h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I would have written something, but as I've never used a sauna I didn't know what I could contribute to the conversation.

I don't usually get replies either.

<BB<

The Germans would be quite shocked if they realised what their image was among foreigners - at least among the Brits.

But what do the Germans themselves think of the Brits?

They hang on to the cliches that Britain has bad weather and bad food. And rowdy football crowds. That's about it really. Anything else they choose to laugh or shake their heads at is probably deserved, if one takes a serious look at British politics and society since about the 1970s.

Fortunately (for us Brits) no one who has ever actually been there can corroborate these impressions.

They have great admiration for the culture of crime fiction, and absolutely adore things like Midsomer Murders. Romantic fiction, too, goes down well, and Germans are probably the main, if not the only, visitors to Cornwall who come because of the books by Rosamunde Pilcher, who is, so I hear, more popular in Germany than in Cornwall. You can even book a Rosamunde Pilcher tour of Cornwall.

http://www.urlaub-anbieter.com/British-Travel-Company-GmbH.htm

A distant relative of my husband's once told a story about when she was staying in a holiday home in Cornwall. The landlady had left a jar of clotted cream for her tea in the fridge. Distant rel. had no idea what it was or what to do with it, and used it as fat for frying her sausages!

The moral of the story is: It certainly is worth genning up on local customs and cuisine when you go on holiday to foreign parts!

I once saw a sign in an Amsterdam shop window which said 'Slagroom' - I made a mental note not to visit. I later learned they were selling whipped cream.

My brother-in-law has lived in Germany since he went there as a cello student in the 1960s. He has recently retired from an orchestra in Braunschweig, and his son is a cellist in Karlsruhe.

He was amazed to find out about the German Christmas tradition of watching "Dinner for One", a filmed play apparently completely unknown in the English-speaking world, but watched (in English) with relish annually by the Germans.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6lzQxjGL9S0

Didn't TC write the Guide Entry on that?


Oh yes, she did (with Titania): A2207288

I'm surprised that they wouldn't rather see the Long Christmas Dinner by Paul Hindemith

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GbzAknhjXvQ

You do realise I'm just a stone's throw from Karlsruhe, don't you. Is he in the Staatstheater orchestra?

He is indeed. We must make a combined pilgrimage to see you and him some day. Of course, you wrote that Entry! Small world.

This season's programme includes

Opera:

DER LIEBESTRANK (L’ELISIR D’AMORE) Comic opera in 2 acts by Gaetano Donizetti


DIE WALKÜRE - Wagner

WAHNFRIED - Premier, commissioned work by Avner Dorman


SEMELE Musical drama in 3 acts by Georg Friedrich Händel


ADRIANA LECOUVREUR in 4 acts by Francesco Cilea


FREUNDE! Musical theatre for children by Peter Androsch


SIEGFRIED three performances only.

LA CLEMENZA DI TITO Opera seria in 2 acts

Ballet:

LA SYLPHIDE Choreogr. Peter Schaufuss (now that's an apt name for someone in ballet! - Look at my feet!)

RUSALKA - Premiere -
A fairy tale, by Ji&#345;í Bubení&#269;ek.

30 days hath November. Thank heavens - I wouldn't have any more for tomorrow. And I've forgotten what I was going to write about today.

Will come back with it later.

I missed the concerts in that list:

05.02.2017 3rd symphonic concert Nielsen & Mahler

12.03.2017 4th symphonic concert Berlioz, Haas & Schumann

09.04.2017 5th symphonic concert Fauré, Dvo&#345;ák & Schönberg

14.05.2017 6th symphonic concert Rachmaninow, Mahler & Schostakowitsch

18.06.2017 7th symphonic concert Langer, Strauss, Brahms & Elgar

16.07.2017 8th symphonic concert Dallapiccola, Haydn & Respighi

I love that opera!

I never did get back with yesterday's contribution. So, even though it's now 1 December, I'll mumble on a bit about what the Germans eat at Christmas.

There is no tradition of turkey or anything else like that.

Goose is often mentioned, but I don't think I know anyone who has ever had any for Christmas lunch. It's certainly supposed to be eaten on St Martin's day, 11th November. Then it's known as Martinsgans.

Game is not unacceptable. When I was au pairing for a posh family back in the 70s, they had a Christmas lunch in a restaurant and we had a whole back of venison (not sure what the correct term is for that, if there is one). Red cabbage is a must, and usually sticky potato dumplings are served along with it, plus a little cranberry sauce, maybe chestnuts.


Whilst on the subject of traditional meals, I could mention the following:

Christmas Eve is when the Germans celebrate Christmas (can't think why they're in such a hurry to get it over.) This consists of a morning cleaning, scrubbing and cooking, and for lunch or dinner an easy meal of Frankfurter-style sausages with potato salad.

The main meal of the day is afternoon coffee with copious cakes and biscuits, at which they will open presents and once it is dark the coffee is superseded by wine or beer and the children are allowed to go mad and only have to go to bed when they're really tired and go voluntarily.

Over Fasching - Carnival - the weekend from Thursday to Shrove Tuesday, traditionally lots of party food and alcohol are consumed, doughnuts being a typical delicacy (the big spherical kind, not the ring-shaped ones). On Ash Wednesday, when it's all over, people traditionally sit together and nurse their hangovers and eat herrings and gherkins.

Another dish that I would mention which is comfort food and not attached to any particular event is pea soup. Or lentil soup. Often served at Christmas markets or for a winter meal, these are absolutely brilliant IMO and are served with - again - frankfurter sausages. These are either put into the soup whole or cut into spoon-friendly chunks. Eat with a white bread roll.

When I was in Prague, I ate duck with red cabbage, which was one of the national specialties.

Oh - I went off at a tangent and forgot to mention the carp, which is a traditional Christmas dish in Poland and is sometimes found on menus in Germany, too. I don't know how it is served, though.

If they served that to me in a restaurant, I wouldn't carp about it.