Gunternation

Sunday November 8 was our second day in Würzburg, Germany. A gray day, but not horribly cold. We walked along the River Main, enjoying the scenic spot at the 18th C Alter Kranen (Old Crane–used to load boats on the river), with views of the Marienberg fortress and the Old Main Bridge.

We proceeded to The Residence, a Baroque palace of the Prince-Bishops of Würzburg. The construction and decoration of the palace, beginning in 1720, spanned five Prince-Bishops with varying priorities for completion of the palace, which occurred finally in 1781. Napoleon apparently called the Residence “the nicest parsonage in Europe.” The residence was heavily damaged in a bombing raid in March 1945, an event obliquely referred to on info placards as “the fire.” Restoration of the palace began soon after the war and lasted until the 1980s. The palace rooms range from grand to spectacular with Bossi’s intricate stucco of the White Hall, the gilded Imperial Hall with striking murals whose characters seem to step into the room, and the beautiful frescoed ceilings of the staircase landing. In addition to the grandiose ornamentation, I particularly loved the lovely patterns in the parquet flooring in many of the apartments.

After touring the residence and grounds we walked back to the Marktplatz and popped into Café Schönborn for lunch. We then visited Würzburg Cathedral, a Romanesque cathedral dedicated in 1188.

For dinner we decided to stick close to our hotel, visiting a cafe/bar two doors down. Bill had read Pleicher Hof was a college hangout, and indeed I believe the combined age at our table equaled all the other customers. Pleicher Hof’s website had said that a viewing party for Polizeiruf 110 would start at 8:15, and sure enough at 8:15 every table had filled and the room fell silent as the show began. We had no choice but to watch this police procedural in German, and wait for our schnitzel, which was the only item still available from the menu. We gathered that there had been a murder, which somehow involved a young cop. And a hedgehog. The case led an older, one-armed detective to quit the force, and then it was Christmas. Our schnitzel expectations were low, but unfounded–our dinners were delicious. I had jaegerschnitzel with spaetzle. A terrific plate of food, and a fun evening.

Just read about the “sausage of the moment” at the NYT: ‘nduja (pronounced en-DOO-ya). It’s a spicy, cured, soft sausage from Calabria likened to “‘flaming liquid salami,’ ‘spicy pork butter’ and, from one heartfelt fan, ‘the spreadable Italian love child of pepperoni and French rillettes.'” Sounds great, but it made me think of a similar sausage we discovered in Malaga called sobrassada. It’s actually native to Majorca, but has spread all over the Spanish coast. It’s also soft and spreadable like ‘nduja, but made with pimentón instead of chiles. They must be related, right? Turns out, the (reportedly) best sobrassada comes from the Soller valley in Majorca, and some of its original inhabitants (15th century) were from Calabria. Since chiles weren’t discovered by the Europeans until they found the New World in the late 15th century, the sausages in their current form couldn’t have existed when the Calabrian colonists arrived in Majorca. However, there is most likely a connection. I love discovering stuff like this.

We left Dublin early on Saturday, November 7, arriving in Frankfurt at 10:00 AM. We hopped in the car and drove through the misty, russet and yellow countryside to Würzburg. After checking into our hotel we walked to the market square where we immediately sought out a bratwurst stand. And there would be many more brats in the following days. Yes, we came for the sausage.

We spent the afternoon wandering the market, drinking Glühwein, buying baked goods and photographing ourselves in front of interesting-looking buildings. There was a moment or two of line dancing, but not as much as Dad would have preferred.

That evening we dined at a huge but cozy, candle-lit restaurant called Das Backöfele. The standout dish for me was scallops with pumpkin risotto and Bill loved his pumpkin soup. (The pumpkin oil reminded him of Slovenia.) A great first day.

I took a day off from work on Tuesday, October 27 and Mom, Dad and I spent the afternoon in City Centre. We ate lunch at the Silk Road Cafe at the Chester Beatty Library and then visited the Beatty’s collection of religious manuscripts. We also visited an exhibit at the Gallery of Photography, stopped for coffee and wound up drinking champagne at the Westbury.

After Mom and Dad returned from Cork, we came into City Centre again for the monthly combined service of our church’s three congregations on November 1. I’m so glad Mom and Dad got to attend one of these celebration services and see the progress of the restoration of our Georgian church building. It was a cold but sunny Sunday. After the service we had lunch at one of our favorite spots, The Winding Stair. Our lovely lunch ended with a bit of excitement when the server spilled a bit of their fabulously tasty aioli on Mom’s blouse. [Bill correctly guessed the secret of the aioli by the way–smoked paprika.] This mishap resulted in a free blackberry tarte, and the aioli left no stain on mom’s blouse, so a very happy ending.

For dinner, Bill made use of a wondrous find at St. Anne’s Market–tomatillos! I was very happy to enjoy a favorite Rick Bayless recipe–chorizo and potato tacos with tomatillo avocado salsa. I have no picture to showcase this terrific dish, so I’ll show you one of the tortillas in the making. This is the best part when the tortilla begins to puff up.

Mom and Dad left on Tuesday for their Sligo trip, and on Saturday November 7 we began our trip to Germany.

Here is a travelogue by Mom about their trip to Sligo.

November 3 – November 5, 2009

Charles and I traveled by train again. This time we went to Sligo. Actually we had to get off the train after a couple of hours and get on a bus for the rest of the way into Sligo. That gave us a view of the area we couldn’t have seen from the train. The countryside is beautiful with rolling hills and lakes. Sligo is a small, old city in the northwest part of Ireland. It was raining there also. But rain doesn’t stop us. We checked into Pearse B&B about noon and walked into the city center. We found a nice shop called The Cat and the Moon which sells Irish made goods.

That night we went to Hargadons Pub and enjoyed live music. Hargadons interior is unchanged since 1864. Since Sligo is known as W. B. Yeats country, we were interested in the Sligo city library exhibit on Yeats. His Nobel Prize for literature is housed there. Later we found the Yeats Memorial Building which is the headquarters of the Yeats Society and has a permanent exhibition of pictures from his life. We watched several videos explaining his politics, writings and personal life. We were there a couple of hours. It was a great place to get in out of the rain. The Garavogue River runs through Sligo. It is turbulent and beautiful. The swans which live on the river were not in sight while we were there. The train agent told us that they were hiding in the reeds while it was so rainy. We enjoyed our three days in Sligo and would love to go back in summer when there are coach tours of the surrounding area.