Day 3 - Sankt Goar to Munich

We woke up in darkness in a very cold, icy Sankt Goar. There was ice on the balcony, and the view outside was exactly what I imagined waking up in wintery Europe to be. We grabbed some breakfast and then went back to our room to pack our bags, and took a little too long, and almost missed our bus. We just about made it back in time to throw our bags in and find a cramped spot to sit.

We took a ride into town to hear about how beer steins are made, and all bought a stein (myself included, though I've yet to use it). We also bought a little piggy teddy, really cute thing, and looked around at the world's biggest beer stein and world's biggest free-hanging cuckoo clock. After all of that, it began snowing. Our first time seeing falling snow! It was pretty magical, and was really cool to see it in such a little fairy tale town.

The drive to Munich was stunning, the wintery wonderland around was awesome to look at. On the stop along the way we got some sausage and chips - a typical German meal, but delicious. On the bus, each person was asked to stand up and give their name, occupation and a joke to the rest of the tourists. A poor joke was rewarded with a yellow jelly baby from the driver, an average joke with an orange jelly baby, and a good joke with a red jelly baby. I told the joke about 3 testicles (message me if you want to know!) and got a red sweetie! Bonus! We then got to sit and either sleep, watch the scenery fly by, or watch 300 on the bus telly. At this stage I was dying for a pee, and couldn't wait to get into Munich.

When we finally did, I wasn't all that impressed with the city. It's not amazing at first sight, but after we checked into our hotel we were dropped off in the city centre, by the Glockenspiel, for some free time before a walking tour. The walk really changed my mind - Munich rocks! The Glockenspiel is an awesome building. The market there is out of this world - stall after stall after stall after stall, and shop after shop after shop after shop. Stalls filled with nothing but different kinds of cheeses, and ones with breads, and ones with meats, and ones with fruits and veg, the best place in the world!

The girls walking around Munich were also gorgeous looking, and all dressed very well (especially in the wintery weather). We bought a pair of leather gloves for Adi, and after a brief walk around bought a bread roll and a hunk of delicious cheese, which the kind German lady behind the counter cut for us and smushed into our bread roll, so that we could enjoy the best cheese sandwhich I have had to date. Awesome! We also found a shop with petit fours in, and helped ourselves to an absolute delight of one. You might sense the growing theme (and growing circumferences of our bellies) of the tour for us - eat, eat, eat! It was tons of fun.

After all of that fun, we met up with the rest of the tour and the tour manager, Brek, to meet Sam, a local tour guide. Brek called her in a hurry to do us a favour, since we arrived fairly late, and I would think they were perhaps "friendly" in a past life, since she was more than willing to help us out. What a cute, awesome girl she was. She was on a Contiki tour, and when they arrived in Munich she fell in love with it, and never left. How cool! She gave us a great walking tour with tons of history, stuff you would never learn without a tour guide. It was so informative and was such a great thing for us to have done. Super chuffed!

After the walking tour, we got to go into one of my highlights of the tour - the Hofbrau House! A traditional German beer hall. It was tremendous. Great big steins of beer, served by cute waitresses in traditional dresses, with a cute blonde pretzel girl selling giant, salty, amazingly delicious pretzels. An oompa band was playing, and you could see the cages with family steins locked away. The pork knuckles we had were so good, and over all a lot of fun was had (how could it not, with such wonderful beer?). A great evening was had by all. After quite a party, we all headed back to the hotel to prepare for the next day.

Day 3 - Amsterdam to Sankt Goar

We woke to wonderful European breakfast: chocolate spread (Nutella) and nesquick! Awesome. We did a tour of the Anne Frank house - incredibly overwhelming, hectic, but so glad we got to see it. A fascinating place, and I definitely recommend it for anyone in Amsterdam. Outside, we were accosted by the worst smelling sewage in the history of man. Gah! We missed the Van Gogh because the queue was so long, but we walked around the city taking in the sights, eating chocolate waffles, giant pizza slices (best pizza ever, hands down) and did some shopping. The shops are great, there are bicycles everywhere, and it's a very cool vibe. I loved Amsterdam.


We left Amsterdam in the afternoon for Sankt Goar - a little German town in the Rhine Valley. The countryside along the way was absolutely stunning, and we got to see some cool graffiti on buildings as we drove, and also my first experience of sound barriers around the highway. Were we in Europe or something? We stopped at a service station in Germany, and had some schnitzel (Gutentag, eine schnitzel bitte?). We also came into contact with snow! Thick snow on the road and paving at the service station. Awesome! When we arrived in Sankt Goar it was dark, but we could still see some castles and the river. We did a wine tasting in a cellar, the place was hundreds of years old. IT was very atmospheric, and beautiful to see. All 4 wines were very good, some people bought a few bottles, we bought a bottle of eiswein (for our wedding, but Adi didn't know at the time!). 


After that we headed for the hotel where we sampled some local beer, chatted with our manager and driver, and had some meatballs for dinner. It was icy cold, and there was frost on the balcony and snow on the roofs of the buildings around the little hotel. It was such a nice place! We didn't have a late night, and headed to bed to catch some sleep.

Wesley's Yummy Lamb Curry

So, I'm a big curry fan. My gran did a lot of living in Durban, and while there she learnt how to make a decent curry. It was always pretty plain, a standard lamb off the bone kind of curry, and not too hot (to protect us young uns), but it was always oh-so-good. Her secret was to burn some of the curry powder - though I'm not too sure of the benefits.

After some growing up and conditioning my tongue to hotter spices and tastes, I decided I wanted to learn to cook my own curry. While eating dinner at a restaurant on Long Street (Maharaja, overpriced but excellent food) with some work colleagues, Wesley mentioned that he was learning to cook different curries and Indian meals from different parts of India. Naturally, I asked him for a standard lamb off the bone recipe. He obliged, and even threw in some spices for me (what a nice guy!), and so the recipe follows:

Ingredients:

1. Half a large onion, finely chopped
2. 2 t/s curry powder
3. 2-4 green chillies, chopped
4. 2 t/s garlic / ginger paste
5. 1.5 t/s dhanis jeera spice
6. 3 medium tomatoes, pureed
7. 0.5kg lamb cubes
8. Salt to taste
9. Olive oil

Instructions:

• Add the chopped onions to a suitable sized pot that has been preheated with olive oil.
• Leave the onions to braise for a few minutes, then add the chillis.
• Let the onions and chillis fry for a couple of minutes until the chillis are golden in colour, then add all the spices in one go (dhanis jeera and curry powder).
• Stir thoroughly, expect drool inducing aroma.
• Let the spices braise for about 4 minutes, then add the meat and garlic / ginger paste. Add salt (I use about half a t/s) and stir.
• Cover the pot and allow to cook for 10-15 mins, stirring and making sure the curry is not burning.
• Add the pureed tomatoes, and cover again and allow to cook for 15-20 mins.
• The curry should now have a thick gravy, add water to thin if required.
• Salt to taste, and serve!

Hints:

• Use heat setting 3 on a 6 level plate.
• For more flavour, add dhanis (coriander) leaves to the pot about 10 mins prior to serving.
• Better with basmati rice.
• Garlic / ginger paste is available from most supermarkets.

Here are some photos from when I cooked it:

The first time I cooked it, I couldn't find lamb, and so I used beef. There were no bones, and I followed the recipe pretty much exactly as it was laid out: I obviously used beef instead, though, and I had dried chillis instead of fresh ones. It was warm, and nice, if a little watery.

I then made it again, and made some of my own additions: I used a bit more of the spices than in the ingredients list, added some potatoes, and because I couldn't find lamb cubes, I used lamb chops cut into cubes, and threw the bones in as well.

The result was a nice and spicey curry, quite thick (thanks to the potatoes, methinks) and a little too hot for the girls, but delicious nontheless. If you're in need of a beginner's curry recipe and are not sure where to begin, then I definitely recommend Wesley's Yummy Lamb Curry.