A German escape

Now that the election madness is over I can finally sit down and report about my latest adventures. The last weekend was spent in a surreal location in the middle of the Cascade Range, barely 120 miles East of Seattle, in the enchanting town of Leavenworth. This old timber community was greatly affected by the relocation of the railroad in the 1920s, leading to economic difficulties for many years until the Project LIFE (Leavenworth Improvement For Everyone) Committee successfully transformed the city into a pretend Bavarian village in 1962. Nothing odd about that. Shani and Scott come here annually with a bunch of friends, and this year the crowd was bigger than ever, with 14 jolly characters (I being one of them) brought together at the Icicle Inn for two nights of munching and tomfoolery.

Scott, Shani and I quit work early on Friday and arrived a couple of hours before the rest of the group, giving us time for some wine and cheese tasting before meeting up at Gustav's for dinner. A few pitchers of beer later the whole gang moved on to the Post Office for karaoke and further merriment. This time I did not bail out on the singing...

Saturday started with a minigolf tournament, a tradition that aroused a lot of passion and strong emotions; some could not care less about the outcome and others were more serious. Guess which category I fell into. I did score a hole-in-one, however! That must count for something. Shani decided that she would try “something different” at one of the holes on the course, leading her on an interesting excursion into the terrain (and lots of laughter from her husband and me).
 

More wine tasting ensued, along with lots of food and sweets. And glühwein! Good old glühwein. Compared to authentic Bavaria the food in fake Bavaria was considerably more vegetarian friendly, and for the first time of my life I had a “real” veggie wurst with mustard and sauerkraut. Not too bad! Not too good either, but I enjoyed having the possibility to try it. After lunch, we continued cruising around among the many knick-knack shops, and I may or may not have bought some sparkling ornaments at Kris Kringl, “Where it's Christmas All Year Long!”.

 

The whole gang at Andreas Keller Restaurant. Say käse!

Every now and then, the illusion of actually being in Germany was somewhat transparent...

...but then the moment passed, and the feeling of authenticity returned. Das ist gut, ja!

Still, Leavenworth is more than just kitsch and flakiness; before hitting the road back to Seattle on Sunday I took a walk along the river in an effort to document the stunning scenery that surrounded the village. As I walked among the trees a constant rustling sound from falling, bright yellow leaves filled the air, and clouds gently embraced the mountain sides. A perfect end to another great weekend.