Page 441, City #14 in Northern Germany, Columns 1 and 2

The last Saturday of February was a busy and exciting one for us at the Waldorfschule.  This day was the school's annual open house so that the public, interested families, and potential teachers could come and see what our school is about.  They had put together a whole program for the day -- there were two sessions of "classes" you could attend to get a feel for what it would be like to attend the school: science demonstrations; tours of the grounds; musical performances; and also various tables and "cafés" run by our students for cake and coffee, drinks, or grabbing lunch.  My choir began the day with two songs and then our sixth grade wind project had its turn.

After the first round of performances, Mike and I helped man the world language table with some of our French teacher colleagues.  Annette also had a post promoting the Blue Lake International groups that have traveled to the school in the past. 

The second round of performances began at midday and was kicked off by the fifth grade class giving a eurythmy performance.  The teaching of this specialized type of movement is one of the distinctive elements of Waldorf education.  After the eurythmy, we quickly set up the stage for the 3rd and 4th grade string classes demonstration.  Our fifth grade wind project played after that.  Mike had put together a great ten minute program where a student would introduce what we had learned since October and then we demonstrated it as a band through little songs.  This was followed up by the children's circus project, which is where the youngest classes dress up as circus animals and do tricks as if they were in a three-ring circus.

Although it had turned into a rather gray day by the time the open house wound down, we made plans with Christel, one of the new French teachers, to visit one of her favorite cities around the area:  Celle.  She and her partner Alberto frequent this charming city often for its sauna and restaurants.  Somehow, this little place, Celle, has more space in our DK Eyewitness Travel Guide for Germany than Wolfsburg (which is city #15 with only half a column in the book).

It's about an hour's drive northwest of Wolfsburg.  Along the way, Christel told us about some of the city's attractions.  Mike was most excited to learn that Moeck, a well known German recorder (wooden flute or block flute) making company is based there.  Celle also has, according to DK Travel, five hundred traditional German Fachwerkhäuser or half-timbered houses.  Very generally speaking, these houses are constructed with a wooden lattice frame and the spaces of the lattice are filled with some sort of material - plaster, stone, or whatnot.  In Germany, each village has a specific style of Fachwerk and all of the Fachwerkhäuser in a village must be the same style.

Most, if not all, of these Fachwerkhäuser have stores or restaurants on the lower floors and then apartments in the upper levels.

Mike and Christel very graciously posed for me.
 

The Fachwerkhäuser make you feel like you're walking through a fairytale.

This particular Fachwerkhaus - above and again below - is mentioned in our book.  The reliefs are of mythological figures.  

Am I the only one who finds having an Indian restaurant in a Fachwerkhaus a little odd?

Another odd thing in Celle was its fascination with Native Americans...

Two Native American themed restaurants on the same street!

This one had an amusing logo on its windows:

We walked through the streets soaking in the fairytale-ness of it all.  Then we came upon some cut outs of lampposts.  They spoke.  Mike spoke back to the grandma lamppost.

The cutouts actually told the history of Celle.  In the background is what some claim to be the ugliest building in the town. 

We continued on our way and eventually wound up at Celle's castle.  It was very impressive, but unfortunately it was too late to look around. 

The city's Gothic chapel is across the street.

One of northern Germany's few synagogues that survived the Nazi pogroms, and the only Baroque synagogue that survived is in Celle.  Unfortunately there is no picture of it here.  But here are more Fachwerkhäuser!

Eventually we ended up at one of Christel's favorite restaurants in Celle, the Apache Steakhouse.  The interior of the restaurant screams SOUTHWEST.  Any stereotypical southwestern United States/Native American/cowboy decoration you can think of, it was there.  I think the word of the night was "gaudy".

I had mentioned earlier that day how we don't really eat much meat here in Germany.  First, it's just a pain to get and cook.  Second, beef here in Germany is most definitely not like beef in the US, or anywhere else in the world apparently.  Maybe it's the feed or just that Germans don't eat much beef, but neither we nor Christel have found the beef sold at the grocery stores here very good. It has the most odd texture and beef steaks tend to cook more like pork would.  Anyway, Christel said that this restaurant was the place for beef, and she was so very right. 

All of the food was delicious, but the most amazing part was probably having a great tasting and good textured steak.  

Here it is on the menu.

As you can see, it's Argentinian steak.  This is the only good quality steak Christel's been able to find since she moved to Germany from France last April.  

If you read the menu, you might have noticed that the steak platters are very similar to American steakhouse dinners - another pleasant surprise.  With the steak came a salad (with a few ingredients that are not so American - like corn kernels), a huge baked potato (with honestly half a cup of sour cream), and garlic bread (nothing too strange here).  They also had corn on the cob, which is highly unusual for Germany.  The quality of the corn itself wasn't the greatest (you could tell its been sitting shrink-wrapped in juices for a long time, just as all whole-eared corn is sold in Germany), but it still tasted great. 

A lot of good food and good company made for a great night.  To end the evening, Christel took us to a cocktail bar to have a drink.  It'd been a long time since Mike or I have been in such a setting, so it was nice to be in that atmosphere.  The bar also had this cool glass fire display/decoration.  Apparently we're going to have one in our future house...

Thanks for a great evening, Christel!