beauperi

Posted on October 20, 2018October 20, 2018 by beauperi

Luxembourg

Sunday, 14 October, 2018 – Very good, low 20s

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We are up early to catch a large van to go to a major station to catch our train out of town to go to Luxembourg. We had been told that it would cost us 50 Euro but it turned out only to be 10. Because we got there too early, again, there was a long wait for our train which we finally board

We know that the trip is going to involve a long ride to Frankfurt station, around 6 hours, roughly an hour stopover there, another train to a town I cannot pronounce, around 3 hours and finally a bus to Luxembourg. Or at least that was the way it was supposed to be.

The trip to Frankfurt was fine and there was good internet which enabled serious Blogging to be done. I had spread out to another seat but at a stop outside of town a guy boarded and claimed the seat. OK, I went to a bigger one across the aisle.

At Frankfurt, Ryan selects a Mexican place at the end of the building because it is largely empty and there is room for all of our suitcases.

20181014_121619 — I order an Americana burger with much of the salad saved for Julie

The girls wandered away and came back with some food from elsewhere. Julie had a salad to which I was able to add more. Then it was time to board the next train. We had been told that there was a big weekend on in Luxembourg and the trains would be crowded. Well, in this leg there was just one other passenger in our first class carriage.

When we get to the next destination, there is a little trouble finding where our bus should be but Julie eventually finds it. A short time later, our bus pulls up from Luxembourg. The passengers alight and there is confusion in getting the bags out. Then the bus driver, who was a very big black guy, raises the hood over the engine in the back of the bus and tells everybody that the bus will not be leaving. We learn from another passenger it was because the bus motor had overheated.

Some people went off, probably to catch a train but we did not know how to do that, so could only wait and wait and wait. Ryan and Tanika go off and disappear for ages. Finally, a replacement bus shows up. The black driver takes it and the other driver drove away the one that had overheated. Fortunately, the Kids showed up at just the right time or else we might have had to hope for another bus later on. Ryan takes charge of loading the bags in the under storage. We board and it is quite full. I get a seat in front of a black lady and the brat of her kid. What I remember distinctly was her singing some obnoxious repetitive lullaby the whole trip to try to keep him calm.

When we get to Luxembourg station, it is only a short walk to our Hotel. Ryan guides us there. The Hotel was very old and had had awful Trip Advisor reviews. However, they had obviously done a lot of renovations. The Hotel check-in staff were very friendly albeit the Lady only spoke French. The elevator was still small and ancient but got us up the two flights of stairs.

We again selected the room with two single beds and the room reminded me of the modern room we had had in Stockholm, quite small and one had to crawl over the person at the small desk to get to the suitcases. Julie worked out a rearrangement of the room which made it not too bad plus good space for our cases. Photos of the Hotel tomorrow.

Julie went out and bought some supplies and brought them back. We then went out to find some food. The Kids had left us to go out on their own. Again it was a Sunday evening and a number of restaurants were closed. There was an interesting Portuguese place across the street but it was very expensive. Finally we go to a place quite close to our Hotel at the end of the street – Asian. The people there were very friendly and we settled in.

20181014_191950 — Our wine from Chile, Julie’s Miso soup and prawn crackers

Julie ordered chicken salad but they brought it initially with no chicken.

20181014_192202 — That’s better, a decent amount of chicken

20181014_192252 — I ordered Duck with green curry and vegetable sauce. Quite a generous serve.

20181014_200358 — Photo of our Hotel from the outside

Back at the Hotel, it is very noisy as celebrations are going on. Turns out that there was a window open, which blew cold air on me, and did not restrict the noise from the big celebrations across the street.

The Kids reported that they had done a lot of wandering through the Old Town, etc. and found the people to be quite friendly, unlike those in Berlin.

Posted on October 19, 2018 by beauperi

Slim Dusty, Part 2

But there’s nothing so lonesome, so morbid or drear
Than to stand in a bar, of a pub with no beer.

Friday, 12 October, 2018 – Very good, low 20s

I spent much of the day inside trying to work out a restaurant that we could go to tonight. Our hosts had given a list of recommendations. I went through these carefully trying to translate German menus to see if the particular place would work for us. Each of them had their own unique problems such as only open for lunch, no meat dishes, too far away, etc. There was a Schwabian restaurant on the list but it really had nothing suitable, no seafood, no chicken, for the girls. I also considered some local restaurants that were not on the recommended list including Little Marlene which was named after the famous German actress Marlene Dietrich who grew up around here. But, I rejected that idea too.

Any way, Julie who is now an expert with the bus system, heads out to places unknown:

20181012_154345 — Who is that little green guy?

20181012_163022 — Julie bought me a Ham Hock

Back at the apartment the kids show up early as we now have a dinner booking.

20181012_163134 — Ryan and I have another beer tasting

20181012_181252 — Our Restaurant the Ryan had booked

20181012_181242 — The Guys picked a table outside, only problem is there were lots of smokers

So, what has this to do with Slim Dusty? The place was run by Muslims and hence there was no alcohol available at all.

20181012_183900 — Chicken salad for Julie, the chicken was overcooked

20181012_183907 — Chicken Burger and Chips for Tanika

20181012_183913 — Chicken Gorgonzola Meal for Ryan

20181012_183920 — Chicken Jalapeno meal for me – note the little chunks of jalapeno in the cream sauce

After that less than stunning meal, it was back to the apartment for some real drinks.

Posted on October 17, 2018October 17, 2018 by beauperi

Big Girls Don’t Cry

Thursday, 11 October, 2018 – Very good, low 20s

In spite of the good weather, I don’t make it outside until late in the day. After a smoked Salmon breakfast, Julie did a lot of prancing and here is one notable photo:

20181011_181800 — Doesn’t every cathedral have a row of food trucks in front of it?

20181011_181844 — Julie entering the restaurant The Market recommended by our Hosts

The restaurant was presumably called the Market because of the open air farmers market just diagonally opposite it. Julie went over to the market but it was closing and was only open on Thursdays.

20181011_182034 — Julie looking out at the Market.

20181011_184148 — Julie’s Chicken? Salad

20181011_184202 — Creamy Veal? Dish for me

20181011_191452 — Our Waitress is a very Big Girl – 6’5″

You can see in the photo above of Julie entering the restaurant that the waitress towers over her, just like the family in Estonia earlier in her trip. Julie is not short.

20181011_191501 — Too much make-up for my mind

Back to the apartment. That’s all folks!

Posted on October 17, 2018October 17, 2018 by beauperi

Hop On / Off Tour of Berlin

Wednesday, 10 October, 2018 – Very good, low 20s, perfect Autumn Weather

We have decided to take a Hop On/Off tour of Berlin so we can get an idea of what to visit. We go up to the nearby train station and the kids go down to pick up bus tickets for us all. It takes quite a while and then there is a decent wait but eventually we are on the bus on our way to the start-up point. In fact, because of looking at emails, Ryan missed the stop so we had to walk back a ways to get to the bus.

Ryan had selected a bus with live commentary – a Yellow Bus, not Red

20181010_100504 — Ryan and Julie at the back of the bus

Our guide was a white haired German who spoke perfect English so at most locations he spoke his piece in German first and then English. The journey involved going back and forth between the old West Berlin and the Old East Berlin. We saw a bit of the Wall that had been preserved and tracks on the ground showing where the Wall had been.

20181010_111500 — The location of the infamous Checkpoint Charlies

I did not take many photos as this is a food and wine Blog after all.

20181010_120612 — The guys in the Box Seat up top

20181010_121229 — Selfie showing the roof open and the good weather

We hopped off the bus near the start thanking the tour guide who was very good. We went into a place where Tanika had been earlier that day and went up to the top floor. It provided a lunch Smorgasbord which we decided to proceed with.

20181010_132828 — The Kids at the table with their meals and mine

20181010_132835 — My choice was a (mild) Thai green curry with noodles and a spring roll

20181010_133233 — Julie’s Smoked Salmon and Salad plus a bottle of wine

Julie took off to look at the shops while we moved out to the balcony to finish the bottle of wine while she was gone.

20181010_140316 — Cathedral in the distance from the balcony

After Julie returned, we split with the kids who went touring and we went back to the apartment. I snoozed, Julie pranced just like normal.

mosque1 — Ryan’s photo of a very impressive Mosque

We had dinner in the apartment that night.

20181010_195308 — Smoked Salmon and Apple for Julie

20181010_195317 — Julie picked up a Wrap for me

20181010_195558 — With pieces of real chicken cut up and vegies it was pretty good

What with a much better wine than last night, it was a much more successful culinary day.

Posted on October 16, 2018October 16, 2018 by beauperi

First we’ll take Manhattan

and then we’ll take Berlin. Leonard Cohen, RIP

The other choice for the title was “Why I hate Flying”

Tuesday, 9 October, 2018 – Weather – grey, who cares we are leaving town

I start the day with the leftover green curry. We have booked a taxi to pick us up early and he shows up on time and we are ready to go. We get to the airport early and have to wait to drop off our baggage.

20181009_084250 — Waiting and waiting for baggage drop off

After they finally accept our bags we are warned that it will be a dog fight to get on the plane. We go upstairs to the boarding gate and wait and wait and wait. The same staff show up at the boarding gate but show no signs of opening the gate. Finally, we realise that our plane has just landed. After it is unloaded, there is another long wait before we are invited to board. Ryan has listened to my advice about overhead locker space and pushes us and our remaining bags to the front of the queue.

We were told that we had to board at the rear which mean down portable stairs, in the rain, and then up another set of stairs that are quite slippery. We get to our seats and are able to grab overhead space.

We had paid for extra room in the exit row. Yes, there is extra room but gee it is narrow and not a lot of advantage. In fact, my knees were sore for a few days afterwards because of the cramped “extra space”.

I am against the window and it is not possible to get out for a toilet break. The flight is for 2 1/2 hours and seems to take forever. We are travelling West and South into another time zone. When we get off the plane we have to walk on the tarmac to buses. Trouble is that there are only two buses and there are enough people for three. It turns out we only go a few meters on the bus – it would have been much easier just to walk there.

There is another long, long wait. I go off to the toilets because of no toilet break on the plane. Of course, the toilet was closed for cleaning. There was a disabled toilet, of course it was permanently locked. The cleaner moved very, very slowly while the two Ladies toilets moved like clockwork. Finally, the cleaner opens the door and I get some relief.

Even after that long wait, our bags are just coming off the carousel when I return. When we take Ryan’s bag off, we notice that one of the wheels has been broken. We go to the Easyjet claim centre and there is no one in there or else they refuse to come to the window.

We go outside to get a taxi as it will take a bus and two trains to get near our place. There had been a long queue but it had mostly dissipated. However, we needed a large van with all of our luggage and people. So they push us to one side and get on the phone to call in big vans. After a lengthy wait, one finally shows up, but there is another big group in front of us. Another van shows up after us but the guy is in a very angry mood, I guess he thought
he was picking some body else and argued with the traffic controller for ages. Finally, he agreed to take us and turned into a nice guy. Julie rode with him in the front seat and they had a nice chat because he lived in the area to where we were going and gave her some advice.

The exit out of the airport was another major issue as there were enough cars for 8 lanes and at times we had only one, it probably took another 25 minutes to go 1/2 KM. Once we escape the shackles, it is a smooth ride until we are back on city streets in which case the traffic was really bad and slow with lots of lane changes to get through. Finally we arrive at our destination which was a driveway in front of a driveway to a youth hostel.

So all in all it took around 9 hours door to door with a variety of hassles, delays, mishaps, pain, stupidity along the way. That is typical of why I hate flying even though I put up with it for years for work.

Things look ordinary as there we were in a narrow driveway leading into a couple of courtyards into a backpackers den. Plus I had not read the instructions well enough. Then our bad day turned into solid gold. We were informed by the landlords that there had been serious damage in the powder room by the previous guest and we would not be able to check-in until 4:00 PM. We accepted that. I was supposed to find the caretaker for the back packer home but did not follow the instructions, but fortunately he found us. There had been some advance concern about storing our bags, but this guy was great. He grabbed them all and put them in a very secure room for which he had the only key. We then went out looking for food while we waited for 4:00.

There were tons of restaurants around us with a primary theme being Turkish. We did not have a good experience because the menus on display were all in German, which I mostly could not translate, and they would not talk with Julie because she was English. Finally, I find a Kebab shop run by a Father and his 3 Sons. They were happy to talk with me in English and generally were very nice to me which was a welcome change. I thought Julie was going to a Salmon place but she showed up here and also was treated really nicely, Julie was impressed.

20181009_135635 — Doner chicken souva with lots of vegies, a dainty feast

20181009_135642 — The Shop, a steady flow of customers day and night

20181009_140226 — Julie’s Souva with extra salad

We get back to the backpackers place around 3:30 and there are more pleasant surprises. The workers were unable to fix the vanity sink, but there were two such sinks so we survived nicely. We were escorted up to the room by the Managers Wife at 3:30, and the rest of the family brought up all of our luggage and chattels we had left in the storage. This was all a big wow, especially with what we were expecting.

For details of the layout of this apartment refer to this Airbnb link

The only disappointment, which I possibly should have known already, was that there was no dishwasher.

Ryan was sent up and knocked on the door at 4:00 and we let them in and everything was good. Each bedroom had a couple of small balconies.

20181009_160633 — Ryan and I have another beer tasting on the balcony

Incidentally, the kids found that the people were quite unfriendly to them too, they did not really like Berlin. The weather however was quite good.

Earlier we had bought some local wine – it was rat piss. Julie goes out to scout and gets food for tonight.

20181009_203815 — Smoked salmon and apple for a change

20181009_203823 — I wanted bratwurst got curry wurst instead, no good

I never did get my Bratwurst, apparently Berlin does not do them and circumstance worked against me in the rest of Germany.

What with the lousy wine and awful snag, I end up with bad reflux in the night. The anti-reflux relief Julie had bought for me earlier came in little tubes and kind of did the job.

So it was definitely a day of multiple ups and downs.

Beauperi Investments – Wine Consulting

Author: beauperi

Gourmand & Wine Connoisseur.

Luxembourg

Slim Dusty, Part 2

Big Girls Don’t Cry

Hop On / Off Tour of Berlin

First we’ll take Manhattan