A COUPLE MORE WINE STORIES

  

Styrofoam Cups

            Before boarding the train for the overnight trip to the Australian Outback, it was suggested that we might like to buy a bottle of wine to enjoy that evening. We found the recommended liquor store and made our purchase.

            This time there was no difficulty opening the wine, but we only had Styrofoam cups in our compartment. The dining car was at the far end of the train and after some discussion we decided it was not very likely trying that we'd be successful getting a glass from there . I hate drinking anything out of Styrofoam, but we did what we had to do and drank our very good  wine out of the small Styrofoam cups. Since the cups were so small, the bottle of wine provided refreshment all evening along with pleasant conversation and scenery before and after dinner. The memory is a keeper.

Water Glass Full        

Wine accompanied the dinner meal each night on a European river cruise. Since it was not always easy to get the waiter’s attention, I turned my wine glass upside down leaving my water glass turned up. It was days before the waiter figured out he was filling my water glass with wine! I just had two glasses of wine in one and I didn’t have to bother or wait for the waiter.

Largest Wine Barrel

Heidelberg Fass, the largest wine barrel in the world sits in the cellar at Heidelberg Castle, Germany. Its capacity is 58,124 gallons.  Stairs lead up to a dance floor built on top of the barrel. We walked up the stairs but it was too dark to even think about taking pictures. It is one humongous barrel!

Monks’ Secret

Originally monks made most of the wine in Europe. Wine in the Wurzburg area is white. The green bottle, shaped like a goat’s bladder, reminded me of a Matuse bottle. It is said that the design and shape was easy for the monks to carry under their cloaks.My my.

COLOGNE CATHEDRAL

View from the river

 A Gorgeous Church

The Cologne Cathedral dominates the city of Cologne, Germany and is one of the well known cathedrals in the world. The building was started in 1248 but by the early 1500s all work was halted until 1823, but. it was finally completed in 1880. The two tall towers are connected by the façade of the nave. The church measures 430-feet long and is 130-feet high. The west tower is part of the original town wall. There are 400 pieces of beautiful stained glass. The windows on the south aisles were donated by King Ludwig I in 1848. The north windows are Renaissance stained glass of 1507-09.

            There are seven chapels and a bronze and marble altar. The 245 choir chairs are of oak. The 120-year old mosaic floors were gorgeous. I thought to myself, if I put so much work into creating these beautiful floors I sure wouldn’t want people walking on them!

Pews and benches were not added until the 20^th century. Prior to that people stood or kneeled, but they did not sit. A Shrine of the Three Magi form a triple-nave basilica. Our docent unlocked a gate that allowed us to view the gold box up close as he told us, “It took two generations of goldsmiths to complete this box. The front contains 33 pounds of gold, but the sides are gold plated. The box is decorated with relief figures depicting the life of Christ, the Apostles, and Old Testament prophets.”

As we left he continued, “It takes 80-100 people to maintain the Cathedral. It is made of sandstone as are many buildings in this part of the world, and sandstone is very soft and crumbles easily. That is why you always see scaffolding somewhere around the building. It is always in some state of repair. The stone is too soft to power wash. Maintenance is a major problem.”

            On my first visit to Cologne the church was under renovation and we could not access the inside, so I was happy to get inside during my next visit. On my first visit in the early 90s there were many food vendors in the parking lot. We ate lunch between swatting at the many small yellow jackets that wanted to share our lunch.