Today's excursion started early due to the hour and a half bus ride. They offered a less strenuous version of the walking tour, so Carol & I opted for it. Today we are group E. The bus ride had a minor excitement, when the driver went north at the A35/A4 interchange rather than south. After about two miles he was able to exit and get back on the southbound A4. Note; Passports are not required when crossing EU boarders.
Google Live Map
There was another delay, at the parking area, after the bus ride there was a long line for the ladies room. The E group got a ride to our alternate starting point, near the Customs House.
The Cathedral is unique in that it has only one spier, as seen in the collage, which also shows half-timber houses, a gargoyle on the Cathedral, and Sean demonstrating the "pole de meaux". As the guide explained the populus erected it to demonstrate that the monks were too fat, if you could pass through in profile, you weren't fat. I didn't try, for obvious reasons.
We had lunch at the former customs house, a very large building.
We had choucroute garnie, sauerkraut made with wine vice vinegar is strange.
There were three return times, due to threatening weather we chose the first and had a little rain on the way to the bus. Amanda and Sean took the second, and suffered a hail storm as they waited at the assembly point.
Before the Daily Briefing this evening Arthur introduced us to Linie Aquavit. Linie (pronounced “LINN-yuh”) is the Norwegian word for “line,” referring, in this case, to the equator. Linie aquavit is shipped from Norway, across the equator, down to Australia, and back again in oak sherry casks. Aficionados say the liquor gains a richer flavor as it sloshes around in the barrels for several weeks.
The concept of linie aquavit happened by accident in the 1800s. Jørgen Lysholm owned a distillery in Trondheim, Norway. His mother and uncle sent a batch of aquavit to Asia on a large sailing ship, hoping to market it there. It didn’t sell, however, and five barrels were shipped back to Trondheim. When the aquavit arrived back in Norway, Lysholm noticed it had a richer flavor. At that time, Norway was shipping dried cod around the world. Lysholm began loading barrels of aquavit onto freighters that carried the cod, and retrieving them at the end of a long round trip.
If you look through the bottle at the back side of the label, you’ll find the name of the ship that carried it across the equator, along with the date it sailed.
When we returned to our room there was a pair of Aquavit glasses waiting for us.
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