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!

The Vienna Philharmonic? Why not?

February was a busy month at the Waldorfschule.  The eighth class had its class play the first weekend.  The seventh class had its circus the next week (explanation and pictures in a later post).  Then parent conferences took place with the school open house the weekend after that. Originally, we had been scheduled to be at another Waldorf teacher conference in Stuttgart the same weekend of conferences, but those plans were canceled at the last minute.  As a result, we were put on the books for being available for meetings with our students and their parents that Friday and Saturday.

We picked up our conferences schedule the Wednesday before.  Much to our surprise, a total of three parents signed up between the two of us.  Furthermore, all three happened to be scheduled for Friday leaving us an unexpectedly free Saturday.

Now we have to backtrack a bit...  While we were in Cologne, Mike happened to see that the Vienna Philharmonic was going to be performing the Rite of Spring in the Cologne Philharmonic Hall.  And not only was it the Vienna Philharmonic performing Stravinsky, but Lorin Maazel was conducting.  Of course we really wanted to go - world renowned orchestra with an equally famous conductor - obviously up our alley.  It happened to be scheduled for this particular weekend, which was at that point our second seminar in Stuttgart, February 20 and 21.   But the concert was at 8 pm on Sunday the 21st.  There was no way we could do the seminar through Saturday, be in Cologne Sunday for a late concert, and make it back to Wolfsburg alive enough to teach Monday morning.  No way.

Being that they were on tour, Mike looked to see if they'd possibly be playing in Stuttgart the night before -- slightly wishful thinking.  They weren't playing in Stuttgart, but they were playing in Frankfurt... about 209 kilometers (130 miles) or two hours away by Autobahn, possibly an hour by train.  No matter how you calculate it, it was tight fit -- finishing a conference at 5 pm in Stuttgart and making it to Frankfurt for the concert at 8.  Hmm.  Even so, Mike schemed.

As it turned out, all of the scheming was unnecessary.  Our Saturday was suddenly wide open!  True to form, we bought last minute tickets and set ourselves up to be in Frankfurt for the weekend.  We were finally going to get to know the city outside of its international airport (where all of our flights, past and future, have flown out of when heading to Chicago).  

Since the main reason for being in Frankfurt at all was to hear the orchestra, we decided to make the trip as least stressful as possible by not planning out each minute and jamming a ridiculous amount of sight-seeing into the short trip.  We left at a reasonable hour Saturday morning and took a restful train ride down to Frankfurt am Main (there is another Frankfurt, Germany in the opposite direction, but it's not on the Main  -- pronounced "mine" -- River).  We arrived around 1 pm, found our way to our hotel, and then had the rest of the afternoon to get some food and explore the city before the main event.

Since our hotel was a little ways out, we got to see bits of the less touristy areas of Frankfurt.  The city has a very different feel to it in comparison to the other big German towns we've visited.  Maybe it is because tourism hasn't completely taken over the city and is more centralized into a small area.  Or maybe Frankfurt just has less glamor and charm because it was rebuilt after WWII in a more modern and simplified style.  Or maybe I'm just completely off since the city is known to be one of the economic and cultural centers in both Germany and Europe.  In any case, we weren't too sure what to make of the place. 

Our awesome Eyewitness Travel Guide had a slew of suggestions, and with the help of the maps inside, we decided to work our way towards the city center.  This meant that the Städelsches Kunstinstitut (the Städel Art Museum) was first up.  The museum houses seven centuries of European art, including some Rembrandt and Degas that would have been awesome to see.  The other work I was excited to see was The Geographer by Jan Vermeer van Delft -- how can one not be reminded of AP European History class?  As we walked along the Main River to get to the museum, we also saw posters advertising their special exhibit of Sandro Botticelli art.

Apparently the posters worked, as this is what we saw when we arrived at the museum.

The line was at least four people wide and went from the main entrance, down the street, around the corner, and continued down the block.  It was the second to the last weekend the exhibition was to be in Frankfurt and it seemed that the Frankfurters all wanted to see Botticelli's work before it left.  Since we were only going to be in town for a total of 24 hours, we decided not to spend the majority of our time waiting in line.  

We crossed the foot bridge over the Main to head into the heart of the city for lunch.

All along the river and throughout the city, we found these very strange looking trees.  To this day we still don't know what they are.

Once over the river, we did what we do best:  walk around in circles.  Our first problem was that we didn't really know where to go to look for food.  No matter where we headed we only found more office buildings -- that, or run back into the Main.  We must have squiggled around the same few blocks for an hour.  Finally we found ourselves back at the train station.  We went due west from there and discovered first hand one of Frankfurt's distinctive qualities:  the multicultural atmosphere.  

The area near the train station had, in particular, a lot of Turkish stores and restaurants.  In the end we chose a little Döner Kebab restaurant.  We ordered a Döner plate, which was yummy as expected, and also a chicken kebab plate.  As we ate, Mike pointed out that this was the first time we'd had chicken in Germany.  It made us realize how long it'd been since we'd had chicken... and how much we missed it!

After lunch, we decided to try to make our way towards the Kaiser Dom because it seemed like a lot of the other famous sites were around that area.  Along the way we found Willy-Brandt-Platz, a pedestrian square with two famous buildings -- the headquarters of the European Central Bank (which is actually moving its location in 2014) and the new Frankfurt Opera House.  

Willy-Brandt-Platz is also known for this giant euro sign.

Continuing on our way, as it was getting late into the day and the big tourist sites began closing at 5 pm, we wound our way through the streets in hopes of eventually running into Frankfurt's old city or Altstadt.  

We found more weird trees.

And finally something pretty looking.

Then all of a sudden, we get this sight:

Now this is more like it!  These half-timbered houses are known as Ostzeile (the east row), one of the symbols of Frankfurt.

The Ostzeile is part of the square in the center of the Altstadt known as the Römerberg.  There is the fountain of justice in the middle that we didn't take a picture of.  Then opposite the half-timbered houses is what is known as the Römer, a complex of 15th to 18th century houses.  The center building is the old town hall.

We decided to get a glass of wine at the little wine café in the very first building of Römer.  The place was adorable and relaxing.  It was almost too bad we had just eaten.

From there, we continued westward until we saw Frankfurt's Kaiserdom.

Construction for the Kaiserdom began in the 13th century.  German kings and Holy Roman Emperors' coronations took place in this cathedral.  We arrived just shortly before closing, so we only got a quick glimpse around and inside.

Just behind the cathedral is the Museum for Modern Art.  We decided not to make it a museum day and instead took a look at the little archaeological park just in front of the museum.  There, remains of a Carolingian fortress have been preserved.  It was a little odd for us to see kids going in and out of it area with their skateboards.

From there, we decided to see if we could make it to the Goethehaus before closing time.  Johann Goethe is of course revered as a significant figure in all of Germany, but he is practically worshiped in the Waldorf system.  How could we not go?  Unfortunately, by the time we found it was too late.  We took pictures of the outside and visited his statue instead.

By this point it was late enough to head towards the Alte Oper, Frankfurt's historical opera house, where the concert was taking place.  

As you can see, the building itself was under renovation and the place was crowded with lots of rich people in fancy clothes having dinner and drinks before the concert, so we just picked up our tickets and headed across the street to the shopping district.  

The area was definitely much too expensive and high end for us (though we did stop in Burberry just to peek around), but it was fun to walk through.  We ended our walk at the chic Häagen Dazs café where we couldn't resist temptation.   

Indulging can be so good.

Finally, it was the moment we'd been waiting for -- concert time!  The Vienna Philharmonic, Lorin Maazel, and a great program... what more could you ask for?  The orchestra sounded fantastic, of course.  To our delight, they even played an encore!  

Here is the hall.

After the concert we walked back down the shopping district, towards the Altstadt where we hoped to get a bit of dinner.  I also wanted to take a closer look at the shopping mall we'd passed earlier.  The building looked curiously constructed.

This is what I saw earlier from a distance.

This is what that strange hole actually is.  It reminds me of Spiderman.

The walk back down to the Altstadt and the Römer didn't take too long, but unfortunately, many of the restaurants were closing up or looked too full.  We were just about to give up and head back to the hotel for the night when a waiter from one of the restaurants called us over, telling us they had a place for us.  How could we turn down such a friendly invitation?

The restaurant was a cute traditional German place that was full even that late into the evening.  The waitstaff and owner of the place were extremely friendly and welcoming.  After they got us our drinks (Beer, of course!  It's Germany!) and pretzels to munch on, they told us that they had a dinner plate perfect for two people to share.  We looked at each other and said, well, why not?  

Well...

If I remember correctly, there are about three different varieties of sausage on that plate, a whole pork knuckle, a pork steak with a fried egg on top, mashed potatoes, traditional German Bratkartoffeln, sauerkraut, and a salad.  And the pretzels from before.  Of course, we were a bit shocked when they put that down in front of us.  But we did say yes to something completely unknown.  We did the best we could to demolish the plate -- we maybe cleared almost half of it.  It all tasted good.  We just... could have shared that with at least two, or three... or four other people.  The funny thing is that later on, searching back at home for this particular restaurant, I ran across a review of the Römer area entitled, "Beware of the Friendly Waiters".  I wonder what happened to those people?  Ah, well, so it goes.  At least it was funny.

The next morning was dreary (weather-wise) and laid back.  We decided our only stop for the day would be the Jewish Museum before we took the train back up to Wolfsburg.  It took a lot of wandering around in circles again before we could find it, but we did get some nice pictures along the paths of the river Main.

I liked the three very distinct footprints in the freshly fallen snow.

We did make it to the museum eventually.  It surprisingly had a metal detector at its entrance.  That aside, the museum  was jammed full of interesting information about Frankfurt's long history with Jews, antisemitism, and what life was like for this minority through the centuries.  The second floor contained hundreds of artifacts from Jewish life and customs.  There was also a small exhibit on Anne Frank, who spent the early years of her life in Frankfurt until her family moved to the Netherlands due to the economic, political, and social environment in Germany.  There was just too much information for too little time.  We made it through the main historical exhibit and quickly walked through the second floor before making our way back to the train station.

These are some of the Frankfurt skyscrapers and more interesting modern buildings along the way.

Here is the Hauptbahnhof.

At the train station we noticed an unusual number of German police out and about... with riot gear.  We were a little confused, but decided not to worry about it.  One train ride later back in Wolfsburg, however, we found the same thing.  Just leaving the train station we saw three car-loads of heavily uniformed police drive by.

Upon deciding that we weren't going to chase buses again, we headed towards one of our regular brunch places (when we go out with Annette and Jo) for coffee and something to eat.  It was then that we saw the first green and white scarf.  Our suspicions were confirmed when we entered Cafe & Bar; Bar Celona.  Football Sunday.  Oh, Europeans and their soccer madness.

Fortunately we had enough time to sit, relax, have coffee, and a bite to eat before the game started and the Wolfsburgers would be cheering and going crazy for their team on the big screens in the restaurant.  It was a nice way to end a nice weekend.