An old but nice pub in Dortmund. I love the decoration. I could spend hours in there and still find new details.
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Doesn’t it look great?!
Although not one of the most popular towns in the Germany, Quedlinburg is geographically located in the heart of the country and a site on UNESCO’s World Heritage list. Besides, it’s also listed in the book 1000 Places To See Before You Die and in the website The TOP 100 sights and attractions in Germany. And that’s exactly what made me curious about the town. If it has been listed by 3 different sources as a place worth visiting, we must give it a try. We did, last weekend and I have to say I feel like going back. The town is simply gorgeous! I guess I’ve never seen so many half-timbered houses in different shapes and colors in the same town. Most of the houses are very old, and in combination with the cobbled streets and street lamps, you do feel like going back in time. Another interesting fact about Quedlinburg is that after World War II it belonged to the GDR until 1990 with the German reunification.
It was hard to decide on which pictures to post since the whole town is a show when it comes to architecture.
The last two stops of the Romantic Road, Neuschawnstein Castle, in Hohenschwangau, and Füssen are dazzling! It definitely feels like a fairy tale has come true and you’re part of it. No wonder Neuschwanstein has inspired Disney World’s Cinderella’s castle. A day is enough to visit the castle and go around the city of Füssen. However, if you’re not in a hurry, I’m pretty sure you can do and see a lot in the region.
Germany is soccer world champion! Of course my heart was for Brazil, although I couldn’t believe in them from the beginning. Well, my gut feeling proved to be right and the Brazilian team had the worst performance ever. But that’s soccer with its ups and downs.
Yesterday I was for Germany because of my husband and his new-found interest in soccer, because I’m German too, and of course because it was against Argentina. For the ones who might not know, Brazil and Argentina are big rivals when it comes to soccer. It was not surprising, but funny to see the amount of friends on my Facebook list posting their support for Germany against our “hermanos” (brothers), how Argentinians are ironically called in Brazil. It looked like Brazilians changed into black, red and “gold” as my husband emphasizes because what I really see is yellow! 😉
One of the most interesting things yesterday was my mother and niece’s surprise to the way Germans react to winning a World Cup Championship, which in a Brazilian perspective is no reaction at all! I guess in one of my posts I have already mentioned a saying here which says that Germans go to the basement to laugh. Maybe because basements are not common in Brazil, we celebrate every goal as loudly as we can. No need to worry if your TV and radio have broken down just before a match, your neighbors will keep you informed of every single move without having to leave the comfort of your sofa. And that’s what my mother and niece, who are now visiting me, are used to: open windows, shouting out loud, fireworks whenever a goal is scored, cornets and the works. There was some frustration in them, something was missing… what about all the celebration? There was for sure celebration at those FIFA or whatever Fan Fests in Berlin and bigger cities, but silence in the little towns. What I can conclude is: houses here are either extremely well insulated or my neighbors were definitely in the basement! 😉
My mom had another conclusion: “are these people dead or what?!” LOL
But according to my sister and friends from Rio, there was enough celebration and fireworks there to compensate for the silence we had here. 😉
Thanks Brazil for all the support and “don’t cry for me Argentina…”!
In Brazil, pigs are linked to garbage, no hygiene, disgusting people, i.e. giving someone a present with a pig’s image could be an insult. In Germany, however, pigs can also bring luck. I first got to know that at a New Year’s party where guests were offered marzipan pigs for luck. Well, there you have two important things in the German culture: the pig and marzipan. Germans are usually crazy about marzipan and their eyes do shine when they see it. Marzipan makes everything special and exquisite.
We had Brazilian guests staying with us for a few days and on their last day here my husband bought them little marzipan pigs as a surprise. I was also surprised and immediately explained that in Germany pigs are for luck so that they wouldn’t have the wrong impression. Fortunately I know the two cultures or that could have been an embarrassing situation and a perfect example of cultural clash.
Yummy!!!
That was one of my husband’s questions before his first trip to Brazil. Quite a normal question for someone planning their first trip to another continent, to a country seen by Europeans as exotic. Well, if you’re planning to visit Brazil, relax! I’d say that compared to the Chinese and all the bugs and funny things they eat and the Indians who do without silverware, we’re far from exotic! Moreover, if you’re German and you can eat Mettbrötchen, no need to fear Brazilian cuisine! 😉
Because of the big mix of cultures, great weather all year long and of course our creativity, Brazilian food has got a bit of everything + a huge variety of fruit that Europeans have never imagined to exist + the fruit they might be able to buy, but usually unripe and/or tasteless. A visit to a street market in whatever city in Brazil can be a feast for the senses. I’ve given up trying to feel the smell of pineapples and mangoes here. 😦
All-you-can-eat rodízio (from rotating, because waiters never stop walking around serving guests) restaurants are common all over the country and very specialized. The most popular ones are the pizza rodízio and the rodízio de carne, also known as churrascaria. A very good churrascaria offers such a huge range of things, even vegetarians can get more than satisfied.
When in Brazil, I love eating the very typical everyday meal with black beans stew, rice and meat. I also love the empadas, a kind of pot pie.
Desserts are sweet, really sweet, as I’ve already mentioned in two previous posts (Pudim de Leite and Sweet Tooth).
Here are some pictures of our last time at restaurants in Brazil.
São Lourenço, in the mountains of Minas Gerais, is a city famous for its mineral water springs and natural beauty. It is a popular destination for the ones who need a break from hectic cities such as Rio and São Paulo. That’s exactly why I loved going to São Lourenço, at first with friends and then with family. Lots of good memories of my nieces’ childhood were lived there. Compared to Rio, the city is like paradise for kids because of the contact with nature, the quiet of the place, the very little traffic and the low rate of criminality. Nowadays I live in a city which has half the number of inhabitants and my idea of the countryside has changed a bit. 😉
Basically, the most famous attractions in the city are the Parque das Águas, a park with different mineral water springs, a spa, some sports facilities and lots of green, and the steam locomotive ride to Soledade de Minas, a city about 13 km away from São Lourenço.
Last week I told a friend who’s coming to visit me that there are two castles close to my house. I had in mind the Neuhaus and the Wewelsburg Castles. I totally forgot that we also have the ruins of a castle in Verne, the little village where I live. By coincidence, my parents-in-law mentioned the wish to have a picture of the Vernaburg as part of a new “decoration project” they have. So today we went around the Vernaburg for some pictures. Waiting till summer wouldn’t be such a good idea because the trees would be full of leaves hiding some parts of the ruins.
“Wow! Look at that!”, “How interesting!”. That seemed to be everybody’s reaction yesterday close to the cathedral in Paderborn. Even priests and nuns were attracted by the novelty. The ones who had smartphones (the great majority) set their cameras to take pictures. I also couldn’t resist! It’s a closed motorcycle with comfortable seats for two and a BMW motor which could reach up to 250 km/h. According to their webpage (www.monotracer.com) the electric model called eTracer has a motor which could reach 330 km/h but unfortunately we still haven’t got tires which could cope with it. Well, for the ones who are interested in acquiring one, the price without extras and taxes is US$ 110,000.00. Isn’t it a bargain? 😉