The Seasons

As I have said previously, Pam and I are about to complete our first year in Germany. I have learned an important thing about Germany, it is a country of seasons. Sure, there are Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter, but there is also, Strawberry Season, Spargel Season, Feld Salat Season, Wildkirschbraton season and many others.

Let me first start off talking about the 4 seasons. We are currently in autumn. This is autumn and not Fall. Use the term Fall to a Euro and they may not understand what you are saying. It is autumn. By far Summer is the season that is the most different than the others. Autumn, Winter and Spring are characterized by changeable weather. If it is clear in the morning, then it will be cloudy and rainy in the afternoon. If it is Rainy in the morning then it will clear by the afternoon and be sunny for a while. The rain here tends to be very different here than in Philly. In Philly, rain tends to be accompanied by wind, sometimes a little wind and sometimes a lot of wind. In Heidelberg, the rain mostly falls straight down with no wind. So, in Germany, taking an umbrella with you when it rains is quite helpful. Not only are you not fighting the wind with an umbrella, but because the rain comes straight down, you can stay mostly dry and not just your head.
As I mentioned, Summer is considerably different. It does not rain quite as much and can go for a week or more without rain. Also, Summer is considerably warmer than the other seasons. Actually, Spring this year was considerably cooler than Winter and it was the only time we saw frost or snow since we were here.

Then there are the other seasons and are mostly dictated by what food is in season. Strawberry season is something that is even special in the US. Freshly picked strawberries are so much better than berries picked in South America and shipped. At the same time is Sprargel season. Spargel is Asparagus, white Asparagus and the Germans though are very passionate about their Spargel. It is grown on immense fields and is grown so that the stalks never see the light of day until they are picked, preventing them from turning green. Driving down the road you will see fields with long mounds running down them in rows. These are Spargel fields. The picking season lasts from Mid-April until mid-June and during this time you will see workers manually going down the rows harvesting. Fresh picked white Asparagus is quite different than green asparagus. It tends to be sweeter and needs to be peeled before eating or otherwise it will be chewy. Spargel will appear in the Market and also Restaurants will have special Spargel Menus and then one day all that is left is Spargel soup, the season has ended and as you drive by the same fields, you will see the bushy tops of the plants growing wildly letting the plants re-energize for next year.

During the summer months as anywhere different types of produce come in and out of season. The next big season, is Oktober Fest which actually takes place at the end of September. At this point you will have special Bock beers and such.
Currently, we are in one of my favorite seasons, Feld Salat or Field Salad. It is a type of lettuce. This is a late fall winter crop and it used to run only from November to January, but now lasts until March. When we first arrived, I noticed people crawling in a field but I could not tell what they were doing. I described what I saw, people kneeling down and doing something with their hands and I described the plant that I saw, a low growing plant. I was told that this is feld salat. I had never seen it in the US before. It is a salat green and is quite tasty and only grows an inch or so from the ground. It is harvested by hand and the pickers have to get down to the level of the plant slice it off at the ground level and put it away, very laborious. Being here in November, I do notice that the leaves of the greens are larger than they were last January/February. I have to think that this is partly because Jan/Feb are part of the extended season and are probably a second or third round of planting.

We are also currently in Wildkirschebraton season. This is a season that I had not heard about until just last week when it started to show up. Kirschbraton is venison (deer meat) and wild (pronounced Veeld) is wild. We have had it served to us at a dinner, we have seen it as Maultaschen and as steaks. A word on Maultaschen. Taschen is the German word for bag. A Maultaschen is like a ravioli only it does not have cheese. Our favorite is Steinpilz Maultaschen (mushroom), there is also Puten (turkey) and Gemuse (vegetable) which are the most common. They also tend to be prepared differently, kind of pan fried and spiced. We tend to eat them like raviolis, in a red sauce….the Steinpilz are really good.

We are also entering Weihnacht season (Christmas). This is a big deal here in Germany and there are Weihnachtamarkts all over the country. These are temporary markets that open on the 3rd or 4th weekend of November and run until the day after Christmas and take place in a town’s major square. Heidelberg’s market is spread over the Kornmarkt, Marktplatz, Universitätsplatz, Anatomiegarten and Bismarckplatz. At a market you will find lots of crafts and seasonal specialty booths. Gluwein is the season specialty, which is a redwine that has been heated,mulled and spiked. It is served in mugs that are about half the normal size and have a yearly design for that Market. Pam and I have started planning a weekend around see several of the Markets in our area (besides Heidelberg). More on this later.

The Grapes of Wine - no Wein...

I have had a full season of watching grapes grow in the vineyards north of Heidelberg. One of my primary running routes takes me north through Dossenheim to Schriesheim or further to Leutershausen or Großsachsen. Along the way I pass through vineyards. It is a very nice place to run, but it is not like running trails amongst nature. It is a paved path that takes me by many other gardens also.

Before I start a little background. According to Sven, the wine guy down the street, in the 18th century, someone decided it would be great to import grape vines from the new world. They did not produce good wine there, but you never know, perhaps the soil of Europe would be beneficial for the new world vines. The result was some really bad wine and a stowaway…a grub. The grub loved Europe and proceeded to eat its way through the roots the grapevines of Europe, destroying almost all of the vineyards. They attempted to cross the Euro vines with the New World vines, which did not help. Eventually, Euro stems were grafted on the trunks of New World vines. As you walk through vineyards here, you can see that the bases of the vines are distinctly different than the upper parts. I am sure if you walked through American vineyards you would see the same. The only place the grubs did not take root were in places of sandy soil.

Winter in Heidelberg was fairly mild until March. In January and February there mornings where I wore shorts and a t-shirt to run, but in March the temperature actually dropped and it started to rain more regularly. At the same time, the days were getting significantly longer and the trees and bushes had started shooting out leaves, but the grape vines remained dormant through most of March. Within a week at the beginning of April, the vines started to sprout leaves and stems, changing from skeletal trimmed stumps sticking out of the ground to live growing plants. Several weeks after the vines sprouted, I noticed that previously empty rows and beds had been planted with new vines.

During the first few weeks after the vines sprouted, I looked for flowering but the flowering of grape vines is not exciting. On the stem from which the grapes will eventually hang, there are little green buds, that is all. These buds are somehow pollinated (I did not see an abundance of bees) and turn into grapes. The distinction between Red and White grapes happens quickly. Within a week of being pollinated the grapes turn from bright green to either a dark red/purple or greenish white color.

During the summer while the vines work their magic on the grapes, delivering sugars and other goodies to them and there is ongoing human maintenance to the vines. The vines themselves are sprayed to protect from pests. I am not sure what kind of spray, but I was not picking off any grapes to taste them (which I saw people do). Also, the ground was sprayed to prevent the ground cover from growing. I am sure this is done so that the vines are not overgrown and valuable sunlight is cut-off. They also have a machine that trims the vines. The rows are comfortably wide enough to allow a tractor to travel up and down. The machine is drawn along behind a tractor (John Deere) up and down the rows and trims top both sides of the vines. Left unattended the vines would just continue to grow and I am sure this would divert precious resources from the grapes themselves. Later in the summer as the grape bunches got larger, I noticed that some varieties of grapes had a poly mesh strung along to help support the weight of the grapes (I assume).

Having spent the whole year watching the vineyards, we went on vacation and then home to Philadelphia in late September through the end of October. During this time period, most of the grapes were harvested. When we returned in November, the leaves had started to turn yellow and the bunches of grapes were gone, except for one bed of about 10 rows. These vines do not have mesh strung along the grape bunches now, but have a plastic sheet stretched along the length of the rows covering the bunches. These grapes are north of Schriesheim and I did not see them until I went on a longer run.

Grapes are planted in like beds of varieties. You can tell beds of grapes by the age of the vines or the shape and/or color of the leaves. The leaves of red grapes turn purple in the fall and not yellow. This fall, maintenance takes two forms, some beds are removed and the rest are trimmed so that all that is left is a trunk about 2.5’ (1.5 meters?) tall. Why are some beds removed? I have no idea. It could be that that variety only produces productively for a limited number of years? Or, the Weingut (winery) is not going to produce that variety of wine any longer? Based on the very informal survey I have taken, while running, about 5% or less of the beds are removed this year and a similar amount of new beds were planted in the spring.
Telling the age of a bed of vines is fairly easy, but what is a bed, how am I defining a bed. Remember, this is terminology that I have defined. A bed of vines is a grouped of a variety and is usually a minimum of 4 rows and each row is about 200-300 meters long. I have to assume, that planting beds smaller than that becomes unproductive, as there is a need for each variety to be harvested together. The stumps of new vines are the width of a pencil when planted and now at the end of the season are still not much larger. Vines in the second year are definitely thicker, but still very small. Older vines are much thicker, the bark is more course and they have may have moss and lichen growing on them.

This evening (Nov. 14) we will get to taste the outcome of all this work as Sven, our wine guy, is hosting a wine tasting at a local Art Gallery here in Handschuhsheim. Should be pretty nice!

10 Year Jubilee

Pam has been with SAP for 10 years. As a US employee she would have been sent a nice email with a link to a website where she could choose a gift. Germany though has a different plan and Pam is a German employee. Each November, a tent is erected in the city center of Mannheim and the Radio Regenbogen (Rainbow) Palazzo starts. The shows are daily except Monday and it runs until February. SAP buys tickets to 5 Saturday shows for its Jubilee (10 Year) celebrations and you pick one of the Saturday shows. This past Saturday (11/8) was our week. Pam’s colleague, Kathrin and her husband (from the Dresden office) were also in town for the event.

http://www.palazzovariete.de/

The tent is a one ring circus type tent with a lobby tent attached. The floor is a raised from the ground and there is a hardwood floor and the ceilings and walls are lined with drapes to hide the tent and seat around 300/350 people. The tent is heated and was in fact quite warm when we got there. There is a fixed menu and drinks are included in the price. Essentially, the Palazzo is a dinner theater with a round stage in the center (which elevates) and a second stage along the back wall.
We arrived and presented our ticket and Pam had indicated my dairy allergies. I was given a little ticket like thing that showed I had food allergies. A serving person came by also to identify people with specials needs and became my very own serving person.

The show was MC’d by a comedian, Kay Scheffel, who can sing, do ventrilliquy and do a little standup. He introduced the acts and also preformed. He started the night off dressed like John Belushi in the Blues Brothers and did a nice job, although he was missing a Dan Akroyd. There was also a female singer, Marissa Burgess and 4 dancers, den jungen Schönheiten, all tending to be dressed minimally. Also, there is a second comedian, John Fealy. Fealy is a British Standup Comedian who poses as the Chef for the Palazzo.

The Palazzo process is as follows; Kay, then an act, then Marissa and den jungen Schönheiten, then another act, then Kay, then John Fealy, then a course would be served. Then the process would start again. Kay would usually have a musical number and a comedy routine before each course. Pam and I had a difficult time following the comedy act as it was mostly in German. John Fealy on the other hand presented his act in English, which seemed to leave out very few people.

Kay did a ventrilliquy act twice. Once with a dummy he called, Donut and once with two dummies pulled from the audience. This was probably his funniest bit of the night. He had a man and a woman on the stage and he held each of their wrists and whenever he would squeeze there wrist they would open their mouth and he would speak for them. As the act progressed, the guy held up well and was very funny, the woman on the other hand had difficulty not laughing. It worked amazingly well and the guy was great and very expressive facially as well. At one point Kay was let go of their wrists and they would respond to his words and even mouth the correct words. Even though Pam and I only understood about 25% of what was said, we still found this to be hysterical.

The circus type acts were very impressive, one couple performed twice and all of the others performed only once.

The first act was Denise Randol and her husband. In this act Denise worked with Hula-hoops. At first working with just a few, but at the end she had about five going around her torso and one each on her arms. Her husband’s job for this act was to throw her hoops. The Huescas were the second act before the first course was served. The Huescas are brothers. One brother (always the same brother) would lay on his back on a padded piece of equipment that elevated his hips above his head, so that the other brother could jump up and land on his feet(in a seated position). From this position, they would perform various feats. The Laying down brother spinning the other brother or throwing him into the air. This was all very impressive and required amazing leg strength.

The Jaster’s act included knife throwing and a crossbow. From about 20 feet Giacomo would shoot the crossbow at balloons that Elena was holding and also shot an apple on her head. The act included spinning Elena while he threw knives at the board she was spinning on, very cliche. This was my least favorite act, but still an impressive demonstration of skill. In the same section Aurelia Cats performed. She was on a single trapeze and essentially performed a dance routine on the trapeze. Some of the strength moves and flexibility she exhibited were astounding.
The Randols came back for another act. This act involved roller skating on the elevated stage, which was about 6’ in diameter. Massimo’s job was essentially to skate in a circle very quickly and to throw Denise around while remaining in the small circle. I am sure if you asked Massimo, he would demur and tell you that what they do is not that difficult, I would tell you that it was the only act I really felt that disaster was just a fraction of a second away. One tiny misstep and the momentum of both of them could have gone flying into the audience. This act was followed by the Pellegini Brothers, four brothers who performed acts of acrobatic strength. One brother would lay on the stage and another brother who grasp his hands, and then be benched press to full extension by the brother on the ground and then the brother in the air would let go with one hand. A third brother would then grasp the brother on the grounds free hand and push himself into a hand stand on that hand. These guys were amazing!

Additionally, there was Rosa. During the meals she acted as something of a clown, going from table to table performing quick routines.

The show started at 8pm and ended at 11:30ish. We left after 1am after spending time chatting with Kathrin and Rene. When we left the performers were at the Bar talking. I am sure the idea is that you can socialize with them after the show. I was actually amazed at the number of performers who were smoking.

I am sure that on a yearly basis the show changes slightly as acts change and I very much enjoyed our evening there, but I do not desire to head right back and do it again. It would be great fun to do it again with another couple or persons who have not seen the show again.

German Blue Laws

It was not long ago that stores across Germany all closed between 4 and 6 PM daily and were closed on Sundays. Today things are much more liberal. Many stores are open until 10pm and closed on Sunday. This of course has a large impact on how you organize your weeks and specifically your weekend.

Most of your food shopping for the week needs to be done on Saturdays. For Pam and I a typical Saturday starts with a trip to the Farmer's Market in the Square in front of the Tiefburg in Handschusheim. There we will buy our produce, some chicken, eggs, as well as flowers and some other things. We will later go to the Rewe, the local grocery store and get other canned goods and such that we need.

On Sunday there are no stores open, only restaurants, coffee shops, souvenir stores and tanning salons. Traditionally, Germans will use Sunday to go walking. I am sure that this traditions varies with where you live. Here in Heidelberg, there are miles of trails and the idea is to walk to a specific location and to then stop and have a some cake and coffee. You do this with family or with friends or both. It is a very nice tradition and stores not being open is OK, most of the time....except on holidays when they are closed Saturday also!

Nov. 1st is a holiday in Germany. It is the day to remember your descendants and to visit the cemetary. This seems like a fine holiday, but why did it have to be this particular Saturday. Pam and I had just returned from the US the previous Monday and had absolutely nothing in the house to eat. All week we had looked forward to shopping on Saturday....only to walk out the door and around the corner....to see cars parked in the lot where the farmer's market is supposed to be!

The Longing of a Phila Fan

Pam and I were home for most of October and I sat on the Sofa in Seps (Pam's dad) den with a varying array of characters (Sep, Sam, Evan, Pam, Phoebe) and watched the games. Being a true Phila sports fan there is always the feeling that something bad is going to happen; Howard, Rollins, Utley and Burrell all go into hitting slumps, Hammels, Myers and Moyer losing their touch, Lidge and Madsen giving up leads and the game.

Well, some of it did happen. Moyer was not terrific, Rollins and Howard did have huge hitting slumps, Madsen gave up a late game lead. As the playoffs rolled along other incredible things happened, Victorino played superbly, Myers pictched well and hit even better having more hits and RBIs in the playoffs than during the 162 game season.

Game 5 was agony. Watching as the weather worsened and you could see its effect on the players and the 2-0 lead slipped away into a 2-2 tie before the game is called. Then when the game resumed, the Phillies quickly regained the lead only to have Madsen come out weakly and give up the lead. But this was to be the Phillies year, they were not to be denied.

During the first game in Phila. Tim McGraw, Tug McGraw's son, sang the Anthem and secretly spread his dad's ashes on the mound. Moyer pitched his best game of the playoffs.....and Lidge, shut down the Rays and ended the game on a strikeout just like Tugger in 1980...he just did not have to watch 3rd base for Schmidt charging the mound!

Game 4 found Pam and I on the plane headed back to Germany. We landed and the pilot announced the 10-2 score. WOW....Rollins and Howard had gotten their bats back.

Monday, I dozed on the sofa watching Game 4 on NASN (National Sports Network - part of ESPN I think). Game 5 started and I watched until the game was suspended and did not thing they would restart so I went to bed and waited and worried....this is how it goes in Phila.

Wednesday Pam and I went to bed before 11pm and I woke up at 1:30 and went downstairs to watch the finish of the game. With two outs in the 9th and an 0-1 count, I called Mom. I was feeling the 5000 miles distance I was and yearning to be in Philly for the finish. With the 3rd strike I let out a hoot and a holler. There were no cheers coming from outside....no blaring horns such as we heard during the Euro 2008 Fusboll Championship, just silence.

This morning there was nobody wearing championship caps, shirts or sweatshirts...just me in my NLCS Cap. I hard no news about riots in the city....I was not part of any mass of people cheering and slapping each other on the back for a job well done. yes, I am feeling a little forlorn. I remember the energy of 1980. Sitting on the sofa with my grandfather a lifelong Phillies sufferer as they finally won one for my Grandfather. I remember walking outside and seeing Fairdale Rd. filled with happy, cheering people...a seen repeated all over the city that night.

Oh, well....it is a fairly young team and one they can hopefully retain in large measure...perhaps next year or the year after I will be there for another Series win...then again this is Philadelphia and we have watched team after team win one and then disperse.

Home to Germany

The alarm went off at 4:45 Greece time and that would be 3:45 Germany time. We dressed and finished the last minute packing we needed to do. Then I carried the luggage up 42 steps to the top of the caldera and then we walked to the parking lot to meet the taxi and he was already waiting. He took the luggage and started loading the taxi and it turns out we were sharing the taxi again. I had thought that at 5:30 in the morning we would not be sharing a taxi on the way to the airport. The couple was from Winnipeg and were headed to Rome for a couple of days, before headed back home.

The airport was crowded as there were two planes going to Athens. We were able to check our luggage through to Frankfurt (YAY!) as both our flights were being operated by Aegean Airlines even though the flight to FRA was a Lufthansa flight. Thankfully, the flights were completely unremarkable and we were at home in Heidelberg by 3pm. At 3:05 I started the laundry process so that we could start to pack for our flight to Philly.

Santorini - Sept 26

Our plan today was for a boat ride around the Santorini. We got up pretty early and then headed down to the bus station where we were met by the tour company van. The van took us to port in Amoudi at the end of the island. The boat docked at the port just after we arrived and then a second van arrived and a couple that is staying at the Alte Marre which is next to Armeni Village, showed up. We had seen them having breakfast on the terrace before we left. It turns out he is from Madrid and she is going to school there and is from Lausanne, France.

The boat headed to the Old port of Oia which is just below our hotel (we could have easily walked down on the switchback walkway there) to pick up more passengers. We sailed for the larger and newer of the volcanic islands in the center. Staying with our group from the boat, we walked up the island to the very top. There are 6 different volcanic craters on the island and two of them have active vents spewing steam and noxious gases. The geology is amazing but entirely different than the volcanoes of Hawaii or Oregon. Much more rocky and with no lava flows.

We walked back down to the boat (we actually switched boats) and then headed to the second volcanic island. The attraction here are vents that heat the water in a little bay. We dropped anchor about 150 meters off shore and then those who wanted swam into the bay. I enjoyed the swim in, but the warm water was a little bit over blown. It was not so warm, it was warmer….but.

After that we headed to the island of Thirisia which is the other 2nd largest island there to be inhabited, about 300 residents. At the port there were about 8 restaurants and you could walk up the caldera there to the town. Pam and I decided to stay in the port and have lunch (gyros). The only reason any of the restaurants exist is to service the people on the boat.

We headed back to the boat and back to the port where we started. We decided to walk up to town instead of taking the shuttle. After the walk up we headed to our hotel where we showered and hung out at the hotel a little and then went to our last dinner in Greece. I had also called the taxi drive that we had taken from the port to meet us the next morning.

When we returned to the hotel, it turns out that the power in our room was out. It took about an hour to get the power fixed. The light fixture in the bathroom was shorting out the electrical system, so while we had power elsewhere, we did not have light in the bathroom. We were about done with this hotel, I would never recommend this hotel.