Author Archives: The Wife of Bath
I’ve been nominated for a Liebster Award!!!
I’m really excited to learn that Lucia from http://unexpectedwanderlust.com/ has nominated me for a Liebster Award!! Thank you Lucia! What is the Liebster Award, you ask? The Liebster Award is an online award given out by fellow bloggers to new bloggers with under 500 followers to congratulate them / highlight their blog. I feel quite honored! […]
Masterworks in St. Lorenz of Nuremberg, three little weenies, and a tourist trap
St. Lorenz church is packed to the gills (or would be, if churches had gills) with masterworks of art. I’m not throwing the word “masterworks” around: we are talking about immensely talented sculptors Adam Kraft and Veit Stoss working at the top of their game. The church also has impressive (and sometimes funny) stained glass […]
Jetlag is like the third act of a Mozart Opera
Jet lag is part of the travel experience and once you learn to think of it that way, it’s so much easier to cope with. Opera makes a good analogy: there are some people who believe opera is a three minute clip on a reality tv show, you know those clips that end up on […]
Bamberg Cathedral’s Last Judgment tympanium: some kings go to heaven, some kings go to H-E-double hockey stick.
See, there’s Christ in the center, with Virgin and St. John at his feet. Some happy naked people are popping up out of graves under his feet. On the left, some annoyingly self-satisfied folks are headed to their eternal reward, on the right, well, the facial expressions say it all. I know, I know, I […]
Gothic sculpture in Bamberg: disputing prophets and apostles, a touch of anti-semitism, and a secret tip
Do you love Gothic sculpture? Well, what are you waiting for? Get yourself over to Bamberg, Germany asap, run up a steep hill past all the college kids drinking smoked beer, past the City Hall that may or may not have been designed by Jeff Koons, to the cathedral. Don’t miss the superb tympanum and the […]
Two crucifixes in Cologne: Gero’s and Gabelkruzifix
The crucifixion of Christ is one of the most predominate symbols of Christian Art, so it’s surprising to realize that, as a form of art, it’s only developed in the last 1000 or so years. (Back in the early days, when Christians were trying to recruit converts, a symbol of a tortured man probably wasn’t so […]
Goosebumps in Speyer cathedral
Monumental but austere and a superb space to hear organ music: Speyer’s imperial cathedral is glorious. And because we seem to be the luckiest travelers ever to wear matching Rick Steves backpacks, we happened to enter just as a first-rate organist performed on the cathedral’s organ. It filled the church with sound, turning the entire building […]
Spargelzeit: Germans and their love affair with white asparagus
We’ve just returned from a lovely trip through Southern and Western Germany where we met charming people, enjoyed fine music and saw sensational art and architecture…..and white asparagus. The Germans call it Spargelzeit, which means asparagus season, but I thinks a more apt name would be Frenzied Consumption and Worship of White Vegetable Season. I […]
Flatulent cheese and green sauce: what we ate in Frankfurt
HOB and I have been together 18 years, sharing a of love of art in situ and adventurous eating, and finally, in Frankfurt, I’ve found something I’ll eat that he won’t. Handkäse mit Musik “hand cheese with music” is a sour milk cheese aged and marinated in oil and vinegar and a specialty of Frankfurt, […]
In which I meet the Bamberg Rider and the attraction is mutual
No one knows the identity of the Bamberg Rider, an equestrian statue in the Cathedral of Bamberg, though there’s no shortage of scholarly speculation. The other great mystery is why I am so attracted to this statue. While we were rushing uphill to the church to see him, HOB said to me “Now why is it […]
Picnic at the Cathedral 