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Chasing lakes and waterfalls in Aus-cro-slo-aus… part fourteen

And now, we’ve come to the end of my latest series… which I will admit was not long on food and activities, but had plenty of gorgeous scenery and solitude. When I am finished writing this post, I’ll do my usual “ten things I learned post”, but that will probably be done tomorrow, so as not to overwhelm anyone with all the action my travel blog is suddenly getting. 😉

Because we were coming from “high risk” areas– Croatia and Slovenia– we had to upload our vaccination information to officials in Germany. This would absolve us from having to quarantine. But, when we got to the border, they just waved us through, anyway. Maybe because it was Sunday.

Our drive home was mostly uneventful. Salzburg is about six hours or so from where we live, I think… Ray had made it easy to check out. All we had to do, besides take out the trash and make sure we used the toilet brush, was put the 12 euro city tourist tax (three euros per person per night) in the lockbox, along with the key. We got an early start, and, at first, the weather was beautiful.

  • Goodbye to Ray’s house.
  • The sun is shining…
  • One last look at Austria’s beauty…
  • Because all of a sudden, we were crossing the border.
  • But the sun still shone in Germany
  • All the way to the Chiemsee…

The nice weather began to change the further north we went. It got cold and decidedly cloudy, then it was raining. At one point, we tried to stop for lunch, but there was no parking in the parking lot. The spots were all taken up by tractor trailers. We eventually ended up at the very same rest stop where we stopped on the way down to Croatia. On that visit, I wore a surgical face mask, as did a lot of other people. Surgical masks are the rule for all of Germany… except hard assed Bavaria, where people are supposed to wear FFP2s, the tighter fitting “coffee filter” masks. I did have a fresh one in my purse, but I really hate wearing them.

Anyway, we walked into the McDonald’s, which was empty. Evidently, the COVID-19 rules changed again, because the cashier pointed to me and said I needed the heavier mask. That pissed me off, so Bill and I left. I ranted about it on my other blog. We went to Burger King and ate lunch in the car. I spent much of the rest of the drive annoyed, since the heavier masks are obviously not curbing the now soaring infection rate in Germany. People need to be vaccinated. But if they’re going to enforce mask mandates, I wish they’d be consistent about it. And I wish they’d show common sense, particularly toward people who have actually done the responsible thing and gotten the vaccine.

I mean, look at this…

This is in Koln, where Carnival is in full swing.

It’s ridiculous. I can’t sit in an empty McDonald’s without being forced to wear a heavy mask, but these fools can party and drink unmasked in huge crowds in Mainz and Cologne! I fear we may be heading for another lockdown soon, which makes me even more glad that we took our trip. As it stands now, James Taylor has postponed his European tour. We have second row tickets to his Frankfurt show, but who knows when it will happen. We still have tickets to see Keb’ Mo’ for a show that was supposed to happen on November 16 (our anniversary) 2020. At this point, it’s been postponed three times, thanks to COVID-19. Maybe we’ll get to see him in May of 2022. This COVID shit really needs to be sorted.

The only other notable thing that happened on the way home was that we passed a van that had a sticker on it that read “Porn casting car”.

And then, we noticed that the driver had drapes with little gold tassels on them in the front seat. Maybe it really is a porn casting car.

After we got home, we unpacked and started doing the laundry. Later, we went to get Arran and Noyzi, who I guess could hear and smell us as we approached. They were so excited! Noyzi was even ecstatic to see Bill. He practically dragged me to the car and was delighted to jump in the back all by himself.

When we got home, we discovered that Arran had a couple of swollen flesh wounds on his ears. And the next day, Noyzi had kennel cough. By Tuesday, Arran was coughing too, although they are both okay now. Fortunately, it was a mild case. It was the first time I have ever dealt with kennel cough, which is usually a mild illness that clears up on its own. Our dogs are usually vaccinated against it, but we stopped giving Arran most vaccines because he’s had mast cell tumors. Noyzi is due for his vaccines next month.

Here are a few final pictures of a few things we brought back with us… I wish I had found a few things to put in the house. Oh well. Maybe on the next trip. Bill has to go to Poland on Monday, and he’ll be gone on our 19th wedding anniversary, which is on Tuesday. I’m sure he’ll get some Bison Grass vodka. Just what we need! 😉 We also got jams, honeys, liqueurs, and gin.

  • Bill will be…
  • eating all of this Croatian cheese on his own…

Well… that about does it for the series. Stay tuned tomorrow, for my super fun “ten things I learned” post. I actually did learn some new things on this trip. It was one of our better ones, and we’ve been on some great trips. I hope we can do it again, soon.

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Giftköder (poison)… possible sighting in my neighborhood this morning…

I spotted this on my walk this morning.

Sometimes I see strange things when I walk my dogs.  Most of the time, the things I see are benign.  I’ve seen discarded bras, half empty bottles of Jack Daniels, abandoned children’s desks, kids sucking face… even someone’s glasses.  This morning, I saw something very strange and kind of frightening.

Pictured above, perched atop the “Robidog”, which is where we discard our dog crap, was a board with pieces of what appeared to be schnitzel.  There are two dead mice among the pieces of pork.

I don’t know if someone found this and put it on top of the poop can or if this was originally put on the can and the mice found it.  Either way, it was very creepy.

Unfortunately, there are people in Germany who put out poison.  The poison is usually intended to kill rodents, but some people also do it to kill or injure pets.  Regardless of the intention behind putting out Giftköder, it has potentially lethal consequences for animals.  If a pet eats the poison or manages to catch and kill a mouse that has eaten it, there’s a good chance the pet will become sick and even die.

It’s enough of a problem that there’s even a “radar” for tracking poisoned areas.  There are a bunch of fields near where I live and, yes, I’ve seen mice out there.  However, I’ve never seen any poisoned bait before today.

I posted the picture above on Facebook and my German friend, Susanne, was concerned enough to contact the police in Gäufelden, the village next to ours.  The police actually went out and found the dead mice, then contacted the police in Jettingen, which is the town where the above Robidog is.

I generally love the area where we are for walking the dogs.  There are lots of trails and other dog walkers are friendly.  But this business of dead rodents near what looks like poisoned bait gives me the creeps, especially since my dog Arran has a habit of eating mice.  More than once, he’s caught one while on his leash.  I don’t like being scared to walk my dogs, but a dog that eats a poisoned mouse can end up in trouble.

I’ll be keeping my eyes peeled in the meantime.  Hopefully, there aren’t a bunch of these little “gifts” spread throughout the area.

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*Smooch*

Every once in awhile, I run across strange sightings while walking my dogs.  I have blogged about this phenomenon before.  Sometimes I see weird things.  Sometimes I have odd or funny conversations with people.   This morning, I saw something especially interesting.

As I was walking down the slope leading to the road where my dogs do their business almost every day, I saw something on the ground.  I couldn’t be sure in the distance.  At first, it looked like a big man lying on a blanket.  I thought maybe he was using an iPad or something.

Off in the distance, a mysterious sighting… writhing on the ground.

As I got closer, I saw that there were two people lying there.  It looked like they were kissing.  My dogs gamely trotted along, for once not making a sound.  As I rounded the corner, the duo sat up.  I could see they were teenagers who appeared to be very horny.  I said nothing as the dogs and I passed, but in my mind I was thinking that this area is where my dogs most enjoy pooping.

Zane was curious and wanted to watch the teens as they sucked face.  I had some trouble pulling him away from this romantic scene.

 

The kids kind of gave me a smile, then got right back to their business.  She laid down on the blanket and he started passionately kissing her.  And sure enough, just past where those kids were making out, both of my dogs crouched into number two position and took prodigious dumps.  There weren’t any other people out there walking their dogs or biking when I passed the youngsters.  I wondered how long they’d been there.

This isn’t the first time I’ve seen people making out so publicly.  When Bill and I visit the Mineraltherme, we often see young people practically having sex in the water.  It’s pretty funny for us because neither of us are into such public displays.  It’s even funnier to see the disapproving looks shot their way by cranky grandmas.  But I guess if you have to see something odd like that, it’s better that it’s two people in the throes of lovemaking than two people beating the hell out of each other.

Not long after I passed the teens, I noticed more people were out and about, including a very nice elderly English speaking lady I often see, and her two pugs.  I wonder if anyone said anything to the kids, since they seemed very much into their kissing session when I passed and were nowhere to be seen a short time later.  I hope they enjoyed themselves.  Oh, to be young and randy!

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Our trip to The Netherlands via Luxembourg… part 2

On Sunday morning, we took off for Apeldoorn, Netherlands.  It was a beautiful country drive through a bit of Luxembourg and into Belgium, where a cow welcomed us as we passed by taking a huge, marathon, liquid dump.  Seriously…  it was quite impressive.  I thought we’d never get past that bovine, though Bill and I had a good laugh.  We can’t help it because we enjoy juvenile humor very much.  I got a kick out of all the signs for frites, too.

Bill has a conference all week and I had never been to The Netherlands, except in transit through the airport.  I was excited to see yet another European country.  I have seen a lot of Europe and quite a few countries more exotic than The Netherlands.  Or so I thought before we got here.  The truth is, things are different where the Dutch are.

Our nannyish rental car tells us we are in The Netherlands right after it demands that Bill take a coffee break…

 

We stopped at a Texaco for a potty break and coffee, since the hotel’s coffee wasn’t doing it for Bill.  I was impressed when I found this…

Yes, that is fresh squeezed orange juice.  I bought mine already squeezed, but the Texaco actually had a machine where people could make and bottle their own.  And the mineral water has a slight essence of mint.  How refreshing!  This isn’t your German mama’s mineral water.

Bill figured out the coffee machine, which required him to use coins, got himself a healthy shot of Italian java, and we were soon back on our way.  If we had wanted to, we could have used a tunnel under the autobahn/interstate/whatever the Dutch call it to access a full service restroom on the other side of the road.  It was pretty cool.  As it was, just trying to use the bathroom at the Dutch Texaco was confusing since men were using the “ladies” room.

Our drive was maybe three or four hours.  I was enjoying all the weird sights on the road, including a lady biker with a sidecar occupied by dogs, a couple of guys riding in a classic Triumph with the top down, and what looked like a very muddy military style obstacle course on the side of the highway.  I noticed it; then Bill had to tell me about his days as a young cadet, writhing around in muddy obstacle courses.

When we got to Apeldoorn, I immediately appreciated the very cute Dutch houses with their steep slanted roofs or barn style roofs.  So many houses look like showplaces with perfectly manicured lawns and shrubbery, beautifully painted and accented exteriors, and huge picture windows.  I thought Germans had big windows but they have nothing on the Dutch.  Contrasting the lovely Dutch architecture was a huge sign featuring a picture of a dog and the caption, “No shit!”  The Dutch would like to remind everyone to clean up after their pets, but I saw lots of evidence that many people don’t follow that rule.

Our hotel is the Bilderberg de Keizerskroon, which is an older chain hotel property located on the outskirts of town.  It’s right next to the Palais Het Loo.  I should probably go tour that, but I don’t feel a pressing need to.  What I really want to do is see the monkey zoo, Apenheul.  And I don’t want to go see it alone.  Maybe I’ll manage it before we leave this cute little town.

We checked into the hotel, which has a large free parking lot.  Our room was ready, so we dropped off our bags and had some lunch…

They brought out some nice bread and garlic butter…

We both enjoyed the local brew.  I don’t know why, but beers here are smaller than they are in Germany.  However, they are also a little more interesting.

This asparagus and ham soup was delicious.  It had gotten chilly outside, so this really hit the spot.  I probably could have just had this and been happy, but…

I had a grilled tuna salad and cheese sandwich, too.  It came with a nice sweet chili sauce.  

Bill had an open faced smoked chicken sandwich with Dutch cheese.

And we both enjoyed more beer…

After lunch, we went back to our room.  Bill did schoolwork and I passed out for a two hour nap.  It was very nice.  Later, we had a fabulous dinner at the restaurant right next door to the hotel.  The place is called De Heerlijekheyt.  Don’t ask me what that means…  All I know is that the food is exquisite.

They brought us a smoked salmon and seaweed amuse that tasted like it had a light peanut dressing on it.

And a small loaf of bread.

We were still somewhat full from lunch, so we didn’t have starters.  Bill ordered a South African sauvignon blanc to go with what turned out to be a delightful fish dinner.

I had sea bass with littleneck clams, rosette biscuits, and a delightful cream sauce.  Under the fish I found some very fresh carrots, snow peas, tomatoes, and something that I couldn’t identify.  It looked a little like asparagus, but was much thinner.  

Bill had half a lobster and the “fish of the day”, which we think may have been halibut.  It came with a tomato risotto.

Service was professional and very unhurried, with two handsome waiters taking care of us and the few others in the restaurant.  There’s a large open kitchen and you can watch the chefs work.  It was a far less chaotic scene than what I remember when I worked at a restaurant.  But then, the restaurant wasn’t all that busy on Sunday night.

For dessert, I had a coffee creme brûlée with a side of vanilla ice cream and crushed pecans.  Bill had a small cheese plate that came with an apple syrup and a few small pieces of fruit.

And we capped things off with a double espresso, which came with a small plate of sweets.  There actually was no need to order dessert, but I’m glad we did. 

As we walked back to the hotel, I took a shot of the front…

You can rent a bike here.  Bikes are EVERYWHERE in The Netherlands.  I used to ride a bike all the time as a kid, but I’m not sure I’d remember how to now.  But they do say riding a bike is as easy as riding a bike, right?

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