What Is Carole Up To Now?

Wrap up for Carole In Munich

2007-04-16T19:53:00.000+02:00

I have started a new blog, as 'Carole In Munich' is no longer true! Someday I'll figure out how to combine these all onto one site. For now, head to carole2007.blogspot.com for my current blog.

Parting is just sorrow

2007-01-11T16:07:00.000+01:00

Well, this is my last post from Munich (this time here, I hope to be back!). It has been wonderful to be here, I'm sorry to leave. But I feel I must, for a while. I have love in my heart to absolutely everything that has made this time possible, and deep thanks to all the wonderful people I've met and made friends with here. I look forward to visiting, in Munich and where ever in the world you end up.

Notes to self: don't leave a place you've been in, a while, just after the winter holidays. People are gone so the goodbyes have stretched out from early December through January. It's very hard to keep saying goodbye.

Check out the "Interactivist of the week" at Grist: brother John!

I will start up a new blog from Rochester, once I get all connected there. I arrive there the evening of Friday the 12th and will be very happy to see Greg, Andrea & Gavin. In blogs to come I promise before & after pics of the house, proof that I'm staying in great shape - have I mentioned the wonderful Mike, trainer par excellence, recently? - and pics of the area so you all know how lovely upstate New York can be. And are motivated to come visit, if you're anywhere near the area!

TTFN,

Carole

Catching Up

2007-01-02T10:28:00.000+01:00

I’m starting to do the final clearing up in the apartment as time is getting short and the weather is rainy. Now I’m working on organizing the photos and backing them up. Here are some I took at the Munchner Freiheit Christmas market. This market is for the local craftsfolk; these people typically have stores in the area.

This is the market at Marienplatz, it is much more focused on Christmas ornaments for the tourists.

And this is the Krippenmarket at the Rindermarkt area; it is focused on Christmas crèches (‘krippen’, in German). This is a small market, with maybe 10 non-food stalls; all selling objects to put in the creches.

In Bavaria, a crèche always includes a pot suspended over a wood fire, and local people in Bavarian dress.

And the smells of the markets are wonderful. The perfume in the air is the roasting nuts; typically coated in cinnamon & sugar:

And the hot drinks. 'Feuerzangenbowle' is 'fire blood bowl'; it involves hot tea & rum. Waay too tasty, and smells wonderful too.

Now I must launch myself out into the snow/rain, I'm on cat care duty for a friend. More later!

What a week

2006-12-22T16:32:00.000+01:00

The movers came in this morning, and packed up what looked like a gigantic pile of my clothing, books, souvenirs, kitchen stuff in 45 minutes flat. And I felt like I fell off a cliff.

The past 2 weeks I have been busying myself with moving. I have a ticket to get back to Rochester on January 12. (At least that's the theory - it is a paper ticket that has not yet shown up in my mailbox here.) Once I set my date for return, wait, let's go back here, on December 8th "I" closed on my house. (I wasn't there, so the attorneys went to the 4-hour long meeting on my behalf. Delightful!) The sellers, who are renting back from me until their new house is completed, officially notified "me" then that they would vacate on January 14. Thus setting off the chain of events to get ready to go, to take a handover in person on January 15th.

In the past 2 weeks I have been creating a pile of my things to be shipped, and finding corners in this apartment that I swear didn't exist, but they do and they were full of my stuff. I have taken loads of paperbacks to the Munich Readery, a used English bookstore. Sorted through my files. Talked to lots of people about how to get stuff home that I couldn't carry on the plane. Finally ended up with Gosselin Worldwide Moving, and 2 cheerful, competent men showed up this morning and packed my pile into several boxes & took 'em away. I anticipate seeing the boxes again 2 - 3 weeks after I have taken possession of my new place.

And, during these 2 weeks, the ladies clubs each had their Christmas lunches and I was involved with the IWC one - set-up, clean-up and making brownies for the crowd; and very involved in the LIA one – making all the place cards, getting the newsletter out to all. One museum tour on the 12th, Alex led us through an exhibition of Rodin sculpture here called – The Kiss, the Pairs. Lots of his works that involve pairs of people. As usual, I learned a lot.

Also, wrapped up my involvement with LIA, got all the files organized and handed over to the 2007 incoming secretary. Took hours!

And the Christmas markets are open! I love browsing them, hanging out in the evening and sipping gluhwein. The smells of the markets are wonderful – at each market, there is usually a booth roasting almonds so there’s a sweet cinnamony-almond smell; the hot mulled wine (gluhwien); the roasting wursts; and the pine scent of the decorations and trees. The weather here had been fantastic – sunny and warmish, up to 45 – 50 F in the daytime. So I spent lots of time walking the city. It has turned sharply colder here now, and the market season is over tomorrow, so I anticipate more time indoors.

And of course, during this season, ya gotta do the Christmas baking. I went to a cookie exchange on the 14th, which requires that you bring 3 dozen of one kind to exchange. There were 3 other American women participating, 2 of them brought the Hershey’s Kiss cookies. Made the roommate happy, he likes them.

And I’ve been grocery shopping for the next week over the past 2 days; stores here close midafternoon Saturday and then are closed until Wednesday. It is Christmas-crazy busy in the stores so I wanted to go early in the day, a few days before Saturday.

So, after all this activity, I feel dizzy with nothing to do. I do have a list of the next items – address changes, backing up of computers & transferring files, the financial homework that the mediator needs us to do but I will wait on that for a day or so!

Logan is heading to Pennsylvania tomorrow, to visit his Mom and see friends. On the 30th he goes to California and will see friends and have several meetings – with our realtor (we’re selling the CA house), our financial advisors, and he’ll poke the moving company. The furniture will get shipped from California to Rochester; there are things in storage I really really want - like the quilt Maggie made for me. And some framed art. And my Riedel wine glasses and the load of platters, bowls and other stuff for parties I have collected over the years of my adult life. Not to mention it would be nice to have chairs & a table. Until the CA stuff gets to me I’ll use furniture saved out of my folk’s house. I am ambivalent about that, at best. But it won’t be for long.

Man, I exhaust myself just chronicling all that I’ve been doing recently. But I love working at full tilt – for a while. Time to sit with a good book. Tonight, “Thud” by Terry Prachett.

Misc

2006-12-12T00:20:00.000+01:00

So the weather here has still been mostly beautiful. Last Friday I did some local touristing and will post the pics soon. Now into the throes of the holiday season and I'm baking. Did you know that channel lock pliers make a good nutcracker? And one can crack 400g of walnuts during a Buffy episode. It helps if the dialog is all spoken, though.

Still beautiful weather in Munich

2006-12-03T10:20:00.000+01:00

Can’t believe how fast the time is going! And the weather here is still great, bright & sunny and not too cold today. So I’ll get out this afternoon and wander around the Christmas markets. Every small ‘square’ or pedestrian area here in Munich has bloomed with wooden stalls selling food, Gluhwein (hot mulled wine), and handcrafts. I love to wander around looking at them and it’s great that it is not as cold as last year.

At the beginning of November I was in London, and saw two spectacular things: a Leonardo exhibit at the Victoria & Albert, and a show.

The Leonardo exhibit is part of ‘Universal Leonardo’; a pan-European and UK show this year. Instead of moving all the things to one location, many museums are hosting exhibits showcasing his works. A couple months ago I saw the one in Munich. In all of Germany, there is one Leonardo painting, Madonna with the Carnation – and it’s in Munich. The exhibit showcased the painting, which is now believed by most art historians to be one of his earliest works, and his first in oil.

Experience, Experiment and Design is the exhibit in London at the V&A. It is one big room with pages of his manuscripts under glass, and an excellent audio guide to his inventions, his interests and his firsts. For example, he was the first person to do an ‘exploded’ drawing of an item. It was so delicious wonderful to be in a room with pages that Leonardo actually wrote. After that, spent the rest of the day wandering the museum, which I had wanted to do for a while.

The show was the musical ‘Wicked’, based on the book by Gregory MacGuire. I really enjoyed the book. The show was spectacular. The lead singers voices were fantastic, and the staging and costumes so much fun to watch.

We also went to – had to do it – 'Spamalot'. Tim Curry played King Arthur. Very much fun and reminds me I want to buy the DVD when I get back in the states, and get ‘Life of Brian’ too.

We went up in the London Eye, the weather was sunny and cold all 5 days we were there. We had a great day to do the Eye. I can recommend it if you don’t have to wait in line too long. You get so hig above the city that it’s hard to make out what you’re looking at, (everything looks foreshortened and the same color) but you can buy a guide that helps.

On to other things – it’s been the season for going out here. Several people are leaving Munich about the same time, and we’re having farewell dinners, etc. Judi has hosted a couple, she left first but only for 3 months and will miss the actual departure of a several people so she started having people over. She had one dinner that was a 3 course meal for 22 people – and her kitchen is tiny. I don’t know how she did it. And she cooked one of the dishes that the chef had showed us, in France. She had us mix up and sit with people we didn’t know. I got talking to the guy next to me, he’d worked in Silicon Valley. He found out I’d worked at Sun, and said “You must know my good friend Tony.” And I do! Small world.

Marcia also was on the trip to France. In her earlier days she was a runway model, and she is still gorgeous. She called me up the other day and invited me to accompany her to the Escada outlet near here. You can only get in with membership. Oh boy, was that fun! I restrained myself to 5 items that fill in holes in my wardrobe left by my recent purge. Well, OK, the suede pants the same color as my eyes weren’t exactly a replacement … but they look great. I did buy a suit for when I have a work-type dress up occasion.

At the LIA Fair, I won exactly the prize I wanted, in the Tombola, a gift certificate for a haircut by Ina Fiedler, the best haircutter I have ever gone to. Jackie, prez of LIA this year, found Ina years ago and recommends her to all. I have had several cuts by Ina and the last one was the best. The guy who owns the shop. Kurt Kuchler, is very spiritual, has been to Tibet, etc. Ina is also on a spiritual path and we have great discussions. This time, she asked if she could cover her mirror when she cut my hair, and I said sure. They have decided it makes for a better haircut if the client just relaxes with their eyes closed. I must say it was a soothing experience and resulted in a great cut.

I had been helping with the IWC (other women’s club) Christmas party, ran around buying door prize gifts on Thursday before my haircut. That evening was Logan’s work holiday dinner. Great restaurant, great food, great wine. On Friday, Renu called and I met her in town for a couple errands, then we went back to her place to watch a DVD called “The Secret”. Great stuff along the lines of “What The Bleep Do We Know”. I am so appreciative of having these experiences and having these wonderful people enter my life. I have been working to adjust my attitude, with all that I’ve learned over the past few years and my life is turning wonderful.

Friday night was a trip to Tollwood, the annual winter fair set up on the Oktoberfest grounds. The band was Trouble Boys, a rock cover band. O balm to my soul to hear those guitars ringing out. They started with Whole Lotta Love and cranked from there. But the tent got very smoky, as it will do here with all those idiots smoking everywhere and I felt not so good by the end of the evening. Well, I had a cold coming on. I rather resolutely ignored it yesterday, as the IWC Christmas party was last night. And I was one third of the set-up committee. We did get the place decorated and it looked great. The party was a success and I got home around 11, not much worse for the wear.

Now it’s time to get breakfast and then launch myself out into this wonderful city again. I love Munich. I will live back here again, and soon. I will give Rochester 2 years as my main home base and then I’m either relocating or adding in other home bases for part of the year.

So busy, so much to do here

2006-12-01T10:00:00.000+01:00

Sorry sorry sorry! I have been absolutely gulping down Munich life in my last weeks here. First of all the weather has been extraordinary – California temps with beautiful New England style fall color. Unlike in CA, you know it’s gonna end, so I have been walking and meeting friends and sitting outside for coffee, etc as much a spossible.

And I had been extremely busy with the LIA club, our annual Fair is the forth Wednesday of November. We sell secondhand clothes and books, and make handcrafts and baked good to raise money for the charities that we support. This meant cleaning out my closet here, I decided anything that wasn’t flattering was going out – because I’d put it on because I had it. But some of my stuff had gotten too big for me. (Thanks again, Mike – the BEST personal trainer in Munich.) I finally was able to get rid of the expensive black blazer I had bought at Nordstrom years ago – high quality, looked great on me except, it was faced with something white and when I put it on, I could see little white threads working their way out onto the black. Kind of like being covered in cat hair, without the fun purring in the lap part. So, the blazer was too big so I could get rid of it! Yay!

And, we worked and worked on making beautiful handcrafted items – I loved the sequined Christmas trees we made, tiny things – maybe 4 inches tall. Each one took 300 sequins – and 300 pins with a seed bead on each. Took four HOURS each! But they were very pretty and sold very quickly. My fingers have just about recovered from pushing in all those pins.

And I have been buying this house in Rochester. Why is it that the buyer does all the coordinating for all the various parties involved, yet I’m paying them all? The mortgage broker emailed me asking me when my close was to be. I wrote back saying I was waiting for him to tell me when! And there were a set of casually mentioned successive shocks. “ ..details about the process and, oh yes, you need a cashiers or bank check for the closing.” Ummm, I’m in Germany.

So there was a scramble to find FedEx here, and miracle, Logan had used a Mail Boxes Etc. that’s just up the way, and they do FedEx! So I sent a big check from my American bank to the lawyers, to deposit for me and they will generate the required check. All good, except that the girl at the counter didn’t quite know how to do the FedEx, and I too helpfully pulled off the top sheet for myself – including the little barcoded tracking number things. So, 4 days later when I went to check the shipment online, it wasn’t in their system. Aaargh!! But 12 hours later got email form the lawyer saying they had indeed received the check. Phew!

Then, someone casually mentioned, oh you need a power of attorney, I knew that (I’m not going to go there for the close) but it of course it needs to be notarized. I’m in GERMANY! Panic, to find someone (and I was evolving a scheme to FedEx them to Roch to a good friend who is a notary and have her send them to the lawyer) but it turns out the US consulate here does notarial services from 1 – 4 on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Good thing too, as it was Thurs morning when I realized we* needed to do this and Logan was going out of town for work the next week. So we spent a couple hours waiting at the highly-secured US consulate that afternoon.

* We are buying this house together, I could do on my own but having had no documented income for the past coupla years the loan on my own would have been a point higher interest rate. So we’ll buy together and split it out when we sell the house in CA.

Now the latest is that the mortgage broker changed the loan 3 weeks ago to get a lower interest rate, good, but failed to ask me or let me know about it, bad. I found out from my lawyer when the paralegal emailed me & said “I see you have a new mortgage.” Whaaat? So I had to contact the insurance agent to give her new info for the homeowner’s policy, and request to get a copy of the commitment letter from the new bank. Hooked up with a great and sympathetic woman at the mortgage broker’s office, she has been very communicative. So she emailed me the commitment letter, and I read it, cool. Completely ignored that part about signing & sending it back until prompted, last week when the excellent paralegal at the closing company mentioned they needed them (the lawyer uses them to orchestrate the closing in New York state, in CA it’s a title company). Logan’s out of town, another panic, but when he returned we signed & faxed them.

Then, the new mortgage bank took a look at all the paperwork, and decided that the appraisal forms used for the first bank were not acceptable, so this week they called for their appraiser to go out to the house & use their forms. Except, the sellers were out of town and no one had a key. … Well, the sellers are back now I’m told, so I should hear later today what’s going on!

I have more to write but the lovely Renu called this morning, and I’m meeting her in town to vicariously shop. And I’ve gotta run!

Here’s what I need to write about to catch you up:
Visit to London, Leonardo, ‘Wicked’; shopping with the devastatingly beautiful Marcia; Judi’s amazing skills, dinner party for 22!; and the antici . . . pation is over, the Christmas markets open today.

Hoping for a cold, foggy morning tomorrow to finish up.

Trip to Mougins, Part 2

2006-11-12T16:51:00.000+01:00

Continuing where I left off, at the start of the ladies trip to Mougins. Saturday, the cars formed up and I was in the one going to the Cap d’Antibes, on our way Antibes to meet for a late lunch, the onto other towns in the area.

Margrit was driving, she knows this area so we took the scenic route along the coast. We stopped at the hotel Eden Roc, talked our way out to the front bar. The scenery was so beautiful – the water so clear. I think I’ve changed my mind about coming back to live in Munich – need to see what it’s like in the south of France!

Cap d’Antibes

Pool at Eden Roc

Cita & I relaxing at Eden Roc, with our ‘adult’ beverages’.

After lunch in Antibes, and strolling around the town, we drove to nearby Vallauris. The town features a mural by Picasso, in what once was a church, and many pottery shops. At the Picasso Museum in Vallauris.

General scenery in the area.

Our best dinner was this night, at Auberge de Fleuris up the road from our hotel. 3 courses, again: pate or lobster ravioli to start, then lamb or local fish, then cheese or a sweet dessert. We were served Sauterns to go with the pate – Judi wasn’t paying attention & took a big mouthful as she thought it was the white dinner for dinner. The look on her face – she hates sweet wine. She was clearly looking for a place to spit it out. Imagine feeding a baby grapefruit and that was the face she pulled.

Sunday, we headed out east again, and drove up into the hills to St. Paul de Vence, another dead picturesque walled town on a hill. That area had been lousy with Impressionists & Post-impressionists, here was this beautiful Chagall just outside St. Paul de Vence.

Jean heading to a good picture taking spot

St. Paul de Vence, from the west side of the town.

Walls in Vence

We ate lunch at the Colombe d’Or. Another 3 course meal. We were out on the terrasse, the weather was beautiful again. This hotel/restaurant is famous for its cuisine and all the works by the local artists.

Our club speaks English, mostly, when we’re together. The women are from all over the world. Iris caught herself and broke out laughing when she realized she had just ordered “Le Fish” at lunch.

That night, we cried off another big meal and ate lightly at the hotel. The next morning, the cars formed up again. I went to Grasse in the morning. This town is famous for perfumes. I want to return when the local lavender fields are in bloom.

Provencal colors – store in Grasse

Lunchtime saw us back in Cannes. And when in Cannes, lunch must be Fruits de Mer.

After lunch, we gave into the temptation of the beach! At Cannes! mid-October!

That evening, we went back to old town Mougins. By now we knew all the ins & outs of the little roads and roundabouts and got there with no detours.

Tuesday morning we headed out at 7:30 to meet our chef at the Cannes open-air market. He walked us through, talking about the produce there. Then we went to the local butcher shop. The store was small & crowded, so I wandered up the street. This appealing display caught my eye, my favorite champagne ever!

Then we zoomed back up to the cooking school, for our second session. Before we started, though, we trundled through the kitchens out to the parking lot to greet the mushroom guy. He makes his way to all the fine restaurants on the coast, with his mushrooms. More varieties than I’d ever dreamed of.

Smelling a truffle.

After the course finished, we zoomed again back to the hotel to check out. Then came the fracas in the parking lot. It was a tight fit with all of us & our luggage coming into Mougins – and we had been shooping. Clothing, cheeses, ceramics add more. We ended up with small suitcases on people’s laps, the front passenger in each car had bags of shopping – mostly Judi’s – all around their feet.

On the way out through Cannes, to get to the highway towards the Nice Airport, I spotted this local commuter. How French is she?

part 1: Trip to Mougins

2006-10-31T11:58:00.000+01:00

today dawned clear and sunny - and #@@!!# fohn. 'Fohn' is a wind off the Alps, gives us clear sunny days. And me, the feeling like someone's tightened my braces. Or my brain is too big to fit in my head. I had heard about various reactions to this weather condition, but didn't feel any until the past couple months.

It has clouded over, and I’m inspired to write a bit about the trip to France. The Ladies International Association (LIA) was the genesis of this trip. The purpose was to attend some cooking lessons at a school in Mougins. France. Mougins is about 10 K inland from Cannes. Judi was the organizer, had planned for each day, including touring the local towns, dinners out, and a couple of cooking classes during our stay.

We departed Munich on the evening of Thursday, Oct 12th.

Arrived in Nice with no problem. Had to slog our bags onto a bus to get to the rental cars, though. And once we got to the lot it took us quite a while to arrange the 13 of us and our luggage into the 3 cars: 1 Ford Focus, 2 Renault Meganes. The cars were packed! Plus, the Meganes have a new style dashboard, and a card key and pushbutton to start. But your foot has to be on the brake before it will start. Took us quite a while to work that one out! Finally, off we zoomed into the dark, warm night. Got in the vicinity of Mougins, about 10 K up the highway, turned off where we were supposed to and it all went wrong.

“Girls, I think we’re lost” said Caroline, as we coursed through the 5th roundabout the third time, from a different direction. The lead car pulled over to ask directions of someone by the side of the road, but as we slowed we saw how much he was swaying – “totally potted!” as Jackie, the Brit in the car, said. On we went, came to a restaurant where there was a guy outside smoking. We pulled over & Lysianne (our native Parisian) asked for directions to the hotel. He didn’t know, so she & Judi followed him into the place to call the hotel. Out they came, said he was the owner of the restaurant, and would close up and drive us to the hotel. He came out & hopped into his Ferrari … and off we went.

Finally, we got to the hotel about 1am. Sue, Judi’s friend from Australia, was already there, had champagne & cheese waiting. We checked in, sat & drank & ate, and started planning for the next day. And all of the plans flew apart, as people had changed their minds about what they wanted to do. Oops!

The next day dawned bright and clear. And warm! We had a beautiful run of weather – 75 degrees and sunny every day. After breakfast of way too strong coffee (for my taste) and the amazing only-in-France croissants, off we went: 1 car to Grasse, the other 2 to Cannes for some touristing. I was in the Cannes group. We started off at the Palace, where there was a techie/trade show.

Jackie reprised a pose from her youth, her family vacationed here for many years.

We had time for a refreshing citron presse at this lovely spot.

Then we all split up and walked through town. Jean & I headed up, to find this church and overlook point. We hooked up with Marcia on the way.

Then lunch! Jackie wanted langoustine and this place provided. Ah, the warm day, great food, wine with lunch – I radiated appreciation to the Universe for this opportunity - and stored up the memories against the coming winter!

Our first cooking lesson was that afternoon. The place is beautiful, Alan Llorca’s school in Mougins. The demonstration room was very interestingly furnished with roses & old-fashioned looking light bulbs covering the ceiling.

Chef Eric Houard was great. It was good for me to see how he did everything, how he used his knives, etc. We got the recipes to take with us, and tasted everything he cooked.

That’s all the time I have to write today. Gotta pack for the next trip (told you I was being a travel pig!) Will continue when I get back to Munich, after Sunday the 5th.

Finishing Lago di Garda pictures

2006-10-29T17:01:00.000+01:00

The weather here in Munich has been astounding for the past couple weeks - 75 and sunny. Wonderful. So, I have not sat down inside to blog, nor found a wireless spot to do it outside. And I'm getting behind. Today (Sunday the 29th) it's raining, so I'll finish up the pictures from the trip to Lago di Garda, these are from the last 2 days of that weekend trip almost a month ago.

This was a mountain bike trail. It was a bit rainy, this is very steep and slippery. Logan thinks it was an old Roman road.

The harbor at Malcesine

Another view of the Castle

I walked the lakeside trail on Monday , it was a beautiful cloudy day. This is a few kilometers south of Malcesine.

Malcesine from the south direction

One evening we drove around the top of the lake to Limone, a town on the other side.

Jane and me at the Limone harbor

We stopped at a couple of places on the way out. One stop was at Cascata Varone, a natural waterfall in the cliff it has carved in the limestone. It’s unusual to see a falls in this way; mostly they spill over a cliff into the lake below, or you see the dry canyons like in Utah. Here, you walk up a trail into the hill, and there are a couple places carved in where you’re in the canyon, getting wet. it was a very worthwhile side trip, go if you're in the area. The pics aren’t so good, it is hard to get enough in to really be able to understand what you’re looking at, if you haven’t been there.

So, I’ll just put up some pictures of Arco, and the fortress there. This town is at the north of the lake, a few kilometers inland.

Walking up to the fort, through a bit of the town.

Looking up at the main tower

Inside the ruins of the fort.

And it's a beautiful sunny day again, Monday so my recent trip to the south of France will have to wait. gods, it was gorgeous. And the food! I wanna live there!

Back in Germany

2006-10-12T11:54:00.000+02:00

Well, you know you’re back in Germany when:
- you go for dinner with ladies from the ladies’ club, and 3 of them light up at the table. (It was shocking after 10 weeks back in the states!)
- you see lots of extremely tall people
- you see very handsome, hetero men wearing pink shirts
- you see men shopping for clothing with their women – willingly, even happily. They do that here. How nice.

I have been back since Sept 18th. Spent a week in a jet-lag and emotionally wretched haze. I didn’t want to leave Andrea, Greg & Gavin after spending the summer with them. And the parents are not doing well at all. So, while I was there, I decided that I need to move back to Rochester for a while. So I’m buying a house, doing that remotely. I will look for work there, again remotely (love this Internet thing!) closer to when I move. I’m planning on moving back mid-January, I should be able to occupy the house by then, the current owners are having a house built. Their builder has guaranteed it will be done by Jan 18th. … Having had my own experience with builders, I am skeptical. But they believe he’ll get it done by then, so more power to ‘em.

The house is cute! And, to all my sorely missed friends in CA – if you need a change of scene, I’ve got spare bedrooms.

That’s kind of hard, moving back to my hometown. (I will NOT think of the Pink Floyd lyrics, I will not …) But I’m intending the best for my stay. I’ll give myself 2 years to regroup, reconnect with family, and friends (Maggie will be close! Yay! And Mary and Beth!), get divorced, and do all the traveling in that part of the world that I never did while I lived there. I had been to NYC once when I still lived there, with a friend from high school. But then all my trips there came after I was working in California, and I went for business. I’ve never been to Maine. Or Vermont. Or wine tasting in the Finger Lakes. (I am really really hoping that the industry there has progressed as much as the travel articles claim. I have BAD memories of local wines. I may be getting that mixed up with Lambrusco and Boone’s Farm in my memory. I’ll report back on this in a few months.) So, I plan to travel and work on the little house and live and grow and hopefully occur an income.

I got connected with someone who works at Robert Half while I was back this summer (big placement agency, started out focusing on accountants, then branched out.) I talked with the manager of their technology practice. Blew his doors off. He mostly places coders and other IT types. He didn’t even know who he’d talk with, about me. That made me proud. And then chagrined. I’ll have to build up the network when I get there. There have been some interesting looking jobs online, I’ll start working those closer to the time I will move.

Meanwhile, it’s been beautiful here in Munich and environs. I am trying to see as much as I can in the time remaining, this time in Europe. (I fully intend to be back. Am envisioning a global job that has me traveling mostly to Northern Europe.)

And, being the travel pig that I am, I am off to the south of France tonight with some of the amazing/wonderful/fun ladies from the Ladies International Association. We’ve had this trip planned for months. So I’ve gotta run, in the meanwhile here are some of the places I’ve been recently:

Wendelstein, one of the nearby alps. This was a Sunday day trip. Took the cable car up & walked the Panaroma Weg, around the top.

View of the mountain from the parking lot

Coo beasties, below the cable car.

Church on a crag, near the beer garden.

Me, perched on a saddle at the top – very steep down in all directions from here.

There was a long weekend in Germany, Reunification Day was Oct 3rd. A group went from here to Lago di Garda, on the Italian side of the alps. It was just beautiful. Very German – they get a lot of Germans and Austrians, it was only a 5 hour drive from Munich. So the food wasn’t as good as it was in southern Italy, but the scenery was great. It’s a mountain bike and wind surfing mecca, lots of steady wind on the lake, usually. We saw sailboats too. I am still in kayak mode, but there wasn’t any place to rent one of those. Darn!

Castle along the way, shot from the car

We stayed in Malcesine, the castle is a museum now. They know it pre-dates 590, as it was recorded as having been partially destroyed then. Inside the museum is one very cool room that documents an even from 1439, when the Venitian navy moved their fleet into Lago di Garda, to protect themselves from the ravaging Milanese neighbors. This involved a mere portage over some of the alps (!!!) took 3 months. But they were successful, and able to hold the lake until 1509. Then they sunk the fleet rather than have it fall into enemy hands. In the 1950s divers pulled up some of the boat fragments, which are on display.

View from the top of the tower, into the town below

Me on top of the tower

Lots more pictures to post, but I'll have to do it next week after I get back from France. Love you all.

Summer in Upstate New York

2006-08-29T21:02:00.000+02:00

Dear readers, while my life is taking some interesting turns and dips, I have been squeezing in some fun in the summer sun here in Rochester. And here’s a list of some of my “firsts” in memory of Mona, who some years ago asked me “When was the last time you did something for the first time?”
- Boating on Long Pond.

- Boating on the Bay. Greg was piloting Andrea’s Dad’s boat.

- Riding Andrea’s bike from her house to Charlotte and back again.
- Kayaking on Cranberry Pond from 10:00 pm until 1:30 am, watching the Persied meteor shower.

- Tubing on the Pond.

- Exfoliating on the weeds in said Pond after I ditched and we learned that adults have a hard time scrambling back onto a tube. So I got towed into shore. Eeeew.

- Going out to hear a band at a bar by myself. Boy, is that difficult to do. Once I got there, I had absolutely no idea what to do with my hands. Weird, isn’t it - something you do not think about when you’re with other people. But the blues band was good and the place was crowded, so it turned out OK. I finally relaxed and enjoyed it completely.

- Helping to move a refrigerator out of the basement. Ooof.

- Driving barefoot.

- Dinner, mini-golf and walking on the pier and beach with Gavin.

- Playing Euchre! OK, that’s not the first time but first in a while. I remembered how and it was so much fun.

Best birthday present ever! If you can’t read the shirt, it says “Don’t blame me. I voted for Pedro.” Sawheeet!

Update

2006-07-28T15:52:00.000+02:00

Well, progress has been made. Mom has been in the dementia care place for almost 3 weeks now, the aides have her pretty well figured out. They are coaching her on using a walker, and getting her out of her room for activities. Dad visits her every other day or so, for 2 to 3 hours and the visits are pretty good. Mom doesn’t always know him, but she’s usually nice to him which is a big victory over her anger and caustic tone with him the last week weeks that they lived together. We're moving Dad to be closer to her this weekend, into an assisted living facility just across the parking lot from where she is.

Mom’s birthday was Tuesday, we just showed up after lunch with a couple presents and cake. Telling her anything in advance leads to severe anxiety - she cries that she doesn’t have clothes for the occasion, she frets and doesn’t sleep, So, no more advanced notice. The facility had a conference room for us, decorated with balloons and a festive tablecloth. We first celebrated with cake, which she ate with her fingers. Wow - if she could see herself, she'd be appalled. It's very hard to see her this way.

Dad is better now that he's not the full-time caregiver, but he is declining too. I’m noticing some short-term memory lapses. But he is looking better now that he’s getting good sleep again, and not living under constant criticism. We think Mom knew something was wrong, but not what, and it made her very angry.

In preparing for Dad’s move, have been sorting through old stuff from both their families, trying to make sense of it and compress it. I have been reading letters from my Grama's best friend to her. I feel like I never got to know my Gram, and sometimes I feel such loss that it's hard to breathe.

Dear Lucy Jo,

I never met you but I have come to know you through pictures of you and your friends, including your best friend, my Grandma Flo, and your letters to Flo. I love your sense of humor, and the poems you sent Gram. The pictures show a sparkle in your eyes and it looks like you two had a devil of a time when ever you got together. Your correspondence lasted decades - as you and Gram had children, and they had children. You were always supportive and reading your letters has lifted my spirits as I’ve been sorting through the family memorabilia. I hope to treat my friends as well as you did yours.

6!

2006-07-13T14:11:00.000+02:00

Well what a set of mixed emotions I am having on this trip. It is great to see Greg, Andrea and Gavin. Their house is such an oasis of “real life”, and the setting is like being on a camping trip, but with beds & showers. Living on the pond keeps you in touch with the planet always. The sunsets are spectacular most days. And then there’s the mosquitoes that come out at dusk, possibly carrying West Nile virus; and the geese who live on the pond - and must be chased off the yard several times a day. What poop machines they are! Yuck!

On Saturday, we moved Mom to a new facility, a dementia care unit. She required help with everything now - eating, walking, bathroom - and Dad could not do it anymore. We decided to not tell her in advance, as she gets very anxious about things that are upcoming. For example, she was fretting for 3 days about what to wear when I visited. So, we had orchestrated for an aide to come take Mom & Dad to lunch, and we swooped in and moved out Mom’s bed, 3 dressers and a table. We had gotten clothes before, but got more and all her toiletries. Then Greg & Andrea drove that over to the new place, fortunately 15 minutes away, and set it up. I stayed with Mom & Dad until I got the call that the new room was set up. I loaded her up and took her over there, all was OK for a while. Then when we took her to her room, it got a bit tense. Andrea is amazing, kept telling Mom that this is her room, Dad has his room and they both need to have good rest. That Dad was getting too tired out to care for her, and he needed a break. She did remind Mom that she has a brain disease, that makes her need more care that she can do herself. So, it took a while to leave, and it was very difficult to not respond to Mom’s imperious commands when she sounded like her old self. But it was finally done. Exhausting and tense.

That evening we went across the street to a neighbor’s 40th birthday pig roast. What fun. The houses across the street border on Long Pond. There were fireworks, and a bonfire (Carole plays with fire!) and boat rides on the pond, and swimming on the pond. A great antidote to the earlier day.

I have gone once again to the folk’s old house, it’s really nearly almost empty now. Got the final bits of random china boxed up - none of us kids knows where it came from and Dad hasn’t a clue - and the old ping-pong table that had become a storage center broken down and out to the curb. 2nd floor completely empty; first floor has some stuff we’ll have to put in storage, basement has a small bit of minerals, Dad’s old teaching tools; a couple of skulls, also from Dad’s work, and some tools and Greg needs to look over & decide if he wants. Huge progress. And we’ve started showing the house to sell it. All good, an emotional upswing. Need to sell the house as the expenses for the folks have just doubled. Oooh, taking an emotional hit there.

I squeezed in some shopping. I have not been able to buy jeans lately. They are very expensive in Munich, as in all big cities, I guess. But what makes a pair of jeans worth 239 Euros? ( About 350 dollars.) Ye Gods. So I went to the local mall, into Old Navy and Wet Seal. Cheap, and inexpensive stuff. But the last pair I got at Old Navy was cut wrong for me, they didn’t stay up, I was always tugging at them, and I remembered that in time to not make that mistake again. I had given up and was on my way to get slippers for Dad when I happened upon the Express store. The clothes looked good so I went in. Grabbed a couple pairs of size 10 jeans to try, and a pair of ‘city shorts’. The 10s swam on me.

I know there has been size number deflation, but it still was an emotional high to go to smaller sizes. Plus, I have been working at my fitness, and have really toned places that needed toned. The very helpful sales clerk got me 8s, still too big. I left with 2 pairs of pants in size 6. 6! Woo hoo!

Home on the Pond

2006-07-06T12:00:00.000+02:00

These are some pictures of Greg, Andrea & Gavin's home on Cranberry Pond.

Greg & Gavin sitting towards the water, the back of their house is behind them

Yes, they do get sunsets like this. Looking from their back deck, over Cranberry Pond.

A May sunset

Looking from their deck to the garage, the Pond beyond

Andrea and Gavin in the treehouse

Back In Rochester

2006-07-05T12:53:00.000+02:00

So I’m back in Rochester. 6 am Wednesday July 5th. The flights yesterday were uneventful which is always a good thing. On the flight from Munich to Boston, my seatmate was a convivial young man who’d just been touring Rome, then Greece with a bunch of friends. He had the best time, seeing the sights. Said he liked Rome but Greece was so beautiful and moving. They sailed between some of the islands, saw Athens and Delphi and Mykonos among other things. We talked for quite a while. I was feeling retroactive envy - he’s 16 and last summer he’d been on a cruise down the Nile. I’m very glad that lots of young Americans are traveling abroad, I think it will help the U.S. participate better on the world stage. But, man, do I wish I’d been able to do things like that in high school! My family would have never supported that kind of travel.

There was “weather” in the Boston area and the connecting flight to Rochester was about an hour late departing, so I got to see some of the Germany/Italy game in the bar. I don’t know who won, will have to check when I go online to post this. The flight was fine, we flew around and then through magnificent thunderhead clouds as we were descending. The light was beautiful, low in the sky and it lit the clouds up with a rich creamy glow for miles. I got into Rochester around 6:30 pm local time on the 4th. Greg, Andrea & Gavin were there to pick me up, what a treat to see them!

We got home to their place and had a feast for dinner - grilled steaks and onions. Then we grabbed our drinks and went up the street to friends of theirs, to watch the neighborhood fireworks. Greg & family live on the shore of Cranberry Pond, and across the street is Long Pond. Their friends are on Long Pond, and had a small barge out on the pond filled with fireworks. They started going up and kept firing for at least 30 minutes. All along the shoreline we could see other displays too - some in the distance and several just next door. It was beautiful - a lightly cloudy night, breezy, with the sky just deepening to azure blue. People had ground displays and bonfires going, the kids were running around waving glowsticks (I didn’t see any sparklers). It was a great party. We walked back home in time to watch some fireworks on Cranberry Pond too. Big displays, the large chrysanthemums and multi-stage starbursts. It was much nicer that driving somewhere, jockeying for a spot on the ground, and facing the mob of people all leaving at once. And it was much warmer than New Year’s Eve in Munich.

The big work over the next couple weeks will be moving Mom into full-time care. Then Dad will move into the same facility when he can, perhaps in a month. So we need to consolidate their stuff once more. I’m hoping to find a small, climate controlled storage spot for the photos. I really don’t want them to disappear. This slow dissolution of their household is finally striking me as weird, but it can’t be any better dealing with all this stuff after someone dies either.

We also hope to move forward with selling the folk’s house. I will get over there soon, maybe today, to see what’s left and do some final clearing out. Greg’s meeting a prospective buyer there after work this evening.

Now I’m off to forage for breakfast. It may be time for my first shopping trip to Wegmans; the world’s best grocery store. There’s one a couple miles from here and they’re open 24/7. What a concept!

Whaaaat?

2006-07-02T00:58:00.000+02:00

England is out, France beat Brazil ... France beat Brazil!!! I think I've slipped into an alternate dimension where things have gone terribly wrong.

It has been beautiful summer weather here since June 10th. (The second day of World Cup 2006). I feel like I've not taken enough advantage of the weather - have not been out on my bike, nor found a place to splash in the Isar - so I keep reminding myself that it's not been nice for that many days, and the football has been on. I have watched many games, sitting outside in a lovely courtyard. The masses of happy people on the streets after Germany has won have been fun to watch, although I get bored of the chanting and honking after about 30 minutes. But they don't, it goes on for hours.

I am headed back to the U.S. on Tuesday; Rochester NY to be specific. Time to visit family, relieve my brother & sis-in-law (Greg and angel saint Andrea) of the day to day grind of caring for the parents. I am not looking forward to any of this except seeing Greg, Andrea & their son Gavin. At least most of the job of clearing out the folks house so we can sell it has been done, I'll have to find some other form of exercise this visit. And they promise me summer weather. I'll post more from there.

Second half of Italy

2006-06-14T00:31:00.000+02:00

More shopping in Alberobello. Great shopping!!! I’m now on board with this. Got shoes myself – some high-heeled sneakers, great pants and 2 tops. The coolness of the climate made me think that what I was buying will work in Munich. The sneakers are great. They look better than my other walking shoes (mountainy shoes from REI) and they’re great to walk in.

We wandered among the old houses in Alberobello, with their conical, stacked stone roofs. We don’t know why they built them like this, but the houses were very cool inside. It hints that the summers are usually much hotter than we were experiencing.

Renu, Judi, Anna, outside a church.

I’m in the garden of a house we toured.

We had a great lunch in town, fantastic pasta that they made fresh, of course.

Then we drove to Osituna, another town in the interior region. We could see the sea from there, but it wasn’t close. And it was too cold and windy to enjoy the beach anyhow.

Judi and Renu enjoy the view

We were going to Casa Mia for dinner, someone from last night had made us a reservation. But it turned out that we had to drive there, and we didn’t want to do that so we ate at another place in town. This was our worst meal by far. They didn’t get the concept ‘vegetarian’, served Renu a plate of pasta with plain tomato sauce and some meat. Ooops. Then she got a dish of pasta with the bruschetta topping mixed in, and it was cold. Very disappointing dinner. After, we went back through the old town Mojito, the bar that we celebrating its opening. We found out it had been in town for a couple years, then moved to this location. Too much Mojito, I should have learned that lesson in Barca, but I apparently had to do it again.

Sunday we planned to go to the beach – beach? Shit weather – cold and sprinkling. We headed to the seaside town of Polignani a mare to find hotel. It was on the way back to the airport, to reduce our drive the next day. We tried Hotel de Grotte, no dice.

The sea at the edge of Polignano a mare

We drove carefully up the tiny streets, stopped at some people and asked them. It turned out that one had an apt they rent out, but it was booked. In talking with Victoria, she pointed us to Ca Blu, a B&B. Renu & I went there, winding through old town to find it. We had secured 2 rooms with Renu’s passport, went back to the car. Turned out while we were gone, someone’s brother called to say he was not coming that day. the apartment on Via Anemone had opened up. We took it because it was close to the car – not 500 meters to drag the luggage.

I read in a book recently, a character opined that the soundtrack of 20th century Europe was the sound of tanks in city streets. I believe the soundtrack of 21st century Europe is suitcases being rolled over cobblestones.

We settled in to this apartment. Very pretty, vaulted stone ceilings. It was cold, though. Judi found the remote to turn on the ceiling heaters. We headed into town for lunch, and ended up back at at Ca Blu – fantastic. We had great pastas, unusual. Renu & I had pesto with Gamberini, Anna had pasta with an orange-based Gamberini sauce and Judi had gnocci with mussels. The place was packed, there was a big family gathering in the next room. It was fun watching the food streaming out of the kitchen headed that way. We went for gelato after, a place that had been recommended in the online guide sites. It was amazing. The weather was so cold that we stood inside the place to eat it, but it still tasted great. We then drove to the grotto, a local cave tour attraction, but the next tour was in an hour and it was cold and raining by now so we bagged it.

Aged olive trees, with huge trunks in the countryside here.

We got back to town and were foiled – could not cross the main street to get to the apartment. It looked like they were blocking the streets for a festival.

We didn’t see this turned on, but it looked pretty.

So we parked in a gas station, and walked towards a Bar for coffee. Saw the restaurant for dinner on the way. In the bar, there was a group having Special Coffees – to die for. Baileys, espresso, lemon rind, cream. The folks said that they drove 50 K for the coffee, and it was a regional specialty. We plan to experiment to make them in Munich.

You can get to the hotel either way – but we laughed to see this sign.

Nap – needed by now. We piled all the blankets we could find on us and slept for a bit. When we got up, Anna popped up the street to ask for more blankets. They showed up soon, and more came while we were out to dinner. And, Alberto, one of the owners or friends or caretakers, came & turned on the water heater.

That night we had dinner at Chichibio. The antipasti spread was amazing. The best we’d had all trip.
Antipasta feast!

For our main meals we had lobster and fish, with one tiramisu for dessert. 2 bottles of the local white wine was a great compliment. While we were eating, it was pouring down rain. All the locals we talked with said it was such unusual weather. After we ended up in Jazz place. Lots of kids, and for something new, 4 girls tried to pick us up. What a riot! 2 am back to apt. Early up next day, to get to the airport.

Weekend in Puglia

2006-06-13T16:04:00.000+02:00

So 3 friends have been hatching a plan to go on a girls trip, quick getaway to Italy. Tried for Rome, but it’s too expensive already in the season. A cheap flight to Bari came up. (Italy looks like a boot, Bari is in the heel – in the Puglia region.) It’s south, on the Adriatic. Looked like a great beach weekend. I was privileged to be asked along.

Thursday morning we flew into Bari. We took the shuttlebus to train station in town. This was a spur of the moment trip and we decided to not reserve any hotel rooms in advance. So our first task was to get a place for the night. We walked a bit, put the suitcases down. We had been told to watch out in Bari, keep our purses close and not leave anything in the car. Judi & I stayed with the bags, Renu & Anna went to look for a hotel. Eventually, they found the Pensione. There just wasn’t much in the area. Renu is a bargainer, she asks everyone for a lower price. It’s great to watch her in action, I learned a lot. She got the one place to 60 Euro per room for 2 double rooms. Judi looked at other place (in the same building), and bargained us to 2 double rooms for 55 Euros each room. So we took that one. We had also agreed in advance that we’d spend the money on good meals, not on the rooms. Didn’t plan to stay in them much, just to sleep.

We settled in, then headed out to walk around Bari. We first got lunch – Anna & I had bean puree with greens, a local typical dish. Judi had a panini. The we started shopping. Of particular interest were high-heeled sneakers that Renu has been looking for, for a year.

Anna trying sandals

Judi peering over the case; they didn't replicate the window display inside the store

Renu trying them on

Renu bargained on the price and got a better deal. We saw lots of clothes stores, many unique to that area of Italy. Ended up at an Asian market on a wide boulevard, I bought a couple scarves. It was not warm – weirdly cold for that part of Italy that time of year. I had the worng clothes with me. Thank the Universe that I wore one pair of black pants there, I wore themt he whole trip.

We headed to the old town area, stopped for a coffee on the way. Sat out of the wind, at the side of the building and basked in the sunshine.

Renu, Judi, Anna enjoying coffee

Then we found St Nicholas’s church – he’s buried below the church. A Polish group was there, on a pilgrimage. We followed them down into the tomb, which was exquisite - beautiful lighting, low vaulted ceilings, decoration. At one point the group started a hymn and and the sound was delightful, echoing off the stone.

We walked through the rest of the old town, saw the local castle but didn’t go in.

We wandered back to hotel to get ready for dinner. Walked back to a restaurant that Anna’s friend had recommended, by the castle. We sat inside and were promptly welcomed into the community. We weren’t sure what to have, pasta as primi and fish as secondi for sure, but which one? We were eyeing the pasta dish that came to the table behind us. One guy, Giancarlo, said, “You can’t have it” as he waved it at us. No, no, we want to know what it is, we replied. Our waiter, Antonio, brought us one. And the 2 we ordered, and one other we were caught looking at, on a different table. Then came the fishes. The salads and contorni. The extra bottle of wine, that we didn’t order. The lemon ice. The limoncello and strawberry liquor. The roses. (There had been 4 different guys selling roses through the restaurant in the evening. On the last one, our waiter was going to buy the for us but we declined.) Trying to kiss me in the bathroom. The pie that we didn’t order was the last thing to come to the table. By now, everyone else had left and the staff was starting to come out to get their meal. We think we even saw the fisherman who caught our dinner.

We had asked Giancarlo if there were good nightspots to go to. He recommended a street to walk on, said we’d be fine with the 4 of us. Just go past the Swedish castle … Swedish, eh? Anna chimed in and said that in recent history the Swedes have a neutral reputation, but earlier on they romped through Europe and kicked everyone they could find. We headed that way. (Did we go to a bar that night?)

Our group is quite the international group. People kept asking where we were from. Renu is from India (then U.K.); Judi is Australian, Anna is Swedish, and I’m from the U.S. It made people wonder how we got together, and we’d explain about Munich and the International Women’s Club.

Judi & I shared a room that night, passed out quick. The room was big, clean, but poorly decorated. But we didn’t spend much time at all in it, and it was a great price.

Next morning, (Friday) we packed, put our cases down in the lobby and headed to breakfast. I went to a market to get yogurt, they had coffee and croissants. Back to shoe shops, Renu got another pair that she’d seen the day before and decided that she did want. Even higher-heeled sneakers. We ended up at the Hertz place, with no documentation, and confused the heck out of the poor guy. I started learning Judi’s version of Australian. Her ‘connector’ isn’t ‘um’, or ‘ya know’ or ‘em’ or ‘wossname’, it’s ‘unh unh unh’ She was going to be a driver, but didn’t have her license with her. So we said we’d take the car, load it up, come back with her license. She said to the guy , “So it will be quick, yeh? When we come back, you can just unh unh unh (making typing motions with her hands) and we’ll be done, right?” Meanwhile, Renu was shopping and got shorts next door. Finally we got the car. Headed out the wrong way but got ourselves oriented and got to the hotel. Picked up the bags, barely got them into the car (foreshadowing here) ran to the supermarket next to the hotel for water.

Headed back to the Hertz place to get Judi registered. Anna got us there, she was delighted at how relaxed everyone was. Share the road? No problem. Headed out of town, she joked that, in Germany, a red light is declarative; in Paris, informative; in Italy, decorative. We found our autostrada and sailed off towards the Outlets. On the way we had a fab lunch in the seaside town of Molfetta – Renu & Judi had the Risotto, with Gamberi, I had a crepe, Anna had the fish. Wonderful.

The Outlets were great shopping. They have very cool makeup in Italy, very cheap compared to Germany. Renu made me up – I am loving this girl stuff! I got some great shirts at the Zara Outlet.

Back in the car a couple hours later, we went back past Bari to Locorontodo (which does not mean ‘crazy circle’ in Italian!). We were trying to find a place recommended in the area tourist book and couldn’t find the street so we pulled into a gas station to ask. The one guy we asked didn’t speak much English, and he bustlked away to find us someone who did. A girl soon walked over, we explained where we were trying to get to and she gave us some directions that the guy objected to. So she stopped and said there was a better way. Her English was great – perfect grammar, but the way she said the directions were: “Go to the circus, and go HUP (pointing up the hill), and strange to the panorama.” Anna was cracking up, in tears. So we went past the circus (I was looking for a traffic circle, all there was was an intersection) We pulled into another gas station and got pointed back to where we’d come from. Took the turn, went HUP, and started seeing signs for Sotto le Cummerse, the place we’d targeted. Then we tried to pull into the pedestrian zone – asked someone if they spoke English, he gave the “one moment” finger, and ran to get someone, who arrived just as the police did. It was a very friendly policeman, who told us to continue and then park, and walk around to the place. Everyone here is so friendly!! Not many tourists at all, which may be why everyone remains friendly.

View from high point of Locorontondo

At Sotto le Cummerse, Renu & Judi bargained again, we got it for 100 per night for 2 nights. It was a 2-room apartment, with a kitchen and one double bed & 2 singles. Settle in, nap time, then we got ready for dinner. The agent for the apartment had told us where to go for din, and about a bar opening the next night.

The apartment on Via Avril

Looking up the “street”; we were in the pedestrian zone

Dinner was good. We again looked at someone else’s food and had the plate show up on our table! Afterwards, wandered into a café, then the local wine bar. All local crowd. Judi soon met everyone, and we all were talking to folks. Anna’s fluent French helped, I could follow those conversations. Renu met Graciella who owns a lingerie store there, and Pipi her cute French bulldog. Judi captivated everybody! She was asking after how old these folks were, someone said 25 and she said “My baby’s age.” No way can she have a baby that age – it spread through the bar like fire. Plus, Anna being a lawyer spread quickly too. Everyone seemed very comfortable with each other. Renu met the guy who reps Adidas for the area, he has a friend in London who owns 2 restaurants. At one point, he handed his mobile to Renu so she could talk to the guy. She’s got his name so we can go to his place when we’re in London.

Got a dinner res for the next night from this group And recommendation for the same bar opening.

We strolled back to the apartment, where the cistern/pump right outside the place was chuckling all night long. Judi was outraged at the noise for about 5 min and then we all passed out again.

Saturday, our plan was to go to Alberobello, to see some typical architecture. We walked around first to find breakfast.

Locorontondo Church Tower

Renu coordinates beautifully with this house

Judi and Renu check their pics

Doesn’t look like I’m too cold, but I am. In the sun, out of the wind, shorts were fine.

Judi taking in some sun

Anna enjoying the view

I have run out of time, but not out of narrative or pictures. More later.

Travel Pig

2006-06-12T21:27:00.000+02:00

I have been a travel pig recently. Tonight I will finish the Barcelona trip report and post it; over the most recent weekend I was in Italy with 3 friends. What a riot! Will write that one up and post before I go away this coming weekend, to Paris. Love living here and being able to travel.

Anyhow, to finish Barcelona:
Thursday May 18th we took the bus up to Placa Catalunya (stopped at Uriquinoia, beautiful shops of clothing but all “to the trade”! Bummer.)

Stopped at La Bocaria, again, after, got more strawberries. Then we wandered the Barri Gothic which was mostly closed by then for afternoon siesta. Good idea, so we did it too.

We went to Del Born to the Teller de Tapas we’d located the night before, had a great dinner there and then went across to Bubo for dessert.

Took the train up to the University district, passed a club called Copa. We went in, it was packed and there was a great band. Lots of people dancing. Darkly handsome men, dancing. What a revelation – in this country men can dance, and do! Maybe I should learn Spanish instead of German. We continued on to La Paloma, but it was not really busy yet and Ewa didn’t like the sound of the music so we called it a night.

The weather had been great – some days started overcast, high fog, and the sun burned through by afternoon, with evenings clear and cooler. A couple times the evenings were cloudy with a few rain drops falling. Great temperature, warm days but not hot – yet.

Friday was tourist day. We started at Casa Batllo and then toured Padrera, 2 of Gaudi’s buildings. Fantastic. My pics just don’t encompass enough to make sense of them, I can remember what it really looked like from them so I’ll keep them but they aren’t good enough to post.

I finally got to the beach. Europeans are very different than Americans. Beautiful topless women everywhere, no big deal. I only stayed for an hour, then back to the apt to get cleaned up.

We met Gina & Tyler by Santa Maria del Mar cathedral, took a look inside the cathedral. It’s very open and Gina say’s it’s her favorite. Then we went to their favorite bar, El Xampanyet, for cava. Old, crowded, not too smoky and the cava was wonderful.

Ewa, Gina, Tyler, me

From there, we went to Txakolin, across from Estancio Franca, for tapas. What a beautiful dinner. They had quite a selection of cold tapas out, to grab. The hot plates come out of the kitchen one by one, and they walk them down the bar. If you want a piece, you grab it.

Gina contemplating what’s available.

Ewa, Gina and Tyler

We ate & ate, the food was superb. Had one bottle of wine, one glass of cider (to try, yeech – thin and acidy tasting, to me) and lots of tapas. Then we went off towards Del Born area again, stopped at a café & had Mojitos (what a mistake) and then to one of Tyler’s coworkers apartment, to a party. Late night again.

Saturday we were movin slow. We went back to Del Born for more shopping, had great pizza at Pizzeria Del Born, worked our way up to Placa Catalunya. Shopped there, then hit Bocaria for more strawberries. We had salad at home for dinner, watched a movie on the English cable. Then we went to Placa Espanya to watch the fountains. Quite a light show, with music. I was glad we got to see it, it’s the best water show I’ve seen. We made an early night of it.

Sunday was a clear, fine day. Starting to get hot. We spent the morning at Parc Guell, wandering.

Found a great café between it & the train, stopped for coffee. We ate again at the creperie under the fish sculpture (on the beach at Port Olympic, Gina had recommended it and the food was very good and inexpensive.) I got to the beach again this afternoon. Spent a bit too long in the sun, the sunburn has just now faded. But before it felt too bad, we wandered back to Del Born and Teller de Tapas for one more dinner.

Monday morning( May 22nd) we got up and finished packing. We went to the local supermarket for more water, as Christina and Andreas were due in that morning to take over the Nicholas-sitting duties. They showed up around 12:00, we gave them a whirlwind orientation and caught a cab at 1 to take us to the airport.

The time just flew. I expanded my list of things to see in Barcelona as I was seeing it. I will go back – after the heat of the summer fades a bit.

More Barcelona

2006-06-06T10:39:00.000+02:00

Well, I don’t know where the time went, I was going to finish about Barcelona a while ago. I have not been lounging around eating bonbons, either. I have been playing travel agent, a bit. It takes a long time to make arrangements on line. I’m going back to Rochester in July, and doing that trip took about 5 hours – searching for the best fare, everything’s expensive. There were no frequent flyer awards to be had through United. I think they just block out the whole summer, 6 months before. So I’m flying Lufthansa Munich-Boston, and even the commuter flight Boston-Roch had no award travel possible. Sheesh. And, there’s a last minute trip to Italy with some girlfriends this weekend (yay! The sun shines there!) and the next weekend, Paris with my roommate. (Flatmate, they say here.)

I can’t believe I haven’t been home to California in over a year. It seems remote and fuzzy to me. I don’t even have many pictures with me, to remind myself. I am trying to take more pictures of people here, to add to the memorabilia. “More people, less stuff” may be a new motto.

I am gearing up to start looking for work, too. I like it here & want to stay, and will need my own residence permit for that. I have been looking at the web sites of American companies that I see here, to see if they have need for people in Munich. And if anyone else has a good idea, let me know!

Back to Barcelona.
Ewa and I got there on Sunday the 14th. We settled into the place, got to know Nicholas & his schedule – Theresa & Mark and baby Alex had left the day before, so they left the key with a colleague and lots of notes.

Walking up the street to the house

That evening, we went to visit Gina & Tyler, friends of mine from California who had moved to Barcelona for Tyler’s work about 18 months ago. I wish I had taken pictures of their apartment, it is absolutely beautiful. They made pizza with fresh peas, asparagus and green onions for dinner. It was delicious and I need to remember to write them and ask for the recipe!

We passed on Gaudi house on the way there & back, Casa Batllo. The façade is beautiful.

Monday the 15th we met a friend of a friend of Ewa’s, a Polish woman who’s been in Barcelona for 3 years now. She’s a PhD in Spanish and will get back to doing translating when her son is older. She met us near Sagrada Familia, I toured the church while she & Ewa chatted. Sagrada Familia was heaving with tourists. It is a monstrously large cathedral, another Gaudi. The inside is estimated to be finished in about 75 years. It’s all being financed by donation. Gaudi’s style is a twist on Art Noveau, I find it absolutely beautiful and compelling. I went up inside to the first level of the towers, after that the way was blocked and I needed to meet Ewa again, so I headed back down. Someday I’d like to get there very early in the morning & get all the way up to the top.

We walked down to the port, sat enjoying the sunshine.
Ewa in sunshine at the port.

Abe Lincoln graffiti on the way out of the park. Random and wonderfully weird to see.

Tuesday morning we went to the local supermarket first – it had been closed Monday for inventory, and we really needed food for breakfast & water. The water there is drinkable, but tastes bad. It’s heavily processed. We then tried to get into the Picasso museum, but the lines were too long, and we were meeting Marcello, a friend of a friend that afternoon. So we shopped a bit – there are great boutiques with unique clothing & shoes all over the place there. (Most suited to the local climate. I’m glad I resisted the pretty, light, fluttery stuff because I can’t wear it in Munich, it’s too cold!)
Street in Del Born area

Ewa by a very cool door

On the way to our meeting point, we finally got to La Bocaria, the well-known open air market. Beautiful produce, meats, fish. Strawberries for 99 eurocents a kilo.

We met Marcello at Café Zurich in Placa Catalunya, he then toured us around the University district and told us about clubs to go to in the evening. Sadly, on the way home, Ewa’s husband called to tell her that her cat died. That was a shock.

Wednesday the 17th we started earlier and got into the Picasso museum. This features much of his early work, through his Blue period and into Cubism. I like exhibits like that as it’s great to see the artist’s progression over their working life. Afterwards we caught the funicular to Montjuic, a very large park that is the legacy of the 1992 Olympics; many of the facilities were built there. It’s a hill to the west of city center.

It also contains Poble Espanyol, a large complex with buildings representing architecture from all over Spain, from the 1929 Universal Exposition. Inside the buildings are artisan shops.

We walked in, and found a café. And Sangria. The afternoon got very silly after that, what fun!

Ewa at the café

We stopped at a rooftop restaurant to get coffee. That Sangria went down so easily, and everything was funny now.

As we were camping it up for these shots, Ewa noticed that the bartender was on break having coffee and mugging too. We laughed, went back to our conversation. On the way out, we stopped to take some pics over the rooftops and he reappeared to play along some more.

After the afternoon dog walk, we set out for La Paloma, a club Marcello had recommended. He thought they had dinner there on Wednesday nights, along with dancing. We got there at 9:30 and it was closed. So we walked back to las Ramblas, stopped in a tapas place near La Bocaria and ate dinner while the crowd standing on the sidewalk next door, peering at the TV, roared its support for Barcelona, who beat Arsenal that night for the European Championship. What pandemonium ensued! We had been warned to avoid Placa Catalunya in case of a win, and we were very near there. Las Ramblas filled with celebrants, dancing, singing, setting off M80s and other strings of fireworks.

Barca wins!

We hung out there until 11:30 or so, then walked against the crowd and got to the Del Born area again. Found the tapas place we’d really preferred to have eaten at, called Teller de Tapas, and a place called Bugo that does the most beautifully created desserts. Ewa had remembered them from her visit to Barca in March. We ducked into an Irish pub (they’re all over Europe, I think they’re spawning) had a drink and met Pete, a maritime engineer on one of the yachts in port. Had a lively discussion about Linksys routers and their problems, Pete’s learning networking by doing. The owner of the yacht has an ISP business in London, so the ship has all the latest networking gear. Sounds like it gets interfered with, and hangs, regularly. When we left the bar, the subway had closed so we ended up walking back home. It was a long walk. And the entire time, people were walking past chanting the Barcelona cheers, driving honking with flags hanging out of the cars, carrying on. All night long, apparently. Our neighborhood was quieter.

Barcelona - Spring Paradise

2006-05-30T09:59:00.000+02:00

I am just back from 8 glorious days in Barcelona. Early in the spring, Ewa had been visiting there as Glenn was there for a work conference, and her friend Theresa mentioned that she needed someone to watch the dog for a couple weeks in May, while they travelled. Me! Me! Pick me! So, on May 14th Ewa and I caught a Condor flight to Barcelona. We stayed in Theresa and Mark's place, taking care of Nicholas, the sweetest, best-behaved Golden Lab I have ever met. (They keep his kibble on an open shelf in the kitchen - the BOTTOM shelf. Most dogs would scarf it all down, including the bag, york it all back up again and then repeat as often as they could. Not Nicholas - he eats only what he's given in his bowl. Doesn't beg - he does put on the 'cute' face while you're eating, but he's not really asking for food. Amazing.)

I had gotten a new camera just before the trip, and it was a joy to use. Took 178 pictures, most of which are good. I won't post them all, but will try for a representation.

I swear, in Spain they stay up so late because every hour is really only about 25 minutes long. We'd get up, let Nicholas out, have breakfast, do a bit of sightseeing, have lunch - and then it was 6 pm! Zoom back to walk Nicholas, feed him and head back out, have dinner, sometimes go to a club and then it was 2 am! We weren't sleeping in very long either. The days flew by.

Here are a couple pics to start with, then I must propel myself out into cold, rainy Munich to do some errands. More later tonight, as I reminsce about far-off lands where the sun actually shines.

The beach - 3 blocks from the house. Sadly, I only got there twice during the trip.

Me and Ewa at Sagrada Familia, in a park across the street.

Part of Barcelona from the funicular, as we headed to Parc Montjuic. It was a hazy day, but I was so impressed with the size of the city I took some pics anyway. You can barely see the spires of Sagrada Familia in the background.

Fountain in Parc Cuitidella, also near the apartment and our train stop.

Venice - words fail me

2006-05-11T13:43:00.000+02:00

Just go! Early May or late September.

First glimpse of the Grand Canal

Edge of the park on Isola (island) di St. Elana

Sail sculpture in the park - the back side was an LED display that shimmered like cascading water. Beautiful at night.

Chillin, Venezia-style

Bridge of Sighs. According to a local, this name was made up by Lord Byron. Locals know it as 'the bridge to the jail'.

Doge's Palace with gondolas in front

Doges Palace

Gondolas by Piazza San Marco waiting for passengers

Gondolas in side canal

Beautiful canals

Me in Piazza San Marco!
With San Marco's lion in the background

With San Marco's cathedral in the background

People deliberately covered in pigeons. Why, why would anyone do this on purpose? San Marco square filled with 'em - yuck. Avoided that area as much as possible.

The other statue in Piazza San Marco

Traffic on the Grand Canal, from the Ponte dell'Academia

Canal in the Durodoro area

Carnival?

Beautiful houses along the Grand Canal

Looking at the Ponte di Rialto

Gorgeous yard on the Grand Canal. Wisteria in bloom everywhere.

Art exhibition on the Grand Canal

Final Poland Travelogue

2006-05-02T22:38:00.000+02:00

Fewer pics for these days; I had filled the disk on my camera. I'm using Chris's pictures and have still to get pictures from Debbie, Janice & Barbara. If there are real good ones I will post when I get them. The last days of the trip were the worst weather, so no one too too many pictures.

Poland Tour Day 5: April 4
The next morning we were up early. The breakfast buffet was lavish, we were sorry we had to leave so quickly. But an 8:05 train was taking us to Krakow on the Wisla River, no time to linger over waffles. Once again we humped our suitcases up & down stairs and heaved them onto the train. We left most of them outside our compartment this time. No one complained and the train was not that busy. We got to Krakow around 11:30. Took 2 taxis to the hotel. While Ewa, Debbie & Janice went to the Czartoryski Museum to see Da Vinci’s Lady with an Ermine (one of his only 4 paintings of women, with Mona Lisa being the most famous), me, Chris & Barbara returned to our driver who took us to the Wieliczka Salt Mine.

I was already nervous about going down into the mine, and when we got to the ticket counter it said that, due to work going on, there may be delays in getting in and getting out of the mine. (Nothing sets off my fear of claustrophobia faster than the thought of being in a space I can't get out of.) Barbara talked me down and I decided that having come all this way I had to do it. We bought our tickets and went to the café to pass our waiting time in another exercise in odd-tasting wine. I had half a beer. Our driver was so nice - he waited around and then checked to see that we were going on the tour before he left.

The mine tour was interesting to a point. Our guide seemed to be doing her spiel by rote - we detected no personality. We went down 50 flights of steps, and started going into the rooms that had been carved by the miners. They were connected by long, log-lined tunnels. The "tah-dah" room is the Kinga Chapel; a magnificent large room with carved altars, the last supper, the crucifixion, etc. It was spectacular. But the rest of it was just OK. We got back up to the surface in the miner's elevator; several cages on top of each other into which they piled 10 people each. It was tight and when we got to the top, our doors didn't open, but we could hear people above or below us getting out. We had to go back up one floor so they could let us out. I was glad to be back at the surface.

Kinga Chapel - found this pic on the web, ours are all very dark

Not a great pic of me, but it proves I was there!

We got back to the hotel, the lovely Hotel Grodek. I went upstairs to recover as best I could - my cold was really getting bad now - so I took a lovely hot bath and then slept for a bit. Everyone else was shopping in Krakow. And Janice and Debbie found a café and had a couple Irish coffees, which they said were just the thing to combat the cold temperatures - it felt like winter was coming back.

That evening, we met our guide Marta at 5:30 at the hotel. She took us on a tour of the old Jewish part of town. Poland was a very tolerant country for most of its history, and many Jews settled there. Krakow had a very large Jewish community. Too bad it was already late and most of the places were closed. There are two fine Jewish museums, 7 synagogues and a very interesting cemetery in the area. Picturesque Poland also offers a Jewish Trail Tour which would have taken us to those sights the next day; but we were on a different tour.

We saw an old synagogue, toured several streets and ended up the Isaac synagogue that contains a permanent memorial entitled “Memory of Polish Jews”- many pictures of people in the community before 1932, and then some as they were being labeled, and taken away to the camps. I was a basket case seeing this, sobbing at the end. I cannot get over how badly people have treated and do treat each other. Usually I can go on with life, but seeing memorials really affects me. Before this stop, heading to the Jewish quarter, someone asked me if I’d been to Dachau or Auschwitz and they were surprised when I said no, and I wouldn’t ever be going. After seeing me fall apart at this small memorial, they understood.

We finished up around 7:30. Stopped in one restaurant to try have a drink before dinner, but they were all full, (We had seen several other tourist groups of 20 - 30 people roaming the Jewish quarter earlier.) So we went to the Ariel Restaurant, where we had reservations, early. I had a wonderful tea - rose hips and black tea and cherry brandy - and then the matzo ball soup. Matzo balls I can leave - they rank right down with knodel - but the broth was delicious. Debbie had a pre-dinner shot of vodka which she said was very smooth, once she could talk again! While most of the others went with the safe stuffed cabbage, Janice tried the stuffed goose necks, which she claimed were delicious. I revived for about an hour, but then I knew I was about to crash. Ewa called a taxi, which whisked me back to the hotel where I collapsed back into bed. The rest stayed in the restaurant where the Jascha Lieberman Trio was to play Jewish music. They said the concert was great - a modern take on some folk songs and classics.

Poland Tour Day 6: April 5
The next morning we woke up to mixed rain and snow. Snow! After breakfast, Marta was there to take us to the castle and cathedral. I was wearing just about everything I could, plus 2 scarves. We all trudged along under our umbrellas. I was glad the hill up to Wawel castle wasn't too steep - I was puffing hard already. We walked onto the grounds. Marta told us that most of the Polish kings have been crowned and buried in Krakow. Part of the ceremony is that the kings walk from the coronation to the Florian Gate, on foot. A sign of humility for the king to do this. Even one of the kings who had been crowned in Warsaw came to Krakow to take this walk.

The cathedral was magnificent. We heard about the legend of St. Stanislaw, who was quartered after his murder (it's a tough life, becoming a saint) and all the pieces were laid to rest in a stupendous silver casket. The legend is that as long as they remain together, Poland will not be divided. (In the 1700s Poland was "partitioned" between Russia, Prussia and Germany. It was only in the 1920s that Poland became a unified country again, only to get occupied by the Germans then taken over by the Russians.)

There were many works of art here, both including the tombs of beloved rulers and paintings and altars off to the side of the cathedral. We climbed the bell tower to the Zygmunt Bell. Touching it with your left hand is supposed to bring luck, and to the unmarried women, a husband. (Not sure if that's lucky or not.) We duly touched and Marta took our picture.

Everyone touches Zygmunt’s bell for luck. Notice how bundled up I am – I think I had on 3 shirts, both scarves that I brought and a vest!

We exited the cathedral through the catacombs, where the kings are laid to rest. We got a story for each room. We went into the courtyard of the castle, which was built by an Italian designer. Marta pointed out that the walkways between the wings are all outside (to go through the interior, you had to go through private rooms). Great for Italy, but not so much for Poland. Did I mention it was snowing? In April?

The Wawel castle inner courtyard.

There's a spot in the inner courtyard that is one of the chakra points of the Earth. We all stepped up; I could hear & feel a buzzing. I'm sure it wasn't the cold medicine! I want to go back when I'm well and go there again, plus do more clothes shopping. A quick flight, a weekend shopping and attuning my chakras to the Earth's, what could be better!

We left the castle ground through the Dragon's cave - a set of spiral steps down to river level. There are natural caves there, some quite large. Marta said that early peoples lived in the caves.

Us in the Dragon Cave

We walked back into town, stopped at a Ukrainian cafe for a warm cup of something. I tried the warm beer - it was on the menu. It did warm me up, but tasted awful. Needed lemon & honey. Some of the others tried tea with shots of raspberry syrup or spoons of jam stirred in, which they said were interesting.

Then we went to the more modern Franciscan church, with windows in the Art Nouveau style by Stanislaw Wyspianski. It was beautiful. With that, the tour ended. We went for lunch at Chlopskie Jadlo, a country-style restaurant. Their afternoon was spent shopping; I was back in the hotel napping. Janice & Debbie found a café again and had more Irish coffees. I sure missed a lot, being sick.

That evening, we went to a very cute café for dinner. Had salads! What a change from the meat/cabbage/potatoes what we'd been having. We walked to a nearby liquor store so people could buy Goldwasser, a vodka-based drink containing gold flakes. Then Debbie and I went back to the hotel, we were both very chilled. The rest of the crew went to the Jazz Club U Muniaka, where they thoroughly enjoyed the music. The first set even included Poland’s great tenor sax payer Janusz Muniak, who owns the club.

Poland Tour Final Day: April 6
The next morning, after breakfast we went for last minute Polish food shopping at a nearby supermarket and then headed back to the train station. Another 3-hour ride put us back in Warsaw. Debbie and I spent most of the trip in the dining car, that’s a very pleasant way to travel - sitting and sipping coffee as the scenery whizzes by. We got cabs to the airport and caught our flight back to Munich.

More Poland travelogue

2006-05-01T09:32:00.000+02:00

Poland Tour Day 4: April 3
The next morning, our guide Michal met us at the hotel. We started our tour at the statue of Copernicus, who was raised in Torun and went to University there. The statue serves as a barometer of current student activity - the day we were there he was dressed in a Hungarian Flag to show solidarity with their fellow ex-communist country as it approached elections.

Statue of Copernicus in front of Torun University

We continued to walk through town, the Post Office which gets "oohs & ahhs" from the tourists - a lovely brick building.

Torun Post Office

We saw the jail; Michal alluded to it having been a bad place but didn't say much else. Torun was not bothered by the Germans, and not bombed during the wars, so much of it is very old. We stopped at the fiddler fountain, to commemorate the local legend of the man who fiddled the frogs out of town, like the Pied Piper. Anyone touching the frogs is guaranteed to come back to Torun. Fine by me, it is a lovely spot to visit.

Me, Debbie, Barbara, Ewa and Janice

We walked past the leaning building, made so that someone who leans against it and pulls his or her arms away from the wall finds it very hard to stay against the building. Legend was that a priest of the Knights took a lover. When found out, she was killed but he had to do penance by constructing these leaning buildings. Anyone whose sins were greater than his would not be able to stand against the wall.

Barbara trying to stand against the Leaning Tower

We walked down to the river, the Vistula again. Back up into town, past where the Copernicus family lived (in one of two adjoining houses, they're not exactly sure which one.) into the St. Mary cathedral, which was normally closed that day of the week. We saw magnificent examples of medieval art, carved scenes dating from the 14th century.

We finished our tour at the ruin of another castle of the Teutonic Knights. Our guide was finishing his PhD in the study of medieval merchants and the Knights. He was concerned with the goods & merchandise that the Knights used.

Part of the walls of Torun

We had an hour until our lunch reservation, so we hit the town shopping. Ewa and I went to the clothing stores. I bought a complete outfit - jacket, skirt, pants, which I am wearing the heck out of because it flatters me in a way that clothing hasn't done in quite a while. (Did I mention my work with a personal trainer? He kicks my butt, and the results are astounding.) Debbie and Janice looked for folk art. Chris and Barbara started back at the hotel so Chris could get her coat - it was another sunny but cold day. I was wearing several layers of clothing by this time, as I was coming down with a cold. Ewa went into an Apotheke with me, got the pharmacist to sell me some throat lozenges and some decongestant.

Lunch was at the Spichrz Restaurant (I guess you have to be Polish to pronounced it), a peasant style place with folk band playing most of the evenings. Chris and Barbara found some good wine, and had the meter of sausage - we have the pictures to prove it!

Meter of Sausage

Debbie and Janice shared another meat platter. Ewa and Carole had perogis upon Ewa's recommendation. All the food was excellent. We all tasted everything. The sausage was smoky and a bit spicy; great with mustard. The perogis were the best we had - very thin pasta around succulent fillings. The meat platter was several roasted meats all cooked very well, juicy and great with the horseradish sauce.

We went back to the hotel to be picked up by another driver, to take us to Warsaw. At this point, we were noticing the unique Polish driving style. If someone wants to pass, and oncoming traffic isn't too far away, everyone just moves over and makes room. Tailgating is the norm in some areas. And everything is 3 hours from Warsaw. I told Ewa that Chris & I were curious, why we drove these back roads instead of the freeway. Oh, she laughed! Said she was going to tell this joke to all her Polish friends. Expressways are not common in that part of the world. In fact, the driver told us he made sure to take us by the route that had the least bird flu roadblocks. At one point, we slowed way down and bumped over what looked like a mound of sawdust. It was to clean the tires, so we wouldn’t spread the flu.

That night we stayed at the Warsaw Marriott, a huge hotel just across the street from the train station. We went to Champions, the sports bar, for dinner. Had American style burgers and beer. And I learned that the food is American style at the Champions in all Marriotts. Next time I crave a burger, I'm headed to the next UBahn stop up the line from the apartment and going to Champions!

The Mariott was a great hotel to stay in. The beds were incredible – a huge feather bed to sleep on top of, and one to sleep under. I especially welcomed it because by now I was in the throes of a very bad cold, on its way to bronchitis. I tried to cover it as best I could & keep going, making sure to stay slightly away from everyone.

More Poland Travelogue

2006-04-30T14:21:00.000+02:00

Poland Tour Day 2: April 1
Breakfast the next morning in the hotel was wonderful. It was in a beautiful room, all light colored marble, chandeliers and mirrors. They were cooking omelets to order. We were taking the 8:50 train to Malbork Castle. We decide to walk to the station, as it was close by, and not raining. Unfortunately most of the escalators were out of order so we humped our bags up & down stairs to get to the right platform. We got the train, found the right car, and got into our first-class compartment. Settled in for the 3+ hour ride. The countryside was a bit bleak, soggy with rain and scrubby with brown winter grass. We saw some snow still in the trees. We piled out of the station at Malbork, having a bit of trouble getting our bags down the steep steps off the train. But our driver Andrew met us, he pointed in the right direction and we got into the Mercedes Mini-bus. Very spacious, lots of tall windows. It was a quick ride to the castle. We disembarked, and marveled at the sheer size of the brick castle. It is very medieval looking, with dry moats, turrets and wooden bridges connecting upper walkways, and defensive walls all around.

Malbork Castle, from across the river

Malbork close up

Malbork Porticullis

After taking a few pictures, we followed the driver to the restaurant inside the castle for lunch. Had a great lunch of soups and sausages. Then, on to the tour. An English-speaking guide came to the restaurant to get us. She took us back around to the front of the castle, explaining that it had been the home of the Teutonic Knights, called back from the Holy Land in the 1300s, to spread Christianity to the pagans in the area. As we learned more we decided that we quite disliked this ferocious group of men who tortured and murdered people, forbid any women in their presence or castles and terrorized the neighborhood in general. The castle, however, is magnificent. Working drawbridge and portcullis, many interior rooms, of gothic construction so with very high, many-arched ceilings. There was a rather modern central heating system, several large furnaces burned wood and the ducts carried the heat to the castles. Malbork is actually 3 separate castle buildings - the High castle, middle and low.

Here we first heard about the battle of Grünwald - in 1410 the Poles rose up against the Knights and won. In 1457 the King of Poland bought control of Malbork from Bohemian mercenary troops residing there - they hadn't been paid by the Teutonic Knights. By 1466 the order had primarily disbanded.

The castle was restored starting in the early 1900s, only to be severely damaged in fighting between German and Russian troops in WWII. It is restored again and a great sight to see if you can get to the area. The Church of Our Lady is still being restored; we were able to see it in progress. Looks like it will take a long time before that part is complete.

After the tour we met up with our driver again and set off for Gdansk, viewing more early-spring countryside. We arrived at our hotel there at about 5:00. Waiting for us was our next event; someone that Ewa knows was there to show us her amber jewelry. That area of Poland used to be covered by ocean, and amber is found in many places. (They mine for it.) The jeweler brought a big tote box full of necklaces, rings, bracelets and other pieces. We spent a happy hour browsing through her wares, and everyone but Ewa ended up making a purchase. The prices were great.

Oh yeah, Poland has not converted to the Euro, they use the Zloty. It's about 4 to 1 Euro. Prices for food, clothes and other items were quite good.

After we finished our buying, we gathered and walked into the old town of Gdansk. Our hotel, the Królewski, has started its life as a granary, on the granary island. The windows were numerous and small, and the walls were very thick.

Barbara in front of our hotel

We walked past the docks - mainly empty; saw the Gdansk Crane, icon of the city – it was used to lift the grain onto &off the ships. We across the bridge into town.

Granary crane at right

Boats in the wharf in Gdansk

The old part of the granary island

Old town Gdansk is several pedestrian streets, lined with old-style buildings. We wandered a bit and then ended up at The Red Door for dinner. It is a very pretty, cozy place, situated in a 17th century Burgher house. The food was only OK - but the wine here was good.

Poland Tour Day 3: April 2
The next morning, we were due to meet our tour guide at 10:00. Our guide Donna was prompt and we started off again, learning that there had been over 300 granaries on Granary Island in the heyday. Transportation was by water; and Gdansk had been a wealthy town.

By 1308 Gdansk had became a flourishing trading city with some 10,000 inhabitants, but in the Gdansk Massacre of November 13, 1308, it was occupied and demolished by the Teutonic Knights. Bastards.

Most of the buildings we saw in old town were reconstructed after the war. Gdansk (Or Danzig, in German) was purportedly a favorite town of Hitler, so the Russians reduced it to rubble towards the end of the war. Donna told us that in the beginning of the reconstruction, people were awarded houses in the old town and that now; some people could not afford to maintain them. We saw beautiful houses next to ones that were crumbling.

Main square in Old Gdansk

St Mary's Church is the largest brick church in the world, it can accomodate 24000 people, we were told. From inside, it looked like the only way that would happen is if they were stacked vertically, but maybe people don’t take up as much space as we think. It is huge inside. We walked around the outside, and took a quick trip inside as Mass was ending.

We walked back through the pedestrian area, past the Neptune fountain. You can see 3 Neptune statues from one spot; he's the symbol of Gdansk.

Closer pic of Neptune

Cool door in Gdansk

We stopped at the Millennium Gallery for the obligatory demonstration of how amber is polished, and a lesson in how to tell if it’s real (it floats). They had an interesting assortment of upscale designs and many of the ladies indulged.

Side street with lots of shops & restaurnts in Old Gdansk

We ended our tour back at the main gate; saw the government buildings that still contain an office for Lech Walensa - the spearhead of the Solidarity movement, which overthrew the communist regime in Poland in the 1980s. Walked down the side of the canal, to find a restaurant for lunch. We ended up at the cafe Goldwasser, sitting outside in the sun, which felt wonderful. Ewa called our driver to come get us earlier than planned. We had been going to leave at 6:30, but felt we had seen all we wanted to see so we left at 4:00. Our driver was amenable to a bit of a side trip on the way out, so we ended up at the Baltic coast. We walked along the beach for a bit - although it was sunny it was still very cold. We stopped in 2 beach spots. Ewa says in the summer you can hardly walk for all the people on the beach.

We got to Torun, our next stop, at about 7:00. It took a little time to find the hotel, and as we were driving in the town we noticed many people all walking in the same direction, towards a church that we saw up the block. We remembered that this evening was the anniversary of the Pope's death, and figured that everyone was going to a memorial service.

We checked into the Hotel Heban, a 17th century tenement house which front façade was covered with black plaster – a good example of late Renaissance work. Inside was decorated with 17th and 18th century polychrome paintings. It was small and very pretty, although there was no lift, the bell guy wrangled all our bags up to our rooms; we did a quick wash-up and set out to explore the town. By now it was 7:30 or so, and people were still heading in one direction. We followed the crowd and came to a square around a large church. We stopped there and watched the procession come down from the other church, headed by robed acolytes bearing torches. The priests were miked, so we could hear the Stations of the Cross being said. The procession wound around the other side of the church from us, and stopped, and people started filling in the square. 20 minutes later, the procession, with everyone carrying a lit votive candle, was still streaming into the square. The head of the procession started to move again, so we got in front of it and walked the other way back into town. We explored a few streets, and then some of us wanted a bit of dinner. At this point, Debbie peeled off and went back to the memorial. The rest of us ended up in a pizzeria. Shared a huge pizza that cost less than 3 euros! Janice got a very generous Greek salad that she shared too. We all puzzled over what the dishes of ketchup and mayo were for so Ewa asked the waitress. They were indeed for our pizza!

Beginning of Polish trip report

2006-04-29T12:58:00.000+02:00

Well it's a cold, rainy miserable day here in Munich. And, a long weekend to boot. How does the weather know to be bad, when people have a holiday? I'm going to post some of the Polish trip report, then catch the train to go grocery shopping. I also hope to buy some shoes - my walking shoes are suede. They were OK in the fall when it was cold, but now in the rain they just get too wet.

Poland Tour Day 1: March 31
Friday march 31 was the start of the tour with Picturesque Poland, the tour company that my friend Ewa has just launched. 5 of us were to take the inaugural tour: me, Barbara, Chris, Debbie and Janice. Ewa was going to meet us in Warsaw, our first destination, and tour with us to check that everything she’d arranged was to our liking.

I got to the airport a bit early. Breezed through check in (love Lufthansa), Lot Polish Airlines checks in through the Lufthansa Star Alliance. Got to the gate around 8:00 am, and there was no one else there. Hmm, maybe I am way too early. Debbie and Janice arrive in 15 minutes. We chatted until the gate agent called everyone for Warsaw. We all piled on to the bus, which took us out onto the tarmac to the plane. So of course we're then outside, climbing onto the plane in the Munich rain. Cold rain. Janice got on the empty plane first; she said she'd never walked onto an empty plane before. No sign of Chris & Barbara yet.

We waited a bit; they announced that more passengers were coming. Another bus pulled up and from that crowd Chris & Barbara joined us. The group was now complete.

An uneventful and fast flight got us into Warsaw by 10:30. We waited outside and Ewa showed up in about 5 minutes. She got us 2 cabs and we zoomed off to the hotel. Warsaw was overcast, looked a little grey. There are still quite a few old Soviet-style buildings: flat, ugly, and concrete. The most interesting was the Palace of Culture & Science (nicknamed Stalin’s penis) that was right across the street from our hotel. We’re told it was a “gift” from Russia to Warsaw, and the locals really dislike it. Our hotel, the Polonia Palace, was lovely though, Ewa says it’s a leading and most prestigious Grand Hotel in Warsaw, been operating since 1913. It underwent a recent renovation. The hotel as Poles say has Polish Soul, it’s a very rare find in Warsaw, a city of chain hotels. We dumped our luggage off, checked in and piled back into a couple cabs to get to old town.

The cabs let us off just outside old town. We walked across the square, with its plinth topped by King Sigismund, and set off up one of the side streets to find lunch.

Heading out across the square

We ended up at Grandmother's Place. Everyone but Carole ordered pierogi; she had bigos. It was a good lunch with lots of flavors to try. Some of the flavors were a bit unusual though, and they would remain so for most of the trip. It seems that the Poles are not yet wine connoisseurs, and not even real familiar with how to pick and store wine. Barbara and Chris are wine connoisseurs and they valiantly tried glass after glass of yecchy, too- sweet or too-long-open wine throughout our week. Sometimes just one sip and the glass was set down at the edge of the table with a shake of the head. "It's not dry at all." Or "It's gone off." and back the wine went.

After lunch, we headed back to the square to go to the castle. We toured it on our own, looking at many of the rooms that had been the king's apartment. It's good to be king. Debbie liked the floors best - beautiful parquet work, while the entire room of Canalettos impressed Janice. The castle was built relatively recently, and redone only 20 years ago - it had been destroyed just after WWII ended. We stopped for coffee in the small café inside the castle. Some of us found out later it was a bad idea to have coffee at 3:30 in the afternoon - Ewa and Carole didn't sleep very well that night!

Barbara, Debbie and Chris outside the Palace

Chris, Debbie and Ewa outside the Palace

We met up with our first guide of the trip, Anna, back in the square outside the castle. Of course by now it's started to rain. Umbrellas up, and Anna started acquainting us with Warsaw. She told us that the castle had been destroyed after the war, in a fight between the Germans and the Russians. We walked up a main street, Past the presidents’ residence, the statue to a famous poet who never lived in Warsaw; saw some of the street palaces built by the nobles who wanted to be close to the king.

Street Palace

At one point, we saw the royal guard parading up the street on patrol. Debbie got a good picture of them against the swirl of everyday life on the street.

We went in to Holy Cross church, famous for containing a relic of Chopin - his heart is interred in a pillar in the church!

We walked to the big modern "square" - not actually square but a vast open space. Workmen were constructing bleachers and a backdrop - the memorial to Pope Jan Pawal II was going to take place on Sunday evening, a year after he died, April 2nd 2005 at 9:37pm. Across the square, we saw the tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Anna told us that they had chosen between 3 soldiers to inter there; from WWII.

The square, setting up the bleachers for the memorial service of Pop Jan Pawal II

Tomb of the Unknown Soldier

We walked back through another section of the old town. Past St John's Cathedral, went inside. This church was destroyed during the Warsaw Uprising. On the outside wall, there is a tank tread embedded as a memorial. Nearby underneath and archway in the street is a symbol for the Warsaw uprising. I can’t imagine tanks rolling through my city, and the havoc and destruction and terror or war.

We continued on the Royal Way and came to a very pretty square with old houses ringing the cobblestones. The mermaid fountain in the middle of the square is the symbol of Warsaw.

We walked out the other side, past old city walls. Apparently Poland was not a very war-like country. It took some persuading to get the city walls created, and at one point in history, it just so happened that the Polish army was elsewhere when the Swedes invaded. So the Polish army ended up fighting for Warsaw, against their own walls!

We then saw the monuments to the 1944 Warsaw Uprising. Just as WWII was grinding to a stop, the citizens and soldiers of Warsaw rose up against the occupying Germans. The Russian army was just across the Vistula River, and the Warsawians assumed they'd come to help. They didn't. The uprising raged for more than 3 months, and the city emptied as people fled into the countryside. As the Germans were leaving the city, they destroyed it block by block so that there was nothing for people to come home to.

This statue depicts the soldiers leaving the city through the sewers

This ended the formal tour. We went back into the old town, stopped at a café for some warm drinks (Polish Glühwein). Barbara and Chris had another "wine surprise", bummer! We walked up the way in about an hour, and went to a new restaurant called Secrets for dinner. It was elegant, the food was wonderful and the wine was good. We got back to the square by the castle, caught 2 cabs back to the hotel. We piled back into our rooms - we all shared, 2 to a room.

Melancholy baby

2006-04-26T16:40:00.000+02:00

Even though spring is happening, I am having a bit of a down day. Gayle sent this:

As we grow up, we learn that even the one person that wasn't supposed to ever let you down probably will. You will have your heart broken probably more than once and it's harder every time. You'll break hearts too, so remember how it felt when yours was broken. You'll fight with your best friend. You'll blame a new love for things an old one did.

You'll cry because time is passing too fast, and you'll eventually lose someone you love. So take too many pictures, laugh too much, and love like you've never been hurt because every sixty seconds you spend upset is a minute you'll never get back.

Missing all my friend in far-off lands. Especially missing Mona gone the farthest of all. For Mona: I've been doing lots of things for the first time, and thinking of you when I do. I had a Turkish massage - in Turkey! I Touched Zygmunt's bell for luck- in Castle Wawel in Krakow. I rode my bike to a friends house in Munich. Hope to have more to report soon. I won't be riding in a fighter jet or racing a corvette, but in my way I'm stretching out of my comfort zone.

I Am Supergirl

2006-04-20T14:22:00.000+02:00

Found this "Which Superhero re You?" on The Ultimate Job Hunting Blog - thanks, JC!

Some about my recent travels soon. Poland was great, so was Turkey. But it's sunny and warm in Munich right now and I need to carpe this diem.

Your results:
You are Supergirl

Supergirl		90%
Wonder Woman		75%
Catwoman		70%
Spider-Man		65%
Superman		55%
Robin		52%
The Flash		50%
Hulk		40%
Batman		40%
Green Lantern		35%
Iron Man		30%

Lean, muscular and feminine.
Honest and a defender of the innocent.

Click here to take the Superhero Personality Test

Going on a trip

2006-03-30T20:39:00.000+02:00

To Poland. My friend Ewa is starting a tour business. Several other ladies from the women’s club are going, we leave Friday and return April 6th. Not sure if I’ll be online while I’m gone. Hope the email doesn’t build up too badly!

Have a great week, dear readers, and I should have new pics to post soon.

Word for the Day:

In German: Niederschlagswahrscheinlichkeit
In English: Probability of precipitation

The Perfect Moment

2006-03-28T14:51:00.000+02:00

I love Terry Prachett’s Discworld books. On a recent sunny Tuesday, I wandered around a new neighborhood and found The Munich Readery, a very large second-hand English book store. It smelled so good in there – shelves and shelves of books that I can read. I realized I hadn’t been in a library in over a year and a wave of homesickness came crashing in. I believe that libraries are the best invention of mankind yet, and used to be in a library for 'library therapy' at least a couple times a month.

Back in the store, I came across one of my favorite Discworld books, Thief of Time. (Of course I have all these books in storage in California, but it was cheaper to buy it here than to ship it.) I bought it, among others.

I picked it up a couple days ago and settled in for a good read. I came across this passage: “Wen considered the nature of time and understood that the universe is, instant by instant, re-created anew. Therefore, he understood, there is, in truth, no Past, only a memory of the Past. Blink your eyes, and the world you see next did not exist when you closed them. Therefore, he said, the only appropriate state of mind is surprise. The only appropriate state of the heart is joy. The sky you see now, you have never seen before. The perfect moment is now. Be glad of it.”

Stopped me cold. I marvel at the skill of the author to bung this into a very funny, slyly observant, sort-of science fiction book. And thanked the Universe for the reminder: The perfect moment is now. Be glad of it.

Spring?

2006-03-21T15:13:00.000+01:00

Did my first German train trip out of Munich on Friday. One of the women from the clubs has moved to Frankfurt, 5 of us took the train to go see her for the day. We had reserved second-class seats, on the high-speed trains our seats were in a compartment, on the one regional train on the way back we were just seated in an open car. I liked the travel that way pretty well, will do that again.

The weather has given us a break - Sunday was sunny and warmish, as was Monday. To make the most of it, I went on a country walk on Sunday. The German-English Association here in Munich has many active members who organize lots of activites and the Sunday country walk is one. I met the group on the S-bahn platform and we took it out of the city for about 1/2 hour. Set off around a small lake (still frozen enough for some people to walk on). The path was muddy on places, icy in others but it was wonderful to be out in the sunshine. We tromped for a bit over an hour, went to a restaurant for lunch and the walked back to the train station for the return to Munich.

Today I had to find a copy shop, to copy newsletters and other info for the LIA meeting tomorrow. I had seen a couple on my rambles near the University so I went there and found a place to get the job done fast. Most are self-serve, and I have gathered the words for double-sided and stapled. It was such a nice day I treated myself afterwards to a sit in a cafe that had the windows open, a place called Croissant Show. The proprieter is French. Hey, I'm in Europe, sitting in a French cafe in Munich. Love this! Especially as Spring seems very near.

I have also found a trainer at the gym who speaks English. I had my first session yesterday - boy am I feeling it today. Not painful, but muscles that apparently haven't been worked in a while are voicing their concern. I'm sure I will feel better tomorrow. And if I don't, it won't matter, because tomorrow evening I am going to the Starkbierfest. The tradition here is, the monks fasted during Lent. To compensate for that (?) they brewed a strong (stark) dark beer for the late winter months. (So, on top of fasting they're drinking beer that is as strong as wine. Must have been very interesting, those drunken Lenten contemplations!)

These festivals are like mini Oktoberfests. Bands playing, everyone wearing their trachten, drinking and eating. One of my friends had reserved a table for 30 and I scored one of the tickets. I am looking forward to this. Must be careful with the beer, though, I like the dark beer best (have been drinking Guiness of late) and I have my next personal training session at the gym the next day at 9 a.m.

Yes, I gave it up for Lent

2006-03-07T17:25:00.000+01:00

Bavaria is very catholic. They celebrate Faschings, the season leading up to Lent (gotta get lots of partying in, before we’re supposed to be sober and thoughtful!) Last week I went to the Victualien markt area, where there is a big outdoor Faschings party on Faschings Dienstag (Mardi Gras, Shrove Tuesday – day for the biggest party of the season.) Started around 10:30, the party went all day long. Lots of Prosecco being drunk. Sadly, not by me as I was coming down with a cold. People wear costumes in celebration. Most of which went nicely over their winter coats. Lots of great hats & head gear. Lots of people in cow or bear costumes - extra layer of warmth.

All parties over, people are now talking about what they gave up for Lent. I decide to give up thinking negatively about myself. Unlike giving up chocolate, this one is really hard! I catch myself a few times a day. Also unlike giving up chocolate for 40 days, I think this will really help me after Lent.

I am really tired of winter. Last Friday, I met some friends at a local Jazz club. Walked home around 11:30 – it was windy, and warmish (must have been in the low 40s). The sidewalks were clear and starting to dry. Overnight a massive storm moved in and in 12 hours, we got 90 cm of snow (that’s almost 3 feet!!) It has been snowing on & off since. Here are some pictures from Sunday morning.

Off the balcony at the back of the apartment.

Looking up the street toward the apartment.

Bikes parked overnight at the U-Bahn station.

And if you've only got a bike, you ride it no matter the weather!

Snow flooping out of the trees in English Garden. Lots of branches came down too, this is very wet & heavy snow.

A side stream in the English garden.

It's still Winter!!!

2006-02-27T11:01:00.000+01:00

It's cold and snowing here, still, again. For some reason every time I walk outside I expect it to be warm. I guess I'm still jet lagged!

And I have a cold, so I have not felt like writing. But here's a bit of catch-up.

Last week, I had a GREAT meeting with Mark Kell, the guy who does the LIA website. He & I will partner to bring a web-based business that I'd though of, to the market. He is more interested in having a version that keeps watch over the kids, through SMS. But we can still build it and get it launched. Mark & I talked quite a bit, he said I could do great work here – the Germans are not so sure of how to be in charge of their careers and they will need this as their socialist supports come down and companies start acting more like American companies. perhaps I can start a workshop series. I am toying with the idea, I really crave some income.

Then I ran around picking up stuff and getting copying done for the LIA meetings, which was Wednesday. It was a Faschings Party; their equivalent of Carnival. We had Sekt and Krapfen (prosecco and donughts, I still don't know why donuts are a carnival thing.) It went quite well, although I didn’t get back home until 3. We played the ‘famous women’ game, with the name of a famous woman put on everyone’s back. You must ask questions with only a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answer to guess who’s name you’re wearing. It was hard to come up with a list of internationally known famous women (who aren’t all actresses!) The games were well received by the women, and everyone had fun. The hats & costumes were great.

Our president, Jackie, and me, checking in members. Being secretary is a lot of work.

Annick in her hat from Myanmar; she was on recent the tour through that country led by Angelica, another member.

Maria-Jose created her hat, spent all morning blowing up the ballons! If we had a contest, this would have won 'most creative', hands-down.

Joy and Janice being American cowgirls. Both are american, but not so much on the cowgirl side.

Maurine as a Marharina (?) in wonderful silks while Harriet is glam 20's style.

Isolde as a sexy market woman (love the decollatage!) and Chantal very French.

Charito in red feathers. Watch out!

Caroline straight from a local rave.

When I got home from the party I crashed for a quick nap. Then vacuumed, dusted, did laundry. And did some email work. Zoomed back out of the house to go to the American German Business Club meeting that evening.

The speaker was excellent. It was Reverend Robin Griffith-Jones, The Master of the Temple Church in London. (Featured in ‘The DaVinci Code’’) He talked about where Dan Brown got it wrong, it was a fascinating, engaging and energetic talk. I will be buying his book, which is due out early May. And visiting the Temple Church when I next get to London.

Mark was there & for the dinner part he waved me over to the table he had. There I met Barbara and Maria,
Barbara had been in the states from 12 on, Denver then California for school. She’d worked at Apple in Cupertino! So we talked about Whole Foods and Trader Joes and CA. She was pleased that I quite like Munich. Maria is a wonderful women who had been out on her own as a translation consultant, is now again an employee of a huge insurance company I‘ve never heard of – Debeka – and also free-lances teaching English on the side. She has 2 cats, we talked cats a bit. And I ran into Levon Mitchell, who I’d worked with at Dev Pro! We had a great talk too.

At the end of the evening Barbara, Maria & Mark and I all headed out to the U-bahn together, and evolved plans to go to a jazz club, Unterfahrt. They say it’s the best jazz here in Munich. Hope it’s not VBJ.

For the weekend, Gayle and I planned a 'girlie weekend'. Her partner, Geordie, was going back to Belfast for a custody trial. Friday I met Gayle in town at Marianplatz. She had gotten the news from Geordie an hour before; they’re getting full custody of little George. She was just staggered by it. She’s excited and worried and excited and now her life is all up in the air. We shopped at bit downton but it was cold so we took the train towards her place, ot a mall called the PEP center, and shopped some more. I got tops and boots, it was fun! We got back to her place, then went out for dinner to an Italian place near her, it was nice.

Sat we ‘faffed’ around her place, (her words) came up to the apt so I could get more clothes. She & I went to the Drugstore for lunch, then to the Pinakothek Moderne for a movie. This is an art galleery that occasionally runs a series of movies, in their original language. We saw 'Badlands' with a very very young Martin Sheen and Sissy Spacek. Quite a violent movie. Dawn joined us, we went for a drink after and chatted away.

Then Gayle & I went back to Ottobrun, to her place to change. We ended up getting out of the apt around 8:20, got a cab to the train station finally. Got to Shawna & Tonys around 9:30. Went out from there a bit after midnight. I was surprised that we’d go out that late, but Gayle was expecting it. We went to the Shamrock, an Irish bar with live music and an overwhelming crowd. We danced until they closed the place. This is probably why I've gotten a cold - I'm now a bit low on sleep!

Back in Germany

2006-02-17T09:17:00.000+01:00

Well the time blurred in Rochester again. So much to do. Got more stuff cleared out on Saturday the 4th; Greg met me over at the house and we worked for 3 hours or so. Filled up more garbage bags with old magazines and stuff; then gathered all the back tax records from 86 to 99, and financial statements from accounts Dad no longer has, and filled the car trunk with them. Took all the old baby furniture, now deemed death traps, outside to take down for garbage pick-up on Wednesday. (How did we ever survive those things?)

Sunday was a day of rest. We hung around in the morning, reviewing the folk’s finances and trying to decide next steps. That afternoon, we went to a local school to watch Gavin’s scout troop’s PineWood Derby. This is an event where the scouts buy a car kit that essentially contains a small block of wood, carve the cars, paint them, put wheels on and race them down a wooden track. Most of the boys are 8 or 9 years old, so their attention flagged after the first couple of races. It lasted for about 90 minutes, every boy’s car got a prize of some kind at the end – like ‘most unique (!)’ and ‘shiniest paint job’.

The weather got bad – temp dropped and it started snowing. This was the evening, of course, that I had picked to take the folks out. I got to their place around 5, and ran into tell them I was there, then ran out to clear off the car. They emerged 10 minutes later, both wearing light jackets, Mom with no hat or gloves. At least the car was warm. We went to their favorite Chinese place – as it was both early and Superbowl Sunday the place was nearly empty. They both enjoyed their dinner tremendously. Small hitch later, Mom & I went to the toilet to wash up. I had to point out the soap dispensers to her, then turned to dry my hands. Grabbed a couple paper towels to hand to her, she had finished washing her hands and was turning back & reaching again for the soap dispenser. I handed her the towels and she said “I know how to dry my hands. My mother taught me how to dry my hands” in an incredibly snotty tone. So I said, I was being nice and handing you towels – felt my temper flaring – and walked out of the restroom. I had vowed to maintain dispassion but lost it then. I know some of this personality change is the disease. But I also know that some of it isn’t and it pushed all my buttons. So I got calm & went back to get her to the table.

When we got back to their place, I asked Dad about her winter coat, as I had brought a couple over to the apartment on my last trip home. I went to the closet to get it to show her and she went off – stop touching my clothes, leave my stuff alone. I said I was concerned that she wasn’t wearing a warmer coat, and wanted to show her that she had one. She tried to stomp off, but can’t really manage that anymore, she is moving very slowly. So all in all the evening was not a success.

Monday was a busy day, I stopped at the local bank to set up an appointment with their financial advisor, re: the folk’s accounts. We finally have tracked them all, Greg & Andrea are getting almost all the statements, now it’s time to make the money grow. There are a couple of places where a fund needs sold and moved into a different vehicle. So the advisor will help, I hope.

Then I stopped at Certified Document Destruction, conveniently on the way to the folk’s house. For a mere $10, they helped me carry all the stuff to shred inside and disposed of it. Best $10 I’d spent in a while.

I started at the house putting aside what brother John had said they might want, then started boxing up the cookware for donation. Like everything else, there was too much of it and most of it wasn’t used often. Got a bunch of stuff ready for the Salvation Army pick-up on Wednesday. Bagged up all the wicker flower baskets for donation, and inventoried the 2 large boxes of infant clothing we found tucked way back in the attic.

On Tuesday, Andrea & I went over to the house early, took all the garbage to the curb. Then that afternoon, I went to visit the folks at their apartment and to drop some more family pictures off in their storage space. I spent an hour of so with the folks, did a couple load of laundry, showed them some pictures. Mom is getting worse – she and Dad were essentially sitting side by side and I was explaining the pics, handing them to Dad who then handed them to Mom. She was not even really looking at them, and after she’d gotten 4 or 5 she’d say “I don’t know whether your father has seen these.” It’s like her peripheral awareness of anything is shot.

Wednesday was a great day at the house – I got there early as the Salvation Army pick-up window was 8 – 3. The garbage hadn’t been picked up yet, so I zoomed down to the basement to gather some more stuff. Hit the gardening area, tossed out a couple bags worth of plastic containers and lids and broken terracotta pots. Plus unlabelled chemicals. Got 5 more bags filled and out, and found another piece of baby furniture that I took out. The garbage truck came, he emptied the big ‘toter’ and called for backup for the pile. About 30 minutes later a truck with crane and scoop came by, and took it all away. Lovely! I spent some time culling down a couple memorabilia boxes, took a short nap, and then the Salvation Army guys came. They took almost everything – wouldn’t take the coffee table as the top was too worn. But the house felt much better after all that went away.

And that evening we went to Dinosaur Barbeque. If you’re ever in Rochester or Syracuse, you have to go! Great food and a fun place. Gavin surprised us by eating 6 ribs donated from all of us plus most of the catfish that he ordered. It was nice to get out and have a fun evening.

Thursday was another rest day. Andrea’s mom came over for lunch, it was good to see her. Then afterwards I helped Andrea clean out her closet – and came away with some great stuff for me. I got a nice fleece, a couple of sweatshirts and a couple tops. So I didn’t have to do any more shopping, such a deal for both of us. She hadn’t cleaned out her closet for many years and she said it was great to have the help.

That night was the first annual (they hope) neighborhood potluck for Grandview Heights, where G&A live. Andrea is on the neighborhood association, as treasurer. The dinner was at a local church, and about 20 of the neighbors showed up with altogether too much food. I will need to stop this taste-eating soon!

Friday morning I met with the financial advisor at Chase. I think we will be able to make some good progress working with him. He had great suggestions for making moves to preserve the folks money so it benefits them for their care. He will work up a list of things to do and call Greg, as Greg’s the power of attorney he’s the only one who can authorize the moves.

That afternoon I went back to the house. John & Amy were on the road coming in, and had told me they didn’t want any of the games so I started boxing them up for pick-up on Saturday. When they arrived, I took them on a quick ‘tour de stuff’ and let them settle in. Then they started looking at the remaining nicer household things – tablecloths, placemats, vases, china sets books – and decided what they’d take. We started packing up that night as Salvation Army was making another pick-up in the morning. greg came over after work, we had pizza for dinner, and worked until about 9.

The next morning, Greg & I headed out around 8:30, stopped & picked up bagels and got to the house around 9. We breakfasted together and then got back to work. In the upper floor, I inventoried and Amy boxed stuff up. Greg & John started in the basement. The day is blurry, I got into something and was sneezing my head off for most of it. Salvation Army came & pickup up the next load around 10:30. Then Greg & John started hauling stuff to the curb, where it would magically disappear. The old cot went. The exercise machines and bicycles and clothes rack. Hooray for scavengers!

That evening, we were to have gone to dinner with the folks. But we called in the afternoon to verify and Dad said it wasn’t a good day. So we decided to go over after dinner. I think it was too many of us. Most of us took the folks up to the activity room while Andrea stayed behind and did some laundry. The folks don’t like it when you do that, but the basket is full and we feel that while we’re there, we can help out. The evening was OK, but Mom was acting up. She started tapping her glass on the table to get attention although she didn’t speak. In the general din, I was the only one who noticed, I thought. Then she started asking Dad what time it was, in a pointed way that, decoded, means “I want to leave now and I’m pissed that you’re not getting it.” The she slid forward in her chair and tried to kick Dad under the table but she couldn’t reach so she banged her foot on the underneath of the table for a while. Again, it went unnoticed by dad, who was enjoying himself. Finally she asked the time again and said it was time to go to bed. So they all headed off back to the apartment. I took Gavin to the library, and he & I sat and read a Far Side book until everyone was ready to go. Andrea debriefed us on the way home, she had found several pairs of urine-soaked sweatpants (Mom’s) in the laundry cart so she wanted to do all the laundry. Plus, the beds needed remade. Mom’s only had a mattress pad on it that she was using as a blanket. (Andrea had noticed Mom’s bids for attention, too.)

Sunday was much a repeat of Saturday. But by the end of the day, we had the basement almost all cleared out. Now we’re down to a small amount of stuff to look through, and a small amount to decide about – sell it? eBay? To be decided later.

John & Amy joined us for dinner at G&As, then they went to visit with Mom & Dad. That did not go well either, John said Mom was wearing some slippers with a big hole in them and he asked if that was the only pair she had, went to her closet and fetched out another pair in much better shape and faced the wrath of Jackie. She bitched him out for touching her stuff. He said that her perspective was one possibility, another was that we love her and are caring for her. She rejected that pretty much. We all talked about how difficult she’s getting while at the same time needing more care. Don’t know how this will go, but we are trying to convince Dad that the aides can handle Mom, and that he needs to use their help.

I got back from Rochester on Tuesday morning. My first challenge was to get it together as the Book Group was coming over on Wednesday morning. It was actually pretty easy, as Logan had cleaned the apartment and gotten some groceries that I had requested. I was so tired that day that I was able to sleep early, got up early on Wednesday and got the place arranged for 10 women to sit & talk. This involved almost all the chairs in the place, but it did work. We were discussing the book ‘Snow’ by Orhan Pamuk. Interesting book, but most of us found it hard to read.

And I'll stop here for now. It is a beautiful day outside, I will get out in it!

Back in Rochester

2006-02-03T12:35:00.000+01:00

I am back in Rochester for a couple weeks. The intent is to continue clearing out the folk’s house, and help with the folks as much as possible. I had gotten a great fare on Lufthansa into JFK, but then hadn’t found a good connection from there to Rochester, so I booked a US Airways flight out of La Guardia. I got into JFK on Monday the 31st in great time, arrived a bit early and zoomed through customs. I was thinking that I could make the Jet Blue flight, just blow off the transfer to the other airport and the fare - and I should have! Instead I got the bus to La Guardia to find my flight had been delayed. It was supposed to take off at 10 p.m., I didn’t end up leaving until midnight. That made for a very long day.

On Tuesday the 1st, I went over to visit with Mom while Dad went to a doctor’s appointment. Got there around 11, Mom was still in bed. It took about an hour to chivvy her into getting dressed, and we went to lunch together. Her dementia has really progressed. And it’s bringing out a ‘victim’ side to her personality - everything that is wrong is external. For example, she says that the washing machine is leaving rust stains on things. Well, no, it’s her leaving stains on clothing & sheets. Andrea, my angel saint sister-in-law discovered this last Friday, and wouldn’t go along with the cover story. She said that she & Mom had a fight about it, but Andrea was not about to let Mom sleep in soiled sheets. So Mom got to vent, which was cathartic (but she won’t remember it.) I guess Mom also expressed dissatisfaction with her life, but when pressed, couldn’t say what it was that she had wanted that was missing. At this point we don’t know if she is expressing what she’s thinking or what the disease makes her think. It’s very weird to try and be cordial with her while not believing much that she says. She’s all over the place temporally when she talks, so she could be describing an event that happened many years ago, or an event that she thinks happened that didn’t. Mom was very sweet during my visit. At the end, she said “Did you see what Carole sent me?” and showed me the birthday card I had sent her from Germany, in July. I didn’t have the heart to ask her who she thought I was at that point.

Dad is looking better. They both are seeing a new doctor who is a geriatric specialist, and also at the Park Ridge hospital, on the campus where they’re living. So it’s easier to get to the doc and he really knows how to talk with them and pull info out of them. He’s changed their blood pressure meds and we think that’s why Dad looks better - Dad’s off the hydrochlorothyozyme (or how ever you spell that!) which is a strong diuretic. So Dad’s face looks fuller, his breath is better and weirdly, swelling in his legs is way down. We had thought the swelling was due to heart problems but it seems not.

The new doc also told Mom that she needs to eat & drink more. She’s back down to 95 pounds as she’s staying in bed through breakfast and sometimes not getting up for lunch. She really fights Dad on anything so he doesn’t push too hard. We are thinking it’s time to get an aide in the mornings to get Mom dressed and moving. That will be one of the things that I will work on while I’m here, reinforcing to them that it would be a help. This is mostly addressed to Dad, if we can coach him on how to get Mom to accept it, they will both benefit.

After I left the folks I did some banking, and then went to Wegmans. What a delight that it, after shopping in Germany for months! Wegmans is Whole Foods combined with Draegers with the best sub shop (those are sandwiches, for those not from the Northeast), donut shop, bakery and drug store. I stocked up on our vitamins, got wax paper & paper lunch bags (they don’t have these in Germany, they have parchment paper and kids go home for lunch), some spices and socks. Yes, socks! I was amazed to find them but thrilled as that is one more side trip I don’t have to make. I’m wearing through socks fast, doing lots of walking in my heavier boots.

Got back to Greg & Andrea’s around 4 and forced myself to stay awake until 9. It takes me a while to get over the jet lag, although my 25-hour day the day before helped to force me to synch up.

Yesterday, Andrea and I went to the campus where Mom & Dad are, and looked at the complex that offers a higher level of care. We want to be prepared if the folks suddenly need it. It’s a great community that this health group has built. There’s Woodland Village, where the folks are, that offers assisted living - apartments, lunch & dinner in the dining hall, and aides as requested (and that is an extra charge). There are about 120 rooms there. The Hamlet, across the parking lot, offers 3 meals a day and aide service is included - they bring medications at the proper times, and help with dressing & bathing, and bring people to activities. There are about 30 rooms there, and we got the folks on a waiting list just in case we need to move them.

Then Andrea & I went to the folks house. Did some more clearing out of the obvious. The problem is becoming that there’s still a lot of stuff left that we don’t want to toss or donate, at least just yet. So we have to find places for the stuff. My other brother John & his wife Amy are coming in next week to look at the stuff and might take some - there are lots of vases, candleholders, tablecloths, etc. left that are quite nice.

I will go back to the house today and gather up a pile of papers & boxes and boxes of slides (remember those, instead of photo prints Dad got slides) to take to storage at the folk’s place. Last Friday Andrea took the folks over to the house to see if they wanted anything more from it, and Dad had her make that pile. But with them and his walker in the car, you’ve got no room to move stuff. I will also grab the old tax returns and financial papers from decades ago, and take them to a walk-in shred place that I found on the web.

We could bring them back to G&A’s for a bonfire - the weather has been beautiful, it was 45 degrees and sunny yesterday - but it’s too hard to manage all those papers in a fire. And it might rain today. But it’s better than snow! I am hope for good weather until I leave, they have had a very mild winter so far.

Pictures of Malta

2006-01-31T11:24:00.000+01:00

I have a bit of time before I have to leave for the airport so I thought I'd add some pictures from Malta.

The island is steep in places, and these stairs were built so the knights could clank up to their lodgings from the fortress. Apparently, you can't step up too high when you're in full armor.

Many of the street corners contain these niches with saints and other statuary. This one made me think “… and your little dog, too!”

This is a view of Fort Elmo at Valetta (the main city), hanging over the side from Upper Barracca Gardens.

The Siege Bell Memorial. Malta’s been conquered, a lot. The signs warn people that the bell is rung at noon.

Kids having fun after school.

Part of the view across the harbor. You can see how high the walls were built.

This is at dusk, looking towards Fort Elmo.

Me at one of the old temples, Mnajdra. It may have been built 3000 years BC, they're not sure exactly, but it's oneof the oldest structures on the planet.

The "Silent City" of Mdina. Built to be defensible, no street is longer in a straight line than an arrow can fly.

Looking out over one of the canyons, to the main bus terminal and our hotel, the Phoencian.

Another Frankfurt Story

2006-01-30T18:37:00.000+01:00

So, our flight to Malta was routed through Frankfurt. And I now have another ‘don’t fly through Frankfurt” story.

Our flight was delayed due to thick ground fog, so we landed 10 minutes late. We had barely 40 minutes to get our connecting flight. We came into the ‘A’ terminal, somewhere in the 20s – it was hard to see. Our connecting flight was out of gate B55. Frankfurt is a huge airport – bigger than Dallas Fort Worth, more spread out. We had looked at the terminal layout in the flight magazine and saw an underground tunnel to get from A to B.

We walked and walked, and finally got to the tunnel. Walked through it and finally got to A – it took about 25 minutes. We did have to go through security again on the way. No problem there, everyone was waiting to board. When they let us through, we all got onto a bus. It pulled away and started heading towards the tarmac; I thought we’d get to a plane and head up outside steps to board. But we kept going. Passed the lower gates of B, kept going. Crossed a wide open expanse with lots of other ground traffic, kept going and going.

Finally we came to a plane, and we were let out to climb up the outside steps. I looked up, and we were parked at gate A26. … Wasn’t that the gate we’d arrived at? Once we got inside, Logan asked the flight attendant. Indeed, that plane had just come in from Munich. The same @#!!! plane from the same !@##!! airline! But it took us almost an hour to get there.

“Sibirische Kalte” and other stuff

2006-01-24T18:06:00.000+01:00

Well it’s really cold here. I’m happy we’re not in Paris or Berlin, as the temp in Munich is merely -11 C, instead of -26. We have the blessing of bright sunny days, which helps make up for the cold. I am again really happy to be so close to the Ubahn station, today I zipped down there & took the train 1 stop to Karstadt, to do my grocery shopping. I did walk that far earlier, to go to the health club. I didn’t want to make that walk twice. Even in my big puffy coat, and with my big puffy boots, the cold seeped in quickly.

A week ago, I attended a memorial service for Susan, one of the ladies in the club. She was what I now consider to be young – 57 – when she died of cancer in the fall. I did not know her well, but the general feeling was ‘we in the club support each other’ so I went. Sadly, during one of the tributes, her friend mentioned the first time she’d seen Susan (when they met, just 4 years ago), she was larger than life, a wine in one hand & a cigarette in the other. Oof. DON’T SMOKE! STOP SMOKING! It’s deadly! And the health problems sneak up on you when you’re in your prime – kids just grown, you’ve sorted out all the career muddle, traveling the world.

Over the weekend, we sought a break from the cold. Logan booked us a flight to Malta, the farthest he could get us south in Europe. And as a plus (and the deciding factor) they speak English there. Had a great time wandering the island, marveling at the massive fortifications and learning quite a bit of history. I must have been asleep when they talked about Malta in the context of WWII – there were over 3500 bombing sorties over Malta, as it was so strategically important to the allied forces. It’s very close to North Africa and Italy, and served as an airplane and submarine base. The pictures of the rubble were astounding. 1 in 200 Maltese lost their lives, 1 in 70 was injured. And this type of conquest has been going on for centuries - Phonecians, Romans, Turks, etc. Fortunately, current pop culture has not overtaken them yet. And Malta & Gozo (the other island just a 15-min helicopter ride away) have some of the oldest standing stone temples on the planet. It was fascinating to walk around them. Of course, the weather wasn’t great, but that also keeps down on the number of tourists. It was much like Northern California now – cool, rainy and windy. But it wasn’t Siberian!

Fairy Tale Sights

2006-01-16T20:45:00.000+01:00

The weather broke 5 days ago, and it's been foggy in the mornings and clear throughout the day. This has led to hoarfrost, formed by the fog. The place looks like a winter wonderland until it melts (or sublimates - it's been cold!)

Today I had a 'field trip'. I've been dragooned to be secretary for Ladies International Association for 2006. We are recruiting new members, and early this morning Jackie, the Prez, picked me up & we drove to the Munich International School close to Starnberg Lake, to talk with their PTO about our club. I took these pics on the grounds of the school. Would have taken more but it was -13 Celsius and my fingers couldn't take the cold - I can't work the camera with my gloves on.

Catching up with pictures

2006-01-11T17:23:00.000+01:00

Here are some pictures I took at the local Weihnachts markt, before the weather closed in (and they closed down). These were taken at the Munchner Freiheit market, around Dec 20th. I visited 6 of these markets, which sprout on the first Advent weekend (end of November). They all were different. One was very small, maybe 10 stalls, all selling figurines to put in your creche. (Have I mentioned how overtly catholic Bavaria is?) One was a 'middle ages' market, and had only handcraft like candles, felt hats & scarves, wooden toys, teas, etc. The overall images was great, all the vendors were in period costume and the music was non-electrified. But the giant Christmas tree lit by LEDS in the middle of it all kinda ruined the effect.

This market, near our apartment, also focused on local handcraft: jewelry, pottery, clothing, toys, lots of decorative things for the home and garden, and food & drink. I miss it now, the plaza seems very empty & cold in comparison.

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New Years Eve recovery

2006-01-05T20:38:00.000+01:00

It's taken a while to catch up on sleep! Not much happening this week; Gayle is back so Breeze went home on Wednesday. I miss her, what a sweet cat!

Found some pictures of the fireworks at the Freedom Angel on New Years Eve on the Toytown site, and Adrian has graciously consented to me reposting them here. You can see, in the dark, the people at the side of the road and the fireworks going off overhead:

New Years Eve madness in Munich

2006-01-03T09:57:00.000+01:00

A little background - Logan had the week off between Christmas & New Years. He was going to rent a car but was not able to as he's in progress to get his German license, and the clerk wouldn't accept the paper saying that at the rental desk. (The previous clerk did.) So we spent time exploring the city.

On Dec 27th, the stores reopened here and we went shopping. Got me a pair of ski gloves, which I have been using every day, and got Logan a couple winter coats (good sale prices). And the next day, we went shoe shopping. He got a nicer pair of waterproof shoes and I got a great pair of warm boots.

Good thing we did that shopping, too. On Dec 30th, it was -5 Celsius here. I think that translates to about 10 degrees F. Freaking COLD!!

Fortunately, on the 31st, we had a warm spell. It was +10, which is low 40s. Everything was melting, and we wandered around during daylight exploring a part of town we hadn't really seen yet.

On New Year's Eve we stayed home for dinner, then prepped a bit for going to a friend's dinner the next day - I made a gingerbread & an appetizer. (Did this mostly to stay awake!) Then at 11:00 we left the house & went to the river Isar, east of us.

We got off the train and above ground about 11:50, and followed the crowd to the river. Well, let me tell you, it was a celebration like I've never seen. First of all, everyone carries a bottle or two of bubbly. Most people had glass champagne flutes too. (We saw a few people using disposable cups, and some drinking out of the bottles, but they were the minority.)

Second, from Dec 27th through store closing on New Year's Eve, in Munich, you can buy fireworks. So everyone loads up, heads outdoors and starts setting them off. We heard a few bangs going off all night. And heard a few in the subway stations - people do set them off there.

We ended up at at the Maximillians bridge over the river which was lined with people 4 to 5 deep both sides. Lots were setting up bottle rockets. A few were lit beforehand. Sometimes guys were lighting small bangers that they'd toss in the crowd, down low. At midnight, things really started exploding. You are literally in the middle of a fireworks display. They're going off in all directions, mostly overhead. But you gotta keep alert, because people (and it was by far mostly boy-type people) don't particularly care who's nearby when it goes off so they just light 'em and step back themselves a couple steps. Plus, some people are pretty wasted by this time. Some of the bottle rockets were going a bit more horizontally that I would have liked.

Some people had sparklers, and there were thousands of bottle rockets, some were ground displays that sprayed up like a fountain of colored light. We made our way to the edge of the crowd at the bridge, where it seemed safer, and watched for a bit. Then we walked along a river path to the Luitpold bridge and the Freedom Angel monument. This area has multiple levels, the east bank of the river is much higher than the west bank. The monument is high on the west bank, and the street curves down to bridge level. There are stairs down from the monument to a fountain plaza at bridge level. There, the street over the bridge and up to the monument was closed off. Some people were shooting off very elaborate displays and some that looked like "real" fireworks - very high cascades of golden sparks, with stage 2 and sometimes 3 extra explosions and more sparks. This area is one of the best known, and hence most crowded areas.

Took this picture of the monument back in March. The picture below is a view from the base of the monument looking down to the fountains (covered to prevent freezing) and the street and bridge. This the the area that was blocked off and covered with people setting off the fireworks.

It was still warm, the fog was rising off the river. All the smoke from the fireworks collected, making things very misty and blurry. The barrage lasted for at least 30 minutes. We could see other places in the city where the fireworks were going off, too. There are some bridges over the river where you can see a ways up & down stream, to other bridges. I'd like to be there next year.

We started making our way home, and walked a mile or so back to a train station. Passed some more displays on the way, trying to stop & watch the overhead ones while avoiding the ground-level explosions. We got off the train at Munchner Freiheit, the big plaza near our house. Just littered with spent fireworks and bottles. And this is an area surrounded by buildings. My head was ringing from all the percussion where we had been, I was glad we had gone to the river because I think being among buildings with all the bangs and echoes might have been too much for my poor ears! Got home a little after one. We could still hear random bursts from different directions, pretty much all night.

Frohe Weihnachten und ein gutes neues Jahr!

2005-12-25T15:21:00.000+01:00

The last couple weeks have been rich with holiday events. Both clubs that I belong to had a Christmas lunch, we got together with friends at the local Weihnachts Markt for gluhwein, then went for dinner at a local restaurant. I had friends over for dinner, 2 separate evenings. Stopped by the Weihnachts Markt several evenings this week to hear the bands they had playing. (Weihnachts translates into ‘sacred night’) And then we had Christmas Dinner at another friends place last night.

I have been happy with my efforts at entertaining. Having people over to dinner here is a labor of love. The first one I did, Gayle & Dawn came over. (Logan went to see ‘King Kong’.) That dinner was not too difficult to, I was able to get everything from the local MiniMal market. Then on the 20th, we had Glenn & Ewa, and Jackie over. This one was a test. I was not able to shop the day before, so that day I went to the market at ElizabethPlatz to get a chicken to roast. This involves taking the U-Bahn, then a tram, to get to the market. It turns out that they don’t grow big chickens here (I asked for one that was 3 - 4 Kilo, she said ‘Das is eine Puten! – that is a turkey!) so I ended up with 2 chickens for the 5 of us. Got some vegetables at the stand next door, and caught the tram back home. Got everything upstairs, then headed out to get the milk, butter, etc. from the local MiniMal. Got that all upstairs, then headed out again to get wine. There’s a great chain of wine shops here, Jacques Wein Depot. They have a bottle of everything open for tasting. And there’s one only a few blocks away. But they weren’t open yet, so I ended up at another market. Got those bottles home & up the stairs. By now then I want to do was take a nap!

But cooking had to start. I wanted to roast potatoes & carrots along with the chicken, but the ovens here are small. Could not fit both the roasting pan with 2 chickens in it (no room for potatoes) and a separate pan with potatoes in the oven at the same time. So I did them first. While they were cooking, I made some hummus and an artichoke dip for appetizers and prepped the brussels sprouts. Took the potatoes out, got the chickens in. Then assembled both the wet & dry ingredients for biscuits.

When people showed up, we sat in the kitchen first while I warmed the potatoes, sautéed the sprouts and assembled & baked the biscuits. The forced me to take the chickens out while the biscuits were in. It’s true what the chefs say; resting the meat for 10 – 15 minutes out of the oven makes it much juicier.

The meal was great, we used all of our 5 wine glasses, sat around & talked until almost 11. What a day! I now understand what’s involved in having people over & will always make a thank-you call the next day.

The stores and Weihnachts Markts were open yesterday until 2 p.m., and then the streets emptied. It’s been warmer here recently, and the snow is all melted from the sidewalks, so we went out walking. We headed out to Mark and Jean’s yesterday at 7 p.m., and I commented that this would be a good time to film a zombie movie. Hardly anyone on the streets or the trains, which were running a regular weekday schedule.

I still very much love the trains, trams & busses. It’s like having private transport almost to my door. Granted, I have to share with lots of other people sometimes, but I just get in & get out, don’t have to park it or wash it or gas it up. The only downside so far is the sidewalks are sometimes slippery with ice, and they throw down small gravel for traction. And that gets everywhere! I’m vacuuming every day by the door, we are trying to keep the floors in good condition.

It’s very quiet today. Tomorrow is also a holiday, nothing but restaurants are open. This week Logan had planned to rent a car, and we were going to check out interesting places nearby. But he was not able to do this. He’s currently in process to get his German license, and has surrendered his California license. Last time he was able to rent a car using the paper saying all this (in German), including the details of his California license. But not this week. Got a different clerk who said ‘nope’.

So, we will do some shopping locally – Logan needs a warmer winter coat, I need warmer gloves, I want more wine glasses and a couple more baking & serving dishes – and we’ll explore some areas of Munich that we haven’t seen. Maybe we’ll visit the Deutsches Museum, reputed to be one of the best engineering/technology museums in the world. We may also take the train to Salzburg or other places close by.

And we are cat-sitting, Gayle & Geordie brought Breeze over on Thursday night. They are back in the UK for over a week and Gayle didn’t want to leave Breeze in their apartment for that long. Their neighbor would look in & feed her, but that’s a long time for a pet to be alone. (And feeding is not the problem – Breeze is huge! She may weigh 25 pounds and she’s solid.) It’s been fun having a cat around again.

I hope you all are having a great break from your normal routine.

Simple things make me happy

2005-12-13T18:06:00.000+01:00

Another week flies by. Late last week I figured out how to get the bus to WalMart. It wasn’t a place I shopped at, in the states. But here, it is so convenient that I cannot pass it up. I loaded up on household supplies and ended up with the knapsack stuffed full and heavy (OK, there was wine in there too), a 4-pack of paper towels under my arm & 2 shopping bags. Made it home with everything intact, but it was a close thing. The design of my knapsack is such that if the zipper gets opened a bit at the top, and there’s lots of stuff in it, it unzips itself rather quickly. As I was coming off the bus I noticed some plastic cups rolling along the pavement. Yikes - those had been inside! I got the pack off and set down just in time before the wine fell out. Got it contained again & home with no further incident. I can now better gauge what I can carry, and it is not w hole shopping cart full.

On Saturday, we ended up driving back to WalMart, it seems to be the closest ‘getranke’ market – drinks – to us. I wanted to have plenty of waters and some beers on hand. It was easy to load up the cart and buy it, not so easy fitting it into the car (we took a couple plastic crates for the water and beer) and very tough taking it upstairs.

Then we got everything staged for the potluck, this involved taking the kitchen table and chairs to the dining room, and the chairs off the balcony too.

We played from 6 – 7:30 on Saturday evening, then Logan and I zoomed home (first a bus, then the U-bahn) and quick cleaned up and got the lasagna into the oven. The first guests showed up at about 8:30, everyone was there by 9. I think we didn’t start eating until 9:30. A bit late for me, considering I had been running around the court. Two of the people, Anna & Niklas, are very good players. They invited Phillip & Christiane. Phillip is the Bavarian badminton champion. Watching him play was amazing – just a blur. The sound when he smashed it – I didn’t know a badminton shuttlecock could make that noise! I have a lot to learn. Not sure how to get more practice in, I may need to find a coach.

This was the first time I’d made lasagna here, and I substituted the Bavarian ‘Quark’ for ricotta cheese. It worked out well. And, I made a huge amount so we have leftovers. The dining room table here is narrow, but with the 2 leaves open we managed to squeeze 10 of us around it. We had the kitchen table set, but ended up not needing it as a couple people couldn’t make it. So no one had to sit at the “kid’s table”.

The house is still pretty clean and picked up, so it feels nice to be here. A win all around.

It was great entertaining again, even though I miss having all my utensils, nice wine glasses, platters & plates. I will have to think carefully about what I’ll serve at future events, I don’t want to buy a bunch of stuff here, there’s just no place for it. But I did find, finally, a salad spinner. We have been using a colander, which is poorly designed in that there are no holes at the very bottom, so there’s a little puddle of water in there no matter how much you shake it. I had seen a lovely chrome job in the local equivalent of Restoration Hardware, but was NOT going to pay 155 Euros for a salad spinner! Last week I was browsing in the nearby Woolworth and there it was – a thing of beauty, to me at least. I’m very happy with my 5.95 purchase.

On Sunday we went upstairs to visit with some of the neighbors. 16:00 at the Simons, for cookies, cakes & tea. It was great to meet them and the Luhmans, who live below us. Their English is great and their friendliness was wonderful. Dr Simon is a dentist by trade and a hobbyist electrician/designer. He showed us several lamps that he’s made – a couple have ostrich eggs for the shade, and he’s drilled out stars all over the shell, so the light twinkles through. Beautiful. Their place is rich with paintings, some of which Dr. Simon’s mother has done; photos, 3 large framed racks containing test tubes filled with sands from around the world; all kinds of things to look at. It was fun to see how their place is differently configured from ours, and to see how they’ve decorated.

Christmas cookies are taken very seriously here – everyone bakes and there are several ‘must-do’ types. I really like a couple of them and will look for recipes, for next year. I think I have just about OD’ed on cookies for this year. Since I have no scale I can’t tell if they’re sticking. But I have realized it’s time to join a gym. I have not been walking much or biking at all and that’s not good. There is one pretty close to here that has reasonable prices. Meanwhile I’m walking up all the stairs I can.

Stories from the week

2005-12-07T15:42:00.000+01:00

I’m trapped in the apartment with the door open. The stairs & hallway have been undergoing renovation. It started in September, with sanding of the stairs. I was hoping it would be finished by the time I got back (Nov 20th!) but noooo. The week before I returned they started on the plaster – plaster dust everywhere! They continued the plaster and finally finished it up last week. This week, our doors and doorsills are being painted. So on Monday and today, the painter came and did prep, patching and painting. And, the door stays slightly open until it all dries. She finished around 11:30 today, so I should be able to close the door soon. The hallway looks wonderful and I’m very happy that the work is just about done. Brushing up against plaster dust or paint sandings dust in a black duvet coat provides unintended comedy for everyone on the train.

Where were we? Oh, up to Monday Nov 28th. I played badminton again. Tuesday was a work around the house kind of day, laundry & grocery shopping. Wednesday, I went on an IWC tour of the city of Dachau. The city is pretty, has been around for 1200 years (they celebrated it this past summer) and people keep suggesting that the city change it names. But, our guide explained, they don’t want what happend to be forgotten. They have just started installing stones in the street, created by an artist, to commemorate a place where a citizen was taken from and hauled off to the camps. Dachau did not have a big Jewish population even well before the war, so she said that 5 stones would be installed in the city. Apparently, this is going on Germany-wide. I’ll take a pic if I come across one, it may be a while as she also said that the city of Munich was not going to do this because they didn’t want people essentially walking on a memorial.

Thursday December 1st was another world-class museum tour, led by Alex. This trip was the Lenbach Haus, and the artist Franz Marc. There was quite a gang of us, maybe 30 in all. Alex had arranged to get the microphone & earpieces, so she could talk in a normal voice & we could all hear here. It was stellar. She knows so much of the background on the artists, and she could tell us about their lives – they were rock stars well before music got electrified – and she points out great details in the work. For example, Franz Marc started off in mostly natural pastel colors in his oils, and water colors, but ended up in electric colors in his own color scheme: "Blue is the male principle, stern and spiritual. Yellow the female principle, gentle, cheerful and sensual. Red is matter, brutal and heavy, and always the color which must be fought and vanquished by the other two.” Franz Marc (1880-1916), German painter of Der Blaue Reiter, in a letter to Auguste Macke.

Alex pointed out one watercolor, done in 1910, where he used the deep red and dark blue straight off the palette, no mixing or tempering. This marked his departure into the deep colors and away from natural colors. She is like a detective, delving into the 'what happened here' behind turning points in an artist's work. So cool.

After the tour, I met Gayle for lunch. She has been doing amazingly well in launching her business. Unlike other people I’ve worked with, she faces the hard stuff & motors through it. For example, she didn’t have set prices for her treatments – Reiki, Aromatherapy Massage, etc. We talked about pricing and when I was gone, she worked up a price list (her partner, Geordie, helped) and put it out there. She had been telling a few people some very low prices, because she just wanted to get out there & start working, but it didn’t take too long to convince her that market rate was what she needed to do. So she did it. And she’s come up with packages, like a Baby Massage class for moms & infants, and a ‘Dolly Treat’s day for little girls. So her work is increasing and I’m cheering as much as I can.

Friday I had to make a trek out of town, to get to the local FedEx office. It had been warmer Thurs night, and froze overnight with ice crystals forming on all the trees. Friday was clear, with bright sun and a high cornflower blue sky. The trees were gorgeous and unreal looking, covered in white that had formed ¼ inch crystals from all the branches. I was glad to be out in it. Got off the train, looked for the bus but didn’t see one, and decided to walk. On the map it showed 3 or 4 blocks to my destination. I got onto the right street, looking for #28 Zepplinstrasse, and I was at #2. Walked & walked, finally came to #4. Walked & walked, my toes starting to get cold, my legs freezing, now I pass #10! It was an industrial area and each number on the street was a block or so to itself. I finally got there, completed my errand, and turned around to do it again. I had my workout before I ever got to badminton that day. Walking on icy snow, in a long coat, provides the same sensation as walking in water – lots of work but you don’t get very far very fast.

Saturday the 3rd, the weather turned really nasty. It was just freezing, and of course it was raining lightly. That night was the IWC Christmas party. We took public transport and got there just fine. It was a good party and I’m glad we went.

Monday, trapped in the apt, I made cookies for the cookie exchange on Tuesday. There were about 20 people at that party at Debbie’s house, everyone brought lots of cookies and one ornament or decoration gift. We had a Yankee gift exchange, and everyone got into the strategy of when to steal which and what still-wrapped gifts to pick. I was the last to pick. I had had my eye on something for 15 minutes and got to steal it. I scored a great tote bag, and returned the Christmassy soaps that were part of the gift to the woman I’d stolen it from. She hadn’t wanted the tote bag, but really loved the soaps, and gave me the ornament she picked (which was the one that she had brought!) so it was a win all around. I got a ride back close to home from Kate, in her Smart car. They are quite roomy inside – just don’t look behind you and you’d think you were in a regular car. She said that she’s even brought things home from Ikea in it, the passenger seat folds down & the back window is a hatch back so something long can extend outside. (Of course, if you had taken someone to Ikea with you, they’re taking the train home!)

Monday night was Vicki’s leaving dinner. Vicki’s on her way to Campbell, and looking for work in the Bay area. I believe I will send her to TMD! You guys will love her. I am sorry that she’s going and glad to have met her.

Well, I’m pretty much caught up. I need to go work on prep for the lasagna I’m making for the couples badminton pot luck Saturday night. It’s going to be here at our apartment – and it’s really interesting thinking about having people over with very little in the way of glasses, serving dishes, space … all the things I had collected in California. I have to think of it like camping, making the best with what we brought over.

Beautiful, snowy Munich

2005-12-06T19:09:00.000+01:00

Well, whaah. We were going out tonight, to one of the Christmas Markets, but Logan just called and not only is he not on the way home, he’s still in a meeting. So I have made myself a snack and decided to spend the time updating you, dear readers.

It is lovely to be here for the Christmas season. I don’t understand enough of the language to be getting blasted with the “BUY something” message from the shops & papers; and I’m not watching local TV so I don’t get the commercials. It also seems quite a bit less emphasized herre. What they do have lots of, is Christkindl markets. (Christkindl, the Christ Child, is the one who brings the presents here.) So, most of the pedestrian plazas have bloomed with wooden huts, filled with handcrafts, food, Gluhwein and Christmas ornaments. The markets are packed, people meet their friends for a mug of Gluhwein or punch, and wander around looking & shopping.

It’s great to wander around the markets, looking at everything and sipping – what’s that you say? Gluhwein? Simply one of the best winter inventions of mankind – hot mulled red wine. Sold by the mugsfull at the markets. The spicy scent rises in the cold air & mingles with the smell of grilling sausages, altogether making me hungry! So, we were going to go to winter Tollwood, which is a very large market held on the Oktoberfest grounds, but it’s not to be tonight. I hope for tomorrow night.

I have been busy the past couple weeks. One day after I got back, on Nov 21st, there was a meeting of the incoming board for Ladies International Association. I have somehow gotten myself elected to be secretary for 2006. Should be interesting. The next day was evening set-up for their annual craft & clothing fair – a fund raiser for the charities we support. I was OK during the day, but took a late afternoon train out to where we meet, to help with set-up, and was falling asleep on the train. I just couldn’t help it. Going either way, around 3 – 4 in the afternoon I can’t seem to stay awake. But I didn’t miss my stop. And it turned out that they place had sold the room for that night, so we were only able to set up the clothing.

A note about this – there is a thriving second-hand clothing scene here. I have seen several second-hand shops in the city, womens mostly but men’s clothing too. The ladies in this club work their contacts all year and get great stuff donated – lots of designer stuff. Mostly too small or big for me.

The next day, Wednesday the 23rd, was the fair. I got there early to help with the set-up, and work the craft table. And of course, shop. I didn’t see any books I wanted, and the white elephant table held no interest either. So I entered the tombola, and won a couple things. This seems to be a European thing, they all know the word ‘tombola’. To set one up, you gather lots of prizes, wrap them and give them all a number. Then you sell chances, which are tightly rolled slips of paper, most saying ‘better luck next time’. If you get a slip with a number on it, you’ve won the corresponding prize. I won a great casserole dish, blue & white, Polish pottery; a faux-leopard neck warmer and a box of greeting cards that I promptly put on the white elephant table – they had clowns on them.

I had not seen any clothes that I needed or that fit, but one of the other club members pointed me to a suit – beautiful sage green skirt & jacket, Bavarian style. Jacket fit, skirt a little too big but easily remedied. At that point in the day, the clothing was ½ price, so I got it for 10 Euros. Quite a bargain!

That night, I took a U-Bahn to nearby Lehel, and met Gayle for dinner, it was great to see her again. She was also a wonderful listener, she’s worked with elderly and mentally challenged people too and she knew just what I was facing with my folks. It helps to talk about it. (A girl thing, I know.)

The next day, Thanksgiving. For the other club, International Women’s Club, I’m on the ‘monthly lunch out’ committee. One of the other committee members had arranged for an American Thanksgiving lunch at Der Pschorr, essentially a brew pub at the edge of the Victualienmarkt, in downtown Munich. Der Pschorr is now the anchor of the newly opened Schrannenhalle, and we had tables on the balcony overlooking the open marketplace. It was beautifully decorated. Lunch was great – the server brought out the roasted turkey for us to admire and we broke into applause. There were mashed potatoes, (or ‘creamed potatoes’ as they call them here), steamed veggies and roasted sweet potatoes. Lunch was wonderful.

Afterwards, I went home to prepare my dish to take to … Thanksgiving Dinner – that night. Eva asked a few people over including Logan & me, and she prepared a beautiful roasted turkey, onions roasted with balsamic vinegar, a fresh leek salad, corn bread, polish-style cauliflower & broccoli (lightly simmers, drained & covered with buttered bread crumbs), I’m sure there were potatoes in there, I brought a sweet potato casserole, did I mention there were hors d’oeuvres? And sweet potato pie? And chocolates? And Eva-made biscotti? Oof! Dinners at Evas are well-known to be delicious eating marathons.

Friday the 25th I played badminton. Thank god for some exercise! And made another sweet potato casserole to take to … the Thanksgiving Dinner potluck on Saturday! Susie Lenz often hosts a potluck, there’s room in her house for lots of people, which is good – 31 showed up. She cooked 2 enormous turkeys and made gravy, and all the guests brought the rest. Someone brought a huge pan of my favorite kind of stuffing. That, the turkey and gravy is all I need! We had gotten a ride out with Eva & her husband Glenn, and a ride back with Lizbeth and her husband Roman and considered ourselves very lucky for all.

Sunday, the 27th, Logan had reserved spaces for the new Harry Potter movie. I really like this system. You reserve tickets on-line, then show up and pick seat when you purchase the tickets. We went early, and then lunched at a nearby Indian restaurant. Liked the movie, and how it focused more on the characters. It still left out huge hunks of the book perforce.

On the way back we stopped at Marianplatz, and walked around looking at the Christkindl markt - lots of little wooden huts, with people selling things. Mostly Christmas decorations at this one, and all pretty similar to each other. Touristy, I think. We continued on home, got off the train at Munchner Freiheit and walked through the Christkindl markt there. Much more interesting products. This market is a crafts & craftworkers market. In one stall, selling beautiful glass necklaces, the crafter was making the beads. We saw furniture and lighting and ceramics on our quick way through. I need to dress a bit more warmly to browse these outside shops - and I will!

Did I mention that it was a bit below freezing, with occasional snow, here? I had spent my last couple days in the states near Boston, visiting my friend Maggie. What a wonderful antidote that was, too. Chatting & hanging out with her & her family was a great decompression from dealing with mine. Maggie & I go way back, to college. She met her husband, Mike, at GE, about when I met Logan there. Logan had sent her an email showing the view off our balcony – the snowy snowy view off our balcony. I panicked, we went to Macys & I bought a real winter coat. They call them ‘duvet’ coats here – the quilted, hollowfill kind. It is toasty warm and washable. I had a hell of a time getting all my stuff, plus this big puffy coat, back, but I did it. My big suitcase weighed in at just 50 pounds. Lots of vitamins came back with me – they are so much cheaper in the states!

... and I need to stop now & go make dinner. More soon, I promise!

It's a frikin epidemic

2005-11-29T19:29:00.000+01:00

Tuesday, November 29, 2005
Well I think the jet lag has finally started to go away. No matter what I do, I’m waking up at midnight. But at least now I’m getting back to sleep.

So, everyone I talk with back here inquires how my vacation was. I gently (or I think it’s gently) let them know that I was clearing out my folks house, that they are now in assisted living as we’re pretty sure Mom is mid-stage Alzheimers and Dad was no longer able to keep up with the house, finances, food & clothing all by himself. Then almost everyone shares a story of Alzheimers in their family, or someone close. I had no idea this was so widespread, and growing. From the research I’ve done on-line, there are lots of people studying it but no definitive statements as to cause or prevention. Certainly no hope of cure.

Mom seems to fade in & out. There are times when she’s right there with you, and then on the next interaction – the phone rings, or you ask her something, or she turns her head & catches sight of something – she’s gone again. I had the folks over to their old house a couple times. The second time, Dad had a list of things he wanted to gather. We picked out some books from the living room bookshelves. Mom would read a title – or try to, and then she’s reach for a book – which she could not lift from the shelves. Granted, the ones she reached for were larger, coffee-table size books but her weakness is very troublesome. At one point, Mom & I ended up in the guest bedroom, which was pretty much cleared except for several antique quilts. She recognized them, saying her grandmother had probably made them. We unfolded one to look, and I refolded it. She glanced at the next one, then back to the first saying “Oh, I think my grandmother made this” and unfolded it again. And again. And again. It was like being in some bad science fiction movie but it was real and it was my mother.

One of the processes that is very broken is her ability to reason. For example, my brother John was there over the weekend. When he arrived on Friday, she was still in bed at 12:30. She was too cold to get up. (I think she’s down to about 8% body fat.) She hadn’t eaten anything yet either. So John said, let’s get you dressed in warm clothes” pointing to the warm things in her room. Her reply was “I don’t know whose clothes those are.” She knew she was in her bed, in her room and there normally would be a bridge to ‘therefore these must be my clothes’ but there isn’t.

I have not seen that she’s aware there’s something wrong. She doesn’t question why they moved, nor why people correct her a lot. We are trying not to do this too much, but it’s hard when she says “I don’t have any clothes” or “I don’t have any jewelry” or “I don’t have any money”. We all try to be moderately cheerful and say “O, look at your closet full of beautiful clothing” or “Here’s your jewelry” and show it to her.

I had only noticed one time during the visit that she was aware that we thought there’s something wrong with her. It was a paranoid, bitching, “why are you all conspiring against me” kind of day. But we dealt with it head on. She fought hard for an hour or so, but we kept being straight with her and not getting too mad in return. It wore her down and after her nap she was fine & cheery again. John said that during his visit she was pretty upset when she asked “Who’s is this?” referring to the CD player from their house, that Greg had gotten over to their place and hooked up. When John said “It’s yours, from your old house” she burst into tears. He thinks it’s because she then thought she should have recognized it.

Mom also told John that she'd like to visit the house, because she hasn't been back. I'll bet she doesn't remember that I was there visiting a couple weks ago.

Her primary care physician (PCP) isn’t helping. Mom had an appointment a couple weeks ago and the PCP put her on an additional, diuretic blood pressure med. There isn’t a spare ounce of water in this woman. Result was, coupla days after Mom started taking the additional drug, she passed out. Fortunately, she was with Dad in his doctor’s waiting room at the time. She’s no longer on that drug. We still don’t have a diagnosis for her, although she has started seeing a specialist at the local, highly rated memory disorders clinic. Her first appointment was during my visit, and the doc saw her alone, only calling Dad in for the last 15 minutes. We don’t yet know the findings, or even the process for this but Mom was scheduled to have an MRI today (I hope dad got her to go) and from what I’ve read, the evaluation + MRI are done to eliminate possible causes of dementia. If it’s nothing else, then it’s Alzheimers. And even that doesn’t tell you too much.

And, last week, Dad called Greg very quietly, muffled in a pillow to say that Mom didn’t recognize him. I tell people this & they say “Oh yes, my father | mother | father-in-law | etc. called the police on their spouse | kids saying there were strangers in the house.”

It’s a frikin epidemic.

Hopeful sidebar: There is some interesting research being done with respect to vitamins, like in this article from the BBC:
Folic acid cuts dementia risk

Eating plenty of folic acid - found in oranges, lemons and green vegetables - can halve the risk of Alzheimer's disease, a study has suggested.

US National Institute on Aging experts monitored diets over seven years. They found adults who ate the daily recommended allowance of folates (B vitamin nutrients) had a reduced risk of the disease.

UK researchers said the study added weight to previous suggestions folates could reduce Alzheimer's risk. … there’s more on the link.

And I’m also interested in vitamin D. In medical work done before I left the states, I was found to be waaay low on vitamin D. I always crave to be outside in the sunshine, and found myself with seasonal affective disorder – at least that’s what I interpreted the not wanting to get out of bed on the dark, gloomy days was! Discover Magazine had a recent story on nutrition, and the sidebar on vitamin D said, in part: “Vitamin D is unusual in that we don’t get it from our food: We synthesize it by being out in the sun. But our whole cultural evolution has been to remove us from sunlight. … We realized that vitamin D deficiency was a problem 50 or 60 years ago, when children living in cities in the northern United States began to develop rickets. In response, a major public health program began adding vitamin D to milk. And that was pretty effective; it almost eliminated rickets from the United States. Now, cases of rickets are reemerging. Children’s Hospital in Oakland is seeing frequent incidences. The recommended daily allowance for vitamin D is 400 international units—about what you get in a glass of milk. If you’re outside on a sunny day, though, you make almost 20,000 IUs. Four hundred is a drop in the bucket. It’s enough to prevent rickets, but that’s about it. Low vitamin D levels increase the risk of certain cancers, possibly multiple sclerosis as well, and possibly other conditions like asthma.” Walter Willett, professor of epidemiology and nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health.

So I’m happy that I moved from the northeast to California. It’s not nearly as sunny here in Munich, though. But the extra vitamin D that I’m taking seems to be helping.

Back in Germany

2005-11-21T10:11:00.000+01:00

I’m back in Munich, got in eary Sunday morning. The flight back to Germany was great- it was only a little over 6 hours, from Boston to Frankfurt. But the transfer in the Frankfurt airport – yeech! The airport is huge and is different from any airport I’ve been in yet. We all piled off the plane into what looked like a regular departure gate area, but walked and walked and then finally came to passport control. I had to transfer to another terminal, to get the final quick flight to Munich. Much more walking, and at one point I passed a security area where people were just streaming in. Seemed odd to me, at 5:30 a.m. on a Sunday.

I followed the signs to my terminal around the corner and the mystery was solved – this was re-screening for everyone off an international flight, connecting to another flight. That line took 30 minutes, easily. Then the walk to my terminal took another 15 minutes. I got to the gate early, so I sat & watched news on TV. About 15 minutes before my flight was supposed to board, there was still no activity. I checked at the counter, and the gate had moved, from A4 to A28. Well, I needed the exercise so all the walking actually felt OK, Would have been better if I was not carrying so much.

Got to that gate, and there were lots of passengers milling around, and the sign said “Munich”. (Well, it said ‘Munchen’ but I knew what it meant.) But I heard someone ask about the flight and the woman working the counter said it had moved gates. I stepped up and asked, and she said that the gate had moved, to A30 and this gate was now the flight to Marseilles. But they don’t have any way to change what the sign says.

Talk about the system running the people! And they didn’t have any hand-done signs up, weren’t making any announcements. In addition to this problem, in this airport there are few Arrival/Destination screens, so it takes a lot of walking to find out any information. I was looking for toilets and kept walking & walking & seeing no signs. I was thinking, this can’t be right, there have to be toilets somewhere. And they are everywhere, once you know where to look! Each departure lounge has a small toilet off to the side, so there are no overhead signs.

So, either make sure you have lots of time to transfer in Frankfurt or avoid it.

I am still feeling unreal & not quite here. The fact that it’s snowing outside does not help this one bit. I have not lived in snow for 18 years. I did buy a winter coat while visiting Maggie, figured that the things they were selling in the Boston area would work for here too.

I have many more thoughts about the work in Rochester, clearing out my folks house. More later, if I manage to stay awake.

Finishing up for this trip

2005-11-17T09:21:00.000+01:00

Well, I have run out of time in Rochester. Have made a good start on clearing out the obvious in the folks house, with the huge exception of Dad's workshop area, gardening area and his work papers, minerals & fossils. The problem now is there's still an awful lot left that the folks won't need (like 3 sets of old china of no particular value, I checked on eBay); their memorabilia; their parents memorabilia, etc. and that is still a big pile of stuff. Now, where to put it?

It will probably wait for a while until I get back; Greg & Andrea can only get to a little bit at a time, between all that they do. They have been doing the day to day running to get things the folks need, managing the bills, sorting out the finances. I may need to get back here soon to help out some more.

Other than the work, it's been a lovely visit. We've had some great dinners, I've played in the yard with Gavin, board games with Gavin, and took him to the movies. I have enjoyed being here & helping out.

Now, on to Boston for a couple days to visit my best friend Maggie. Then back to Munich.

It's not "Too Good" to use

2005-11-08T06:20:00.000+01:00

Another edition about stuff - if it’s in your house, it’s not “too good” to use! I have been finding a few things still in their original packaging - placemat sets, cute little soap dish with rosebud soaps, etc. They were deemed “too good” to use. And now they’re getting sent off to the Salvation Army. Not what their giver or purchaser intended. So, if you have anything like that lurking, splurge! Use it!

Made more progress yesterday, I took the folks to the optician to get Mom new glasses. Then we went to their house and gathered some things. Made some real finds, things Dad has been looking for “for years”. He also dug up 3 Gingko trees, very small, and I potted them. Then I made him go through a pile of clothes of his. He’s just not interested in that kind of stuff. (Never has been.) We ended the day out for lunch. Gotta go to a place that has soup. The place they’ve moved to offers soup at lunch & dinner, and Mom has become accustomed to that as a choice. I think there’s a Seinfeld routine in that, eating dinner at 4:30 and must have soup.

Also made more progress on their finances. Found out that there was NO beneficiary designation on one of Dad’s accounts, we’ll work to remedy that. Found out how to get permission to revise the investment options in one of Mom’s accounts; there’s a big automatic distribution that does not have to be so big, and it’s just been rolling into her savings account earning hardly anything. So we’ll fix that over the next month so that account will grow, instead.

All in all, it was a good day.

With renewed energy I am off to their house today to attack some of the junk and sort through some more of their household things - there’s lots of bedding left in the house and they could use another spare set at their apartment. And, it’s Garbage Eve at their house so I can bag up a lot of stuff and leave it at the curb.

The fun hasn't stopped

2005-11-07T07:14:00.000+01:00

Second week in Rochester. I got the load of clothes out of the folks house on Friday, and to the Salvation Army with Andrea's help. 17 large garbage bags of stuff. And there’s a bit more clothing to come.

Went over to visit with the folks on Saturday, and drop off some of the things from their house, that they can use. (They still had not put away the things I dropped off on Monday. So I think it’s time to stop bringing them things. We’ll put things in their storage unit and swap them out as necessary.)

Sunday, we spent some time trying to understand their finances, we think we have a good handle on that now. Greg & Andrea have been sorting through it all, Dad was in process of transferring from one bank to another when he had his stroke, so that has taken a while to resolve. G&A have been paying the bills, taking checks over for Dad to sign. They had a great start at understanding everything and getting access to some accounts.

Now there’s a list of things to do at the bank - getting access to all the accounts. Simplifying by combining a couple of accounts. And perhaps moving some money from savings to an account that makes them more income. So working that is on my plate for this week, plus working more at the house. I started finding things that should be kept or sold, instead of donated. And there is still a tremendous amount of junk to be discarded. 50 years worth of vases and baskets from flower arrangements, carefully stored and in great condition. But junk. And saved jars, and a huge amount of pots & pans. And I have still not even looked at Dad’s area in the basement. Full basement, his workbench area has grown to take a quarter of it. Piled with stuff.

Today I am picking the folks up and taking them to the optician, Mom is getting new glasses. Afterwards, Dad wants to go to the house and - here’s the big important thing - dig up 3 Gingko trees (twigs, actually) and get them in pots to take over to their apartment. I really really want to vent at them for all the crap that we’re wading through in the house, but that would not serve any good purpose. Hence, the blog!

And, Ellen wrote in an addition to my last entry, that I heartily echo - people, please get your photos in albums and label them as to place, date and who the heck these people are! I have found wads of pictures that I believe my Mom got when her Mom died in the early 80s. I don’t know who the people are, why we have their picture, where or when they were taken. So postpone the ironing or the lawn mowing and work a bit on what’s important - the family history and memories.

Embedded in Rochester

2005-11-03T06:54:00.000+01:00

I’ve been in Rochester about a week now. The flight was good - I am liking Lufthansa quite a bit. I flew into Boston, then took a United commuter flight from there, actually flown by US Airways. And my checked luggage made it! Everything was on time.

I have visited with my folks 3 times; I head over to their apartment around 11 and we stroll to the dining room and get lunch. The place, Woodland Village at Park Ridge, is pretty nice. Their apartment is big and hold most of their furniture from their house. The food is good and all the staff I have met so far are cheerful and patient. Which is good, because many other people in the place are in about the same state as Mom - short term memory shot. She sets something down and then doesn’t recognize it; she asks the same question 3 or 4 times during the course of lunch.

Dad is doing OK, getting around with his walker. He’s been making lists of things to bring over from their house. He does OK with Mom, keeping her reoriented and answering the same question several times in an hour, keeping track of the various doctor appointments, and the items Mom says she needs. I think it is quite a load on him, but he’s not asking for help. They’ve been at Woodland a couple months now and he seems to be settling in. I have retrieved some of the things he needs, and have been starting to do a deep sort and discovery at their house.

A plea - people, clean out your houses! Have integrity - if you haven’t fixed that thing or done that craft in the 10 or 20 or 30 years since you started, pass it on to someone else! If the clothes don’t fit you, pass them on! If you have kept 30 empty glass jars from the applesauce, etc. and have only ever used 2 to save something in, get rid of the other 28! And please, please don’t make your kids clean out your house.

I am cycling through such emotions as I work at the house. I’m clearing out clothes that Mom hasn’t worn in 20 years - lovingly ironed, pinned in place in a hanger that she padded by wrapping with plastic bags. I’m angry that so much effort was spent on clothing, sad because she must have entertained hopes of wearing the nice clothes again, upset that the house chores seemed to keep them both bound to the house - they never really traveled, even after the kids left. The time & effort they spent on that house - all non-work time seemed to be dedicated to raking, mowing, weeding, planting, washing, ironing, cleaning, painting, modifying. And they weren’t big on making it any easier for them, ever. Us kids have escaped that, probably as a reaction against how much work they did, repetitively. I have not lived in a house with a big lawn since 1987. Haven’t ironed more than quarterly in decades. (This may be different in Germany, as the dryer doesn’t seem quite so ‘permanent-press’ friendly). Have a clothes dryer & dishwasher. My brothers similarly make it easier on themselves as they can.

I had thought that there wouldn’t be quite so much to do in my folks house, as in Logan’s Mom’s house last year, when we moved her to a smaller, single story house. Well, I think I was wrong. I have gotten to half of the scary attic place - where there isn’t a floor but just boards on rafters (I hope to not fall through the ceiling of the room below) - but I glimpsed the stash in the finished part of that attic yesterday. Full full full. So I will go over there today and work on getting all that hauled out into the main room, which thankfully is cleared of furniture, as it all went to their apartment. We will be making a Goodwill run soon, with all the clothes that are impossibly too big for Mom. (She’s probably a size 6 now, and had clothes up to a size 16. I found some size 14 pants with notes on them ‘Adjust waistband’. Nope, they go OUT - she puts on something that big and it swims on her & upsets her. The same for lovely tops with fiddly tiny little buttons - out they go.)

If you have kids, when your kids leave the house, make them take all their crap with them or threaten to throw it out yourselves. And then do it. I dunno what to do with some of the stuff I’m finding, it has memories for me but in this moment it’s hard to let it go. Would have been much easier 20 years ago. I’m setting aside things for Greg & John to go through. The folks apartment is spacious, but we cannot clutter it up with stuff. That just confuses Mom and makes it harder for them to get to the stuff they do need.

Dad kept fewer clothes, so his closet is much easier to deal with. I bought him a long-sleeved polo shirt and took it over on Monday as a test, he promptly put it on and it looks great on him. No fiddly little buttons there either, so we will be getting him more of these. And then I think, why couldn’t he think to look for something different to wear as his tremula increased, making it darn near impossible for him to button a shirt? It’s a thing with them, not living in a universe where they can seek out help/better/different outside of themselves and what they’ve always known. It has been hard for them to get used to using the driving service at the Woodlands. When I first visited, Mom said she was out of lipstick. So, Mom, I said, reserve the driver and have the car take you to the store. “I can’t do that.” she said. Well, yes, it’s what it’s there for. “No, I can’t do that - please mister take me to the store.” (the last said in a pitiable, begging tone.) I told her that she needs to use the service because Dad should not be driving. That threw her for a loop.

Dad driving - be afraid, be very afraid. His reaction time to anything is very very slow. He has been taking a driver’s assessment class & tests, the first part was written and the second will be an actual driving experience. I am hoping that that pierces his veil of self-deception. He thinks he’s fine behind the wheel. He’s got a lot of this city in muscle memory. But if anything has changed, or anything happens fast, he won’t react to it fast enough, I fear. But, he has been moving so slowly on everything that he may just give up on getting his car.

Time to breakfast and get over to my day of emotional roller coaster, dusty hard work. Whoo hoo!

Peri & Brian were here!

2005-10-25T16:07:00.000+02:00

When I last left off, Peri & Brian had just arrived. They got here on Tuesday the 18th around 10 a.m. I met them at the airport and we took the Lufthansa bus into town. It turns out that it stops 4 blocks from the apartment, how convenient.

The weather was great – crisp fall sunny day. We got into the apartment through the work zone – the hall is being redone: stairs & landings sanded, some structural work, and then they’ll paint. So we’re now entering the apartment through 2 sheets of plastic taped up to keep out the dust. Peri commented that it was like going through a beaded curtain.

After we had lunch, we headed into town to the main train station so they could get their tickets for the remainder of their trip. We then took a bus tour to Schloss Nymphenburg, the summer palace of the Wittelsbachs ruling family. It once was a fair way out of Munich by horse carriage, it’s now within the city limits. Big place, laid out like Versailles – that must be the standard castle plan. Long drive with water up it (we’re talking a mile or so here) and then the courtyard opens up, ponds & fountains and the huge semicircle of the palace. We took a fast tour through, marveling at the remaining furniture, the paintings and architecture. Afterwards, the bus continued through Munich and the various neighborhoods. I would have preferred a tour with headsets, with a spiel in English. This one had a guide speaking over the bus intercom, and she talked very fast in German, then English. It was hard to pick up what she was saying.

Wednesday we got out to the train station again, to take a day trip to Schloss Neuschwanstein – the fairy take castle. The one Disney modeled the Cinderella castle after. The morning started out a bit rocky, Logan, me and Peri had showered and Brian was in when we noticed that Brian was apparently showering in the dark (there’s opaque glass in the bathroom door.) He thought Peri was playing a prank on him. Nope, the workers in the hall had blown a building fuse! Fortunately Brian was just about done, because with no power in the room the wall water heater was no longer working. Brrr!

We made our way back to the main train station & started the tour there. The train trip was great. The day started cold and foggy, but cleared as we went along. They got to see small towns & countryside on the way. We had packed a lunch, and ate it on the train. We got to the town of Fussen, and took a bus from there, about 10 minutes, to the base of the hill that contains the castle. Brian then had his first Wurst on Semmel – long sausage on a small round bun. Dunno why they don’t change the shape of the bun to better fit the meat. They just don’t.

We walked up to the castle – it’s a pretty steep 20 minute walk. The weather was great by then, partly sunny and cool.

This castle is one of 3 that Ludwig II of Bavaria managed to get started before he bankrupted Bavaria and died. He was in the castle for only a few months before he died (the day after being declared mentally incompetent to reign and forced to abdicate.) 6 weeks later they were running tours through the place. It is beautiful, very new looking and quite a sight to see. We dozed a bit on the train back, and had dinner at the apartment. I was very pleased to see they had replaced the fuse and all rooms had power.

Thursday morning we rousted the guests. Brian wanted to tour the Dauchau memorial and Peri so didn’t, so we sent him into town. She & I went to the Auer Dult, a 3-time yearly outdoor market with everything from antiques to infomercial stuff and carnival rides. We browsed through the antiques fortunately not seeing anything either of us had to have. Then we went off to lunch, it was the IWC monthly lunch about town. We ate at Prinz Myshkin, a gorgeous vegetarian restaurant. The first room in from the street is non-smoking. They feature Asian, Indian and Italian cuisine. The food was great, the room spacious and pretty. A winner.

We then wandered back to city center, to meet Brian at Marianplatz after his tour. I thought he’d be done by 2:30 ish, but he wasn’t done until 3:30. He looked OK when he found us, was glad he hadn’t eaten lunch but needed to eat so we headed for a nearby café. He got lunch & we got dessert.

That evening, we had dinner in Schwabing at a Bavarian restaurant called Wirsthaus Zur Brezn. We went early as they had to get up & out by 5:35 to catch their train on Friday morning. It’s a good thing we did get there early, the place was almost full. We did get a table, and had a great meal. Superb food, I will be going back there. It was too smoky to linger, so we headed back to the apartment for our aperitif. We had Absinthe! It was good, too. I don’t see what all the fuss is about – unless they have denatured it from what it used to be.

We then said our goodbyes & went off to bed. They got out on time the next morning and I hope the rest of their trip went well. They’re on their way back to California right now.

Later Friday morning I played Badminton, then did some cleaning at the apartment. I finished up Ewa’s business cards, printed some out as she is headed to Poland to launch her tour business by lining up hotels. Etc. I also finished up on my contribution to the cover for the IWC cookbook – a fundraising project, every contributes recipes and tips. You’ve seen the like. So I had gotten a calendar with gorgeous photos of food, took pics of that & arranged them in a Word doc. Turns out that we don’t have the budget to print that, so I turned to good old clip art. Between that and laundry from the week, the afternoon sped by.

Friday evening we got pizza takeout and a movie – Kung Fu Hustle. Last week we had tried a nearby pizza place (3 stops by U-bahn) and registered at a movie rental place across the street. So we knew that the pizza would be good and there were lots of movies to choose from. It was a great evening. Logan had come down with a cold the weekend before, so he was glad to make it an early night.

Saturday we did the usual chores, got groceries, etc. The weather was still beautiful so in the afternoon we drove a bit south of the city and went for a walk along the river. We went to a beer garden for dinner, sat outside until it got took cool then headed home.

Sunday morning I headed off to the Twisted Bavarian, where Gayle was launching her business with a ‘Healing Day’. People signed up for a time slot and an introductory treatment – Aromatherapy massage, Indian Head Massage, Reiki or Reflexology. The space Gayle was working in was great, and she had 6 or 7 people show up. I got a quick reflexology session – I will definitely sign up for more of those when I get back here! I got back home around 2, I had ridden my bike over & back in the warm windy spring-like day.

Then we got the boxes out of the apartment. Finally! Bruce & Barbara have space in their (dry) cellar, so we knocked the moving boxes down and got them and the appliance & computer & bike boxes stored over there too. We were loading them into the cars just ahead of the rain, and luckily it was not raining too hard while we were unloading. B&B declined our offer of dinner, and instead made bruschetta so we hung out there chatting for a while. Then we headed back home and went to an Italian place not too far from the apartment, called Al Pacino. And they’re not talking the actor, either. I had a great fish dinner & Logan had the lasagna. Another winner.

Monday morning it was Badminton again. Then, time to get ready for my trip! I am headed to Rochester on Thursday the 27th, to visit, and primarily “help” the folks clean out more of their house. I think in reality they will not be helping much, but we’ll see.

I am making dinners to freeze for Logan, Monday afternoon I made a big batch of beef burgundy stew. Started cleaning up various plies of papers, and doing the action items I found in the piles. Ooops. Made my list of things to buy in the states. Solicited friends for things they wanted from the states. (Some people are very particular about their deodorant! And some things are just 4 times more expensive here.)

Today I have caught up on the laundry – takes 4 loads & 8 hours total processing to change the bed, and there’s only 1 set of sheets. I will sign off now & go make dinner. Probably won’t write again until I’ve been in Rochester a couple days – when I ping awake in the middle of the night I’ll sneak downstairs and catch up online before anyone else is up.

2005-10-19T07:36:00.000+02:00

Busy busy busy! Friday morning I played Badminton – I am really liking this activity. Once my schedule settles down I will try to play 2 times a week. It’s aerobic and fun. In the afternoon, I worked on Ewa’s business cards. She is starting a business to take tours into Poland, where she’s from. Both Badminton, and my meeting Ewa are through the IWC.

Saturday, Logan had a first-aid course. It’s required for getting his German driver’s license. I spent the day catching up on laundry, grocery shopping, finishing Ewa’s cards. What a pain to try & get a template to match the cards themselves. The Avery U.S. site disclaimed all knowledge of the product number – which I was looking at, on the Avery branded-packaging. Finally found it on the UK web site.

That evening, we went to see the new Wallace & Grommit movie – Curse of the Were-Rabbit. It was delightful – funny, smart and lots of jokes for the adults. I highly recommend it.

Sunday we took a day trip. The weather here has been stellar – bright & sunny, cool, very autumnal. The trees are changing color & dropping leaves. We took advantage of this to visit the town of Landsberg, about 50 KM from here. It’s on the river Lech, and the east side of the town is hilly. There’s old town wall – built in the 1200’s, complete with lookout turrets – that goes for a mile or two. Down the hill, into town, are small twisty cobblestone streets. Many beautiful ornate buildings and statues and fountains. Then you come to the river – very broad, with a waterfall (man-made) and diversion of part into a mill-race. There’s a street of cottages built above the mill-race. With our history of water, it didn’t look like a good idea! Too much fast-moving water within a foot of the floorboards. But picturesque as possible.

There were cafes along the river. We sat there & had lunch, drinking in the view & sunshine. Lots of people were out for the day, most of them ended up in line to buy ice cream. We had noticed this before, it seems to be the national treat on Sunday, to get an ice cream. No matter what the weather.

I have to go now, grab breakfast then make a quick grocery run - Peri & Brian got here yesterday. Today the 4 of us are planning to take a train tour to Newschwanstein.

The week flew past!

2005-10-13T21:20:00.000+02:00

The days are still filled with one-off stuff so they go by fast. Hopefully this will slow down sometime soon.

SATURDAY
Foggy! Worked around the house, then we went for a bike ride later afternoon. Afterwards, we went farther down the street to a video store and signed up. We rented ‘Bubba Ho-Tep’, what a hoot! And we found a great Italian restaurant: Mario’s on Adalbertstrasse. Good pizza!

SUNDAY
On Sunday the 9th, I went to visit a museum and Logan went to Stockholm, again for work. His trip went well. Mine was great – I went to see the Hilla von Rebay exhibit at the Villa Stuck museum. This plus another art event this week (more later on) really opened my eyes to the art scene in Munich.

The exhibit is called “Art of Tomorrow: Hilla Rebay and Solomon R. Guggenheim”, the first exhibition dedicated to the entire career of Hilla Rebay (1890-1967), one of the founders of the Guggenheim Museum in 1939, and its first curator and director.

Hilla was an artist in the early 20th century, one of the first ‘non-objective’ artists. ‘n-o’ means not painting from an object, but from the feelings and emotions. She studied here in Munich, ended up in NYC doing art, part of which was portraiture, painted Solomon Guggenheim’s portrait. During those sessions, she convinced him that he should be collection non-objective art. And what is now the Guggenheim Museum in NYC was born. Details from the Guggenheim site:

An accomplished artist who studied in Munich, Berlin, and Paris, Hilla Rebay embraced the idea of "non-objective" art as both an aesthetic style and a manifestation of spirituality. She began to exhibit at the age of 22 in Cologne, and was subsequently introduced to the avant-garde in Berlin, where she was drawn to the work of the modernists who exhibited at that city's Galerie Der Sturm, including Arp, Bauer, Kandinsky, Paul Klee, Richter, and Schwitters.

After Rebay moved to America in 1927, she was commissioned by Solomon R. Guggenheim to paint his portrait and began her mission to encourage him to collect the non-objective art she so fervently supported. Rebay introduced Guggenheim to Kandinsky, and with her encouragement he purchased more than 150 of the artist's works as well as paintings by other abstract and non-objective artists, including Bauer, Albert Gleizes, Luger, and Laszl Moholy-Nagy.

In 1937 the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation was established, and Rebay and Guggenheim envisioned the construction of a museum to house his magnificent collection of modern art. In 1939 Guggenheim rented a building on East 54th Street in New York, which Rebay transformed into a temporary exhibition space, called the Museum of Non-Objective Painting; in 1947 it would move to a townhouse at 1071 Fifth Avenue. A fiercely independent woman of impressive energy, Rebay organized a series of traveling exhibitions devoted to the collection as well as exhibitions at the museum and continued to advise Guggenheim on the purchase of works. In 1943 Rebay contacted architect Frank Lloyd Wright, whom she perceived to be a kindred spirit, to design the museum of her dreams, "a temple to non-objectivity," which would finally open in 1959. By that time, Wright and Guggenheim had already passed away and Rebay had retired from the museum.

The extraordinary collaboration between Hilla Rebay and Solomon R. Guggenheim resulted in one of the world's finest collections of early twentieth-century modernism. This accomplishment was expressed in particular through Art of Tomorrow, the opening exhibition at the Museum of Non-Objective Painting, which introduced key works from Guggenheim's collection to a New York audience in 1939. The present exhibition will showcase over 30 important works by the artists that Guggenheim first collected under Rebay's guidance, and which were included in the Art of Tomorrow catalogue published for the opening of the museum, thus attesting to the prescience of the institution's founders and the historical importance of the collection today. Some 40 photos, sketchbooks, historic exhibition catalogues, and miscellaneous publications relating to Rebay's work and the exhibitions she organized at the Museum of Non-Objective Painting will also be on view.

After New York, the exhibition travels to Schlossmuseum Murnau and Museum Villa Stuck, Munich, in Germany and will be shown simultaneously in two parts from September 8, 2005 to January 15, 2006. Rebay's early life and career in Europe will be the focus of the presentation in Murnau, while her life and career in the United States after she moved to New York in 1927 and a selection of works in Solomon Guggenheim's collection at the time of the 1939 exhibition Art of Tomorrow will be featured in Munich. After the Bavarian venues, the exhibition travels to Deutsche Guggenheim in Berlin from May 4 to July 30, 2006.

Non-objective art. Kandinsky. Bauer, humph. I do not like it on the wall. I would not like it in the hall. I would not want it in my home, nor to illustrate a tome. It’s very personal, you see; and it does not strike a chord in me.

BUT this visit was cool to the 10th – Alex was the one who’d organized it. You may recall from past reading here that she taught art history in NYC. To visit a museum with her is a wonderful experience. She knows much, loves to share it and knows all kinds of fun back stories. The other thing that was so great, is Hilla’s collage art. She was much taken with the non-objectivists, and painted in that style. I see those paintings as very studied and unfinished. “Let’s see, I’ll put a swoosh over here to balance out the black rectangle and the purple blob and I’ve filled the canvas so I’m done.” But her collages – oh, man, are they beautiful. Intricate, complete and striking.

That night, I went to Eva & Glenn’s for dinner. (Eva was the third person on the museum tour.) She cooked a great meal. And afterwards, we watched ER! So exciting. Glenn showed me through Bit Torrent, so I kind of know what to do to download American TV. And they gave me some DVDs with shows they’ve already watched.

MONDAY
Today I worked on the computer in the morning. In the afternoon, I set off on an expedition – to go visit Gayle in Ottobrun. I had completed her collateral – 4 ‘aftercare’ sheets for her treatments, and a new set of business cards. (Took some doing, too – the graphics would not print out as they were on screen. I had 2 computers going on Sunday – the Windows laptop with Illustrator, turning the graphics into a PDF, and the Mac which is hooked up to the printer, to print test runs on scrap sheets.)

It took 2 U-bahn lines & a bus to get there, but I made it! Gayle & I talked all afternoon. I got to meet Breeze, her cat. And I got a reflexology treatment, in kind for my services. Great deal!

TUESDAY
Had planned to meet a friend at the movies. Jean, with whom I’m now playing badminton, wanted to see Willie Wonka. We met with 2 other women at 11:00 for the matinee. Johnny Depp was channeling Michael Jackson for this role. It was an eerie, and otherworldly, out-of-touch performance. The movie was OK, but I missed the Oompa-Loompa song. Depp’s makeup & character, plus the score by Danny Elfman reminded us all of Edward Scissorhands.

That afternoon, I wandered in the neighborhood walking down streets I’d not been on before. I needed to get out & move and it was good therapy. Went to the cash machine (always fun) and found a bookstore with a few English books (bigger fun). Returned home in a better frame of mind.

AND – from one of the disks that I borrowrd from Eva, was able to watch current ‘Gilmore Girls’ and ‘West Wing’. This was such a treat – even watching on the computer it was absolutely soul saving. So I’ve figured out how to turn .avi files into something that QuickTime can play. Next, I need to get plugged in so I can download the shows I want.

WEDNESDAY
Wednesday was the monthly IWC meeting. It was the 15th anniversary of the club. We had a party – cake & Sekt (dry sparkling wine). Everyone who runs an activity got up & spoke about it and of course the meeting went late. Some of the folks prepared skits for their activity, it was fun to see.

That night, I met Gayle & Dawn at the Odesonplatz U-bahn stop. We were going to the weekly curry night, organized by the Toytown crowd. Gayle had asked Ema, from her language course, to join us, and Ema got a bit lost. We hopped the train up tot the next stop, spread out to cover all exits from the station, and finally found Ema. We trooped into the restaurant only a little bit late. It was Deeba, on Barerstrasse. Tiny place, our party of 24 took up ¾ of the restaurant. But they rose to the challenge and we had great food. The best Chicken Tikka I have had here – I’ll be going back! Gayle was having so much fun on her first ‘girls night out’ here that she & Ema stayed. Dawn & I headed back as they were following people who had left earlier, to a local bar well-known to the Toytown crowd. Even with leaving “early”, I got home at 11:30.

THURSDAY
Art tour, part deux. At 10:00, a group of women from the IWC meet in front of Munich’s Academie. Art, that is. A guide joined us and toured us through the local neighborhood, describing the art scene in Munich from the 1880s to the first world war. Munich was a happening place for art then (and still, I think.) The Academie was cheap – 70 Deutschemarks per year. Rents were cheap and there were lots of open places to rent. We walked past building where Kandinsky, Franz-Marc, Paul Klee, Thomas Mann and others lived & had studios. Very cool. Even better is that this took place in Schwabing, where I now live!

After the tour, 4 of us went into the city center for lunch. I went grocery shopping on the way back. (I have been advise to never climb the stairs to the apartment empty-handed. It has been good advice!) Got home at about 4:00.

I spent a little time straightening up, and cleaning, because next week – Peri’s coming! Wahoo! Our first visitors. Peri & Brian arrive on Tuesday morning, depart really early Friday morning. I have a gazillion places to take them – I think Peri, being a New Yorker, would like the Hilla von Rebay exhibit. There’s a Franz-Marc special exhibition in town now too. And I have been told that the Alte Pinatkothek (old art museum) rivals the Louvre. Plus there’s city tours, local castles to visit, food to eat and beer to be drunk. Looks like the weather will be wonderful too.

Well, that’s all for today. I realized that it had been a while since I blogged and wanted to get this down before I forgot the details. I have installed Torrent Tomato, a Mac OS X client to pull down media files. Am downloading another Gilmore Girls, but it sure is slow. Hope this will work, though. I want shows that Ewa & Glenn don’t watch.

Innsbruk

2005-10-06T10:40:00.000+02:00

Last week, as we recovered from being in Madrid, Logan remembered that Monday Oct 3rd is a holiday – German Reunification Day. He has been wanting to get to the Alps, so he decided that it would be good to go on the weekend. He did some checking and booked a hotel in Igls, a small town in the hills above Innsbruk, Austria. We set out in the car on Saturday the 1st. We drove south out of Munich, on a route recommended by a couple of coworkers. We passed some great towns and lakes on the way – Achensee is a long, very deep looking lake with a mountain on the far side, small towns with several hotels & cabins at either end, and lots of sailing boats. Most of the buildings are Bavarian style, wooden construction and long roofs, porches and decks with railings and built-in flower boxes, all overflowing with geraniums and petunias. Beautiful!

We got to a spot in the road with the Panaroma restaurant, we pulled in and lunched there. From the road, it looks like there might be a good view from their terrace, and when you get on to it – wow! It overlooks the Inn valley, a thousand feet or so below. Picturesque rolling hills, small towns clustered around a church, cows in the fields, dots of forested land. mountains everywhere. I’m not sure that the pictures do it justice.

After lunch, we continued to Innsbruk. Literally means ‘bridge on the Inn’, the Inn is the river that occupies the valley. (I think the valley was carved by glaciers.) Absolutely gorgeous drive. Every once in a while there’s a huge building halfway up a near hill, typically a ‘schloss’ or castle of a past king or emperor.

Innsbruk itself is a very 70s-looking city, driving by on the autobahn. Lots of flat-faced apartment buildings in 70s colors, lot of industrial looking buildings interspersed. But the location! It is an alpine valley, with huge mountains rising all around on both sides of the valley.

We found our way up to Igls, after being slightly confounded by the construction in Innbruk, by the Olympic ice rink. Had to pull a few quick U-turns but we finally achieved the road we needed. Climbed up out of the valley on the south side, found the little town and our hotel. We stayed in the Hotel Astoria, nice place with an indoor swimming pool & sauna. We made use of those that evening, before dinner. In the afternoon we had walked some of the local walking trails, well marked and they ambled through the high valley. Our ‘package’ at the hotel included dinner & breakfast. I was happy to be back at the hotel for dinner, didn’t really want to be wandering around on the mountain roads in the dark and the rain and fog.

Sunday the 2nd it was just pouring down rain. So we decided to be tourists, and went to the local Schloss Ambras. Archduke Ferdinand the II had this build for his ‘secret’ wife, Phillipine Welser. She was of much lower station for him, so they married in secret. The place is big, and they have preserved a lot of the grounds so there are walking trails in the woods. We saw quite a great display of arms & armament, probably the best display we’ve seen yet. The collection is very well marked & the signs are in German & English. There is a large portrait collection, the wealthiest families of Europe and all their interrelations over the centuries is pretty well documented. We saw a couple faces that we’d just seen in Madrid, the weekend before. After we saw what we wanted of the insides, we walked the grounds for a while. The trails led past a beautiful waterfall.

We went into Innsbruk to get lunch and warm up. (Castles seem very cold, very open to the elements, and this one did not have any heat going in any of the stoves. It’s no wonder that they wore lots of heavy layers of clothes!) The Innsbruk old town, pedestrian area is small and very beautiful. We browsed the shops for a bit, ducking in out of the rain, then walked over the bridge, back through some of the big public garden – with roses in bloom, in what seemed to me to be dead of winter weather! Back to the hotel for dinner.

Monday morning it was not raining, but very foggy. I could not see any of the mountains. It was getting thinner in some spots by the time we finished breakfast & packed up, so we decided to take the cable car from just across the street, up the mountain. It was a great decision – about halfway up, we cleared the fog line & could see the mountains all around. When we got to the top, we could see that it had snowed the day before – heavy, wet stuff. Fortunately not too deep. We walked around for about 40 minutes, until the next car down. I want to go back in the spring, after the snow melts, and hike there. It was an amazing place to be!

The days this week are zooming by fast. Tuesday I met some IWC friends at a local theater, we saw the film ‘Stage Beauty’. Wednesday, Gayle came over & we worked on her business cards & information sheet about her Aromatherapy treatment. Logan & I went out for dinner. Today the weather is nice, I plan to get out on my bike. Tomorrow morning is Badminton – I played last week and liked it, so will incorporate this into my routine.

I hope to get the Madrid, Oktoberfest & Innsbruk pictures up soon. Will post when I do.

Madrid on the weekend, then Oktoberfest

2005-09-29T17:06:00.000+02:00

It is very cool to be here. It is easy to be in a different country in a couple hours.

Finishing Madrid - The Prado
Sunday morning we all went to the Prado Museum. Like other big art museums in Europe, it has an embarrassment of riches. We spent 2 hours touring the second floor, with Goya, Velazquez and various Italian renaissance painters well represented. We took a sitting break and then trooped back up to the first floor to see the medieval works, several El Grecos, and the truly weird ‘Earthly Paradise’ by Hieronymus Bosch. I certainly don’t crave to have a strawberry for a head.

We limped out of the museum around 2. Got some lunch at a café on a Plaza. Strolled back to the hotel and rested for a bit. (While the hotel is on a quiet street, with no street noise at night, the walls apparently are transmitters. People talking, doors slamming, etc. late and early.) We went to a nearby restaurant for dinner and called it an early night. John & Amy caught a cab to the train station at 7 a.m. Monday.

Our flight out was mid-afternoon, so we walked out to see some more sights. Today was a bit cooler, with a brisk breeze. It still is warmer than Germany when we left. Headed in a direction we had not covered, and saw the fountain of Ciebele and Puerta Altaca which we hadn’t seen yet; and we walked through the newest ‘trendy’ neighborhood. The shops had great clothes and shoes, and the prices were much cheaper than in Munich. I’m holding off on buying clothes till the cold weather, though. As pretty as the clothes in Spain & Italy are, I think they won’t serve me too well in the German weather!

We had a great flight back. Part of the reason is that when Logan used the machine to check in, it spit out 2 standby tickets. Not what we paid for! We ended up getting bumped up to first class as a result. So we got room to stretch out, and a great meal on the 2-hour flight home. The weather is warmer here, too – mid-sixties and mostly sunny. We got back to the apartment around 7:30 p.m. and crashed.

Tuesday I spent doing laundry and cleaning up in preparation for Wednesday play day.

Wednesday morning was the Ladies International Association (LIA) meeting, at 10. I left the apt around 9:15 and got there just in time. I brought back a craft project that I took home last week to finish. (In November, the club has a fair and the proceeds benefit the Frauenhaus, a shelter for women.) The speaker was a marketing director for the newly re-opened Schrannenhalle in downtown Munich. “Schrannen’ means grain, specifically, the husk. In the mid-1800s, the central plaza was the Schrannenplatz, where people sold & bought grain. The king commissioned a covered building for this market, and in 1851 the architect started it. He used pre-fab iron supports, an innovation that enabled the building to be competed in about 2 years. And this was 30 years before Eiffel built his tower. The grain exchange moved in 20 years, and the market building was used for other things, fell into disuse, caught fire, and the remains were stored. They were rediscovered and the city decided to rebuild part of the market.

It took a few years of political wrangling, but it finally opened in mid-August. It contains tens of high-end, unique stores and several restaurants. The Champagne & Currywurst restaurant is currently doing the best business. The directors of the market had promised the vendors that they would pull in 9,000 people a week. It’s been 18,000 since they opened! They have actually cut back on the marketing because they haven’t needed it. They hope that after Oktoberfest is over the crowds will settle down a bit.

After the LIA meeting, I went through downtown and looked for a new apron from my dirndl outfit. Logan bought me a necklace in Stockholm and I wanted to wear it. I found no apron, but a remnant of lining fabric and ribbon that matched it. I zoomed home & with the iron and glue gun and a bit of hand sewing, turned it into a passable apron.

We had gotten tickets through friends to the Weisn for Weds night. Headed out a bit before 6, took the U-bahn and got to the tent by 6:30. It was getting a bit cold out, but very warm in the tent as people packed it. We spent the next 4 hours drinking, eating, standing on the benches singing along with the band and dancing in place. Very odd thing to be doing, but millions flock to Munich to do it every year.

This morning, we went back to the Landratsamt and got our residence permits. Whew, that’s done for a couple years. Now we have to figure out who to tell, that we moved from Unterhaching to Munich (Schwabing is a neighborhood within the city limits.) But that can wait for a bit!

I have been writing this sitting in the living room in front of the TV. We ordered the English cable package from the local provider, and just hooked it up Tuesday. (Were busy Weds, so this is the first I’m watching.) The selection is poor and so is the quality so I think we’ll have to find another solution. I’m thinking Bit Torrent.

Madrid!

2005-09-25T10:37:00.000+02:00

Madrid is such a beautiful city. I hope our pictures come out. It is warm & sunny here, especially compared to Munich.

We got in Friday afternoon, took the Metro to our hotel from the airport. We got unpacked, and then walked around the area for an hour. The buildings are magnificant. It is evident that Madrid was not bombed in the wars.

Brother John & his wife Amy got in around 6:30. We rolled out for dinner around 8:00, very early by this city´s standards. But had a great dinner and walked around seeing some of the fountains & plazas.

Saturday we just wandered. Saw the Puerta del Sol and Plaza Major, had a drink & olive break in a cafe in the Plaza, then went to Palacio Real. Again, it´s good to be King! Beautiful building with incredible ceiling murals and ornamentation everywhere. We ended the tour in the Armory. Lots of weapons and suits of armor and several model horses with knights astride. Fun to see. I bet in real life they clank a lot.

We had dinner with a couple who live here, Mack & Celia. Amy knows Mack´s mom, and she set up for us to meet. We ate in a Galacian restaurant, tiny hole-in-the-wall with excellent food. Served family style, food on platters brought to the table and we all just dug in. The white wine was excellent.

We´re only managing to stay up to midnight. Celia, a native Madrilina, says that office workers typically go out on Thursday nights until 6 a.m., or may just go into work right from the night out. No one expects much to get done on a Friday. But, she said they don´t then go out on Friday.

I´m in the hotel lobby, waiting on the rest of the party to assemble. Today we´re going to the Prado Museum, which is a block from our hotel. Don´t think we´ll see much else today.

Wies'n Eve

2005-09-16T12:22:00.000+02:00

It’s the eve of Oktoberfest. I am almost ready. Have a dirndl, and a blouse. Not sure what shoes to wear – it will depend on the weather. I will, of course get pictures & post them.

It has been a busy week. I came down with a horrid cold over the weekend, it peaked on Tuesday. Over the weekend we got most of the remaining boxes unpacked. All that is left is the box of office supplies. And we need to get a filing cabinet, but will probably just make use of a small dresser in the room where the computer is set up. I’m tired of going to IKEA!

Monday night I went out to Marianplatz to meet people for coffee.

- interrupts – Whoo hoo! The DHL guy was just here, dropping of the first (of many) shipments from Amazon.co.uk! Love this!

Back to the story. Monday night was beautiful – mostly clear, warm. We sat out at a café on Marianplatz and the sky was gorgeous. I was with Gayle, Dawn & Peter. Gayle is looking to get a holistic therapy business going here; she’s from the UK. I met her a few weeks ago at one of the Toytown events. She met up with Dawn that day; Dawn is also from the UK. She is a playwright now here to be with her boyfriend. Peter works for a brewery, doing training. He & his wife came from Vancouver, and decided that they wanted to live here. He’s writing a book that touches on holistic healing. We had a great conversation. Peter has seen ‘What the bleep” and I have it on DVD, have promised to do a screening for Gayle & interested others soon.

Tuesday it rained, I felt awful. I pushed myself into a hot shower in the afternoon, bundled up and went onto the U-bahn. (It’s 40 steps out the front door.) Went one stop to Munchner Freiheit, and into the Apotheke in the station there. Got some sinus stuff. I hated to foist myself on the unsuspecting public, but was so congested I was having trouble breathing – even standing up. I knew I wanted to be able to sleep so I resorted to pills. I think what really worked best were these awesome vitamin C/Zink tablets; you drop them into a glass of water & they fizz. I consumed 3 or 4 of those during the day and had one in a glass of hot water just before bed.

Wednesday was the monthly IWC meeting. I met Gayle in the train station and took her to the meeting as my guest. The program was incredible – it was a couple, friends of the current IWC president, who had driven from London to Bombay for their 25th wedding anniversary. They went through Iraq & Afghanistan, in 1996 – 97. (Started in October and finished up in January.) Their pictures were amazing. Many of us, afterwards, said we liked seeing their travelogue but don’t sign us up for that trip. After lunch Gayle & I came back to the apartment and she gave me a Reiki treatment. It felt wonderful and I think it helped me get over the cold.

Thursday I worked in the office (apartment office, that is) and then met friends for dinner at El Patio, a Mexican restaurant near here. On Thursday, the U-bahn, bus and tram drivers were all on strike. The streets were jammed. And I have never seen so many people on bikes. Sept 15 is Mexican Independence Day, and the restaurant had a buffet and was doing a big celebration at midnight. Well, I didn’t see that but it was a great dinner and wonderful to be sitting outside chatting with new friends. It was quite an international group. Eva is Polish, she moved to California when she was 18. Met Glenn, who is now in Munich working for Infineon. They had been living in Dublin, California. Lizabeth is Mexican, was raised in the UK by her grandparents, went back to Mexico City for college, spent the last 7 years living in Norway and is now in Munich with her husband Roman. He’s German, works for BMW, spent a year in Mexico working for them. I guess a move from New York state to California would be exotic to some people, but I felt very bland in comparison to the multi-national people I meet here.

Today, I had another guest at the apartment, Phillip from Transnet Internet Services came by to configure the wireless router. We had been trying to get on the phone & do it, but he locked himself out of the firewall this morning, and just came by to get everything running. And it does.

Now, I’m going to go to the post office, then meet up with a couple of women to take over the monthly lunch “committee” for IWC. Tonight I will go to the Twisted Bavarian, a Tex-Mex place run by a wonderful human named Dory. She’s hosting a Katrina Benefit tonight. I’m hoping to get a nap in beforehand. Still not quite over this cold.

Logan is currently in Stockholm. My cold and the extremely high ticket prices prevented me from getting on a plane today to spend the weekend there. Instead I will finish getting the apartment in order, get groceries and on Sunday go see the Trachten parade. Trachten is the Bavarian costumes, and the parade is apparently quite something to see. I hope the weather is good, so I can take lots of pictures.

Back on line!

2005-09-07T16:50:00.000+02:00

Oh, the connectivity! The phone came on Monday night late, and the DSL came on sometime mid-day today. I love being able to get online again, and at a much better speed than the dial-up.

So, in the past couple weeks I have been working to settle in. Going to the local shops, finding groceries, the vegetable market, the drugstore, etc. I have ridden my bike a few times in English Garden, great paths there and I can easily ride for an hour without retracing my steps.

Last Friday we were invited to join a group of people at a local Mexican place for dinner. These are women who I have met through the International Women’s Club. And they all live nearby now. It was great to get together with 4 other couples and meet their husbands. We had a great time sitting outside, eating and chatting.

Saturday Logan put together the last of the bigger stuff we bought from IKEA – Sunday is quiet day, so no pounding! There was a street fair on Leopold Strasse near us all weekend, so that evening we wandered down and had dinner there & took in the sights. It was like the Saratoga Street Festival, but a couple miles long. Lots of bands, several fire dancers, lots of art & food booths. I loved that we just walked to it.

Sunday we did some local touristing, and visited Schloss Linderhof. One of Ludwig II, King of Bavaria’s 3 castles, this one is south of Munich towards Austria. The day started a bit foggy, but had cleared as we got close. We stopped at a restaurant for lunch and sat outside, enjoying the sun and breeze and the Alps playing peek-a-boo in the fog. It was a short trip from there to the castle, through a lovely small Bavarian village and up into the hills a bit.

Linderhof is exquisite. I have not seen Neuschwanstein yet (the “Cinderella Castle”) but I’m sure my heart is given to Linderhof. It is beautiful, small (ish) and in a spectacular setting. The air was clear and verging on crisp, the grounds lush green from all the rain we’ve been having. I took at least 50 pictures. Will sort through & get the best up soon.

Time to go for now. I’ve made my favorite for dinner – reservations – and need to get ready to go!

Sunny!

2005-08-29T14:36:00.000+02:00

Beautiful weather today so this will be short. Am in an Internet Cafe in Schwabing, as we have no phone/Internet service yet. They say tomorrow, I hope it's true.

Moved last Tuesday. There is much to be said about hiring professionals to do this kind of work, all of it good. I can wholeheartedly recommend Huntcrest Services to anyone in the Munich area. They do handy stuff - flooring, painting, small moving jobs. Showed up when they said they would and got the job done.

Have been assembling IKEA furniture and trying to put away our 20 cubic feet of stuff (That's the size of the boxes that we moved over from the States.) Problem is that there's only space for 10 cubic feet of it. I swear, people over here have access to a portal in another dimension, and they put their stuff in it!

Going out into the sunshine. More when I can do this in the non-daylight hours from home.

Moving again

2005-08-22T13:39:00.000+02:00

I am once again packing up boxes. This time it’s easier: much less stuff, and all of it’s going, except for the things that were in the apartment when we got here. Tomorrow afternoon a lovely man with a van is coming to load & move the boxes. Tuesday night we’ll be in! Then I can get settled in the new place, unpack all the boxes, see my stuff that I haven’t seen in 3+ months.

NOTE: the phone & Internet lines are not yet turned on in the new place. It may be a few days before I am back in touch.

If you have a few minutes and a high-speed connection, check out the new place: Ungererstrasse 74 Note that the pictures make it look bigger than it is, but it is a lovely old building with high ceilings.

The apartment won’t look that lovely with us in it; we spent time Saturday at IKEA buying storage furniture – shelves for the hall, a butcher block table for the kitchen, etc. I hope to have the place looking similar to the pics within a month of us landing there, it will take some time to figure out how to put everything away. For example, the lovely roll-front piece in the living room is stuffed full of bedding! We laughed – thought it would be electric components and a stereo system. So we’ll put the bedding in boxes under the beds and free up those shelves for books.

I’ve also heard from brother Greg, our parents are settling in to their new place too. A visiting nurse had mentioned a place to Dad 3 weeks ago, they went and saw it a couple weeks ago and everyone liked it. So last week Greg & Andrea moved the folks in. Over the weekend, they got furniture from their house and brought it over to the place – it’s big, 900 square feet which is as big as the ground floor of the folk’s house. So lots of their familiar things fit.

One of the hardest things about this transition for my folks is that they feel they were forced into it. In reality, they were having a harder time keeping up with the day-to-day chores and spending all their waking hours clothing, caring for & feeding themselves – they are just moving that slowly. If Dad hadn’t landed in the hospital, they would have eventually been found out. But it might have been an even worse circumstance. For example, Mom has put on some weight as she’s getting 3 meals a day, and the aides check on that. (Mom often insists that she has no need of dinner – but if it’s put in front of her, she eats.) I talked with Greg last night to catch up; he said that it’s clear that Mom is done with cooking. The folk’s new place has a kitchenette, but other than having drinks in the fridge and snacks, we think the folks won’t really use it.

So, lesson learned is to really think about where you want to be if you get old and slow down. Check on places well before you have to go anywhere – because it has been extremely upsetting and disorienting for the folks to be whisked into a place, and then move to another one in the space of 6 weeks. And they are often a bit cranky about it. Not how you want to be when someone else is caring for you – charm is the key to the best service and someone making exceptions, say, for someone with very bad memory problems (Mom) staying in a non-memory care unit (with Dad) as long as possible.

Logan was in Sweden last week – Stockholm. He’ll probably go back in mid-September, and I’ll go with him then. On one of their projects, Saab is the prime contractor & they’re doing testing at their site in Stockholm. I can’t wait – I visited Stockholm for 2 ½ days in January years ago and I look forward to seeing it in more summer weather. They actually have summer there, as opposed to Germany, where it’s been 60 – 70 degrees. Overcast & rainy for several days a week all summer so far. The leaves are changing color already.

Hope to be back on-line soon! Enjoy your weeks, wherever you are.

Busy weekend, and finally some local sightseeing

2005-08-15T17:47:00.000+02:00

Before we went back to the States, I had signed up to go to a Toytown event Friday 12th in the evening. Toytown is an on-line forum, where English speakers living in Munich can ask questions, get advice, etc. The group also arranges lots of activities like dinners and meeting for drinks and members post the current happenings so that we can find out what’s going on in Munich. Friday was dinner for the ‘over 30’s’ at Arabesque, a restaurant in the neighborhood of Schwabing. We went out early, went to our new apartment on Ungererstrasse and watered the plants, then walked down to the restaurant. It was a nice place, had good food and we met some new people and chatted all evening. The jet lag caught up with us though, so we left around 10:30 and made our way back to Unterhaching.

We are making progress on actually moving; Logan has arranged for the phone and internet service to get turned on in the new place – on Friday they told him 7 to 10 working days. I found a moving service, recommended by other Toytown folks and they’re coming over on Friday the 19th to do an estimate. We hope to be out of this place by August 24th, another coworker’s family is coming over & they could stay here until their house is available on September first. We could do the move ourselves with help from friends, but the thought of carrying all those boxes up 2 floors daunts me. It was hard enough helping get the boxes off the pallets, into the elevator and out into the corporate apartment. I’m sure with some hired help and a small truck we can do it complete in about 4 hours.

On Saturday morning we joined another Toytown group on a trip to the Andechs brewery. We rode the S-bahn line 5 to the end, in the town of Herrshing. Hiked up the byways to the top of a hill, through neighborhoods then woods. (It reminded me a bit of hiking in Rancho San Antonio, with the stream still running.) At the top of the hill, after about a 45 minute hike, is the Kloster monastery and beergarden. It is quite the tourist attraction, the place was hopping. The weather was good: low 70s, overcast but no rain. We had beers & pretzels, then got lunch. Talked the whole afternoon with the group, which included a couple young guys in the Air Force who are friends of the organizer, and were down to Munich for a weekend visit.

The group up the tables from us was well into their beer when we sat down, and they did the traditional ‘Prost’ toast and we all clanked mugs. But we did no singing – no ‘Ein Prosit’ song, the place had ‘No Singing’ signs posted! I was making fun of that – “Give me food or I’ll sing at you in a threatening way” and one of the Air Force guys said that he’s been in Germany so long that he didn’t think twice about the sign. (There are many many rules here. For example, I learned from one of the guys that to be able to fish here, you take a year-long course and pay 1,000 Euros before you’re granted a license.) I guess people have been getting rowdy and forbidding singing has reined it in. All in all, it was a great day – hiking, beer, food, good companionship and more hiking. We got back home around 8:30.

Sunday we slept in – no construction to shake us awake at 7 a.m. We did stuff around the apartment; I caught up on email and Logan did some work reading. In the late afternoon we drove out to the new apartment with a small load of things, and took measurements there for some storage-type furniture. We know we’ll need some more bookshelves, and we think we can store the bedding under the beds and free up an existing closet. (In Germany, closets in apartments are free-standing, there are no built-ins.) We do have access to the basement storage room, but have been warned that it is very damp and not a place to store clothes or books.

We also put our names on the mailbox at the new apartment. We left & drove around to find the local Wal-Mart – there are 2 in Munich and I think I’m going to become a Wal-Mart shopper here. The convenience will be great, for a car trip there. I know there’s a supermarket much closer to the apartment where I’ll shop for the majority of the groceries.

That evening, we went to the Twisted Bavarian for an English-language book swap and dinner. Again, found it through Toytown. Dory, the restaurant owner, is an active TTer and we met her a month or so ago. Twice a month she advertises the book swap and people show up to refresh their reading collection. The library has over a thousand books now, and it was just started last November through people’s donations. A great idea and it helps save me $$. Dinner was enchiladas for me and chicken mole for Logan – very good and even spicy! That’s unusual in Germany. But Dory grew up in Mobile, and lived in Texas so she knows how Tex-Mex should taste.

Met another new friend during this evening, a lovely woman who’s come over from Ireland about a month ago. She was a nurse in Ireland, also does aromatherapy and Rieki healing. Her boyfriend works at EADS, where Logan works, and she’s got a 5-year old cat. So we traded cat stories, got talking about “What the Bleep” and made a promise to get in touch & get together. Now I just need to get on line & follow up.

I woke up at about 5 this morning; still jet lag I guess. It’s cold & rainy, a nice day to hang about the house with a new book. I hope we have some weeks of good weather soon, it’s mostly been a cold rainy summer. Locals say it’s unusual. I sure have saved on sunscreen this year.

Rochester Visit Recap

2005-08-12T14:27:00.000+02:00

Back from the visit to Rochester. It’s a beautiful Friday and I’m trying to multi-task: catch up on the blog while I get some sun! Apparently it rained just about the whole time we were in the states. Logan says “The rain in Spain falls mainly on Bavaria” – Spain & France are in a drought and it’s been pouring buckets here most of the summer.

So. Family. The visit was great, the reunion fun. Mostly spent the time sitting around talking and sharing meals. We got in on Wednesday the 3rd, we had booked at different times so got different flights. I flew into Dulles, then to Rochester. Got in around 6:30 that night. Logan went through Chicago, he got in around 12:30 a.m. Brother Greg picked me up at the airport, we had dinner, I took a nap then went to get Logan – in what used to be my car. As I was leaving in May, I shipped it to Greg. So it was pretty cool to have my old car to drive. They have been using it a lot, it’s their only vehicle with AC, and it’s been hot in Rochester this summer.

On Thursday, we stopped over & visited my parents. They are on a ‘respite stay’ in an assisted living facility near Greg & Andrea. The stay is for 6 weeks (started when Dad was released from the hospital on July 8th). The place is nice, clean and bright and no smells or beeping machines; the other residents seem nice, everyone calls out a greeting as you enter. The rooms are small, and are designed that way so that people don’t hibernate in the room. This facility also has an enclosed inner courtyard, with patios off the rooms, and birdfeeders that the staff will fill, and a couple large raised planting beds for the residents.

We had lunch there with them, and the food that day was pretty good. Mushroom veggie soup, and then chicken wraps with green beans and a pasta salad. 3 meals a day are served, and the staff check to make sure that everyone has come to the dining room to eat.

After lunch, I zoomed to a dermatologist appointment. I had meant to do that in California before I left but ran out of time. Afterwards, Logan & I shopped Wegmans for some items we have not been able to find yet in Munich. (Wegmans is like a combination of Whole Foods & Draegers. Plus they make great sub sandwiches.) We bought some vitamins, tea, toiletries and Frank’s Hot Sauce – the only, authentic chicken wing sauce. I may ask for more for Christmas! That night we had subs for dinner – wonderful. I really miss good deli sandwiches in Munich. (Have heard about a place called ‘American Sandwich’ which I will need to check out.)

Friday morning we sent Logan out for a bike ride with nephew Gavin, while Andrea & I reviewed the folks finances. Dad was in the middle of moving money when he had his stroke (which is now what the docs are calling it, they didn’t mention this while he was actually in the hospital.) Everything is in pretty good shape, now we just need to have Dad continue what he was doing, and then create a trust to put all the accounts in. It also turns out that Mom has a couple separate accounts, those need to get put in the trust too. It was great to feel like we have a handle on the finances, and we know the folks can afford assisted living on their income – social security and a few pensions. So their savings, invested well, can be there if they need more care. Assisted living will only do so much. If you’re not ambulatory, or have a high level of medication needs, you need to hire additional help or move to more of a nursing facility.

Anyone out there who hasn’t pierced the veil of parental silence, please make an effort! It is really hard to figure out someone else’s finances even if the records are well kept. Power of Attorney is key, in case someone is incapacitated.

Friday night it was pizza and wings at Greg & Andrea’s, as the out-of-town visitors rolled in. First was Logan’s Mom Wanda, we did not get to see her before we left. Then Dad’s brothers and families showed up, and my brother John & his wife Amy. Not everyone could make it, but we had a great crowd anyhow.

Saturday was the actual reunion. Spent the day chatting, helping and just enjoying everything.

Sunday we all met at a Bob Evans for breakfast, and people peeled off one by one to head home. After the folks had lunch, me and my brothers Greg & John scooped them up and took them to see another assisted living facility. Nice place, but 30 minutes from Greg & Andrea, which would make it impossible to keep running stuff over to the folks as Andrea is doing now. (Have I mentioned that I think Andrea qualifies for sainthood? After Dad landed in the hospital, and Mom was so disoriented, Andrea worked the phones to get the docs on the case, and also find a place for Dad to stay that could also take Mom. I’m so grateful for all that she’s done and is doing. Plus in the middle of all this, she is in a clinical trial for a new MS drug, so she’s taking care of herself too.)

Monday I hung around the house, did some watering while Andrea worked inside. Greg had taken the day off, first thing we showed him the progress we’d made with the folk’s finances and he made a couple calls to move along the transfers (that Dad had started). Then the boyz went off to Seabreeze, a local amusement and waterpark. I didn’t go because the dermatologist took a cyst off my leg, and told me not to immerse it for a couple weeks. Boo.

Tuesday morning, Logan & I went off to visit the folks. Then we got to the airport and headed back to Munich.

It had been great to get on the first flight, I took United, and loved hearing the English and feeling like I was in the States just by boarding the plane. I really enjoyed cruising the bookstores in the airport between flights, and chatting with people.

Oddly, I am also OK with being back in Germany. That the weather has been beautiful helps. I am also planning to go back to Rochester sometime in the fall, which probably also helps.

Now, I just need to get on with the chore of getting us moved into the new apartment! We signed the lease 2 days before we left, and need to get moving. We’re going over tonight to water the plants, and then have dinner in the area. I may have found a moving company that will do the job, but they haven’t gotten back to my inquiry yet. Of course, it’s high vacation season and there’s a state holiday Monday, so they may be out. Hope to hear from them soon, because I really don’t want to have us carry 30 heavy boxes up 2 flights of stairs.

I have learned why Germany takes August off – the kids were in school through July 23rd this year, and they go back the beginning of September. So they have 5 – 6 weeks off, and everyone goes on vacation then. Some of the smaller shops & restaurants close down during this time too.

We have some fun planned for this weekend, too. Hope the weather cooperates.

Family visit, here I come

2005-08-03T08:09:00.000+02:00

We’re heading off to the airport to go to Rochester for a family visit. I should be able to get online a couple times while there and will describe what’s going on. Hope you all are having a wonderful summer.

I have been able to get some more pictures up on the Flickr site. The link is to the left on this page.

It's a dark & stormy night

2005-07-29T21:42:00.001+02:00

We had the first of our insurance-mandated doctor visits today. We have to see both a doctor and a dentist before we can get insurance, and without insurance we can’t stay in the country. So the dentist appt was at 3:00, as a consequence we were both home by 4:30. Had an early dinner and have been sitting on the balcony with a glass of wine, watching the storm come in.

From our perch we could see the leading edge of the storm coming from the west, dark and swirling. It had been a very hot day today, 37 C*, and as the storm started it was very hot and the air dead still. We could see the rain to the south of us, and hear the thunder start up as it got closer. There were darker wisps of cloud below the main storm, much darker and looking like dragons tossed in the wind. Then the wind picked up and the rain started and the temperature dropped. I’m now sitting inside near the balcony as it’s pretty wet outside as the main part of the storm passes overhead. It’s raining hard. I’m enjoying this because it may be the last time I see this perspective because we found an apartment! Yay! It’s in the city, in the neighborhood of Alt Schwabing, a few short blocks to the English Garden and close to all the city stuff. We go tomorrow to sign the contract.

The apartment does not have everything we wished for, but location location location. It has a great kitchen, with a decent size oven and an American- style refrigerator. This is a BIG deal, in both senses of the word. (We’ve seen places where the oven was merely 15 inches wide, and the fridge is what we’d call a ‘dorm fridge’. I even saw one place listed on the rental site that had no oven at all!) And the apt. is beautifully decorated, has big bedrooms. Only one bathroom, so we’ll have to adjust to that. And very little storage. But as Logan just pointed out, it’s bigger than our first house was. It’s on the second floor, no lift, so my legs will really get a workout. Saves me joining a health club.

Wahoo! Thunder blasting and the light just went dark for a second. Maybe I should sign off. More later!

* Celsius *2 -10% + 32 = Fahrenheit degrees.

Post-storm P.S. - all our clothes did finally arrive, Logan got his car registered & got new plates yesterday. I think we may be ready to settle in, after we get back from Rochester (Aug 3rd - 9th). All we need now is the residence permit (turns out we need that to get cell phone service, or 'handy' as they call it here) and the insurances.

Summertime! Parties everywhere!

2005-07-25T18:33:00.000+02:00

For the past week, Unterhaching has been having their Burgerfest. Unlike the other towns around here, which have a 1-day 'Sommerfest', they put up a tent, and the carnival came in and the festival was on for a week, with a different band every night. A ‘tent’ here is like an Octoberfest tent. It has joists & metal supports, a wooden floor, a kitchen and several food vending counters, and a stage for the band. The tables are picnic style with benches, each table seats 8. There were 10 tables deep by 10 or 12 tables wide in this “tent”. The carnival stuff was mostly smaller rides for little kids, 3 shooting booths with the obligatory cheesy stuffed animal prizes, a cotton candy booth, an ice cream and chocolate covered strawberries, and a 38-meter high Ferris Wheel. These rides were the cleanest, shiniest and quietest that Logan or I had ever seen. Absolutely no qualms about going on one of these!

We had first gone to the fest on Tuesday, for dinner. The band was Cagy Strings, ‘rock & roll’, which started with Motown and the pop hits from the 50s & 60s, wandered briefly into AC/DC and Elvis, back out to ‘Rocking All Over The World’ and then, once again ‘Summer of 69’ (Bryan Adams, I think.) These older UK/American songs are extremely popular. There were some people ‘dancing on tables’, which is what they call standing on the bench of your table & bopping up & down in time to the music. Had 2 Mass bier (2 of the 1-liter gigundo mugs between us), and the most excellent rotisserie chicken. Yum, yum!

Speaking of that, like any good foodie, I have been looking for the foods that we like here. I have successfully found: molasses (key ingredient in the baked beans recipe I use); Hellman’s Mayo (Miracle Whip is much easier to find – bleech); Cranberry Juice (Logan likes it, Germans don’t); Peanut Butter (getting more popular here, can find it in most markets); and just today, Pepperoni (Germans don’t eat it, and apparently Italians don’t either. ‘Peperoni’ here means pepperoncini peppers.) We have eaten at excellent Italian and Indian restaurants and have a line on Chinese.

One thing that I have not found, however, is a good sandwich/sub shop. The Subway chain is here, which I may go to if desperate. But, bleech. So I have kept my eyes open for a sign of a good sandwich – the ones that are sold in most of the plentiful snack shops are OK, but they are all about the bread. A little roll (called ‘semmel’ here), buttered, with one slice of lettuce, one of tomato, one slice of ham or salami, and one slice of cheese. Not NY-deli style at all, nor even a proper Dagwood/sub/hero/or what ever you call it where you come from. I have also not seen anything in the delis except for salamis, and they have a zillion types, and ham, ditto. No roast beef, no pastrami.

So I thought I saw something very interesting at the festival on Tuesday night – a couple walked in with a long, paper-wrapped parcel, just about the size & shape of something yummy on a baguette, and sat down near us. (People who have been to one of these festivals are already laughing.) I watched as they unrolled it, preparing to mime ‘where did you get that?’ when it was revealed to be – a fish! Yup, a whole long fish. They put them on a stick & smoke them. They’re served up with little wooden mini-forks and people tease the meat off & eat it with the little forks. Needless to say, my disappointment was vast.

Capping off the festival last night was to be ‘grosses feuwerwerks’ – big fireworks – so we had to go for that. We also planned to get dinner there, and hang out until the fireworks. All the tables were pretty much full. We squeezed into a table, after asking ‘ist dis platz frei?’ and getting an affirmative. I ordered the chicken again, but it turned out the kitchen had just run out. Last night was the final night of the fest. So we had a medley of sausages instead. I was really jonesing for that chicken, though. The crowd turned rowdy early, by 7:30 there were several tables of people up dancing and bellowing along with the songs. The band was Manyana, and they played both English & German songs. The mix of tunes really surprises me. From Shania Twain, to Lynrd Skynrd, to Deep Purple (Smoke On The Water still gets radio airplay here!), with rock & roll oldies mixed in. Again, ‘Rocking All Over The World’ and then, once again ‘Summer of 69’. I think every band does them.

The waitresses were awesome. Mostly older women, I’d say in their late 50s to early 60s, in costume: dirndel and blouse, heavy skirt. Running up and down the aisles, carrying 6 to 9 Mass (how heavy is a liter of beer, anyway?) and running food too. I never saw them sweat, and they were always pleasant.

The fireworks were pretty good, they set them off over a cornfield. All in all, a pretty good party. And we needed it, too. The weather here has been cool & rainy for the past few weeks. Sure doesn’t feel like summer.

Ah, the bureaucracy

2005-07-21T12:51:00.000+02:00

We have run up against the bureaucracy a couple times now. It’s not so much that there’s a lot of rules & regulations, it’s that each person in a process has a slightly different take on the rules and they could not care less about any other interpretation.

Logan shipped his sports car over here. To get it registered, he must take it to the TUV, so they can approve the car’s configuration or request changes. To do that, he needed temporary registration. To do that, he needed insurance. When he got the insurance card, he & a German acquaintance who used to work for the same company and is semi-retired, but still helps with insurances, together they went to get the temporary registration. Showed them the insurance card, OK, got a 5-day registration. Went to the TUV and got a list of minor things that need changed on the car, mostly all the light coverings. They need to be clear, instead of red or amber. So the next day, Logan took the car & the list to a local dealership. They had to order parts, and knew it would take a week to get them, so Logan made an appointment to bring the car back then. Meanwhile, the temporary registration ran out and he & Herr Kreefer went back to get another one. Got a different clerk this time, who took one look at the insurance card and said it was no good. What? But your colleague had no problem with it. “My colleague was wrong.” No amount of arguing shifted her. So Logan had to get new insurance cards, reschedule the appointment with the dealership, and keep the rental car for another couple weeks.

Then, on Tuesday, we took all our paperwork to the Landratsampt, to get our residency permits. We had registered at the local city hall in Unterhaching, had letters from Logan’s work, our passports and the application form all filled out. So, you go into a big waiting room, get a number, and wait until it’s displayed on a sign at one end. (A new number is accompanied by a chime like a doorbell, so you know to look up.) We waited for about 60 minutes, got called into the office, and scared the heck out of the clerk when we said our German was nicht gut, sprecken sie English? She said, in English, that her English isn’t very good. That’s OK, better than our German, we replied. So she started looking at our stuff. First thing is that I need to fill out one of these forms too, even though throughout the process until now, we had been assured that it was a family form & we only needed one. And then she asks, where’s Logan’s work permit? We had been told that, since he was working on a NATO project, he didn’t need one.

She needed to check with her boss, so out we went back to the waiting room, where I finished filling out my form. About 30 minutes goes by, and we get called in again. This time the first clerk’s boss is available, his English is very good. He asked us some questions about our forms, and it turned out that we hadn’t gotten some of the things right. For example, one date we thought was to be when we had visited Munich for our recon trip, but it was supposed to be the date we moved here. Since the move date was a couple months later, that made a big difference. (You’re supposed to get your residency permit within 90 days of moving here.) Then he said that Logan also needed a work permit, since he didn’t actually have a NATO badge. (Logan works for ESEA, and they’re contractors at NetMa, on the NATO projects.) We told him that none of the other people who work for ESEA in Munich had work permits. OK, he’s got to go consult with his boss.

Back we go out to the waiting room. Another 30 minutes or so pass. We get called back in around noon, and the final result is that they kept our application forms, gave Logan a form to be filled out & faxed to the department of work, so they can decide if he gets a work permit or not. The clerk said he thought it would be no problem to get the permit, but in the meanwhile Logan couldn’t work.

So that afternoon Logan went in to get someone at NetMa involved. (The overall organization that they work with is NetMa.) Someone there is taking the process and trying to sort it out, has already started calling into the Landratsampt and department of work on Logan’s behalf. We probably won’t hear anything until next week.

Other than that have had a low-key week so far, I went to an International Women’s Club new members coffee on Monday, and then stopped by an internet café in the city to clean out my auxiliary Yahoo email (too painful to deal with a month’s worth, on dial-up.)

Wednesday I drove the rental car to the BMW dealership and took Logan from there to work, then went on a big grocery shopping trip. Then I went into the city for an IWC lunch at a café, one of the activities is to try a new place every month.

I have been keeping touch with the family situation in Rochester, too. The folks are still at the assisted living facility, Dad now recovering from a fall he took last week when he & Andrea went to his house to get some things. (Halfway up the basement stairs, Dad thought he saw a light still on, turned around too fast, tripped and fell down onto the concrete floor. Split his scalp open. She called 911 and they carried him out on a back board. Luckily, no concussion or damage other than the split skin.)

I have been trying to help understand/organize the folks finances, too. Hard to do from here. I think the upcoming trip to Rochester will be a very busy one.

Having aging parents is not for sissies

2005-07-18T08:35:00.000+02:00

So, Rochester and family. A couple months ago, people started talking Amos family reunion in August. The date got set for the 5th, I got my ticket for the 3rd – 9th.

Saturday, July 2, Dad went into the hospital with very high blood pressure. They did tests and a CAT scan seemed to show blood leaking in his brain. He’s been on Coumadin, a blood thinner, for heart condition for a few years now. Well, he stabilized pretty quickly. But, alone at home, Mom got extremely disoriented. I guess on Sunday morning she ended up calling brother Greg, who also lives in the Rochester area, asking “where are all the people who live here?” Greg scooped her up & took her to his house. She has as-yet-not-really-diagnosed failing memory symptoms.

Dad was in the hospital until Friday the 7th. Meanwhile, sister-in-law Andrea’s been working the phones. The hospital would not discharge Dad home, as he’s primary care for Mom. So, the veil of bluff and good show that the parents put up has finally been pierced, and this is a good thing. They were struggling along probably not realizing how much work taking care of the house has gotten to be, as it’s happened gradually. But they were also moving so slowly it was glacial in trying to find another place to live. Not asking for any help, of course. So Dad was discharged to an assisted living facility and with a walker which he’s now using. (From the bruises on his elbows & knees, he’s been falling down a lot.) Mom has been admitted too as her memory is much better when they’re together. This stay in the facility may just be temporary as Dad recovers. I’m not so secretly hoping that they will like the break from chores and climbing the stairs in their 3-level house (with the washing machine in the basement, notice I didn’t say dryer, they’re still hanging wet clothes on clotheslines) that they will either stay where they are, or get very serious & speedy about finding a place to their liking.

Meanwhile us kids are doing as much research as we can. Hopefully when we go back in August, we can make progress to getting them in a better place before the winter hits! Last winter, Dad was climbing a ladder to scoop the snow out of the gutters on the roof. “Want some help with that?” “Oh no, I’m fine.” “Pay someone to do that? “Oh, no, I can do it.”

And, this week Andrea has been going to Mom’s doctor visits with her. Due to lack of response from the previous doc, the folks switched to new doctors a couple months ago. Now the new docs are getting the full story, because the folks don’t like to talk about themselves and even if a shark was at that very moment biting their leg off they’d say “I’m fine” if asked how they are by the doctor. But with Andrea there to fill in the complete story, Mom is already off 3 meds that the new doc deemed not necessary. Plus, Mom’s blood pressure is very low. Funny, she’s been on high-blood pressure meds since she was in her 40s. She’s lost maybe 30 pounds over the last 3 years, but the previous doc never changed her medication. Maybe some of her memory problems are overmedication, we can only hope.

More as it evolves! Anyone with advice or who's been through this, I would love help. Email me!

Finishing in Florence

2005-07-15T15:50:00.000+02:00

The last two days in Florence. Wednesday the 5th we woke up early. Sounds really bounces off the narrow streets lined with brick buildings, even with the air conditioner in our room working. (And hurray for that!) We ate breakfast and headed to the Duomo. Got in line at about 9:30 and were lucky to score a seat around the side of the cathedral, in the shade. It opened at 10, free admission. There are not many works of art inside this Duomo anymore, they have been moved to a nearby museum. (Florence has some 50+ museums). But it was interesting to be inside the big building, and look at the dome from inside. We only stayed inside for maybe 20 minutes, and then we decided to climb the dome. I made it up to the walkways that circle the dome – although I really wanted out by now, the stairs were narrow and the walkway barely a foot wide. The claustrophobia reared its head by then. I took a look at the climb up to the outside and decided I’d had enough. Worked my way around to the exit and was grateful when I got outside. Sara continued and got some lovely pictures from the top of the dome.

It was barely 11:30 by then so we dedicated the rest of the day to shopping. We browsed our way through the jewelry shops, looking at charms, and the leather shops near Santa Croce. Save room in your suitcase for something made out of leather! We had marked one glove shop near our hotel for a stop back later. In the window, they had, in cashmere lined leather: red, pink, dark pink, light yellow, dark yellow, terracotta, orange, light green, dark green, olive green, light blue, teal blue, navy blue, tan, dark brown, lavender, dark purple and grey. (They don’t bother putting the black on display). They had the same spectrum in unlined gloves with some piercing at the cuff that looked like lace, but was the leather of the glove. Then they had driving-style gloves with more of a mesh back, but all leather. Then they had heavy winder gloves in a spectrum of colors. The selection was mind-boggling! Good prices, too. The cashmere-lined ones were 35 Euro.

We saw shoes and bags and jackets galore. It was lunchtime, so we pulled into Trattoria Pallotino on the corner of Via Torta, and eventually ordered and got a good lunch. They were busy. We got a half-liter of wine but it took 15 minutes for the glasses to come. The food was good, when we finally got it. Time now for our after-lunch gelato, and we aimed at Vivoli, the most famous gelato place in Florence. Took a left out the door of the restaurant, (if only we’d taken a right) and using our map to guide us, set out for Via Isole della Stinche. We kept overshooting our turns, roads marked as main streets on the map looked like alleyways to us & we kept walking. Eventually we made a big circle, back to Via Torta, and I turned around & there was where we’d eaten lunch. And, right next door, was Vivoli! The gelato was great.

Refreshed, we settled into some serious shopping. Walked into one store and the sales guy took one look at Sara and said “I have the perfect jacket for you.” He was right. Beautiful light brown, short jacket that zips up the front. The leather is so soft. Well, it did go home with her. Further on she found the charms that she’d been looking for, and even a bracelet for one of them.

After this burst of energy, we headed back to the hotel to rest. After our nap, we wanted to get dinner, but first stopped in an internet café near the Uffizi (also very near our hotel.) So nice to use broadband, I cleaned the spam out of my inbox & caught up on the family situation in 30 minutes. Takes me hours in Germany on dial-up. We strolled past the Uffizi and found where we’d need to pick up our tickets the next day. The Uffizi sits at one end of Piazza Signoria, there’s a replica of David and many other large statues. We wandered around & looked at them, then decided to have dinner in a restaurant on the other side of the square.

After dinner we walked past our hotel in the other direction, overshot where I thought we were again, and came back by the river. We had our navigation down pretty good, throughout the trip one of us was right at all times and the other didn’t take too much persuading to change direction. I have learned that if I feel strongly that, based on the map, we go one direction, it’s usually the opposite direction we need to go. Sometimes I even remember that.

Thursday July 7th. After breakfast we walked back up half a block to the olive oil store we’d seen the night before. They had lovely oils and olive oil soaps & lotions. Then we went back to the glove store where Sara bought a pair of the cashmere-lined gloves. I was holding off making any major purchases to see what I need in Munich. Plus, all our clothes just showed up the Friday before I left – finally! – and I need to see what I’ve got again before I buy anything new.

We stopped back at the internet café for a quick email check, for me. The folks back in Rochester are not doing so well, more about that later. We had a light lunch at the café then headed to the Uffizi to get out tickets and browse the Renaissance. It is a great collection and well worth seeing. We were a bit tainted, however, by some of the sardonic commentary in the Birthday Boy movie (about the David). The lecturer, commenting on the maleness of the David and other works, says that ‘even the women are just men with breasts stuck on’ and shows a couple of pictures of sculpture that illustrate just that. And that’s what we kept seeing, in many of the paintings. We’re pretty sure, all issues of perspective aside, that the painters never really saw actual women. It got to be a bit funny.

We ended up spending over 3 hours in the Uffizi, which surprised both of us. We burned out on paintings of the Annunciation, Coronation of the Virgin and Adoration of the Christ Child by about room 25. So we started speeding past those.

Afterwards we went back to Carabe, and instead of gelato had Granita. It was wonderful. We then walked towards Santa Croce and found the leather school that shares quarters with the church. Beautiful, colorful, innovative products on display there. Sara was sure that, with all her shopping, she’d need to buy a new bag to take everything home in. She didn’t find anything that was quite right to fit her new jacket and her laptop, so we headed back to the hotel empty handed. Woke from our nap to the phone ringing, it was Logan calling to tell us what had happened in London that morning. He thought we might not have heard about it, and thought we might need extra time at the airport the next day.

We headed out for dinner, and ended up at Trattoria 13, on Via del Porcellana. It was a beautiful restaurant with an open courtyard in the back. We had a great dinner. The tip to the restaurant came from the Bon Appetite magazine that Sara lugged with her, along with Rick Steve’s Tuscany and Fodor’s Tuscany and the book about the Palio. I had borrowed Frommer’s Florence, Umbria & Tuscany from a friend, brought that with me. We decided that the Frommer’s is the best overall guide – it includes maps, hotels, dining, sights and shopping. Rick doesn’t shop, and Fodors doesn’t have maps. But it was nice having the others too. We’d read more about what we saw in the evening.

We walked back along the river and ended up back at the internet café, which has live jazz music. Sat there for almost an hour. It was nice to be out but jazz, yeech. Lots of solos with the tune and beat wandering around all over the place. Yeah, yeah, I display no soul. But I do like blues.

Friday morning we packed. It was another cool cloudy morning. Sara got everything back into the bags she had originally brought. We double-checked to make sure there was nothing being left behind, but it was a miracle. Got a taxi to the airport, and waited in a long, slow moving line. Finally got to the gate & the place was late coming in, and we sat on the runway for a while before heading out. But we finally got going around 2, getting to Munich at 3. Sara made her connection to get back home, and Logan picked me up at the airport. Yay, I didn’t really want to lug my stuff home on the train. Plus it was rather shockingly cooler in Munich. It must have been 28 in Florence, and the pilot announced it was 16 in Munich as we touched down through the rain clouds.

Again, it was a difficult re-entry to Germany. Italy is warm & welcoming, if inefficient. Germany, pretty much the opposite. Plus I caught a cold. But I’m doing better now and it has warmed up again here. Sitting on the balcony to write this report and we have a nice sunset going. This part I like!

Italy, Tuscany - what a great place to visit!

2005-07-14T11:38:00.000+02:00

The trip to Italy was great. Caught a cold on the way back, however, and I have not been doing much of anything the first few days of this week. I’m feeling a bit better now and able to go whole minutes at a time without sneezing or blowing my nose, so I thought I’d do a recap of the trip.

A few weeks ago, I got an email from Sara B. with the subject “Coming to a country near you” and it started “Is me!” She was on a work trip that started in England & ended in Italy; Siena to be exact. Her plans were to take a week at the end of the trip & sightsee. We conferred over email & I decided what the heck, go. So I went on-line to Lufthansa and paid a small fortune for the 1 hour flight from Munich to Florence. (It’s high season! And I don’t feel up to taking the trains just yet, I will start that probably this fall.)

Much to my surprise, at the end of the transaction, I was informed that the paper tickets would be mailed to the address on my credit card. Hmmm, that can’t be right, it wasn’t what I intended. Long story short, Florence airport is not set up for electronic tickets, so paper ones are automatically issued. (Not set up for electronic tickets! I never imagined there was still an airport on the planet that wasn’t, but have been assured that if so, it would be in Italy.) The very helpful folks at Lufthansa were able to change the destination address for the tickets from the one that accompanies my American credit card to the new address in Germany. Whew!

In the midst of her work trip Sara was able to get us a hotel in Florence. She also was able to extend her stay at the hotel in Siena so we had places to stay.

On Sunday July 3rd, I flew into Florence. It is a very small airport. It didn’t take long for the bags to come out, I got through the security door & Sara was there. It was great to see her. We headed out to the rental car – a Ford Mondeo - & off to the Tuscan hills. We went to San Gimignano, about an hour’s drive away. Tuscany looks a lot like California, with olive trees instead of oaks in the hills. San Gimignano is a medieval town perched on a hill top, complete with brick wall fortification and many many brick towers. Quoting from Frommers: “The spires started rising in the bad old days of the 1200s partly to defend against outside invaders but mostly as command centers for San Gimignano’s warring families. Several successive waves of the plague that swept through the town (1348, 1464 and 1631) caused the economy to crumble, and San Gimignano became a provincial backwater. Because there was no impetus for new building, by the time tourism began picking up in the 19th century, visitors found a preserved medieval village of crumbling towers.”

We found a place to park on the other side of town from where the tour busses were letting people off. Walked up and up into town, through a doorway in the brick wall and onto narrow cobblestone streets lined with bring buildings. We soon found a small ‘enoteca’, a wine shop, that also housed a deli and had a light lunch along with a glass of the lovely local white wine: Vernaccia di San Gimignano. Yummy – dry, with great fruit aroma, light alcohol content. Great for a hot summer day.

We wandered around the streets, looking at the shops. As it was Sunday, most of the shops were closed. Probably a good thing, too, because there were a couple that featured beautiful works of alabaster: lamps, bowls, statues. I love alabaster and hope to someday have several light fixtures with alabaster coverings or bowls (for a hanging ceiling light.) But my suitcase was full to start. Unlike the dry heat of California, the humid European hot days cause me to sweat & want a couple tops for each day. I had forgotten about humidity in my 18 years in California!

We walked to the Rocca, the remaineder of the city’s 14th century fortress, and climbed the walls. Great view of the countryside from up high. I love the light, and all the farm fields & olive trees on the hills. It is just beautiful. On my first day, I was already making plans to come back.

The travel books advise to hang out in San Gimignano until all the tour buses leave. So we got a gelato and sat down in the shade in the main piazza – town square – and chatted until about 6. It seemed that there were even more people now, so we decided to head to Siena, We drove to the Hotel Patrizia which is on the outskirts of town, almost directly across the street from where Sara had been working. Convenient, quiet, with air conditioning and a pool. Dropped off my suitcase, and then headed out to walk to the heart of Siena. The walk was downhill, took about 30 minutes until we came to the walls of Siena center. Walking in, it seemed a lot like San G, except the streets were wider and there were a lot of shops. Then we ducked down this steep side street, down a flight of stairs and – O My! – entered the Piazza del Campo. This is the heart of Siena – a vast town “square” that is really shaped like a scallop shell, sloping downhill towards the Palazzo Pubblico, the huge town hall. The Campo is paved in softly worn brick, a beautiful terra cotta color. The walls of the surrounding buildings are various shades of warm stucco yellows and we had entered the Piazza just about twilight as the sky was deepening to azure. It was stunning. I wanted to take pictures but my little camera could not fit it all in.

People have said that il Campo is like the beach without water. It’s ringed on the upper end with 10 or so cafes, with plenty of outside tables. People sit there & people watch as the Campo fills up; groups just sit down on the bricks and talk, or they hang out down around the Palazzo Pubblico. I didn’t see any Frisbee or picnic blankets, but it really was like being at the shore. We got dinner at one of the cafes and had some more Vernaccia, sat there for a couple hours before we made the hike back to the hotel.

Monday the 4th we drove into Siena. My legs were feeling the effects of all the walking the day before, especially all the ups & downs. So Sara drove & I navigated as best I could. The streets are marked pretty well as to the direction that they go, although it’s hard to pick out the sign you’re looking for among the 6 or 8 that are on the poles. But we only severely annoyed a couple of other drivers, and we found our way to the stadium parking lot just outside the city walls. Up the flight of stairs out of the lot, and within a couple blocks we were at the edge of the city. We walked through the Piazza Santa Mother Theresa, and towards the Duomo. We stood in line for only a short while – a good thing too, it was getting really hot – and entered this church. Again, O My! Huge, ornately decorated from the busts of the popes lining the ceiling, about 60 feet up, to the elaborate mosaics on the floor, to the paintings and altars (one of which contains some carvings by Michalengelo) and the emotionally resonating chapel that contains the Madonna del Voto. This was surrounded by many charms? Offerings? Thanks? Of silver hearts, and some motorcycle and bicycle helmets. I definitely got the feelings of gratitude and thanks, vibrations, like I’ve felt no other place, not in Sedona, nor in the stone circle in the Lake District. (Plus, no sheep doots!)

We spent a couple hours in the Duomo. I would love to go back when it’s not so hot and crowded with a book to tell me more about what I’m seeing. A note: they really do want modest dress in the churches; will hand you a paper drape to cover your shoulders & torso if they think you need it. Mostly women got these, but we did see one teenage boy in a very droopy tank top get one too.

It was getting on about lunchtime, so we left the church and walked another way back to the Piazza del Campo. About Siena, it’s built on a hilltop, of course, the better to defend itself. But this hilltop is split into thirds by some severely steep ravines. So walking in Siena is down, up, down up. Great workout!

We had lunch at a café on the Campo. After lunch (by now it was about 3:00), we walked to the Gelateria, had great gelato, then found our way back to the car, went back to the hotel. Sara napped and I took advantage of the pool. It was a great way to cool down. We drove back into town at 6, parked on the street near the stadium and walked back up down up down to il Campo. Sara had a list of restaurants recommended by coworkers, a couple were on Via Jaques Dupre, which started at the bottom end of il Campo. And, of course, then veered sharply up. We got to the restaurant recommended just before 7. They open at 7, so we sat in a small square nearby to wait. By 7:15 they weren’t open yet, so we decided to walk a bit. We came upon a pathway that lead to a small park, on the ridge. Passed a couple young men working out with the flags. Saw part of Siena spread out beneath us, and were able to take a couple pictures of the tower in the Piazza, without the building cranes in the frame.

The sound of drumming led us back where we’d come from, it was one young man practicing on a snare drum, the kind you march with. (This and the flags are all part of Palio, more about that later.)

We checked the restaurant again, still not open. There was another recommendation for a place on the other end of the street, back down by il Campo, so we headed off towards it. As we got close to the Campo, we could see across it, up by the cafes, that there was a parade taking place. Flags and drums at the front, a large banner held aloft, and townspeople walking along behind. These were people from Bruca, the winning contrada from the Palio that had been held on July 2. Palio is a horse race, dedicated to the Virgin Mary, which is held July 2 and August 16 every year in the Campo, since at least 1310. The contrade are the neighborhoods of Siena center, each one gets a horse & jockey. A lottery is held to decide which 10 of the 17 contrade participate in the race. There is a week’s worth of preparation, much pageantry, pages in medieval dress performing with the flags of the contradta, parades, blessings, feasts all leading up to the race. Sara did get to the race on the 2nd, will link to her story & pictures if she puts them on line. The Palio is traditional, fraught with meaning in every step, flag, costume, gesture, and has had reams written about it. Sara had a book about it that we read bits of when we had time.

So this parade was the displaying of the banner by the winning contrada. They proceeded around il Campo. As they rounded the corner & came towards us, we could see it was the young men with the flags in front, all also wearing a scarf of their contrada, and many sucking pacifiers (they won, so it is like a birth for them, so the books say.) The men of the contrada were behind them, then the women. As the women got to the corner, they started singing a song. (Likely; we’re the best, we won, you didn’t, you disgust the city.) At the end of it, a woman in front shouted Uno, Duo, Trey and they all turned around and bent over to show they each had paper on their butts with 2 brown handprints. What a hoot! I’m sure it has great significance. The parade moved on & Sara and I found the restaurant. Had a great meal. Afterwards we walked back to the car & found our way to the hotel the short way. We’re starting to get somewhat familiar with Siena by now, it must be almost time to leave.

Tuesday the 5th it was actually cool & cloudy. Nice break! After breakfast we walked back towards town to a yarn shop that Sara had spotted. She was browsing the beautiful yarns and I was entranced by the hundreds of skeins of embroidery floss. Beautiful! I will pick that hobby back up again here. I refrained from buying anything as I don’t yet have a specific project in mind. There was a great book on the counter, the Italian version of the Embroidery Stitch Bible, which I plan to order from Amazon real soon. We walked back to the hotel, checked out, loaded up the car & drove back to Siena city. Parked again at the stadium – if you take the lower level, there’s parking in the shade. Walked up into the city, and started to buy souvenirs. Sara bought several Palio scarves and a snow globe. I bought postcards showing il Campo, to have some pictures for myself. We had lunch at yet another of the cafes on the Campo, and gelato afterwards. It was threatening rain, but never did. We departed Siena around 3, and drove to the Florence airport, where Sara turned in the rental car and we got a cab into Florence.

We arrived at our hotel, the Alessandra, around 5:30. in Florence, the streets are narrow, the buildings are 5 or 6 stories and many are right up to the street which is shared by cars, scooters & motorcycles, taxis the occasional bicyclist, mobs of tourists, horse drawn-carriages and locals going about their business. A hard city to drive in.

As we were checking in, they told us that the Accademia was open tonight, from 7 – 10, and FREE. This is where David lives. So, we unpacked a bit, changed and called to the Uffizi reservation line. (Got reservations for 12:45 on Thursday. This costs a euro or two more, but it saves hours of standing in line. You show up to the reservations area, buy your tickets, and go to the reservations entrance during yout 15 minute time slot, and get right in.) We then headed out at 7. Our hotel is a block in on Via Borgo SS Apostoli from Via Por S. Maria, which means we were one block from the famous Ponte Veccio. So we took a look. This is a low bridge across the Arno river that has shops on it. Originally they were the slaughterhouses, convenient to the river, but one of the early rulers had enough with the smell, kicked them out & installed goldsmiths. And the bridge is supposed to be beautiful, the best viewing spot in Florence, yadda yadda. To my eye it looked very Santana Row, except way more crowded. The jewelry was overwhelming, pretty much the same in all the shops and very gorpy. Think cocktail rings.

We fought our way back out of the crowds and stopped in a snack bar to grab a quick dinner. Continued up the street and came to the Duomo & bell tower of Florence. What a marvel – it is huge huge huge and clad in white, pink & green marble. Teeming with tourists at all times of day. It is beautiful and way over the top.

We continued on and got to the Accademia around 8, walked around it & saw the Piazza Santissima Annunziata, which the guide books say is the prettiest in Florence. Pah. Doesn’t hold a candle to il Campo.

We went into the Accedemia, and could see David down the long corridor. 2004 was his 500th birthday, and there were some modern art exhibits that were intended to pertain to that. Mostly we didn’t see the point.

The place was not crowded. It was amazing to be in the same room with David, walk around him (great butt) and have the time to really look at the sculpture. What a gift!

In one of the side rooms was a “multi-media” modern exhibit, a film of an art historian giving a lecture on David for his 500th birthday. It’s subtitled in English, sardonic and very funny. Lots of comments about the young white hero, and the machismo and sexism and racism of glorifying David. If you get a chance, see it too!

On our way back to our hotel we passed Carabe, the 2nd most famous gelateria in Florence. Since we’d indulged in Siena that day already, we decided to wait for another day to eat here. We walked back past the Duomo again, looked around & marveled, and then back to the hotel to pass out.

* * *

Well, it’s time for me to rest & get lunch. More tomorrow!

In Italy!

2005-07-06T19:40:00.000+02:00

On Saturday the 2nd, Logan & I went to a party on the banks of the Isar, in honor of the 4th of July. It was the IWC group, and there were about 30 people in our group. Great potluck and grills to cook on. It had been raining earlier in the day, but cleared out around 2 and we had beautiful weather. There were hundreds of other people there, it looks like a great place to head on a fine summer evening.

And, Sunday the 3rd I got on a plane to Florence. Was met by Sara Benson, who tacked a week of vacation onto a work trip that started in Oxford, on to Marburg Germany, then to Siena.

Will provide travelog & pics when I get back to Germany. Meanwhile - come to Italy. It is so beautiful. Katie, let's start planning your trip over here!!!

Ausgang, ausgang

2005-06-29T15:07:00.000+02:00

Tuesday June 28. Hot again today: 30 Celsius by 9 a.m. Today I'm going to be a ‘lady who lunches’. The Ladies International Association had its annual new members lunch today. I took the S-Bahn to a transfer point, then took the tram to get to my destination. The trams are big, 2-car affairs, they run on a track and have doors in the side of each car that automatically opens at every stop. (Unlike the S- and U-bahns, where you have to activate a button or push a handle to open the doors.)

A couple stops after I got on, two young women shepherded a group of 15 or so 4 year-olds onto the tram. They couldn’t all find seats together, so one woman & 5 of the kids walked to the back & ended up in front of me. All was well for a couple stops, but the tram was hot, the kids got bored. The two across the aisle decided to have a ‘bite the handhold on the back of the seat’ contest. This didn’t phase their minder. Then, one started a shrieking contest and of course a couple more joined in. (Not the girl across from me, she was holding her ears. I wanted to do the same.) It wasn’t until everyone else in the tram was glaring that their minder noticed. First she talked with one, then another and they sort of settled down.

A few minutes later, for some reason their minder grabbed her bag & walked up front to talk with the other woman. They’re chatting up at the front, when the tram comes to a stop and the doors open. The kids near me look around, don’t see her and so they stand up, start singing ‘Ausgang, ausgang’ (exit, exit) take hands and walk off the tram! I could see the alarm sweep up the car before I could say anything, one teenager vaulted off the tram & talked to the kids, someone else told the driver to stop. And it’s not until now that the women in charge have noticed that anything’s wrong. Everyone was herded back on the tram and we proceeded. Until 15 minutes later, we stopped and never got going again. We sat for 5 minutes, very unusual, and the driver made an announcement. We all got off the tram. It sat there for a couple minutes then pulled away, just as the next tram was coming. So we piled onto that one and continued.

I finally got to the lunch destination, at a member’s house. It was a very enjoyable time, I had already met several of the women. Met a few new ones too, a couple who had lived in the area I’m in and offered help with anything if I needed it.

Getting back was also a bit of an adventure. Eva kindly gave me a ride to the tram stop, where there already were a couple of the women I had met. Good thing, too, as we waited & waited, there came an announcement from the kiosk would we please wait; and then a bus pulled up. We all piled on to it, and it traced the tram route. The other women, Ewa and Alex, told me this rarely happens, but they always make it right & get you to where you need to go. So now I know, in case it happens again and I still don’t understand what they were saying.

Got home at about 4, exhausted and hot. Didn’t do much else. Forgot how much humid heat tires me out.

Tollwood Festival

2005-06-28T23:06:00.000+02:00

Logan thought he was going to drive to Ulm this afternoon, for a 1/2 day meeting Tuesday morning. He was about 10 minutes from being out the door, when the boss called to tell him the meeting was canceled. So, after dinner we rode into town to get to the OlympiaPark, where the annual Tollwood festival is going on. They have bands playing there for fee, local bands playing for free, “street theater” entertainment and the usual assortment of food, drink, clothing, jewelry, etc. vendors. Like a gigantic art & wine festival. BUT – key difference – you buy your drink & sit in the beer gardens. No wandering around with drinks, that we saw. This may be due to the fact that, like at the street festival in Schwabing, you pay ‘Ruckgeld’ (a deposit, ruck = back) for every container, even a plastic bottle. It’s marked on the receipt, and you return it to that vendor with the empty to get the deposit back.

The festival was moderately interesting, if we’d been with a crowd of friends it would have been more fun. OlympiaPark is just gorgeous, and I will pay attention to the events they hold there. Ann M, they just performed Turandot. It sold out pretty quickly but maybe I can catch the next opera that they perform.

Beer Garden Life

2005-06-28T13:22:00.000+02:00

Sunday June 26. Still hot, although there are some interesting clouds in the sky. We left the house around 1:30 to meet up with Bruce & Barbara at the Kugler Alm, a beer garden near where we live. Logan & I got there first, and we snagged a spot at a mostly shaded table. Logan had gone off to get beer when I spotted Bruce. He & Barbara had just gotten there along with Elaine. They rode their bikes through the Forst to the beer garden. Great way to get there, and back, especially if you have a couple beers.

A festival was going on at the Kugler Alm, there was a band in lederhosen playing traditional dance music, and a troupe of dancers also in traditional dress. They would process to the stage, and do a couple dances, then recess for a couple songs, then a different set of dancers would go up & do a couple more. The dancing was very slow & stately, more like walking in time with the music. Lots of changing partners, and different hand holds. It was reminiscent of square dancing, but a very slower pace. The dancers ranged from a tiny girl about 3 feet tall, through teenagers, to middle-aged adults. And we didn’t even think about bringing the camera. Oh well, we’ll have to go to another one.

The beer garden was very big. Bandstand in the center, 20 rows of picnic tables on all sides and lots of trees for shade. There was a separated playground for kids, and a couple other areas with tables farther away from the bandstand.

The beer gardens started when it was against the law to brew beer in the summer months. They brewed in spring, and used the trees as shade to keep the beer cool so it would last through the summer. I’m pretty sure they cellared the beer, and the trees provided extra coolness. People liked sitting under the trees & drinking, and this was permitted as long as people were allowed to bring in their own food. That continues to this day. We saw plenty of people with their picnic baskets or soft sided coolers setting up at their table. People also bring their own tablecloths to the beer gardens. But you have to buy their beer.

Barbara told us that some beer gardens do provide table service. These areas are marked by tables, with tablecloths already on them. If you see a spot like that, you can sit but expect to order food from the waitress.

Spending a hot afternoon at a beer garden is just great. I hope to do it more often.

Ikea, and Festival in Schwabing

2005-06-27T17:16:00.000+02:00

Friday June 24. After Logan got home from work, we went to the nearby Ikea. Spent a couple hours in the cool, wandering through the displays. We were looking for just a few items, that would help organize things. We looked at all their furniture, this was the first time Logan had been in an Ikea. We had dinner in their cafeteria, and then down to the “Costco” area and bought a magazine rack, a knife, a free standing-towel rack (hanging on the door they don’t dry), a chair that fits me, and a small shelving unit. We got them back to the apartment and started assembling. The only tool we lacked was a hammer. Logan made do with the doorstop rock.

Saturday, June 25. Today dawned hot. We went for a bike ride in the morning, looked at the nearby town of Taufkirchen. There’s a good-looking apt. there coming up for rent.

We went grocery shopping, took the car so we could replenish the wine & juice supplies. Just too heavy for me to carry much home.

Then, as the evening started to cool, we hopped on the S-bahn and connected with the U-bahn to take us into the Munich neighborhood of Schwabing. I had read on the ToyTown site that there was a festival there, HerzogStrasseFest. We finally found it. Food & drink booths, and several bands. One interesting difference from California street festivals – all food and drink is served on and in real plates and glasses. You pay a 2 Euro deposit when you buy the food and you get a token from that vendor. When you return items and token to the vendor, you get your 2 Euro back. Really keeps down on the litter.

There was one band that really had the crowd lit up. We stopped to listen as they started “You can keep your hat on”. The crowd knew all the words. They played songs like “Summer of ‘69”, “All right now”, "long Train Running" and were starting a ballad by Whitesnake as we headed out. Everyone knew the words to all the songs. The crowd was truly all ages, we saw people who had to have been in their 70s dancing in front of the band, along with the young mother & her 3-year old. What fun!

Back to St. Anne's

2005-06-27T17:03:00.000+02:00

Monday June 21. We headed out after breakfast and worked our way down towards Blackpool and St. Anne’s. Logan had another week of work planned at the BEA site in Warton, so we were going back to the Glendower. On the way, we tried to tour Sizeargh Castle, an Elizabethan building in which the Strickland family has lived for over 760 years. They must be very well preserved. We got there around 10:30 and it wasn’t yet open. We looked around a bit, took the road back to the Sizergh farm nearby. This is an organic dairy farm. There was a walk posted, but we didn’t feel like taking it. So we got back in the car and navigated the coastal route back to Blackpool.

Along the way, we stopped at a Public House for lunch. There were a few listed on the map, we pulled in to two along the way before we found one that was open. Here we had an excellent pub lunch. It seems that the local food is better if the place is not frequented by tourists.

Back on the road after lunch, and within 20 minutes, we hit Blackpool. O my god, what a place. It’s a resort area of sorts, we entered town from the north and drove down the coast road. For a couple miles, the ocean and a tram line is on the right, and to the left are hotels – 4 story building after brick building, most touching with restaurants and parking lots out front. Then, the overhead lights start and line the street. There are plastic light-up figures along the lightpoles flanking the street and most look like bad 1950’s cartoons (especially the flying saucers, complete with aliens inside.) On the road to the left is now arcades, tourist traps, and you just know bad restaurants. This goes on for a couple more miles, and then you exit out from under the lights and back into a couple miles of hotels. A couple more miles and we’re back in St. Anne’s, where I will stay one night before heading to Munich on Tuesday.

At the Glendower, where we stayed, there was a brochure for one of the big attractions in Blackpool. It looks like a Vegas-style showgirl production, plus a Cirque-du-Soliel performer (not the whole show, just the flying guy). The brochure stated that they had great restaurants within, and at one, you could “tempt your tastebuds at Burger King.” So, I’ve got their idea of ‘great’ pretty well calibrated. Bleah!

My opinion on Vegas is that it looks like someone gave the prom committee 2 Billion & said, “decorate it”. Blackpool is much the same, only it was $2 million and they gave it to the 5th graders.

We checked back into the Glendower at about 3:00. I wanted to walk on the dunes that were between the shore road and the beach, so we changed into walking gear. Luckily I put on the dirtiest jeans I had with me, because I got the bright idea, once on the dunes, to go walk the beach. The tide was way out & I wanted to walk to the surf line. It was an unusually non-windy day and the sun was peeking out from behind the clouds now & again. So we started walking. And walking. At least it was flat. We kept crossing small streams on the beach – either from when the tide had been in, of the groundwater running. They got deeper & wider as we got closer to the surf line, so at one point I decided to take off my shoes. Quickly found out that the ridged sand was quite hard to walk on, but had already noticed that the sand had lots of river silt in it and I was positively filthy. Not going to put my socks & shoes back on until we’re near the road again. So we plugged on to the surf line, and when we got there, I stepped in when Logan said “watch out, there’s a jellyfish.” And so there were. Quite a lot of them. So I got out pretty darn quick and we picked our painful way back. There were higher spots where the sand was relatively smooth, but then it would go into hard 3” high ridges again. We finally gave up after coming out the other side of a pool with lots of mud between our toes. Walked back through the pool, sat down and put on the socks over very dirty feet. What a relief it was to have my shoes on again! My feet felt like they had been pummeled. Now I know why the town up the road is called Blackpool.

(In real time, it’s been a week since I’ve walked on the beach. I am still shaking fine sand out of my shoes. )

Tuesday, Logan drove me to the Manchester Airport. The roads seemed much bigger than they did when I first got here! One of Logan’s co-workers said “You think those are small, you ought to see the roads in Cornwall!” So we’ll use public transport and/or walk when we go there.