Kochel Am See - June 30, 2010

Every day of our Europe trip was fantastic, so it never occurred to me to pick a favorite. Yet invariably that is the first question people ask, "What was your favorite thing/place?" I still don't think I could ever pick a favorite, but this place was extra enchanting and I find myself wishing to return for long weekend visits to just relax and explore.

In Bavaria on the shores of Kochelsee in the district of Bad Tölz-Wolfratshausen lies Kochel Am See (Kochel on the Lake). We had not planned to stay here. Mom's original plan between Salzburg and Oberammergau called for taking the Autobahn to Munich, then south, spending one night in the Garmisch-Partenkirchen area. That morning, we decided to take the smaller, red road looked fine (interesting how we evaluate roads on a map by color) through Bad Tolz and look for a small town after rejoining the autobahn.

We pulled off to look in Grossweil. Didn't find much and it was still early, so we drove a bit further to Schlehdorf on the shores of Kochelsee. We almost had a room, but things seemed a bit flakey and the room they wound up giving us was fly-infested and unkempt. We drove on again to Kochel Am See and quickly found a hotel to our liking: Hotel zur Post. We arrived just before 6 pm and went for a walk around town. Only a small cafe was open, so gelato was our dinner before going down to the lake.

Though nearly deserted now (not quite vacation season there), it is obvious this is a bustling vacation spot. Boat docks, swimming areas, walking paths and parks, even an overgrown mini-golf course, spoke of the popularity of this lake and town and it was easy to see why. A sea of glass with occasional ripples reflects the majestic alps and surrounding hills. You just absorb the peace and calm. To add to the splendor, a majestic swan appeared just before sunset. (Mom was SO patient with two photographers snapping hundreds of photos!)

Early the next morning, I walked the trails alone. The morning sun creates beautiful colors and wonderful photo ops, plus that freshness only early mornings can give. There were church bells, of course, but the solitude was wonderful. I meandered over the hill to the lake, knowing it was silly to hope that swan would still be there... in fact, hoping there would be a pair of swans, as if wishes could control wild creatures. Well, I got my wish! And further around the point was a family - Dad, Mom and baby swan. I almost wore my camera out. Not really, but I did take tons of photos.

To top off the morning walk, there in the early morning on the shores, a man was serenading the world with his accordion. Right on the water's edge he played a lilting oom-pa-pa tune that floated across the smooth waters. Cheerful and soothing, not brash at all.

At trail's end (or the beginning if you start at the parking lot) a sign honors the town's famous artist, Franz Marc. One of his paintings shows twin haystacks over poles - Heuhocken. Yes, I put this in Google and translated it. Do it for yourself. I love literal translations. :-)



This is definitely on my list of places to go again. Wish it wasn't so far away.
More Photos on my Flickr

Getting There is Half the Fun

Or so the saying goes. Michelle and I flew from Portland to Seattle, then transferred to our Luftansa flight to Frankfurt. Besides movies and music, one of the options for the viewing screen in each seat was current flight information. Live satellite positioning from various distances included day/night indication through light and shadow. We flew north over Canada, Greenland and Iceland before clipping Great Britain and crossing into Europe. I was excited to peek out the window at these new lands, but repeatedly disappointed by the nearly unbroken layer of clouds below. Interesting to me is that the sun never set, something I'd only heard about before.

In Frankfurt the clouds unleashed. Our flight landed out on the tarmac and we took a shuttle into the terminal. Due to some construction and lack of clear directions, we had quite a walk to our next gate. The flight to Rome was a bit bumpy due to the weather, but the sun was shining in a cloudless sky once we arrived. We managed to find our luggage before settling in for the hour wait for Mom to arrive. While waiting, I noticed a sign for a shuttle that would drop us near the Vatican. The price was less than what Mom had stated for transportation and our hotel was near the Vatican, so this seemed like a great deal.

Mom arrived. We wheeled our luggage out into the hot Italian sun and waited for the shuttle. Naturally, many shuttles are running about the airport, but finally ours arrived and we popped our suitcases into the underneath storage and hopped aboard. Comfy and air conditioned, we settled into seeing the sights along the way. I loved the old world styles of most homes and loved the age of everything. There would certainly be many textures and architectural details for me to photograph!

Upon arriving at Piazza Cavour, the driver got off to give us our bags. Since we were some of the first customers, our luggage was in the back. The driver didn't speak much English, so a young lady helped with explaining where our bags were. The driver was visibly upset that our bags hadn't been placed correctly. Most people were traveling on to the Metro terminal, so ours should have been placed on the outside for easy access. Oh, well. Different language; bound to be glitches.

So, there we stood with our various bags in the hot afternoon sun. Mom and I each pulled out guidebooks with maps and searched for Piazza Cavour. No luck. We looked for street signs - Oh, there they are. Street names are carved into stones on the sides of the buildings. Sadly, we couldn't find those streets on our maps either, since we weren't even sure which direction we were from the Vatican. We started to walk, assuming the street with a signal light several blocks away would be on our maps. It was, but we didn't know our cross street, so still a bit stumped. We finally asked a local to show us where we were on our map. Once oriented, we knew right where to go.




Tired from lack of sleep and toting luggage for nearly a mile over cobblestone sidewalks, we arrived at where our hotel should be. No big signs, as I would expect in the States. In fact, things looked a little dingy and graffiti was everywhere. We started to doubt our hotel choice and reservations. Just then a kindly Italian gentleman approached and asked if we were looking for Hotel Les Chambre D'Or. We were, but since I hadn't heard it pronounced before it took a moment to realize that is what we wanted. He showed us the location of the office, we were shown to our rooms and we could finally rest for a bit.



New discoveries:
*Rome has graffiti everywhere! You'd think such a proud, ancient city would clean up it's streets.
*The ground floor isn't the first floor, as it is here. They start at "0," so our "1st floor" room was upstairs on what I would call the 2nd floor.
*Loved the old elevator! Metal cage outside and wooden/glass car inside. Normally, I walked for the exercise, though.
*Despite similar architecture, each building is unique with unique designs and styles. Photo overload for me!

Most Embarrassing Moment

We've all been in gatherings where this topic is used as an icebreaker. I always hate these kinds of questions because, while I know I've had my share of embarrassing moments, my mind goes blank and that becomes an embarrassing moment. The day before my vacation, however, I managed to pull off a classic embarrassment with my own unique twist.

In addition to frantically packing and running last-minute errands, I had to go to the sleep clinic, see the doctor for the results of my sleep study, get my prescription for a CPAP machine, then go get the machine at a nearby business. (No by choice. I had asked for a referral in February, since my mom and daughter refused to let me sleep in the same room unless my snoring stopped. Things were dropped and overlooked all spring, so this was critical to complete before vacation.) Today as I returned for a follow-up visit I was reminded of my gaffe.

After that doctor visit I shared the elevator ride to the parking garage with a 20-something pizza delivery guy. I joked with him a bit about hospital food and the need for his services there. (He had delivered to the staff, not patients.) He was polite, letting me exit first and holding the door for me. Upon arriving at the CPAP business, I stood at the busy counter for a good 5 to 10 minutes before they could see what I needed. After all the running, I was grateful to flop down and rest of the small couch beside a kind-looking elderly lady.

She leaned over and sweetly whispered in my ear... "I think you have some toilet paper sticking out in back."

Worse. I reached back and was mortified to feel the slick paper of a toilet seat cover. My mind raced back over all the encounters since leaving the bathroom about an hour earlier. Yes, the doctor and some of the office staff would have seen. That polite pizza delivery guy (amazing he could contained what must have been side-splitting laughter). All the people in that waiting room. Yeah. No escaping the facts. Maybe it was a good thing I was leaving the country...

Back in the USA

I've struggled with how to begin. Time to post seems short, but I find myself wanting to show every photo and include every story from our trip. Despite how wonderful it was for us, and not matter how intriguing I may be able to make things sound, no one will want to spend 3 solid weeks reading about my adventures and looking at my pictures. So, I have to start somewhere. I'll start with some thoughts Michelle and I had our first few days home.

Things I noticed since back from my recent trip to Italy, Austria and Germany.
-the cars are so big!
-the cars are so many colors
-the parking spaces are huge
-public restrooms with toilet seat covers; heck, toilets with seats!
-nothing is older than a few hundred years
-you can buy lunch/dinner at 4, 5 or even 6 pm
-there aren't dozens of motorcycles or scooters whizzing between cars, courting disaster
-can't find decent mozzarella fresca
-the cows don't have bells
-no church bells pealing for all to wake nor chiming the hours
-where are all the castles and walled cities?
-few shutters and window boxes
-I miss the European windows that open two ways
-there are more than 10 channels on my TV and most of them are in English
-no dogs lounging in the restaurants
-much less graffiti here
-overhead wires for electric buses and trains are almost non-existant
-buildings and signs are so plain and ordinary

Taylor Marks

I was in disbelief when I read the email last night that Taylor Marks had been killed in Iraq Thursday. I hadn't seen Taylor in a few years, but my daughter Michelle and I had just been wondering what he was up to a few days ago. We didn't know he was deployed to Iraq and now wish we had kept in contact with him and his family more frequently.
(Normally, I am over-zealous about not infringing on copyrighted material, but I wanted to post this photo of Taylor, so I hope the Oregon National Guard forgives me for using their picture.)

Taylor was a close friend of my daughter throughout their middle and high school years. His mother and I had been in the same single mom's group at church. I was the interpreter for a boy in Taylor's small group in middle school for nearly a year before I learned that my friend was the mom of Michelle's friend.

Taylor was silly and wacky, but always a good kid with a wonderful heart. He had a growing faith and was the best of friends to my daughter, who had a very difficult home life due to her sister's serious problems. Taylor was always there for her. I always felt they made a great couple and was surprised they never dated. Many people assumed they were a couple, but they were just close friends. I had missed him once he changed to another church.

This photo of Taylor is from middle school. Sadly, it is the only photo I seem to have of him. It has been rough for my daughter and I to deal with the grief, but we had a rare visit with my granddaughter planned for today, so that kept us busy. We want to go visit his mom on Monday and support her during this unbelievably difficult time. Please pray for Taylor's mom, step-dad, sister and father.

Going Green, even if it's blue

Sure, I care for the environment and, yes, I did belong to the Sierra Club and supported the World Wildlife Fund when I was in high school in the 70's. (Who didn't?) I loved hiking and backpacking and wanted to know that we would always have wilderness places to enjoy and wild animals to see. But I've never been an extremist or activist. I recycle, but occasionally throw out a can or jar in the trash instead (usually because I found it in the back of the fridge with something fuzzy growing in it).

Interestingly, I find myself more and more concerned with going Green and becoming more eco-friendly. I have bought a number of fabric reusable grocery bags. I even remember to take them in with me on occasion. I reuse the plastic grocery bags as trash can liners or lunch sacks. I even reuse plastic containers (yogurt cups to take out sauce cups) for mixing paints or other craft needs.

Maybe it is the increasing emphasis on going Green that I see on TV. I find myself watching the Green network (who knew it even existed?). QuiltingArts and Cloth Paper Scissors magazines, plus the whole lot of Stampington Press have more and more on using green materials, recycling and upcycling (a new vocabulary word for me). The online ideas sent by CraftStylish also often includes recycled or green projects.

Pictured at the top of the page is one of the better ideas I've seen. Make your own reusable produce bags! Inexpensive netting and a bit of yarn or ribbon make bags you can use over and over instead of adding plastic bags to the landfill. I made and used my first one last week. Quick to make; I plan to make a bunch more. The netting is less than $2 per yard and comes in a variety of colors. I decided I liked blue, this time, but may go with yellow or purple next time. It was also easy to find coordinating thread and ribbon, though you really could use whatever you have at hand.

What cool "green" ideas have you seen lately?

Tropical Snowballs

I enjoyed the movie Julie & Julia, remembering fondly watching Julia Child years ago and being inspired to try new recipes and have fun with my cooking and baking. I'm not good with keeping a regular routine, such as Julie Powell cooking through Julia's book in one year, blogging her experience daily. My days are just to unpredictable, no, I'm too unpredictable, to follow such a regimen on my own. I have a habit of not honoring commitments made to myself.

But I WANT to be consistent. I love to write and often "blog" in my head, even if I don't have the time or energy to get to the computer to type the words. At the same time, I love cooking and would love to host my own cooking show. I plan to actually enter The Next Food Network Star competition this year, though I can't imagine what unique culinary point of view I could offer. I love to invent recipes and want others to enjoy cooking, not dread or fear it.

I've decided (we'll see if I do follow through) that I need to do a vlog of cooking. Each time I invent a new recipe, I want to make a video showing the steps and just have some fun with it. I want to respect my deaf friends, but doubt I'll have time to caption my movies. I think I should make signed versions as well as voice versions.

I've also decided that what I lack in culinary expertise I could learn through a similar method that Julie Powell took. If I find some great cookbooks that include a wide array of culinary techniques, I can cook my way through them to learn the classic preparations and sauces the "big" chefs use. It should be fun along the way.

So, to the main point of my thoughts today. While shopping for a specific book (which was not to be found) my daughters and I happened upon the following book...

(only ours has blue gingham; 2007 edition)
Cool. Should be good inspiration as we face this year's state fair in a few weeks. I wondered if I or any of my notable competitors had recipes in the book. I checked and Oregon was one of the fairs included. Time was short, the store was closing, so I made the quick decision to buy the book (luckily not too expensive at Ross). At home, I leafed through the book. Great recipes. I can't wait to try them, especially the ones from the Maui Onion Festival.

For now, get your copy and turn to page 342. I'll wait. Oh, you don't have the book? Okay, here is a photo of the page for you. (click image to enlarge)

There I am. Nestled between Blueberry-Ginger Sorbet (Maine) and Pumpkin-Ginger Ice Cream. I vaguely remembered being asked permission to have one of my recipes included in this type of cookbook, but couldn't remember when and I had never heard anything else about it. It was so neat to find myself in print! Feel free to make some... they have no added sugar and came from a recipe I invented for my diabetic step-dad earlier that summer.

Hope to start vlogging this week as I begin practicing for this year's fair. Keep cookin'!