Dinner today

_MAL6300, originally uploaded by Michael A. Lowry.

For dinner today I had one of my favorite meals: Nürnburger bratwurst with mashed potatoes and sauerkraut. This time I also had a special treat: a bottle of organic Riedenburger Pils beer. Riedenburg is a small town in Bavaria near Regensburg, and it's my good friend Andrea's hometown.

A successful hual from Bavaria

_MAL3192, originally uploaded by Michael A. Lowry.

Ok, to continue the story of the many bottles...

As you can see from the above photograph, I did manage to get my precious alcohol safely home to Sweden.

When I was shopping for all this stuff in the wholesale market and supermarket, I honestly didn't even remember the new rule limiting the amount of liquids that can be carried onboard commercial aircraft. So I bought quite a few bottles. When I arrived at Frankfurt airport, the situtation became clear to me. I had a choice: either I could try to put the bottles in my checked bags, or I could leave them behind. I chose the former.

I put four of the liqor bottles in my checked luggage, along with most of the cans of beer. Then I emptied my backpack of almost all of its contents, such as my laptop, headphones, camera, iPod, and papers. I then filled the backpack with the remaining bottles, and checked both bags in, marking them as fragile. I carried my computer, camera and so forth on the plane in the big plastic bags from the supermarket.

Miraculously — or perhaps more accurately, thanks to the fine baggage handling staff in Frankfurt and Arlanda — all of the bottles arrived intact. I have already enjoyed a few of the beers. I took several with me to Sundsvall, and just drank one of the Würzburger Hofbräu Pilsener lagers with my luch today. In Germany, that beer is considered just so-so. But it's better than almost any of the mass-produced lagers here in Sweden.

I will take me a while to finish all the liquor on my own though, so I think it's time to arrange a party.

Monday afternoon in Würzburg

_MAL3110, originally uploaded by Michael A. Lowry.

Monday morning I accompanied Andrea to the school in Schweinfurt where she teaches French and English to middle- and high school students. She made me part of her lesson plan, and instructed the students to practice their English by asking me questions. Their questions included:
"What do Americans think about Germany?"
"Did you vote for President Bush?"
"What do Americans think of the war in Iraq?"

It was interesting to chat with the students. I tried to impress upon them that not all Americans are ignorant of the rest of the world. I also encouraged them to study abroad if the opportunity presents itself. Nothing helps one better to understand oneself and one's home country than a fresh, outside perspective.

School ends around lunchtime in Germany. So after her classes were done, Andrea took me to one of her favorite lunch restaurants in town. We had aufläuf, a sort of noddle casserole. It was tasty and filling. It reminded me a bit of Belgian or Slovakian food: hearty, and with lots of noodles and cheese.

Later in the afternoon we went to a wholesaler similar to Costco, where I bought a bunch of liquor at about 1/3 the price one would have to pay in Systembolaget in Sweden. Then I picked up about a dozen bottles of assorted beers at a local supermarket. Yes, I know it's not possible to take large quantities of liquid in one's carry-on baggage. What was I thinking? More on this later.

KissSalis Therme

_MAL3071, originally uploaded by Michael A. Lowry.

Saturday morning I accompanied Andrea & Karim on a trip to the Neubert home furnishings store in Würzburg, where they looked at couches and entertainment center furniture for their living room.

The weather was unpleasant. It was a few degrees above freezing, windy, and raining. Andrea told me about a bath located about 45 minutes away by car, so I suggested we spend the afternoon there. The weather became progressively worse as we drove to Bad Kissingen, so I was glad we hadn't decided to spend the day walking around in the city.

KissSalis Therme is a large and modern thermal bath similar to Caracalla Therme, a bath in Baden Baden that I visited while backpacking around Europe in the summer of '92. There main area of the bath is devoted to two indoor-outdoor pools and several relaxation & aromatherapy rooms. The "Sauna Park" area in the back has at least half a dozen different saunas, a couple of steam baths, an a few more relaxation rooms. Like at Caracalla, swimsuits are required in the pool area, but not allowed in sauna area. Germans are pretty darned comfortable with nakedness.

Outside, behind the main building were three wood cabin saunas that could only be reached by walking out into the cold rainy weather. My favorite was the Finnish sauna, built in the shape of an octagon, with a wood-fired heater in the center. There was something quite magical about sitting in the darkened sauna, watching the flames of the fire dance and cast their orange glow on the log walls.

After a few hours of swimming and sitting in the various saunas I got a brush massage. It was quite a different experience from a traditional massage. With traditional massage, the muscles get most of the attention, but with a brush massage, its the skin. The masseuse used two wooden brushes with soft plastic bristles, plus lots of soapy warm water. I lay on a heated green marble table for the massage. I get the idea that this sort of massage is intended to clean and exfoliate.

After leaving the bath, we had dinner in the adjoining café. The food there wasn't very good, but we were hungry and it was at least filling.

Going to Germany

I'm participating in a day of training in Mainz on Tuesday. Given that my good friend Andrea lives not too far away in Würzburg, I decided to go down to Germany a few days early so that I'd have a chance to visit with Andrea and her husband Karim. The just moved into a new house that they had built for them, and I'll be one of the first people to stay in their guest room. Andrea visited me in Stockholm this past summer, but I haven't been to visit her in Germany since she and I were a couple a decade ago. Andrea is one of my closest friends, so it will be nice to get a chance to visit her and to see her new home. I've spoken with Karim on the phone, I've never met him in person before; so it will be interesting to get an opportunity to meet him too!

So early this afternoon I'll fly down to Frankfurt, rent a car and make this drive down to Würzburg. I'll spend a couple of days with Andrea & Karim and then drive up to Mainz Monday night. I will attend the training in Mainz on Tuesday during the day, and I'll return to Stockholm in the evening. It's been a while since I visited Germany, and I'm looking forward to it!