Taken from the Zugspitze
March 19, 2004

Mountains, hotels, toys, and sausages.

Busy weekend here. On Friday, Marty and I went to the Zugspitze with a group of his colleagues who were going skiing. Marty skis a little, but I don't ski at all, and I didn't think the freakin' Zugspitze was the best place for me to start as a beginner! So Marty went skiing, and I just enjoyed the company, the scenery, and the weather. Such a gorgeous day. It wasn't very cold up there (to answer your question, Tina), and in fact, some people were sunbathing in lounge chairs right on the snow. I took a bunch of beautiful pictures of the mountains, which I would love to share if I can just make myself get them online.

Yesterday I spent much of the day trying to line up our hotels for Italy in May. We are going to Tuscany (staying in Florence and Siena, with daytrips to Pisa and possibly Fiesole) so I've been trying to find places for us to stay. I'm using Rick Steves' latest Tuscany book (2004) and a few other resources, and I have hotels for all our nights lined up except for three in Siena. Of course, I still have five or six enquiry emails out to hotels there, so I hope one of those will work out. I am really looking forward to the trip.

Somewhere in there I also managed to find a room in Rothenburg ob der Tauber for when Katynka is here next month. We thought we'd show her something besides the inside of a beer hall this time around. Although last year was certainly lots of fun.

Last night, Marty and I went to see an awesome German movie, Good Bye Lenin. It was a terrific story of a Berlin family's experience of German reunification. It was released a year ago here (I remember that it was new when we were in Berlin last March). Marty and I must have been the last people in Germany to see it, and I think it's actually already out on video here. But we were lucky enough to find it still playing in a small theater out in Gräfelfing, late last night. Anyway, I understand it's being released in the US soon, so keep your eyes open for it. It's really excellent.

Today we drove up to Nürnberg for the day, and visited the Albrecht Dürer house museum and the Nürnberg Spielzeug (toy) museum. Nürnberg has been an international center for toy manufacturing for over two centuries, and they really do have a wonderful toy museum there. (The current exhibit at the Bavarian National Museum here in Munich -- Die Welt im Kleinen -- is comparable, though not as big a collection.) We also took a walk through the Sebaldus church and looked at the photos on display of the post-war rebuilding of Nürnberg. We had a lunch of Nürnberg Bratwürstchen at the Albrecht Dürer Stuben, and after the museums we finished up the day with cake at Cafe Kröll, my favorite.

Plus I did my German homework. Well, most of it. Although I still have to do my English.

Edited to add: Yay! We have a hotel in Siena!