings are being restored to life and the stores have all the food and products of the West which they did not have before.  With this progress come the many Burger Kings and McDonalds along with tattoos, body piercing, and loud rap music blaring from car radios.  But it is progress nevertheless.



On Thursday morning, August 15, Rita and I woke early to get in line for tickets at Brussels’ Hotel de Ville in order to see the flower carpet put down in the Grand Place every two years.  It was beautiful this year and as we left the crowds were starting to descend on the Grand Place.



We were away by 10:00 am and headed east past Aachen and Koln, Germany.  We thought we were making good time when we ran into major construction on Autobahn

A-45 near Siegen.  It took an hour to move about ten miles.  From there we drove past Giessen, Alsfeld, Bad Hersfeld and Eisenach only stopping for gasoline and the occasional bathroom break.  The drive was a tension creator as traffic was heavy and there was construction every few miles, which slowed traffic down considerably.  The scenery was great but the drive was not.  We zoomed on past Erfurt, Weimar and Jena then turned north on A-9 to Leipzig.  We arrived later than expected at about 8:00 pm and found our way into the city center just fine.  We checked into our nice Marriott Hotel then quickly walked into the old Markt or Market square.  From our guidebook we chose the historical 16^th century wine cellar called Auerbachs Keller. 



It was a good choice and I kept wondering if my great-great-grandfather had stopped in for a beer or glass of wine in the past.  We started with glasses of local Ur-Krostitzer beer (since 1534) – I ordered dark while Rita had pilsner.  We chose “Saxon specialties” for our meals.  I had a peppered pork cutlet baked in a dish of sauerkraut and mashed potatoes covered with cheese.  Rita had beef roulade with red cabbage and potato dumplings (kartofel knudel).  Rita had a local red wine and I had a local white wine from Freyburg, a short distance east of Leipzig.  For dessert we shared a local dish of grilled quark cheese served with a vanilla custard sauce and cinnamon ice cream.  The meal was delicious and we had to walk around the busy town center for a while afterwards.



Since Leipzig is a university town, it has plenty of restaurants and nightlife.  We found most of our hotel and restaurant staff spoke good English, which wasn’t true in Altenburg.  But I would recommend you wait another two to three years before visiting Leipzig, even though it is a beautiful city.  It will get better.  Much of the downtown area is under construction with new buildings for museums and markets.  The streets are blockaded and torn up in many areas.  But the old buildings are getting nicely restored and it is a beautiful city to visit even now.



We had intended to drive to Dresden the next day but watching the TV news it sounded as if the flooding there would not get better but only worse.  So we called the hotel in Dresden to cancel and then booked ourselves for another night in Leipzig. 



Friday morning we ate breakfast in our hotel and then drove to Altenburg.  Taking what documentation I had on my ancestors, we walked streets where ancestors lived hundreds of years ago.  We parked on Wall Strasse where there are a few remains of the old city walls.  We walked up Kesselgasse where my ancestor, Johann Christian Rothe, master butcher of the Ducal Court, resided.  We walked down Hillgasse (next street over) where my ancestors Michael Mahn, rope maker, and Valtin (butcher) and Anna Maria Rothe lived. 



We walked to the market square and then to St. Bartholomew church where most of my early ancestors were baptized, married and buried.  This is the oldest church in Altenburg.  St. Bartholomew was built in 1459 and a Roman crypt was discovered under the late Romanesque building.  Martin Luther visited Altenburg several times and performed at least one marriage in St. Bartholomew. 



We went to the church offices and rang the bell.  A lady came out to greet us but didn’t speak English.  Or so she said.  It turned out her English was better than she admitted and between our German and my genealogy family tree, she understood what we wanted – copies of the old church records.  The cost per page was about $3 and I had all the page numbers and book numbers so I knew what I wanted.  The only problem was that their copy machine was broken.  But we did look at one of the books and saw the baptism of my great-great-grandfather Ernst August Franke in 1806.  It was quite a thrill and she let me photograph the page.  We left our address and money with her and she agreed to make some further copies of other records when their machine is repaired. 



Next we went into St. Bartholomew and toured the crypt and interior.  The caretaker let me take a few photos.  I hiked up the stairs to the bell tower for a great view of Altenburg.  Rita declined to make the hike on 300-year-old stairs.  Next we walked to the Ratskeller in the Rathouse (court house) and had lunch.  We had eaten there twice before and find it the best place in town.  I had a Thuringer bratwurst with sauerkraut and mashed potatoes.  Rita had a salad and dish of baked spatzle noodles with cheese and mushrooms.  We had a local Altenburger beer with our good meal.



We left Altenburg and drove on a little further south to Ronneburg where the Frankes originated before Altenburg.  The oldest records I have of the Frankes is a Martin Franke born in Ronneburg in 1666.  So we found St. Marien church and knocked on the door of the church office.  A young man in his late 30s or early 40s came down and greeted us.  We were quite surprised when we asked if he spoke English that he said yes he did.  He was Pastor Tiedemann who had lived a year in Milwaukee.  He was very friendly and gave us a tour of St. Marien.  But he did not have the old records as they were kept elsewhere and the office was not open.  But we exchanged addresses and he promised to get copies of the records I need and mail them to us. 



We walked around Ronneburg but couldn’t find much of historical or cultural note.  Ronneburg was a mining town that suffered neglect under the Russians.  The Russians mined the local uranium in a way that may have caused problems with future drinking water.  When we visited Ronneburg in 1983 it was a town of about 14,000 people and today, with the mining stopped, it has dropped to about 5,800.  Pastor Tiedemann told us stories of dropping church attendance, joblessness, and bickering between church members who used to belong to the Communist Party and those who didn’t.  Ronneburg is in sad shape today.



We drove back to Leipzig via Altenburg and Kotteritz where we met Gerhard Porzig in 1983 but we couldn’t find his house.  He was old then and we suspect he has died.  We sent him Christmas cards several years in a row and they were unanswered.  He was always good about writing to us.



We walked more around Leipzig and had a great meal outdoors at the Coffe Baum (coffee tree) restaurant, a historical guesthouse dating back to 1645.  It was a warm night and there were hundreds of people dining outdoors at sidewalk cafes.  It was fun and exciting.  As much as I hate to admit it, we both ordered the seniors meal of a small portion of pork tenderloin with lots of vegetables.  It was good and not as huge as previous meals.  Again we had local beer with the meal.  We shared a nice apple strudel for dessert.



Sunday we woke early and walked into the city center of Leipzig once more.  We found a good bagel place and had a light breakfast there.  This was unheard of just 20 years ago.  We walked to the beautiful St. Nikolai church with columns that looked like palm trees.  Next we went to St. Thomas church where Johann S. Bach is buried.  We walked around town taking more photos of the pretty Alte Borse (old stock exchange) and Altes Rathaus (old court house).  We walked to the Neues Rathaus (yep, newer one but built around 1900).  Then back to the hotel to check out and get on the road. 



We decided to take back roads instead of fighting the traffic on the autobahns.  We drove to the pretty town of Naumburg and parked.  We visited the cathedral called Dom St. Peter and St. Paul, a very old (13^th century), historical cathedral.  We also walked to the Markt or Market center with a town hall built in 1517 and a cluster of 16^th and 17^th century houses.



Then we drove west on highway 87 in pretty wine making country.  We went over an old bridge in Bad Kosen and saw signs indicating Napoleonic battles of 1806 and 1813.  It got me thinking about Ernst August Franke’s diary in which he says he was orphaned in 1813.  I wonder if his father was killed in the famous battle of Leipzig in 1813?  I will have to research this further.  We drove through Eckartsberga, Sommerda, Straussfurt, Bad Tennstedt, and Bad Langensalza to Muhlhausen where we parked again and walked this pretty walled city.  This old town has its walls still intact and many old half-timbered houses.  We had delicious ice cream dishes at a sidewalk café in the market square.  We visited the Marienkirche (church) and the Blasiuskirche where J. S. Bach played the organ in 1707-08.  Then back into the car and on the road again.  We crossed the border from Thuringen into Hesse where the old East/West Germany border used to be located.  We drove through beautiful towns full of half-timbered houses in Wanfried and Frieda.  At Eschwege we drove along the Weser River to Witzenhausen then into the hills through Hundelshausen, Trubenhaussen, Spangenberg and Homberg.  A beautiful area we must revisit. 



We stopped in Marburg and visited the old pilgrim church of St. Elizabeth where she is buried.  This church dates back to 1235 and Marburg was one of the great pilgrimage centers of the West where pilgrims came to view the relics of St. Elizabeth of Hungary.  We hiked up to the old town and had a good dinner at Zur Sonne (the Sun), a 17^th century guesthouse.  We had pork schnitzel with mushrooms and melted cheese on egg spatzles.  It was very good and I had a local Frankish white wine while Rita had a Baden white wine.  No dessert tonight, just coffee.



As many times before, over dinner we looked at the map and decided we could make it home by driving late into the night.  Rather than spend another night out we did that.  We drove through pretty countryside on back roads through Biedenkopf to Dillenburg as the sun was setting.  At Dillenburg we got back on autobahn A-45 and retraced our steps back home.  The traffic was much lighter at night and no major construction to slow us down.  We arrived home about midnight and collapsed into bed.