Rüdesheim and Storks

Yesterday, we drove to Rüdesheim. About 13 years ago my husband and I met here for the very first time, so this place will always be special for us.

From the city we took the ropeway up to the Germania statue...

...and enjoyed the view over the wine-fields, Rüdesheim and River Rhein.

In the evening we wanted to take some pics of the countryside near my hometown...

...and we were lucky to see a lot of storks there. They just recently became more and more common in this area and they remind me so much of the graceful "Tsuru" (Japanese Cranes).

Mushroom hunt in Germany

Here we are, spending our Summer holidays in Germany (Hessen) this time. Fukuoka was so hot in these days (37 °C and high humidity), that we could not do anything outdoors at all, so here we enjoy to take some walks sit outside and simply relax...

... and of course we instantly went to the forest to look for mushrooms... not too much there, some Russulae and old boletus,

but yesterday we discovered a "Tonbimaitake" / "Riesenporling" (Meripilus giganteus).

In Germany people hardly eat them, as those mushrooms seem a little bit like leather,

but in Akita it's one of the most expensive and apprechiated mushroom.

Best is to cook it like "Schnitzel" or "Karage" and fry it...

And it really tasted wonderful, like calf-meat... I hope we will find some more of these mushrooms.