Back to business as usual

Life on Oederweg returns to normal today with the departure of Ông, Bà, and Cori. Dan rode the train with them to the airport as Gianna and I waved goodbye. Gianna was sure Bố was gone for good, going back to the US on the airplane with the rest of the crew. But alas he returned two hours later and we celebrated with pastries. Now begins the re-education of Gianna Mai to remove the grandparent-instilled ideas that fussing will lead to someone carrying you or giving you gum. As I type, she is throwing an "I-don't-want-to-go-to-sleep" tantrum.

This is another three day weekend in Germany and we are doing nothing except seeing Star Trek tomorrow afternoon, drinking apfelwein and beer, and experimenting with new Vietnamese recipes in the kitchen. All this traveling has us beat. Still, the in-law photos from Switzerland were spectacular and we are thinking we must take a drive down there sometime this summer.

France pt 3: the gardens

Seeing the gardens in France was my absolute favorite part of the trip. For years, I've been keeping a mental rank of my favorite gardens, and Singapore Botanic Gardens had been the top of the list, until now. Here is a run down of the gardens we saw and the highlights.

GIVERNY
Giverny is the garden where Claude Monet created some of his most famous paintings and was his residence until his death in 1926. At the top of a small hill on one side of the road stands his house and a French cottage garden called Clos Normand. This is an overwhelming collection of flowers, planted in clumps, freely growing, nothing formal about it. This was definitely the time of year to see Giverny as the irises (my favorite flower) were in full bloom along with phlox and roses to dazzle the imagination. And oh the fragrance! Even with a stuffy head cold, I was lost in the aroma of the garden. On the other side of the road was his water garden with the famous Japanese bridge. Unfortunately the bridge is just a replica and didn't look like anything special. The brooks that fed into the pond were so serene, even with all the tourists, my stress levels from the previous day in Paris were approaching zero. One thing about visiting Giverny, the bus schedule is unreliable. We ended up walking through the French countryside 4 km back to the train station. I might even recommend paying for an organized trip where someone drives you out there from your hotel to avoid the train/bus hassle altogether.

VERSAILLES










This palace and gardens knocks the socks off anything you will see in Paris. Seeing these gardens was like seeing the ocean for the first time; it was hard to comprehend the magnitude of it all. The most impressive part was the orangery. The orangery gardens consist of formal hedges and the orange trees in their boxes for moving in and out of the orangery. As you walked inside the orangery, cool damp air poured through the doors and you suddenly felt like you were in the land of giants. The proportions were massive; you could have rolled a whole forest of trees in there. We explored up and down the hall and figured this may be a good place to hide during a rainstorm, as the thunderheads drew near. The rest of the gardens consisted of dozens of "rooms" typically with a fountain as the central theme. Yes, it did start to rain, but we took a long lunch under a canopy and were able to see the rest of the gardens when the storms had passed. On the back side of the palace, there was a grand network of fountains, which all turned on at 3:30. Standing up on those palace stairs, it was so amazing how the garden stretched as far as the eye could see. I have never been to a garden built on such a grand scale and for that reason alone, Versailles put Singapore out of the number one spot on my list of best gardens in the world.

VILLANDRY
I remember learning about Villandry in my horticulture classes back at Penn State. Don't forget, I went on to become a chemist, but my first love is horticulture! Villandry's vegetable gardens were featured in one of my vegetable crops textbooks and I remember staring at those photos, longing to see the garden in person. Well, Villandry did not disappoint. The gardens were immaculate, a stark contrast to Giverny. We briefly toured the inside of the chateau, which was nice, but nothing compared to the gardens, in my opinion.

CHENONCEAU
Compared to the other gardens, Chenonceau was hardly worth the €10 entrance fee. There was some significant reconstruction being done on the chateau itself and the grounds near the gardens, so I didn't bother taking many photos of scaffolding and do not enter signs with red and white tape. There was a manicured hedge garden that was nice, but there were no good ariel views of it from the chateau. I thought the 16th century farm and vegetable garden were the main attractions.

AMBOISE
This wasn't really a garden, it was an old town with a big chateau that we stopped at on our drive back to Paris. The chateau rose high above the river and town, but we didn't pay the €10 entrance fee to see the inside. Instead, we walked around the town, looking at the old buildings and city walls. This town was good for what we intended it, a one hour stop for lunch on the way back to Paris.

France pt 2: Paris sightseeing

The photo on the left says it all. This is Jardin du Luxembourg, a park that Rick Steve's travel guide suggested as a place to unwind and let your children run free. Instead, it looked like Belmar beach on Labor Day weekend. The whole city was jam packed with tourists from the Eiffel Tower all the way over to Notre Dame cathedral. Although we stayed in Paris for three nights, we only toured Paris for one day.

Here are the highlights.


Arc de Triomphe (left) was just down the road from our hotel room so we got there around 8am before it was overrun by tourists. You could just see the Eiffel tower peaking out from the horizon. Next we met up with Dan's parents and sister and took the metro over to the Eiffel Tower. People told me "get ready to be impressed, the Eiffel tower is so huge". Well, I think people oversold it. I was expecting a tower the size of the Empire State Building, so it seemed kinda small. Still it was worth the hour wait and the €8 per person to take the elevator up to the second floor and have a look out over the city. Gianna really liked the "big tower" (center), so that made us happy. After the tower, we decided to walk to Luxembourg Garden, and see the Seine River and Notre Dame Cathedral (right) along the way. The walk was much longer than it looked on the map or sounded in Rick Steve's Paris guide, and we never got to the garden until 4pm. Along the way, we stopped at the Musée du Louvre and Tuileries park. The Tuileries were jam packed with people and we did not have any intention of waiting to go inside the Louvre. Instead, we had fun playing in the fountains outside.












In my opinion, if you have one city in Europe to go see, don't pick Paris. It's expensive, touristy, and dirty. Like I said, we slept in Paris for three nights but only toured one day. The other days we got out of the city to see some beautiful gardens, but you will have to wait until I post France pt. 3 to see those photos. The gardens were definitely the highlight of the trip! You can see the Paris album by clicking here.

France pt 1: the food

People say lots of great things about France and the food. "Oh you have to try the pastries/baguettes/crêpes/coffee". I think all of those things taste pretty great in Germany, so I was anxious to see what all the hype is about and how Germany stacks up against France in my book.

PASTRIES











It was my mission to taste as many French pastries as possible to see if they really have a leg up on Germany. The first morning we had chocolate croissants from two different bakeries. They were smaller than German croissants, overly flaky, and they left a fatty film in my mouth like after you eat a bowl of homemade ice cream. We had some great bear-claw shaped pastries filled with applesauce, raisin swirls, and various other pastry creations. Despite my love of the applesauce filled pastries, I have to give this category to the Germans. The French pastries are too buttery for my taste and they make a huge greasy mess in your lap. I much prefer a pastry with more dough, a higher carb to fat ratio.

Germany: 1 France: 0

BREAD
We must have tasted over a dozen different baguettes since they are served with virtually every meal. They are used to make sandwiches including an inventive hot dog creation where they poke a hole in the baguette, fill it with ketchup, and stuff in a hot dog. Gianna ate 3 or 4 of these during the trip (see photo). A no-mess hot dog, great invention! Quality of the baguettes ranged from fresh, "this is awesome", artisan bread to "this tastes like it came from the bakery at Stop-and-Shop back in Jersey". The French are really in love with their baguettes, but they lose points for variety. I can only eat baguettes so many times before I'm longing for something in a whole wheat or ciabatta.

Germany: 2 France: 0

COFFEE

French coffee was outstanding. It was full-flavored, strong, served with just the right portion of milk and sugar cubes. The cappuccinos had a generous amount of "sludge" on top (so called by my father-in-law that has spent his whole career in the sewer business). They were expensive, around €5 per cup, but delicious.

Germany: 2 France: 1

CRÊPES
The crêpes in France were close to the crêpes we have in Germany, but not the same. German crêpes, like their pastry counterparts, have more of a risen flour texture like a super-thin but dense American pancake. French crêpes are perhaps a bit thinner and have an egg texture close to that of a thin omelette. We tried caramel, chocolate with banana, and nutella. This is a toss-up, but I think the point goes to France. They invented the crêpe, so I have to assume the egg texture is more preferred and more traditional than what we get in Frankfurt. Still, I would not turn down any of them!

Germany: 2 France: 2

OTHER DESSERTS
French desserts were pretty awesome. This crème de caramel (above left) was outstanding. French chocolate is bitter and rich, which is just to my liking. I had a so-so tiramisu served in a tall cup and Dan had an apple tart that was above average (above right). Overall, the point goes to the French. They make fancy looking desserts that taste great!

Germany: 2 France: 3

AND THE REST
We tried a variety of foods in France including muscles with linguini, paper-thin pizza, french bread pizza, steak, omelette with salad, many different sandwiches, Asian noodles, and more. Really, there was nothing special about any of these foods worth writing home about. Don't get me wrong, it was all very tasty, just not extraordinary. But here, France loses 2 points for being wildly overpriced. A hamburger would run you €12, an omelette, €9, a can of soda €3. Insanity. Where are the stands where you can get a brat for €1.50 and not be hungry the rest of the afternoon? Even the wine and beer, which you can buy for around €3 a glass in Germany, was over €5. Then tack on a 19% service charge to every meal and you have really blown your vacation budget on food. No wonder we didn't see many Porsches or Ferraris on our trip, the French must spend half their paycheck on food.

Final score Germany: 2 France: 1

Germany wins. Their food is just as tasty and not so overpriced.

Paris prequel

We are in Paris and Gianna is in bed beside me asleep. Dan is reading in the bathroom. The train ride from Frankfurt from Paris Wednesday night had plenty of beautiful scenery once we got outside the cities. Paris is...meh...not that great in my opinion. It's dirty, crowded, and quite honestly the Germans make superior bread and pastries. Today we started the day with some croissants from two different bakeries, saw the Arc de Triomphe, went up in the Eiffel tower (Gianna: more tower!), had lunch at a cafe, walked over to the Louvre where Gianna played in the fountain, saw Notre Dame Cathedral, went to Luxemberg Gardens, and then headed back to the hotel for dinner and sleep. Since the city is so crowded this holiday weekend, we plan to take a train up to Monet's Garden Giverny tomorrow. Hopefully there will at least be a place for Gianna to walk around and for me to feel less stressed. If one more person cuts off the stroller to get off the train ahead of us, I'm going to ram the wheels into their Achilles tendons and let loose some German swearing! Trip pictures are forthcoming...maybe not until we get back to Frankfurt.

Baby rescue

This morning we had some excitement when the BMW repair man had to rescue my neighbor's baby from inside their locked car. Little Brynn (only one year old) managed to lock herself in the car and found a stash of coins to suck on. The BMW guy quickly assessed the situation, taped the rear driver side window, got out his hammer and a big nail, shattered the window, peeled it off, and dove in through the broken window after Brynn. Luckily she was unharmed but the whole ordeal really had all the kids pretty upset, especially when the guy bashed out the window. Niall, Gianna's partner in crime, was quite upset at the man for breaking the car window, even though it resulted in the rescue of his sister. But a switch of the BMW repair man's emergency strobe light lightened the mood and made all the kids happy.

Ông and Bà Schmidt showed up just after the rescue to drop off some suitcases prior to our departure for Paris. After they left Gianna made the following observation:

Bà...hair...[sly smile]...big one.

I couldn't help but laugh, I guess Bà does have rather large hair, but we won't be calling her Bà big hair any time soon ;-)

Ông no-beard

Gianna is excited to have Cori and the grandparents Ông and Bà Schmidt visiting. Yesterday before they arrived we had this conversation:

Gianna: Ông? Bà? Ông tractor? Ông tractor!
Mẹ: Yes, Ông and Bà are coming soon, but this isn't Ông with a tractor, this is tall Ông, the Ông that looks like Bố...with no beard.
Gianna: more beard! more beard!
Mẹ: you like your Ôngs with more beard? Well this one has no beard.
Gianna: more beard!

So now Ông Schmidt is Ông no-beard and Ông Landis is Ông more-beard. From the first time she met Ông Landis, she was fascinated with that beard, making Ông foam beards in the bath tub. But all beards aside, we had a relaxing Sunday, walking around the city, taking in the Frankfurt sites. We watched a boat race on the Main that was pretty exciting with people on the boat wearing costumes and beating drums.

In-law Visitors

Yesterday Dan's parents and sister from Pennsylvania arrived in Frankfurt. They were a little jet lagged, so we took it easy the first day, checking out Nordend Fest, which was a total dud as far as German fests go. Then for dinner we went to our favorite German restaurant south of the Main, Kanonesteppel. We ordered a große pitcher of apfelwein, but the troops were too pooped to put much of a dent in it, so Dan and I finished it off. Dan and Steve had the pork shoulder, Cori and I had the Bauernbratwurst, and Kate had Zweibelschnitzel. There were lots of leftovers to take home.

Today we plan to see sights around Frankfurt. It's Sunday, so the stores will be closed, but the sidewalks will be empty for easy stroller walking. The in-laws will head down the Romantic Road to Rothenburg tomorrow and up the Rhein River Valley on Tuesday. Then on Wednesday night we all leave for a 5 day holiday in France. I can't wait to see the gardens and chateaus!

GEZ says pay up

The GEZ is a collection agency for the equivalent of PBS in the US. They don't have any connections with law enforcement, but come around trying to collect TV, radio, and internet license fees, which are permitted by German law to fund public broadcasting. They can only collect the fees if you give them access to your home to tally up what you own or if you voluntarily tell them what you own. The US doesn't have these fees (as far as I know), but in Europe, it is not uncommon to have to pay a tax/fee for simply owning any sort of TV, radio, or device capable of receiving the internet including mobile phones and gaming systems like the Wii. So far, none of my expat friends have been targeted by the GEZtapo, but I've been hounded with threatening letters almost as soon as we moved in. Everything is in Dan's name and I've been unemployed, so I'm not sure where they got my name from. But we've decided to stop dodging them and pay the ~€17 a month fee. I've had enough threatening Germans come buzzing at my door, and don't want to add GEZ thugs to the list.

Whacky adventures in German medicine

Oh the Germans, they are an endless source of entertainment. I went to my German English speaking doctor today. We debated the pros and cons of American medicine, which ended with me getting a bone density scan to settle an argument. Ha! I win, there's nothing wrong with my bone density. Suck it, Germans! I drank milk as a kid and eat a ton of ice cream! But seriously, the Germans are very concerned about their health and believe a μg of prevention is worth a kilo of cure. As such, they have given me all sorts of ultrasounds on different organs and tissues, all normal, thank God. The only thing they find is that "Your muscle tissue is very thin. There is something wrong. You need exercise" Signs of my pesky old neuromuscular disease show up on their scans and they don't like it. The doctor suggested some permanent medical procedures and surgeries that would replace some of my stop-gap measures to prolong my mobility/life. But do I trust the Germans to administer any medical procedure, let alone surgery? She could quote me the procedure prices in €, and they are actually affordable compared to the thousands of $ I would have to spend in the US. Something to think about, I suppose.

Mẹ Day weekend in London

Last night we returned to rainy Frankfurt after a wonderful weekend in London. On Saturday morning, we went out around the city, riding the underground to many of the main tourist attractions including Big Ben and Parliament, Westminster Abby, the London Eye, Buckingham Palace, Kensington Gardens, Diana Memorial Playground, Trafalgar Square, and more. We ended the day at a local pub with fish and chips, mushy peas, and a couple of pints.


For Mẹ Day (Mother's Day to most of you out there) we spent almost the whole day at Kew Gardens. We got there right when it opened and went straight for the treetop walkway, which did not disappoint. Along the way, Gianna found a rather tame peacock that got a little too close for her tastes. The rest of the trip, she was on the lookout for those dangerous creatures called peacocks, even in the airport! We saw a lot of other wildlife at Kew, including several species of pheasants, guinea fowl, parrots, and a fox. Overall, I would rate Kew as one of the most beautiful botanical gardens I have ever visited, and I have visited quite a few. Still #1 in my book is Singapore Botanical Gardens with a superb bonsai collection, plumeria grove, native rainforest, and an orchid display that puts all others to shame. To round out Mẹ Day, we walked through Hyde Park to the Lebanese section of town for an authentic Lebanese meal complete with people smoking the hookah.


Monday morning we intended to tour the inside of Westminster Abby right as it opened, but the lines were already long, the weather was cold and windy, and the admission price was £15 per person. So instead of waiting, we hopped on a 10am boat tour down the River Thames from Westminster Pier. If the three cappuccinos at breakfast didn't wake me up, the brisk weather on top of the boat certainly did. Gianna really loved riding on the boat, seeing other boats, and just looking at the water. It is hard to find things that are equally as interesting to adults and children when you are on vacation, but a boat tour was just right. We got off at the Tower Bridge and intended to tour the Tower of London, but it cost a whopping £17 per person, even more than Westminster Abby. The boat tour was a relative bargain at £12 for all of us, and you got to see a lot of London without any walking involved. I highly recommend it for both the lazy and cheap!

This was a wonderful first Mother's Day for me and I just want to thank Dan, Gianna and everyone in the US and Vietnam that made it possible for me to be a mother, a special mother, more than a mother, a Mẹ.

Click to see more photos of London and Kew Gardens.

Germany deporting Vietnamese nationals

Take a look at this news article. The details are few, because it sounds like the government is being pretty tight lipped about it. But I am slightly...concerned. The German government has given us so much grief over Gianna because of her Vietnamese name, even though she is a US Citizen and we have all of her paperwork in order. But I feel really bad for these Vietnamese refugees that will be deported back to Hanoi. What kind of life is waiting for them? What kind of consequences will they have to face for leaving the country as a refugee? At any rate, I feel like tethering Gianna to my wrist until this blows over so that they don't pick her up off the playground and put her on a plane bound for Hanoi. I shake my fist at you Germans!

Taking the train

In Germany, you can take the train almost anywhere you want to go. There are U-Bahns and S-Bahns, underground and street trains. In the city, we mostly take the U Bahn, but this weekend we hopped on an S Bahn out to Kronberg and the Opel Zoo. It was a nice ride up into a hilly region out in the country. Gianna enjoyed the zoo, especially the hippos, which she wouldn't stop talking about at dinner that night. She was asleep while we toured Kronberg, an ancient German town with the compulsory castle on the hill.











There are probably many travel agents in Frankfurt that speak English, but I found one particular English speaking travel agent in the Hauptbahnhof that I keep bothering for the best deals on travel. Germans are always interested in the best deal and they won't sell you tickets that they think are overpriced, unless you are buying online, then they are not responsible for your poor financial choices. My travel agent friend booked our London trip for this weekend. Although the train tickets were budget priced, we went with the more expensive short flight that gives us more time to see the city. Paying more € for the flight made sense even to a German since the train trip is dreadfully long and slow. Now we are trying to book a fast ICE train to Paris for the upcoming Ascension Day holiday weekend starting May 21. Dan's parents and sister will be here, so we need 5 adult tickets. The travel agent was cursing the French for holding all return tickets on Sunday. Even if we could travel then, the price was over €200 per person roundtrip, which he wouldn't sell to me--too expensive! So he found alternate trains on different days for €128 per person round trip. I just find it amusing how far the Germans will go to save a €. As Americans, if we really want something, we'll just throw out the extra money and suck it up, maybe stay in a cheaper hotel to make up the difference. Not the Germans. Getting the best price is their top priority. Anything else is shameful, a dishonor to your family and country.

The German Kick Bike

In Germany you can buy pedal-free bikes for small kids like Gianna or even younger. As you may recall, we bought her one of these bikes over Easter and finally got her a comically large Hello Kitty helmet to go with it. She's getting pretty good. The idea is, the kid sits on the seat, runs with their feet a la Fred Flintstone, and then puts their feet up on the foot board when they reach cruising speed. They claim kids can learn to balance on a bike more easily without the pedals. That might be true because I see kids that can barely walk cruising down the sidewalks on these bikes.




She's walking cautiously, then gets up some speed.














She gets distracted very easily and sometimes veers off the road. Here we stopped to see the fountain and ducks.