Frankenmuth - Michigan's Little Bavaria

When I visit Michigan, most of my time is spent in the southwestern area -- either in Grand Rapids or at our Latvian camp, Garezers. While I've made a few trips to northern Michigan (such as this one), there are many areas of Michigan I have yet to explore. One was the town of Frankenuth, which is known as Michigan's Little Bavaria. Because my sister and I both speak German and we as a family lived in Germany for a year at one point, we have a love of most things German. So, we a short family trip to Frankenmuth was planned. (Our mom did point out that we had both visited it a few years ago -- when we were about 3 and 4 years old!)

Located in the eastern part of the state, about half-way between Flint and Saginaw, Frankenmuth was settled in 1845 by immigrants from southern Germany. We arrived at lunchtime, and immediately headed to the Frankenmuth Brewery to eat. Having been founded in 1862, it happens to be the oldest brewery in the entire state.However, the building in which the brewery is located is relatively new, as the previous building was destroyed by a powerful tornado in June 1996. We all enjoyed our meals (enormous portions!), though the sauerkraut which came with the bratwurst dinner was underwhelming.

The brewery

The bratwurst

After lunch our plan had been to walk along the town's Main Street, but the uncomfortably chilly temperatures and off-and-on precipitation put a damper on our plans, so instead we headed to Bronner's, which bills itself as the world's largest Christmas store. This does not seem to be an understatement. We drove over in two cars, then had difficulties finding one another in the store itself -- even with entrances marked "The Southeast Entrance", etc. As I later learned from the website, the store is the size of one-and-a-half football fields. 

Welcome sign: Latvian is in 2nd column from left, Lithuanian in 2nd from right.

The store's thousands of Christmas tree ornaments are categorized into rather specific categories. Whether you are looking for something sports-related, or maybe a food or beverage-related ornament, you have plenty to choose from here! And to help orient you, store maps are available!

Every nook and cranny of the store is Christmas-themed, whether it's a choir of caroling teddy bears...

or Santa Claus himself...

Today the town of Frankenmuth is home to about 5,000 people and offers wholesome (maybe because the original founders were conservative Lutherans who apparently came to the U.S. to try to convert others) family fun. My sister, brother-in-law, and the kids stayed at Zehnder's Splash Village, which is popular with families as it has a two large indoor water parks. Because we didn't need a water park, my mom and I stayed at the Marv Herzog Hotel, which I can highly recommend. Each room has a balcony - with either a view of the river or of Main Street, plus amenities include parking underneath the hotel (nice bonus on this visit as it did ice overnight), an evening happy hour, and an enormous breakfast buffet in the morning.

After enjoying our wine, cheese, and other snacks during happy hour, mom and I met up with the rest of the family for dinner. Frankenmuth has two large competing restaurants, both supposedly famous for their fried chicken dinner. Confusingly - or helpfully - they are located across the street from another. We chose to eat at the Bavarian Inn. 

All of the portions were gigantic - whether for the kids' meals, appetizers, or dinners. My broiled chicken was surprisingly moist and flavorful, and my sister and I both particularly enjoyed the cranberry relish side dish, which was a mixture of cranberries and apples. With its German heritage, the restaurant does offer some German dishes as well -- the apple strudel dessert was absolutely delectable.

The next morning I was happy to discover Harvest CoffeeHouse, which certainly has the best caffeinated beverages in town. Soon it was time for me to head to the airport for my flight home, but I certainly would not mind returning to Frankenmuth in warmer weather!

Washington Area Christmas Markets

The diversity of ethnics groups and traditions represented in the Washington area is one of the major benefits of living here. Craving Peruvian, Ethiopian, or Korean cuisine for dinner? No problem! Want to be friends with people from diverse backgrounds? No problem!

A Christmas-time tradition for many European groups is the Christmas market. This year was my third time attending the Finnish bazaar, which I described in detail last year. I also swung by the Norwegian bazaar one Saturday; it was smaller than the Finnish one, and photographically not as impressive. The food did smell amazing - I was particularly tempted by the advertised warm rice pudding! 

After many years of hoping to make it to the Christmas market organized by the German School of Washington, this year I was finally able to attend, and I must say it might be my new favorite. Because I speak German and have spent considerable time in Germany, those Christmas customs are near and dear to my heart. 

I arrived at the market at noon, and while bee-lining for the lunch line was able to hear snippets of German Christmas carols sung by the children's choir -- the same songs my German immersion elementary school choir sang years ago. The lunch options were bratwurst or Leberkäse, plus sauerkraut and potato salad. A perfect-looking German roll came with each meal, but you could also purchase a large Bretzel (pretzel) for only $2. My bratwurst, sauerkraut and potato salad came to $10, and my meal was very filling, though next time I would skip the potato salad - it wasn't that exciting.

After lunch I wandered outside, where I was tickled to find a half-dozen traditional market booths -- the type one sees at outdoor European Christmas markets.

The most popular booth was selling glühwein ($3), while others offered crafts, Lebkuchen (gingerbread) or cinnamon nuts. Additional stands outside were selling crepes (also hugely popular), non-alcoholic drinks, and chocolate-covered fruit. The last one was my personal favorite, as one of my recollections from various markets in Germany were the vendors who sold fruit such as strawberries, pineapple or bananas covered in dark or milk chocolate. This stand was a fundraiser for one of the middle school classes, so the confections were not quite that specific, but the kabob stick with fruit pieces drenched in chocolate I chose was absolutely delectable.

Typical middle schoolers, right?

Heading back into the school I swung by the impressive dessert table (which even included a couple of gluten-free options), but I had already used my calorie allotment for mid-day! The school's large multi-purpose room had many tables with various vendors from the Washington area. Additionally, out in the main hallway were two incredibly popular vendors: Binkert's German Meat Products from Baltimore and the Swiss Bakery from Northern Virginia. The sausage scents overpowered the bakery scents, but the variety at both stands was astonishing, and the crowd was snapping up many of the items.

One stand was selling gorgeous wreaths.

Wurst!

Of course, the Latvian congregation's bazaar is an annual tradition, and is always held on the first Sunday in December. My post about last year's can be found here.

I hope you are enjoying plenty of pre-Christmas festivities in your neck of the woods!

European Union Film Showcase 2014

Along with Christmas, December also brings the European Union Film Showcase at AFI. For quite a few years now I've made it habit to see several movies during the showcase; the offerings represent all EU member countries, and this year numbered fifty films!

 The movies I have seen during this showcase include: "The Imitation Game" from the United Kingdom, which will be a relatively big movie given the popularity of its current star Benedict Cumberbatch; the German film"Beloved Sisters" which is about the poet, playwright and historian Friedrich Schiller and his supposed love triangle with two sisters; and the Swiss movie "Clouds of Sils Maria", which stars Juliette Binoche and American actress Kristen Stewart.

The Imitation Game's official poster

"The Imitation Game" is about to be widely released in the U.S., but several friends and I jumped on the chance to see it earlier. Playing to a sold-out crowd in the AFI's beautifully restored main theater, the movie and its subject, Alan Turing, was introduced by Britain's Defense Attache in the U.S., Major General Buster Howes. The story of Turing's life reminds us fact really is stranger than fiction. He was, among other things, a cryptanalyst and pioneering computer scientist who helped decode the secret codes Germany used during World War II. Turing was also gay at a time when that was a criminal offense in the U.K., and was prosecuted for homosexual acts in 1952. The movie is excellent, and we all greatly enjoyed it. "The Imitation Game" has already garnered numerous awards, and is certain to win more. Just recently the Golden Globe nominations were announced, and the film has been nominated for Best Motion Picture in the Drama category, as well as for Best Screenplay, and Cumberbatch for Best Actor in a Drama.

An unconventional (and unconfirmed by historians) relationship between Schiller and sisters Charlotte and Caroline Von Lengefeld is the topic for the almost three-hour long period piece "Beloved Sisters." If you are a fan of typical romantic comedies, then this is not the movie for you! I rather enjoyed it, though, as it was a fascinating glimpse into the lives of mostly privileged and educated Germans in the late 1700s and early 1800s.

The Swiss movie was a disappointment - although it was somewhat interesting to see the "behind the scenes" life of a famous actress (played by Binoche), it was pretentious and generally rather boring, and was saved only by some of the gorgeous Swiss scenery.

Two screenings planned for the coming week are "The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared" (Sweden) and "Uncle Tony, Three Fools and the Secret Service" (Bulgaria). I just couldn't pass up these movies for their great titles alone!

Naturally, the showcase features movies from the three Baltic countries, as well, although I will not be able to see any of them. The movie from Latvia was a strange choice: "People Out There" is in Russian, and previously I'd not heard anything about it. This year two films from Estonia were shown: "Tangerines" and "Free Range/Ballad on Approving of the World." Interestingly, "Tangerines" just received an under-the-radar Golden Globe nomination for Best Foreign Language Film! Lithuania's film "The Gambler" is the country's Oscar selection for this year, and features Lithuanian-American actress Oona Mekas.

Valoda / Language / Sprache

A few years ago I was given this old letter by a relative to whom it had originally been sent. I am so glad that snail mail was a big deal when I was growing up, and that - I presume in an effort to get us to write in Latvian - my mother often sat my sister and me down to write cards and letters to various family members who lived in other cities. Luckily, some recipients of my cards and letters kept them, and I was quite touched to see this one.

Translation:

Dear xyz and abc:
I had good grades. We will go to Great America and Garezers. We will go to camp. I know how to read, also in German.
Daina
13 June, 1982

Explanations:

1. Great America was an amusement park a couple of hours from our house, and clearly planning on visiting that was a big deal. Naturally, the thing that I remember best from that visit was not being allowed to go on many kids' rides because I was too tall. This would not had been as problematic had my younger sister not been more average-sized and thus being able to enjoy the rides while I watched from the side. Nope, not one of my fondest memories!

2. Garezers is the Latvian camp and cultural center at which we spent most of our summers. Our family lived there for about eight or nine weeks each summer because my parents worked at the camp, and at the appropriate ages my sister and I attended the two week long kids' camp and later the six week long summer high school.

3. Although we spoke only Latvian at home, my parents decided to send my younger sister and me to a German immersion elementary school once we began kindergarten. Our city was one of the first to have public language immersion schools; founded in 1977, the school was only a few years old when we began attending. From kindergarten through second grade students were immersed in the foreign language 100% of the time. From third through fifth grade, half the school day was in German, half was in English. Both my sister and I continued studying German for many years, including spending time in Germany as university students. Interestingly, although the language is considered less useful than others nowadays, both of us have used our German skills in at least one job.

Lessons:
A. Bi- or multi-lingualism = good.
B. Writing old-fashioned letters and cards = good.
C. Keeping certain mementos = good.

European films / Snow / Christmas cookies

The EU Film Showcase offers the fantastic opportunity to see many different films which would otherwise be inaccessible to an American audience. A friend and I spent part of our Saturday afternoon enjoying an Estonian/French co-production called A Lady in Paris. (Talk about a great combo of languages to listen to - both the many-voweled Estonian and the universally loved French!) The lady in question was an older Estonian woman who left her country at the end of World War II, and spent the rest of her life living a rather French lifestyle in Paris. After a suicide attempt, a caretaker from Estonia is hired. The movie offered some interesting insights and commentary on what it means to love, to belong and to adjust to life in a new culture. (Interestingly, I am also currently reading a memoir, Almost French, about a young Australian woman who falls in love with a Frenchman and moves to Paris to live with him. She writes in great detail about the difficulties of fitting into a different culture.)

Yesterday the threat of snow paralyzed the DMV, and many workplaces closed for the day. It did snow somewhat heavily in the morning, but stopped earlier than forecast. I decided to make the most of this sudden day off, and convinced a friend to join me for a two-part German movie, Der Turm (The Tower). The film was set in East Germany, and spanned the years 1982 to 1989. It was a riveting look at the life of a privileged East Germany family during that historic time period, and I can now recommend it in addition to the two German movies I mentioned in my last post.

With Christmas a few weeks away, the local Latvian church hosted its annual Xmas bazaar this past Sunday. When I arrived, I quickly made a beeline for the stand selling baked goods. The church ladies spend many days preparing a variety of Latvian goodies, including the popular Christmas cookies known as piparkukas. I'd talked these up to a couple of friends and thus needed to snag some of these fantastic Latvian seasonal delicacies.

For a number of years, some friends and I would get together well before Christmas to make the piparkukas dough according to a recipe that my mom has used for quite a while. The recipe had come from a woman in Milwaukee named Anna Pukite. Last year I did not meet my friends and make the dough, but one friend shared the recipe and lesson with a family visiting from Latvia. Lo and behold, this month the recipe was described published in a Latvian magazine by the woman who had learned it here in the U.S., just once again proving how small the Latvian world can be.