It is great to have David back from London (where he went to see a Led Zepplin concert). His flight was smooth and 20 minutes early, his baggage showed up on the belt as soon as he arrived, the car rental process was efficient, and he was home after less than 15 minutes' drive on the freeway. He said it was so good to be back in Germany.
We had considered various long-term options for our German car rental but decided to go a week at a time, since we may not always need to have a car. David got a good deal on this pretty little Audi A3 from Avis.
Yesterday we took the new wheels out to the local Romanesque churches I mentioned in a previous post. The first one was in the village/suburb of Schwarzrheindorf, about 10 minutes outside Bonn on the other side of the Rhine. It was seriously cool.
It was built around 1150 by a guy who owned a castle here, was Chancellor for the Holy Roman Emperor, and later became Archbishop of Cologne. It's a "double church" - one right on top of the other. The top part was used by the archbishop and occasionally the emperor, while the lower level was used by the local community.
The white plaster and decorative paint dates from recent restorations, but is actually what a lot of churches look like in medieval times. I personally like the bare stone better, but it's actually not as "authentic."
In the foreground is the covered stone stairway that leads to the upper church.
The interior of the lower church. Incredible! More old murals than I've seen anywhere, I think. David was really impressed, too.
The murals were painted when the church was built, just before 1150, by a monk from Cologne. Their theme is mostly apocalyptic (end of the world stuff) and a lot of them depict the New Jerusalem described in Revelation.
The octagonal hole in the above two photos is in the center of the church and opens into the upper church and the tower. Sadly we weren't able to go up to the upper church as the doors were all locked - maybe I can look into a guided tour or something.
While we were there, a German grandpa giving three of his grandchildren, all girls, a guided tour. It was very fun. Of the few words that we understood, one was "Harry Potter." The reference seemed to be to one of the castle-looking buildings painted on the ceiling. Fun stuff.
Next we visited a church just down the road in the next village of Vilich. It was a century older, but not nearly as interesting. It was pretty on the outside, though.
Then we headed into central Bonn, found parking in a parking garage, and visited the Christmas market for a late lunch. I don't know what we'll do when the markets go away and we have to find a cheap hot lunch somewhere else!
This was some of the most delicious market food we've had yet. I just had a simple rostbratwurst (grilled white sausage) and it was so mild and smooth and delicious. David had a shish kebab sort of thing, with pieces of pork, tomato and onions grilled on a stick with a sweet and sour sauce poured over the top. Both were served mit brot - on a crusty white roll.
We were too hungry to pause for pictures of the meat, but fortunately David did get out his nice camera for the dessert we shared - a hot waffle with black cherries and cream!
It was very good, but not as good as the version made by our landlord's wife last week.
We also tried a drink we had been quite curious about on our previous visits - Eierpunsch. "Egg punch" is a hot alcoholic drink made with egg and we wondered how similar it might be to egg nog (which we haven't seen in Europe at all).
Turns out it's not very similar, unfortunately. It is eggy and creamy but it's smoother and has no nutmeg or cinnamon. We later saw that an optional topping for waffles is eierlikör - which is likely the main ingredient in the eierpunsch rather than fresh egg.
We did further "research" at Starbucks later in the day when David asked the friendly English-speaking barista if they had Egg Nog Lattes and he said, "No, Germans don't like it. But we do have Gingerbread and Toffee Nut Lattes!" So the nog will have to wait for next Christmas.
And now we are off to Cologne on the tram. Pretty exciting! We sure liked that city when we visited two Christmases ago.
