After spending Saturday walking around frigid Hamburg, eating fried fish, and drinking lots of beer, Bill and I went back to the hotel for a short rest.  Actually, I rested and Bill worked on a paper he had to turn in for his most recent graduate course.  I kind of wasn’t feeling like going out to dinner, so I suggested we eat at the hotel, which has a restaurant called Ticino.  Bill was agreeable.

So we went down to the restaurant, where only a couple of folks were having dinner.  The very charming maitre’d asked if we had reservations.  We didn’t, but that was okay.  He showed us to a table by the wine storage.  We sat down and perused the French inspired menu.  There was also a “light” menu, meaning light on calories, not light on portion or price.  Actually, I wish I had selected something from that menu because it turned out I was a lot fuller than I realized.  I ordered a sirloin and Bill ordered an Indian inspired dish with naan, very tender beef, and rice.  We both had red wine, which was brought out to us in little pitchers.  Bill’s was Spanish and mine was French.

Once the food was brought to me, I suddenly started to feel a bit queasy.  I managed to eat the potatoes, which had been artfully cut into flower petals, and a few bites of the steak, which had been cooked with thyme and rosemary.  I wasn’t able to enjoy the parsnips on the side.  In fact, as the meal went on, I started to feel like I might need to hurl.

I excused myself and went to the bathroom, where I didn’t end up getting sick.  Meanwhile, our very attentive and solicitous waiters were worried about whether the food was okay.  It was.  I was just really full.  Had we had the facilities to store the leftovers, I would have taken the steak to our room for later.  Unfortunately, that was not an option.

Finally, we ended the meal and the maitre’d brought out some complimentary dessert wine.  We went back to the room early.  I took a shower and went to sleep.  The next morning, I felt much better.  I need to remember that I’m getting old and can no longer eat and drink like I could when I was younger.  Fewer calories make me gain weight and I just physically can’t do it anymore.  However, I will say that had I not been so totally full, the food at Ticino would have been very satisfactory.  The service was outstanding and, for what we ordered and the service we received, it wasn’t that overpriced… which is more than I can say for breakfast.

The steak I barely touched…  Shame on me!