Worst Blogger Ever
If there's anyone out there still bothering to check this blog, I'm sorry we disappeared for so long! My parents were here for a week, and while I thought I would write a bit during their visit, it turns out I thought wrong. We had a really wonderful time, and I never got around to uploading pictures or writing about our adventures. (It seemed to make more sense to actually spend time with my folks than to write about spending time with them :) But now we're back!
As I said, we had a great week together and there much to share. I think we'll spread the stories out a bit, as we did after our Leipzig adventure. Heidelberg seems as good a place as any to begin!
Years ago--about 15 years, to be precise--a German couple moved into the house next door in Stony Brook. My parents developed a friendship with them, and they had their first child on Christmas day in the midst of an enormous blizzard. They soon moved back to Germany, but have kept in touch with my parents through letters and the occasional visit back to the States. They live in Heidelberg, so Michael, my parents and I drove down to see them. (I could write an entire post on the great adventure that was our drive to Heidelberg, but it would only instill panic, fear and frustration in you our valued reader. Suffice it to say that German roadsigns were not as helpful as they might have been, and that Mapquest and Google Map should both be prohibited from providing directions in Germany. When half of the roads you are instructed to take fail to, well, to exist, you can find yourself in a great deal of trouble.)
Anyway, their son, whom I babysat when I was about 14, is himself now 14 and they have a 7 year old daughter as well. We had a nice time together, and Berkhart, Kristian, Michael, my parents and I all had dinner in the Heidelberg castle!
Dinner was incredible. The castle, which was really more of a palace than a functioning castle in its prime, was beautiful and the food was just perfect. The menu was in German with English translations, and there was one rather funny translation. The featured dessert was described as a "lukewarm almond cake with pear sorbet." It was, of course, a warm almond cake and it was delicious, but the description made me chuckle. It is amazing how difficult it is to really get all of the connotations of a foreign language. The Germans use the word "warm" where we would most often use "hot", so I can understand the confusion, but I can't imagine any English speaking chef would describe any specialty as being "lukewarm."
In the picture on the left, you can see the castle up on the hill--though not as well as I'd like. We had a very nice time walking around the castle grounds the next day, and were able to see quite a bit of Heidelberg on foot. More of that will follow in another post; for now I think I need to go to bed.
If there's anyone out there still bothering to check this blog, I'm sorry we disappeared for so long! My parents were here for a week, and while I thought I would write a bit during their visit, it turns out I thought wrong. We had a really wonderful time, and I never got around to uploading pictures or writing about our adventures. (It seemed to make more sense to actually spend time with my folks than to write about spending time with them :) But now we're back!
As I said, we had a great week together and there much to share. I think we'll spread the stories out a bit, as we did after our Leipzig adventure. Heidelberg seems as good a place as any to begin!
Years ago--about 15 years, to be precise--a German couple moved into the house next door in Stony Brook. My parents developed a friendship with them, and they had their first child on Christmas day in the midst of an enormous blizzard. They soon moved back to Germany, but have kept in touch with my parents through letters and the occasional visit back to the States. They live in Heidelberg, so Michael, my parents and I drove down to see them. (I could write an entire post on the great adventure that was our drive to Heidelberg, but it would only instill panic, fear and frustration in you our valued reader. Suffice it to say that German roadsigns were not as helpful as they might have been, and that Mapquest and Google Map should both be prohibited from providing directions in Germany. When half of the roads you are instructed to take fail to, well, to exist, you can find yourself in a great deal of trouble.)Anyway, their son, whom I babysat when I was about 14, is himself now 14 and they have a 7 year old daughter as well. We had a nice time together, and Berkhart, Kristian, Michael, my parents and I all had dinner in the Heidelberg castle!
Dinner was incredible. The castle, which was really more of a palace than a functioning castle in its prime, was beautiful and the food was just perfect. The menu was in German with English translations, and there was one rather funny translation. The featured dessert was described as a "lukewarm almond cake with pear sorbet." It was, of course, a warm almond cake and it was delicious, but the description made me chuckle. It is amazing how difficult it is to really get all of the connotations of a foreign language. The Germans use the word "warm" where we would most often use "hot", so I can understand the confusion, but I can't imagine any English speaking chef would describe any specialty as being "lukewarm."
In the picture on the left, you can see the castle up on the hill--though not as well as I'd like. We had a very nice time walking around the castle grounds the next day, and were able to see quite a bit of Heidelberg on foot. More of that will follow in another post; for now I think I need to go to bed.
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