The day before, Tom had found out
that we could have breakfast at the bar and cafe just up the hill from where
we were staying. We arrived at this restaurant about mid-morning, after a much
needed night's rest. Once again we were reminded of the very different European
practice typical in restaurants. No one seats you, and there are no signs saying
what you should do. Rather, we found a seat at a table of four and waited. There
was a waitress who was tending the bar and the other customers. After about
15 minutes, she came and took our order. We ordered off the menu, but when we
asked for Brötchen (bread rolls), we were told that there were none. We
could have toast, instead. We also ordered eggs. Michael, the guy with a small
van from the Netherlands was having breakfast at another table, but we didn't
ask him to join us. What finally arived was Brötchen (she said she found
some), cheese wedges in tin foil, jam, and cold cuts. She also brought a boiled
egg in an egg cup. With our tea and coffee, it actually was a good breakfast.
Another item that we did have on
the agenda was singing. I mentioned in the introduction that the three of us
have been singing for a long time. Whenever there is a family get together—graduation
or holiday—we usually haul out the guitar and sing our standard repertoire
of songs in three-part harmony. When Vicki and Tom were in high school, I worked
out several arrangements with guitar accompaniment. The Beach Boys "In
My Room" and "Graduation Day" and Peter, Paul and Mary's "San
Francisco Bay Blues" are probably our best songs. Over the years our repertoire
has shrunk from about 10 songs to the present three or four. However, we STILL
have to sing "Graduation Day," and Vicki's husband, Jerry, has been
kind enough all these years to chime in with the last note for that song. The
first time he did it to surprise us, but we thought it was so funny that he's
now expected to do his duty. So
I took my guitar all the way to Europe in the hopes of getting some practice
for our still not named trio.
That
morning Vicki and I wanted to go on a walk after breakfast. However, Tom volunteered
to restring the guitar instead of going for the walk. So Tom stayed in the apartment
(also recovering from last night's celebration), while the two of us went out
to explore the field behind the condo. You can see our row of condos to the
left. We were on the top floor of about the third or fourth building down in
this row. The road that we walked skirted the top of the hill behind the condos,
then went down toward the valley and came back across the field to the bottom
of this picture. To the right is a picture of Vicki just starting down the dirt
road at the top of the hill. It was a very beautiful landscape, with yellow
and pink flowers and some kind of tree that had orange berries all over it.
When
we got back from our walk, we decided to do some exploring of the town. To tell
the truth, since we spent several days in Gemünd, I can't remember all
the exact details of our day. I do remember that it was Sunday, and we were
told that everything closes up tight as a drum on Sunday. That turned out to
only be partially true. To the left is a view of part of Gemund from a road
that goes up into the hills. You can see church steeples and how the wooded
hillsides make for interesting views in any direction. On the right, the camera
was looking in the opposite direction. The wooded hillsides are even more prominent
in this picture. I think we spent the middle part of the day just exploring
the downtown and surrounding area of this resort town. In fact we spent several
days enjoying this place.
One of the things we liked about this and several other German towns was the
fact that the business area was pretty much closed to automobiles. Once in a
while we would see a car, apparently with special permission, drive through
the pedestrians. You can see the main commercial street of downtown Gemünd
on the left. There were a lot of neat shops and restaurants: delicatessens,
pastry shops, butcher shops, and bakeries. One place that Vicki spent a lot
of time at was the Löwensahn (literally, the Lion's Tooth, or, in English,
the Dandilion). This was a children's clothes shop, and there were some adorable
outfits there unlike anything you could get in the U.S.A. She bought several
outfits for her new grandchildren, and I think Tom did some grandkid shopping
too. You can see the Löwenzahn in the picture to the right.
There was a "Salzburg style"
restaurant down at the foot of the hill of our condo complex. It sounded interesting,
and so about three in the afternoon, we went down to explore it. An attractive
lady in maybe her late thirties was our hostess and server. We were ushered
through the indoor restaurant to a dark wood deck that overlooked the valley
we were in. It really was a tranquil and lovely view. In this part of Germany
there are lots of green tree covered hills and orange-roofed houses down in
the valley. That is what we were looking at. We came back to this restaurant
a couple of more times at different times of the day. The deck always seemed
to be well populated with natives and tourists. I suppose there were about 20
seats in all. There were large, colorful paper napkins and placemats at each
place. I had soup and a dessert, Vicki had a cheese and fruit plate, and I think
Tom had an enormous breaded pork cutlet. We sipped our tea and beer and enjoyed
the late afternoon. We also chatted with our hostess, and I was able to practice
my German a little bit.
I
think we continued to explore for a while after lunch. We might have driven
back to Schleiden to see if there were any shops open, and found them mostly
closed. Whatever the case, we were really glad that we were in Gemund and not
Schleiden. Gemund has more things for tourists to do, Schleiden is just like
a village with the kind of shops that people need for everyday activities. One
of the days we were shopping, we stopped for a mid-afternoon drink at a little
outdoor cafe. In these pictures, you can see the three of us having a drink.
The picture to the righ shows Tom and Vicki sitting on a park bench in the little
park facing the river that ran through the town. There were ducks and swans,
trout and other fish in the river. There were also "works of art"
in the river. Apparently some local artists put some modern type constructions
and sculptures there. In the background of this picture you can see the Hotel
Friedrich. We ate there twice and the food was really good. One item you saw
on the menu a lot was Curried Turkey Breast Strips. I had that at two different
places.
In
this picture you can get a better view of the Hotel Friedrich. It was a very
traditional restaurant. There was a salad bar, although by no means the same
as the U.S.A. Germans seemed to eat more raw vegetables, and there wasn't such
a great variety of salad dressings. The most common one was like a light, slightly
sweet ranch, maybe with yoghurt. Their soups tended to be lighter, too. But
always, the menu was full of meat, especially beef, pork and fish.
Created by Jim Andris, one month
to the day later than this date.
That
morning Vicki and I wanted to go on a walk after breakfast. However, Tom volunteered
to restring the guitar instead of going for the walk. So Tom stayed in the apartment
(also recovering from last night's celebration), while the two of us went out
to explore the field behind the condo. You can see our row of condos to the
left. We were on the top floor of about the third or fourth building down in
this row. The road that we walked skirted the top of the hill behind the condos,
then went down toward the valley and came back across the field to the bottom
of this picture. To the right is a picture of Vicki just starting down the dirt
road at the top of the hill. It was a very beautiful landscape, with yellow
and pink flowers and some kind of tree that had orange berries all over it.
