2012 April Krakow

Poland has been on our list of countries to visit.  The debate was Krakow or Warsaw.  After many recommendations, the consensus was Krakow because of history and size.  The Polish consider Warsaw the mind of Poland and Krakow its heart and soul.  Krakow was less damaged by WWII, in part because the Germans considered it a part of Germany from the time of the Austrian Empire.

Krakow began WWII with more than 60,000 Jews and ended the war with less than 6,000.  Today there are lfewer than 1,000 living in Krakow.  The Jewish Ghetto of Krakow was depicted in “Schindler’s List”.

Being in Krakow at Easter was more special than we had expected.  Poland is a very Catholic country.  There are dozens and dozens of active churches in Krakow.  One of Easter traditions is to pack a small decorated basket with food (eggs, cheese, salt, meat) and have the basket and contents blessed by a Priest.  Virtually everyone, young and old, were carrying their baskets on Saturday for the blessing.

We attended Easter service at the Cathedral with the Archbishop of Krakow serving the Mass.  Of course the service was in Polish, but it service was beautiful and very special.  The weather was a bit colder than we had hoped for.  We actually had snow on Easter Day.

We stayed in a B&B that was converted apartments in an 19th Century building.  The exterior and hallways of the building were typical Eastern European e.g. drab, dreary, not well maintained etc.  The B&B was very modern, clean and well decorated.  We stayed in two separate B&Bs.  When we returned the second evening we expected automatic lights on the stairway landings as we had in the first B&B, but no such luck.  We walked the 3 flights of very worn stairs in pitch dark until we reached our floor and the automatic lights came on.  The next morning we commented about the adventure to the person in charge.  She was embarrassed to tell us that we should have been told which switch at the entry turned on the lights in the stairs.

View to the “courtyard” of our B&B. The interior of the B&B was very nice. The exterior and stair ways were like this.

Jewish area where Schindler’s List was filmed. There were 65,000 Jews in Krakow in 1939, nearly 1,000 today.

Krakow Cathedral. We attended Easter Services with the Archbishop of Krakow serving mass.

Traditional dress and Easter Baskets

Blessing of the Easter Baskets at the Cathedral

Pope John Paul II, much loved in Krakow

13th Century Wieliczka Salt Mine

The Kielbasa made the trip worthwhile.  Pork, pork everywhere more pork.

Marrakech in March 2012

The American Women’s Club planned a 4 day trip to Marrakech in March and Marianna was one of the first to sign up to go.  There were 18 women and one guide on the trip and a good time was had by one and all.  The guide was with them almost the entire time which allowed the group to do much more than they’d be able to do on their own.  The hotel was in the city about a 2 minute walk from the famed square, Jemaa El Fna full of jugglers, henna artists, snake charmers and fortune tellers as well as traditional musicians.  The hotel was also a very short walk from the souks of Marrakesh, which are a maze that only the locals can negotiate without getting lost.  The guide was fabulous at getting each of the ladies to the area that was of interest to her.  Although everyone had individual interests, every single one ended up with a bracelet or two or three or more.  The more you say “no” the lower the price, you just end up buying a few.  Marianna was shown to the fabrics section and bought a ton of beautiful and colorful silk fabrics for a future quilt.  One day of the trip included a drive up into the Atlas Mountains and then a final ascend to the Berber village of Aremd on the back of a mule.  The village has no proper roads and perches over the valley of Imlil at 6000 ft.  There they were treated to a cooking demonstration and a fabulous rooftop lunch.  The descent on the back of the mule was a different and much steeper route.  All anyone could do was hold on and hope the mule knew when to turn to keep from falling over the edge.  No one fell over although a few chose to walk.  Very much not a trip Pat would have liked, the souks, the square and the mules would have finished him off.  The food was great, the pool was warm as was the weather, a nice change from London.

This was just for me, nice!

We took a horse carriage ride to the Majorelle gardens where Yves Saint Laurent lived and worked,

this color blue is now know as Majorelle blue.

We had four carriages, quite a parade through town to the gardens.

The square is a wild and crazy place at night, almost impossible to walk around.

Entertainment at our first dinner.

The first of many  tangine meals we ate.  Did buy one to try at home and it works!

This is berber wool, we saw carts of it everywhere, lots of bright colors.

Dates, dates, everywhere we saw dates.

Street musicians

These were the starters before we were served lunch.  Everything was fresh and tasty.

At the Medersa, a medieval Koran school dating back to the 16th century.

Hats for sale in the souk.

On my mule, no saddle, no reins, nothing much to hold onto except the blanket.

Did not fall off.

Being serenaded during lunch.  He also served the tea.  Tea morning, noon and night.

Our cooking demonstration, there was also a bread making station and a very complicated

lesson on making couscous, nothing instant, all outdoors.

This was our lunch, on the roof in the sun with the Atlas mountains all around.

Again, starters with much more to follow, yummy.

Bringing home the groceries, and we thought the bus was a pain.

A few of the ladies having drinks by the pool before our last dinner.  A great trip.

2012 January Manchester United vs. Stoke City

One of the items on Pat’s list of  ”things to do” was to attend a proper English football match.  Our oldest son, Ryan, is a Manchester United fan so where to see a match was easy, Old Trafford in Manchester to see MU.  Old Trafford is the Yankee Stadium of English football.  The seating capacity is nearly 76,000 and even on a very cold Tuesday January 31 night the stadium was full to watch MU play Stoke City.  The night was a great experience to see how seriously football fans are about the game.  Entering the stadium is one at a time through a cattle gate to your seating section.  Your section is segregated from other sections.  The stairwells have chain link fences ensuring no fans jump/climb to another section.  There were enough police and security personnel inside and outside the stadium to invade a small country or to keep order at an English football match.

We had a great time and the home team won 2 – nil.  The day following the match we took a tour of the stadium and MU museum to see all of the trophies won over the years and pictures and memorabilia of the current and past players and managers.

Ryan from our seats before the match

Pre-game warm-up. Note the security presence in the visitor's corner of the stadium. A security person at the end of each row.

MU Holy Trinity Sir Bobby Charlton, George Best and Denis Law

Ryan in the reserves box during Stadium Tour

2012 Dartmoor January

The winter in England has been very mild…..so far at least.  We have wanted to get down to the southwest of England and visit the Dartmoor National Park in Devon and we thought  a mild January would be the perfect time.  It was a two hour train to Exeter and then a rental car drive of about an hour to our lodging.  We stayed in a 17th Century manor house, Lewtrenchard Manor in Lewdown on the western side of Dartmoor. The house was as gorgeous as the setting.  We had two wonderful dinners — fussy food but very interesting and tasty.

We spent a full day on the moors — setting of Sherlock Holmes and the Hound of the Baskervilles.  Dickens’ Great Expectations has settings in the moors as well. The landscape is desolate but beautiful.  One of our stops was in Princetown, the home of Dartmoor Prison.  The prison was built by French prisoners of war during the Napoleonic War (1803-1815). Driving and walking through the moors on such a beautiful days was an unexpected treat for us.

The entrance of Lewtrenchard Manor

The moors

A windy walk on the moors to a rocky peak or Tor

Another panoramic view of the moors

A view of Princetown and Dartmoor Prison which is still in use

Wild Dartmoor Pony

Dartmoor traffic jam

Stone bridge near Two Bridges

2011 Christmas in Dubrovnik

Another family holiday with no family means it is time to go somewhere.  This Christmas it was Dubrovnik, Croatia.  Dubrovnik has been on our list for the spring, but Christmas seemed to fit best with our scheduling.

While Christmas is not a good time to be a tourist we had a nice time.  We stayed at a 5 star hotel, with spa, indoor pool and beautiful views of the old city — at a very reasonable price because of the season.  The hotel was maybe 1/4 full as was the city.  We spent Christmas Eve in the old city and it was full of local families in their best dress.  It had the feel of a very small town with everyone seeming to know one another.

We took a day trip to Montenegro, only about 30 miles south of Dubrovnik.  Our guide/driver gave us the Croatian view of the Serbo-Croatian War and siege of Dubrovnik in 1991-1992.  While his views were not in line with what we read, there seemed to be blame on all involved.  As usual a religious basis for isolation, separatism, animosity and hatred.  Being in the city and seeing the surrounding mountains that were held by the Serbs used to shell Dubrovnik was amazing.  While most of the damage has been repaired, there are still remnants of shelled buildings.

The weather was sunny, but a bit chilly.  As luck would have it temperatures in London were comparable, but more sun on the Dalmatian coast.

Dubrovnik from our hotel window

Christmas Day in Dubrovnik

Overlooking Dubrovnik

Christmas Eve gathering. The street is shiny but not wet. They are paved with granite worn smooth over the years. Very weird to look at.

Christmas Eve in Dubrovnik, everyone but the performers were dressed in their very best but all black!

View of Dubrovnik from the surrounding mountains, we took a cable car up to the top.

2011 Thanksgiving – Brockenhurst

Thanksgiving is a time we have missed family and friends the most.  We always try to be “away” and this year it was in the Southwest of England, the New Forest of Hampshire.  We have been through the area on a coach but wanted to have a car to explore the area.  We took a train (about 2 hours) to New Milton to pick up a car and drive to Brockenhurst, 5 miles or so.  The weather was wonderful.  The weather was unseasonably both warm and dry for late November.

We stayed at “The Pig” which is a new iteration of a hotel in a former manor house.  The Pig is best known for it’s restaurant and chef.  Our opinion was the recognition is well deserved.  While we thought we would have dinner in the restaurant once during our three night stay, after the first dinner it was an easy decision to make reservations for the following two nights as well.  All of the food is locally sourced within 25 miles.  Marianna enjoyed the mushrooms as a starter two nights and a large portion for a main on the third night.  The scallops, cod and the rib eye were wonderful as well, but the mushrooms!  The Pig is still working through the problems of a new owner, staff etc.  We enjoyed our stay, quirks and all.  One of the guest commented in the guest book The Pig was, “an upscale Fawlty Towers” — which we agreed was as an accurate statement, and maybe that is why we enjoyed our stay so much.

The New Forest is famous for it peaceful wooded scenery and for its ponies.  The ponies, by legend, originated from the shipwrecked ponies from the Spanish Armada from 1588.  While the “legend” is considered to be only that, it does make for a wonderful story.  The ponies roam free in the designated range areas and many villages of the New Forest, but are all individually owned.  The ponies are rounded-up yearly for veterinary check-ups, vaccinations etc.   When we first drove into Brockenhurst, a pony was “waiting” in line at an ATM machine behind some locals — a picture we wanted but missed.

We enjoyed wonderful walks in the New Forest, along the river and along the coast at Lymington with a views of the Isle of Wight.

Hopefully next year our Thanksgiving will be with family and friends in Seattle, but the construction schedule — not be settled until January — will dictate.

Our B&B, The Pig

Walk along the river

Walk through the New Forest

Fall colors in the New Forest

Walk in the New Forest

Ponies of the New Forest

Isle of Wight

2011 Hawaii September-October

Well, long time no blog from us.  We were gone from London for about 6 weeks in the states.  We had a great time, lots of plane rides but it was worth it.  We left mid-September for Seattle with a brief stop in Middleton WI to see Patrick, Heather, Owen and Lukes’s new home.  The house is a perfect size for the family and in a great neighborhood with great schools.  We then went on to Seattle to spend time with Maureen and Jason more importantly we were able to spend time with Fallon.   We also spent time working on the planning for our Mercer Island remodel in anticipation of our return next year.  It was a whirlwind week of architect, contractors, showroom visits and we only scratched the surface.  Marianna also had a wonderful lunch on Lake Union with her good friends Ann and Debbie.  Friends since we first moved to Seattle in 1988.

We then took off for 4 weeks in Hawaii, two on Maui and two on Kauai.  Patrick and Heather were on Maui for a wedding so we were able to spend time with them and see some of Patrick’s friends from high school and college, great fun.   Maureen joined us for a week on Kauai, which was wonderful.  We went snorkeling, sunning, shopping and ate very well.  Maureen is quite the encyclopedia of Hawaiian food, she turned us on to the fried doughnut balls, called Malasadas, yummy.

We returned to Seattle for another couple of meals with Maureen and Jason who know all the best places to eat in Seattle.  Pat then returned to London and Marianna went on to San Francisco for a few days with friends on then on to Brooklyn for some grandchildren time.  She was there for Halloween and Park Slope does Halloween big time.  Marianna was especially lucky since Natasha had to go to Russia for work and she was able to be on her own with them while Ryan was at work.  This even included chaperoning a field trip to Prospect Park with their class.  Great fun.

With Luke and Owen in Middleton WI

"The Girls"

Patrick and Heather

Maureen and Pat

Marianna and Maureen

Kauai Sunset

Walking Alex and Gus to School

Sharing a Butterfinger with his sister

2011 Berlin — September

We were last in Berlin in 1998 and the city was a sea of construction cranes involved in the rebuilding of Berlin following the fall of the wall, in 1989 and the reunification of Germany in 1990.  While we have tried to not “repeat” cities we have visited before — Paris and Rome being the other exceptions — we wanted to see the changes in Berlin in the last 13 years.  We spent 2 nights and 3 days in Berlin.  The changes we saw were dramatic. Construction continues as in any large city, but the gaping holes in the city caused by the wall are for the most part marked only by the cobblestone line in the streets/sidewalks etc. of where the wall once stood.  The Brandenburg Gate had been in the no mans land and in 1998 was sitting alone.  Now the City more closely surrounds the Gate, in particular the US and French Embassies are within 50 yards. Potsdamer Platz was under full construction in 1998 with only the Sony Tower near completion.  Today the Sony Tower is hard to see because it is dwarfed by the surrounding buildings completed since 1998.  The Hauptbanhoff, Berlin’s mail railway station, was totally reconstructed and is now allegedly the largest train station in Europe. The signage is not the best as we had to wander and finally ask for directions to get the S-Bahn platforms. The station has S-Bahn, U-Bahn, local trains and interregional trains all within the same station which is great, but better signs would be a help.

We did a 4+ hour walking tour focusing on historical Berlin.  The pre-WWII center of Berlin ended up as a part of East Berlin and that was the focus of the tour.  The historical sites, museum island, the Berlin Cathedral, Tiergarten, Brandenburg Gate, Unter den Linden the major shopping street with street cafes etc. leading the Brandenburg Gate, the holocaust memorial etc. etc.  The tour guide is a Phd in history, he was great, but it does tell you something about the economy.

One interesting story was how East an West Berlin was merged.  Most of the structures in West Berlin were applied to East Berlin with little negative reaction from the East Berliners, except when the plan to replace the pedestrian signal symbol, the Ampelmann, was announced.  East Berliners said the authorities had gone too far and the Ampelmann was retained and spread to West Berlin instead.  Of course an American came up the idea to market the Ampelmann as a logo and there are Amplelmann stores to buy all sorts of stuff you do not need in the first place, but with the Ampelmann logo — we only bought a few things.

Brandenburg Gate in the Pariser Platz

Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe

Television tower in the former East Berlin

Our tour lead by Carlos, very German -- his mother is from Costa Rica

The Berlin Cathedral

Memorial to those who died in war

Berlin Beer Bike Tour -- Guide/driver does not drink?

Frederick The Great of Prussia and friend

Ampelmann pedestrian light logo

The Green Man group

Curry Wurst -- tried it, not a fan

2011 Reykjavik, Castletownbare, Edinburgh, Helsinki and Tallin — August

August has been a busy month trying to keep up our schedule of visits on our ever growing list.  Pat had a work trip to Reykjavik, Iceland in early August.  Marianna decided the air fare, nearly $1,000, was too much and she opted to visit her aunt in the Netherlands.  Reykjavik is a small city — largest in Iceland — with a population of around 130,000.  Iceland has a population of approximately 350,000.   The financial crisis affected Iceland more than many countries due to its dependence on banking as a major industry, beyond fishing an tourism.  Reykjavik did not “feel” or look as affluent as the other Nordic Countries.  Iceland Air runs flights from the US to Europe that are cheaper than most, the requirement is a 2 days stay in Iceland, smart marketing. We would like to get back to Iceland to see the more scenic sites — winter deals are available, what a surprise, but the scenery is supposed to be spectacular and the weather is less frigid than you would think because of the Gulf Stream affect.  The average January high is 35F.

We then spent a 5 day visit to Dublin and County Cork.  We followed the Queen’s Tour route with stops in Cashel to see the Rock of Cashel — ancient site of the castle of the Kings of Munster.  St. Patrick is said to have converted King Aengus to Christianity at this site around 450 AD.  We visited the English Market in Cork City.  The market is a thriving indoor market located in the center of the City.  We then visited Cobh, previously known as Cove and Queenstown.  This was the main port for the Irish emigration dating from the mid 1800s through the early 1900s.  Pat’s Grandfather left Ireland for the US from the port of Queenstown.  Cobh has a great visitor center focusing on the Irish emigration and the Titanic. In 1912, Queenstown was the last port visited by the Titanic.  The purpose of the trip to County Cork was to visit Castletownbare on the Bare peninsula, the birthplace of Pat’s Grandfather.  Castletownbare is a fishing port with a church, high street, market and a few restaurants.  The landlady of the B&B we stayed in Bantry said that the Sheehans were “thick” in Castletownbare and the phone directory proved her right.  The weather while we toured the Bare Peninsula was spectacular as you will see in the photos.

Next up was a 4 day trip to Edinburgh for the Festival and Royal Tattoo at Edinburgh Castle.  We do enjoy Edinburgh.  One of the few cities we have visited more than once and will probably visit again before we come home.  The atmosphere is friendly and much less overwhelming as compared to London. We always find nice restaurants, nice local people — who will actually talk to you which rarely happens in London.  The purpose of the trip was to attend the Royal Tattoo — recommended by many as a must during our stay in the UK — and it was not a disappointment.  The ceremony, bands, pipers, military displays, lone piper and fireworks were memorable.  The Tattoo coincides with the Edinburgh Festival which is a month long party and display all types of arts, music, drama, film, comedy, literary readings etc. We saw a few shows including David Sedaris — extremely funny readings of his books and articles.  We also visited the Royal Yacht Britannia which is permanently on display in the harbor in Leith.  Recently the Royals used the Britannia for a gathering during the wedding of Zara Phillips, eldest grand daughter of the Queen.

The last trip of the month was to Helsinki and a day trip to Tallin, Estonia.  The weather was sunny and very warm.  Funny when you need to go north to the Nordic Countries to see the sun and feel the summer warmth — summer was cancelled in the UK this year.  Helsinki is a typical Nordic capital city — lots of history, culture and an orientation to the sea wherever you look.  We took the passenger ferry to Tallin, Estonia to spend the day in Tallin.  The ferry ride is only 90 minutes and the weather was spectacular.  In Tallin we joined a walking tour of the city which was wonderful.  The guide was terrific and shared much of the history of Tallin and Estonia.  She said she was a “child of communist propaganda”.  In 1989 Estonians were urged to have more children to populate the world and she was born in 1990.  Estonia was bounced around between all of the powers — Sweden, Denmark, Russia, Germany etc. before first becoming independent in 1918.  After WWII, they were part of the Soviet Union until their second independence in 1991.

Tribute to Norsemen founders in Reykjavik

Rock of Cashel -- in rainwear of course

The English Market in Cork City -- the Queen's visit banners proudly on display

Cobh Irish Emigration Visitor Center

Home again in Castletownbare, Ireland

The Bare Peninsula

The Dutch Army Bicycle Band

Brazilian Band with Pipers

Massing of the bands

Fireworks to end the show

Some signs at the book festival site said "watch out for the mud", this one was more accurate

Outdoor dining in Helsinki

What do you buy when you go to Helsinki? Wicker baskets and a sunhat of course.

Part of the Helsinki Art Festival?

Friends we met near the hotel in Helsinki

Tallin skyline

Monument to Estonian Independence

Sunset on the Bay of Finland

2011 Stockholm — June

We are behind in our postings.  Not because we have not been out and about, but because of some technical difficulties.  We had exceeded our space limit on Word Press and either had to purchase more space or reduce the size of our blog.  Well you know Pat was not going to spend $$ when deleting would do.  After internal discussions, little deleting occurred and we discovered we had 100s of duplicate/triplicate pictures on our site that were easily deleted to free up space.  We will limit pictures on the site for the time being and work on alternatives e.g. Flickr etc.

We will start with our trip to Stockholm in early June and then bring our site up to date with information about the 2 1/2 week visit by Ryan, Natasha, Gus and Alex in July, another return visit to Brussels in July, Marianna to Amsterdam and Pat to Reykjavik, Iceland in early August and upcoming August trip to Ireland (Dublin, Cork, Bantry Bay)

We had a great visit to Stockholm in June.  It was brief, only 3 nights but very enjoyable.  We were very lucky with the weather, warm and sunny and stayed in a hotel right by the water but then I guess everything is by the water since it’s never far away.  We did two boat tours just because we could since the weather was so great.  One was a city tour, the other a tour into the archipelago.  We walked along the river and were able to eat outside which was really great and when you eat outside in Stockholm, it is much like in Seattle, you look out at water, not street traffic.

Lunch on the river, all the terraces were packed.

Sunbathers, they were everywhere on the rocks around the city. I guess they get it while they can.

City Bridge, one of many, many bridges in the city.

Archipelago tour boat

Sailing in the Archipelago, not us but it looked like fun. Islands everywhere.

City Hall, site of the Nobel prizewinners dinner, a very grand affair. This is the "Blue" room except the architect changed his mind about the blue tiles at the last minute and it was never blue.

City bus to Ikea, of course