6/19/2015 - Keszthely

Dave enjoys a Jetlag Recovery Wine
at the Downtown Fest in Kesztheky.

Today is a jet-lag recovery day.  I don’t know how you do it, but I do it by driving the Mighty Opel so the ladies can go shopping.  This is followed by one of Vera’s swell meals, a nap, a little blogging, and a trip to the Downtown Keszthely Wine Fest.  This is not to be confused with the Keszthely-Days Wine Fest, or the Keszthely Beach Wine Fest – both of which come later.



Z enjoys a Chardonnay at the Keszthely Fest

Lake Balaton is one of the major wine regions in Hungary.  Rather than producing Tokai or Bull’s Blood, they produce the more traditional Pinot, “Shiraz,” Cabernet, and especially Chardonnay.  We took a leisurely walk downtown and enjoyed several of the really excellent jazz combos performing in the Centrum, followed by some excellent wine produced by our friend Gabor at the Bezerics vineyard.  Z enjoyed a Chardonnay – oaky with a nice fruit flavor, and I had the Shiraz – again a nice balance of oak with the grapes, but very light for a dark red wine.  Most Hungarian wines would fit into the “light” description.  A heavy red, like an Oregon Pinot would be too much for the warmer climates that you get in this region.



Everything is better on a
stick.  That would include
the fish roasted by these folks
over hot coals at the Keszthely
Wine Fest!

As alluded to above, this wine fest is a traveling road show.  There is a fest every weekend throughout the summer somewhere on the north end of Balaton.  The vineyards all have very nice “Food Cart” style trucks, which they move from festival to festival throughout the summer.  If you like to sample wine, this is a great way to make yourself aquatinted with several different local wines – while enjoying some great traditional local food and some really quite excellent music.  The musical theme of this fest is traditionally jazz combos, but the others have large selections of classical and folk music.

Which would be another travel tip – look for the local festivals.  I’ve enjoyed wine and music around the lake now, as well as local beer fests in Germany.  I’ve enjoyed great local food and alcohol.  I’ve heard great local pop bands like the Cimbaliband from Budapest, great classical music from the likes of the principal brass quintet of the Budapest Philharmonic, traditional gypsy bands, and Feurerwehr Bands (“Firehouse band” – or the German Community Band.  They rehearse in their local Firehouse, hence…).  This is a great way to “live like the locals,” and an opportunity to enjoy the local food and culture.  Seeking them out will reward tour efforts.  
 

June 24 (and 25 and 26), 2013

Dave and Z in Toronto. 
How we got there is a long story.

As always, our trip begins with an unexpected adventure.  We had an inkling that this might be coming when Z’s mom called in the middle of the week before our flight, full of curiosity about how the flooding in Calgary was going to affect our travel plans.  Z led me to believe that her phone call was filled with somewhat more urgency about her “curiosity” than the word would lead one to believe.  I believe the word “panic” was used in her description of the conversation more than a few times.

Regardless, frequent internet checks of Air Canada’s web site on my part continued to show green on flights into and our of Calgary, although you may have troubles driving to the airport.  Not a problem we reasoned, we were flying in.  I, therefore, returned to doing something much more important – playing with my grandkids.

Meanwhile in the background, the Drums of Doom began to beat.

CNN News report: Calgary flooding will crest at noon on Monday (that would be at the day and time we were supposed to fly through Calgary).  Back I go for a quick internet check.  Air Canada still shows green!  No worries!

Z, in total paranoia mode: “Have you checked the internet lately?”  She actually did this several times.  Back to the computer for another green report from Air Canada.

You have to understand that in our household, I take these events seriously.  These things are not “Acts of God.”  In Z’s opinion these events are all my fault.  See last year’s debacle with our baggage as proof (June of last year).

So on June 24^th, when all was clear and the lights were green at Air Canada, I breathed a sigh of relief and thought all was well in my world.

And the beat of the Drums of Doom got louder…

We went out and ran a few errands.  Had a quick brunch with Kyra, Nico and the grandkids, and, following tearful goodbyes, were ferried to the airport.

We had probably our easiest time ever, breezing through check-ins and security vetting and the like as seasoned pros.  We arrived at our nearly empty gate early, which as it turns out was a good thing.  For this was when the Drums of Doom got so loud even we could hear them.

In recent years I have begun to check boarding gate numbers while we are waiting.  All too often they have changed to another gate nearby, and it is useful to know this early.  This is where I overheard a gentlemen talking with the Gate Overlord –  or whatever they call them – from United about the text he had just received from Air Canada that “all flights to and from Calgary had been canceled.”  Said Gate Overlord informed us to call Air Canada directly, as the nice United folks couldn’t access the Air Canada booking computer.



Air Canada - the greatest airline ever!

A quick phone call later – OK, 10 minutes on hold and a 15 minute phone call later – and we were completely rebooked.  Pity the poor souls who found out about this later and were on hold for as long as 45 minutes.  Our new route took us from PDX to Vancouver, Canada (Eh?) with a long enough layover for a leisurely dinner.  From Vancouver we would take a red-eye to Toronto, where we were faced with a fifteen hour layover.  To make it up to us, the nice Air Canada man threw in a “Day Room” to hang out in.  By the way, did he mention that “we can make a positive out of a negative here?  Did you know that Niagara Falls is a short car trip away?”  Yes he did.  Repeatedly.  Finally we would travel on to Frankfurt on another red-eye flight to Frankfurt, a day later than planned.

All of this, of course, necessitated a trip back out to the front counter for a “do over” of our check-in, security vetting, etc…  Needless to say, the nice folks at United that ran Air Canada’s desk had no clue about any of the new arrangements.  Fortunately, we had new flight numbers and were quickly – OK, 45 minutes later while they unburied themselves from the chaos this all caused – on our way.

These things bring out the best and the worst in people.  Z and I have now been through enough of them together that we start getting the giggles and teasing each other – Niagara Falls getting a lot of play this trip.  This tends to lower our stress level and make us a lot of new friends, for example, Meg from London who was standing next to us while they unraveled our flight information.  She was on her way back after a couple of week vacation for job interviews in cartography, and was hoping she would have time for a shower before she went.  We wished her luck, and if her travels went as smoothly as ours, she should have been OK.

The United agents were great through this unexpected disruption to their workday – even-tempered and good-humored about it all.  Even in the face of the “gentleman” Z quickly dubbed “Mr. Grouchy-Pants.”

*****

Dear Mr. Grouchy-Pants,

The nice ladies behind the counter do not control the weather.  Nor do they work for the airline you are intending to fly.  What’s more, they are just a bit overwhelmed at the moment with all the other people in the same boat as you.  We’ve all got the same problem.  Chill out.  They will get you there.  They are not going to abandon you at PDX.  Although we can hope.

Thanks Awfully,

*****

The agents in question are Amy and Shelley – and they are wonderful.  United, give them a raise.  They let the negative roll off of them while entertaining us with commentary about being on hold.

An aside here – Amy had the singular greatest pin I have ever seen.  It was an oval metal pin, printed in blocky corporate travel type – obviously provided by and expected to be worn by the airline.  The text: “Ever been to Phuket, Thailand?”

A second security vetting and we were back at the same gate we started this all with.  No biggy.  After giving up my horns to ride under the plane (yikes!), we were on our way to Vancouver.  I amused myself (childishly, I admit) on the short flight by writing “eh?” after every incidence of the word Canada.  Hey, it was something to do.

In Vancouver we followed directions and cleared Canadian customs into the International Flight area.  Things having finally settled down, we had time for a bad airport meal, so we enjoyed one.  I didn’t know it was possible to screw up tomato soup, but Hourton’s managed to do so.  Z said her “Chinese Food” was not much better.

We took a walk after dinner and looked over the flight boards, as we didn’t have a gate number on our boarding pass for the next leg.  Strangely, none of the posted flights seemed to be going to Toronto.  A quest to find an information booth to solve this dilemma eventually led to our meeting “Irish Peter,” a chipper and helpful gentleman, who then introduced us to Alex, the Lead Concierge at Vancouver Airport.  After listening to our tale of woe, Alex led us through the airport, opening magic elevators and down empty hallways – always with a smile and the reassurance “don’t worry, I’m staying with you until everything is right and you are where you are supposed to be.”

A few words about the airline employees we met on this day are prudent at this point in our journey.  This has been an amazingly stressful day for them so far.  Chaos reigns everywhere, and nothing is going according to plan.  Yet, everywhere we go, whomever we meet, they are friendly, courteous, and in good spirits.  On a day where it was probably the last thing on their mind, they took the time to make us feel comfortable and cared for.  Props are offered to the employees of United and Air Canada indeed!

Working on the blog -
The book is green and yellow this year!

Alex eventually got us straightened out and to the nice man at Baggage Claim – you guessed it, bags lost again – who quickly filled out the correct forms and got them in our hands, reassured us that in all likelihood our bags would catch up with us in Toronto due to the length of our layover, and directed us to the security vetting for our next flight; number 3 for the day.

I should mention in passing that every one of these security vetting has cost us a $2.50 bottle of water or soda.  I get the security thing but: do we really need to have 5 security vettings on three legs of a flight?  And, more importantly, I can get the same bottle of water at my local Safeway for less than a dollar.  As we are no longer allowed to bring liquids through security, you and I both know there is now a huge captive market on the other side.  To mark up soda and water this much is Highway Robbery and my Congress Folks should be looking into this.  Just sayin’

Security vetting number 3 lead to our first “downer moment” on our trip.  It seems there is metal in my splint/cast thing.  In the course of taking it off for the police dude, I bent my wrist incorrectly, leading to an excruciatingly painful moment.  This is why they make Advil.  And expletives.  But “made it aboard” we eventually did, and off to Toronto we did go.

Our “Red Eye” flight got us in Toronto at around 6:00 in the morning and off to meet more nice Air Canada (or Air Canadia, as Z calls them) folks.  A short stop at the customer service counter found our evening flights reconfirmed, a new trace put out for our missing bags, and a voucher for our Day Room – they even threw in vouchers for breakfast and lunch!

Day Rooms used to be common in travel, back in the days of multi-day trips with many layovers.  Today, they have mostly fallen by the wayside of corporate travel and big business cost cutting.  Our Air Canada folks looked at each other, one telling the other “you are going to have to beg the hotel for it.”  What you end up with is a clubhouse to hang out in, garb a shower and a cuppa, and most importantly, a nap between legs.

The Congress Center in Toronto -
about all we saw of Niagara Falls!

A tip we have learned on several of these adventures and pass on for your consideration.  We were particularly delighted to get vouchers for both breakfast and lunch.  While those vouchers will get you a full meal at the airport, not so much at the hotel.  If you want both meals, then, eat them before you leave and after you come back.  Our $17.00 CDN would seem to be plenty for breakfast to buy a nice, sit down breakfast at the hotel– all we cared for.  Z had eggs and bacon, I had cereal and some fruit, and we still ended up kicking in $8.00 CDN out of pocket, plus gratuity, of course.

We hated to disappoint our Air Canada travel scheduler guy, but we passed on Niagara Falls to catch a nap and shower – maybe next trip – and were back early to grab some lunch at Toronto Airport before the next leg.  The cool thing here is that all of the restaurants in the concourse have you order off of I-Pads.  After you order, you are free to surf the web while you wait for your meal and flight.  I caught up on the Duck’s Football woes while enjoying a “Detox Salad” of greens, sweet potato, seasoned tofu and dried cranberries.  Z opted for coffee and a gluten-free brownie.  I’m not sure what she looked at on her I-Pad, but I would bet Facebook.  I think we both walked away happy – I know I did.

*****

My favorite thing to do on international flights is watch “Airplane TV,” the map thing they give you so that you know where you are in your journey.  It is insightful into what is deemed important to the mapmakers.  Of course, there is also hours of fun to be had looking at place names: Grimsby, Uxbridge, Gananoque, Magog, Antogonish.  Do they make cleaners in Ajax?  Does everyone in Tweed wear tweed?  Argyle in Argyle?  Does everyone have cancer in Asbestos?  I assume very small people live in Dalhouse.  Don’t forget to take a gander at Gander.  Then there is the ever popular Godthab – what does it mean?  You know it is important in that you can see it on the big map for almost the entire journey.

The "end of journey" traditional palinka and bundt cake!

*****

We were picked up, a day late, at Frankfurt Airport by Peter and Valentin, the gentleman Peter and Vera rent an apartment from in Germany, and were whisked off to Niedernhall.  Awaiting us was the traditional palinka and Bundt cake.  Let the vacation begin!

Nine Things I Learned (or Had Reinforced) On Our Day Trip to Graz, Austria

1. Hungarians are Homicidal Maniacs

With me at the wheel of the mighty Opal again, Z, Vera and I made an early get away to Graz. Graz is about an hour-and-a-half to two hours, depending upon the traffic, road construction, etc. Along the way, I had opportunity, once again to admire the superb driving habits of my wife’s people. I had people pass me on blind corners, swerve into my lane directly in front of me to avoid a scooter in their lane, heck, swerve directly into my lane directly in front of me to get around a truck going the speed limit in their lane. I had pedestrians lunge directly in front of me without warning. I had cars pull directly in front of me without warning. And on and on.

Particularly worthy of a Darwin Award were the two individuals riding bicycles down a back road two abreast and not moving for anyone – even though the roads were very busy on this day. Most of us would figure out that this would be a swell time to make ourselves as small a target as possible. But not this brain trust.

The sad part of all of this is that I am somewhat used to it by now.

For your information, all this craziness stopped the minute we got into orderly Austria.

Welcome to Fürstenfeld!

2. Fürstenfeld is probably not worth longing for that much.

Our friends from Germany, die Original Donaumusikanten, cover this catchy little tune about longing to go home to the burg of Fürstenfeld. We drove though this little hamlet on our way. You enter town through these lovely fields, around one of the most attractive round-a-bouts I have seen in Europe – only to find that the rest of the town is basically a big outlet mall. With an Adult “Bookstore”on one end (those wacky Austrians!). I think strip malls are pretty universal, so if you miss Fürstenfeld, go to Woodburn, guys.

3. The closer you park to the tourist stuff, the more it will cost you

We parked in a garage near the inner ring in Graz – close to the Centrum, as the locals call it. It was a nicely short walk to all the nice views of the pretty downtown area. Our visit lasted 5 hours, and set us back 25 Euros (about 32 USD).

4. Graz is a happenin’ town for music

Of all the places we have visited, Graz has the most happenin’ musical culture. We got out of the car to the sound of a couple of people in the apartment building across the way practicing a violin sonata. We listened to several really excellent groups and individuals playing street music. The music was pop, classical, jazz, and, what can only be described as “other.”

I liked them just fine - until they started playing
Andrew Lloyd Webber.

This is all explained by the fact that Graz has a several superb schools of music, as well as numerous local and international music festivals. There is an American opera festival going on while we are in town. I have been told a couple of times that if you want to study jazz in Europe, you go to Graz.

The best of the street musicians was a trio of flute, violin and cello. The arrangements were creative, often making it sound like there were more of them than were actually playing. They moved through the downtown with us, following us through the day. I thought they were the greatest thing ever, up until the end of the day. Don’t you know they had to blow it and play Andrew Lloyd Webber. He, by the way, fits in the "Other" category.

5. Catch the Schlossberg

The Uhrturm - Clock Tower

Like all European cities, Graz has a beautiful, scenic downtown area/pedestrian mall. But you are fool in Graz if you don’t climb the 282 steps to the top of the Berg (or take the elevator or funicular for 1.7 Euros, if you must). Looking down on all of the cool old buildings is breathtaking. In addition to the great view of the rest of valley (check out the berg to the northwest on the side of the hill), you get to admire up close the Medieval Clock Tower (Uhrturm). For two Euros you can visit the inner workings, including the oldest bell in Europe. It was constructed in 1560, and still works great. Why doesn’t my wrist watch work as well? Cool factoid – the bell used to be only rung to announce executions, moving on to a much better life announcing the closing hours of bars.

If you are so inclined, there are many restaurants up here. Enjoy a beer and rest up from your climb! They have great views – nice places to contemplate the pretty architecture of the city, and to marvel why the fair citizens of Graz would want to screw it up by placing a huge snail in the middle of the river and a huge frog hulking on the banks.

Downtown Graz - complete with "Snail" and "Frog"

Look, I am a musician, composer, and fancy myself an artist (whatever that means – but we can go into that one later). I completely get that sometimes the objective of art is to “shock.” Contrast with surrounding materials is often the best way to do this. But the thing that makes it all work is that there is some thematic choices that tie it all together, Surely there must be a way to drop these new weird buildings into classic towns in such a way that they enhance the surrounding buildings – they borrow from what is going on around them – rather than just plopping a frog on the bank. It’s kind of like replacing the “B” section of the exposition of Beethoven 5 with “Walk This Way;” or even Beethoven 4. There is no motivic connection to the surrounding work – it doesn’t fit.

I also get that there is a section of the art community that feels like this is the point. It is not supposed to fit – contrast and all that. You are wrong. This is intellectual laziness on the part of the artist. Drop these weird buildings somewhere where they fit. Like Seattle.

All of this said, maybe there are a lot of snails and frogs in the Mur and, thematically, these are just the Mothership for them. Maybe I’m all wrong here. Nah…

6. Don’t Reform This Tort!

Sacher Tort and Viennese Milange -
A sugar high in the making!

If you like Sacher Tort – and what’s not to like – the best can be found at the Sacher Café, right off the central pedestrian walk. They invented the thing, so one assumes they know what they are doing. Moist chocolate cake covered in a rich chocolate ganache, with an avalanche of freshly made whip cream on the side. It is about 5.30 Euros (about $7.50 USD) for this little bit of decadence, but my is it worth it. We had ours with a Viennese Milange – half whipped crea, half espresso – and spent the rest of the day on a sugar high.

Enjoying a Puntigamer

7. Puntigamer Bier

For the beer bloggers, here is Graz’s entry – Puntigamer Pils. Z describes this is “Austria’s Hofbräu.” I think that is pretty generous. They say it is 5%, but I find this a little hard to believe. Pale golden brown, and a little thin in color, it is covered with a nice, foamy white head that hangs on through the whole glass and smiles at you when it is gone. It is a nice summer beer, a great balance of hops to malt, but not too big, and a nice, refreshing hop finish – a little kiss of bitter on the tongue. A lawnmower beer. This is not going to win any awards (although maybe it has), but it was just the thing on this hot day. I bet this stuff is great from mugs that are the size of your head. I know it was great with my lunch of grilled polenta cakes, topped with fresh tomato and goats cheese, accompanied by a green salad topped with pumpkin seed oil and herb vinaigrette.

Statue and fountain

8. Walk to the Front

The fountain and statue at the head of the pedestrian mall are particularly attractive. And I’m not just saying this because I was able to enjoy it for 45 minutes while Vera and Z were shopping at H&M. Kick your shoes off and cool your feet with the locals/tourists!

Actually, I’m surprised that it was only 45 minutes. There is lots of great shopping to be done in Graz. All of the big European chains have storefronts here, of course, but there are lots of really great specialty shops. The sheet music store, though small, was especially complete.

9. The Demise of C&A

I guess C&A is no longer the place to buy trachten. The quality of their folk clothing, and clothing in general, has fallen off extremely. Peter and Vera have both noticed that there are fewer things in their stores, and it is of lesser quality. Good thing Vögel of Switzerland is nearby! The new place to go for all you trachten needs!

7-1 Subotica and Kishyges

7-1

Back to Subotica we go today to do some more work on Z's Serbian passport. I am again at the wheel of the mighty Opel, with Vera and Z helpfuly giving me a maze of direction in Hungarian, German and English. We arrived at the courthouse and marched up to the door, only to find that Z will not be allowed in. She is wearing sandals and "this is a place of buisness, not the beach." Keep in mind that these are 100 dollar sandals, not unlike the ones that Vera was wearing under her slacks. Maybe the Serbs are offended by toe nails, who knows? So Vera takes the documents and goes in to meet the judge, while we wait out front. It is only footware, by the way, that keeps you out. Some of the clothing we saw walking though the door was, ummm, really something.

Vera dropped off the papers, and the judge promised that this time they would be processed or he would call the issuing judge in America and get it sorted out. So with that all squared away, we left for home. We may still have to fly to DC just to get it squared away, as it is unlikely that the paper work will be finished before we leave and the only Serbian embassy is in DC. I hear it's pretty in December.

We arrived back at the Keckes homestead just in time to help put away the winter woodpile. It turns out our timing was perfect, we got it all stored away just before the daily thunderstorm.
After lunch I had one of the Mentos that Z bought me at the store, causing an interesting development. The filling on my back tooth broke off. I blame Z. More on this to come, I'm sure.

**********

I spent the afternoon working on the Cuba project for VSAA for next year, which is kind of incongruous in Serbia. But I can now tell you where the Son comes from, what a Son Montuno is, and all kinds of other cool stuff!

**********

Dinner this evening is at Z's first cousin's (Anni her husband Pityu and daughter Evelin) house. Steak on the grill, lots of pigeons and other critters for Jaden (and Z) to play with - and enough flies at the table for an Off commercial. Dinner starts with Palinka, bubbly water, and turkish coffee. Z's first cousin is of the "glass is never empty" school of entertaining. So after three palinkas, my glass sits, full, awaiting dinner. Our host brought us fly swatters, and the we entertained ourselves while coversing before dinner by playing the "how many did you get with that swing?" game. Dinner is the house platter, a fine assortment of fine barbecued meats, a Greek salad, pommes - and a fine assortment of fried vegetables for the veg. Seems zuchini are in and that's pretty much all anyone can think of to do with it. On the plus side, they fry better than anyone on this side of the world, never oily or greasy. A pretty fabulous meal and great company.

7/14/2öö8, Keszthely, Gyenasdias, Hevís

It's been either really hot or very stormy the last few days. As it's just the four of us now, we are staying pretty close to home.

Saturday evening found us at the Bor-fest in Gyenasdias (otherwise known to the Cynics amongst us as Buenos Dias). Peter has been dealing with some medical issuses, so most of these trips are Vera, Z and I. There is a traveling winefest (wine is bor in Hungarian) that visits most of the communities on the north side of the lake during the summer (the wine region of Hungary). This is one of the first for the year. A wine fest is a flock of people around these really cool wooden trailer/booth things that the local wine makers use to hock their product. There are several food vendors selling traditional fare, and a central stage with live music. When we arrived the music onstage was a very hip marimba ensemble (three percussionists, bass and drums), that really enjoyed playing tunes in 7. They were followed by the community concert band playing traditional march favorites on equiptment that would draw howles of protest from the folks that play in my bands. The last group of the evening (that we caught anyway) was a Hungarian-Folk-Metal-Hair-Band (really- the locks were quite impressive). If you have been indoctrinated, think the Hungarian Höven Dröven. Fun stuff! We feasted on Longos and kürtöskalacs and dug the tunes-and the wines. The highlight was a rare wine made from a "blue armed grape" - literally a grape with a blue stem. Evidently this is quite rare, and only a few bottles are made a year to be sold at festivals like this. A white wine with a smooth, buttery flavor. It was very nice and trés drinkable (sorry folks, I'm a beer guy - as this blog should be making clear by now. You want good wine descriptions, talk to my brother-in-law, Jerry).

Sunday evening we went into Hevís for a festival that wasn't there (guess we were looking at last year's program. We enjoyed a walk around the radioactive lake, and then did a little shopping in the shops still open on Sunday evening. We followed this by taking a train ride around the city (Hevís has one of those tourist trains that it uses as a bus line). Vera commented that she would probably end up seeing sections of Hevís she had never seen before, and likely she was right. This thing went everywhere. Some great views and some stunning architecture. It was a nice way to become familiar with the area. We finished with a beer at the local ettrem, and then a gelatto, and then home. Who needs a festival?

Monday brought a huge storm - thunder, lightning, rain - the works. I left for my morning walk under ominous skys, made it to the lake, and then caught the down pour. It was raining so hard I couldn't see three feet infront of me. I made my way back home, and the rain gradually died down, so that it had mostly stopped by the time I reached the front door. "What the heck," I thought and headed back out, only to have the rain start to pick up again. Defeated, I gave up, went back in a crawled back into bed.

Z and I went shopping in the afternoon. We took the Chineese walk. There are several Chineese markets in town that sell quality clothing at bargain prices - some of which are carrying labels you may have heard of before - assuming you don't look too closely. Z was looking for shoes, but ended up buying underwear. I guess it was a productive trip. I'm not quite sure how to tell anymore.

7\8\ö8 Vilseck to Keszthely

So no promises on this entry. I am typing today on Vera´s keyboard which is in Hungarian. It has about a million more keys than I am used to, the "Z" and "Y" key have been switched, and most of the punctuation marks don´t work - as you can see from the title of this post.

Sunday, and the trip from Vilseck to Keszthely...

Kyra drove the first section of the trip, and I took over just before the Austrian border. What fun! The autobahn is pretty cool. Before we crossed the border into Austria I touched on 11ö a couple of times. Austria has a speed limit, so I had to content myself with crusing along at 13ö KMH (that between 85 and 9ö MPH for you slowpokes at home!).

The autobahn system is set up so that you don't travel into any towns, just skirt the edges. As a result you get to see a lot of wooded hillsides and, over in the distance, many little quaint villages, huge castles, towering chuch towers, etc. Since you don't get to see any of them up close and personal, you have a lot of time to sit and question. I drove through three countries in a day. Why three countries? Germany and Austria share a language, the architecture is similar in all three countries, the social customs are similar. What makes it all so different? Which leads on to introspection about culture. I am fortunate enough to get to play in a band with several great friends who perform the folk music of Germany. Why Germany? What draws people to hear the folk music of a culture that is not their own? What is folk music? Dang it, I almost missed that turn.

We reached Peter and Vera's in the late afternoon, just in time for dinner. First the obligatory palinka - no make that two. Apricot, and very good stuff too. And then dinner - chicken parprikas for the carnivores, and "chicken" paprikas with tofu for the vegetarian. Vera has been playing around with tofu and should publish a cookbook. She is doing some amazing things with the stuff.

After a couple of glasses of Peter's remarkably tasty home grown wine, we wandered down to listen two a couple of tunes from the band playing downtown. Classic garage band, bass player working hard at being serious, rhythm guitarist that is just a little too old and a little too bald to pull off the low guitar, preening for the ladies at the edge of the stage thing, lead guitarist that has the look but not quite the licks, drummer that was pretty OK, female lead vocalist dressed in the current hip fassion and placed front stage to be the center of attention. And - and this is what made it for me - the keyboard player who is a dead ringer for Steve Martin, look manerisms and everything. I was rolling the whole time. We finally gave up, grabed a gelatto and headed home for bed.

Monday.

A nice relaxing day by the lake. You pay 8öö forint and that gives you the run of the place for the day. Get there early enough and you can even have on of those cool deck chair things. We all relaxed in the sun, taking turns getting in to swim with Jaden, who stays in the water pretty much all day. I remember when I used to be able to do that. I spent my time not swiming reading the work at the center for the arts school next year (yes, I did do some work this summer!). It's called "The Creative Habit" by Twyla Tharp, and I highly recomend it to those of you with a creative bent. A facinating read about the process of creating and the work involved in doing so. Lunch was langos - basically an elephant ear with garlic instead of sugar. Pretty tasty.

Dinner, and another of Vera's tofu experiments. Tonight was Tofu Schnitzel: thinly sliced tofu with blue cheese in the middle, breaded and deep fried. I have mentioned before that Vera is the queen of cooking, but she excells at frying. This was pretty amazing stuff.

More beer notes:

Aktien Pilsner, Bayreuther Bierbrauerei AG, 4.9% by volume.

A beautiful light tawny brown with a slightly hoppy nose. Sweet and hops are well balanced in the front of the mouth, slight hop flavor in the back of the mouth that disappears a little too quickly. Not too big - another good session beer.

7/02/08 Round Two!

And so the adventure continues again…

This trip we are scheduled to travel to Munich (you can hear the little bubbles calling my name, can’t you?), where Kyra will pick us up and take us to her home in Vilseck. From there Peter (Z’s father, if you are a bit behind), will pick us up and, with me at the wheel (can you say “autobahn?”) travel to Keszthely. We’ll hang out there for a couple of weeks with the family and see some stuff, maybe catch a play in Hungarian at the castle, possibly run up to Budapest and very likely Kecskemet, and then back to Kyra’s for some quality time in the land of beer and polkas (and so I am told culture and food and stuff like that).

Of course you notice that there are a lot of “possiblies” and “maybes” in the above list. If you have been following along so far, you know that the plan kind of exists in a fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants way. So here is the wish list:

*I hope to see the castle in Keszthely this trip
*I would love to see the big ruin on the hill north of Keszthely
*I want to lay on the beach by what my granddaughter is now referring to as the “ocean” (Lake Balaton) and catch some sun and some z’s
*I would love to stop on one of the trips through and live out a lifelong dream of reading a paper and having a kaffee mit schlag in a little café in Vienna
*One word, Hofbrauhaus
*Oh yeah, and Kulmbach
*Oh and all those Klosters
*And the source of all that is good, Pilsn Czechoslovakia (you know, the place that “pilsner” comes from…)

I know that I will eat great, so I am really looking forward to that (my mother-in-law is one of the greatest cooks on the planet). I hear that some side trips to Neuschwandstein and stuff like that are being talked about, and that would be awesome. And I know that I am going to spend some quality time with Kyra and my favorite granddaughter, Jaden (OK, she is my only granddaughter, don’t wreck the moment). I also hear that there is a party planned where I will get to meet the wives and families of Greg’s unit, and that is going to be really cool.

But mostly, I’m going to relax and go with the flow. Like usual. No really.

Let round two begin…

7/31 Hevis

For all of you gardeners out there. Vera just passed on through Zia the story of a friend of hers who uses birth control pills as plant food for vegetable plants with great results. Now if you can just get your doctor to write your plants a prescription...


*****


Today we took a bus trip to the spa town of Hevis (the "e" has a long, horizontal line over it, HAY - vees). We will not visit the spa today - too hot! No, today we sight see.

Hevis, according to Peter, renovated all of the spa buildings last winter. When the town council inspected the buildings following construction they found shoddy workmanship and sub-standard materials (hmm, on a government project? Can you do that?). They ordered the whole thing torn down and rebuild before payment.

The spa at Hevis, according to our guide book, is slightly radioactive (!!!). I am, however, at peace with visiting the baths later in the week. In the first place, people have been coming here for over 200 years to "take the cure." So there must be something to it. In the second place, I don’t plan on having any more children.

Our visit to Hevis was very rewarding. As previously mentioned, this is a spa town (read "tourist"). So our sight seeing expedition was mostly of shops. We were wandering down a side street, when Zia excitedly grabbed my hand and exclaiming, "we have to go in here," drug me into a shop. Great, more footwear, I was thinking. Instead I found a bookstore. With Hungarian books. In Hungarian. Zia wandered off to look, and amused myself by doing what I have been doing this whole trip when walking into a Hungarian bookstore with Hungarian books in Hungarian. I looked at pre-1910 maps of Hungary, always a good bet. Then I stared at CD’s for a while. Nice classical selection, at least I think it is. I can read the composer names, even though they are backward. But orchestras? Soloists? Your guess is as good as mine. And then! We discovered the music shelf. And on it there is a fabulous and very scholarly book of ethnomusicology on the folk music of this region, with examples...in Hungarian. And the examples, very well organized, are only excerpts. And so, once again we slink towards the door in abject failure. Zia and the clerk exchanged a few words on the way out. The clerk reaches into a stack of newly arrived books that have not been shelved, and thrusts into my hand three books of Hungarian Folk Music. The Holy Grail! The end of the quest! I was giddy, I laughed, I cried, I think I even danced a cszardas (you can’t do a jig in Hungary). Even as I write this, Peter and Vera are sorting through the tunes, helping me to find the ones they hear played a lot.


*****


Hevis also has a pretty great German Folk Clothing store. The work is all done locally and is pretty inexpensive. They get a lot of German tourists here. Zia snagged me a new shirt for this year.

Our trip home was on the milk run bus, so we got to see the "garden district" of Keszthely. Some very beautiful houses, and the big bus stops all have some fabulous statuary. Even with the heat, things are very green and pretty.

Dave

7/29 & 30, Keszthely

Hey look! I'm almost up to date!

We went down to the Boardwalk this evening to listen to the rock concert. The band is led by the bass player, whose claim to fame is that he is the host of Hungary’s "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire." Needless to say, these are great credentials to be a bass player in a rock band, and his skills are about what you would expect of a TV host fronting a rock band. The lead guitarist is unassuming - (!!!). The rhythm guitarist and the keyboard player are pretty competent. And then there is the trumpet/harmonica appendage. Trumpet is not really his ax - kind of a very weak Herb Alpert - and on harmonica, well, when he is in the right key and on the right chord - he’s OK! Their vocals are their strength, and they use them very effectively. Of course the trumpet appendage is the arranger. The rhythm guitarist writes the lyrics, and the songs are all originals. You’ll spend a lot of time going, "hey, that tune sounds a lot like..." But if you going to steal, steal from the best!


*****


After the show, we wandered home to meet the new house pests, relatives of the owner of the vineyard that Peter takes care of. Grandma, Mom, two boys and their new Au Pair (19), that arrived just a week ago. I was treated to watching the Au Pair survive her first schnapps (nice to watch somebody else do it for a change). I find I know just enough German to barely follow the conversation, so hurrah for me. Am I adding to the conversation? Well, not so much. In fact, not at all. But it nice to at least have some clue what is going on for a change.

The boys don’t speak any English, and are pushing me to the limit to respond in German. But they are pretty easy going about it. I thought I might teach them a word or two in English. Can you say, "Swordfish?" I know some of you have Swordfished over quite a long distance, but I like the idea of the long term payoff of this.

(Zia adds at this point that she completely doesn’t get the whole "Swordfish" thing. If ya gotta ask, you’ll never know. Besides, it is kind of beyond explanation anymore, anyway. As I am becomming an expert at this summer, just smile and nod, smile and nod...)

The boys are bundles of energy, and are immediately attracted to Peter. He is kind of a kid magnet. He seems to be having the time of his life.

The best part of this evening is - IT STARTED TO RAIN! The temperature is dropping enough that I may actually get to sleep. It feels really great after a month of heat, even though I know eventually it will push up the humidity (it ain’t the heat...).

Dave