Last week we travelled to Shropshire once again, for a fabulous food festival, a report on this and English “Whiskey” later in the week. But first, haven’t done this for a while, but look at my bargains from Poundland:
More “things” that I have to have!
The snails are everywhere in my garden right now in Glasgow, the Rustlers are devine and are my lunch for tomorrow (we don’t have a kitchen in our office), and the “King in a Million” cologne is NOT that bad, but for one quid, I’ll take it!
Seriously, we’ll bring you some photos from England, more stuff from my Germany trip a few weeks ago, and I’ll review the new Endeavour series – my favourite thing on the box as of now.
You always wonder why some of this type of thing, has not been done before and in even greater quantities.
This “democratisation” of tourist “things”, such as museums, exhibitions, public parks, etc, can only be a good thing, and at the same time actually will spread the areas where tourists (and locals!) can go to encounter the tourist experience.
The week is among us, and I’ll continue looking back at my trip to Germany and Bavaria specifically. As above, I did a cycle tour in northern Bavaria, Franconia, and lo and behold, came across the birthplace of Levi Strauss, in Buttenheim.
I didn’t know that not only was he born in Germany, but did not leave there until he was in his very late teens. The above photo is his house and is now a museum (though it was closed on the day we cycled there).
Various from Buttenheim
This was only part of our cycle tour, which we’ll be showing more from this week, in addition to commenting on our various COVID tests that we had to do (highly bureaucratic) and looking at more things in Glasgow and beyond.
It actually doesn’t look that steep here, but I assure you, you should try to jog it! Like these guys do:
Glasgow Warriors Rugby Club training
It is known in the Glasgow area as not only steep, but also where a mad Scotsman tried snowboarding a few years ago (I believe it was 2017?), when we had the so called “Beast from the East” late snowstorm; though I think the video is of another one who tried this, the past year.
As for this new week, I’ll continue to note some things in Deutschland and blog about my travels here – whether it is about the food, alcohol, vistas that I’ve encountered, or various smaller “Sehenswurdigkeiten” that I have noted down, such as:
Cigarette machines in the streets! I’ve noted or blogged about this in the past, but it simply strikes me as something that would never happen in the UK – though I could be wrong. And I am not talking about the old style machines, that at one time, were in most pubs / clubs – these are basically EVERYWHERE in German streets.
A typical German cigarette vending machine
What is interesting about these, is after a second more careful look, you can see that it is only possible to purchase these, via a credit or debit card (In the case of Germany, this could also include an “EC Card” – Another complete German oddity!).
I’ve been told that this is to stop the purchase of these buy children; no doubt a good thing.
I went into a LIDL whilst in Bavaria, naturally as they are both German and exceedingly good value. But the prices and variety of the “bevvy” was exceptional.
That’s right, £1.00 for a bottle of Merlot!
As you can see, a bottle of perfectly fine Merlot (Ed; In your opinion), will only set you back a quid! Extraordinary. Though this may have something to do with both the number of local wines produced in Germany as well as the tax structure in the UK and Glasgow.
What I also saw, and have seen before, were the different types of “whiskey” – Queen Margot? But now, this “formula” has been applied to gin and gin schnapps, that have a very similar look to other, more famous real gins.
Queen Margot whiskey anybody?
But the last thing I saw, was the beer; with unbelievable prices.
Various beers and shandys (Radler)
Whether that be a very fine bottle of wheat beer, Patronus, to a nice can of Spaten (from Munich).
The week ahead, will once again be filled with Germany, as I am at present in Bavaria, but first. . .
After Frankfurt from last week, I decided to go to one of the many different wine producing areas in Germany (they have a lot!) and arrived in the area referred to as Der Pfalz; which also happens to be the hottest area in Germany.
I was based for several days in a delightful village called Nussdorf (just north of Landau), that as is common practice here, seems to have that every other house produces there own wine, to a very acceptable level!
The food is delicious; I as usual had my favourite, Flammkuchen, thrown down with a beautifully fresh and fruity Muscatel (Muskateller), that I had on more than one occasion.
I’ve been here before and of course will be back, but what always strikes me here is the utter lack of any pretension. Believe me, if this place was in France or Italy the entire world would know about the region. But if you were to read this ridiculously pretentious article, I’m glad that they don’t know about it as much.
From grapes in the street, to vineyards, to new restaurants – Nussdorf
It’s hot, inexpensive (a class bottle can set you back 7 Euros), the walking and bike riding (as it is actually quite flat) is superb, and the proximity to other regions in Germany are easily traversed, whether by car or train.
My God, my second show of the week in Germany, about the continuing popularity of the Schlager genre of pop music in Germany.
Schlager Singer Helene Fischer & the German Football team
If you don’t know what Schlager is, then there are no doubt plenty of definitions about this music on the web, to me though, it is a combination of:
Europop
German Cabaret
German Beerhall
Hi-Energy
Synth Pop (nowadays)
Germany Volk (folk) music
This is combined with the lyrical content of an average Country and Western song; one of the beauties in this special, was how one of the female singers wanted her hairspray to be used on her own hair!
You may laugh, but their recent album this year, again crashed in at Number 1 in the German album charts. According to their website, it’s their 13th number 1 album in Germany. Staggering!
It once again shows the diversity of this country that I am now in, and also, that if you don’t actually live here or travel here, you may never know some of its idiosyncrasies.
I’ve been here before in order to watch the World Cup in 2006, where I only had a few of these (in cans), but they still blew my head off!
For this latest trip, we went to Kannonesteppel, on the Textorstrasse, which seemed to be a mecca for Apfelwein enthusiasts, as there were other of these types of pub / restaurants here.
Bembel with Schnitzel and Grüne Sauce
First of all, the Apfelwein is served here in something called a Bembel; that’s the pitcher that you see here (above).
Secondly, it was a bit more flat than before and less strong (though similar to a British Scrumpy).
Finally, I was told that it is only about 4 -5 percent alcohol, and I was mixing it with mineral water so that I could stand upright at the end of the night! This combined with the schnitzel and “Frankfurter Grüne Sosse” made this meal divine. I loved it, and the hof that was packed with punters loved it too!
Curious Bystander 