TRIVIA

From Germany

Perfect climate and conditions abound along most of the Danube  for grape growing The area is hilly leading down to the river. It was strange to see vineyards planted in horizontal rows rather than vertical ones. It was explained that it makes picking the grapes easier for the girls and for the men to carry the full baskets of grapes to the trucks on the roads that lead through the vineyards. The vertical planting also provides for maximum sun to reach the all the leaves.

Eight ships constantly cruise the Rhine River to siphon off old oil to recycle and to keep the river clean.  What a good idea!

The Danube depends on rain fall and the river can be either too high or too low to transit. I have been grounded in each instance. There is not a thing you can do about it so go with the flow---no pun intended.

In Germany we were told that a single cross designates a church, but a cross with two crossbars designates a cathedral. Inside, the pulpit will be on the right if it is a church, on the left in a cathedral. Before people could read, monks had different floor tile designs so people would know where they were. Dom means dominate, to the highest power.

In Germany the expression tomcat means a hangover. The remedy is to eat salted fish followed by wine---so the fish can swim---From a docent with a very good sense of humor.   

Streets were crooked in medieval times because one can’t shoot around a corner. After the invention of the cannon, streets were straightened because fighting no longer took place in the streets.

Burg denotes a castle before the advent of artillery when the structure was primarily used as a fortification. Schloss refers to a castle after fortification when the structure was primarily a residence.

A good description of Rococo architecture is Baroque gone mad.

During the city walking tour of Regensburg I had kept an eye peeled for the Café Prinzess. Dating back to 1686, it is the oldest coffeehouse in Germany, and I wanted to stop there for at least a cold drink. It was a really hot day and after checking out the inside and upstairs of the café we elected to sit outside in the shade. We ordered iced coffee. Served with chocolate chip ice cream, it resembled a float rather than any iced coffee I’d ever had. It was different, but good and this ice creamaholic sure didn’t complain!

A few years later we stopped at an ice cream kiosk in Vienna one evening after dinner. I was trying to find out what the ice cream was with the tiny black flecks in it, but the language barrier was too much to cope with so thinking it was tiny bits of chocolate I bought it. A bit later the fellow behind us explained that it was opium ice cream—like from the poppies grown in Afghanistan. Then the light bulb went on in my head---I was eating poppy seed ice cream! I did get a lot of mileage out of the story though after  returning home.