Biking Lower Saxony

Ostrittrum, Osenberg, Barneführerholz, Huntlosen.  Then there was the Jagthütte and the Püttenhütte and the various Schlagbaume.  OMG.  German is hard to get your tongue around.

And as you all know, directions are hard to follow. For us.

Today, Good Friday, is a federal holiday.  Stores closed.  Commercial traffic - nil.  It's a quiet day and folks go out and do family things.  For us, it means a little bike trip.  We spent the better part of an hour last night looking at this trip.  It meant putting the bikes on the car and driving to our starting point.  We used to do that sort of thing pretty often, taking the bikes somewhere to do a trip, but I think it's been a year and more since that last sort of trip.  Lately, it's been train and bike.

But, good.  The car needed some exercise (!) and getting to the starting point by train was too complicated.  Off to Ostrittrum.

We only made two wrong turns getting there. But, folks, this place is in the middle of nirgendwo! But we found it, parked the car and downloaded the bikes.

I've said it multiple times but I'll go ahead and repeat myself - you just don't have to go far to be in a very different place here in Germany/Europe.  This area of course looks familiar, but still, there's a local flavor that is not Vegesack.

We start at the old watermill in  Ostrittrum, near the little zoo that is a magnet for families with young children!  (We are not not not going there.)   The mill is old, but of course, lots of things are old here.  Including us.

It's the same and it's different, the landscape here.  In the countryside it looks so clean - no graffiti, no trash along the roadside, and the yards are so ---- done!

But we're not about yards, but the woods and such. The tour leads us through some old forest paths.

We had a hard time following the map (who is surprised about that!) so we had to make frequent stops to check our way.  But finally, I had to eat.  (I get cranky when I'm hungry.)  So we stopped at the little hunting lodge.

It was built in the 19th c for local royalty, restored about 20 years ago, and still a place to stop and rest.  We had our lunch there.

Hey!  It was tasty, and enough - sandwich, boiled egg, salad, and of course a bit of bubbly.  Besides, we got to gaze at the oldest Douglas Fir in all of Europe.  Really.

Sorry the picture is not better, but the big guy with the big trunk was grown from a seed that came from the US over 160 years ago.  Only three of these originals remain here in Germany, and this one is the oldest.

There were many views of the River Hunte

And even a view of the bed of the river before it was diverted!! How weird.

At this point I was getting a bit tired, and our map-reading was getting a bit weak.  We had to take a couple of backwards trips and had to ask a few folks exactly where we were going, but we finally got there.

Along the way there were lots of fields of raw bread.  Or raw schnapps.  Who knows what will become of the acres and acres and acres of wheat!

And fields of what will become canola oil.  They're not quite in full bloom, but the yellow is so so yellow.  Is there something more yellow?

The paths were so varied - single lane in the woods, double lanes in the woods, asphalt, brick.  It was always interesting.  But you can keep the sandy paths.

After another (another! really?) wrong turn, we made it back to the car, the starting point, the beginning and the end of our day trip.  It was only 38K but 4 hours (hey, there were head winds and hills and stops and a nap!).  But such a lovely day.  I'm often reminded of an old song from Jim Croce - Time in a Bottle.  I call these Bottle Days.

Here's a video.  Have fun.

Party - Art

The Party part was a double 50th birthday, a 100th birthday if you will, of Werner's niece Susanne and her husband Jens.  I've written (perhaps even too much) of how the folks in the villages love their special celebrations.

Over 140 people attending, including René and Rima and a few of the "older folks" that Werner knows well, plus a few slightly distant relatives that we don't see so often. There was plenty of food, lots of loud music, dancing and dancing and talking and talking.  Even the younger generation had a part. Here's Susanne and Jens' two boys, pretty grown up!

Again, not enough pictures.  But we had a good time.  Rima and I cleared out before midnight, the guys came in an hour plus later and the birthday kids at 5:30 in the morning.  I think the sun must have been already showing itself.  These folks are a bit nuts, I think.

A wonderful breakfast that a king would be pleased with, but not too early. Werner was the last at the table at 10:30, but only by a few minutes.  Fresh rolls, black bread, rye bread, croissants, all sorts of meats and cheeses and "cooked cheese" and some fresh veggies and plenty of coffee.  Most important, plenty of time to chat and relax and  reconnect.  These cousins don't get to see each other often.

So, off we go our separate ways, but Werner and I have to do something in between.  A visit to the Vorwerk Museum in Syke (a town on the way home) is just the thing.

We've been there before. The building is a former forester's headquarters.  I so covet the floors - wide plank pine, used to a sheen that is impossible to reproduce.

And the repairs on the stairs where so many feet have trod are charming.  Repair, reuse, recycle.

The exhibit didn't really have a theme - they called it "BilderSprachen" loosely translated, The Language of Pictures, but whatever they had to say, the language wasn't always easy to understand.

There were three canvases that were stitched.  Yes.  Threads on canvas. I liked that.

Another artist had dampened matting paper which then dried into a wave.  I'm not sure why, but the camera doesn't show the actual color - it was matte black.  Black.  Really black.

The space itself is art.  Particularly on a sunny day.

Here's our favorite.  It says "We have your kid" done up like a ransom note.  You can recognize some of the corporate logos right away.  Others were more illusive, but  now we've figured out all of them.  Want to know the answers?

Outside, we just enjoyed the sunshine. And the Ladybug. And the old wooden bench she was sunning herself on.

Hope your day was at least as lovely.

USofA Visit 2019

Has it become an Annual Visit - just once a year?  Well, that's true for this past twelve months.  A year is a long time between visits. On the other hand, years are quite literally getting shorter for us.  For instance, if you're just 5 years old, a year is 20% of your whole life. But at 73, one year is less than 1% of your life.  I don't really know that that's true, but it seems true.  (And that is a quote from Sleepless in Seattle, but I digress ...)  Hey, anyway, it goes faster as you get older.  Just ask a math person, though that would not be me.  That would be Werner.  And it would not be Hannah, the not-math person. :-)

As last year, we tried to game the plane seat reservations to get extra room which did not work AT ALL. But our seat mate was a sweet young lady from Denmark, making her first trip to the US with her family and was soooooo looking forward to her visit to Universal and Disney and the whole Orlando experience. It's nice to be reminded how much fun it is to visit these theme parks.

So, a touch down in Orlando, a quick look at Dylan at her twirling practice, hugs and kisses and then off again.

First to Jacksonville.  Where are the pictures??? I swear, or in Tallahassee speech, I swaaannn: (north FL/south AL lady-speak for "swear" because if you're a nice southern lady, you don't say "swear," much less swear). My status as a southern lady has been long since been relinquished.

I will again have to rely on my memories - without pictures - of our visit to Bonnie and Larry in Jax as well as our overnight at the Jenks House.  We had a great evening hanging out and talking German philosophers as well as Englewood classmates with Bonnie and Larry and the next morning talking politics and environment with Tom and Ila Rae at the Jenks House. If anyone ever has to stay overnight in Jax, let me recommend the Jenks House.

Then, off to Charleston.  We'd thought first to spend a night in Savannah, but as we had been to Savannah a few times, Charleston was appealing. A new venue -- let's go.

It was a good decision.  The architecture is southern but then again unique to Charleston.  Porches, doors to porches, wood frame homes, interior gardens, churches and graveyards..

And of course, waterfront.

There was so much to see but no time to see it all. We opted to tour an old home, a slave trader's house that had been restored and furnished in the style of the time. The docent gave us lots of history as well as lots of family and architectural information.  The history of its owner and his profession fit with our intention to visit the Legacy Museum in Montgomery later in our visit.

Gift shops are always interesting and I love to look at what's on offer. There were stone ground grits for sale, one pound, lots of dollars.  We decide to wait on that purchase!

Food in Charleston was exactly what I wanted: grits, biscuits and gravy, fried chicken, local dives and local dines.  We ate well.

There is a  market area with lots of small shops, mostly local, some not so much. What caught my eye were the baskets made of pine straw and palm fronds.  They are so lovely, but oh so very expensive!  We already have ample baskets for what we need baskets for, so we opted out of a purchase.  But later, walking around, we came upon an individual seller and explained our plight and she asked where we were from. Well, Germany, we responded.  "Well, my chile, here is a flower for you!!!" So we got hugs (and who doesn't need a hug?) and a flower woven of palm fronds.  It's a treasure.


And Germans. I swannn, there are Germans everywhere.  Walking along the river, we stopped at a map of the area and heard a couple of guys talking.  Germans.  So I said, Woher kommen Sie?  (Where are you from?)  It probably sounded funny because any German knows I'm not German!  But we had a nice little conversation with the guys - one of them was working in the US and the other one was visiting - then went our separate ways, nice.

Leaving the next day, I couldn't find my scarf.  NEED my scarf!  If not for now, for our trip back, and besides it was a favorite birthday present from Werner.  We looked and searched and finally decided I must have lost it at Poogan's Porch (also recommended), where we'd eaten the night before.  I thought is was a shot in the dark, but we got it! 

Off to Atlanta.

I'm not sure we got in our car again after we parked in Ginny's driveway.  I don't have any problem really driving in Atlanta, but if you ask me, I'd rather not.

There was dinner at Julia and Larry's with David and family.  Julia always cooks enough for Dana to take home another whole dinner, so the table was laden, and as ever, tasty.

The weather was pleasant enough to walk at Stone Mountain one day, where we met a walker with a stick very much like the ones we see in Germany, with the little shields from all the sites he walked.

Another day, we took in an early movie, The Green Book.  It's been quite a while since we were in a big theater - that was fun, a good movie besides.

A couple of other meals with Julia and Larry, a walk around the neighborhood, a lot of talking and the week slipped by before we knew it.

Next stop, Montgomery, Alabama, to visit the Legacy Museum and the Memorial to Peace and Justice.  It was rather chilly when we left Atlanta, but just a bit further south and west, it was quite warm.  We could shed our sweaters for a walk around old Montgomery that evening.

The downtown area seems largely preserved, and our hotel had lots of interesting details - carved crown molding, patterned floors, tall, tall ceilings.

If you're ever in the area, both the museum and the memorial are more than worth a visit.  There are many volunteers and staff around to talk to you, to answer questions, to discuss.  It was moving and scary and sobering.

Then, just like that, off to Tallahassee.  It's always a treat to visit with Nancy and see some other folks while we're there.  This time we met up with David and got to finally meet his wife Sarah and their daughter Grace.  We did lots of talking and walking and throwing the ball for Minnie.  You all know I am not a dog person, but she really seemed to try hard to convince me otherwise this visit!  When we got ready for our "going away" picture, she came straight to me and put her head in my lap and gave me that puppy-dog look!

Finally to Michelle's!!  Yay!  She'd suggested driving along 98 so we could see first hand how Hurricane Michael has changed the landscape along the Gulf, though we would have done it anyway.. It was so emotional, so distressing!  All the damage, the thousands and thousands of trees for miles and miles, snapped off or broken, the houses gone or damaged, all the blue tarps still on homes.

But they are resilient and the community has done so much work together to help move forward.  There's still quite a ways to go...

Regardless, we had a great time with our family in PC.  And the very, very best?  Mardi Gras!  Joey belongs to the Old School Krewe now, a pretty laid back group.  The purple bus carries them along the parade route.  We offered to be "walkers" - the folks who keep the excited on-lookers from running under the wheels of the bus to grab the beads and such - but one of the members got the women from the fitness studio to do the work, sooooo...we got to just stand in the bus and throw the beads and Moon Pies and goodies.  I can't remember the last time I had so much fun!  Thousands of screaming onlookers, tons of beads thrown to the crowds, sore, sore arms the next day. Thank you Joey, Michelle and the Old School!

There's always good food, and this time a new treat - homemade pasta.  Joey decided Michelle needed the pasta attachment for the KitchenAid, so, pasta.  Clearly, deliciously better than the dried variety.

We don't really bring presents anymore - everyone has everything they need and besides we run into the old gifts so.....

This time is was an album, pictures of Hunter and Hannah when they visited us here in Bremen. It was such fun to put together, and even more fun to watch them going through the album. I hope they'll do it again and again.

And another family photo, plus one of Hannah and Harrison.  It was fun getting to know him.

Next, well, it's the beach.  Nancy offered her place as a intermediate stop between Michelle and Lee.  I tried to say No but I couldn't.  The beach is such a soothing, calming place.  It was cold, but sunny and of course practically empty of folks.  We took walks, we read, we said hello to the crane supervising her person who was supposed to be catching fish,we walked around Apalach, we ate shrimp and oysters.  I listened to the gentle surf and settled and breathed. Thank you, Nancy.

And finally back to Orlando.  The kids are in school and the school day lasts forever and then Dylan has twirling practice every day.  But there was a birthday on Saturday - Hayden is now 14 FOURTEEN years  old.  So hard to believe!  We ate with all of Crissy's family at a local Italian place of Hayden's choosing.  There was tons of delicious food, presents galore and singing.  He kept wondering where his new (second) iPad was, though mom and dad had warned him...  Poor kids, they just keep wishing.

Next day, Werner and I took Hayden to the movies.  Captain Marvel!  She was incredible and it was a fun time with the birthday boy.  Lee and Crissy prepped us on how Hayden behaved in the movie, but they didn't tell us about the reclining seats!  OMG.  This is a whole new movie experience and now I totally understand why Hayden wants to take a blanket with him.  Had I known, I'd have done that, too.

Crissy had a project waiting for me "stoning" one of Dylan's performance costumes.  It means putting more sparkle on what is already pretty sparkly - but to great effect! We were all happy with the result.

While the kids were in school, we went to visit a couple of friends - Beth Boozer, who I first met in 1966, and Steve and Trish Nicandri, exchange partners from Rochester, NY, who were with us for a week plus some whatever years ago - 2000? 2001? I still have to look. But it was great fun meeting up with old friends, reminiscing and enjoying the moment.

And then, poof, it was over.  Five weeks, lots of stops, so many wonderful visits, so many hugs.  There can never be enough of those. (2100 miles, 48 hours in the car, all well worth it!)

Thanks to all of you folks there for a memorable visit.  Till next time...