Had a great weekend down in the Alsace in Colmar and Eguisheim. Everything was excellent albeit for the sore hips from sleeping 2 nights on the ground with only a sleeping bag for padding. Mate, I'm getting old!!!! Next year it will be an air mattress for Jimbo or it will be a hotel. The festival was great this year and the cheeses and wines as usual, simply magic. The weather was also brilliant with 27-28 deg each day. Warm nights too for sitting under the stars and drinking a red. New pics are up on Flickr. Got to mumph some seriously good ham and veal pie as well as the mandatory quiche and pure pork salami for which the region is famous. The Biofestival food is always good and I really pigged out there as well. Also had the best rotisserie chicken I have ever tasted.
Spent a lot of time sampling and purchasing bio Alsace whites and some lovely reds from France and Italy. The main food hall was a massive affair with a local orchestra and world music bands providing entertainment. They always put on a playground area for the kids as well adults and this year they has an incredible selection of bizarre bicycles in all shapes and forms. Fantastic.
Stopped off on the way back at Strasbourg to view the Notre Dame cathedral ( a true gothic classic) and for contrast we also stopped in Speyer to see the dom (roman era contruction) and the old town. Amazing stuff. God how I love this place. It is always doing my head in from every angle with sights that fill me with wonder.
Two old mates Bruce and Paula dropped in on their way through Europe for a few nights and we spent some lovely hours visting the local sights which included castles and medieval villages.
A couple of very late evenings ensued whilst sampling wines from across Europe and munching an array of cuisine that was in the main German but also included some french cheeses. It was amazingly good to see them both after more than 25 years and it served as a stark reminder of how easy it is to fall out of touch with people and what a loss that can ultimately be. I hope will see each other again before to much time sweeps past again.
Darmstadt annually hosts the Schlossgrabenfest which is a four day concert in the city centre. They put on over 80 bands, on 4 stages and the entry is completely free. The music ranges from rock and pop, to soul, hip hop, alternative, reggae, tribute bands and blues right through to jazz. Several of the acts were very good and some were just downright terrible. However, it was a mix for all tastes and all types. The weather true to form cracked up completely on Saturday night. It is the third year in a row that the festival has been totally awash. I do wish they would try a later date further into Summer. Some of the bands that played were Sweetheart a 70’s Galm tribute band doing T-Rex, Alice Cooper etc. Very entertaining indeed. Hole Full Of Love an AC/DC tribute band was excellent. Really tight covers and the guy palying Angus had all the moves. It really went right off. Sushiduke and Die Happy were also very good. It was the first year that they had introduced any form of security to stop people bringing in their own alcohol supplies. This was a shame as the beer was terrible and served in plastic cups which you had to purchase for one euro. I hope next year they have the common sense to review this as a lot of people complained about the lack of choice in beers and the cheap, tacky cups. Despite all a good was had by all. What's not to like about four day freebies :)
Next month the next wave of Aussie visitors sweeps in from southern Queensland. I am fully expecting yet another bomb crater to appear in the wine rack but as they say,” War is hell, Grace!” My partners sister has her 50th birthday shortly so we are gearing up there for a bit of a bash as well. I will head back to Berlin at the end of the month to stay a couple of nights in The Kempinski Bristol and to see some mates who will marry next week before heading off to live in Hong Kong, where one of them has a contract with the World Wildlife Fund. I have already nick named them ,” Panda Patrol”. Life here is always busy and I am forever finding less and less time available than I require to do all the things that I want to. The need for greed. Summer in Europe …… Bring It On !!!
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