2011-02 Mom's and Grandma's Weekend to Visit Mariah at DU

Mom (Grandma Lois) and Karren (Grandma Karren) joined LeAnn on a trip to visit Mariah at University of Denver.  Karren and LeAnn left from Mpls on an early morning flight to Denver and Mom headed out of Phoenix to meet up with us at the Denver Intl. Airport.  We rented a car so we could get around the area for the weekend.

We went to the DU campus first to see Mariah.  All of us were hungry so Mariah suggested we go to the restaurant “Snooze”. The first restaurant was opened in 2006 by two brothers who were students of the University of Denver.  They now have 4 locations in Colorado which feature breakfast items and are open from early morning until 2:30 pm.  The lines are long since it is a favorite place for the younger crowd.

After our hearty breakfast meal, we headed back to DU for a campus tour.  The weather was warm, but there were still some remains of snow.  Mariah showed us some of the buildings where she takes classes, we checked out the book store, and of course her dorm.  Both Grandmas’ were very impressed with the campus, the beautiful buildings, and all that the university has to offer the students.  We also had tickets for the hockey game on Friday night.  Unfortunately, the Pioneers lost 3-2 to Michigan Tech.

 

On Saturday, we had lunch at Panera on Colorado Blvd., and then headed up to Boulder about an hour north of Denver.  Mariah had heard that Celestial Seasonings gives tours; so we headed there where we could also sample many kinds of tea.  Since it was Saturday, the production lines were not in operation, but it was still a very interesting tour.  They took us to one room that had a garage door that is to remain shut all the time.  They store peppermint, spearmint, and mint leaves in this room and when we went into the room our eyes started to water, so we could only spend a few minutes in the room.  We ended the tour in the gift shop and purchased several different types of teas to bring home.

 

We drove to the Pearl Street Mall which is a four block pedestrian mall with many locally owned shops and restaurants.  You can do a lot of people watching…there was a guy juggling fire and knives, a man in a straight jacket and chains, a contortionist,  and lots of musicians.  After spending a couple hours at Pearl Street Mall, we headed back to Denver and had dinner at the Blue Bennett – a Mexican restaurant.  We took Mariah back to her dorm and then we made our way back to the Holiday Inn.

 

 

 

 

Sunday we got up early so we could take Mariah shopping for some incidentals.  We had to watch our time as we had to head to the airport by 1:00 pm.  Mariah had another good idea for a restaurant for brunch…the 730 South Grill. And then of course we needed dessert – a quick run to Yogurtland before dropping Mariah back off at campus.

Mom’s flight left at 5:00 pm, so we were able to take her to the gate and say goodbye.  Karren and I walked to our gate which was only 4 gates away from Mom’s gate; very convenient for all of us.  We had heard that the weather in Mpls was bad because of a snow storm; they had canceled the afternoon flights except our flight.  Unfortunately, after a few delays, our flight was finally canceled.  We had to arrange for a hotel near the airport and were able to get on a 7:00 am flight the next day.   They had originally said that we wouldn’t be able to get out on a flight until Wednesday.  We all had a really good time spending the weekend together.

2011-02 Bad Oeynhausen Germany

After visiting Singen, Ray went to Bad Oeynhausen in north central Germany. Bad Oeynhausen is about 45 minutes from the airport in Hanover and is connected via the autobahn.  Needless to say it was a fast trip as the driver hit at least 115mph during some stretches.

The term Bad means bath or spa in German and Bad Oeynhausen has developed around spa and health activities.  It is home many hospitals, including a world renown heart clinic.

Even though there were no English language TV channels at the hotel, there were still plenty of American TV shows on which had German soundtracks, including Big Bang Theory and How I Met Your Mother, and even older shows such as The Nanny were playing throughout the evening.   One of the most interesting things I ran across was the live Bocce championships on the Eurosport network.  I had never seen bocce on TV before.

I took a walk along the creek and saw an old mill (I think based on the location next to the creek and the 2 large stone wheels laying against the building.  There we also a lot of stone build walls that were about 18 inches wide and up to 3 fee tall.  Most of these were now enclosed in wire to protect them.

Also along the walk I saw a miniature golf course.  It was closed for the winter, but one of the interesting things in the course was a full size plane.  I am pretty sure it did not land there, but it was interesting to see the plane in the middle of the park.

Not too far from the hotel was a park that had a large fenced area that contained a large herd of deer.  There are probably 20 or so deer in the large enclosure and they are maintained by the locals, including a large buck who watched me the entire time I was walking along the edge of the park.  They were originally brought in for an Expo in 2000, but they were not taken out when the expo ended, and the herd has continued to expand

Behind the hotel was another park known as Kurpark, known for its beautiful gardens, large open area, fountain and the home to the G.O.P. theatre, which has ongoing shows and restaurants.  There was also a museum which had some outdoor displays of old outrigger boats.  I was not able to find out anything about the history of the boats or where they were used, but they had a few of them on display

My last night there, I just wanted a quick dinner, so we went to Stahl's Imbiss.  Imbiss is basically a small fast food stand or trailer, which may specialize in items such as bratwurst, schnitzel, spatzle (noodles) and pommes (fries).  The storefront was about 30' wide and the counter was about 4' inside the door from side to side.  There are no chairs and you stand up to eat your meal.  Stahl's only serves bratwurst and fries.  You can have you brat with mustard or ketchup with curry powder.  The fries come with ketchup or mayonnaise.  The brats are cooked on a charcoal grill while you wait.  The food was very good and I really enjoyed the local atmosphere of the place.

2011-02 Singen Germany

Ray made a quick trip to Singen and Bad Oeynhasuen in Germany.  Both these towns are relatively small.  Singen is in southern Germany just north of Swizterland.  The city has a lot of small parks and artwork/sculptures displayed around town.  There was even a large steel ping pong table in one park that utilized a steel net.  It sure would be hard to vandelize. 

In the downtown area, the streets are dedicated to pedestrians and shopping, although small delivery cars or vehicles occasionally drive down the streets.  The city had done a series of statues of bears that were customized by various businesses, much like the Snoopy statures that were done in St. Paul years ago.

On the outskirts of town is a large volcanic upheaval called Hohentwiel,  with old ruins of a fortress originally built in 914 on the very top, which is over 800' above the surrounding area.

About 40 miles west of town on Lake Constance is the Meersburg Castle.  This castle was originally built in 630.  It is amazing how old some of the original settlements are in this area,  It was open for tours, and since it was getting late, it was very dark inside.  There is some electrical lighting, but it is minimal, so some of the items and artifacts were very hard to see, and even harder to photograph since you could not use flash. 

Going up the streets to the castle, we saw neckties strung on lines between the buildings.  This was decorations for the upcoming carnival time.  One area had ties while another had material squares.  The tradition is to use linen to make the carnival flags, and the ties were just a special case.

After the castle tour we stopped and ate at Im Truben,  a small local weinkeller (wine cellar).  This wine cellar was built into the hill side and had the shape of a cave on the inside with arched walls and ceilings.  We had a light German dinner consisting of Flammkuchen.  This is dish was originally made with leftovers from the days big meal, and is similar to a thin crust pizza.  Instead of cheese, they spread schmeckt (which is somewhat similar to sour cream) on the crust and then cover with toppings.  Ours had ham and onions and was delicious. 

This is quiet season in the area so there were not many places open.  With the nearby Lake Constance, this is a very busy place in the summer.