Mal-Werk: Pottery Painting Café in Mainz
Mal-Werk is as fun as it is colorful! Let your artistic juices flow at this delightful café where you choose your ceramic and paint it to then receive a fully functional new addition to your cupboard!
With stencils, sponges, stamps, brushes and a rainbow of paint colors
you can have a cozy and creative day with your friends & family.
How it works
After you select the ceramic of your choice, which come in all different prices, you then pick out the colors you want to paint with. They have a self-service island set up in the middle of the first room where you pick out your paints and squirt it into your pallet.
Painting was so much fun! It brings you back to the all the fun you had when you took art class in school. We originally came for the kids to have fun and make some gifts for family members, but we were really into to as well!
There is a small play area for children, which is a great break for when they sit too long painting. I ordered a delicious, much needed, coffee on a Sunday morning and enjoyed it while a made a one of a kind bowl.
After obsessing over every nook and cranny to ultimate painting perfection, (okay that is just what I do) then you show what you have made and pay for the items. The ceramics are left and worked on for 3 days. They will cover the art in glaze, bake it in the kiln for one day then cooled down for another day. They will tell you the day when you can pick up your masterpiece!
This is when the colors come alive! There is a huge difference of the color that you are painting and how it looks when it is baked. When you choose your paint you see the way the color looks after the time in kiln. The finished product can be used in your kitchen and it is dishwasher safe.
My items after painting
After the time in the kiln the ceramic come out colorful and glossy!
Painting Tips
On the table they will provide you a big plate with some instructions and tips on it. For example it is best to cover the whole piece with a light color then draw with the dark colors. Also they show the difference with three different layers of paint. I made sure I had three layers on to make it as vibrant as I could.
Gift Ideas
It doesn’t get more personalized than to make Grandma and Grandpa a painted personalized ceramic gift from Germany! They will know that you thought of them with every brush stroke.
Make a day of it!
Remember you can bring in drinks and snacks! I plan to get some friends together around the holidays and paint some ornaments while drinking gluhwein and eating holiday cookies. How cozy!
Or for a romantic date night? Perhaps a couple that paints together, stays together!?
Birthday Parties
You can book a children’s birthday party for 11 euro per child. They have a wall of items just for birthday party children to pick from. A ceramic is a fabulous alternative ‘goodie bag’ item to take home!
Address:
Weißliliengasse 10
55116 Mainz
Parking:
Karstadt Parkhaus
Opening Times:
Monday to Sunday: 10:00-6:30
Friday 8:30 Pm
Avoid disappointment, call for a reservation.
Website:
http://www.mal-werk.com
Enjoy and happy painting! (Bring wine!)
About the author: Gemma is a mom, a veteran and an Army civilian living in Wiesbaden, Germany. With New Jersey roots, she is enjoying her extended European vacation.
Barefoot Path in Bad Schwalbach: Reflexology Health for Mind Body & Sole!
Located in the public spa park in Bad Schwalbach, there an invigorating 750m trail through the gardens with various soil textures, natural reflexology massaging, a mud basin, water pool and stream path.
Reflexology is an alternative medicine which when applying pressure on certain areas of the foot, it affects physical changes to your body. Going barefoot alone strengthens your muscles, tendons and joints. It also restores the natural beauty and mobility of healthy feet.
Along the trail there are several fountains with cool iron filled healing water, which feels amazing on your skin during a hot day.
When you first start there is an area where you can sit down and clean your feet. Since we did this on a very hot day, it felt really great.
Then after being cleaned, it was time to get our toes in some dirt! The next stations intent are to give you the feeling of walking on different textures like the floor of the forest. This was an amazing feeling for your senses!
Then the stations started to massage your feet with natural objects. Stepping on different stones and round wood bumps stimulate the bottoms of your feet for an overall body wellness. I never would have thought that stepping on big hard rocks would feel so good!
Next the real muddy fun starts! I have never stepped in mud like this before in my life. The closest most foot adventurous thing I have done is getting an extra wax wrap during a pedicure! Stepping into the mud basin felt surprisingly really good! I liked it so much I did it twice.
With your muddy feet you walk to the adjacent station to rinse off in the cool water! Fresh grass clippings blew into it and sprinkled the top which gave it an even more delightful natural spa feeling.
The last station was actually my favorite because you walked in a shaded cool stream! For me, this is stepping out of my comfort zone because I would never think of being in a park and start walking in the nearby stream. They have a rope set up as a handrail and you tip toe in the stream as your final obstacle.
At end you feel a sense of accomplishment and your tootsies feel so amazing!
How to find it:
Set the GPS to:
Street: Badweg
Town: Bad Schwalbach
Follow the park to the end and follow the Barfuss signs. At the end there will be a small parking along the park. Then you walk passed a mini-golf course and a lovely restaurant, then the path starts behind there.
A big wooden foot marks the start of the barefoot path!
About the author: Gemma is a mom, a veteran and an Army civilian living in Wiesbaden, Germany. With New Jersey roots, she is enjoying her extended European vacation
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Horse and carriage ride, castles and wine... Oh my!
A horse and carriage ride through the Rheingau vineyards, sipping Riesling while castle hopping, is the perfect combination for a 'pinch me am I dreaming’? or 'Am I a character in a fairytale’? moment.
Well luckily I was not dreaming and fairytale moments do come true in the Rheingau with the help of Mr Gottfried Schuth’s horse and carriage tours. You can book several beautiful wagon rides in the Rheingau region for a lovely afternoon out with your group of friends. Our tour visited two castles with wine tasting and a light snack picnic in the vineyards along on the way.
The wagon conveniently met us all in a parking lot along the Rhien River and then we were off! First stop was at the charming Schloss Vollrads, where you can sight see and also enjoy some wine tasting in their vinothek. This gorgeous castle and wine estate have been making wine for over 800 years! You can sip their Riesling while sitting next to the tower and surrounding pond. The early 14 century tower looks like right out of the German fairy tale, Rapunzel!
After my daydreaming of envisioning Rapunzel dropping her long golden hair out of the tower, it was time to get back on the wagon! Some members of the group bought several wines that they just sampled in the vinotek.
We went further into the vineyards, then the wagon stopped at a wonderful wine tasting picnic set up by Mr Schuth’s tour. His wife was there along with their third business partner, their 15 year old dog named Charly.
The stop they chose had an amazing view. We were high, in the sunshine, and the atmosphere was very calming. I thought it was interesting to be so close to all of the grapes. They looked so healthy and delicious. I look forward to drinking them when they turn into wine soon!
Now with a belly filled of wine and cheese, it was back on the wagon to the final stop, Schloss Johannisberg. This is a beautiful castle to visit! They have a wine shop, a great café and a breathtaking view of the Rheingau. To walk to the lookout area you pass through grape vine covered awnings and sweet smelling red rose bushes.
Schloss Johannisberg has been making Riesling for over 900 years and they are known for creating the first late harvest wine, called ‘Spätlese’.
The entire trip was a magical day and a great change from the normal road trip. Contact Mr Gottfried Schuth’s horse and carriage tours for more information to making your ordinary weekend very extraordinary!
About the author: Gemma is a mom, a veteran and an Army civilian living in Wiesbaden, Germany. With New Jersey roots, she is enjoying her extended European vacation.
Celpro Italian Supermarket: Gateway to Italian Delights
One of the many amazing aspects about visiting Italy is their incredible drool worthy cuisine. When crossing into Italy for vacation, you can also check your diet at the door. Carbs, dairy and sugar are your new BFF’s. Then when returning you are left with only sweet memories of cannoli’s and stained droplets of marinara sauce on your shirt from nights before. However, Celpro the Italian supermarket in Mainz-Kastel is a gateway to delicious Italian food which allows us to now enjoy Italian treats in the comforts of our own kitchens! Magnifico!
What is inside?
When walking in, there are carts available that use a euro coin to unlock them. I always get stuck in the first aisle, looking at and selecting all of the different drinks. Not being a fan of regular soda, I really love the sparkling water with juices like lime, pomelo and pineapple that are not commonly found in other stores in Germany.
Next spot surely not to miss is the pasta section. There they have many shapes of pasta that you can rarely find and perhaps didn’t even know that they existed. Orecchiette anyone?!
Another impressive section is the olives, peppers and olive oil. You could make a very impressive antipasti dish for a party with all of these choices. They also offer to make you a cold buffet platter. To accompany the delicious oil you need bread! Everyday they bake fresh Italian bread in the back of the store. The smell was incredible!
Also in the back they had a full deli with meats and cheese. Every Wednesday they bring in special buffalo milk mozzarella from Campania.
Great selection of Italian wines! Saluti!!
Also another great special they offer is that the last Wednesday of the month, they take off 20% off the entire store! You can use your credit card at the register, which is always a nice factor.
So if you want to be a hit at the next party you host or the next potluck you attend, you can make scrumptious cannoli’s for dessert because they sell the shells here.
Here is a recipe for the filling:
Cannoli Filling Recipe with Ricotta
Ingredients
* 1 pound ricotta cheese
* 1/4 cup cornstarch
* 1 1/3 cups whole milk
* 1/2 cups powdered sugar
* 1/2 tsp almond extract
* 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
* 1/4 tsp cinnamon
Procedure
* In a bowl, slowly whisk 1 cup of the milk into the cornstarch until it becomes smooth.
* Let sit about 20 minutes.
* Put mixture into sauce pan and add the remaining milk and sugar to the milk-starch.
* Stir over a low heat until it is thick and smooth. Remove from heat.
* Stir in the almond and vanilla extracts.
* Place a piece of plastic wrap on the surface of the filling to avoid "skin”.
* Wait for mixture to come to room temperature.
* AFTER the mixture is at room temperature - THEN add the ricotta cheese and cinnamon to the cornstarch.
* Pipe the filling into cannoli shells.
About the author: Gemma is a mom, a veteran and an Army civilian living in Wiesbaden, Germany. With New Jersey roots, she is enjoying her extended European vacation.
Wiesbaden Nerotalfest: Sweet and Simple!
Sweet and Simple! Like a trip to a country fair! The Nerotalfest is a beautiful ‘back to the basics’ summer fest held in the Nerotal Park in Wiesbaden. There you can sit on a seat of baled hay, enjoy a refreshing summer drink while your little one runs around with face paint.
The Nerotal Park is one kilometer long, that starts from Taunusstrasse and goes all the way to the Nerobergbahn. The park alone is a beautiful place to visit, with its’ English landscape and fabulous flowers. To enter the park you walk across the protected historical site “Schwarzbach” stream, which looks like right out of a fairytale.
The fest is held in a lovely section of the Nerotal Park and the fest itself is very relaxing. There are no big loud fest rides or games with blasting music. The fest has a more traditional feeling and brings you back to the basics. Even without all the flashing lights, you can get everything you could want at the fest while there are many things to keep the kids busy. They had delicious fest grilled meats, pastries, coffee stand, beer and wine. Even though it is a smaller fest, you will not leave this fest hungry!
Events that stood out were more personal and meaningful entertainment and it was more catered towards kids. For example, face painting, glitter tattoos, storytelling, area for game boards and music performed by children groups.
Our favorite was the storytelling! Even though we didn’t understand all of the German we were able to follow along with the story because of her great acting. I looked up the storyteller and saw that she tours around the area. Her information can be found here: www.doris-friedmann.de
Another wonderful vendor there was Lottchen Events. They
had an adorable vintage circus photo studio set up with an amazing choice of
photo props for your little one! Photos were taken, printed and then given to
everyone for free. The owner was very nice and spoke great English. Their
artistic focus has an educational concept with a modern design and
sophisticated decoration. She sets up these adorable photo shoots for events,
holds kids parties for the children at weddings/events and will even plan an
entire party for you. Her amazing work looks like straight out of Pinterest!
It’s worth checking out her website
and Facebook page.
Next mid-July I will definitely mark my calendar and attended this wonderful Nerotal Fest again! (We will also get matching pink glitter unicorn tattoos!)
About the author: Gemma is a mom, a veteran and an Army civilian living in Wiesbaden, Germany. With New Jersey roots, she is enjoying her extended European vacation.
