Auf wiedersehen

This will be the final Germany post until I go back and write something more detailed for a couple high points, like the time I flew a plane (pun intended), or meeting the apiary colonists.  The day we left Berlin was mostly a lot of time in the car. I'd already decided to try fighting a vicious European head cold by then, so I was relatively content to sit in the back, stare out the window, and try to remember what it felt like to breathe.

The Bridge of Spies

Our drive took us to Potsdam, with a stop at the edge of town to see the Bridge of Spies. I was excited about that, because I'd heard of it already, but I honestly didn't have any idea how it had gotten that nickname. The only sign explaining why it was the Bridge of Spies was in German, so I didn't find out until I got home and had Wikipedia access that it was used during the Cold War to exchange captured spies and political prisoners because it served as a physical link between East Germany and West Berlin.

One of the statues on the Bridge of Spies: a swimming centaur strangling a fish.

We had no particular plan (that I knew) for Potsdam, but it's a nice town for wandering. We looked in a few small shops, and walked down streets full of pedestrians and cafe furniture, with little to no room for auto traffic. I liked those streets.

Residential Potsdam.

A long row of these tiles were the only indication of the route of a bike path across a wide plaza.

I later learned that there was a plan for Potsdam, but it had been plotted in German, working on the assumption that I would, as always, go with the flow. They were right.

At some point, the King of Prussia (not the town in Pennsylvania) built a palace here. I was led to believe that it was his summer home. Not a bad place to hang out with some lemonade.

You can tell it's a grand palace because my camera lens didn't have a wide enough angle to photograph all of it.

Now the palace grounds are a public park, and you can get tours of the buildings for a small fee. We still had to get to Frankfurt, so we were content to walk through the grounds looking at fountains, gardens, statuary, and immaculately groomed paths. It's good to be king.

Google Awesomed this photo. I'm ok with that.

I think this statue shows how to harvest Sea Babies. Honestly, I was just impressed at how much negative space is in that net. 

The rest of the day was Car Time. We checked in to a tiny hotel which turned out to be literally (correct usage) around the corner from Ginko's building. We met him again that night for dinner, and he got up early to join us for breakfast as well (at a cafe which was on said corner. We planned well for Frankfurt).

In Germany, it's legal to walk down the street drinking a beer. We tried it. It felt strange.

No mints on the pillows here. Germany is weird.

Idstein

As I've already mentioned, The Girl did all of the planning for our trip to Germany and Iceland. My only contribution was asking, "Can we see Ginko?"  He's the only person I knew in Germany, a fellow thru-hiker who I met very early in my trip last year, and who ended up hiking with me and two other thru-hikers for the last month or so of the Trail.  We managed to see him twice in Germany; the first was when he met us in Idstein.

There used to be leather production in Idstein; this statue represents the workers... and the vat of chemicals. 

This is the sort of old-world architecture Americans go to Germany to see... and which Germans, we learned, go to America to escape.

There are lots of unique carvings and ornamentation on the houses. The Girl and I started collecting pictures of architectural features like these that we want to incorporate into a house someday.

Buildings like this one made us wonder whether those old-world builders ever used levels.  The tower in the background is the Hexenturm.

Cobbles, and a nearby school.

After we met Ginko (trailname, not his real name) at the train station, we wandered through town for a little while, working our way to the Hexenturm, or Witch Tower.  At its base is a plaque with the names of witches condemned during the witch trials of 1676.  It's a long list for such a little town.  When they first told me the translation of Hexenturm, I had high hopes that the tower belonged to the witch, but the tower was part of Castle Idstein (see previous link), used primarily as a watch tower.  The name comes from the prison in the base where they put condemned witches, or those awaiting trial.  It was built like an oubliette (a type of medieval prison with only one access point, in a high ceiling, rendering escape impossible unless assisted by someone outside), and it is still visible through a window in the floor of the tower's ground-floor room.

Hexenturm

This view shows how thick the walls are at the base; I was just inside the door, looking into the ground-floor room.

Climbing the Hexenturm.

Inside of the roof.

There were nice views of the town from the top of the tower, but I readily admit to being more interested in the structure and its history than in what I could see from the windows.  At lower levels, the windows felt more like tunnels, because the glass was set at one end of long horizontal shafts in the thick walls.  The top of the tower was wooden, and the walls were much thinner--like someone had put a treehouse on a stone column.  A stone column with accused witches locked in the basement.  I don't know how that place isn't riddled with ghost stories.

Ginko and Treefrog

After we returned the key to the Hexenturm (you guide your own tour up the tower, after getting the biggest skeleton key I've ever seen from whoever's in charge. I don't know who that was, because all the signs were in German, and one of our hosts retrieved the key while the rest of us waited), we spent some more time walking through town, looking at neat buildings, decorated lamp posts, and streets clogged with people, but almost devoid of motor traffic. Then we got some lunch and applewine.

It seemed like every lamp post in Idstein was decorated like this. Fascinating, and pretty cool.

Potato pancakes with lox.

The next day, we moved on to our last set of hosts in Germany.  The Girl's second cousin and his wife, who came to visit us in Virginia last year.  Most of the day we were stuck in cars, but when we arrived, we got a tour of his family's rose farm, then went to dinner in a converted church.

Germans really know how to pack car snacks.

Inside one of the greenhouses.

I really liked the optic effect here. See that donut of light just to the right of the window?  It's coming from behind me...

...Through this window. The blue section in the middle blocked enough light that you only see a ring projected on the opposite wall.

We returned to the rose farm the next morning and toured the proprietor's beekeeping operation, but that was so much fun that I'm saving all of it for a separate post.  After that, we were off to Sparrenburg Castle... but you'll have to come back next week for that.

Wilkommen!

We spent two solid days in Iceland, and I've only posted about one, but we've already been in Germany for over a week. With a once-weekly post schedule, I'll get way  behind pretty fast if I give you all the details instead of the highlights.

Here's my solution: highlights now, details later, when my life is a little less interesting, and I have a real keyboard.

Welcome to Germany! We stayed with The Girl's cousin for the first two days. He showed us Erbach, Michelstadt, and he happens to be a hobby pilot, so we GOT TO GO UP IN HIS PLANE AND I TOTALLY FLEW IT!!

Erbach Castle was home to a local duke. When it was built, they incorporated this tower of the old fortress. 

I didn't crash or anything! He said I was a natural! ...he may have been being polite.

don't worry: he had the controls when I took pictures.

The old town hall of Michelstadt (back side)

Decorative tile on Elefanthaus.

Sunday night we moved to her aunt's place for a few days. They live in a little village in the countryside, surrounded by fields. The house is right at the edge of one of those fields, and I spent a lot of time during our visit watching a hawk who patrolled that field.

The fields are owned and worked by farmers, but they allow people to walk along the paths between them. The Girl and I spent a lazy afternoon wandering along those paths, passing through small wooded sections, and walking through another nearby village. From one of the numerous hunting platforms, I spotted a fox, but my zoom lens was insufficient to the task.

Germany needs more predators. This mouse has zero fight-or-flight response.

A quaint German country village, with towering crane and a Thunderdome.

That afternoon, we visited an old Roman watchtower.  It has been rebuilt near its original site along the ancient Roman limes (an earthen battlement stretching across Europe).

A cluster of chainsaw carvings stands guard outside the tower.

Many more German adventures await, but that's all I have time to report tonight!

The Honeymooners, Day Three

I admit it: by our third morning in Bend, we were getting a little tired.  In our defense, between last-minute planning, driving to Ohio, the wedding, the reception, the flight, the hiking, and the skiing, we'd been going non-stop for over a week by then, and a lot of that was pretty big-deal stuff.

So we had a slow morning.

This bugs me. Because I don't have a garden where I can do stuff like this.

I took a few pictures of our rental, and wandered up Awbrey Butte a little way, looking at houses and watching the mule deer grazing in yards.

I also want to get a bunch of busted spigots so I can put these flowers somewhere.  There were a LOT of them in this yard.

People have great yard art in Bend, and there are certain themes to the architecture that I really like.  I even took pictures of houses, collecting ideas in case I can ever afford to build a place exactly as I want.  You know... on that mountain I want to buy.

shhh... there's a bear!

I had to kill a little time, because we had made plans to meet my dad's cousin again, this time for lunch at a little cafe on the north side of town called McKay's Cottage.  Somehow, I'd never visited it when I lived in Bend.  The Girl got a Smith Rock Benedict, because we were heading to Smith that afternoon, and she loves hollandaise sauce.  She also loves avocado, and they were nice enough to add some for her.  I got... I don't remember what they called it, but there were layers of pulled chicken, spicy sauce/salsa,eggs, hollandaise, crispy corn tortillas that somehow stayed crispy despite all the eggs and sauces, and it was permeated throughout with deliciousness.  I don't remember anything we talked about over breakfast.  I just remember wanting to find a room where my breakfast and I could spend some very special Alone Time.  It was outstanding.

There's a party in my mouth, and NOBODY ELSE IS INVITED!!

We took another little tour of downtown (I love Bend's downtown), mainly because we were trying to find gifts for people.  We never did, but we had a good time anyway.

Solid marketing.

It's not just yard art; there's lots of art on public walls in Bend, too.  More even than when I lived there.  We saw brand-new murals in alleys, new sculptures, and a few new businesses.  My town is doing really well, and it made me happy to see all the improvements.

"Ghost town Richmond, Smith Rock"

Words to live by.

Looking across Mirror Pond.

That afternoon, we drove to Terrebonne and Smith Rock.  Smith is one of our favorite places in Oregon.  That means even more coming from The Girl, who often doesn't consider a hike worthwhile unless there are waterfalls.  She was really excited to go back to Smith.  We both fell into a familiar pattern: see something amazing, take a picture, take two steps, take a nearly-identical picture.  I ended up making a conscious effort to take fewer pictures, and just try to enjoy the visit directly.  I still took a lot of pictures.  It's a beautiful place.

Asterisk Pass

Looking toward Gray Butte (left side, horizon) and the Burma Road (right side) from the Misery Ridge Trail.  Don't let the name fool you.  Misery Ridge is a hoot.

On one of my earliest visits to Smith Rock, The Girl called me from Virginia and asked me what it was like.  I remember giving her a very heartfelt speech about how amazing it was; that it looked like barren, rocky desert if you glanced at it, but if you took even a moment longer to study the surroundings, you saw that you were surrounded with color and life.  The rocks had rich, warm hues, and cooler shades of blue.  The grayish scrub concealed colorful blooms, and the cracks in the rocks were packed with tiny, struggling life and vibrant flowers.  I loved it.  I still do.

A climber uses aiders to ascend Monkey Face, a tower of tuff (rock made of compressed volcanic ash).

Cascades panorama, from Broken Top to Black Butte.

Monkey Face (and The Girl) from inside a hollow boulder along the trail.  Uncountable visitors have worn the inside of the boulder so smooth that it's hard to sit still inside.

Me, in the boulder (photo credit: The Girl)

Coming down from the top, in the shadow of Monkey Face.

I love flora in harsh climates, like deserts and alpine areas.  I know they're fragile, but I can't help but marvel at how tough they must be to survive at all in such conditions.

Monkey Face.  The name makes more sense from this angle.

Another effort in my continuing search for the perfect action shot of a bee.

Yellowbell

budding sagebrush

Smith was formed by the same volcanic system that later subducted under another plate, moved east, and formed Yellowstone.  The formations that remain near Terrebonne are all that remains of the caldera of a supervolcano.  Later eruptions from Newberry Crater, south of Bend, send enormous lava flows north.  These flows formed the basalt cliffs along the Deschutes and Crooked Rivers.  Smith's parking lot is at the top of these cliffs.  The same flows redirected the Crooked River itself, pushing it toward Smith Rock, where it eroded the existing tuff before settling into its current path.  The geology of the area fascinates me.

Crooked River.  My brother, Dad, and I once saw a group of otters playing very near this spot.

That night we met Nahid for dinner at Deschutes Brewery.  The Girl ordered a taster flight (we were careful to select beers we couldn't get back east) to go with dinner.  I got a burger with bleu cheese, and thus concluded that every burger should have bleu cheese on it.

There oughta be a law.

Libation!

That was our last full day in Bend.  The next morning, we got up early, grabbed a quick breakfast (and a sandwich for later) at La Magie, and drove back to Portland.  We both agreed that the only disappointment of our trip was that we didn't get to eat all the things we wanted to eat while in town.  We also agreed that if La Magie was our only option for food on that trip, we still would have been very happy.