Cousin Vonnie and Adventures in Food

Our intrepid Cousin Vonnie arrived mid-week from Minnesota for a short visit, and we hit the ground running. Eating has become a priority lately, and on our first day out and about with Vonnie, we finally tried currywurst, which I read somewhere is one of the most popular street foods in Hamburg. Whether this is true is debatable, but we've seen it offered so often that we had to try it, knowing full well that currywurst is just a hot dog slathered in curry-flavored catsup. And that's exactly what we got, although we were startled to discover that the portions are alarmingly large.  


The next day, we took a train to visit the former East German town of Schwerin, whose gilded, lacy schloss (“the haunted Neuschwanstein of the north," situated on a little island on the Schwerin See), is its best asset. 

When we arrived at the castle, we sat down for kuchen und kaffee in the elegant cafe, where we were the only customers. Off-season travel has its perks. We felt grand and pampered in our very own room of linen-covered tables, overlooking the formal gardens and lake. 

Some of the former fashions at Schwerin Schloss were pretty grand, too, and the dukes who lived there over the years took pains to ensure themselves that they were plenty pampered. They even gave themselves a throne room to sit in, which seems so silly now, but I’m betting they took it pretty seriously.

After Schwerin, we stopped back at Wismar for a short stroll, and passed by the 1569 Schweinsbrücke (Swine Bridge) with its bronze pig sculptures. I haven’t found any information about this bridge except that it exists, and that it is located in Wismar, both of which are true. Also, rubbing the adorable and playful pigs is said to bring good luck. 

After a short walk around Wismar it began to rain, and it was starting to get dark, so we hopped on the train and headed back to Lübeck, where we warmed up in the cozy Schiffelgesellschaft (the 16th century sea captains’ hangout) again, to show Vonnie this iconic establishment and to eat dinner. 

I tried out my new iPhone Google Translate app, which enables you align German text in the camera window and see the translation. When I first heard about this app about a month ago, I thought it was some futuristic dream app, and secretly hoped I’d live long enough to see it become a reality. I was therefore delighted and more than a little awed to discover that not only is it available now, it’s also free. Where will these modern wonders end??! Anyway, the menu translations we got from this app were a little eyebrow-raising, with offerings like “Pea Stew with One Raw Sausage,”  “Heron,” and “Smoker’s Leg.”  If I ever write a novel about the creepiest, most disgusting restaurant in the world, I will definitely use this app as my inspiration. Fortunately, everything we ordered was normal and gut, despite the unfortunate Google translations.

Yesterday we took a short train trip to the little town of Eutin, northwest of Lübeck, to meet up with friends Christof and Cordula. Eutin, which has been a market town since the 12th century, has an old windmill, a little town square, and lots of pretty half-timbered brick buildings. It's just a sweet little town to visit.

After seeing an entertaining art exhibit of local artists, taking a walk around town, and having gulaschsuppe and beer at the Bauhaus Eutin for lunch, we got a ride home from Christof and Cordula in their van -- but not before stopping at thatched roof restaurant in Sharbeutz, overlooking my favorite sea, the Baltic, for my favorite meal of the day, kaffee und kuchen. 

By early evening we were headed back to Lübeck for dinner at the Rathaus (the former local government building). Vonnie had her chance to finally try the grünkohl,

the typical veggie dish of northern Germany. They don’t normally serve dishes like sauerkraut and spätzle up here in northern Germany; instead they serve herring in various forms, and grünkohl, a dish made from shredded kale. Christof informed us that there are two kinds of people in Germany: those who hate grünkohl, and those who love it, the latter group further subdivided into those who prefer it with sugar and those who like it without. I apparently belong to the former group, as I think it tastes a bit like silage, although, as Vonnie correctly pointed out, I have never actually tried silage. Still. Not my favorite dish. Vonnie liked it, and I tried some of hers, which was better than the grünkohl I had tried previously, which tasted a bit like silage. I noticed that neither Christof nor Cordula ordered it. 

As for me, I ordered fried herring, which I had never had before, and was presented with three small fishes on my plate, gutted and fried. Sehr gut!