Thurs, Aug 28 - Germany - Frankfurt

9.14am - whole grain bread rolls with quark and wild berry jam, at mom & dad's 1.54pm - leftover bell pepper, tomato and yellow zucchini, with pasta and wild arugula, at mom & dad's

2.11pm - an original almond horn, in front of mom's roses, on another overcast but hot day

4.29pm - a mini Spritzgebaeck, which is kind of like a donut, only fluffier, at Frankfurt train station, after the sun finally came out. Headed to Frankfurt to pick up Laurence and Jacob who'll be visiting for a few days from Paris.

5.05pm - one of the traditional specialties from Frankfurt is apple wine, and this is apple wine sorbet, at Dolce Gelateria/Coffee Fellows. Apple wine is a rustic, very tart kind of thing and really benefits from the sugar in the sorbet. Nice and refreshing, and not too sweet.

8.38pm - a monkfish-shrimp roulade on pappardelle with a vermouth-tomato-cream sauce. Nice idea, but a little bland. Ritesh would have done a better job at this. We should use skewers more. At Cafe Karin.

8.47pm - a blackcurrant spritzer that my waitress forgot to bring me at first, then graciously offered to me on the house, at Cafe Karin, before rushing off to the airport to meet Laurence and Jacob.

Wed, Aug 27 - Germany - Limburg 2

9.43am a kiwi and some Reine Claude plums, on my parents' balcony, with a view of Schadeck castle12.11pm - test-eating some Ferrero pistachio chocolates I may bring back to the office in LA, in front of Limburg City Hall.12.57pm - lemon and stracciatella ice cream, at Gelateria Lazzaris, with Nathalie, after picking her up from school. Her last class today was French, and she has the same French teacher as I did when I was her age, the lovely Madame Bastian, now Madame Courtier. So I got to say bonjour to my most favorite teacher ever, before hanging out with my most favorite goddaughter...

2.09pm - Nadja and Julian, Nathalie's little brother, joined us for lunch at Golden Thai. We had some chicken satay as appetizer

2.13pm - and then some spicy green curry w/ chicken and a fried noodle dish, also with chicken. All very tasty. And filling. Didn't eat dinner after this...

8.54pm - a couple of mini-chocolate kisses (formerly called Mohrenkoepfe), at home

Tues, Aug 26 - Germany - Walldorf

10.41am - peppered salami, at mom & dad's12.07pm - a summery stew made from home-grown bell peppers, tomatoes and yellow zucchini, plus some buttered whole grain bread rolls, at mom & dad's

12.29pm - wild arugula and cherry tomatoes from the parents' garden, at mom & dad's

2.05pm - strawberry soy milk, on the drive to Walldorf to visit my brother, with mom and dad

3.55pm - plum cake and mixed fruit cake, at my brother Kay's super-spacious new pad, with mom & dad and Anja, my brother's girlfriend

4.20pm - cherry cake, still at Kay's place, waiting for him to be done at work so we can pick him up

4.50pm - the bro works for the SAP world headquarters in Walldorf in an area called Baden, on the north eastern edge of the Black Forest. Walldorf is a small place, and the very modern architecture of the very huge SAP complex rises out of the somewhat non-descript countryside in a slightly surreal but fetching contrast.

4.55pm - as we learned on a walking tour of the SAP campus, SAP does not only provide tennis courts, a gym and a fully subsidized cafeteria, like Google, they also have apple trees for a supply of fresh fruit. Kay was nice enough to use his access card to go pick one for me.4.58pm - At SAP, they also have space and greenery to die for. Quite a contrast to the concrete jungle around my work...

This is still the same apple, btw, which turned out to be a bit on the sour side still. Anja, who's a hardier apple eater than I am, ended up eating it.
6.45pm - a hell-flavored chocolate chip cookie with chili, back at Kay's place

7.36pm - for dinner, we drove over to a picturesque wine-growing estate called Weingut Bös in the neighboring village of Malsch. This is the view from our table.
7.40pm and these are the grapes growing right outside the window:

7.47pm - and these are some of the estate's very flavorful wines: Kay's Spätburgunder (pinot noir), my Badisch-Rotgold (rose) and Anja's Mueller-Thurgau

8.08pm - great German rye bread, without that caraway flavoring that is the hallmark of rye bread in the States

8.11pm - a huge spread of Flammkuchen for the table, with onion, cheese and bacon. I guess you could call it a German pizza. Still with mom & dad, Kay and Anja at Weingut Bös.8.11pm - and a close up.

8.21pm - the hugest Schnitzel ever, with fried potatoes and gravy. Anja got one, too, and we're in Schnitzel heaven!

8.29pm - my side salad and Anja's side of sauerkraut

11.28pm - some OJ, back home at mom & dad's

Mon, Aug 25 - Germany - Limburg

9am - a kiwi and some Reine Claude plums I'd picked up at La Grande Epicerie in Paris, at mom and dad's 9.02am - the Reine Claudes, with a picture of the guy who grew them...

9.07am - dad's home mixed muesli with oats, flaxseed, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds and corn flakes, plus some kefir, at mom and dad's

11.20am - some wild black berries on the way to the train station to catch the train to Limburg

11.41am - hungry already for lunch... This is the original curry wurst with the best fries in Limburg (with ketchup and mayo), at Imbiss Schneider on the main market square

1.50pm - a new Russian Wildberry flavored Schweppes at the Karstadt restaurant.

3.02pm - some fabulous real Italian ice cream, at gelateria Venezia, on the old market square. Flavors are stracciatella and tartufo, with some real whipped cream on top, none of that spray can stuff they give you in the States...

7.10pm - lovely German dinner at Nadja's - fried eggs and potatoes, some Fleischkäse (the dictionary calls it a meat loaf) and some tomato salad with feta cheese - yum! The drink is not Coca Cola, contrary to what it may say on the glass, but an Apfelschorle, which is a mix of apple juice and sparkling water. Apple spritzer I guess you would call it in the States.
And in case you're wondering, this is a different Nadja from the one back in Los Angeles (who is spelled Nadya). This Nadja is my oldest friend in the world, going back to Kindergarten days, and also mother to my very adorable goddaughter Nathalie.

7.25am - and something sweet after dinner - some great German bread with quark (kind of like a very light and creamy cottage cheese) and Nadja's mom's fabulous home made redcurrant jam.

Sun, Aug 24 - Paris to Germany

10.02am - last morning in Paris, and a gray and rainy day...10.10am - omelette jambon, croissant and thé à la menthe, at Le Départ St. Michel, before heading over to the Gare du Nord to catch the high-speed train to Germany

10.35am - YOU try getting a tea to go at a Parisian bistro...

12.19pm - on the Thalys train Paris-Cologne, via Brussels. They had an online offer of a 1st class ticket for 2/3rds of the price of a regular 2nd class ticket. So here I am in first class, after an ample breakfast - and they're serving a full meal! Who knew?

This is a very fine marinated salmon, a clafoutis of courgette (zucchini) with pine nuts, asparagus spears with a lovely saffron dipping sauce, two anchovy-wrapped olives hiding under the salad, some warm olive bread plus some roquefort-style cheese to go with it, some tomato juice, and a panna cotta with red currants. Delicious. And yes, ahem, I finished all of it.

2.20pm - on the stretch from Brussels to Cologne, they only handed out chocolates...

3.16pm - I suddenly remembered I had some leftover macarons in my bag! These are not from Laduree, but from the fancy Grande Epicerie at Le Bon Marche, and they were nowhere near as good. Granted, they're a day old here already, and weren't kept in the fridge either. But they were about half the price of Laduree's (which are 1.5 Euros each, while these are sold by weight) - that must mean something, right? Flavors are raspberry-ginger, pineapple-lime, and apricot.

5.13pm - a croissant made from pretzel dough (these are amazing!!)) purchased at the Ditsch at Cologne Station, where I had to change trains, on the ICE from Cologne to Limburg. By the way, this is a fairly standard train in Germany, and by golly, it is wonderful. Clean, comfortable, modern, nice. Makes you feel bad for Amtrak back in the States.

6.14pm - German comfort food - pancake soup , with mom's homemade pancakes, at mom and dad's

6.31pm - mom's homemade apple sauce, made with nothing but apples from the garden, vanilla and cinnamon, at mom and dad's

9.02pm - a Botinchen, which is some neapolitan ice cream plus a chewing gum as the nose. Note that a Botinchen will always smile at you no matter what, which is not something that can be said of a lot of people. As such, it is always much appreciated.