Loading ...Last Monday, January 5, we woke up to an inch or two of snow. Finally!
I just love snow. We don’t get a whole lot of it where we live in Western Washington. So when my daughter tells me I’m missing the biggest snow that side of the mountains in 20 odd years, I was bummed. Snow just gives everything such a festive, magical feeling so it was wonderful to be able to get a bit here in Germany so I wouldn’t miss out.
The other cool thing is that Jan. 6 is a holiday over here called Holy Three Kings Day. Everything is closed and it’s a work day off for most everyone. So Rob and I decided to explore Luisen Park, all sparkly from the fresh snow cover, which is basically across the street from us and runs alongside the Neccar River. It was such a wonderful, exhilarating day being all bundled up warm and toasty like eskimos and walking around in the icy cold. It was a crytal clear, sunny day to boot!
Luisen Park is a gorgeous wanderland with trails, lakes, ponds, streams, reflection pools and art installations where you can walk your dog, get your exercise and take in all the beautiful scenery.
(These lawn chairs in the snow cracked me up.)
Chess anyone?
Park of the frozen lake where you can rent gondolettas in the summertime:
Boat launch:
One of my favorite sights that day: the flamingoes, along with storks, pelicans, cranes and other water birds:
Storks:
Oh, they also have wild parrots ala “The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill.” Lord, they are cute. What personalities! They are really loud, too. When I first got to Mannheim and Rob and I walked around the neighborhood, I saw some flashes of birds zipping by that sounded like parrots and whose silhouettes looked like parrots. Now we know they were parrots!
The park has beautiful outdoor gardens and indoor green houses with themes from all over the world. They also have a little zoo where you can see all kinds of birds, fish, butterflies, reptiles and other various small animals, as well as a farmyard petting zoo where it is set up to show how they used to farm and do things back in olden times in the area.
One of the greenhouses:
Some of the greenhouse plants:
They have several *real* restaurants on the grounds where you can get full dining service and even sit outside at night or when it’s cold underneath the gas heaters with blankets.
Before looking at the animals, we decided to warm up with some lintzen (lentil) soup with bratwurst.
Here’s shot of the outside of the restaurant where you can view the multi-level reflection pool complete with live flamingoes as you eat:
Afterward, we couldn’t pass up dessert. Our desserts came two pieces to a plate so we shared. Mine was definitely the best. The dollops of real cream with chopped pistachios sprinkled on top was a heavenly touch.
My dessert:
Rob’s dessert:
By the way, that’s one of the neat things about Europe. They have more of a reverance for food and observing the ceremonies in life that we Americans take for granted. Food and dining is an experience to languish in. That’s why you’ll see real restaurants on park grounds, for example, instead of crappy, unhealthy food-to-go joints.
Also, restaurants here don’t rush you out the door. You are allowed to savor and enjoy, converse with the people in your party and just *be.” Much of the service we see in American only in three or four-star restaurants is commonplace here, such as full, beautifully presented place settings and services.
Take this coffee service below for example…. Each person’s coffee comes in its own pitcher (can’t think of the right word off the top of my head) along with all the accoutrements on a little silver platter. Often, you’ll get your own personal little creme pitcher and sugar dish as well.
This is just the everyday, common way of serving over here. These are important things in life here to people and they don’t cut corners. This is what I call “soul” and I think we need more of that in America.
Below is a shot of the outdoor restaurant seating. This is something else commonplace, where they’ll provide gas heaters and blankets so you can enjoy the out-of-doors even in the dead of winter. I love it and wanted to eat out there, but Rob was being prissy, LOL.
Oh, and it being Holy Three Kings Day, there was some kind of event going on which we missed, but here are some shots of the “kings:”
I won’t bore you will all our animal pix, but here are a few of the hightlights. The otters were definitely the most entertaining!
One of the other main attractions is this huge, gorgeous Chinese tea house in the Chinese Gardens which was brought over from China piece by piece and recontructed.
The little train that will take you around the Chinese Gardens:
We had planned to also take the train to Swennigan (I need to look up the correct spelling), which is a neighboring city not too far away that is supposed to be even lovelier than Heidelberg. But there was just too much to see and do in Luisen Park and we ended up spending the entire day there.
A few dusk-time shots as we ended our visit:
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