Snowboarding in Reizlern, Austria

When Mr X and I arrived in the tiny town Reizlern (the town view is below), we were surprised to learn that we were the first Americans that had ever checked into our hotel. The lady at the front desk was dying to know how we had even heard of her little hotel, let alone Reizlern. As it turns out, it's not a widely international resort, but rather more regional - as in the large region of Europe. This was the view from our hotel room. It looked out over the main road in town. The walk to get to the gondola was a only about two blocks away so I was more than thrilled.

This was a view from the top of the mountain. I'm not entirely sure if it's a view of the German Alps or the Austria Alps as about half the resort lies on one side of the border and the other half lies on the other side. I couldn't tell the difference - they were both breathtaking.

The picture immediately above and below were both snapped at the base of the mountains, so technically in Germany.

Mr X had possession of the camera for the majority of the time. I think he was hoping to get another really good shot of me wiping out again, like last year. I was very happy that he didn't. But either way, I always hate the pictures of myself in action because I think I usually took ridiculous and amateurish. Unlike Mr X - he always manages to appear very graceful, smooth and controlled. *sigh* Oh well. Someones got to look bad so people like Mr X can look even better, right?

At the very end of the day, when the lifts were shutting down, Mr X and I would take one last ride to the top, order a couple apfelchorlesafts (sparking apple juices) and settle into two colorful lounge chairs. We sipped our beverages while basking in the sun, devouring the incredible views and watching the skiers/boarders on their final descent. Then when the majority of the people were gone, we'd take our last ride down. It was quite possibly the best part of the day.

Good Eats

The following food pictures are from our trip to Reizlern, Austria. We went there to enjoy some snowboarding in the Alps. It was kind of cool that the top of the ski resort is in Austria and halfway down the run you cross over into Germany. I'll post snowboarding pictures in my next segment.

Often when Mr X and I are traveling around we decline eating out in favor of the delightful experience of eating in - courtesy of the local food shops. I love doing this because I thoroughly enjoy exploring the cheese shops, the butcher/meat shops, the bakeries, the fruit/vegetable stands and the local grocery stores. The loot in the photo below is from one of our "dining-in" excursions. (The cheese was one of the stinkiest cheeses Mr X and I have ever smelled but it was delicious. Mr X described the smell as "stinky feet.")

This meal was from the bottom of the mountain, so it was in Germany. Mr X generally detests creamy sauces and he seemed to accidentally order them a lot during this trip. But his dish (directly below) was better than mine. His meal came with a side of what appeared to be hash browns.

This (below) was my meal. Weiner Art. Sigh. I love the fanciful touch of the single cooked carrot slice on the single lettuce leaf. It wasn't a bad meal at all. Just not my favorite.

This was another meal that we enjoy in the ski town of Reizlern one evening. Mr X's meal was really good. He started with a cup of garlic cream soup. It totally hit the spot after a day of snowboarding - I know because I probably ate half of it. Then he enjoyed a tender and flavorful steak with croquettes and beans.

Mine meal just looked just horrible. But it was tasty, trust me. Who am I kidding...if you read my blog regularly you probably don't trust my culinary opinion.

Our dessert, the classic Apfel Streudel mit Eis, was heavenly.

Douaumont Ossuary

Mr X and I made our way through Luxembourg, Belgium and then down into France, toward Verdun to see some World War I sites. The drive itself is beautiful and interesting with the 'destroyed villages' and random glimpses of old war bunkers.

We passed by the Memorial de Verdun. We wanted to go in but we were short on time and we really wanted to make it to the Douaumont Ossuary. They both were built as memorials to the Battle of Verdun in World War I.

The Battle of Verdun lasted for 300 days and there were 700,000 casualties. Of the 700,000 casualties 230,000 people died.

Inside the memorial, the walls and ceiling are covered with plaques bearing the names of French soldiers that died in the battle.

The ossuary sits on top of the remains of at least 130,000 unidentified French and German soldiers. As you walk around the memorial you can peer into small windows and see the humbling remains.

The land in front of the ossuary consists of the largest French military cemetery of WWI: 16,142 graves.

Here's a better picture of the whole place, courtesy of Wikipedia (also where I pulled a lot of my information from for this post):

Cemeteries and Destroyed Villages

During the Battle of Verdun in the first world war, nine villages in France were destroyed. After the war France decided to basically turn the remnants of these villages into a sort of memorial to those that died. Mr X and I visited several of these destroyed villages during our World War sites tour.

A small chapel has been erected at the entrance to these villages...

As you walk along the rather obscure paths through the villages there are signs marking where certain known places used to be such as the school or the mill or so-and-so's house. The photo below is marking the "Maison de M. Le Cure" - so the house of the Cure family.

This was some sort of ammunition container for the town...or the remnants thereof. The townspeople had been forced out by the Germans and they were using it as a sort of supply post. I guess I didn't feel as badly about this town getting destroyed since it wasn't bombed until after the Germans were occupying it.

This sort of monument was out in front of several churches in the small towns (not destroyed ones) around the area of Verdun.

It was very interesting to visit a German war cemetery rather than an American or French cemetery. Mr X told me that he'd heard that the Germans had taken to burying their dead two or more deep but he'd never given it much thought after hearing it. But then we saw the headstones and they had two names on them so I guess it's true.

I thought it was interesting that in the first World War Jewish Germans fought right alongside every other German but then only slightly more than twenty years later so much had changed.

Finally a food post!

I have no patience for trying to move around the pictures on my posts after I've uploaded them these days so I apologize that these are in no order in particular. Trust me, we had dessert AFTER we ate our meal. But since the dessert items are first in line here, that's what we'll start with. This was from our day in Bastogne, Belgium. The food was delicious. But Mr X would tell you to not pay attention to my opinion about the food because I like everything - including things that most people would consider gross. I prefer to think that I just have a very refined palate.

I took a picture of the pastry box because I thought it was just so pretty.


The pastries in the box weren't as adorable as the box, that's for sure. I have no idea what the other two things in the box were but the most plain item of all, the Belgian Waffle was by far the most delicious. The waffle has a different taste and texture than any waffles I've ever had...it was far superior. The one picture above is filled with cherry delights. Unfortunately for Mr X, one of the bites he had contained a cherry pits. Luckily his teeth were strong enough to withstand it.

This is the place we chose to have our lunch. It was a charming little Belgian diner. I had a quiche and I don't remember what Mr X had. But I'm sure mine was better than his.

Below Mr X is about to walk into the meat shop. He bought some buffalo salami to take him. I tried it several days later and it was some of the best salami I've had.

They are really capitalizing on the "Nuts!" bit of McAuliffe's. We didn't buy anything here, but we thought it was worth a picture.

Below are some of the wonderful treats in the pastry shop's window. I would have liked to have one of everything.

World War I & II Tour

Below are pictures Mr X and I took from our personal WWI & WWII tour of the Belgium/Luxembourg/France area. One of the museums we perused was in Bastogne, Belgium. It was the called the Bastogne Historical Center and it was a fascinating place. I loved it. Below is the entrance and the incredibly enormous memorial, followed by pictures of the museum displays (we weren't allowed to take pictures but, of course, we did anyway...just with the flash turned off and as slyly as possible).


Visitors can climb to the top of the memorial to look out over the countryside, so naturally we did. Although it was freezing cold up there, it provided beautiful views.

These are authentic uniforms that the Nazi's wore.

This was a French poem written about General McAuliffe's famous response of "Nuts!" to the German's demand that their surrounded troops surrender. I really have no idea what the poem says but I'm sure my FIL will understand it perfectly and then maybe he would be so kind as to translate for me...

It's amazing to me that these soldiers were able to withstand the harsh winters of northern Europe considering these uniforms were their protection from the elements. I sat there looking at the uniforms silently thanking the heavens for the inventions of things like Gore-tex.

The pictures below are from the National Museum of Military History in Diekirch, Luxembourg.

This one I could understand well enough with my less than remedial French. But I'm sure most people will be able to understand this one. It's pretty obvious.