Tag Archives: spring weather

Hessen

I survived another winter in Wiesbaden…

I don’t have much to write about today, as Bill is on another one of his TDYs to Bavaria, and I’m here alone, pondering the future and whether or not I want to be part of it. I have come to hate March in Wiesbaden, because it pretty much means I’m going to be alone for a good portion of the month. The weather tends to be psycho, too… although today, we have very nice temperatures and sunshine.

I decided to take some photos around the neighborhood. It usually cheers me up to see the beginnings of spring, as the first flowers start to bloom. One thing I do love about life in Germany is that so many people are great at gardening. I love to see the vibrant colors and smell the fragrances of fresh blooms. Pretty soon, we’ll be in the thick of nice weather again, and hopefully that will improve my outlook on things. But for now, I do still at least have the pictures.

Below are some neighborhood shots I’ve taken over the past few days, hence the different skies. Notice the local church is celebrating a birthday. I like the daffodils; they remind me of my hometown, an unofficial “Daffodil Capital of America”.

Eleven more days of this solitary lifestyle. Hopefully, things will be more exciting then.

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Spring lunch at Villa Im Tal, and more travel plans!

Bill decided he wanted to go out to lunch again this weekend. Villa Im Tal, one of our favorite restaurants in Wiesbaden, was closed last weekend, so we went to Landhaus Diedert. This weekend, however, Villa Im Tal was open. Bill noticed that their menu appeared to be leaning more toward Italian cuisine. We are planning a big trip to Italy at the end of this month, so we made reservations for 1:00pm. Villa Im Tal is easily booked on OpenTable.de.

Some readers might recall that on April 2, Hesse dropped most of its COVID rules. However, I remembered that last weekend, when we dined at Landhaus Diedert, everyone was wearing masks in the restaurant. Although I threw out all of the masks in my purse, I made sure to carry a new one for today, just in case. On the way down the country road where the restaurant is, we passed a lady on a beautiful piebald pony who looked like he was about to start shedding his winter coat. He was still fluffy, like a teddy bear. SIGH.

We showed up right on time and donned masks, since the hostess/server was wearing one. She checked our vaccination statuses, which I understand that a lot of places are no longer doing, since it’s no longer required by law. Once we proved that we are up-to-date on our shots, she led us to our table. We noticed people were a lot more casual about masking this week. Some people wore them, but most people didn’t. The dining room is very spacious and there was plenty of room.

We usually sit in the front dining room when we visit Villa Im Tal. The one exception was in 2020, when we ate outside on a beautiful spring day. Today, it looked like the front dining room wasn’t set up. We were seated in the back, which was kind of interesting. It has a different ambiance, and offers a nice view of the lovely meadow that made me long for the days when I still had a horse and could go trail riding. Or, barring that, I would just like to hang out in a meadow with horses and smell their intoxicating aroma. Maybe someday…

In any case, Villa Im Tal is in the thick of “Spargel season”. It’s time for fresh asparagus, and they offered plenty on their menu. They also had their own version of the wonderful wild garlic soup so prevalent in Germany in the spring. Bill decided to have an asparagus heavy lunch, while I went with surf and turf. And we both had the garlic soup for our starters. Dessert consisted of a strawberry rhubarb tart with white chocolate ice cream for Bill, and an almond “cannelloni” filled with chocolate mousse and a small scoop of blood orange ice cream for me. The ice creams were house made.

Total damage for today’s lunch was about 215 euros, but it was well worth the cost. Service was, as usual, excellent. We were enjoying the space with a number of happy locals and a couple of very well behaved dogs. One dog was so good that we didn’t even notice her until the end of the meal, when her people led her out. Maybe someday, Noyzi will be good enough to go to a restaurant.

Below are some photos from today’s lunch. It’s always a pleasure to visit Villa Im Tal. It was funny, though, because the young woman who waited on us wished us a “pleasant journey”. I kind of laughed and said, “You mean, back to Wiesbaden?” She was surprised to find out that we live here. I guess they don’t get a lot of Americans in that part of town.

The bread was delicious!
The couple in the corner brought a very well behaved dog. We didn’t notice her until they left.
Wild garlic soup! It was served with smoked quail breast. This version was milder than last week’s.
This week’s wine… from the Piedmont region of Italy.
Bill had Spargel with ham and Hollandaise sauce, as well as new potatoes.
I had “surf and turf”– Sirloin with a tempura fried shrimp, ratatouille, and potatoes with bacon.
It’s nice to be out.
Almond cannelloni with chocolate mousse and blood orange ice cream.
Bill’s rhubarb and strawberry tart with white chocolate ice cream.
Another view of my tasty and satisfying dessert.
I was so jealous of this lady. She also brought her dog.
Bill sure does enjoy being retired Army. 😉
Outside…
Spring has sprung.
Villa Im Tal is a beautiful restaurant.
Wiesbaden is so pretty.
Train station in Wiesbaden.

This week, we also made some decisions about our upcoming vacation. I hadn’t been really wanting to take this deal, offered by a member of my wine group on Facebook. He’s a sommelier in Florence who offers tours and sells wine. We’ve bought a number of his monthly boxes, which don’t come cheap, but are of excellent quality. He hit Bill up for a trip to Florence. I had originally said no, but then in the wake of the loosening COVID rules, decided what the hell. So, on April 23, we will be off on our next trip.

So far, our itinerary is this: One night in Andermatt, Switzerland, on the way down to Italy. Three nights in Torrechiara (near Parma) for three nights. Three nights in Florence, with one night incorporating the wine tour we’re taking. We will get there early because Bill wants to go to the Uffizi, a very famous art museum. He had wanted to go during our last visit, back in May 2013, but we weren’t able to arrange it. This time, we will make a point of making a visit happen. The third night, we will be having dinner and a wine tasting, and the weekend will consist of the rest of the tour, which will include visits to wineries and castles, and lots of wine tasting and probably a fair amount of wine buying. We will spend a night in Cortona, then come back to Florence, where we’ll spend another night before heading northward to Vaduz, Liechtenstein, where we will spend two nights before coming home again.

I had originally planned for us to go to Lugano, but I realized that it was too close to where we were coming from, and the timing might be tricky. Also, I have a feeling that we’ll be kind of ready for some quiet and decompression. Lugano will probably be a little too happening for us at the end of the trip, when I know I’ll be anticipating coming home. Vaduz is very beautiful. We went there for a few hours in 2009, with Bill’s mom, and we ended up literally getting trapped in Italy later. In any case, Vaduz is closer to home than Lugano is, and it’s not so close to Florence that we have to kill time before check in.

We WILL get to Lugano at some point. I do still want to visit there. I just want to do it at the beginning of the trip instead of the end. Maybe we’ll spend my birthday there in June.

We still need to nail down the hotel situation in Florence, but that will be sorted out soon. I hope to come home with lots of cheesy comestibles, wines, hams, olive oils, and pasta. I always look forward to Italy, so I think this will be a great trip. This will be my third time in Florence. The first time was in September 1997… and in fact, I was there when I heard that Princess Diana had died. I actually saw her picture on an Italian newspaper with the headline that she’d died. I thought I was looking at a tabloid. I am probably one of the few people in the world who heard about her death on September 2, 1997, rather than the day it happened. Ahhh… the days when we weren’t plugged in all the time. I remember listening to her funeral on French radio while riding a train through the South of France, en route to Spain.

Anyway, I think it will be a great foodie trip, and I look forward to writing it up. Stay tuned.

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German politics

Political Schwag that is sooo German!

Bill got home last night. He and Arran had a joyous reunion. Both of them cried… Arran cried with joy when he sniffed Bill and realized his favorite person was home, and Bill cried with relief having survived three weeks of TDY. He had a challenging three weeks. Don’t get me wrong– he was in the Army for 30 years and has endured all kinds of stuff. But that doesn’t mean it’s not stressful for him and for us.

I don’t tend to pay a lot of attention to the stuff in our mailbox or on our doorstep, unless it’s something that looks important. Just before the recent elections, someone left a little bag of political schwag for us, not knowing that, alas, we aren’t locals. Bill finally looked in the bag this morning and was very amused. Behold…

  • The Christian Democratic Union party is all about enjoying and promoting life…
  • They gave us a bottle opener for our beer…
  • And a little packet of wildflower seeds!

I’m delighted by the seeds, especially. Our poor backyard has really suffered over the wet winter months and Noyzi’s insistence on running back and forth like a crazed shepherd. I like to plant flowers and spruce things up, and since the “lockdown” has sort of lifted a teeny bit– Germans can get haircuts, buy books, and visit the garden section of their hardware store– this seems like an especially appropriate gift to voters. Who doesn’t love flowers? Except for those of us with allergies. In any case, I don’t think I’ve ever seen an American politician give out flower seeds or bottle openers as a means of bolstering political support. I think it’s cool… and very GERMAN.

Although yesterday’s bipolar weather might cause us to put off gardening for a week or so.

As you can see by the featured photo, our village’s Easter decorations are up. It makes things look a little more normal, at least, even though the COVID-19 restrictions continue. What a bummer… but at least Bill is finally home again. I have missed him, and this morning, when I felt his hand on my shoulder, I realized how much I have missed human contact. I guess this pandemic is teaching me to appreciate some of the small things in life.

A year ago, we tried to adopt a dog and that effort turned into a tragedy. This year, we’re still healthy and reasonably happy. And we have Noyzi, the Kosovar street dog, in our midst. He has really been a great asset to our family and is turning into a really loving and adorable friend. I live for his daily tail wags, goofy smiles, and poop zoomies/crazy dog. I think he was meant to be ours, against all odds. That being said, I hope to hell those vaccines get out soon, so we can go back to a somewhat normal lifestyle and do some traveling again.

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Venturing into Mainz…

Well, it’s about time we did it.  We finally visited Mainz today for more than just a drive around.  We live maybe twenty minutes from Mainz, which is just over the Rhein River.  I had been wanting to walk around there for awhile, but we never got around to it.  We had such pretty weather today that we decided to go have lunch.

There are things to do in Mainz.  One can visit the Gutenberg Museum, for instance.  Because I’m not such a great student of religious history, I didn’t know the significance of it, so Bill filled me in.  It’s one of the oldest museums about printing in the world.  It’s named after Johanes Gutenberg, who invented the printing press and made printing from movable metal type possible in Western Europe.  It’s because of Gutenberg that Bibles were printed with much more ease.  In the museum, one can see the second Gutenberg Bible, considered one of the world’s most valuable books.

We did not visit any museums today, nor did we see the enormous and impressive cathedral.  Instead, we walked around and I took pictures.  Then we had a somewhat mediocre lunch, especially compared with last week’s glorious repast.  Here’s what I captured in photos.

Welcome to Mainz!  Although it’s just twenty minutes from where we live, Mainz is in a different state.  We cross from Hesse to Rhineland-Palatinate when we visit Mainz.

 

Mainz has a huge cathedral.  We will someday go inside and check it out.  Today, the weather was too nice.

The cafes were well-attended today.  We have mild temperatures and sun, and everybody seems to want to be outside to enjoy the suddenly pretty weather.

 

I couldn’t resist taking pictures of all the pretty flowers.  I love pansies.  We’re going to have to get some for our garden.

And this very interesting fountain, that commanded a lot of attention.  My German friend says it’s called the Fastnachtsbrunnen.  It was built in 1967.

 

We passed this church on the way to where we eventually had lunch.

 

We stopped at Aposto, a huge chain pizza and pasta place.  A friendly waiter approached us and started speaking German.  Then, quickly taking note of the expressions on our faces, switched to impeccable English.  He was very curious as to where we were from and what we were doing in Mainz… and was even more surprised that we live in Wiesbaden.

We had a view of the theater from where we were sitting.  It was a good place to people watch.

 

Bill and the menu.  We used German ones, but they do have English menus.

Our waiter brought us wine and a bottle of San Pellegrino.  He beamed when I expressed surprise at seeing ice cubes.  I explained that we like ice in our drinks, but don’t often encounter it in Germany.  I had syrah and Bill had a pinot grigio.  Our waiter was sympathetic to the fact that our German still sucks after so many years living in Germany.  So many people speak English up here.

 
Ice cubes!  A very rare sighting here.
 

I had the Tagliatelle Avocado, which was house made tagliatelle with an avocado cheese sauce, cherry tomatoes, grilled chicken strips, and “colorful Kresse”.  It was not bad… a little bland, perhaps.  I had to add salt, Parmesan cheese, and even a dash of pepper, which I almost never do.

 

Bill had the slightly zestier Rajesh, which was tagliatelle pasta with peppers and chicken strips.  We both liked the pasta.  For those who don’t like pasta, there are plenty of other dishes– everything from pizza to rumpsteak and dorade.

 

I enjoyed a glass of sauvignon blanc and we split dessert.

 

This was a lime cream cake with pistachio crust and strawberry/balsamic ice cream.  Balsamic vinegar was drizzled on the plate with “craisins”.  It was topped with candied orange slices.  I liked the ice cream best.

 

Bill paid the check.  It was about 55 euros.  Then, because the sky was clouding up, we headed home. I would have liked to have done more, but we’ll have the chance later.

Goodbye, Mainz.  I noticed a little beach on the other side of the river.  It looked like a popular spot today, with sunbathers, what appeared to be a cruise ship, and a restaurant.  I have a feeling it will be nice when the weather permanently changes.

Unfortunately, the area just beyond there looks a lot like Route 1 outside of Fort Belvoir… or really the strip near any U.S. Army post.  I did find the mixture of businesses in this complex rather interesting.  You can buy fish, buy a dildo, gamble, get a haircut, and go to church without even having to move your car.

 So far, it looks like April will not be so busy for Bill at work.  We’ll also have longer days now… so stay tuned for more adventures up here in the land of German wines and banks.

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