Notes from Germany, Vol.18, 31 July 2007

Dear Friends and Family,

OK, here is the upfront summary of the highlights: since my last update the family went fishing with friends, Mindy and I have attended a cooking class in Italy, our family went to Garmisch (in the German Alps) with friends for a weekend getaway, and Mose and I attended Scout camp together in Switzerland. Amazingly, those are just the highlights. Life has continued at it’s fast and furious pace and I still have trouble keeping up.

Fishing with John and Pat
Our good friends John and Pat love to fish! In Germany, though, fishing is more complicated that buying a fishing license and baiting a hook. Like everything else, the Germans take fishing very seriously and getting a license to fish is no easy thing. Fortunately for all of us, John and Pat had learned about a private fishing pond a bit south of us in the Black Forest. And just so you know, “private” means no license is required.

I took a day off of work for our trip because I hoped things would be less busy that way. We all gathered together at John a Pat’s house. We brought along snacks and drinks. John and Pat supplied the fishing rods, hooks, bait, and nets. Luckily for us we all fit nicely in the van and the trip down really didn’t take very long at all. Looking back, it probably would have been better for us to leave earlier than we did. As it was, we didn’t really start fishing until almost 10:00a.

The thing about fishin’ with kids is that for the most part the kids end up doing most of the fishing because the adults spend their time setting up fishing equipment, baiting hooks, casting lines, giving words of encouragement, and going from kid to kid checking up on them. John, by far the most qualified angler among us, barely got to wet a line. My kids, though, were the direct beneficiaries of his skill and hard work. It was almost exclusively John who did all of the leg work associated with getting people to fish and he did it all with cheer and efficiency. He even got Mindy to fish!

Mose and Sara and Cory each had a chance to catch a fish. Sara in fact caught two. Cory’s fish was the biggest and he was by far the most excited about his catch. The adults all had a chance or two to cast a line, but without much success. Pat hooked a couple of small ones, one of which we kept because it had swallowed the hook.

John had brought both meal worms and corn for bait. We had much better success with the corn, perhaps because it was easier for the fish to see. The water in the pond was very clear and it was quite fun to spot a fish in the water, cast the line out, and then try to drag the bait right by the fish’s nose. As I said before, though, we had started late and by about 11:00a, we had caught about all of the fish we were going to catch.

The place where we fished took our fish and cleaned them off for us before we headed for home. This does not mean that they “cleaned” them, it simply means that they washed them off a bit. The also gladly sold us a few extra fish since it was obvious that we didn’t catch enough fish to feed the whole lot of us. Oh, I forgot to mention that Pat had volunteered to cook any fish that we caught.

We made the trip back to John and Pat’s house in short order and Pat and John headed off to the kitchen to begin preparations for a mid-afternoon meal. Sara was quite excited about the prospect of cleaning the fish. She found the prospect of blood and guts to be quite appealing. The rest of us, however, were quite content to watch a movie.

The meal was scrumptious! Pat is a wonderful cook and everything was delicious. What surprised me the most, though, was how much the kids enjoyed the fish. I rather thought they would be a bit squeamish about eating something that they had seen squirming just a short time before. I was wrong, though, and happily so. The meal provided a delightful end to a delightful day.

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Fishing Photos









Cooking Class in Italy
Some time ago our friend Doreen told us about a cooking class she had heard about being offered in Italy. It sounded interesting so we did a bit of investigation. We determined that the class was relatively inexpensive. It was taught Friday through Monday, which minimized the amount of time off it would require. It was in Italy, which I thought was totally cool. And Doreen was going, which made the prospect of a trip to Italy to learn some cooking a bit less intimidating.

When Mindy and I talked about the possibility of going to this class, one of the things we discussed was the fact that this class would be in relative proximity to our 15th wedding anniversary. We therefore decided that we would do this trip to Italy as an anniversary celebration. That made sense because we were going to need to ask folks to look after the kids anyway. I, myself, am quite pleased to be able to say that for our 15th anniversary, I took my wife to Italy!

There were actually four of us that went down together: Mindy, myself, Doreen, and Doreen’s friend Claudia. Since it was just the four of us, we fit fairly comfortably into our van. The drive down was about 8 hours of drive time, but that doesn’t account for refueling, eating, and bathroom breaks. It also doesn’t account for the stops we made to look at shops selling Italian porcelain and pottery. I went with the ladies into the first store, but after that I stayed behind in the car. Fortunately for me, I had brought Sara’s portable DVD player and I was able to occupy my time by watching the Lord of the Rings.

The class was offered in the Italian village of Gallio, which is on the Asiago Plateau. It’s not quite in the Alps, but it was still high enough up that a series of 18 switchbacks had to be negotiated in order to get there. The views were impressive, but I tried not to look too much for fear of taking the short route back to the bottom. I believe that all of us in the car experienced at least a little bit of motion sickness.

We arrived in Gallio on Thursday evening, got checked in and had supper with the rest of the class. I must say that all of the food that they served us was wonderful. The rooms were very nice too; quite large by European standards.

We began the cooking class the next morning. It worked a little differently than I had expected. I rather thought that we would all be at independent stoves getting practical experience. Instead we had a single kitchen on a slightly raised platform where our chef would do the cooking while we watched. The chef was very talented and very willing to answer any question that was asked. There were some activities that allowed more participation, for example making gnochis, and lots of students would go up to the front to take part. Mindy was not the least bit shy about giving anything a try.

As part of the class we all received a recipe book that had all of the dishes that the Chef would be demonstrating. As the Chef cooked, he would explain what he was doing and why. Since he was speaking Italian and we were all Americans, a translator was required. Our translator was a British woman named Nikki. Nikki was quite good at what she did. I do think, though, she could have done much better without the help of Mrs. Pisoni (who I believe put the class together). Mrs. Pisoni was an older woman with very strong feelings about what is healthy and what is not. Our Chef had no compunctions about adding a little extra olive oil, cheese, or meat, but Mrs. Pisoni always pointed out that it is the cook’s responsibility to ensure that those that eat, eat well. At the end of each demonstration, samples were passed out to all of the students. The food was always wonderful and I was left with the feeling that the Chef’s way was much better than Mrs. Pisoni’s way.

The classes were actually only offered in the mornings. During most afternoons we were allowed to wander freely. On one afternoon, we took a trip with Doreen to Verona. On another afternoon the entire class went porcelain shopping. Lucky for us they agreed to drop us off at a little village called Marostica.

I learned at Verona that this city is rather famous for at least two things: this is where the story of Romeo and Juliet took place and the 3rd largest coliseum in the Roman Empire was built here. We were quite fortunate to have Doreen with us. She has traveled extensively and she is quite comfortable using maps to find her way around an unfamiliar city.

The Roman coliseum was very impressive. It’s amazing to stand in a place like that and know that it was made hundreds of years ago. Even more amazing was the fact that the coliseum is still in use. In fact, while we were there they were setting things up for a concert by The Who! Amazing!

Now I know that the story of Romeo and Juliet is fiction, but try explaining that to the folks in Verona. If I understand correctly, they believe that the story of Romeo and Juliet was based on actual events. There is a house in Verona that is called the Juliet house. It has a balcony, a statue of Juliet, and a couple of walls that folks use to post love notes. For the most part, the love notes are written on paper, then stuck to the wall with chewing gum. Amazing, isn’t it, how many things are both very romantic AND very unsanitary!

Our trip to Marostica was also quite fun. I don’t get the impression that Marostica is truly “famous” for anything. They did have a giant chess board in the town square, though. The story is that a long time ago two young men were in love with the same young woman. In order to determine who would have the hand of the fair maiden, the two young men played a game of chess…using real people on a life-sized chess board. In our opinion, though, the two best things about Marostica were the quilt shop we discovered and the ceramic shop where we got to see a demonstration by a very talented artist.

The quilt shop was of special interest to Mindy and Doreen as both of them are quilters. Mindy was especially pleased to come upon a book of quilted items to make and give as baby gifts. She was so excited by this book that she had to have it right then even though it was certain that she could have gotten it cheaper online. The irony of that book is that it was published in Provo, Utah. So my wife, who lives in Germany, traveled to Italy to buy a book that was published in Provo, Utah.

The ceramic shop was another lucky find. We were just wandering about when we cam across it. We stepped inside and the proprietor invited us over to give us a demonstration. His English was very poor, but we could tell he was doing his best. He was trying to tell us that he would make a daisy, but the English name escaped him. So instead of talking he just started working. Within moments it was clear what he was doing. It was also incredible the way he could take those little pieces of clay and put them together into a simple, yet beautiful object.

Having now completed our first Italian cooking class, you’d think that Mindy and I would be experts. Well we are not. We still haven’t tried any of the recipes here at home, not even the most simple. We did bring back some peppers from Italy, which seemed to be in about everything we made. And we did learn some very interesting things. For example many Italian recipes will give a quantity of a particular ingredient as QB, which I believe means quanto basta or as much as you like. I also learned that we Americans dreadfully overcook our pasta. Correctly cooked pasta should be al dente, which I believe means toothy or chewy.

Would you like to see more pictures?
Photos from Italy

Garmisch with Ken and Cari
Well I am very sad to say that our good friends Ken and Cari Bargamento will very soon be leaving Germany. They have bought a home in Spanish Fork which is very near the grandchildren. In Cari’s opinion that makes it the most wonderful place in the world. It will be good for us also, though, because we’ll have someone else to visit when we are in that part of the world.

We had all wanted to do a trip together before Ken and Cari officially left so we had planned a weekend getaway to Garmisch. The nice thing about Garmisch is that the Army runs a resort down there. The prices are reasonable and they have American style amenities. We made reservations for two rooms; one for Ken and Cari and one for all of us Tillett’s. We tried to convince Ken and Cari that they would be much happier with the kids in their room, but they were unconvinced.

On the way down we decided to stop and see Castle Neuschwannstein since me and the kids had never been there. It was rather rainy, though, when we got there so we took a picture or two and hopped back in the car. Our next stop was the Castle Linderhof. Both castles were built by the Bavarian king often referred to as Ludwig the Mad. Having learned a bit about him, I’m no longer surprised by that name. The guy was seriously around the bend. The Castle Neuschwannstein was started, but never actually finished, so the place that Ludwig spent most of his time was at the Linderhoff. Both the castle and the gardens are stunningly beautiful, but there were a couple of things that highlighted what I now perceive as Ludwigs poor mental condition. The table where he liked to eat was a bit like a lift. The table could move back and forth between the top floor and the basement. Ludwig would sit at the top floor while his meal was loaded onto the table in the basement. Once the meal was in place, the table would be raised to the top floor so that Ludwig could eat without the distraction of other human beings. I also learned that Ludwig preferred a schedule that had him up all night and sleeping in the day. At some time before Castle Neuschwannstein was complete, Ludwig died under suspicious conditions. Suspicious because he drowned in about 80 centimeters of water…accompanied by his physician (who also drowned)…and Ludwig was a swimmer. Hmmm…

The next day we took a drive towards Berchtesgaden to the Koenigsee. The Koenigsee is a big lake high in the Alps that is both isolated and beautiful. We took a boat tour of the lake which provided some spectacular views and got back to the shore just as it was starting to rain again.

There is no doubt about it; our first two days of this trip were long and difficult. We have learned, though, that the most difficult day can be made nearly perfect by saying just three words: “Let’s go swimming!” The best thing about Edelweiss, the Army resort we stayed at, is that they have a good sized indoor pool. So we swam on the first night we arrived and we swam again after our second day. We even got up early on our third day so that we could swim again before we went home.

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Photos from Garmisch

Scout Camp in Switzerland
As I recall, one of the best things about turning 12 was that I was able to go to Scout camp. Since Mose turned 12 I have been anticipating this new adventure for him. I did not originally expect, though, that it would become an adventure for me also. Several weeks before Scout camp I was approached by one of the Scout leaders and asked if I would be willing to go along. I indicated that I was doing my best to spend the entire summer at work so that I could save up my leave for our big trip home in the summer of 2008. I then learned that a dearth of adult leadership was putting the entire Scout camp event at risk. I agreed to go.

Now I have never been an avid camper. I have always felt that there were certain skills and abilities that made camping fun that I simply lacked. I worried about Scout camp because I knew that we would be living in tents, cooking our own meals, showering infrequently, and on top of that it was only going to be myself and Brent Clark looking after 8 boys ranging from 12 at the youngest to nearly 18 at the oldest. Oh, and I also worried about the possibility of rain.

And that’s OK, because even though we got there on Saturday afternoon, the rain didn’t really begin until Sunday afternoon and it had stopped completely by the time Thursday morning had rolled around. I guess that adds up to about 5 days of rain out of 8 days of camping, but everyone I have spoken to says that’s about par for the course. The good news for me and Mose was that we had good boots that kept our feet dry, we had a good tent that kept our sleeping bags dry, we had ponchos to keep ourselves dry, and we had two dining flies to keep our food dry. All in all it wasn’t really that bad. Between me and Mose, though, I am certain that I did the most whining.

The fact of the matter is that even with the rain, the Kandersteg area of Switzerland is beautiful. It’s a high alpine valley within view of a couple of glaciers. The houses and buildings in the village of Kandersteg were fun to see. We were also right next to a railway tunnel that goes under the alps for many kilometers, coming out further south, near Italy.

As I said earlier, we arrived on Saturday afternoon and we counted it a great blessing that it was sunny that day. We got our campsite completely set up while everything was still dry. I expect that it is probably much easier to start dry and stay dry rather than to start wet and try to become dry. On Saturday evening, the meal was canned stew that we had brought along with us.

Sunday morning was our first real camp cooked meal. We had ziplock bag omelets. To make a ziplock back omelet, you simply crack some eggs into a ziplock back, add anything else you might want like cheese, ham, onions, mushrooms, then set the sealed bag into a pot of boiling water. The best part of this meal was speculating about what could go wrong with a recipe like this. Someone commented that you wouldn’t want to add raw bacon because it wouldn’t really cook all the way. In that case you would just end up with hot soggy bacon and greasy eggs. Personally, I think that would make an excellent name for a band: introducing “Hot Soggy Bacon and the Greasy Eggs!” Yeah!

Sunday morning we also held a worship service on a grassy hill with an alpine waterfall in the background. In my opinion it was a very moving place to have a spiritual experience. There were just the 10 of us, 8 boys and 2 leaders, but we had an excellent meeting regardless. I can’t remember a more wonderful meeting at any place with any number of people. Amazingly, we had blue skies and sunshine until just as our meeting ended. Shortly after we returned to camp, the rain began.

Our boys were roughly divided into two groups. The older boys were planning on doing high adventure activities such as long challenging hikes and white water rafting. The younger boys were going to be working on merit badges. Wednesday was scheduled as a Troop day, so there were to be no high adventures or merit badge classes that day.

Monday morning dawned cool and rainy. It was my task that day to go with the older boys on a hike. Unfortunately for some of the boys, the guides were fastidious regarding required equipment, good boots being the prime example. Of the 5 boys that were scheduled to go on the hike, 2 were not likely to be allowed. One of the boys had brought hiking “shoes,” not boots. Another had set his boots too close to the fire to dry and damaged them beyond use. We took it, therefore, as a spot of good news when we learned that the hike had been canceled as so much rain had made many trails downright dangerous.

The younger Scouts were all working on the same four merit badges: Geology, Photography, Leatherwork, and Emergency Preparedness. Mose and I had each brought a camera anticipating the Photography merit badge, but one of the other boys didn’t have a camera with him. For that reason I lent him mine. I suppose that’s a good thing, for even with my limited access to my camera, I still shot an awful lot of pictures.

Brent Clark, the “real” Scout leader, had volunteered to go white water rafting with the older boys on Tuesday, but that activity was first delayed, then finally cancelled. Why, you might ask? Because of rain, of course. There had been so much rain by then that the river they were to raft was running dangerously high. Since these activities are supposed to be “high adventure,” not “death defying,” they chose to err on the side of safety. For the older boys, though, this was not happy news. They had a grand total of three high adventure events planned and two of them had already been canceled. Oh, yeah…and it was still raining.

The only redeeming quality to that Tuesday was the discovery of a delightful backerei in the village of Kandersteg. I had wondered into town with the older boys since they didn’t have much better to do. I myself was looking for a new air mattress, since mine seemed to have died. I am grateful to say that we found an air mattress, but I must say that the backerei was even better. When we first got to the backerei, there were just three of us as three had gone off in another direction. I wasn’t too impressed with what I saw so I just bought a chocolate covered pretzel. Brandon, though, picked up one of these little strawberry pie looking things. I could tell by watching Brandon’s face as he bit into it that I had made a mistake not buying the only one left in the display case. Fortunately for me, Brandon told the other boys about the wonderful backerei and we all went back. This time I did get the last of the strawberry pie things and it was wonderful! It was the best tasting strawberry pie looking thing I have ever eaten!

Wednesday was the day that had been predicted would be the beginning of nicer weather. It wasn’t. The day started with rain, progressed as far as grey and misty, then reverted back to rain by bedtime. By the time Wednesday came around, though, we were so used to the rain that we barely even noticed it.

Wednesday was our Troop day and the plan was for us to all hike up to a glacier fed lake higher up one of the side valleys. It would be an all day event, but we expected it would be worthwhile because they had toboggans near the lake and we knew they would be a hit. The hike actually took us a little more than two hours on the way up. Brent Clark led the way with the more athletic boys. I stayed to the back to sweep up anyone who fell too far behind. I worried a bit about Mose since he’s so small, but he kept up just fine. He was never all the way at the front, but he was never the last either.

Once at the lake, we ate our lunches, we enjoyed some Ice Cream, and then trundled off to find the toboggans. After about a half hour of wondering we finally found them. We all rode down three times. We would have loved to have done more, but it was too expensive. Instead we walked back toward the lake where we performed a small bit of service by picking up trash and debris left by other hikers.

I must say that we really did have an extraordinary group of boys with us. The Kandersteg International Scout Center, where we were staying, provides more than ample opportunity for mischief. There are loads of nearby caves and waterfalls. The village is right next store. Plus most Scout groups from other countries are co-ed. Boys inclined to get into trouble surely could have gotten into trouble.

So why would I be talking about trouble at this time? Because while we were at the glacier lake, six of the boys wanted to hike a bit further around the lake. Brent and I agreed that would be fine as long as they were back by 16:00. 16:00 was as late as we were comfortable with heading down because we needed to be back in time to pick up our daily rations, plus there was an opportunity for some of us to go to the village pool for some water fun. When 16:00 came, though, no one had returned. At 16:10, two of the boys returned, but the others had decided to continue. It seems they were not keen on swimming so they felt no urgency to be back.

Well I was pretty ticked. With the single exception of Mose, none of the boys with us had ever really seen me angry before. They seemed a bit surprised. My initial response was a call for summary execution, but Brent prevailed upon me to administer mercy, not just justice. In the end we agreed that the offenders would do evening chores on Thursday and Friday night, which they did.

On Thursday the sun came out and things seemed to be looking up. The older boys (except for two) went with Brent Clark on a hike to a high alpine cheesery where they were treated to farm fresh milk and real Swiss cheese. I stayed at the camp most of that day trying to dry all of the things that had become wet over the previous five days.

Friday was a good day too. The older boys caught a break because their white water rafting trip was successfully rescheduled for Friday afternoon. The younger Scouts wrapped up their merit badges that day having completed the requirements for all for merit badges. As for me, I took a ride on a tram to a high alpine valley where I enjoyed spectacular views, but also discovered that my blisters from Wednesday had not yet healed.

On Saturday we got up, packed up, loaded up, and headed up the highway for home. The camp food, incidentally, was quite good. We had a cucumber salad one evening that I still dream about sometimes. The boys all did a fine job with the cooking and cleaning. I will admit, though, that I was quite happy to stop at the German border and eat at McDonald’s. Sleeping in my own bed that night was just as wonderful as I had dreamed it would be for the whole time I was in Switzerland.

Would you like to see more pictures?
Photos from Switzerland

Zig-Zagging Thoughts
I am very pleased to note that the state which we live in, Baden –Wuerttemberg, recently passed a law banning smoking in almost all public buildings and places. It’s not quite as strict as the law passed in Ireland, but it certainly will make things better than they have been. The law goes into effect on 1 August and I can’t wait.

Mose, Sara, and Cory continue to improve their swimming. Cory has especially benefited from the time we have spent with Ken and Cari. Cory and Ken get along famously and Ken’s help and encouragement have done wonders for Cory. He seemed to go from non-swimmer to swimmer overnight.

The other day I took my Mini into the shop because it was overheating. The problem was a faulty thermostat, which was easily replaced. It does make me wonder a bit, though, since my little car only has about 40K miles on it. When I went to pick it up I was delighted to see that they had left a placard on the steering wheel that simply said "I missed you!" It was a very simple thing to do, and I know that my car didn't really miss me, but I couldn't help but feel wonderful about my car again. Do I still love my Mini? Oh, yes I do!

Just one last thought and then I'm done. The weather here lately has been positively divine! There has been just enough rain that I haven't needed to water the grass and the rest of the days have been sunny and blue. Temperatures for the last several days have topped out at about 75 degrees, which for July is absolutely stunning. Just another reason to feel blessed, I guess.

Love from all!
Russ, Mindy, Mose, Sara, and Cory