Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Mungowitz in Deutschland--Day 3

By comparison, today was just boring....which is great, because that means it was academically productive.

I had breakfast (ummmmmm.... leberwurst and prosciutto on hard brown bread), and then rode the big girl's bike to the office. (Short movie of the office attached to this post).

At lunch, I walked down to the Erlangen Arcaden. Very fine mall. Not sure why I was surprised, but in that mall I felt like I was IN the U.S. McDonald's (no ice in the drinks, though, American pig!), Burger King, and 20 different pizza places. LOTS of people, spending E's. Siemens is the big employer here, and they are still doing fine.

Took the Gbike up to scout the location of my apartment (I am in a hotel until Sunday). Beautiful. It is the basement of a house owned by Herrn. Ludwig, also a prof at Erlangen. Near the Berch, and right across the street from a terrific park.

For dinner, I persuaded the intrepid Jans-Jorg to leave his habilitation work, and show me a nice place. He finds, I pay, was the deal, and a fine deal it was.

We walked over to Mein lieber Schwan, a very old restaurant near the river to the north.

And, since it is now asparagus season here in Franconia....it was time to cast asparagus! I had a truly delightful bowl of wild garlic soup, and then a giant plate of asparagus with bowls of butter and hollandaise on the side. I got a small plate of Franconian wurst, and began the feast. The asparagus is not what I am used to, yellow green and with less of the soft upper tip. But it is extremely fine, and the dark bier is a fine compliment. As always, representin' Herb, going down...to YUMtown.

2 comments:

Angus said...

"My Beloved Swan"????

Robert S. Porter said...

„Mein lieber Schwan“ has a dual meaning. First it comes from an aria in Wagner's Lohengrin (1848) but it also has a more colloquial meaning: now listen here, bloody hell, blimey.