art, Bars, Champagne Bucket trips, churches, Iceland

Our first Icelandic adventure: A day in Reykjavik! (part three)

Whenever we travel with the intention of cruising or touring, I like to schedule free time that allows us to explore on our own. As I’ve mentioned before, I’m not that good at group tours. I like to look at things at my own pace and wander, as this means I might find things I wouldn’t have ordinarily found. However, I know that doing things on my own can mean that I will miss out on “important” stuff.

For instance, when Bill and I went to Bulgaria in June, I had wanted to see caves that I had read about before our journey. Unfortunately, I got sick and needed a day in bed, which significantly cut down on our time to see things. Consequently, we missed out on the caves. Maybe if we’d hired a guide, I would have hauled my ass out of bed.

For our trip to Iceland, I knew I’d want to have a look at Reykjavik before we left the city for more rural locales. We asked Iceland Luxury Tours to give us Fridays off, which they happily did for us. Bill and I spent the day getting the lay of the land, visiting museums, and drinking local beers.

The first morning in Iceland, we went down to the buffet breakfast offered at the hotel and found ourselves a table in the bustling restaurant. I immediately noticed a very busy “mama bear” type, trying to get her family ready for an excursion. She had two bored looking teenagers with her, both of whom had their noses buried in their phones. I kept hearing her address one of them– “Colby”– which she said over and over again in imperative language. She ordered them to hurry up and finish breakfast. She ordered them to go to the bathroom. She ordered them to get ready for the trip. Soon enough, “Dad” showed up to let them know that their driver was there for them. Another woman– maybe the mom’s sister, based on her looks– came over to help mom herd the teens out of the restaurant.

Once again, I was struck by how very loud Americans are compared to Europeans. I used to be a lot louder than I am now, but changed my ways after years of living here. A lot of times, people think Bill and I are Germans. Then they hear us speak. Maybe I should try to trip them up by wearing Jack Wolfskin clothes and moving my wedding ring to my right hand.

After breakfast, we headed out into the city… which really feels more like a big village, compared to other European cities. The weather was rainy and windy, but not very cold. A large group of Americans were behind us, making me feel kind of nervous. I don’t like it when any big group is right behind me, but the loud talking was making me feel more on edge. I decided to turn left, off the main drag, and head in another direction. Very soon, we found ourselves standing at the entrance of a very interesting museum…

The Icelandic Phallological Museum is a museum dedicated to the penis. The museum was founded in 1997 by a retired teacher named Sigurður Hjartarson. Hjartarson’s fascination with all things penis related began when he was a child and someone gave him a cattle whip made out of a bull’s penis. From there, he collected all sorts of specimens from a variety of different animals, to include human beings. The museum also features art– sculptures, paintings, and other items that are related to his interests.

I don’t actually like looking at penises myself, but I’m kind of obnoxious. I could never pass up the chance to visit a museum dedicated to dicks, even if I’m not really interested in looking at them. I have to admit, the Phallological Museum was interesting and educational. I got a bunch of photos, and was almost tempted to buy a t-shirt. It wasn’t a terrible place to spend an hour, although our guide later told us that he’d never been to the museum. He said the founder was racist and against women’s rights. I don’t know how true that is… but that’s what our guide told us. Anyway, we didn’t know that before our visit. Even if we did know about it, we probably would have still visited. Below are some photos from our visit to the world’s only museum dedicated to penises…

*People were allowed to write on this white board…*

After we visited the phallological museum, Bill and I walked around a bit, until we wound up at the Harpa Concert Hall, a state of the art music venue that houses the Icelandic Symphony and Opera. The Harpa Concert Hall also includes exhibits, shops, restaurants, and even a very nice children’s area. Bill was going to visit the restroom, but he lacked Icelandic coins. Actually, he probably could have used his credit or debit card; Iceland is pretty much cashless nowadays. As we were about to leave the building, I noticed a place with a bunch of egg shaped chairs. It was a “virtual reality tour”, using special virtual reality glasses.

On a whim, we decided to try the Saga VR tour. I had never used virtual reality glasses before, but I had seen them offered by Apple. Using the glasses, we could watch short films about the different regions of Iceland as if we were there. The chairs were designed to offered a 360 degree experience with sort of a private feeling. While we didn’t experience all of the really cool stuff featured in the films, the virtual reality tour did kind of whet our appetites for our guided visit to Iceland’s hinterlands. The videos were made with drones and the whole thing took less than 15 minutes, but it was still kind of an interesting experience for us. I also got a few photos…

*The ceiling of the Harpa Concert Hall.*

After we finished our VR tour, we walked back into the wind and rain, passing by the SH Vega, a brand new luxury cruise ship by Swan Hellenic, as well as the Windstar Star Pride, a ship that used to be owned by Seabourn. I’m actually kind of interested in the SH Vega. I might have to read up on that ship. I took a few more photos from the harbor area…

Finally, we found our way to the Reykjavik Art Museum Hafnarhús, one of three related art museums in the city. The ticket we purchased was good at all three museums, but we only had time to go to one, which wasn’t all that large, but did include some fascinating exhibits. I especially enjoyed one called Flood (Flóð), done by an artist named Jónsi. The exhibit is a spatial, scent, and sound sculpture. We spent some time in there, listening to the sounds, smelling the scent, and walking on what felt like sand.

Cool!

There were also other thought provoking exhibits at the museum. Naturally, I took photos!

Part of another exhibit in the art museum.

*This exhibit was about seasonal affective disorder.*

It was about lunchtime when we left the art museum. We walked around a bit, in search of food that was appealing. Instead, we ended up at an Irish pub called The Dubliner… supposedly the first one in Reykjavik. We had a round of beer…

But then we moved on, since The Dubliner didn’t appear to have food available. After walking around a bit, we found ourselves at an interesting bar called Lemmy. We really enjoyed Lemmy, as the bartender was super friendly, and they had a bunch of beers on tap. They also played great music. But something odd was happening during our visit. There was a film crew there, making a movie in one of the bathrooms. They had put a toilet in the dining area… I didn’t get a close look at it, but Bill said they’d fixed the toilet to look like someone had used it and didn’t flush. The crew was there during most of our visit, which probably lasted longer than it should have.

Lemmy did have food, although the menu was very limited. I ordered chicken wings, but they were too spicy and messy for me. I didn’t enjoy them. Bill had nachos that were marginally better than my wings were. The music and beer, though… that was all top notch! You can see the heavily graffitied bathrooms in the photo. I guess that was why they were filming in there.

*Maybe we should have done the walking tour…*

After lunch, we walked to the other side of the city and ventured toward Hallgrímskirkja, an iconic Lutheran church that was opened in Reykjavik in 1986. We took the Rainbow Street (in honor of Reykjavik Pride) to get there, mainly so I could take photos. On the day of our first visit, the inside of the church was closed because a bishop was visiting. Because the weather was poor, we decided not to go up the tower on that day. We did go up a week later. I’ll provide information on that experience when I get to that post. For now, here are more photos.

After all of that activity and walking, we decided to go back to the hotel. It was so dark and dreary outside, we decided to just stay in and enjoy the evening in our room. At one point, Bill went out and bought us slices of Sbarro Pizza from a grocery store and soft drinks, since one must go to a liquor store to buy booze. The Sbarro pizza was kind of a treat. I used to enjoy Sbarro a lot when I was younger, but now that malls are disappearing in the USA, so is that pizza. But you can still get it in Iceland. Go figure!

I know we should have had dinner somewhere, but I have to ease into activity… Besides, the next morning, we would be starting our tour with Iceland Luxury Tours. More on that in the next post!

Champagne Bucket trips, Iceland

A very quick check in from Reykjavik…

Hi folks… We’ve just spent our second night in Reykjavik, Iceland. This morning, our driver from Iceland Luxury Tours will be picking us up and taking us south, where we will visit a nature preserve and a waterfall, I think…

So far, the weather here has been chilly and windy. We made good use of the time, though, by visiting a museum dedicated to penises. Then we took a virtual tour of Iceland with cool headsets. We walked around the harbor, where we saw the Windstar Pride and a new ship called the SH Vega, which I will be checking out when we get home.

We toured the art museum– one of three related in the city, then had a beer at the city’s oldest Irish pub. After that, we went looking for lunch and ended up at another pub, where they were using one of the toilets for filming a movie. There was a literal toilet by the door when we entered the establishment! More on that when I blog about this trip!

We then took a walked on the rainbow street and visited the famous church that I can’t yet name… Again, more details when I write a proper blog entry.

So far, I haven’t found food that I’ve really loved. But I did have a piece of pizza from Sbarro last night. Haven’t had one of those in many years, but I was a big Sbarro fan when I used to go to malls in the United States. Apparently, they have a presence in Iceland. McDonald’s, on the other hand, doesn’t have a single restaurant here. Or so I’ve read. I hope to find some good fish in our next location.

We’ve run into a bunch of our countrymen, too… Apparently, we all had the same idea about visiting Iceland this time of year.

Anyway… so far, so cool. Here are a few photos!

There’s more to come!

Frankfurt, Hessen

We mixed ex Mormonism and gay pride last night…

A couple of months ago, I got an email from the founder of the Recovery from Mormonism (RfM) messageboard, Eric K. I was surprised to hear from him, since although I had frequented that board for over 20 years, we had never really had many exchanges on his Web site. One thing we do have in common is music. Eric plays woodwinds in a number of bands.

Eric’s email was to inform me that he and his wife, Kathy, were coming to Germany for three weeks. He wanted to know if Bill and I would like to meet up with them for dinner. During their trip, they were going to be visiting Mainz and Frankfurt, two cities near where we live. The funny thing is, I haven’t been hanging out much on the RfM board much lately. Neither has Eric, since he handed over control of RfM to a trusted associate a few years ago.

I always experience a little bit of anxiety when it comes to meeting new people. I have the kind of personality that people seem to love or hate. Bill is much better at making neutral first impressions than I am. Nevertheless, I owe RfM a great debt, because that Web site helped me understand the religion Bill joined with his ex wife back in 1997. Bill ultimately resigned from the LDS church in 2006, four years after we married.

I grew up Presbyterian, a very mainstream Calvinist church, often populated by people of Scottish or Scots-Irish descent (that’s definitely me). When I met Bill, I knew next to nothing about the LDS church… and I didn’t understand why he was a bit panicked when he found out that I had talked to LDS missionaries one day when he was at work, back in 2002. Bill was a member of the church, but it was because of his ex wife’s influence. I didn’t know it then, but he was on his way out of Mormonism, and had started to think of it as a cult. So when I talked to the missionaries, he was afraid they would try to get him back to church.

The RfM board was a place where we could share our story and connect with people who were in a similar situation. It was a place to read about some of the significant issues people face when they leave highly controlling/restrictive religions. It was also a great place for finding music, books, and even some new online friends. We decided that we wanted to meet the man who created that online community in November 1995, which is still going almost thirty years later.

Bill and I met Eric and Kathy last night after a couple of days of trading emails trying to come up with plans. Unbeknownst to us, yesterday there was a huge gay pride celebration in Frankfurt. It happened to be going on right by where Eric and Kathy were staying. Originally, we were going to visit them today, but the restaurant they wanted to go to is closed today. So we decided to brave the pandemonium of the gay pride celebration. I’m really glad we did that, because not only was the restaurant a winner, but it was really cool to be walking around the gay pride party with three ex Mormons.

We met Eric and Kathy at their hotel at 4:30 PM, had a drink in the hotel’s tapas bar as we introduced ourselves. Then we went to Quattro, a really nice Italian restaurant next to their hotel. Eric said they’d gone to that restaurant a couple of nights earlier and enjoyed the food and service very much. After our dinner last night, Bill and I can echo their positive sentiments about Quattro. It has a small indoor dining room, but there’s also a very cool outdoor terrace with what appeared to be a retractible roof. We had 5:00 reservations, so it wasn’t that busy when we arrived, but by the time we left, it was packed with gay pride revelers!

Below are some photos of the food we enjoyed at Quattro. Bill and I shared a dorade fish– which was one of their specials. We also ordered an antipasto platter for two, which we all shared. It was a good call to get the antipasto for two, and share it among the four of us. More would have been too much! And of course, there was dessert!

The antipasto had burrata, octopus, squid, vitello tonnato, scampi, Parma ham with cantaloupe, beef carpaccio, and smoked salmon. Eric and Kathy each had pasta dishes– spaghetti for him, and ravioli for her. Our dorade came with broccoli and a boiled potato. We had two bottles of white wine and sparkling water– I loved that they were water compatible with us, too! A lot of Americans prefer still water.

For dessert, Bill had lemon sorbet. I had panna cotta with a berry compote. Eric and Kathy shared a chocolate souffle with ice cream. I think the total bill for the four of us was about 300 euros, which the men split.

What I really enjoyed about last night’s dinner, aside from the food and ambiance, was the natural and free flowing conversation. We weren’t awkward at all! It turned out that we had a lot of similar views about the topics that tend to divide people– religion and politics. Eric and Kathy have two adult children, and their son is a veteran. Their daughter has made them grandparents. Eric, Kathy, and Bill are all LDS converts. I have never been LDS, but I did serve in the Peace Corps. Eric did a Mormon mission in Finland. And Bill has a daughter who has made him a grandfather four times over, so they were able to talk about the grandchildren and share pictures.

After dinner, we walked around the gay pride festival. I took a bunch of photos. We could have probably spent a little more time walking around the festival, but it was very crowded and a bit warm. Also, we were clearly not with the crowd, because we were dressed very conservatively! Still, how cool is it that three ex Mormons were getting to know each other at a gay pride event? There was a time when the three of them would never have gone to that event because of the religion.

*I was surprised by this establishment’s name.*

Bill’s daughter is still LDS, but according to her, the church is getting somewhat more liberal these days. They’ve lessened some of the time commitments required of members, and softened some of their stances on certain issues. Still, I can’t imagine that a lot of active church members would have wanted to mingle at a gay pride festival, where there were all kinds of crazy get ups, lots of smoking and drinking, and people wearing t-shirts with foul language on them. I could easily worn my new t-shirt that says “Fuck off!” on it. No one would have batted an eye!

After we walked around the gay pride event, we went back to the hotel lobby and chatted a bit more. We learned about how risky and scary it was to leave the LDS church, particularly at a time when widespread use of the Internet was still in its infancy. It occurred to me that there’s good to be found in almost every situation. I mean, if it weren’t for Bill’s ex wife demanding that they convert to the LDS church, I probably never would have met Eric and Kathy. I never would have had a reason to hang out on RfM.

It’s possible that I would have found RfM because I was curious, and maybe I would have even hung around for awhile. But it was because the LDS church directly affected us that I stayed on that site for such a long time… and if I hadn’t done that, it’s unlikely that we would have had last night’s experience. And while I don’t know if we’ll have the opportunity to mingle with Eric and Kathy again, it really was a pleasure meeting them and experiencing that side of Frankfurt together!

Even if I had never met Bill, my life has been unexpectedly touched by Mormonism. I knew a LDS couple in Armenia, as they were part of my Peace Corps group. They were the first Mormons I ever got to know well. And then my mom’s alma mater, Southern Seminary in Buena Vista, Virginia, was purchased by LDS businesspeople, who turned it into a Mormon influenced university. The influx of Mormons has changed Buena Vista and Rockbridge County, which happens to be where both of my parents grew up. And then I went on to marry a Latter-day Saint, who then resigned… but still has ties to the church because of his daughters.

Anyway… we really enjoyed last night. I even suggested Frank Scaheffer, one of my favorite authors, to Eric and Kathy. I think they could really relate to his story. Schaeffer was raised by famous American evangelical missionaries in Switzerland. He didn’t learn to read until he was about eleven years old and was groomed to take over his parents’ ministry. Instead, he became an atheist and best selling author and filmmaker. He’s written wonderful novels, but he’s also written some excellent non-fiction books.

Frank Schaeffer also has a son who joined the Marines, a world that was totally foreign to Schaeffer. He wrote some excellent books about that experience and changed his mind about the military. Kathy had also lamented her son’s decision to join the military, but then came to accept it, as Frank Schaeffer did with his son.

I discovered Schaeffer about twenty years ago, when I used to hang out on a messageboard for people who had attended (and many had been expelled from) Pensacola Christian College, an extremely conservative Christian college in Florida. It’s so strict it makes Bob Jones University look liberal. I found some of the posters there surprisingly well read and brave. One of the posters mentioned Schaeffer, and how his novels were the only ones he’d found that really got the experience of growing up fundie right. I’m not sure if that observation is still true, but I was curious enough to read Schaeffer’s trilogy of novels about Calvin Becker– clearly based on his real life experiences in Switzerland. They were funny and poignant, and I became a fan.

I do love it when we can make connections offline with people we meet on the Internet. I’m really glad we took a chance, and met the couple behind the legendary RfM messageboard. It’s mind boggling how many people RfM has helped, and lives Eric has helped improve, by starting that resource. I am very grateful for that, and for last night’s amazing fellowship!

Well… that about does it for today’s post. I’m not sure what we’ll do today. The wine festival is going on, but we’re just as likely to stay home and enjoy a nice afternoon in our backyard. Or maybe we’ll hit a Biergarten… or do something else. It’s so nice to have Bill home again.

Edited to add: I forgot to mention this earlier in the post, but we did see some crazy pedestrian stunts yesterday. One guy was juggling in the middle of a busy intersection while we were waiting for a light. A woman was in an adjacent intersection hula hooping. They were no doubt hoping for tips.

Then, on the way out of Frankfurt, Bill got stressed out trying to navigate the city. A strung out looking woman appeared to be kicked out of a cab in the middle of the street. She lingered in traffic, motioning to Bill, as if she wanted money. The top was down on the Mini, and I found myself yelling “Get out of the way!” at her… Thankfully, she heeded my command! Bill guesses she didn’t have enough money to pay for the cab ride and was hoping to raise some euros. Hope she didn’t get hit by a car.

churches, holidays

Food and wine in Switzerland, Italy, and Liechtenstein… part four

Parma on Liberation Day…

As I mentioned in part three of this series, I chose to stay at our castle location near Parma because I knew there were several places of interest nearby. There’s Parma, Italy, where Parma ham and Parmesan cheese come from, Modena, which is known for wonderful balsamic vinegar, and Bologna, which is just alleged to be a beautiful city with great food and sightseeing. Bill did some research about Bologna and decided not to visit there, because parking was too much of a hassle. I definitely wanted to go to Parma, and Modena was interesting enough for a visit, too.

On the day we visited Parma, which was Monday, April 25th, it was Liberation Day. We did not know it was going to be Liberation Day before we planned our visit. We have a habit of being in different countries on their major holidays. We did the same thing last fall when we visited Wels, Austria. Anyway, Liberation Day was first celebrated in Italy in the year 1946. It was to commemorate the 1945 victory of the Italian resistance to Nazi Germany and the Italian Socialist puppet state. Because it was a holiday, the streets were crowded; some shops were closed; and there was a parade.

We managed to visit Parma’s beautiful cathedral and monastery, followed by lunch at a really cool restaurant where blues were accompanying the delicious food. Below are some photos of our day. Again, masks were required at that time, but as of May 1, 2022, masks are mostly only needed on public transport, in medical settings and nursing homes, and in sports venues, concert halls, or theaters. I note, once again, that Italy is stricter than Germany is right now. One of these days, I’m going to make a video of all the beautiful cathedrals I’ve seen in Europe.

Flags were everywhere because of the holiay.

A busker entertained us with Bach. He made me cry.

The monastery is located very close by the Parma Duomo. We had to wear FFP2 masks to see the library.

After more walking around, and more photos taken, we found our way to a quiet little plaza where we had lunch at a restaurant called Osteria del Teatro. This was a cute and popular place where excellent blues music paired with really nice local dishes and wines. Old vinyl records were used as placemats!

Below are some more photos from our day in Parma. Some decorations are in honor of the holiday.

By late afternoon, we were ready to go back to the B&B and drink more wine… which we did.

I loved this white. It was like peaches!

After our wine break, we watched old American shows dubbed into Italian… The Dukes of Hazzard, The A Team, and Walker, Texas Ranger! No wonder I saw so many Confederate battle flags in Italy.

Hofheim

Gay pride in Wiesbaden… wine in Hofheim…

I had heard a couple of wine events were going to be happening in Wiesbaden and Hofheim this weekend. Bill and I decided to check them both out. I must have gotten confused about the Wiesbaden event, because we never did find it. Instead, we ran into a gay pride parade, and had lunch at a Greek restaurant called Kavos. Below are a few photos I took of what we could see of the parade. I was sorry we hadn’t gotten there a little bit sooner, but we did see many dressed up people walking around the city with gay pride rainbow flags.

*There were rainbows everywhere in Wiesbaden!*

Yesterday was the second time we visited Kavos. I was in the mood for Greek food, and they had a nice lunch special going. I had pork “Spiess” (skewer) and Bill had a lamb skewer. They came with kraut and potato medallions. We also had t’zaziki, garlic pitas, and beer. In retrospect, I probably should have had water, given the wine market we attended in Hofheim.

*I liked my dish, but I wish the skewers had been a little bit more substantial. I had enough to eat, though… it was just my appetite talking.*

I’m actually glad we never found the Wiesbaden wine event, since I ended up trying wine from five different vintners yesterday in Hofheim. I’m surprised I can still remember it.

*On our way out of town, I noticed the Apotheke had chickens…*

Edited to add: My German friend says the chicken display is a warning to use sunscreen. One chicken says to the other to use sunscreen so she won’t look like a rotisserie chicken. Glad to have that confusion cleared up.

Below are some photos from the wine market in Hofheim. We stayed pretty socially distanced, although some people were having a great time! I must admit, I’ve missed going to these kinds of events, although my liver is probably scarred as hell now.

I think the wine event in Wiesbaden is going on today, too. I had the wrong location yesterday. I’m not sure if we’ll go. Unfortunately, I just went outside to clean up Noyzi’s business and it grossed me out so much that I puked. I love that dog, but he really takes humongous craps and I no longer have the strong stomach I once had. In any case… I’m glad we got out yesterday. It was really fun. Nice to have some normalcy for however long it lasts.

Uncategorized

Volvo, Mark Knopfler, and East German adventures… part nine

Saturday was our last full day in Leipzig. To be honest, I was feeling kind of ready to go home. I always look forward to vacations, especially long ones that involve different cities and countries other than the ones that immediately border Germany. But usually, after about a week, I start to feel tired of being away from home. I miss my dogs. I miss having access to my desktop computer, which is a lot easier to write on. I miss making music. I also miss having plenty of clean underwear, even though I usually pack enough to take care of me even if I were to hypothetically shit in them every day.

I have a bad habit of packing too much stuff I won’t wear. For instance, this last trip, I packed two dresses in case we decided to go somewhere nice for dinner. I packed jewelry, which I never bothered to wear. I packed an extra bathing suit, which I might have used if I had gone to the pool at our Copenhagen hotel. But I almost never go to the pool unless it means visiting an awesome spa, like at the Upper House. Meanwhile, I should have packed more pants and a couple more long sleeved shirts. I should have brought a sweater or a jacket, although I did bring a wrap.

Making matters worse was the fact that the gin and tonics I had the night before were reminding me I’m a long way from being 21. And… somehow during the night, I got bitten by something. I had three red, swollen blotches on my right leg. They didn’t itch, but they were kind of painful. Nevertheless, Bill and I took a walk and visited St. Peter’s Church, whose steeple I had seen in the distance. It looked like a beautiful church. We walked in the direction of the old building, which took us through a decidedly poorer neighborhood that was heavily littered with trash and large piles of feces that, I hope, came from dogs and not people.

The church was beautiful, but looked like it could use some work. The interior looked a bit careworn, like maybe not enough tourists had come out to donate money. It was a bit of a walk from the center of town. But the windows were pretty, and I could see the skeleton of the building was very graceful and strong. It looked like it had a good foundation. When we arrived, it appeared that they were setting up for a concert.

Linoleum floor. Had seen better days.

Interesting clouds. Looks almost like a Monet painting.

Indeed, there was a concert going on. Benjamin Britten is graduate level music.

I was impressed by this BARF market for dogs. BARF is basically raw food that some dog owners swear by. If my dogs didn’t have mast cell tumor issues, I might try it myself.

My leg was starting to hurt, as was my lower back. We sat down on a bench near the St. Thomas Church, where Bach used to play his organ. I took a picture of my bites and shared it with friends. My German friend, Susanne, recommended that I go to an Apotheke (druggist) to see if they could give me something for the swelling and itching. That was a very good recommendation.

Ow…

This place was near the main drag and it was obviously open. When we went in, it was empty. The young guy behind the counter took one look at my leg and said, “What happened to you?” in perfect English. I explained that something bit me. He fixed me up in a jiffy.

I left with antihistamine drops and cortizone cream. I didn’t know the drops were antihistamines until after I took them… and then started drinking wine with lunch. Still, I was impressed, because he got me some water and measured the dose for me in the pharmacy, like I was a kid. And while we were in there, the place filled up.

We decided to have lunch at Cafe Madrid, since someone in the Facebook wine group recommended it. Spanish food sounded good to us. I thought maybe we’d have tapas, but I was a bit overwhelmed by all the choices. I ended up having a pork filet and Bill had a shrimp salad.

So colorful. My only complaint was that the vegetables included mushrooms. I wish I had known… The potatoes were very good. They were heavily salted and served Canarian style, which seemed to mean they came with a very flavorful, garlicky green sauce. The pork was Iberico and not bad. It came with a port wine sauce.

Bill enjoyed his huge shrimp and avocado salad… and he was happy to eat the mushrooms that came with my dish.

Lots of choices. If we ever go back to Leipzig and eat here, we’ll be sure to get the tapas.

I got a kick out of the “peeing bull” in the restaurant.

As we were finishing lunch, I told Bill that I needed to lie down. Wine and antihistamines equals nap time. Sure enough, that’s what I did for three hours. When I woke up, my leg looked like this.

Much better. It’s not quite totally healed yet. There’s still a little pain, but there’s no itching and the redness and swelling are gone. I just hope that wasn’t caused by bedbugs and I especially hope we didn’t bring them into our house.

But the next morning, Bill found this under his pillow. It was crushed and dead, but clearly some kind of insect. He never got bitten and those were my only bites. Still, it kind of gives one the willies. I was very impressed by the help I got at the Apotheke, though. That guy took great care of me.

We went to Morrison’s Traditional Irish Pub, where we were served by hardworking Germans who were busy, but willing to take care of us. The food was good, and the service was better. They brought out the wrong order, but were quick to correct the mistake with a smile and a good attitude.

Bill had fish & chips… The chips were especially good. I stole several of them.

I had a duck salad. I don’t usually go for salad, and this was probably a better choice than what I was hoping to have at another restaurant. It was very good, and reasonably priced. We were happy to reward the much better staff with a good tip.

Gay pride! Leipzig is full of it. We saw lots of gay pride flags during our visit.

We were about to go back into the hotel when I heard what sounded like a man on trumpet playing David Soul’s “Don’t Give Up On Us, Baby.” It turned out he was playing a flugelhorn and the song was “Can You Feel The Love Tonight” by Elton John. The guy playing piano was excellent. I could tell he was influenced by Elton John. After that number, he did a solo rendition of ABBA’s “The Winner Takes It All”.

Cool looking show. Toilet paper always gets my attention.

After we listened to a couple of songs, we went back to the hotel and had a nightcap, then went to bed. The next morning, after breakfast, we decided to check out and head home. Bill discreetly spoke to the reception about the critter we found under his pillow that might have been the culprit for my welts. We didn’t ask for anything, just wanted to alert them to a potential problem and give them a chance to check the room before someone else gets bitten and raises hell. I’m still praying that wasn’t a bedbug and none of its friends stowed away in the luggage.

The guy who handled our bags was very funny. He spoke fluent English and said he’d lived in Chicago fifteen years ago. He wondered why we’d choose to live in Germany. Is he kidding? As we were dishing about Mark Knopfler, he confidentially mentioned that his hotel was where the rock stars like to stay. I’ll keep that in mind.

The drive home was uneventful and pleasant. It took maybe four hours or so, not counting breaks. Bill dropped me off and went to the commissary to buy food while I did laundry and started this blog series. Then he went to get Zane and Arran, who were definitely glad to be home. I’m always so glad and relieved to see my dogs, but they always need a good brushing. They don’t get petted as much when they get boarded and need to shed.

Next month, we’ll take another big trip… another whisky cruise in Scotland. This time, we’re starting in Invergordon and sailing over the top of Scotland to Oban. I am praying I don’t get norovirus. Stay tuned.

All in all, this was a very fun trip. It lived up to our expectations and, in some ways, really exceeded them. I’m so glad we were able to combine our trip to get our new car with our trip to see Mark Knopfler. A lot of really cool things happened during our week of travel… it was almost surreal how much cool stuff happened. And yeah, I got bitten and we ran into an asshole at a bar, but we saw a rock star and traveled in style. And nobody died… I’d say it was a big success overall. Thanks for joining me on my odyssey.

Leipzig is a really lovely city with an unusual vibe.

The Traveling Overeducated Housewife

…the wanderings and ramblings of a boring housewife…

Tag Archives: gay pride