MANIC MONDAY - KIT

MANIC MONDAY LINK

A SURPRISING PLACE

We left the Garda lake on saturday morning. Our car was so packed that not even one bar of KitKat would have fit in there. It wasn't because I had bought Italian shoes, leather jackets or clothes no, it was because of Italian food !

During the whole week of our stay, friends and family anxious that we would die of the bad food quality in other countries brought us wine, cheese, ham, beef, saussages, self made conserves of vegetables (especially green and red pepper) home made pasta sauces of all kind and of course self made pasta. All my protests that it wasn't necessary and we could find these products in Belgium too were useless and anyway nobody believed me. Mr. Gattino behaved like a hamster and with radiant eyes and watering mouth collected everything. Of course the wine was from the cousin of the brother of an uncle, the cheese from a friend's friend who's brother made the cheese himself, the meat came from a friends father's uncle whose brother in law had a butchery and so on. I have to admit that the whole stuff is really very good. The last holes in the car were filled up with Italian crime stories and other books so that I am now able to open an Italian library. Well equipped we could now return to our home, where people were in bad health because of bad food quality. With this whole kit and caboodle we drove towards north.

The highway (motorway) was fully packed with returning tourists of all countries and the first jam happened at the toll station for the highway in Italy, there you have to pay. Next was the Europe's bridge* which connects Italy to Austria over the high mountains where you have to pay again. In Austria you only have to pay once for 2 weeks, one months or a year for using the highway. In Germany it is free but we got stuck before Munich. The Oktoberfest had started at 12 am sharp and there were a lot of people going to Munich to get their beer and fun. I listened to the radio and heard that 4000 toilets and 2000 pissoirs had been installed to welcome around 10 million people from all over the world.

After 8 h driving I had enough. I pushed on an invisible button on Mr. Gattino who drove like a robot only thinking about his 5 cats at home now and asked him to take the next exit to look for a hotel.

We landed in Geiselwind (litteraly translated "hostage wind"). It was a charming "town" of 2323 inhabitants in Lower Franconia (Bavaria) maybe they are now 2326 since Wikipedia published this information. There were about 15 half timbered houses around the cute little church. It looked very beautiful and cosy.

I got out of the car to the only hotel and asked if they had a room. They had. And to my surprise for a quite cheap price only 53 € !

The inside of the surprisingly big hotel.

It had 3 restaurants and the owner had at least 10 awards for good cooking on the wall. And he was an excellent cook. I had a trout which was so fresh it almost still moved on my plate. Mr. Gattino had a Wiener Schnitzel, which is of veal. The fish was catched in the to the Hotel belonging river and the meat came from the to the Hotel belonging butchery. The same was with the delicious rolls we had next day for breakfast, the bakery also belonged to the hotel. The jam was homemade of course. And I learned that you only have good food in your own country. Apparently the Italians in Italy and the Germans in Germany.

The Hotel was built in 1580, housed a catholic congregation and became an Inn in 1875. An historic place ! But we didn't sleep in an 1580 old bed, the room was was very modern with TV and bathroom of course.

In the restaurant I found this hanging on the wall. Apparently this place was also well known by American military and when we had our supper there were 10 American guests around a table in this lost village !

The next day we drove home smoothly there were no trucks on the highway they are not allowed to drive on highways in Germany on a Sunday. We didn't need our emergency kit or any others and arrived home safely where we were greated by our 5 cats.

*Europabrücke, or Europe's bridge, is a 777-m (2,549.2-ft.) long bridge spanning the 657-m (2,155.5-ft.) Wipp valley just south of Innsbruck, Austria. The A13 Brenner Autobahn passes over this bridge, above the Sill River, forming part of the main route from Austria to Italy across the Alps. Built between 1959 and 1963, it was once Europe's highest bridge, standing 192 m (629.9 ft.) high.

SOME ADVICES FOR NON ITALIANS

If ever in your life you have to go with an Italian in his country be prepared that as soon as they are on Italian soil they change. If at home they hardly talk to strangers (unless they are Italians of course) when they cross the border it starts. The first victim in view will immediately know where he was born, from which city he came, how long he had been abroad, what nationality has his wife (or the person with him), who he will visit and how long he will stay. This can be the man at the gaz station, a shop owner or a person with an Italian licence plate on a parking.

Next are the waiters in a bar or restaurant. There he will take time and go into details.

Then the friends, with them they don't have to explain where they are coming from but of course all the miracles they have accomplished in the time they were away from "home". Especially in small towns (worse are even villages) they have to stop at each and every person they know or who know them and to tell their life story all over again. This is especially annoying for the person who travels with them and who is not Italian. If they don't know the language it's even worse. I suggest you take a book along, anyway they won't realize because they are far too busy to tell their actual life to each other or what this and that person they both know has become. This takes time and therefore a book is useful. If you have room take a seat with you. Try not to bother that you will hear the same story six to ten or more times per day. You will be able to repeat them by heart much better then a poeme you once learned at school.

After a few days half of a city or a whole village will be up to date of the latest news. The person with him will feel like a dog owner; a dog stops at each tree, the Italian at each person he knows (or thinks to know). For a way which usually would take 10 min it then takes at least an hour. Not to count all the glasses of wine you have to swallow to celebrate this event of seeing each other again. If he lives in a touristic place, no way to get him to the beach because there are only tourists there and nobody would know him.

There are only two solutions to make some holidays out of your stay. You go alone to the beach while your Italian is busy telling his life story to the whole city or village or you go with him and try not to get drunk. Take only one zip of the offered wine or pretend you don't support any alcohol. Then maybe you can survive !

PS. Warning !! Please ask your Italian to never mention your blog because then you need a tent and a sleeping bag while he tries to explain what is a blog. Without any success of course.