  
1 Comment
 After much running about in the morning we found ourselves driving towards a Unesco World Heritage Site- The Island of Reichenau- a Monastery Island inhabited as early as 724. It lies in Lake Constance in Southern Germany & is linked to the mainland by a causeway. 3 main churches remain on this 5km x 2km island- which includes the Monastery Church itself-St Mary & Marcus. Medieval Monastic architecture is evident in the churches. This very pretty Island is best explored by cycling or walking and is dominated by fields of garden produce of vegetables, greenhouses, vines, orchards & vast areas of nature reserves - especially reeds around the scenic lakeshores. Many cafes and hotels are here & this Island is a popular holiday venue for many Germans.
Last night we decided to join the cultural set of Schaffhausen and went to the Haberhaus cellar to see a puppet show by NZ puppeteer Neville Tranter. The show was "Punch & Judy in Afghanistan" which I thought was a fairly topical subject. The performance was good, funny in parts but I felt the material itself was lacking. - Meeting Punch Bin Laden in Tora Bora lacked a bit of punch (haha)- though Neville could hardly be held accountable for the recent change of status of the man himself. But an interesting hour. Oops been a bit slack with the updates. We were on our way to Basel the other day- but detours & road works completely bamboozeled our dear German Frau tom tom-& us, so we compromised and ended up in Laufenburg- both the Swiss and German sides. This 13th century town was divided in the early 19th century by Napoleon--the Rhine River being the border-the Swiss section on the left bank of the Rhine. We spent a lovely afternoon walking around and even climbed to the top of the Swiss Heritage site -the ruins of the Tower of Laufenburg Castle! There and back we passed one of Switzerland's 4 Nuclear power Plants- Leibstadt Nuclear Power Plant   After a delcious lunch in a Greek restaurant in Lottstetten with our friends Jan & Gitta, Ron & I went on a Sunday sfternoon jaunt. We ended up in Wangen im Allgäu a historic walled city in southeast Baden-Wurttemberg Germany. It lies north-east of Lake Constance - was very pretty with many cafes & fountains. Whilst walking along the shores of the Lake we walked into a stone commemorating the deportation of the Jews of Wangen and the destruction of the Synagogue on Kristallnach. & a photo of the Synagogue side by side. We were most surprised to be sure.   Another beautiful day saw another Castle!!!! This time the Kyburg Castle in Kyburg (Where else!!) 800 years of life on exhibition. Picked up a couple Spanish soup recipes ( from tthe cook books of F Voigtin 1708 & G Haemmerli-Schindler) at the castle. If you live in a distinguished house -which we all do -- this is what your cook cooks on Sunday morning. Start scouring the supermarket for belly beef, pig ears, stag ears, lamb breasts, ox tongue, capon, ox marrow, and lots of vegies. yum yum?? Below my knight in shining armour? oops ??   A random picture of Ron pretending he is with a real cow- yeh sure!!!!!!  Found a real one this time- round the corner from home! This is where we live now, and where we tread on our walks locally!!!       I know I am going backwards in time- but back then I wasn't IT savvy!!!! Saturday afternoon April 2nd got a surprise phone call from Tammy - asking what we were doing & where we were. Then the bigger surprise- she was on her way to see us and would be there that evening. it was just fantastic having Tammy here with us - but alas the time was too short- see some memorable pictures below.  First walk along the Rhine Sunday morning.  First coffee in Schaffhausen Sunday morning  Eggs eggs eggs everywhere !!!!!!!!!  Stopping for lunch on our way to Mt Santis  A top Mt Santis-via cable car from Schwagalp    Thought it about time to show some pictures of our little home in Busingen. We look at the stars at night through the window in the roof!! From our balacony we have a view of beautiful forest and the Rhine river. Ron loves sitting / lying here in our little lounge reading / watching TV / and relaxing! The maroon chair he has commandeered as his!!    A little research led us to drive to the Black Forest to a little town called SCHILTACH. A slight problem was the malfunctioning of Ron's Tom Tom the other day- so off to Expert to buy another. No problem-got a beauty at a great price- BUT when Ron tried to change the language directions from German to English-oh oh- not a chance- the company is working on it!!!!! So off today to the Black Forest region with a German speaking Tom Tom. I must say she spoke very well and in the final stages led us through the most beautiful forest on a picturesque winding road to our town. This historic town was begun around 1275 & consists of timber framed buildings leaning at varying angles along hillside lanes that criss cross each other. Our first stop was the Schuttesage museum where we saw an enormous water powered paddle turning and learnt about the importance of wood and rafting in this town. We lunched outside in the steep market square near the municipal fountain listening to the chiming of the clock every 15 minutes. A visit to the largest Apothecary Museum in Germany was next- the most amazing collection of fittings, apparatus & all pharmacy paraphanalia was on display in the original Apothecary which functioned from 1837 - 1985. A walk around the steep roads marvelling at the timber framed buildings leaning at different angles and then we hit the road for home.    | Author
|
RSS Feed
