Princess and General

The other day I received a very cute gift from my lovely friend Angela. She spent a week in Korea and is blogging about her trip here. She took lots of pictures and I really enjoy "travelling" with her blog posts. So I was very suprised and happy to receive this bookmarks. Let me I introduce you to the princess and the general:

 Soooo cute. I love the colourful details and matching string with the traditional knot.

 And they are not only pretty but also very useful :-)

Autumn delights

Last week I have been in the Country of Berg (Bergisches Land), in the western part of Germany. I was born here and once in a while I come to visit my aunt. Actually she is not my real aunt but she used to look after me when I was little and I am still very fond of her.
She has a big garden with lots of beautiful flowers, lots of trees, a cat and some chicken and one lonely duck.

I admire her garden. There are still lots of blooming flowers and even tomatoes! Outside! And of course lots and lots of fallen leafs.

And lots of other autumnal delights: There is a huge walnut tree, where a swing is still dangling from one of the big branches. I remember the swing very well. And four big apple trees loaden with apples. So many this year that the branches have to be supported by sticks to prevent them from beeing pulled down by the apple's weight.

I love to wander around to discover little garden creatures. Unfortunately the cat was not willing to have a picture taken. She was observing me very closely but whenever I raised my camera she was turning or running away. Very clever.



We had a lovely afternoon drinking tea and devouring cake (of course with apples :-) and (Christmas)cookies. Christmas cookies are already available in the supermarkets. Unbelievable that in two months already it is Christmas again! In the below picture, top left corner, you may spot a transparent bag with something yellowish. This are dried apples my aunt gave to me. They were dried in a drying machine and have great apple taste, fruity and sweet. A snack I cannot stop eating!
What a relaxing and pleasant trip. Makes me smile thinking of it, love the beautiful and cozy place my aunt has created.



Biathlon in Oberhof

The last day of our trip to Southern Thuringia was Oberhof, a town known for it's Olympic Training Center for winter sports.

As I am not the winter sports type of person I first couldn't relate to this place, so it was a great idea of the organizer of this trip to have a brief introduction by someone who lived and trained many years in Oberhof. Sven Fischer, a multiple winner of major championships in biathlon, now retired and working for the media, gave us an insight into the life of a top-athlete. And how he coped when retiring from competitive sports. His vita is impressive!
After the introduction we went off to see different training places for cross country skiing and biathlon, skeleton and ski jumping.

Sven, as our guide, explained and told stories about each place we visited.

In between there were people asking for an autograph or to have a picture taken with him. Well, real winter sports fans. Albeit his popularity he is a very easy going and down-to-earth person.
At the end of our tour we went to a riffle shooting area and were greeted by more biathlon professionals. While munching on a bratwurst - after visiting all this training places we got hungry - they explained us the visitor's competition rules for riffle shooting. Well, for some of us including me the bratwurst got stuck in our throats. Me, riffle shooting?

The instructors were very friendly and veeeeeery patient. It took some time to get into the right position and to understand where the targets for your lane were located (the distance to the targets is 50 m, but you could easily mistake the targets of the adjoining lanes for your own targets when looking through the riffle lens). And miraculously I was able to hit all big targets (diameter 12 cm), but only one of the small targets (diameter 5 cm). Still I was quite content and it was fun after all.

Erfurt walks

The next day we went to Erfurt. Our group booked a tour guide in historic costume. First it was a bit odd to walk with the medivial merchant. Then we were suprised not only by his deep knowledge of history but by his wit and the charming way he used to tell stories.

We went to the narrowest house in town, barely the width of a car. Today though, it is only used as the staircase for the two adjoining houses.

The old town of Erfurt is very picturesque, especially one narrow street with artisan shops and beautiful flower arrangements at the windows.

And to our big surprise this narrow street is not just a normal street but a bridge! Unbelievable! We went to the back of that street and saw.... indeed, a bridge with houses on top!

In former times people have been so clever constructing without computers and engines. Our tour guide showed us more places how and where the city of Erfurt did business with merchands from all over Europe in medivial times. An excellent walk, informative and so enjoyable.

Backstage in Meiningen

Have you ever been behind the stage of a theatre? Until last week I didn't. Peter and I spend a couple of days in southern Thuringia and had a great opportunity to go backstage in Meiningen's theatre.
First we went to the rehearsal room. A large room full of music stands and seats. Without the stories and explanations of our guide it would have been quite dull. Then we climbed lots of stairs and went to the stage via the entrance for the actors. The number of flood lights on stage is amazing. And the control room for those lights as well!

Then we went to the other side of the stage. Very spectacular too and such a contrast to the high tech backstage! Everything in the audience hall seemed to be freshly renovated but you got a feeling what the amosphere must have felt a hundred years ago.

Matching the audience hall was the reception hall, so much decorated and golden:

Milk Shop

On our way back from the Lüneburg Heath we passed a milk shop. The surroundings looked so much "idyllic world" that we stopped and had a look.

The roof of the shop was amazing:

 

And behind the shop there were more pretty buildings: 

 

This one has a traditional pediment of this region, horse's heads: 

 

There was also a lush blooming flower garden, cows and their calves and a playground-barn. And the milk shop sold not only milk but also delicious cakes. I really enjoyed this stop!

Lüneburg Heath

A 70th birthday party was the reason for a mini short trip to the Lüneburg Heath, just one hour drive to the north. Actually I wanted to drive back home after the party the same night, but Peter insisted in staying over at a nearby hotel. And indeed we spent a lovely day in that area! To beginn with the party, it was very jolly, I met a lot of people and it was quite late when we left. The following morning I started with a swim in the hotel pool. Very refreshing! Then we had a great breakfast in the hotel garden.

They had amazing flowers blooming all over. So colourful and cheery! And I was not the only one loving flower gardens and breakfast: There were lots of wasps flying around our table and tasting our food. You really had to watch out when eating.

Ireland - Itinerary

Peter and I had been travelling Ireland for five days last week. The trip was planned long ago as a "trial trip" for Peter's company. We travelled together with B., a colleague of Peter and B.'s lovely wife Z. It was my first time travelling to Ireland and I was immediately smitten with the lush green Irish landscape. Oh so many shades of green...

We rented a car at Dublin Airport and drove straight to Kilkenny, our first stop. I was quite confused though by left-hand driving and left-hand traffic. Glad that B. took on driving all the time. Thank you so much, B., your are indeed a brave driver!

Kilkenny is a pituresque town and our hotel was directly by the river Nore overlooking Kilkenny Castle. The next day we took a scenic route south to Youghal and then to Cork, our second stop. The weather was totally different from what we expected. Sun and gloriously blue sky and pleasant 20 degrees Celsius! We were thrilled as we left Germany in torrential rain.

In the evening we met with lovely Mrs. Murphy in Cork, a German living in Ireland for more than 30 years. She congratulated us in experiencing the first two warm and sunny days without any rain in Ireland!
We had delicious food that evening too!

 

  

 

The third day contained lots of driving, very scenic though. Rough mountains and blue sea (and twisting roads, urrgh). We drove via Glengariff to Killarney and finally took the motorway back to Dublin. There we stayed the fourth and fifth day.
 

 

Glengariff has some interesting (rare) vegetation due to the Gulf stream. In Killarney we run across some droplets of rain, but only on the windscreen of our car. In the rear though windows stayed dry!

We arrived in Dublin just in time for rush-hour traffic.  But eventually we arrived at our hotel which  was situated close to the river Liffey and a walking distance from the Temple Bar district. Have a guess where we spent the evening?

We also visited St. Patrick's Cathedral,

which has amazing floor tiles. Almost like a blanket made of quilts.

 

 

And there are great cafés with the most delicious cakes.

 

 

And more pubs......

 

 

And of course crows!

All in all a superb trip. I love the landscape, the cities and towns, the food, the cakes, the people - but most of all the colours of Ireland.

I know understand why everybody who visited Ireland is so enthusiastic about it. I am too!