USofA Trip, Part 2

We're back in Germany now, eating black bread and cured herring with gherkins, dressing warmly and adjusting to the temperature drop as well as the time difference.  Is it my imagination, or is that adjustment getting harder?  I tend to think the latter....

But what a trip!  Celebrations: Hunter's graduation, Julia and Larry's 50th anniversary, late celebration of mother's 95th birthday (and Lee's 45th - where does the time go?) and just joy being with people we love.

So, the summary.

FLORIDA

Hunter's graduation has already been covered  (see here), but there was other fun and soccer, too.  Hunter and Hannah were on the same city soccer team and we got to see a game - for the championship! Guess who won?  Two athletes, two competitors, two great kids.  It was a fun (if very, very warm) afternoon.
 

Somehow I just don't get enough pictures of me with Michelle or with Michelle and Hannah (most likely because I am usually behind the camera!).  But this was the perfect occasion. Nobody announced navy as the color choice of the day, but we must have been thinking alike.  And although I look the shortest, I am (not yet) shrinking. I claim a handicap - no heels!

The visit seemed so short but we were comforted by the fact that we'd see them all again in Atlanta.

With that in mind, we were off to the north, north Georgia, that is, and Nancy's wonderful retreat at Lake Burton.  Like all our visits to all our friends and family, a lot of it is about food.  So we had the traditional have-to-haves:  fresh corn, hamburgers, fresh veggies from the way-side market. And a ride on the boat .

It's over all too soon.

ATLANTA

Every step in our trip is a high point in a different way.  For this visit, it was triple-pronged:  Julia and Larry's 50th anniversary (you are kidding, right???), mother's belated 95th birthday celebration, and a weekend when all the family, including the Florida group, were there in one place at one time. What a treat.

A little side entertainment at Julia's place was watching the turkey and her two chicks saunter across the back yard.  They did it a couple of times a day and what fun to watch wildlife in the middle of so much development.  Sadly, in the meantime, another wild creature - a fox - has joined the crew and is stalking the turkey family!

Friday, Anniversary Day, was Party Day One!  We'd done a lot of the prep - getting the room ready, collecting drinks and serving pieces, while the caterer took care of the food and decorations.  The barkeeps were tennis friends who perform this task often, and have quite a reputation, it seems.

All sorts of family were there as well as other friends and neighbors.  I'll go out on a limb here and say a good time was had by all!!

Party Day Two:  Pool time at Ginny and Barry's. GREAT weather and lots of laughing.

The second cousins took no time getting to know each other again and having fun in the pool and on the lawn.

Then in the evening more time together with pizza and games at Julia's.  Am I exhausted? Yes. Happily so? Yes.
 

After breakfast on Sunday morning with the Florida crew. they headed back south and we took a deep breath.

Every day was visit Mother day.  She's doing pretty well considering, though she needs a lot of reminding of who is who when the crowd gets together.

 FLORIDA

Getting back to Orlando is a stretch for one day, so we wandered down to Fernandina and spent the night on the ocean.  It was a nice break.  Then on to Orlando for our last week and one quick side trip to Canaveral to visit with Steve and Barb, old classmates. Notice please how Werner got himself into the picture!  He's cute.

But it was mostly Dylan and Hayden.

We put together the 3-D Eiffel Tower puzzle, missing piece 5.  Looked everywhere. Not to be seen.  So Werner made a new piece and then of course the original showed up!  What a hoot!!

Where are all the other pictures???? I don't know.  I guess those kids just move too fast! But we ate and played and swam and read and watched and it was fun. 

We got to see the plans for the new pool (!) which we'll definitely check out the next time we visit.

In the meantime, everybody, keep our places warm.  We'll be back again.

The Graduate

Not the movie.  And not college.  It's Hunter and it's the end of High School.  Wow.  Time flies.

The night before, we had dinner - with decorations.  Balloons, streamers, and at Hunter's request, Meemaw's Famous Fried Chicken.  Thank goodness, it tasted as good as he remembered.

And then it was Graduation Day.  Shirt and tie, long pants and the requisite gown and cap.  It wasn't hard to get a smile all day long!

But us grown-ups were a bit nervous.  Not because of  The Graduate (he had done well and passed everything and had every right to walk the walk and pick up his diploma) but the weather!  So iffy!  All day it was gray and if not actually raining, then threatening. But it held off and we had a pleasant evening.

355 graduates.  Takes a while to read all those names, but the ceremony went smoothly and when they threw their mortarboards in the air at the very end, there was no doubt there was lots of joy in that gesture, and not only for the grads!

All in all, a great day.  Congratulations, Hunter, and all the very best for whatever you choose to do!

S P A R G E L

Everyone knows what Spargel means.  It is asparagus season.  And how.

This obsession with Spargel is such a German thing and ex-pats and short-term residents have lots of fun making fun of Germans and their obsession with Spargel.  But seasons mark the year and our time here and it's only right that it is so.

When the season opened this year it was still cold and some fields even had frost.  Ouch.  Those tender shoots and tips were not happy.  Neither were the growers. But did that stop the harvest?  Did that stop the consumers of Spargel? N.O.

So, we've had asparagus several times already at home, just us two and also with guests. This weekend was a Spargel marathon dinner out three nights in a row and everything Spargel!  And we are not complaining. The season will be officially over when we return from the US.

The highlight was of course dinner with our long-time friends.  It was tricky finding a date since Werner and I were leaving for the US, Ulli and Ilsemarie for Majorca, Klaus and Johanna forever running back and forth between Bremen and Berlin.  But we did, and as usual it was wonderful.

We are getting older.  Check out those white heads!

Here, the stars of the evening:

Everyone exclaimed it was enough dessert for an army, but somehow, after all the lovely Spargel and potatoes and butter sauce and sliced smoked cured ham, we devoured TWO ice cream dishes, practically the whole bowl of rhubarb mousse with strawberries and then still munched on chocolates. 

After all that, we exercised ourselves with lively discussions of the state of the world and the state of politics here and there and finally called it a night when we got it all right. 

And a delightful night it was.  Next meeting, sometime in summer for an outdoor barbeque, weather willing.

Flowers for Eating

I like flowers and I like food and sometimes the flowers are food, too.

This time of year lilacs are out, filling the air with their special scent and coloring the world purple (or lilac).  You may know it's one of our favorite colors - after all, we had a purple wedding!

And because spring came on slowly this year, the blooms have stayed longer - and profusely!  Here they are in all their glory in the front of the house.

Inside, they fill the room with their wonderful aroma.

 

And then I wondered, Can we eat them??   We've eaten nasturtiums (peppery) and pansies (sweet/herb-like) and scented geraniums (lemony or depending on the variety).  Oh, and lavender, but it's potent and just a little goes a long way.

Answer:  Yes!

Dinner was fish, with pan-roasted asparagus and boiled potatoes.  Since the lilac blossoms have a lemony flavor, I thought the fish would like them. And the fish did!  And so did we, though I must confess that Werner was a skeptic and is still not totally convinced.

Silly man. The next day he got blossoms on his salad! Pretty and tasty!

First of May

 ... otherwise known as International Workers Day.  Federal Holiday.  No work. Shops closed.  There are marches and speeches.  In some areas, it can get confrontational between the left-wingers and the right-wingers, but it was a peaceful march here in Bremen with about 3,000 participants.

Last year we planned a bike trip with friends but it was cold and wet and we had to abandon our trip half way through.  This year it was just cool and windy, so we headed to the Straw Museum in Twistringen, earlier center of straw manufacturing in Germany. 

Our friends were somewhat skeptical that it would be even minimally interesting, but we could go free on May 1 throughout the whole public transport network, so why not?

And it is interesting!  Of course they wasted nothing in the old days, so the straw was used for making hats, mattress filling, food for the livestock, packing for wine, decorations for the house and the ladies, and of course drinking straws (that's why they call them straws!). 

 

It's hard to go anywhere that you can't find coffee and cake in the afternoon, and the museum was no exception.  Volunteers make the cakes at home - no professional stuff here! - and they were wonderful.  "American" lemon cake, cherry cake with egg liqueur, and gooseberry cake.  Y U M.

Then it was time to hit the road, work off some of the calories and head to the next train station. Along the way there were the fields of canola just reaching peak flowering. There is nothing more yellow than these plants!  (Except maybe dandelions.)

And I couldn't leave without a souvenir.   My old straw hat is about to give up the ghost and I couldn't resist the bright pink!  Here they are posed at home with lovely fragrant lilacs from the yard.  Now to find a dress to go with the hat ....

Vacation - Timmendorfer Strand

When we tell folks here "We're going to the USofA"  they always say "Have a nice vacation!"  I kindly tell them that that is not a vacation (please don't be insulted, my dear US family and friends!) because, as I say, "Vacation is sitting in a chair reading a book, going to the beach and doing nothing, heading to a place where you just do w h a t e v e r."  And that is exactly what we did for four days in Timmendorfer Strand.  Vacation.

Strand in German means beach and it is a lovely beach, perhaps even by Florida standards. Or close. Like the Gulf, waves are optional here.    

Here we have Strandkörbe -"beach baskets", if you translate it literally.  Traditionally, it's a woven  frame - hence the "basket" - with a comfy place to sit AND be sheltered from the sometimes too cool wind but be able to face the sun.  The "drawers" below the seats pull out and are used as foot rests.  Nevertheless you have to rent them and if you haven't rented one, you are locked out.  Really, there is a LOCK on that fence.  No free sitting in the Strandkorb.

Also, no free walking on the beach.  You pay a "tax" to be there, either by the day or week or month or year.  It's not much, but ..... Germans will find a way to tax you. And you think Americans tax too much???

Our apartment was great!  Modern, light, more than plenty of room for us two, a nice deck, though the cool wind kept us from enjoying it as much as we'd have liked.  Regardless, the deck was nice to look at.  And frankly, apartments are often less expensive than hotel rooms, with more space along with eating and relaxing options.

We settled in, walked about the place and had dinner at a local Chinese restaurant (!), and talked leisurely about what to do the following days. No pressure.

Since the weather was so wonderful, Day One we decided to rent bikes, take the train to a neighboring village, and then bike home.  We did it that way because then we'd have the wind at our backs. We are not stupid. :-))

Lunch in a local dive:  fried fish, french fries and beer.  All yummy, of course.

There's lots of beach and restaurants and shops and playgrounds and so on all along the Baltic Sea.  After months - MONTHS! - of not riding a bike, the 15 kilometers getting back was enough.  Don't want to push it.

Next it was a walking day.  In the sand.  On the beach.  That was challenging, too, to my lazy legs and I felt it soon enough.

There's  a pier.  Walk out, take a look, walk back.  But there was a small area between the posts where young lovers found a place to hang their love locks.  It's becoming ubiquitous.

We checked out the local shops later on and I have to say, in general, this is not my kind of town.  When the shop window displays glittered-up high tops for €850.00 (!!!!!!) I think I am in the wrong neighborhood.  And the cars!  Porsches galore, Mercedes SLs by the score, plus the occasional Ferrari, Bentley, Tesla, Wiesmann, Triumph, MG or other classic roadster.  Werner did crane his neck a bit at the cars! And this is the off-season.  I can't imagine the summer.

There was time to read and time to stitch, too.  I had (re)discovered a hand towel bought who-knows-when and found a pattern that would work.  It looked easy enough, and it was, but sometimes I simply cannot count and I took out a lot of stitches before getting it right!  But now it's done.  If you're interested in it, let me know.  It's yours.

Next day was check-out-the-area day, so we drove to Eutin, a small town that is home to a lovely Schloss and a charming old town center. 

I haven't done anything to this photo. You walk through a short tunnel-like entrance and you're IMPRESSED - it hits you - with this view of the town square and its church and town hall.  You could think for just a moment that it was 1750. 

The local Manor House/Castle is impressive too. First established in the 12th c. and added to and renovated for centuries afterwards, it is now a museum and cultural center.  The gardens are being renovated and reworked getting ready for a European Garden Show next year.  That may be worth a return trip.

 

 Later there was time for coffee and cake at the "Kunst Café" next door.  Home made cake and classy surroundings and service. 

We never lacked for cake, café or not.  Another day we bought a slice - ONE SLICE - of carrot cake at the local bakery that was enough for a giant.  But we managed to devour it. We have giant appetites for cake.

That evening we Skyped with Hunter on his 18th birthday.  Oh the magic of the internet!

And then next morning it was check out time!  Pack up!  That was too quick.  We had to get up early but that also meant there was enough time to stop in Lübeck and take a walk around.  We've been there several times, but at least twice was in deep winter for the Christmas Market (very nice) but it was so DARK you couldn't see anything, so we had some discoveries to make.

The place is full of churches, big churches, and lots of towers and though the town is less than half the size of Bremen, it seemed to us they had many more older buildings than Bremen, some built right on top of each other.

And here we are at Lübeck's town symbol, the Holsten Gate from 1464. If we've ever brought marzipan to you, this was on the wrapper because that's the best marzipan you can get and that's what we buy.

Ah. So that was it.  It was a nice long four days away.

When's the next vacation?

Easter Part II

Or pre- and post-Easter.  Take your pick for a title. I'm not fussy.

Writing has taken a back seat in the last few weeks - and more - and reasons seem to keep piling up to not write.  So I must.  But I will skirt the less fun, less happy things that are going on right now.  Here in blogworld, it's sunshine and smiles.

Pre-Easter we had a short visit from René and Rima and Amina.  A visit to a local museum to check out the exhibit, a series of amusing paintings on postcards. Werner and I had visited the museum already, but I hadn't been able to fully enjoy it, so it was good again and the cartoons were especially to René's liking. Afterwards, time for Kaffee und Kuchen!  The restaurant we visited is a grand old 19th century building in the center of our sprawling city park, . Rima insists on a visit in summer so we can sit in the garden.  OK - pick a date - we'll be there.

Easter Sunday dawned sunny and bright - and we were prepared! Individual spinach tortes.

Hand-painted eggs.

Chocolate bunnies nesting in bunny napkins.

 And a fully dressed table for our brunch with friends.

It was yummy and filling and so afterwards a walk was in order.  We were not alone - half the city was walking along the Weser and enjoying the weather and down time. Here we are, framed by blue skies and colorful pansies.

Ah.


Easter Monday, also a holiday, was equally lovely, so we headed to Worpswede for another walk, this time around the local "mountain"  - the Weyerberg - all of 60 meters high.  But when everything else is at 0 meters, that's a mountain.

But, first, where are we going?  As it turned out, we didn't need the guide, we could just follow the crowds.

At the top of the Weyerberg is a memorial called the  Niedersachsenstein (The Lower Saxony Stone), a brick memorial dedicated in 1922 to honor local men who died in World War I.  It is big;  I'd describe it as looming.

And with all monuments, there is graffiti, lots of initials and such cut into the brick.

And on the way back through the commercial area (which gets to sell on days that shops are otherwise closed since it's a designated tourist destination) we found just what I need (need!!) for the pots of hostas on the back terrace.