The big news for the day is that I am now a great aunt. Great nephew Jack William Giger was born at 4:46AM and weighed 8#13oz. Jaime, Jarod and Jack are all doing fine as well as Sandy and Tom, a/k/a Gram and Gramps. From the pix I got Jack has curly thick hair like Jarod did when he was a baby. Glad everyone is doing okay.
Anyway, back to Germany. Dave was great and took me to Zirndorf (outside Nurnberg) where I lived in 1969 and part of 1970. The apartment that I lived in was behind Cafe Bub and is still in existence. The Cafe was owned at the time by Sophie and Werner Bohn. I learned today that Werner passed away in 1999 and Sophie died in 2005. When I lived there, their sons Wolfie and Peter were about 11 and 5. Well, I met Wolfie today who is now running the family business and it was amazing. Wolfie is 53 years old and he looks so much like his father it is amazing. His english is passable and not as good as Peter's was but we could still communicate. I HAD to buy some bottles of Zindorfer beer (bier) from him for Dave since I had been telling Dave for years that it is supposed to be good beer.
While in Zirndorf, Dave and I walked up to Pinder Park which is where the Army Post used to be. It was closed at the end of the cold war and the only thing that is still there is the main gate that you drove through to get on post and the guard shack which now houses two shops. Inside where all of the buildings used to be are apartment buildings, shops, professional offices, etc.
So many of the buildings and stores are as I remembered them, however, some have changed tremendously. That's okay, though, since I've also changed over the years.
(I promise that I will post many pictures when I get home. For some reason, my laptop is not letting me upload to my blog.)
Anyway, we left Zirndorf after having lunch at the Golden Lion (I've eaten there before a few times and the food is still great) and headed into Nurnberg which is a timeless city. They do have an underground (like our metrolink) now which is great. Traffic, however, is still insane and I have a hard time believing that I actually drove there years ago WITHOUT a GPS. I really was young and dumb!
After parking at the Bahnhof (train station) we headed for the Markplatz (market place) where the Kriskrindelmart is held. It opens the week after I leave but that's okay. The amount of people that were there today was massive. There was a farmer's market going on and all of the neat little shops were open.
We ended up getting a tour of the Albrecht Durer house. I have always been a big Durer fan and the tour was wonderful. It was given by Agnes Durer, his wife and very interesting. We then hiked the mile (seemed like 2) back to the car and headed back to Velburg. It's actually good that one walks so much because with all of the heavy German food you are served, you really need to walk it off.
Now for the big decision of the day -- what to eat and where to go for dinner. I think it's a choice between mexican and italian. My request was for somewhere where you don't get too much food and Dave says that just doesn't happen. Another doggie bag coming up.
Later.
No comments:
Post a Comment