Bamberg Photos

Bad dwarbi!

I had a broken link for the photos of Bamberg, Germany. this one will work.

Look Out, Aussies in New York!

Last week we had our first Australian visitors. Two in a row, both friends from Sydney.

First we had Cory of Cory's Comment, who was in town to see some of the US Open live. Dana and I met him at Grand Central, had a bite at Waterfront Ale House and hit the town until well after the last train to South Orange. I crashed in Flushing, and we both went back into the city the following morning. I introduced Cory to a real bagel and nearly caused a bomb scare in midtown. After sitting on some steps to eat our breakfast, we set off for Tom's office to leave Cory's bag there. When we were a few avenues away, I realized that I had forgotten my backpack.

"They've probably called the cops," I joked.

Well, they had. When we returned to the deli, the bag was gone.

"With the police!" the deli-worker shouted at me.

A block away was a little cop-stand, and the officer inside had it.

He laughed, "They freaked out! Must have been as soon as you left it, I got a bunch a calls about an abandoned bag, they thought it was a bomb!"

It wasn't. Ah, paranoia. Next we hiked across midtown for a few hours and took a water taxi to Brooklyn for the best pizza in the world: Grimaldi's. After that full day, Cory set off for JFK, looking forward to sleeping on his flight to London. Photos from the 24 activity-filled hours.

After Cory was JFK-bound, Dana and I waited at the Gingerman for our our next visitor: Sai. Unfortunately I do not have nearly as many photos of our time with Sai. We enjoyed a few beers and some food at the Gingerman before heading back to South Orange for some rest. The real adventure was the next day, and not very photogenic... getting Sai to his hotel! Again, we introduced our visitor to a real bagel, this one a Jersey bagel, but still real. Perfect fuel to get our friend to his sister and nephews, who were waiting for him.

When will I learn not to trust Mapquest directions? Soon enough we were in downtown Newark, and the address I had led us to an empty lot. No problem, we thought, it's an airport hotel, so let's head to the airport. This worked... kind of. We could see the hotel just fine, but we could not get to it. After about three rounds of "Big Ben... Parliament" we finally went off-roading just to get close enough for Sai to get out, hop over some barriers and walk the rest of the way. Sorry about that Sai! We have't heard from Sai since, but I'm sure he made it back OK. Sai? Let us know how you're doing.

Bamberg, Germany

If I had to pick our favorite stop during the Big Trip, I would choose Bamberg. This is surprising, no doubt, but the city had so much to offer and so few crowds. It's a functioning city in Germany, and the entire Old Town has been designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The criticism of UNESCO, that once a site is designated World Heritage it begins to deteriorate due to an onslaught of travelers, but that does not hold true here. It's probably true of The Great Barrier Reef, though. If only coral were as durable as stone.

Our visit coincided with a festival in Bamberg called "Unterm Sternenmantel". The Google translation of this term is "Unterm star coat", but it's actually a celebration of 1000 years of having a bishop. From what I could gather, they consider their year of founding 1007, when Rome recognized their significance by creating a diocese there: "1000 Jahre Bistum Bamberg". In honor of the occasion, the square in front of the Bamberg Cathedral was turned into a giant bier garten! That's Germany for you. The locally-brewed beer was not served in plastic cups, but you gave a deposit of a few Euro to received a stein, which you could fill as often as you like for 2 Euro. There was much to be seen, so I only had one.

The city is peppered with sculptures, both old and new, and they have not one, but two beautiful rose gardens. Beer from their nine local breweries can be enjoyed in one of the small pubs or one of the massive beer gardens. The River Main runs alongside the Old Town, and some of the most beautiful buildings in Germany can be found on it. Needless to say, there are a few things to do in Bamberg. We did quite a bit of walking, from the Wilde-Rose-Keller to the Klosterburg St. Michael, and enjoyed a few local brews, especially the fresh rauchbier. This is a smoked beer, the specialty of Bamberg. The best producer of this style, in my opinion, is Brauerei Heller-Trum, maker of Aecht Schlenkerla Rauchbier. It's excellent in a bottle, but it's far better fresh on tap. And in Bamberg. With a pile of Bavarian food in front of you. Surrounded by magnificent Medieval architecture.

Don't miss these photos. Centurione I to Kunigunde; Doorknob to Door knocker.

Hitting the Water with Pete, Jane, Julianna & Valerie

Since Dana and I made our visit with my brother & his family last week, every Australian I have spoken to has had the same reaction: surprise. "The beach? Near New York?"

Yep, there are a number of beaches near New York, and you can even swim at some of them! Actually, some of them are very nice. They are a bit different from Australian beaches... a bit more crowded, maybe five or six more people, but the extra humans add comic value. "My wife's bustin' my shoes, 'Coming to the beach every day!' I gotta recharge my batteries! Whayagonnado?" Real New Yorkers here, people. Even in New Jersey, there are real New Yorkers... even more fun when they are wet and covered in sand!

Jane's brother owns some jet skis, and we took them out a few times. Crazy fun, but they definitely do not feel safe. I alternated between screaming with fun and crying in fear. Pete and I got ours up to 58 miles per hour, and Pete's little girl, Valerie, wanted to take one out by herself to go "Super-fast!" Wisely, Pete didn't let her.

Back at Pete & Jane's, Julianna tried to teach me how to hula-hoop, which I have never been able to do, and still can't. We also enjoyed a few episodes of Full House. Cut. It. Out! It's not as bad as you think it would be. Except the clothes. And the same catch phrases being used every episode. Really though, even fifteen years ago, was Bullwinkle still popular?

Pictures of said visit.

Munich/München

With our stay in Garmisch-Partenkirchen cut a day short, we found last-minute accommodation in München, the capitol of Bavaria and Germany's 3rd largest city. We knew the beer would be good, and it was, but the city itself was overrun with tourists. Dana and I found ourselves avoiding the major avenues and squares in favor of the smaller back streets.

The architecture is phenomenal, despite the fact that all statues and sculptures are covered in netting. Perhaps this is why pigeons rule over most pf Europe but are rather uncommon in Germany. While this may keep the stone structures poop-free, it severely detracts from the beauty of the artwork. München was hit hard by air raids during World War II, but much of the city has been restored to its original design. Amazingly, the towers of Frauenkirche, one of the most famous buildings in München, remained intact while nearly all of the rest of the church was destroyed. München was an early stronghold of the Nazis, and the first concentration camp, at Dachau, was built just 10 miles outside of the city. Not surprisingly, it was very difficult to find the concentration camp using road signs, which we attempted upon our departure. Dachau is now the site of an important museum, and we're disappointed to have missed it. Conversely, München was a site of strong opposition to totalitarianism during WWII. Among them was Rupert Mayer, whose resting place we came across in the Bürgersaalkirche.

On a lighter note, and as stated earlier, the beer in München rocks. Our visit landed on a Friday night, so we got ourselves a good table at Andescher am Dom and settled in for some excellent Bavarian fare and monastic beer brewed by the monks at Klosterbrauerei Andechs nearby. The quality of these beers was such that the four brews served on tap at the restaurant were more than enough to satisfy my Bavarian-bier-starved palate. The Andechser Doppelbock Dunkel was particularly smooth.

Over the course of the next day in München, we climbed to the top of Peterskirche for a view of the city from above, popped by the Viktualienmarkt for a pickle, had a beer at the famed Hofbrauhaus and witnessed vegetarians pretending to shoot people wearing Aardvark masks at a PETA demonstration. An eventful day, I must say.

Photos of Munich/Fotos von München

Feral Cat Stew & A Giant Fence

I've been back in the States for over a month now, and from time to time I get to wondering what's going on back in Australia. Thankfully, the series of tubes makes it easy for me to find out.

Some Aussies are trying a different way to deal with their feral cat problem, and some Americans are getting outraged by it. Come on, people, can someone tell me why it's OK to eat pig and cattle but not OK to eat cat? Just to stir you up a bit more, one of the things I miss most about Australia is eating kangaroo meat.

Also crossing international boundaries is President Bush. To the disdain of millions of Sydneysiders, the Australian government has built a 3 mile long fence around much of the city to keep demonstrators out while he visits for the APEC summit. The impact on transportation is so great that this coming Friday has been declared a public holiday. Sucks for my friend Ian, whose wife is expecting to deliver a baby that very same day. Ian, Agamemnon is a good name and all, but also consider Apec in honor of the occasion.

Big Birthday Weekend

No, not our birthdays, but the birthdays of others. This is a selfless birthday blog entry.

Birthday #1:
Bode's First Birthday! Last Saturday, Dana and I made it over to Park Slope, Brooklyn, to check out Jason & Cristi's pad and the roof above the pad. Bode decided on a luau theme, so he set up an inflatable palm tree, a little pool for him and his buddies and leis for all the guests. Jason & Cristi tease me about how many photos I took at their wedding four years ago, so I couldn't let them down this time. The photo count is huge, but it's sure hard to trim down photos of an adorable baby. Or of Jay, apparently.

Birthday #s2&3 (or is it Birthdays #2 & #3? or Birthday #2 & Birthday #3?)
Bah, whatever it's supposed to be, the birthdays were for Jim, of Raritan River fame and Kay, of Kay & Wally Visit Sydney fame. Last Sunday, we went to Middlesex, where Gail cooked up an incredible meal of pork loin and pineapple & cranberry salsa. She served delicious cupcakes for dessert. No one went home hungry. Some snaps from the Sunday.