Kloster Eberbach and Hoherodskopf

I looked at two more apartments this Saturday in Hattenheim which is a little town just down river from Eltville. Nice views from each place, and they are only about 200 meters from one another. The first one was an apartment and I would have the ground floor and the basement. Above me would be Agnes (with her enormous rack), and in the Penthouse is Peter the owner of the building. He’s a pilot with Lufthansa. Peter’s view from his back balcony is fantastic; mine would simply be nice because I’m much lower. There is a vineyard literally right outside of the back yard, and a view of (the remains of) a castle, and the Rhein River.

The other place I looked at was a house that is closer to the Rhein, but also closer to the road and the train tracks. Roughly the same view, but a quite a bit better because it has a 2nd floor balcony.

I should find out around the middle of the week if I can get the house or not (he’s got others looking at it as well). If I can’t get the house, I’ll take the apartment. Agnes cuts the grass and does the gardening, so there will be plenty of chances to catch her bending over from where I’ll be situated. She also seemed pretty pleased with the opportunity to have someone who likes to cook living in the building. I think she also had eyes on using my pickup truck.

I didn’t have an appointment to look at these places until 1500 (that’s 3:00 PM for you civilians and Americans). Since my appointments were later on in the day, I came out to Hattenheim early and drove around and took a walk for a bit in the vineyards. Hattenheim is a very small town and the streets there are very tight. Being that I have a pickup truck it was important to me to find an easy way into the apartments. I was driving through the constricted streets of this town, and people were diving into doorways to get out of the way. I felt like I might need to fold in my side mirrors to keep from scraping the windows on the houses. I managed to work out a way to get to the apartments without having to go through town, so I drove over and parked near the apartments. I was still about 20 minutes early, so I went for a little walk.

There is a wine restaurant just a ways down the street from the house I was going to look at, but it was closed. I noticed another wine place that a gentleman was walking out of. I walked over and he let me inside. As it turned out this was not a wine restaurant or even a bar, but was a retailer (maybe wholesaler) for the winery. I sat down in a chair and he asked me what kind of wine I wanted. I said that I wanted a “halb-trocken” or a semi-dry. He let me try about three of them before I had to leave. They were all good and I felt obliged to buy a couple of bottles. So I purchased 2 bottles (one was a 1.0 liter and the other a 0.75 liter bottle) for about $13. “Oh, I’ll be back” I said as I was leaving.

One of the guys I work with came out to look at the apartments with me. He speaks German pretty well, and could ask the questions that I couldn’t. His wife is also German, and she came along too. After we checked out the places we were planning to go up to Kloster Eberbach, which is an old monastery that has since turned into a hotel/restaurant/winery/meeting place/etc.

As we were leaving the apartments, I told Jeff which way to go to get to the Kloster. I was following him and we missed the turn. We reached a dead end, so we turned around. I told Jeff where he missed the turn, and we started back, only to miss it again. I flashed my high beams at him and pulled up along side him. He said that a sign said that it was a dead end. Being as how I do not know German and he does, I continued to follow him. And I followed him through the very narrow streets of Hattenheim that I was trying to avoid. It was tight, but the Tacoma and I managed to come through unscathed.

I think Kloster Eberbach was originally a Cloister (Kloster) of nuns, which became a monastery later on. The monks used to make wine there, but I think the whole deal has been taken over by the State now. They do still make a Kloster Eberbach wine, but I don’t think it’s made on premises. I posted a picture of one of there wines earlier. They also have there own beer; however, I’m not sure if they brew it themselves or if it is contract-brewed for them. It was pretty good though. I had a Helles, which is a pale lager bier. It was called Kloster Hell, which I thought was pretty funny.

We decided to grab a bite to eat. I saw that they had the Jellied Suckling Pig on the menu. How could I not order this? So I did. The jellied pig was basically little bits of meat that were cooked, then cooled and suspended in gelatin. It was served in ½ cm slices with an herb cream sauce, and some fried potatoes. It was all pretty good.

Sunday I went out with Jeff and his wife to visit a friend of hers northeast of Frankfurt. The plan was to have lunch and then do a little hike on a trail in the woods a couple of miles away. We stopped at a small bier garten for lunch. I had Spargel with Hollandaise sauce and pork schnitzel. Spargel is the German name for asparagus, only they don’t let the asparagus get green. I think that they do this either digging it up before it breaks the surface, or by constantly covering it and then digging it out. It basically prevents the photosynthesis from turning the plant green. If you’ve never had white asparagus, it has a much more subtle flavor and doesn’t get as woody as green asparagus does (if you don’t pick it soon enough). Spargel season is big around here, in fact it gets top billing on the menus. Instead of Schnitzle with asparagus, you get asparagus with sauce, and some schnitzle. I didn’t eat enough of the spargel to know if it makes your pee stink as much as normal asparagus; however, it is in season now so there will be plenty of opportunities. I may just have to take one for the team and experiment with it.

So we went out for a hike on this trail in an area called Hoherodskopf. A hiking club from the area had built this big tower called the Bismarckturm years ago on the highest point in the area.



The idea is that you have a 360-degree view from the top. We went up and I took some pictures, but it was a little hazy in the valleys, so they don’t show up very well.



Near the bottom of the monument there is a small sign that tells of Saint Bonifatius (Boniface). Apparently he used to baptize the heathens very near to there, and he is credited with bringing Christianity to Germany.





After the hike we went back to Jeff’s wife’s friend’s house and had coffee and gooseberry pie. The view from her place is just amazing. Apparently some German Prince used to own all the land around there. It is very rural and beautiful.

But then it became Monday and I had to go back to work…