Lover’s Lock

Lately I’ve been missing Europe a lot and all the things we did and didn’t do while living there. Before we left Germany to return to Chicago, we went back to Cologne. Cologne is one of the largest cities in North Rhine Westphalia—the name of the area where we lived. It was one of my favorite cities, probably because I ate every pastry imaginable and enjoyed my first wiener schnitzel there. But we made the trip back for a reason. At the time, I didn't know the reason. It was my Love's idea—a romantic.

There is bridge that runs across the Rhine River that sparkles in the sunlight. It isn’t until you venture along the walkway of the bridge that you realize what makes it sparkle. Locks. 

Lots of locks—there were thousands of colorful locks reflecting the sun and sentiments about how someone felt about another person. When I read the locks, I tried to imagine the people and what was going on in their life. Some probably were professing their love to someone they married, someone now long gone in their life, or someone who died. I really didn’t know. What I did know is that someone was important to them—they wanted to share with the world in color, chrome or silver, what their life meant to them at the time. 

Along the way, we found a place for our lock. Our names locked to a bridge in Cologne with many others. I may not make it back there, but I’ll always know we have a lock of love glistening in the sun. I smile when I think about it, and loved the idea so much that you’ll find a poem in my poetry ebook called Locks of Love.

Did you ever do something different to express your love? I’d love to hear about it.

A Taste of the Holiday Season and Weekend Wonders

Hello my friends. It’s been an exciting weekend, so I thought I’d share some of it with you. First off, many of you who truly know me know that I LOVE THE HOLIDAY SEASON. Unfortunately, I will not be in the States celebrating Thanksgiving with my family, but I did buy a little chicken that I shall cook up this week.

On Friday, a neighboring town already setup their Christmas Market. We headed over there for some tasty food, mulled wine and to get into the holiday spirit…okay, I’m already in the holiday mood. All the booths are decorated so cute.

The first booth I will present is a bread booth. Germans love bread, so this was a must to share.

This is a bratwurst booth. I love how bratwurst is served here. It’s a very long and skinny, like a sausage, and served on a roll (forgot to take picture before I ate it).

My mom had a huge village that she setup at Christmas time. These are German houses for Christmas villages.

Here is a great bar area where they serve beer, wine and hard liquor for those “who want to get drunk fast, and [they] don’t need any characters around to give the joint ‘atmosphere’”.

I laughed when I saw these on display. It’s mulled wine bottles wrapped with bread.

  
And here were some snowmen and reindeers made from tree trunks.

On Saturday, we already planned to go to Luxembourg—told that it is part of my heritage. This was an interesting day, because I was in four different countries; Germany, Luxembourg, France, and Belgium…Well…Belgium was an accident—we happened to have missed the sign that said “This Way!”

We left early and arrived before the crowds got in our way. Luxembourg is a beautiful city and my pictures do not do it justice. There was heavy fog over the area, so the sun didn’t get much of a chance to take a peak.

This is a picture near the town center looking down into the Petruss Valley. Outside the old fortress and palace, the water eroded and created the Petruss Valley, so the town built around this big park.

  
Here’s a picture for my eating buddies. This is a dessert and pastry store. The one in front to the far right looked like velvet, but we tried the individual caramel tort that’s in the middle in front. Mmmm…

This is the Passerell Bridge that has 24 arches and it’s in an arch formation. The bridge was built from 1859 – 1861.

This is the Adolphe bridge, built from 1899 – 1903, and was the largest bridge made from natural stone at the time of completion.

We walked up many, many stone stairs to get to the casements (system of tunnels for defense purposes).

 

  
Then we ventured into another area that somewhat turned into a little Italy. We had lunch in this area at a place called Oscar Wilde (great food at reasonable prices).

 

As we left the City of Luxembourg, I was able to capture a picture of the setting sun.

Today, we went to another town to enjoy the sun. SUN! We had sun, so I grabbed my camera to get some beautiful shots. I’ll share just a few with you.

  
Hope you enjoyed my weekend journey. Have a wonderful week.  

Food for the Soul

I                                                        You. Or maybe this looks like a butt to you—it’s all about interpretation. We bought a huge bag of potatoes, so my Love could make some potato soup (Kartoffelsuppe). He was in the kitchen for a few hours grating the potatoes, cutting up carrots, onions, sausage, boiling and creating the base of the soup. There are two kinds of sausage in this soup, one is a smoked strong sausage (Mettwurste) to add to the flavor and then he put in whole sausages that we cut up when the soup was served. Mmm...he did a fabulous job making this soup that kept me full for at least a few hours.

 

The next pictures are of some pastries we picked up at the bakery, Löscher Bäckerei. This first pastry is a traditional German dessert called Bienenstich (Bee Sting). This is the one I picked and it was instant love. This is made with a sweet bread, cream or vanilla pudding, topped with honeyed almonds. 

 

  

My love ordered this one and it was called Mangaroca Batida De Coco. Layered chocolate cake with cherries and whip cream flavored with Batida De Coco (coconut liquor) topped with a cherry sauce. He let me have a small bite—a very, very small bite—accompanied by a ‘you ain’t getting anymore’ look. This one was fabulous too.

One day, we went to a place called Das Pfannekuchen-Haus (the pancake house) for lunch. Much of the menu consists of a pancake (unsweetened) topped with whatever toppings you order. The first picture is of my Love’s meal. It’s a pancake topped with ground beef, broccoli, spinach, cheese and Hollandaise sauce. Again, he let me have a small bite and it was fabulous. Actually better than what I ordered.

I ordered a pancake with potatoes in it and topped with onions and a sunny side up egg. This also came with bacon, but I asked for it without. It was good, but didn’t have enough flavor as the other one.

  

My love washed his down with a Köstritzer bier (black beer). He said the beer was okay, but he still prefers Guinness.

And finally, an ice cream I had at the ice cream parlor in Blankenstein. This place, like many ice cream places, will close up at the end of the month and return in the spring. Many of the ice cream parlors are Italian owned, so they return to Italy over the winter months and return in the spring to serve their homemade ice cream. I’ll admit that this was half-eaten already when I remembered to take a picture. I had two types of ice cream, a almond and a cookie dough ice cream topped with fresh whipped cream (unsweetened). I don’t even know if I’ve ever had homemade unsweetened whipped cream, but this was fabulous.

For now, this is all I have to serve--until next time, Bon appetit.