I'm Being Published!

I'm a little late with this news, but I want to make sure I get the word out. It's so exciting to be published again, and this time in the new Larks book - 500 Art Necklaces, due out in July. 

The bead is a beautiful work of art, created by my old partner in crime, Patty Lakinsmith. We did a couple of very successful collaborations for Convergence, ISGB and were lucky enough to have both pieces go on tour.  This piece was strictly a labor of love! I love working with Patty's beads, and this was a chance to design something that would showcase this one. 

At the beginning of this year, I was notified that the piece had been selected for the new Larks book.  Woo Hoo! To say I'm thrilled is an understatement!

The Garden Necklace

Photo by David Orr

The book will be available in July, so keep an eye out!

Toodles,

OktoberFest!

If you've been following along, you know we're getting to the end of the vacation in Germany. So sad when it ended, because it was such a great time.
The last couple of days of our stay we spent in Munich. James was ill the first day, but Karren, Bram and I braved the rain and went to the OktoberFest. I want to add here that we were still on our search for Leiderhausen flaps, just so you know! Karren took it one step further and put together this wonderful montage of flaps and dirndls! Check out her blog - she really gets into some detail!

The park where OktoberFest was held was huge and very crowded. In fact, the buses, streets, train station and just about every square inch of land near the park were jammed with folks. Quite a sight, as you can see from the pic above.

The entrance to the park

Every brewery was colorfully represented and all the beer gardens were packed with waiting lines, so we didn't have the opportunity to share in the the beer and song!

Ha ha! This funny sign was outside one of the restrooms. I'm guessing most men paid top Euro for the privilege of using the toilet, as manly pride would probably kick in here! (Bet they made a lot of money!)

The lion roared, but it was so noisy we couldn't hear it! Great display though!

And so we bid you

Auf Wiedersehen!

More on Our German Adventure

Well, I hope you've been following along with the tales of my travels  to Germany. I'm trying to be brief, however, it's hard to refrain from describing all we did and saw because it was such a perfect week! Our hosts, Karren and James, could double as tour guides anytime, but their friendship is precious and can not be duplicated!

Our hosts!

Karren writes a travel blog and has described our week in far better detail than I can, so if you want to see more fabulous pics (did I mention she's also a photographer?) - take a look at her blog.

So anyway....one of the things I always struggle with, when visiting Europe, is finding comfortable shoes. We do far more walking than when we're at home in the states, and besides, I live in Florida where flip flops are the fashion year round! Because I wear open shoes most of the year, I get blisters when wearing boots or closed shoes for any length of time. Every Europe trip finds me lamenting on the wrong choice of shoe/boot and scurrying around whatever city we're in, looking for a pair of comfortable shoes. Yeah, ok, I'm a shoe nut...I love shoes and I won't even try to disguise shopping for them as some kind of chore! I have developed quite a collection  - from Italy, Spain, Greece, and Germany - to name a few. This trip was no different. On one of our walking tours of Bamberg, Karren and I decided to hunt, once again, for the "perfect shoe"! We were actually pretty lucky as we only had to go to one or two shops before I found my dream pair!

Tah Dah!!!!

That same day, we took a boat trip down one of the three rivers in Bamberg. The views from the water were lovely! 

Das Boot (The boat)

View from the boat...wouldn't you love to live there?

Finding good food is not difficult in Bamberg, and one of my favorite places is an Italian restaurant called Salinos. Yep, Italian in Germany. Why not? The food was delish!!!!!

My Penne Pasta

I thought this looked like it had Pesto on it, and maybe it did...but it had a minty flavor that I've never tasted before and it's very light. Karren tried to get the recipe from the waiter, but his response was a very fast "nope"! Hildy, Karren's German friend is related to someone who works at this restaurant and has promised to get the recipe for us. 

Well, my feet are comfortable, my tummy is full, and as you can see in the pic, more than enough wine to go around...so I'll leave you with that image for now!

Toodles,

German Graffiti

I would be remiss in recounting our adventure in Germany if I didn't show you some of the wonderful Graffiti I shot! Those of you who know me, know I'm a collector! So this post shows some of the interesting art I found during our vacation. I am often inspired to create something from the wall art, in metal.  So when I do, I'll post it here like I did last time.

And now on with the show... I showed this one in my first post about Germany, but I want to show it again, since this was the first piece of Graffiti I shot from the train.

Taken on our bike ride!

Ha ha! I leave Florida for Europe and find "oceans" of Graffiti!

Not sure, but I think this is a statement about  technology!

This was one of my favorites! I think the flowering vine really adds to the overall affect.

Love this one too!

My next post will be a continuation of the trip and I'll share more Graffiti down the road, so to speak!

Toodles,

The Bike Ride

Continuing on my story of our German vacation...

One of the things Karren and I discussed, in planning the trip to Germany, was the idea of renting bikes and really getting to see the countryside up front and personal. Since bicycles are a major form of transportation throughout Europe, I felt pretty safe in agreeing to the adventure, not worrying about people not having "bike manners" like where I live. Here, I think they must give points for running over the bicyclist...or at least getting far closer than is really safe and there are very few bike lanes, if any.  Anyway, dear hubby and I ride our bikes several times a week, so I thought I was in pretty good shape.

Karren planned the route, including along the way, a couple of small breweries where we could get a taste of the local beer.  (Let me insert here that Karen estimated it was about 10 miles round trip. I mention this, because I'm going to come back to her ability to determine distance a little later on!)

So off we go to get our bikes. The scenery along the way was gorgeous and the shop was near the river.

It took a couple of tries and a return trip to exchange bikes to find one small enough for me to comfortably ride. I took a lot of teasing, because it looked like a child's bike. So ok, I'm short...deal with it! Anyway, we set off on our adventure (and the 10 mile round trip...). The country side was beautiful and the roads were perfect for us to meander around, building up our thirst.

Sheep!

Dear hubby and me!

Karren and James

We stopped at a cute little brewery with a small restaurant that had outside tables. It was fitting to sit in the sun and enjoy the gorgeous view and weather....Mother Nature really favored us with a beautiful morning. This little tavern was apparently a local hang out as several people were sitting outside, drinking beer and playing cards.

Cheers! (or is that Prost!?)

After a delicious lunch and a lot of "beverages" we set off again. Now I have to tell you, we were headed, eventually, for  another small town outside of Bamberg where Karren lives called Bischberg.  The trip seemed to be getting pretty long and we teased Karren a lot about the true distance of this excursion. Toward the end, the weather turned cold and rainy, and we were still peddling our behinds off.  Karren's theory was that because the headwinds were so strong, it got harder and harder and felt like it was longer (and longer!). That's probably true....but the debate about how long our trip actually was went on for a couple of days. ( I say it was closer to 20 miles!) In fact, it was still going on after we arrived home in New Port Richey. I got an email from Karren saying she tracked it on google maps (or a similar program) and it turns out it was actually around 13 miles.  Yeah right! I have to see that to believe it!. I think we were out between 7 or 8 hours, including the stop for lunch.

Truth be told, it doesn't matter how far we actually went. (I just know it was more than 13 miles, Karren!!! lol!) It was a blast and I think we all enjoyed it so much, we want to do it again - next time! 

But ....I am going to buy Karren a pedometer!

Toodles,

An Evening in Bamburg

When I last posted, we had just arrived in Bamburg and checked into the hotel. By now it's evening and we're woefully sleep deprived, but too excited to call it a day! And we were hungry......

So off we went to see the sights and find an outdoor cafe for food and drink. Bamburg is so quaint and pretty, with tons of cafes and restaurants so we let Karren lead us to one of her favorite spots. The town is a big tourist attraction, and once seated outside the restaurant, we watched tours walk by, led by a costumed tour guide who looked like something out of a movie, carrying a lantern or a large staff.

View from our table. You can see the back of a tour guide in the middle, dressed in black.

Karren introduced us to a German specialty wine called Federweisser. It's yeasty white wine, low in alcohol content, that has been pulled off during the fermenting process. It is only available in Sept and October because as it continues to ferment, it will become regular wine. It can't be stored long, either.  In fact, once bottled, it has to remain upright and vented due to the process and carbonation. Anyway, it was very tasty...it may be low in alcohol, but if you drink enough of it, you'll feel it! Of course, I would NEVER do that!

Can't see dear hubby too well, but here's what the wine looks like!

As darkness fell, the town took on a fairytale look, and since we'd been up for a couple of days, we decided to call it a night. Sleep awaited.....

Isn't this pretty?

View on the walk back to the hotel. The river at night.

That's all for now. Stay tuned for the next day's adventure - on a bike!

Toodles,

   

On to Bamburg!

So...yesterday I described the fun in the train station. Now we're on the train, headed to Bamburg, where we will stay for a few days. I was anxious to see the town that so captivated my friend Karren, so much so, that she left New Port Richey to pursue her dreams there!

Karren had made the reservations, so we were treated to seats around a table and a great window view. Not a bad way to take a two hour train ride!

The countryside was gorgeous and lush. I was intrigued by the village-like scenes that flashed by, all looking like they came out of a story book. But you know me, I'm going to find some odd ball things along the way....and so I did!

Found outside the train station.
They are not shy about using that four letter word!

And of course, I found graffiti along the way! 

Did I mention the Germans aren't shy? (or prudish)

The trip was pleasant and uneventful, which was a good thing since we'd been awake for almost 24 hours by that time.  But when we arrived in Bamburg, I was fully awake!!! Such beauty! I felt like I'd stepped into a fairy tale. So we walked to our hotel and checked in, anxious to explore if our energy held out!

View from our floor

View of the area behind the hotel from our floor

Flap Alert!

So....we're off to explore. Let's not forget that we're still looking for Flaps, though we probably won't find many in Bamburg. I didn't realize that though Oktoberfest is a German celebration, the main festivities are held in Munich, not so much in the surrounding towns. But we will not be put off by that little factoid! Stay tuned for the continuing saga of the flap!

Toodles