Home again
The trip was an outrageous gas, but I must admit that it was not so much about mead as it was about having a cool family vacation. We saw Freiburg and environs, Konstanz, Colmar in Alsace, then all over Scotland - Edinburgh, Loch Lomond, Skye, Loch Ness, Stirling, and finally a night in Frankfurt before heading home. We had to save like pikers for a couple of years, and we'll be paying for a couple of more, I'm sure, but it was a great experience.
Best meal: Lunch at the Taverne Alsacienne in Colmar, which was phenomenal. I had the cod with creamed carrot sauce over rice - divine. The desserts were so good I finished them all, after doing clean up for the rest of the family. We were told that wine list is excellent, but after that many sips at Z-H (see below), another bottle would have surely meant we would sleep through our stop on the train home. A dinner at an Italian place in Stirling gave it a run for its money, but really, not quite.
Best Beers: Jever on tap (at a place whose name I can't remember) in Freiburg, along with cask ales - Caledonian 80 (great) and Bitter and Twisted from Harviestoun (better still) in Scotland. My daughter let me whiff and taste several of her Weizens in Germany, and they had nose for days. It was great to have German beers in top-notch condition.
Best Pub: The Malt Shovel on Cockburn Street in Edinburgh - the ales above, along with a decent, but refreshingly reasonably-priced Scotch selection, and a friendly and knowledgeable staff. Just up the hill on your left as you walk up from Waverly Bridge to High Street. Worth finding. The steak pie at the 1314 Tavern in Bannockburn was the best of the trip.
Best Wines: The morning's tasting with Paul McKirdy at Zind Humbrecht. He was patient, generous and very learned. They are completely bio-dynamic. The late harvest wines were so lengthy I can practically still taste them. Z-H have taken heat from the "more-acidity" wine set and some reviewers since Olivier took over, but the stuff was very good. It will be interesting to hear what the big names have to say about the 2008's. They may not love them, but I did. I could not keep myself from picking up a Riesling and three Gewurz's. Maybe I don't know what I'm talking about, but I do not think I will regret it.
Best Scotch Whisky Shop: The Royal Mile on High Street in Edinburgh. Stunning, and a must visit for any true Scotch aficionado. Mind-blowing on first blush, but you won't really understand how much is there until you engage the staff, who were busy but willing to help. True scotch lovers will leave without any folding money, and then dent the plastic measurably. More labels that you will never see stateside than you can imagine.
Best Cathedral: The Münster in Freiburg, which is impressive from the outside, but even more beautiful in the interior. And there is a Leonidas chocolate vendor right on the Platz. If that doesn't make for a pleasant afternoon for you, you have some agonizing reappraisal to complete.
Best tour guide: Jean's cousin Kit, who was funny and sweet and gracious. She tried valiantly to get us up to Crief to get some crystal in a nasty snow storm. She's a gem.
Best family: Mine.
Other things I appreciated: Schokocroissants, and a zillion pastries. The only cars we got in were cabs, and I never drove an inch. The trains in Germany notify you on the display if they are a minute late, but they're not. The shower fixtures were outstanding in some of the hotels, with separate on/off and temperature controls, (you can set the temp and leave it where you prefer it) and I want one like that.
Things that just couldn't be avoided: The weather in Scotland was positively polar. We climbed to the top of the Wallace Monument and froze our tookuses and several fingers off. Same for every castle we visited - cloudy, with sleet or snow, freezing cold, and blow-you-off-the-turrets windy, save Eillan Donan which was sunny... and freezing cold. The sun came out occasionally in Scotland, but very rarely for more than 10 minutes at a time. No wonder they invented Scotch.
Time to start saving again. Must.. go... back...
KDS