Transportation – Page 7 – European Traveler

Christmas Is a Time of Food and Fun

European Traveler has gathered Christmas holiday recipes from around Europe, and we present them here in a special tribute to the countries from which they come. You’ll find a variety of tasty foods in these selections, from desserts and breads to main dishes, to cookies and candies. As December progresses, we plan to add more, so stay tuned!

Please note that some of the recipes are in metric measurements and may need to be converted.

Bon Appetit!

AUSTRIA

VIENNESE VANILLA CRESCENTS (VANILLEKIPFERL)

Eva Draxler / Vienna Tourist Board

INGREDIENTS
1 1/2 sticks (6 ounces) unsalted butter
2/3 cup finely ground nuts (almonds or hazelnuts)
1/2 cup confectioner’s sugar
2 egg yolks
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
dash of salt

PREPARATION
Knead all ingredients together quickly – keep them cool. Cool in refrigerator for several hours. When forming crescents, take out only the amount of dough you are working with. Form into large, sausage-like rolls with a diameter of about 2 inches. Cut thin slices and quickly roll each of them in the palms of your hands, thus forming small crescents. Place on greased cookie sheet. Bake at 325 degrees Fahrenheit for about 20 minutes. Let cool for no more than five minutes. While still warm, roll in vanilla sugar.

THE AZORES

HOTEL MARINA ATLANTICO
THE AZORES

Courtesy Monica Bensaude Fernandes/Bensaude Turismo

COD “COM TODOS” STYLE

INGREDIENTS
2 cod steaks
300 grs of cooked chickpeas
1 Portuguese cabbage
200 grs carrots chopped in thin circles
2 dls extra virgin olive oil
30 grs fresh coriander
1 salted pickled red pepper cut length wise
6 dry garlic cloves
200 grs crumbed corn bread
100 ml cream
Salt and white pepper
PREPARATION
Boil cod for 5 minutes. Remove skin and bones. Grate chickpeas in a tasse-vite. Add cream and season with salt and pepper. Blanch cabbage, drain and sauté in olive oil and garlic.
Sauté carrots in olive oil and garlic.
PLATE PRESENTATION
Using a rim, first layer chickpeas, and then carrots. On top, place cod, broken apart. Cover it with sautéed cabbage and lastly, the crumbed corn bread. Give it a little color by briefly placing in a very hot oven. Decorate with olive oil and fresh coriander.

DUCK BREAST WITH ORANGE AND DRIED FRUITS
INGREDIENTS
2 boneless duck breasts
300 grs red cabbage, julienned
4 oranges
300 grs potatoes, cut in extra fine rounds (chip style)
50 grs crushed walnuts
50 grs crushed pine nuts
50 grs S.Jorge cheese sliced thin
½ cup Brandy
Salt and white pepper
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
10 grs sugar
PREPARATION
Sauté duck in high heat for 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Zest the orange. Set aside. Juice the oranges and add it to pan. Let it reduce and set aside the sauce. Bake potatoes in a fan format with the thinly sliced cheese on top. Sauté cabbage with a little olive oil. Add balsamic vinegar, sugar and dried fruit.
PLATE PRESENTATION
At the top, place the fanned potatoes. In the center, place red cabbage and beneath position the laminated duck. Cover with sauce and orange zest.

VEAL LOIN VERDELHO
INGREDIENTS
400 grs veal loin
300 grs potatoes
400 grs carrots
Verdelho wine from Pico Island
Onions
Leeks
Salt and pepper (local, if possible)
PREPARATION
Season veal with salt and pepper. Blush or sauté loin in high heat for 5 minutes. Remove veal, add onions and leeks and brown. Add red wine and let it reduce. Season and sift sauce. Grate carrots and sauté in a little olive oil. Bake potatoes, which have been previously stuffed with a bay leaf and bacon, in alternating cuts.
PLATE PRESENTATION
Place carrots at the center, potatoes in the back, veal in the front of plate, and cover with sauce.

GERMANY

MULLED WINE
(GLUHWEIN)
Victoria Keefe Larson/German National Tourist Office

Perfect for those dark and cold winter evenings.

INGREDIENTS:
2 bottles red wine
1 cup sugar
3 cups water
1 lemon, sliced
20 whole cloves
6 to 8 cinnamon sticks
1 orange, sliced for garnish

PREPARATION:
Mix water, lemon and spices and simmer for an hour. Strain. Heat but do not boil the red wine. Add wine to hot water mixture. Ladle into cups and serve with half a slice of orange.

HUNGARY

Dios es Makos beigli
Poppy seed and nut rolls (bagels)

From Culinary Hungary/courtesy Elvira Vida/Hungarian National Tourist Office

Makes 4 rolls; the filling ingredients are calculated for 2 rolls respectively.

INGREDIENTS
For the dough:
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup/120 ml milk
1 cake/15 g compressed yeast
1/2 cup/5O g confectioner’s sugar
3 1/4 cup/500 g flour
6 1/2 tbsp/100 g butter
6 1/2 tbsp/100 g lard
2 eggs
1 tsp grated lemon zest
pinch of salt

For the nut filling:
Scant 1/2 cup/100 ml milk
1OO g superfine sugar
1 envelope of vanilla sugar
1/2 tsp grated lemon zest
3 tbsp/30 g raisins
Pinch of cinnamon
3 cups/250 g ground nuts
3-4 tsp honey (or 1-2 apples or 2-3 tsp apricot jam)

For the poppy seed filling:
Scant 1/2 cup/lOO ml milk
1 1/4 cups/250 g confectioners sugar
1 sachet of vanilla sugar
1 2/3 cups/250 g ground poppy seeds
3 tbsp/30 g raisins
1 tsp grated lemon zest
4 tbsp honey

Other:
Butter or lard for the baking sheet
1 egg yolk for glazing

PREPARATION:
Dissolve the sugar in the lukewarm milk, then add the yeast. Mix the remaining dough ingredients wilh the yeast mixture and knead thoroughly. Cover the dough with a dish towel and leave to rise for about 30 minutes.

To make the nut filling, put the milk in a pan with the sugar and vanilla sugar and bring to a boil. Add the lemon zest, raisins, cinnamon, nuts, and honey (or peeled, grated apples or apricot jam).

For the poppy seed filling, mix the milk with the confectioners’ sugar and vanilla sugar. Bring to a boil and add the poppy seeds and raisins. Simmer for a few minutes, stirring constantly, then remove from the heat and stir in the lemon zest and honey.

Divide the dough into four and roll out each piece into a rectangle measuring about 12 x 14 inches/30 x 35 cm. Spread the dough with the nut or poppy seed filling and roll up lengthwise, ensuring that the rolls remain firm. Grease a baking sheet and carefully transfer the rolls onto the sheet and brush with egg yolk.

Bake in a preheated (medium) oven until golden brown. Only remove from the oven when completely cool. If kept covered and stored in a cool, dry place the bagel will stay fresh for a long time. Do not slice until just before serving, arranging the slices like roof tiles on a plate, and sprinkle with confectioners’ sugar.

PORTUGAL

REBANADAS CASA OS MOINHOS

INGREDIENTS

16 egg yolks
500 g sugar
1 kg Portuguese white bread
Cinnamon
Lemon

PREPARATION
Mix the eggs with 16 tablespoons sugar until it is a thick mix — make a thin syrup out of the rest of the sugar. Use one glass of water for this, then slice the bread, — after letting it sit for one day. Dip the slices into the syrup, drain, and dip in the egg yolk mix. Gently pan sear on a medium stove top, and sprinkle with cinnamon and lemon zest.

SPAIN

ROSCON DE REYES
(Holiday Bread)
This recipe is from The Foods and Wines of Spain by Penelope Casas
Courtesy Patricia Wood Winn/Tourist Office of Spain

No holiday is more eagerly awaited in Spain than El Dia de los Reyes Magos-the Day of the Three Kings (Epiphany) on January 6. On this date every year, so the legend goes, the Three Wise Men journey to Spain on camels, bearing gifts for all Spanish children. They use ladders to gain access to city apartments aud leave presents in the children’s shoes, which have been carefully laid out the night before, along with fodder for the hungry camels. Kids who have not been good during the year fear the worst: that the kings will fill their shoes with black coal instead of toys.

Rascon de Reyes is baked and eaten only at this time of year. It is a delicious sweetened bread, coated with sugar and candied fruits, and it always contains a surprise-either a coin or a small ceramic figurine, which is to bring luck for the year to the fortunate person who finds it in his piece of bread.

Makes 1 large bread ring

INGREDIENTS
1 package dry yeast
3/4 cup warm water
1 tablespoon orange flower water (often found in Italian food shops. If unavailable, substitute strong tea)
1/2 teaspoon grated lemon rind 6 cloves
1/4 pound butter
1 tablespoon lard or vegetable shortening
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1 tablespoon brandy, preferably Spanish brandy, or Cognac
1/2 cup milk, scalded and cooled
5 cups unbleached, all-purpose flour
Candied fruit slices (orange, lemon, etc.)
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 1/2 tablespoons sugar, preferably coarse, for sprinkling

PREPARATION
Dissolve the yeast in 1/4 cup of the warm water. Simmer the remaining 1/2 cup of warm water with the orange flower water, lemon rind, and cloves for 10 minutes, covered. Cool. Discard the cloves. Cream the butter, lard, the sugar, and the salt. Beat in the 2 eggs, then add the brandy, milk, the water-and-lemon mixture, and the softened yeast. Gradually mix in the flour with a wooden spoon until a soft and slightly sticky dough is obtained. Knead on a floured working surface, adding more flour as needed, about 5 minutes, until smooth and elastic. Place the dough in a large oiled bowl, turn to coat with the oil, cover with a towel, and place in a warm spot, such as an unlit oven, to double in size, about 2 hours. Punch down and knead again 5 minutes. Insert a good luck coin – perhaps a silver dollar or half-dollar – or some other appropriate object, such as a cute miniature ceramic animal.

Shape the dough into a large ring, pinching the ends to seal. Place on a lightly greased cookie sheet. Decorate with the fruit slices, pushing them slightly into the dough. Let the ring rise in a warm spot about 1 hour, or until double in size. Brush with the egg, which has been mixed with a teaspoon of water, sprinkle with sugar, and bake in a 350° F oven 35-40 minutes, or until a deep golden brown.

Learning the ‘Art of Travel’ on the Orient Express

A luxurious learning experience complete with a guide from London’s National Gallery

The Orient Express is launching a series of special vacation packages called “The Art of Travel,” including tours to Venice, Paris and within England. Travelers will learn about the lives of artists such as Canaletto, Bellini, Titian, Veronese, Monet, Rubens, Turner and Constable while seeing the places that inspired their work and visiting the places that house their work today, accompanied by an expert from London’s National Gallery.

All tours include at least one night at London’s Goring Hotel and begin at The National Gallery, where a specialist will give a guided introduction to selected masterpieces before the journey begins. Trips include:

THE VENICE OF CANALETTO: This seven-day tour will give travelers the opportunity to view Venice through Canaletto’s eyes. Travel from London aboard the Venice Simplon-Orient-Express through France, the snow-capped Alps and northern Italy. While in Venice, guests stay at the Hotel Cipriani and trace the footsteps of Canaletto, who is forever associated with magnificent Venetian views. Trips are limited to 20 people and depart on April 9, October 8 and October 22, 2011.

VENETIAN PAINTERS: This is a six-day tour that introduces the traveler to the great Venetian masters, from Giovanni Bellini and Titian to Veronese. Starting in London with a tour and dinner at the National Gallery, travelers will fly to Venice, where they will step back into the Italian Renaissance and explore great sights such as the Doge’s Palace, the Accademia and Ca’ Rezzonica with an expert from the National Gallery. The journey ends with a return to London on the Venice Simplon-Orient-Express. The trip is limited to 20 people and departs on April 30, 2011.

IMPRESSIONS OF PARIS: Also offered will be a series of five-day tours focusing on French Impressionism, where travelers will trace Claude Monet’s long, dynamic life and will learn about the birth of a new artistic movement, when painters first began painting in the open air to capture the effects of light. From London, guests board the Venice Simplon-Orient-Express and can marvel that two of the restored carriages aboard the Art Deco train were already carrying passengers when Monet was producing his last masterpieces. Departures are April 9, May 7, June 25, July 27, August 24, September 24 and October 22, 2011.

BRITISH PULLMAN: These tours combine the thrill of a steam-hauled luxury train, complemented by gourmet dining — brunch on the outbound journey and a three-course supper on the return — with delightful scenery and include visits to Bath’s finest art collections.

Collectors and Collecting: This trip is timed to coincide with the reopening of the Holburne Museum in May 2011 following a major restoration. After a guided tour of the museum, there will be a tour of “Beckford’s Bath,” including the eccentric William Beckford’s house and the grounds leading up to Beckford’s Tower. The trip will depart on June 28, 2011.
Thomas Gainsborough: This journey focuses on landscape paintings by notable British and European artists including Rubens, Turner and Constable. Highlights include the new exhibition “Gainsborough’s Landscapes: Themes and Variation,” at the Holburne Museum and a walking tour of artists’ Bath. This tour will depart on October 11, 2011.

For more information on “The Art of Travel,” visit www.orient-express.com/nationalgallery.

Switzerland’s Transport Museum

Kaitlyn and Kellen get “sized up” by this big Swiss Air DC-3.

Photos by Amy Luetgert

Wow! Cool! That’s what visitors, and especially children, say after a few minutes in this 21,500-sq-foot museum in Lucerne, located right on Lake Lucerne.

With as many as 850,000 visitors a year, the museum is Switzerland’s most popular attraction of its type.

From space capsules to trains (big ones, as well as miniature ones that run through the grounds), to airplanes and helicopters and automobiles, from the latest media technologies and interactive hands-on exhibits to a cycle park, the Swiss Transport Museum displays more than 3,000 objects, plenty to keep two kids busy for a while.

Kaitlyn Luetgert, 9, and her brother Kellen, 6, from the Chicagoland area, spent an afternoon at the Museum with their parents, and their mother Amy Luetgert filed this photo report of their experiences.

The Luetgert kids “sign on” as airline pilots and flight attendants.

Kellen says, “I could spend a whole day here!”

“No problem, let’s walk under this steam engine,” urges Kellen.

With a facade like this, anything is possible inside the Museum.

For more info, go to Swiss Transport Museum

Antwerp’s Newest Museum: The Flip Side of Ellis Island

By Randy Mink

Everyone knows the story of the poor immigrants who arrived at Ellis Island in New York after a transatlantic journey from Europe. The “huddled masses yearning to breathe free” came by the millions in the late 19th and early 20th century, all with one dream—a better life in America. Their long voyage ended as they sailed into New York Harbor past the Statue of Liberty, a beacon of freedom and hope.

Many of us have visited the Ellis Island Immigration Museum and possibly even traced our ancestry there. But a new attraction in Antwerp, Belgium tells the flip side of the tale as it unfolded on the opposite shore of the ocean. In the actual brick warehouses where emigrants gathered to board, the Red Star Line Museum sheds light on the almost forgotten history of an American-owned shipping company that from 1873 to 1934 brought more than two million passengers from Antwerp to New York, Philadelphia, Boston and Halifax, most of them poor and oppressed peoples from Eastern Europe; about 25% were Jewish. Fewer than 200,000 were Belgians.

Among those dreamers was a Jewish family from a Russian town in what is now Belarus. The five-year-old son, Israel Isadore Baline, who traveled on Red Star Line’s Rijnland, went on to become a songwriter extraordinaire and changed his name to Irving Berlin. Had it not been for that voyage in 1893, “God Bless America” and “White Christmas” might not be part of the American songbook.

There were some rags-to-riches stories indeed, but it’s mostly the personal testimonies of ordinary folks that dominate the two exhibit floors of the Red Star Line Museum, located in Eilandje, a former dockyard district undergoing redevelopment. The museum is just a short walk from the Kattendijk Dock, where most European river cruise ships berth in Antwerp.

Curator Bram Beeleart confirms the museum is more about people than ships, emphasizing the importance of firsthand accounts of migrants before, during and after their transoceanic trips. “The overall theme we want to convey is that it’s about little people who imagined a better life for themselves on the other side of the ocean…little people who dreamed great things,” Beeleart says.

The fact that the museum occupies the original Red Star Line departure sheds on the Scheldt River’s Rijnkaai, or Rhine Quay, “adds power to the whole experience,” he says. The humble, decaying buildings had been empty since 2000; the oldest dates to 1894.

In putting together the museum’s exhibits, Beeleart and his team visited Ellis Island Immigration Museum and Hamburg’s Ballinstadt Emigration Museum, among others. Beyer Blinder Belle, the New York architecture firm that designed the Red Star Line Museum, also did the restoration work at Ellis Island.

The eight thematic areas abound with oversized photos and text (including excerpts from letters), artifacts, touchscreen computers, pullout drawers and audio and video stations. Visitors follow in the emigrant’s footsteps, starting at a Warsaw ticket agency similar to many such offices in Eastern Europe where passengers would have bought their Red Star Line tickets.

Next in the sequence is a train compartment for the trip to Antwerp, followed by glimpses of early 20th century Antwerp, procedures in the Red Star Line departure buildings, the deck of an ocean steamer, shipboard life, arrival at Ellis Island and a new future in the United States.

Prior to following the European emigrant’s path to the New World, visitors encounter a timeline of migration throughout human history and installations that spotlight “Six Star Witnesses,” including Red Star Line passengers Albert Einstein and Sonia Pressman Fuentes, the latter a renowned feminist who made the trip from Florida for the museum’s grand opening last fall.

The exhibit on 1910-1922 Antwerp, which features grainy film accompanied by sound effects like streetcars and the clip-clop of horses, describes how locals viewed the Eastern Europeans with curiosity and pity—exotic head scarves, weather-beaten faces and ragged appearance clearly set the migrants apart. Upon arrival in Antwerp, train passengers from small towns in Russia, Poland, Austria-Hungary and Germany were awed by the cathedral-like Central Station, still one of the city’s grandest sights and worth a look even if you’re not traveling by rail.

Before their 10-day ocean voyage, the rumpled travelers stayed in dingy, overcrowded migrant hotels and often were the target of crooks. But Basia Cohen, as a girl from Russia, had positive memories of her 1921 experience: “Antwerp was my favorite city of all. It was the first time I had ice cream. We used to hear about ice cream but we never even had seen it.”

Visitors also experience the anxiety that emigrants endured in the very building where they awaited the medical exams that resulted in 2 to 4% of ticket holders being rejected for the trip to America, as the line would be liable for repatriating anyone with a contagious disease. Everyone in third class had to take an hour-long shower using vinegar and other solutions; their clothes were fumigated and baggage was sterilized in large pressure boilers.

Once at sea, most of the emigrants wallowed in the bowels of the ship, where conditions were cramped. Those in third class, or steerage, slept on straw mattresses and had to scramble to stave off hunger. In the words of Golda Meir, a Russian immigrant who settled in Milwaukee and later became the prime minister of Israel: “It was not a pleasant trip. We spent the nights on sheetless beds and most of the days standing in line for food that was ladled out to us as though we were cattle.”

Passengers in first- and second-class (pleasure travelers, businessmen, even an occasional emigrant), however, enjoyed fine dining, deck games and evening entertainment. Sometimes they would throw fruit or candy down to the children traveling in steerage. On display are dishes, silverware, ashtrays and cigarette lighters with the Red Star insignia, plus sample menus, wine lists and pictures of ballroom dancing. Ironically, songs played in the first- and second-class lounges in the 1920s and ’30s included ones written by a now-famous Irving Berlin, who had traveled in steerage three decades earlier.

From its earliest days the Red Star Line promoted its product in artistic brochures and posters, but concentrated more and more on the vacation market once the U.S. clamped down on immigration in the early 1920s. Actual printed materials and touchscreen displays show how the line marketed cruises to “discriminating travelers” who could “leave boredom behind and find solace in the sun” on a trip from New York to Havana, Nassau, and Bermuda. Its 2,500-passenger flagship, Belgenland II, touted a swimming pool and fake beach.

During Prohibition, Americans took “booze cruises” to Bermuda, and the line even did seven world cruises. Over the years Red Star operated 23 ships (all with “land” in the name—Pennland, Westernland, Lapland, etc.) and chartered other vessels. Unable to survive during the Great Depression, the company was finally liquidated in 1934. Its demise was a big blow to Antwerp, where “the pulse of the Red Star Line was felt in the very arteries of the city,” wrote one local newspaper reporter.

Exhibits on Ellis Island and tenement life in New York’s Lower East Side give way to the success stories, including the iconic example of composer/lyricist Berlin. A showpiece is one of Berlin’s composing pianos, on loan from his second daughter, Linda Emmet, who lives in Paris. Visitors are reminded of the many songs he penned, from “Alexander’s Ragtime Band” to “Puttin’ on the Ritz.”

A museum visit concludes with the stories of today’s immigrants in Antwerp and a chance to do online genealogical research of your own. Then climb or ride the elevator up the new concrete-and-steel observation tower, which mimics the chimney and bow of a Red Star Line ship. The open-air platform affords a panorama of quays along the Scheldt—the last scenes that passengers, on their way to an uncertain future, would have witnessed as Antwerp and the Old World slipped from view.

For anyone fascinated by maritime history and tales of human migration, the Red Star Line Museum is Antwerp’s star attraction. For information, visit redstarline.org.

Couple Finds Marriage Bliss at 6,000 Feet

by Don Heimburger

Topping Out Wedding Destinations

Wedding “destinations” in the Germanic lands can sometimes be unusual.

Take, for instance, the June 2006 wedding of Swiss-born Hans and Birke Mebold of Rheinfelden, Switzerland.

“Our wedding was something special,” says Birke. “All this talk about the most beautiful day in your life…but it really was the case for us. The whole wedding took on a kind of momentum all its own.”

The Meholds first were officially married in a small church called Johanniterkapelle in Rheinfelden, home of Switzerland’s most popular beer, Feldschlosschen, and the town in which the couple both work.

Following the 11 a.m. ceremony, and a small reception, the couple was whisked away on Rheinfelden’s biggest fire truck with its blue lights flashing wildly. Both Feldwebel Hans and Birke are Rheinfelden fire brigade volunteers of 16 years and five years respectively, with Hans head of the town’s traffic regulations and security section.

HELICOPTER RIDE
Where the couple’s fire truck ride ended, their helicopter ride began, to the 2,100-foot-high resort town of Eptingen where they met a bus full of 50 wedding guests of family and friends.

At Vitznau on Lake Lucerne, the group boarded a specially-reserved Mt. Rigi Railway steam locomotive and two-car cogwheel train consisting of No. 16, an 1923 oil-fired engine, and the Belle Epoque, a stately parlor car built in 1873 and coach No.10, built in 1871. The crew assigned to the wedding train consisted of a driver, a fireman, a conductor and one hostess dressed in period costumes for each car.

As the steam train ascended up the side of steep 6,000-foot-high Mt. Rigi on a clear, warm spring day, the guests were served refreshments. The train passed quaint farms, pastures filled with grazing sheep and cows, and hiking trails.

At Rigi Kulm, the group was welcomed by the alpine horns of Ruedi Imlig and his brother. Then a second wedding ceremony took place in the small chapel on the top of Rigi.

The wedding steam train for Hans and Birke Weber chugs up Mt. Rigi

Bride Birke Weber steps out of her special railway car at the top of Mt. Rigi; her new husband, Hans, follows.

Train hostess Lucia Weber on the Belle Epoque, an 1873 salon car

DINNER AND DANCING AT THE TOP
The guests then enjoyed dinner and dancing at the Hotel Rigi Kulm. “The scenery at the top was so beautiful and the food was excellent,” says Birke. Afterward, dancing was provided by Gunter Pichler and his GP Music band.

“My great grand aunt had taken us to Mt. Rigi last year, and we were stricken by the incredible view from the top,” says Birke.”When we thought about a location for our wedding, it didn’t take long to decide to go to Mt. Rigi.” She admits the travel arrangements for buses, trains and helicopters were a bit daunting, however.

The happy couple and guests returned from the mountain after midnight on an electric cogwheel train, and later spent their honeymoon in Sweden. If this is what they planned for their wedding day, it sounds like this couple is never going to have a dull moment.