Breakfast in Schwetzingen
German breakfasts are anything but light. There wasn’t a piece of fruit to be found! We were lucky to be guests at the hotel, because most of the tables were reserved, and people were turned away, even at nine in the morning, the breakfasts at the hotel Cafe Journal are so good.
You could have smoked ham, cold cuts and cheese, too, but we chose not.
Breakfast bread basket:
Yummy condiments:
Fresh orange juice:
Herb and cheese omelettes:
We were astonished – in Germany and in France – that there is absolutely NO SMOKING in any of the restaurants. If you are sitting outside, you can smoke, but we could not believe how well enforced this law is. We had heard about it, but frankly – the French not smoke in restaurants? We would not have believed it possible! Germans are very law-obeying peoples, but the French??? Never, not once, did we see a person smoking in a restaurant. It was amazing.
Sunrise Tuesday, May 13, 2009
Every sunrise now is poignant – I will not have this kind of view in Doha. I will have palm trees, and sometimes parrots and / or parakeets who migrate through and love the date palms. I will have a yard, and two colored bougainvillea, and pots of home grown basil. I will have a neighborhood where I can walk freely, all by myself and never worry about being harassed, and a pool where women gather and joke around while doing water aerobics. But oh, I will miss these glorious Gulf sunrises!
Living our Religion
Today’s reflection from Forward Day by Day is a tough one. In the Gulf, there is a tradition of thfadl and thfadli (the second is what you say to a woman) which means, literally, “you are to be preferred.” You are supposed to outwait the other, to allow the other to take precedence.
I have one Kuwaiti friend – you know who you are – who simply cannot be out-thfadle-d. She out-thfadle-s me every time. 🙂
But when I read this passage, and think of how I live in Kuwait, I find myself thinking “Guilty! Guilty as charged!”
When I see a long line in front of me at the health department, and someone comes and ushers me to the front, yes, I have gratefully taken advantage, taken preference over those who continue to wait. I have scowled when people try to shove their basket in front of me in the supermarket. And in traffic – when I “thfadl”, it has nothing to do with politeness and preference, and everything to do with sarcasm and frustration.
Today’s reading reminds me I still have a long road in front of me when it comes to learning to love my neighbor, and put others first.
Romans 12:1-21. Outdo one another in showing honor.
The Episcopal Church (and some other denominations, too) is vexed these days by rancorous disputes about authority and sex. Name-calling, smirking, and thinly veiled anger sometimes characterize church gatherings. The prevailing sentiment seems to be that we ourselves are faithful and true, but those others are faithless and false. We demean and dismiss other Christians. It’s hard to find a Christian today who outdoes others in showing honor (except honor shown to those lined up on one’s own side). Is it any wonder that many people outside the church want nothing to do with us?
I long for the day when we will approach those who differ from us and say: “I agree with almost nothing you are advocating. I see God, the world, and our faith through different lenses than you do. But I know that God loves us both and has sent his Son to forgive and redeem us both. I know that Christ lives within us both. Therefore I honor you and join you in prayer and in worshiping our common Lord. I shall remain silent today so that you may speak and I may learn from you. I thank God for you because I see Jesus when I look at you.”
Revisiting Romance in Schwetzingen
When we met, AdventureMan and I, we didn’t date for very long. We knew, almost as soon as we met, that we were going to be married.
We met in Heidelberg, one of the most romantic cities in the entire world. My sister was getting married in the Heidelberg castle. It was a grand wedding, and AdventureMan and I were both supporting characters.
One of our first dates was going to the castle in nearby Schwetzingen. Schwetzingen has a beautiful castle, but it is not as famous for the castle as it is for its white asparagus, called spargel. It may sound funny to you, but this is a great delicacy, only served from mid-April to early June.
Schwetzingen really celebrates their white asparagus; this is a statue in the city square of an older woman teaching younger ones how to sort spargel:
Spargel is served a hundred different ways, in soups, in salads, and in big bunches, with vinaigrette sauce, hollandaise sauce, bernaise sauce, or sometimes with just butter. You can have it with schnitzle, with ham, or just with new spring potatoes. Who would believe asparagus could taste SO good?
So here is the story. We were so young, and had so little money. AdventureMan had taken me to the Schwetzingen Castle to walk, and as we walked and talked, I could tell he was really talking about getting married. He had planned on having enough money that we could sit afterwards, in a little cafe, and have a glass of wine, but we were both hungry. We dug into our wallets, and between the two of us, we came up with just enough for two glasses of wine, one bunch of spargel and one tiny little schnitzle. It was enough. We were in love.
That night, he asked me to marry him.
We go back to Schwetzingen and eat spargel every chance we get – and we have been blessed, through the years, to have lived nearby, or not so far away, and the thrill of our memories there never wears off.
OK Ok, enough of the mush gush stuff. On with the spargel!
This is my spargel with hollandaise. I just had it with potatoes, because I knew I also wanted dessert. 😉
AdventureMan had his with schnitzle. He had spargel with hollandaise and potatoes for lunch, too, and he didn’t plan to have any dessert.
While we were waiting for our spargel, we had a little sunshine, and watched the brides as they came out, every thirty minutes, from their weddings at the Schwetzingen castle:
Here comes the bride:
And here is my dessert, called Heiss Und Eis. As soon as I saw it on the menu, I had to make a decision – whether to start with the spargel or to start with the Heiss und Eis. The Eis part is the vanilla ice cream, and the Heiss part (hot) is a hot raspberry sauce poured over the cold vanilla ice cream. Oh YUMMMMMM.
We stayed at the ErbPrinzen, where we stayed before once when we were going to a ball in Heidelberg. It was wonderful. We were right across from the Schwetzingen castle, they have a fabulous restaurant and we ate all our meals right at the hotel, sometimes outside, sometimes in.
I had tried, unsuccessfully, to make reservations online. Good thing AdventureMan said “just run in and ask! What have we got to lose?” They had a room, it was a wonderful room, and parking was FREE! That’s our room, at the top right corner. We were on the no-smoking floor, which meant hauling our bags up two long floors. I guess the put the non-smokers on top because they don’t worry so much about us having a heart attack.
Here is one view from our corner room:
And here is another view, towards sunset, with some weather drama going on in the background:
Strasbourg Magic
It is perfect May weather in Strasbourg right now – warm and sunny, even hot, one minute, crashing thunder, lightning and pouring rain the next. One minute you are catching the last rays of the sun on the Strasbourg Cathedral, and the next, you are ducking into the nearest restaurant to get out of the rain, have a little wine and flammekeuchen, give the weather a chance to change once again and you are on your way.
Besides the fact that we always have a lot of fun in Strasbourg – it is a great town for walking – remember that shoe store that was closed for the holiday on Friday? I have French feet; German shoes are too wide, American shoes are too serious . . .but French shoes are always just right. We go again, first thing Saturday morning, and they have all the newest shoes in the yummiest colors and they have them all in my size!
Just look at these colors! Grape! Orange sherbet! Fuscia/raspberryt! I am not really so much a shoe person, but oh! When the right shoe comes along! I know it! AdventureMan waits patiently, smiling indulgently, as I try on almost everything in my size.
Looking at me seriously, he says “Buy what you want! Who knows when you will be back in Strasbourg? I insist, you must buy at least four pair!” (Now THAT is true love.)
Truly a magical day in Strasbourg. 🙂
Old Fashioned Piracy Goes High Tech
Thanks to blogger BitJockey, and news service Reuters for this update on the Somali pirates:
MADRID (Reuters) – Somali pirates are planning attacks on shipping using detailed information telephoned through by contacts in London, according to an intelligence report cited by Spanish radio on Monday.
The pirates have built up a network of informants in London with access to sensitive data from shipping companies about vessels, routes and cargoes, according to a European military intelligence report that Cadena Ser radio said it had seen.
The pirates receive their information by satellite phone and use sophisticated equipment to locate their targets, Cadena Ser said.
The intelligence report also said that the pirates seem to avoid attacks on ships of some nationalities, including British ships.
It listed several attacks in which the pirates had surprised crew with detailed information of their prey, including the nationalities of those on board.
Cadena Ser did not provide any more details about where the report originated, identifying it only as “European.”
Western nations have sent warships to try to stop the pirates, who have made millions of dollars from ransoming ships and their crews in strategic shipping lanes off the Horn of Africa that connect Europe to Asia.
They are currently holding about 20 vessels with nearly 300 hostages, according to monitoring groups.
Efforts to fight the pirates have been hindered by the gaps in international maritime law, which have sometimes left it unclear who, if anyone, can put them on trial.
Spanish authorities have disagreed among themselves over what to do with 14 Somalis caught last week by a Spanish warship. A judge tried to bring some of them to Spain while the government argued they should be sent to a court in Kenya.
(Reporting by Jason Webb; Editing by Kevin Liffey)
Intlxpatr wins Mother of the Year Award
I didn’t even know until several of my friends told me about my special award. See it here:
(I don’t seem to be able to get it to work as a hyper-link, so if you want to see my special award, you will need to copy and paste.)
Wives, be subject to your husbands
This part of today’s reading, among my set and the things we discuss, is one of the most controversial. We can debate this for hours.
What does being subject mean? If we, as wives, are subject to our husband, just as our husbands are subject to God, does it mean we can’t argue? We can’t disagree?
I saw a husband say to a wife the other day “I forbid you.” I think this is more common in Gulf culture than in our culture. I am sorry, but the thought of a husband daring to say this to a wife in the west is unthinkable. What I have also noticed is that when a husband says “I forbid you” here, it is not the end, but the opening skirmish. 🙂
There is a lot of food for thought in this reading, and I publish it to give you insight into what we read, and because I suspect you have similar readings.
Colossians 3:18-4:18
18 Wives, be subject to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord. 19Husbands, love your wives and never treat them harshly.
20 Children, obey your parents in everything, for this is your acceptable duty in the Lord. 21Fathers, do not provoke your children, or they may lose heart. 22Slaves, obey your earthly masters* in everything, not only while being watched and in order to please them, but wholeheartedly, fearing the Lord.* 23Whatever your task, put yourselves into it, as done for the Lord and not for your masters,* 24since you know that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward; you serve* the Lord Christ. 25For the wrongdoer will be paid back for whatever wrong has been done, and there is no partiality. 41Masters, treat your slaves justly and fairly, for you know that you also have a Master in heaven.
2 Devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it with thanksgiving. 3At the same time pray for us as well that God will open to us a door for the word, that we may declare the mystery of Christ, for which I am in prison, 4so that I may reveal it clearly, as I should.
5 Conduct yourselves wisely towards outsiders, making the most of the time.* 6Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer everyone.
A Quiet Friday in Strasbourg
“I have no agenda,” I said to AdventureMan as we walked the streets of Strasbourg, yesterday, walking and walking, through throngs of Strasbourgois, “but tomorrow I really need to go by the shoe store.”
He knows I love one particular shoe store.
We were up for breakfast by eight this morning – still nine, body time, Kuwait time, so it really felt like sleeping in. We are staying in a very exclusive hotel in Strasbourg with wonderful parking, we come, we park the car, and we just walk and walk and walk. We have a code to get into the hotel if we are out too late and the front door is locked. The rooms are simple, but bright and clean and stocked with shampoo and soap and spacious closets. The loo is separate from the shower room; I really like that. This hotel is so exclusive you probably couldn’t stay here – unless you, like us, are formerly military. The military hotels here have an agreement that people from other country’s forces can stay. There is a special rate for us former-military, a very agreeable rate that includes breakfast with the lightest, flakiest croissants in the world. I think it has to be the butter of the Alsace.
We were lucky to get a room. There was a huge crowd of people, a group, staying here, too.
So we headed out, taking our time, heading for the shoe store and an antiquities store AdventureMan wanted to visit. In the shoe store window are about six different pair of shoes I could happily scarf up, if only the store were open, but there is still a half an hour. We kill time, I tell AdventureMan I will catch up with him, and I stand in front of the shoe store waiting for it to open. Half an hour, I am still waiting, and AdventureMan comes; his store hasn’t opened, either.
It is very quiet in Strasbourg, this Friday morning, and we are marveling at how relaxed the French are about getting up. Hmmm . . . even my favorite pharmacy is very late opening. . . several of the bakeries are not open . . . the historic post card store AdventureMan wanted to visit is closed . . .
Remember I told you I can be slow sometimes? So can AdventureMan. Around 11, we start wondering if it is a holiday. When we go to lunch, we ask, and they say “oh yes! It is the day of the end of the war! It is a holiday!” and the light bulb goes on. We will have to stop by our favorite stores tomorrow, and today, we are having a wonderful, very quiet day in the heart of Strasbourg, it is wonderful having the city mostly to ourselves. Well, we are sharing it with several thousand other tourists arriving from Germany, from Italy, and from other parts of France.
It smells so good here. There are lilacs blooming everywhere, and other wonderful smelling flowers:
We love it that the French signs for picnics show a baguette and a bottle of wine in the picnic basket:
Walking in Strasbourg is so lovely; no matter where you look, there is something marvelous:
We had lunch at Le Pasha, a Tunisian restaurant. It was absolutely delicious! Sorry, we were so hungry I didn’t remember to take any photos. We had brik, a lamb stew/ lamb chops, and Tunisian pastries. It was a sweet restaurant:
And now, AdventureMan is snoozing, music to my ears. 🙂 We need a little down time as much as we need the walking, the lilacs, the vistas and the sips of wine.
Missing Our Muezzin
As we listened to the church bells clinking out the sound of the hours last night, AdventureMan turned to me and said “I miss our muezzin.”
We have a spectacular muezzin. You know how some people TALK about loving God, but when you look at how they behave, you wonder “is that what loving God looks like?”
When we hear our muezzin call out the call to prayer, we can hear his love of God. He was gifted with a glorious voice, and even at the earliest prayer, around 3:30 in the morning, he calls with joy and love in his voice. This man loves God, and he serves God by doing his best with every prayer.
(I did not draw that muezzin above. It is a poster, and you can find it by clicking Allposters here.)
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