Sunday Shopping around Koblenz

So it is Sunday in Koblenz, Germany and you need a few organic veggies for dinner. Or maybe you need to pick up a birthday present for a friend. Maybe a nice orchid, a book about orchids, or a nice pie of art glass. An of course you need a birthday card.

But it's Sunday....in Germany. The stores are all closed.

OK there are the stores at the gas stations. But you aren't going to get organic there. And be honest, would you eat anything from a local BP station after the last 6 weeks? And a nice birthday present, no way.

Frankfurt Airport has shops open. But that is an hour each way, assuming no "Stau" (traffic jam). A little far. Plus parking is a pain.

You could take a trip to Luxembourg, but that is also a bit more than an hour each way.

There actually is an answer to this riddle, a 15-20 minute drive from Koblenz to Maria Laach Abbey. Maria Laach Abbey is an active Benedictine abbey on the south shore of the volcanic lake known as Laacher See. The monks there operate a greenhouse, a fruit and vegetable stand, and a store selling books and craft items. And they are open 7 days of the week.

In addition to the shops, the church there is considered one of the finest examples German Romanesque architecture. The church and a number of the structures date back to the 11th through 13th. If you wanted to make a day of it, a system of hiking trails is maintained around the abbey and lake. And of course there is the restaurant and biergarten on the grounds where you can relax after the hike or shopping.

I suppose some might question the sincerity of the monks operating a store on Sunday on the grounds of the  church while the rest of the country is required to honor this day of worship. But you need to remember that monks are always been a practical lot. Take the story of the invention of the German version of ravioli called Maultaschen. Maultaschen was invented by the monks at Maulbronn Abbey because the only time of the year that the parishioners would donate meat to the monks was during Lent, when the people themselves were not permitted to eat meat. The monks reasoned that by covering the meat with a layer of dough, God would not be aware that they were eating meat and it was therefore OK.

This practical side lead Maria Laach Abbey into some controvery during the period of National Socialism. The Wikipedia site goes into a bit more detail. But suffice it to say that the monks at Maria Laach were very aware of what they were against and grabbed a hold of something that was much worst. Is there a lesson here for us?

Traumpfad - Booser Doppelmaartour

Magda had a holiday last Monday, May 24. Monday holidays are great for Magda because one third of her classes are on Monday. So not only does she get a day free, but one third of her prep time for the week is freed up. With this freetime, we decided to tryout another of the Traumpfad hiking trails that we have been hearing people talk about.

Traumpfad or "Dream Hike" is a project of Rhein-Mosel-Eifel Touristik, an organization whose purpose is to increase the tourism in this part of Germany. The Traumpfad project involves setting up well marked, circuit hiking trails in smaller villages in an effort to entice people to get out of the major tourist areas and see some other parts of the region. What is nice is that some of these towns have taken a sense of pride in their Traumpfad and have made efforts to make the hikes even more interesting.

Such is the case with the village of Boos. It is about 5 km from the Nürburgring, the famous race track in the Eiffel. Largely a farming community, the only indication of tourism is the motorcyclist attracted to the Nürburgring that race around the roads in the area. But the Traumpfad does help bring a little tourism to the area. To make their Traumpfad distictive, they has set up information stations along the way to explain the geological and natural features of the area. Also they have build a tower at the highest point in the hike that offers panoramic views of the Eiffel landscape.

The trail is a nice one even without these additions. Just under 10 km, in winds its way on the edge of the woods through the Eiffel. This means that most of the hike is under shade, while still allowing views across the hills and fields of the Eiffel. There is only the one major climb up to the tower. Other than that, the hike is mostly level or slightly downhill. The hike starts and ends at the double "Maar". A "Maar" is an small lake formed in the crater of a volcano. The Eiffel has a history of volcanic activity, the potential for which persists even today. These two "Maars" are mostly filled in, however the bowls of the craters are clearly visible and some water still exists. Some rather rare plants have found a home here, including Germany's only wild orchid and a plant with yellow follows that is only found in marshes (see the pictures below).

Reinsteig - Lorch to Kaub

Rheinsteig is a 320 km hiking trails that follows the high banks along the Eastern side of the Rhine river from Bonn to Wiesbaden. As the trail follows the high banks there are plenty of wonderful views of the Rhine as you wander pass the castles along the way. But it also means that every river or stream that feeds the Rhine requires a decent and a climb. Thus the name Rheinsteig that translates to "Rhine Climb".

Magda's school wanted to have a fundraiser for UNICEF. So they chose May 20 as the day that the school would walk the entire Rheinsteig. That is to say, Rheinsteig would be split into sections that would be assigned to homerooms in each grade. Each homeroom there would walk there section on that day and the school would have then covered the entire Rheinsteig. UNICEF would receive the pledges that the students got for doing the walk.

Magda attached herself to a grade 11 homeroom and said that Frannie and I could tag along on their 15 km hike from Lorch to Kaub. So in the morning of May 20, Frannie, Magda, and I along with half of Max von Laue Gymnasium boarded a train heading south along the Rhine, while the other half of Max von Laue got on a train heading north.

As we traveled south, different homerooms would get off the train to hike there section of the trail, always hiking in towards Koblenz. The idea was that each homeroom would complete their section in about 5 hours meeting up with a single train North traveling back to Koblenz. The homerooms that went north would do the same, meeting a single south bound train. In this way, the entire school would end up back at the Koblenz train station at about the time.

It took about a hour to reach Lorch. The train station there was a little over 1 km from the trail. Once the trail reached the end of the town, it began climbing. It was a pretty steep climb, and the homeroom teacher for these 11th grades had a cold and was not feeling well. As a result he lagged behind as some of the boys in the group raced ahead. Magda, Frannie and I stayed towards the back, making sure that everyone was making it OK. Still, the walk was pleasant enough. There were some muddy sections that gave the students in their flat bottom shoes some problems. After all, what self respecting 11th grade girl could be seen in a pair of hiking boots. But the views of the Rhine and the castles on the other side were really wonderful. And soon enough we saw the small castle (toll booth really) in the middle of the Rhine that is the landmark for Kaub.

We reached the point where a trail headed down 1.8 km to Kaub, but Rheinsteig followed the trail up to a peak and then down pass the castle hoovering above the town of Kaub. That direction would be 5.8 km to Kaub. Which trail do you think the students racing ahead took? Yep, they were on the short trail almost to Kaub as Magda, Frannie and I reached the trail junction.

Unfortunately, since Magda was their in an official position, we had to follow the the students along the shorter path. So I didn't get to see as much of the Rheinsteig as I had hoped that day. But I'll certainly plan to see more in the not too distant future.

Spargelzeit

There is a two month period from late April to late June that is known as Spargelzeit. Spargel is German for asparagus. Zeit is time. So Spargelzeit means the time for asparagus. Since asparagus is the first harvest of the year, it is connected with the end of cold temperatures and the coming of summer. Asparagus growing use to be centered in southern German. But with the advent of growing under plastic, the growing asparagus has now extended into the central Germany. So there are a couple of fields not far from us.

Asparagus here is not the skinny green shoots that we get in the USA. Rather they are thick, white shoots, the thicker the better. They have a woody outer layer pretty much the whole length of the shoot that must be removed with a vegetable peeler. The shoots are graded according to their thickness, length and roundness. This is basically an indicator of how much work is needed to prepare the shoots. The thicker shoots have more volume per surface area, therefore less peeling and less waste. Also if the shoot is not round (cylindrical is maybe a better word) they are harder to peel. But even the farmers will say, they all the grades taste the same.

We tend to buy the grade II that are a bit thicker than my thumb. Once they are peeled, it is simply a matter of boiling for 20 minutes. The traditional German meal shown in the slide show below would start with a pound of asparagus per person (that is before peeling). and would serve boiled potatoes and slices of ham to go with it. Melted butter would be available to pour over the asparagus and potatoes. We like lighter white wine with low acidity is idea. For this meal, we used sweet potatoes, but a hard potato, like red or Yukon gold, would be more traditional. We also used a  Riesling which is normally little too acidic, but we had just returned from Wehlen and wanted to drink one of the wines that we bought there.