German Snowballs
Friday, May 22nd, 2009We crested a hill and unexpectedly on the other side we found The Alps! Suddenly spread before us was a wonderful panorama – in the foreground were more of the farms dotted with villages we have been seeing, and which still look as romantic as three days ago when we first came across them (we were on Die Romantische Strasse, after all), an occasional palace-type castle with some evergreen forest…and rising up behind were the mountains. Magnificent, majestic, still dusted with snow. WOW! Simply stunning. Beautiful. Actually this whole region is beautiful. Every mile covered is like turning another page in a landscape painting book.
But what were we doing here? Weren’t we supposed to be in Rothenburg fixing The Other Womo? Well, yes, we were.
BUT
We woke to pouring rain and so it seemed pointless to make the almost weather-proof hole any bigger. So after another quick zip round town to give the rain time to clear (which it didn’t), we decided to head for Oberammergau and hope tomorrow is sunny enough to render repairs possible. Right now as I write, a thunderstorm is raging outside, lightning is flashing, rain is pouring from the heavens, wind is blowing over the mountains and we’re just hoping the tape holds the van together. But this will not be another everything-is-going-wrong post! (Although the water tank is much emptier than it should be having been filled just this morning and not used all day….and the GPS played silly games when we were trying to route the day’s travels…..and all the supermarkets are closed without explanation…..and Jboy13 wore a windblown door on his head this evening……and it’s 7:30 and dinner is not ready….)
But I’m sitting here listening to the family sing praises together and recite the Ten Commandments, I’m looking out at the mountains, our nice big pot full of thickening potato soup is wrapped up in a blanket, we travelled safely today, the sun is setting behind me, the children have all had a “bath” in a glacial-cold stream, and we had SNOWBALLS at lunchtime (thanks Grandpa).
First of all the river-bath:
And the snowballs:
About these snowballs…..yesterday when I took the children for a walk we noticed Schneeballen in every bakery. We had happened across a Rothenburg specialty, and bought one to try. Even eating it did not help us know for certain how they were made, but up the street was a bakery with a wide screen television showing the complete process. And so we stopped to watch. And egg, flour and sugar pastry is rolled out quite thinly. The middle is cut into strips, but not all the way to the edges. Every other strip is lifted onto a wooden “broom handle”, then the baker slips his hand under these strips and expertly folds them all together into a ball, which is placed in a special long-handled tong-like tool. This is dipped into oil and deep fried. After cooling, the snowballs were traditionally sprinkled with icing sugar (hence the name), but today they can also be covered with chocolate and nuts and filled with all sorts of creme fillings.
Grandpa liked the sound of these delicious delights, and made sure he got some before we hit the road this morning!!!
Time on the road: 4 hours
Distance covered: 290km
(Speaking of snowballs, on the day I uploaded these two weeks worth of blogposts, we received an email from Anak Ranch – it snowed there for three days after we left….and is snowing again….poor guys lost all their seedlings to this last blast…..the kids will really wish we had stayed longer!!)
rayres