T is for AlTer PeTer

 

The view from a tower is always a great way to see a city from above and get some orientation. While we were in München, Kaefer suggested climbing the tower of St. Peter, the oldest recorded parish church in Munich, right in the center of the city. It is called "Alter Peter" in the vernacular. You can find it between Marienplatz and Viktualienmark.

Climbing the tower is not for the faint of heart - it's up old wooden stairs and after a while I stopped counting the steps and just concentrated on actually making it to the top. I had to take a few breaks and catch my breath, but I eventually made it to the viewing platform.

It was worth every single step (and every silent curse that slipped through my mind). What a view!

View over Heiliggeistkirche toward Kaefer's neighborhood at the horizon

Neues Rathaus (New City hall) at Marienplatz, Theatinerkirche and Hofgarten; Olympic Tower to the left

Frauenkirche - one of the most well known landmarks - and Olympic Tower

Viktualienmarkt - you can even faintly see the Alps in the distance

Looking straight down to the roof of the church - it is a very long church.

After we had come down we visited the inside of the church. It is Roman-Catholic like so many churches in Bavaria. It's built and decorated in the Baroque style, lots of gold inside - let me put it mildly, I simply don't like it (those who know me are aware of my much stronger feelings and opinions).

I couldn't resist taking the following photo, even though the quality is rather poor. My photographer's eye is always open, even if I don't like a place (or especially then).

One thing I like in Catholic churches are the candles and I always light one for my family. In my book, praying for your family is not dependent on any church or even religion. I liked that the image of the church is engraved on the candles.

Pandemic times didn't pass by the holy water either - it was in a special dispenser ("Weihwasserspender" means holy water dispenser).

Right next to the church are several street cafés and we thought it was time for a break - and this is my ticket for Elizabeth's T Tuesday. Kaefer and I had a Bellini with a scoop of ice cream and the Geek opted for the ice coffee. Please note that I write "ice" instead of "iced" coffee - ice coffee is cold coffee with one or two scoops of vanilla ice cream and often whipped cream on top. It's very popular in Germany; the German word for it is "Eiskaffee" (and the same goes for Eisschokolade or ice chocolate that I wrote about here).

I simply love the reflection of the Bellini in Kaefer's sunglasses.

Cat Face

 

I have always loved the look of cats when they peek around a corner, wall, building... there is something curious and vulnerable about them at the same time. When I found a picture on Pinterest of a black cat in exactly that pose I knew I had to try and paint it.

Of course I did NOT draw the cat myself. I printed out that particular photo and traced the outer shape of the cat on textured paper in the size of an ATC. I knew that I didn't want a black cat - I was thinking purple and magenta shades. And I wanted to use watercolors - I only have a travel kit of Winsor & Newton watercolors with 14 half pans which means I need to mix my colors most of the time. Here I used only two colors and worked on the different shades with more or less water and also let the colors run into each other. I do like the effect. The eyes of the cat are a little bit too green, but I just wasn't able to mix a much lighter, warmer shade. The backgound is made with yellow ochre and a little bit of burnt sienna, and I used a paw stamp with distress ink as the final touch.

I'm linking this to Nicole's Friday Face Off.

There's something weird going on with the cats in our neighborhood. Within two weeks two cats on our block have been found dead. There were no visible injuries, no bites, nothing. We suspect they were poisoned - most probably by rat poison or snail or ant bait. Even fertilizer can be a culprit. Thankfully I have nothing of these in my garden, but I am still concerned about my permanent residents. Usually they don't leave my garden and they are too old or lazy to chase any rodents or birds (which I am very happy about; I still remember when I twice rescued a hummingbird out of Kibeau's mouth; the second time the little bird was flying out of the mouth the moment I had opened it). We just hope that no one intentionally poisons them. Not liking cats is one thing; killing them is a completely different matter.

Otis doesn't have a care in the world (except for getting fed on time) - who knew that a hard rock can be such a comfortable pillow?

Tables in the Meadow

One day while staying in München we took the train out to Starnberger See (Lake Starnberg). When we walked towards the lake we came upon a big beautiful meadow.

The meadow was covered with little yellow Buttercups as well as tiny blue Veronica and dandelions. You can see a bit of the lake peeking through the trees. There were all kinds of huge decidious trees, including this magnificent Copper Beech, a favorite of mine.

But it was the tables that gave me this unique kind of summer feeling. The color of the sunshades, the checkered table cloths, the cushions on the folding chairs and the flowers on the tables - there was this whisper of picnic, carefree summer days, a light breeze in the air, bird song and the humming of bees accompanying the laughter of children. 

It filled me with an aching wistfulness.

After having spent a couple hours at the lake we thought it was time to come back here and get some goodies from the kiosk. Kaefer had raved about the strawberry-rhubarb cake she had eaten here the summer before, so we wondered whether they already had some - they had! Kaefer hadn't promised too much, the cake was delicious. Not too sweet so that you could taste the fruit - just right! The Geek and I had iced chocolate (with lots of whipped cream) and Kaefer opted for a big glass of apple juice.

I am linking with Rain's Thursday Art and Dinner Date - you can have cake for dinner, right?

Walk Along the River

 

The river that runs through München is called Isar. It is 295 km long and has its source in the Karwendel range of the Alps in Tirol, Austria. Its longest distance is in Bavaria where it eventually flows into the Donau (Danube). The river is not navigable for watercraft above raft size (no cruise ships, yay!)

Kaefer loves the Isar. She often runs there or takes her bike and her swimsuit and spends a couple hours on the banks of the river and swims in the river in the summer. She took us on a walk there.

We started at the Friedensengel (Angel of Peace)

The Friedensengel is a monument that is part of the Maximilian-Anlagen (Maximilian Park) and the foundation stone was laid in 1896. It is a reminder of the 25 peaceful years after the Franco-German war of 1870/71. The Friedensengel sits on top of a beautiful fountain.

From here we walked beside the river, along boardwalks and soft forest trails.

I liked the big concrete balls along the boardwalk.

You have certainly noticed all the graffiti on the surfaces. Some of them are quite impressive, some not so much. Here are two I liked.

On the forested path I noticed the flowering Laburnum and couldn't resist taking a few pictures of Kaefer in front of it. We enjoyed watching the ping-pong players - you often find ping-pong tables in public parks in Germany, you only have to bring your own paddle and ball.

We stopped at Kabelsteg where  we had a beautiful view of St. Lukas with a rather dramatic sky (there had been a thunderstorm shortly before we started out for our walk) and when I turned around, the view down the river toward Maximilanbrücke (the bridge you can see ) was just as beautiful.

We walked further up the river, passed the Deutsche Museum, one of the most interesting museums, especially if you're interested in science and how things work, and finally reached the meadows that are popular with the locals for meeting friends and familiy to spend a lovely evening, barbeque or just hang out.

Last week, Kate asked how I make the Karkade that I showed you as my drink (and will do so today as well). I don't follow a special recipe, so here goes:

Add 2-3 tablespoons of dried hibiscus flowers to a big pot. Bring 1 liter (or a bit more than 4 cups) of water to a boil and pour over the hibiscus flowers. Cover and let steep overnight. The next morning, pour it through a sieve into another pot. Add sugar to taste - I don't like it too sweet. Stir and put in the fridge for a couple hours. Enjoy. 

I'm actually having a glass while I'm writing this, since I didn't drink all of it during my lunch of falafel and tomatoes.

This wonderful summer drink is my ticket to Elizabeth's T Tuesday.

The Caged Bird Sings of Freedom

Usually I don't feel confident painting faces. But when I watched Christa Forrest's session of the Kaleidoscope 2022 Taster Week, I was so inspired to try my own take of her painting.

Like her, I used Maya Angelou's poem "Caged Bird" as my inspiration and also used her reference image to trace the face. I wrote parts of the poem with black charcoal and then covered it with white gesso and some water. I added washi tape and papers to make some collaged background. Then I stencilled with white paint over it. That was the easy part.

After I had traced the face I started to fill in the face. Christa's idea was to just use black and white and mix midtones with it. For me, it was quite a challenge to stay within these colors, but it taught me about their values. It was interesting and a great learning experience. I had seen her applying the color for the hair with a sponge, so I tried that, too. The outcome in my painting isn't quite as stunning as in hers, but I like the technique and love the texture of it.

As you can see, I didn't stay within the limits of black, white and the midtones. I had to bring in some mute color in her "clothes", the stars, flowers and bird. The final collaging of the birds and the white cosmos was fun. The flowers are out of a gardening catalogue and the birds come from an old bird calendar. Finally I added some words from the poem.

This is the first time I'm joining Nicole's Friday Face Off.

What is German Food?

 

Left: Schnitzel "Wiener Art" (pork instead of veal) with fries and lingonberrry sauce; right: breaded schnitzel with potato salad

You have probably heard the term "German food" and maybe you thought of schnitzel and bratwurst. Both are certainly typical German food - but actually the term "German food" is quite misleading. Germany has several local cuisines and depending in which region you are, you will get the special food of that area. Even food that you can get all over Germany like bratwurst is not the same in the different regions - a Nürnberger Bratwurst is quite different from a Thüringer Bratwurst. In the following picture you can see three foods that are typical for certain regions in Germany, but are differently made in those regions. Of these three, Currywurst - originally from Berlin - might be the most popular one. It is a typical fast food (and way better than McDonalds, Burger King etc. It actually tastes like food.). I wrote about it here.

From left to right: Sauerbraten (marinated and braised beef) with potato dumplings and red cabbage; Zwiebelrostbraten (onion beef roast) with Bratkartoffeln (fried potatoes); Currywurst with fries

In this post I will show you Bavarian food and a little bit of Swabian food - both are favorites of mine. Most (but not all) of the Bavarian food photos were taken in a Biergarten (beer garden).

From left to right: Leberkäs (a type of meat loaf) with fried egg and bread; Obatzda (a spread made with very ripe camembert, butter, beer, onions and spices) with bread; Kaiserschmarrn (cut-up and sugared pancake with raisins)

The Leberkäs is also called Fleischkäs which is essentially the same thing. We often eat it sandwiched in a roll. A roll has several names in Germany, depending in which region you are. In Bavaria they're called Semmeln, in Swabia they are Wecken or Weckle. The short form for Leberkäswecken is LKW - which is also what we call a big truck. Welcome to the confusing peculiarities of the German language.

One of the biggest food seasons in Germany is Spargelzeit - white asparagus season. This is the time when many Germans kind of lose their minds foodwise. It only lasts a few short months - the start of asparagus season depends on the weather, but the last day traditionally is June 24th. My preferred way to eat white asparagus is as Spargelcrèmesuppe (creamy asparagus soup).

Two more very popular Bavarian soups are (on the left) Brezensupp'n (pretzel soup) and (on the right) Leberknödelsupp'n (liver dumpling soup). Both are delicious.

We also love to eat fish. Most fish here comes from the lakes and rivers, but also from the sea. I love Zander and I was very happy that I found it on the menu in a restaurant in Würzburg. The rainbow trout I had came from the Königssee, one of the most romantic lakes in Germany (blogpost will follow, I promise).

Clockwise from top left: Fish and chips; Zander with potato salad; pollock with potato cucumber salad; rainbow trout with herb butter and potatoes

You may be surprised that I include Döner in this post. Not a German food at all, it is one of the most popular street foods in my native country. Germany has a large population of Turkish people and they brought us the Döner (teşekküler, Türkiye!) When we're in Germany we need at least one Döner.

It was SO good!

Let's take a little break and have some gelato, shall we?

Now let's go over to Swabia and explore three of their local dishes. We had them when we stopped for lunch in Tübingen where I used to live.

From left to right: Fried Maultaschen (kind of Swabian ravioli); Saitenwürstle mit Linsen und Spätzle (the Swabian version of Vienna sausage with lentils and Swabian noodles); Schupfnudeln or Bubaspitzle mit Sauerkraut (potato noodles with sauerkraut)

Maultaschen has always been my favorite Swabian dish. You can prepare them in many different ways, the filling can be meat or vegetarian - they are so versatile. A glass of Trollinger (typical red wine from Baden-Württemberg) completes the meal.

We need dessert! What about (on the left) Dampfnudeln (a usually sweet yeast dumpling) or (on the right) a slice of Käsekuchen (cheese cake)? This is a Swabian Käsekuchen - it is not made with cream cheese like cheese cake in the US but with Quark which is very popular in Germany (I was looking for a good translation but couldn't find one; it's a low-fat dairy product, in France often called "fromage blanc" or white cheese; it is not like cottage cheese since it doesn't have any curds).

We're almost done! Just one more thing - cinnamon roasted almonds. They ae often sold at Christmas markets and at fairs, but in Munich's pedestrian zone I found a booth that sold small bags of them, they were still warm - the best way to eat them! So darn delicious!

I'm linking up to Kathy's Food Wednesday.