Well the sales office must be opening soon because the India Food Centre sign is gone from the building and the road sign now has been replaced by a large picture of what the condo tower will look like and a web site that doesn’t seem to be working yet: www.thewellingtonatislandpark.com.

Will try to grab the camera tomorrow for a few pics and retry the site.  Theberge Homes is the developer. More to come …

In a previous post, I mentioned the Sisters of the Visitation were for sale, and then mysteriously nothing happened. In a discussion with Uniform about why one of the workers was urinating on the sidewalk at the end of the day, I asked whether they were interested. His reply was that the neighbourhood appealed to them, but there are so many challenges with heritage designations.

According to Ken Gray, Ashcroft is the buyer, for more than $10 million. They’ve also bought the building that used to house Billy’s Appliances and another house. Strangely, it’s not in today’s newspaper, only on the Bulldog’s blog. Supposedly Ashcroft is going to start by meeting with the community first.

I’ll definitely be going to share my thoughts. What I’d like to see:

• buildings, no higher than 4 floors surrounding the original site
• stone incorporated into the architectural exterior features
• some green space
• underground parking for any new buildings
• more vrtucar spots
• retail on the ground floor that faces Richmond
• a nice English pub in the old building … could call it The Convent or The Sacred Sisters, The Nunnery, The Stone Chapel, The Fallen Wall

More thoughts and updates to come.

The first year was of the Taste of Wellington was definitely the best year. We’ve only done two out of three so far because we were cycling or visiting someone last year. Anyhow, here are the pics from this year’s. You’ll notice loads more people, and I don’t think they’re all local.

And the tasters were:

• Istanbouli (Wellington location) – potatoes with garlic sauce or a bread something or other
• passed by Metro (too many people for grocery-style munchies)
• passed by the Diner (no mini hamburgers this year, only salad)
• Caffe Mio had nothing
• the Gastropub had a line up that went past the bagel shop and around the corner. They were giving out mini hamburgers
• couldn’t see the Bagel Shop’s tasters because of all the people
• stopped at Thyme and Again, where they had wonderful mango marshmallows (passed on the coconut ones) and a pineapple-glazed meatball (which I think had curry in it).
• missed out at Allium, their plates were empty
• Foolish Chicken had tea biscuits which disappeared before our place in line made it, and some brownies.
• around the corner we made our first visit to Credible Edibles, which was very tasty and, apparently, healthy.
• the line up for Absinthe was a bit too much as well, so we stopped at the Emerald Bakery, which was serving up curry.
• then we wandered down to Hintonburg, stopping to watch a photo shoot, listen to a band in the parking lot of the KFC,  but didn’t find any tasters

So we stopped at the market on the way home and picked up some apples.

And now, the pics:

It’s official, the sales office is moving over to the old store location and construction is beginning on the new condo. The seniors residence will be built after the condo is well underway.

It’s amazing. The forecast is calling for sunny hot weather, with no rain in the foreseeable future. Maybe we’ll get around to painting the garage door after all.

 The nice weather has also brought out the cycling commuters in droves along the pathways. This morning’s rush hour along the Ottawa River Pathway at Carleton was a chain of two-wheeled commuters, some in spandex, some not. They weren’t even traveling together.

 I’m beginning to think that having passing lanes or different markings on the path would be a good idea. Too many cyclists don’t ring their bell or call out as they pass. Worse are the ones who pass on a blind corner at 30 km/h. We’ve now taken to ringing OUR bells when they pass without calling out.

 Yesterday at lunch we went for a walk along the Portage bridge through Victoria Island over to the Chaudière bridge and back to PDP. I discovered a shortcut for the ride to work. Instead of continuing along the river path at the War Museum, you take a left towards the Chaudière bridge, then the first right. Follow the road to a pathway on the left (just before it veers right). The path comes out on the Portage bridge sidewalk. First thing in the morning there aren’t any pedestrians on this side of the bridge, so you’re good to ride along to the intersection.

 The route home is along the road across Promenade bridge, down the start of the Ottawa River Parkway, until just past the museum where we hook up with the path again.

 I think the new route saves about 5 minutes. I’ll time it tomorrow.

Two things to update on. First, the name of the kitchen place is …Irpinia. It’s a high-end “California Closets” type kitchen shop, not the knick-knack shop I had mentioned previously.

Spa at Piccidally

And, I now have a name for the spa. The plans were laid out in front of the window, just tempting us … So now we know it will be called Renu Massage Therapy and Spa.

Let’s begin with the end of yesterday. We walked back up to the apartment to get changed and grab the camera to go to the Rodelbahn. I was so happy it was open tonight because it was closed on Tuesday and is only open twice a week.

Part of me was hoping for the same paperwork problem as last year, but this year it was much better organized. The tickets were bilingual (English/German) and we’d missed the main rush when the Rodelbahn opens.

It did mean that there really wasn’t anyone at the top to take our pic, but it also meant we didn’t have to worry about the drunk Danes trying to take us out.  After I’d taken a video of Rob coming around a corner (likely the same one as last year), I put it into high gear to catch up with him. The rush of speed was exhilarating, especially after taking it easy on the slopes. With each hairpin turn and dark alleyway I could feel the excitement build. The only steering was leaning on your toboggan or using your feet. On the hairpin turns you tried to make it around the corner and not hit anyone who hadn’t. At the bottom, I had so much speed and I knew the end was near.  Last year I ran into some people and I fear the same event might occur this year. Instead, I ran up the hill and quickly got out of the way.

Once we had our deposit back we bought some Gluhwein and stood by the outdoor fire pit. It reminded me of what the picketers had started during the bus strike. We were staying only about 100 m from the bottom of the run, and I was happy to get home and peal off some wet under layers.

Today we woke up to more snow. The forecast had said not much accumulation, but the visibility was really horrible at the top of the mountain. I think I’m fighting off a bug too. I was having a hard time balancing when we finally did get skiing (later than usual).  Each time I stopped it took my brain another second or two to realize I was stopped. Thankfully the grooming was pretty good, so we made it down after a very short day of skiing, then headed back to the apartment to read our books. I’m about half way through my second. Rob’s on page 186 of The World is Flat — Innovations and Technologies that Flatten the Earth. Don’t think I’ll be reading that one any time soon.

Tomorrow we change apartments, and will likely visit Innsbruck. We might even do the bobsled ride again. I guess we’ll see how much snow we get …

The landing was definitely a bumpy one, which was surprising given that it wasn’t bad weather. Thankfully it wasn’t snowing because we disembarked the plane onto the tarmac and then were loaded into articulated buses that took us to the terminal.

The passport control was as efficient as ever. I said “Guten Tag” he stamped the passport and that was it. Picking up the luggage was a bit more of a challenge. The ski boot bag came out quickly but we had to wait a while for the skis. Eventually, they appeared, but not before I got to practice my German.

It took Bridget a while to figure out that she was in Germany not Montreal, the last place she was turned off. And I forgot to program it for no major roads that we would start at Wurzburg for the Romantic Road. Instead we’re starting at Rothenburg ob der Tauber. Ironically tonight is the weekly meeting of Der “English Conversation Club”.  It’s motto is “Have fun. Be friendly. Speak English. Meet friends.”

Rothenburg is a walled city, and we walked most of the wall today. Going up the old wooden stairs was a bit scary, but after a while I got used to it. The views from the top were amazing and you could almost feel the guards who would have been protected the city from attacks.

The hub of ancient life centred around the Marktplatz. Here you find the Rathaus (town hall), the Ratstrinkstube (City Councilors’ Tavern) and historic vaults. Now, if you’ve lived through Ottawa’s bus strike, I’m sure you’re reading the irony into the German words for town hall and city councilors — rats they are!

Our hotel, the Meistertrunk

The town’s history is long, beginning in 960, with the first community in Detwang in the Atuber valley. In 1142, the Imperial Castle was erected by the Hohenstaufen King Konrad III. A community, later named Rothenburg, develops on the hill next to the castle. In 1167, after the death of Friedrich, Duke of Rothenburg, the castle was abandoned. Thanks to its geographic location, the city developed over the yers into a commercial centre. In 1274, King Rudolf of Habsburg elevated Rothenburg to a Free Imperial City.
An earthquake later destroyed the entire imperial castle and parts of the city.  In 1400, the city experienced its heyday under mayor Toppler.  With over 6000 inhabitants, Rothenburg was one of the largest cities of the empire.  The city allied itself to the rebels’ leader, Florian Geyer, during the Peasants War and the city’s decline began.  In 1544, the Reformation occured in Rothenburg. During the Thirty Years’ War Protestant Rothenburg was occupied several times.

I’m not usually a history buff, but every now and then, you stumble across a story that makes you remember a place. For Rothenburg, it’s a piece of history in 1631 known as the  “Meisterturnk” (Master Draught), which coincidentally is also the name of our hotel. The Catholics troops attacked and occupied Protestant Rotheburg. The Catholic General Tillly threatened to plunder and destroy the city. On a whim, he promised to spare the town from destruction, if a Councilor managed to empty an enormous tankard containing 3 ¼ liters of wine in one draught. The former mayor Nusch mastered this task and in doing so, he saved his city. Even today Rothenburg celebrates this rescue each year on Whitsun with a festival performance, grand army march and a field camp.

Other than the group of Japanese tourists, we saw few people. Parked cars lined the cobble stone streets, but the  drivers seemed to be in hibernation for the winter. The sense of isolation was in the hotel as well. Although could imagine it bustling in the summer, the winter months are clearly off season. Its restaurant is closed, but the hearty German breakfast for its guests does continue.

For supper, we went with the recommendation of the hotel, and ate at the Glocke, which specializes in Franconian food at reasonable prices. Rob had a pork dish with potato pancakes and carrots. I had rolled beef  with carrots and onions, spatzle and salad. After supper, we walked the not-so-deserted cobble stones back to the hotel, trying to stay awake as long as we could.

Here are some pics