Two Words for Venice (or Venice, the short story)

Venice for spring break.  Awesome choice since we escaped cold, dreary "spring" to  sunny, warm Italy! And, checked another country on our list (totally want to go back for more!)  We were only there for 2 days, so it was just a "taste" of Italy.... I asked the boys to give me 2 words to describe Venice.  

Zach:  "Bridges and boats".......
"and Water, lots of water!"  that was 3 Zach...we said 2 words!
Zach's best Venice joke as we crossed this canal for the 14th time:
"Look! it's a gondola stau!"  (pronounce Sht+oww = traffic jam) Zach loved the whole city--in and out of museums and checking out the architecture, prisons, weapon displays, paintings and globes.

Nate:  "Gelato and narrow streets"Nate is our culinary expert --he managed to find us the BEST restaurant and gelato places!  But, don't ask him about the pigeons...(couldn't stand them being everywhere and likely to land on or near you...which they didn't, but....)

The narrow streets were a bit tough to navigate as he didn't like that "lost" feeling....but getting lost we found our hotel, above.  And, we found a woodworker's shop: met a wonderful Italian man who shared his puzzle crafts with us and talked about life in Venice.   He had all 3 boys in the palm of his hand for 30 minutes.  Priceless.  and, his Gelato recommendation was the best! Here's what we took home in addition to memories:

Alex:  "Architecture... and Lions"The winged lion is the symbol of Venice's patron St. Mark --we found lions EVERYWHERE!  (way more fun to count than # of McDonald's restaurants in Europe)
Above left, 16th century trade/business building in Piazza San Marco
Right, gondola parking in front of the Rialto bridge 
Of all our children, Alex will appreciate the beauty of Europe the most, as he realizes these are things you just don't see everyday in "the States."  He was not impressed, however, with the kitschy miles of stores in the Rialto merchant district!  <sigh> he is not my shopping buddy

Last words: Venice = "Magic & Fashion"
A young Italian girl on the train said she hoped we would find Venice to be a magical place.  I'm not so sure, I would really describe it that way, but it did have a certain allure about it.  I had no idea Venice was such a high-end shopping mecca --Gucci, Prada, Versace, Channel, etc...the window displays were amazing..I was too scared to even look at the price tags! I certainly want to go back and see more of the city, take a gondola ride, visit Murano glass blowers, listen to more dueling orchestras.   

FYI:  more about St Mark's bones: "stolen" from his Muslim-occupied gravesite in Egypt in 828AD and built St Mark's Basilica in his honor.  Original church burned in 976, but current structure was begun in 1063 with an "East meets West" decor:  Roman arches, Byzantine mosaics (imagine paving a football field with contact lenses-according to Rick Steves), Muslim inspired onion shaped domes, and marble slab walls from all over the world.

Where have all the flowers gone? (Or, how to enjoy dirt)

I'm hearing strains of Pete Seeger as I write this post about our excursion to Keukenhof Gardens in Holland (which is technically The Netherlands).   It's been a long winter in Germany ~ even the Deutsch are tired of waiting for spring.  Usually by April 1st the tulips are in bloom, but this year the shoots are hanging out in warm dirt.  I totally don't blame them...

If you squint really hard, you can see all the beautif......

Perhaps the beauty in the cold, windy day was the lack of people at the Garden...
we pretty much had the place to ourselves!  

Welcome to Disney  Keukenhof where the queues are non extant,
the streudel is warm, and the flowers are in pots.

 It was a lovely garden with plenty to see/do inside and out.  We wandered thru much of the park checking out the sculptures and enjoying the outdoor living ideas.  They even had a small animal farm and a zipline on the playground, so a whole family could find something to enjoy!

Playground --yes the water was cold, no I didn't get wet!

EYE loved the sculptures!

Oh, the fun we all could've had back in Iowa if we'd only had
cool camper like this instead of the boring old tree house....

Actually, I wish I had a little sanctuary like this now...but the camper needs to be a little bigger...

Seeking respite from the crisp, sea air we checked out the tulip displays inside the Oranje Nassau pavilion.  Hundreds of flower show arrangements and rows of beautiful tulips in every color & variety.

Drawn to the art: paintings and stained glass work for sale..inspiration for Zach!

Lastly, one can't visit Holland and the tulip world without talking about shoes.
Not your average, run-of-the-mill wooden shoe, though.
Here they had everything from Giant to fairy sized, orange pumps to painted blue shoes! 
 

I would totally try the pumps if they weren't nailed to the bench!

Good thing God got the proportions right for us!

So, the rest is all flowers --lots of pictures, but I couldn't pick just one!
Enjoy!

Vaarwell,

Linda

"Fringed tulip"  Spiky seems more apt.

these were some sort of double bloom tulip
--hard to really capture the dimension in the photo!

frilly and perfect--reminds me of those dresses you just twirl around in!

One can always depend on crocus for a little early spring...

loved the pale blue color --so different!

Seriously GIANT amaryllis --this must have been 3 feet tall and blooms the size of  my hand!
From inside this shop one could purchase bulbs and ship them anywhere in the world.

another cool sculpture -I love the movement in this piece. 

German excursions with Jennifer

We gave Jennifer a taste of Germany near our village --introducing her to the tastes, smells, weather and sights was a lot of fun!

The bakery truck comes right to our door several times a week!  Full of tasty breads, pretzels and bakery sweets!  Wheat on wheels....

IDAR- OBERSTEIN
home of the Church in the Rocks, as well as many jewelry stores and precious stone mines...Our trip here was to meet a friend of Jennifer's, however, my dear GPS "Heather" (God bless her, grrr) just kept turning us in circles.  We ended up not meeting the friend as we drove around the city for 45 minutes in search of the "meeting place".  Finally, we stumbled upon a shop and had a wonderful German conversation with the sweetest grandma ever!  "Oma" gave us a wonderful lunch suggestion and in following her directions, we found the church!  Unfortunately, we didn't have enough time to go inside the church, but we did enjoy a feast for lunch.

Schloss Oberstein, home to 2 brothers in 14th century, who both fell in love unknowingly with the same girl. (obviously dysfunctional families existed back then too!)  When Wyrich returned home and learned of the engagement, he threw his brother over the cliff in a fit of rage.  Wyrich eventually built the church on the rock as penance for his sin.  He died there on the altar steps as the church was consecrated.

The church on the rock:

Lunch restaurant, Oma's favorite: I love the mix of English and German around here...Ger-lish"

Spießbraten --flame grilled pork steak with radish slaw and baked potato....
it's like being in Iowa everyday with this kind of meat!!! 

Cochem Castle

 Cochem castle, built around the year 1000, had many inhabitants including counts, lords and archbishops until it was blown up by the French in 1689.  Cochem castle laid in ruin for the next 200 years until Louis Ravené, a German businessman purchased it in 1868 and started the reconstruction for their summer home.  The castles' decor reflects the Renaissance & Baroque periods and much of the structure is open to the public.  The incredible detail in woodwork and the re-creation of the living space is pretty amazing!

Jennifer & me with a view of the Mosel River from atop the castle

Inside a dining area in the castle

Alex decided to journey with us today in the freezing-cold-windy-rainy-let's go see a castle day!  This is the main square in Cochem, still decorated for Easter.  Alex found comfort in a warm "apfel strudel mit eis" (actually we all loved it and the warm drink!)

Cochem castle had a falcon program and we managed to catch this guy on top of the crest outside the castle!  No little German village in the Mosel wine valley is complete without the customary wine shop and tasting room.  We found a little cellar with ice wine--another experience to share with Jennifer, but not nearly as tasty as the -20* ice wine at Maria's Italian place....I did find some pear liqueur to bring home but it's already gone.  Must've been a hole in the bottle or something....

 

Easter in Germany

Celebrating Easter (Oster) in Germany introduced us to some interesting and fun new ideas/treats and provided an opportunity to tour the countryside in search of "Easter."  I slipped away to Trier for an Easter market, colored eggs, found the Easter bunny and attended a couple Holy Week services in Olsbrücken and Köln.  

Lion's club in Trier helps a local organization by selling Easter egg coloring kits.  
My dad is a long time member of Lions, so this was money well spent!

Later the boys colored the plastic eggs
--oil paint drops in some water, swirl and dip!

 No Easter Market in Germany could possibly be complete without Easter liquor (it was quite good!) and Sugar bunnies....the market also had tents selling waffles, scented cedar balls, outdoor decor, hand stamped fabrics and of course, bratwurst!

Hard boiled, beautifully colored eggs were everywhere in Germany --just sitting out on the counter at the backerei, or on the shelf at the grocery.  Apparently our American obsession with keeping eggs cold is in fact, our American obsession....The backerei also had a host of tasty bunny shaped treats, some better than others.  The carrot muffins were super tasty and became very hard to resist!!!

Easter morning breakfast showcases our attempt at coloring hard boiled eggs.  A little less stellar, but they tasted great.   The bright colored striped ones next to the muffins were on the shelf at the grocery.  Interesting crumbly yolk, and no one got sick from these "warm" eggs.  Breakfast also included fresh speck ~bacon like you've never tasted bacon before~ blaubeere muffins und Ostertasche (a perfect little apricot topped danish that looks like an egg!)   

 A word about Holy Week...while much of Germany seemed to be focused on bunnies and selling sweets, just like in the "States," Holy Week took on its' intended purpose by Thursday evening.  EVERYTHING closed until Saturday morning --the grocery stores, bakeries, butchers, banks, etc...for the observance of Karfreitag (quiet Friday).  It was spectacularly quiet in our village except for the occasional bell toll.  Most of the protestant church services were held in the morning, the Catholic services in the evening --many villages share the same worship space and have worked wonderfully together to share beautiful, historic, centuries-old buildings.  I attended a service in Olsbrücken where the tolling bells at 5:00pm echoed throughout the valley.  Built in the late 19th century, the church's old organ ground out strains of familiar hymns, sung quite enthusiastically by the 50+ people in attendance.  Sitting in the super cold structure, listening to the German preacher, enjoying the organ in it's not so tunefulness; I was able to follow along fairly well!  At the end of the service the collection was taken up outside the sanctuary and surprisingly, after a long, quiet Karfreitag, people were chatty, although not to me so much....it's ok, I wouldn't have understood much of their conversation anyway!

Many villages had Easter trees / arches for decoration..some more elaborate than others.

Easter Montag (Monday) is also a National Holiday --a perfectly quiet and traffic free day to drive to the airport without any gridlock to pick up Jennifer!  Holiday closures didn't hamper our start to a week of exploring--attending Easter mass at UNESCO world heritage site: Köln Cathedral, and a picnic lunch (consisting of leftover hb eggs!) on the square were just the ticket!  The service in the cathedral was amazing --the 5 second delay from the massive organ was awesome and the men's choir was superb! 

People have been worshipping on this site since Constantine declared religious freedom in 313.  The current structure was built from 1248-1880 (632 year project) and amazingly kept it's original Gothic architectural intentions.    

The top of the Köln Cathedral spiral from our view.  It is Germany's most visited landmark (20,000 people per day) and largest Gothic cathedral in northern Europe with twin spires stretching 515 feet skyward, which we climbed for the beautiful view of the city. The flowered cross was carried during the processional and the gold box contains the relics of the Three Magi --brought to this site in 1164.   

Jennifer & me in the spire

the organ...1 of 2 in the sanctuary!

No cathedral is complete without stained glass...stumbled upon St George
slaying the dragon here in Köln!

Until next Easter....

Tschuss!

Linda