Hurry Up and Wait

 travel  No Responses »
Jan 212013
 

(backdated to 21 January 2013; written 26 January 2013)

Monday morning, still cold in Berlin and now lightly snowing.  We’ve checked the flight schedules and the only flights canceled are heading to Paris.  It’s still early.  Anything could happen.

After cramming everything into our meager carry on luggage and stowing it at the hotel reception, we head back into the center of Berlin for one last look around.  DB had never seen the Reichstag or the Brandenburg Gate so that’s where we went, via the UBahn.  I had to take this photo, just for the U2 sign.

I had been here 12 years ago with my parents.  That was pre-9/11 and security was light and not noticeable.  Now if you want to visit the inside of this building you have to sign up in advance and go through a separate security building first.  We didn’t know that and so didn’t go inside.  I’m glad we did those 12 years ago.  I have a really nice photo I took inside the glass dome on top – I’ll have to go find it on a CD somewhere.

You can see how cold and windy it was.  No time to hang around.  We then walked to the Brandenburg gate, just a block away.  Yes, it is tall.

It’s very impressive.  As DB said, when you see buildings and monuments in Berlin, you realize how small and cozy the Netherlands is.  We are a speck in comparison.  Oh, that will lead to a whole other blog post I’m sure.

We still had a lot of time to kill before heading to the airport so I suggested we walk down Unter den Linden towards the Berlin Dom. I was feeling nostalgic.  This is where I went with my parents those many years ago.  It was green and sunny then.  At that time, just like now, there was building construction going on everywhere.  I sometimes complain that Amsterdam seems to be continually under construction and it is annoying and makes for a stressful environment in a city.  It’s nothing compared to Berlin.  They have so many years of destruction to make up for.

Finally we made it to the Dom and went inside.  We walked around and I took photos.  It was pretty quiet – not so many tourists this time of year.  We followed the tour route to the upper levels, finally walking around the base of the dome itself, looking out the little windows at the top.  Here are some photos.

The little museum that explains the history of the Dom is very interesting.  I also found the crypt interesting, with caskets from the 16th century and caskets of German kings and queens.

And then it was time to leave.  We walked a bit further to Alexander Platz and took S and U Bahns to get back to the hotel, collect our belongings and then back on the S Bahn to the airport.  We discovered that our flight was still planned on time and all systems were go.

That is, until an hour before the flight was to leave.  Then we were delayed by 30 minutes.  Then we were told to go to a gate where we stood around for nearly an hour waiting for the inbound plane to arrive!  Why we were packed into a small room before the inbound flight had even gotten to Berlin is a mystery.  They obviously know when the plane will arrive – it’s not out there circling around for the fun of torturing passengers.

Our flight was supposed to leave at 6pm and finally at 7pm we boarded the plane.  And THEN we were told that there was a problem with the navigation display and an engineer was working on fixing it.  There we sat for another 30 minutes.  And after that was fixed we were told that the plane was iced up and had to wait in a queue to be de-iced.  Well, I’m all in favor of de-icing so didn’t complain about that.  In the end, we took off from Berlin just before 9pm.  You know what that means, right?  Right!  More knitting time!  I got a lot done on my sock during this delay.  Photos to come.

Just to add insult to injury (a handy phrase given to use by Shakespeare), when we got to Schiphol, we faced train delays.  We were lucky to get the trains we got and finally got home at 11pm.  Phew!  What a day!  From the Reichstag in the snow and cold, to my warm and cozy bed.  Very tired and happy to be home.

I have more Berlin photos in a Set on Flickr if you are interested.  You can find them here.

 

Cultural Sunday

 travel  2 Responses »
Jan 202013
 

(backdated to 20 January, 2013; written 25 January, 2013)

Sunday in Berlin seemed like a good day to visit museums.  We read through our travel books and decided on two – the New National Gallery and the KW Institute for Contemporary Art.  But first, breakfast.  We took our little Uboat (the U Bahn of course) to Potsdamer Platz and found a restaurant.  On the way through the square we saw again these crazy pink pipes.  What is up with the pink pipes.  Is this an eyesore that has become a symbol of Berlin?  If you know the story, please let me know.

After having yet another fresh and healthy Berlin breakfast, we walked to the first museum on our list.  We thought we had the wrong address.  The building was empty. How could a museum be empty? We checked the map again and decided to try the doors and see what it was.  Does this look like a National Gallery to you?

Well it is.  You have to walk downstairs.  Everything is underground.  This museum holds art work from 1900 to the present.  There were some interesting things and some things that didn’t do much for me.  Here are two things I especially liked:

There were also some Andy Warhol paintings and other famous things.  I don’t know enough about art to give you a review of this museum.  It’s not very big and took us just over an hour to see what we wanted to see.  Worth a visit, but not a highlight of our day.  I want to try to make the above patchwork 3D painting with fabric or yarn. Wouldn’t that be cool?

We then headed north to the North Train Station where DB had read that there was an interesting museum.  We didn’t find the museum but we did find a monument to the Berlin Wall.  

On the left side of this photo is where the wall stood.  These metal rods are part of the artist’s rendering of the wall.  To the left was West Berlin, to the right first no-man’s land, then East Berlin.  This monument runs for many blocks north, showing parts of the wall and super-sized photos from 1961 to 1989 on buildings that sat next to the wall.  It was very impressive and really brought home the kind of world people lived in during that time.  I wonder how strange it must be for older people who live in this neighborhood and who have lived there all their lives.  What changes they have seen!

This photo is looking south, with the old East Berlin on your left, the wall on your right.  The inner wall used to run along the tree line to the left.  This is looking straight down no-man’s land between the two walls.  Rarely did anyone make it across.

After walking along this street for many blocks we had to find somewhere warm to sit for a while.  We found this very cute used bookstore and cafe combination where we were served huge pieces of chocolate pear cake.

Back down to the subway and over to the KW Institute to see some more art.  When you paid your entrance fee you received a paper door hanger that had One on One printed on it.  The idea of this art exhibit was to go into each small room that was built into the larger exhibition space and experience the art all by yourself.  Some of the rooms were very small.  Some were large enough to walk around and do gymnastics.

It got pretty busy and sometimes you had to wait in line for your turn to go in and see what was inside.  It was funny to see how long people would wait for their turn.  We passed up seeing a couple of the rooms because the line was just too long and not moving very fast at all.  We aren’t very patient.  And our feet hurt.

What did we see?  Funny things.  Most of the exhibits made me smile or laugh.  A few just made me shrug my shoulders and wonder WTF?  None of it was mind blowing or even very thought provoking.  Just fun.  Worth seeing if you are in the neighborhood, or if you like seeing how young artists spend their time.

And then, of course, it was time for food and a warm bath.  Yes, I took advantage of our giant room and bathtub and had a soak when we got back to the hotel.  And THEN it was time for some Mexican food!  We went to Santa Maria Mexican Diner, at Oranienstrasse 170.  It was small and packed!  We had to wait 30 minutes for a table but enjoyed some tasty margaritas while waiting.  It was seriously good Mexican diner food!  Better than I’ve had in Amsterdam anyway.  I would definitely go back there and if I lived in the neighborhood I’d make it a regular hangout.  DB especially liked the music.  A win-win situation for sure.

And that was Sunday in Berlin.  We’re due to fly out Monday at 6pm but with the weather reports looking ominous, we’ll see if we make it out or not.  It’s supposed to snow again.  Stay tuned for the next episode of Escape from Berlin…..

 

 

On a Mission

 travel  2 Responses »
Jan 192013
 

(backdated to 19 January, 2013; written 25 January 2013)

As so often happens when we spend a short time in a new place, we run around with a mission in our heads.  We HAVE to do this and that and the other.  It’s easy to miss the most interesting things to see when you are on a mission.

Saturday in Berlin, we decided, would be shopping day.  We got up at a reasonable hour and went out for breakfast.  I was actually surprised at what we had for breakfast every day.  Here’s an average Berlin breakfast in a restaurant:

Look at all that fruit!  This was the healthiest breakfast I’ve had in years.  My stomach just didn’t know what to do with all those vitamins and minerals and became a bit upset.

First we went hunting for record stores.  DB was told by friends that we could find a lot of them around the East Train Station.  But first we walked along the river and a long piece of the Berlin Wall that has been turned into an outdoor art gallery.  Here are some photos of that area:

We walked around in the freezing cold, mostly completely alone on the streets, looking for record stores we never found in this neighborhood.  But I did see this crazy pink pipe everywhere.  Everywhere!  They raised it up so cars could drive past it.  They ran it over fences.  I just don’t get it.

Anyway, we finally decided to head to another neighborhood to find more interesting shopping.  Off we went on the U Bahn to Rosenthaler Platz, stepped out of the station and there was a record store.  Bingo!  But first we had to find a cafe to sit and eat/drink something because we were frozen.  We found the friendly and hip and fully wifi’d St. Oberholtz.

The food and coffee was great and honestly I’ve never seen so many laptops in a cafe before.  I don’t think people talked to each other, just sat next to each other sending messages.  DB went back to check out the record store and I stayed behind to stay warm and work on my sock.

He didn’t find what he was looking for but found out there were other record shops further up the street, so off we went, walking up Weinbergsweg.  We found a super cute shop that sold vinyl and clothes.  DB bought a record and I bought this t-shirt.  It’s hand printed with a knitted lace design.  How could I NOT buy this shirt?

The name of the shop is Rotation Boutique Berlin.  Well worth a visit. If I had a larger budget I would have bought more clothes there.

But we were still on a mission and finally found another record shop in the basement of this building.

I walked around taking photos and DB decided not to buy anything.  The woman working there sent us to another street to find another record store, and even though we tried, we couldn’t find it.

Finally it was time for my mission – a yarn shop.  Yesterday I asked Stephen West what shops he would recommend since I knew he had been here recently.  He said that he went to one shop (can’t remember the name now) but also heard that Hand Made Berlin was nice.  After checking both of their web shops I decided on Hand Made Berlin just because they seemed to have more unusual yarns.  I was right!

After wandering around far too long in the cold, being lost, we found it.

This is exactly the kind of shop I wish I owed.  Lots of yarn, the “normal” stuff you find in Europe, plus lots of interesting yarns from Japan and Scandinavia and Scotland and the U.S. AND there’s a coffee bar and tables and chairs to sit and drink coffee and knit!  What could be better?  I took a couple of photos of the back of the shop.  There’s a lot more besides this and I highly recommend the shop if you are in Berlin.  I bought 3 colors of Shetland 3ply yarn – but you’ll read more about that in a later post.

By this time we were very tired from all the walking and wandering around.  One last push, walking down another street looking for somewhere to eat, we walked past the New Berlin Synagogue.  What a beautiful building.  It’s amazing that it was not completely destroyed during WWII.

We found a cafe on a corner, got something to eat and headed back to the hotel to crash and burn.  Tomorrow another day and another agenda.

Easy Jetting to Berlin

 travel  No Responses »
Jan 182013
 

(Backdated to 18 Jan 2013, written 24 Jan 2013)

Today we got up early and flew from Amsterdam to Berlin.  Why on earth would one fly from one cold place to an even colder place, just for fun?  It’s cheap this time of year, that’s why!  How can you beat 75 euros round trip for a flight?  We flew on EasyJet and I have to say it was one of the most painless flights I’ve ever been on, which is saying a lot for EasyJet.

We are staying in the NH Heinrich-Hein in the east side of Berlin.  The Wall used stand just a block away from our hotel.  Again, dead cheap this time of year.  We’re staying in a brand new super apartment with a kitchen and everything for 70 euros a night.  THIS is why we do city trips in the winter.  It remains to be seen how wise that is this time around.

Here’s a photo of a place a few blocks from the hotel.  The Wall used to run down this open area.  It now looks like a park.

We took public transport from the airport to the hotel, which takes time, but gives you more of a flavor of a place.  We took the S9 and then transferred to one of the U-bahn lines.  I thought it was so sweet how this S-bahn car was made to look cozy, like your grandma’s living room.  Fake wood paneling on the walls.  Fake upholstery on the seats.  Prints of the Brandenburg Gate on the windows that if you look quickly look like white lace curtains.  It’s not just this car – lots of trains look like this.

We haven’t done much on this first day in Berlin besides get to our hotel, have some lunch, get some Chinese take out down the street.  And SLEEP.  I think the past week of having our house torn up and full of paint smells really tired us out.  We hadn’t been sleeping well.  We’ll make up for it in this lovely hotel room.  ZZZzzzzzz and out to explore Berlin tomorrow……

 

Booked!

 Knitting Related, travel  2 Responses »
Jan 022013
 

Today I booked a trip to Estonia.  I’m so excited to be able to go to this place that, by all accounts, is a knitting paradise.  My friend Nancy told our knitting group about it and it’s just too interesting and exciting to pass up.  Jacki is coming too so it will be a real party!

I almost feel like a traitor posting about it here.  Shouldn’t we keep this event a secret?  But now that we’ve registered and have booked flights, I don’t mind if the conference sells out.  We’re in!

It’s a 2 1/2 day conference about Estonian knitting, but also other Scandinavian knitting, in mid-May, about a 2 hour drive from Tallinn.  Here’s the web site about it if you are interested.  Jacki and I are flying in on Wednesday and out again on Sunday so we have a day either side to see a bit of Tallinn.  I really can’t wait.

In 2008, 2009 and 2010 I traveled to knitting events outside of the Netherlands.  It just wasn’t possible to do that in 2011 although I did manage to get to a talk by Brenda Dayne at A Verb For Keeping Warm in Oakland while visiting family in California.  It will be great in 2013 to make it to an international knitting event again.  This event looks especially interesting because there are NO knitting classes (I’ve taken enough of those, some good, some terrible) and instead are talks and demonstrations.  I want to hear about the history of knitting in countries with a knitting tradition that we try to copy faithfully these days.  I want to see the real thing, not a watered down “easy” version in a how-to class.  I want to hear about what inspires modern fiber artists.  Why do they do what they do?  Where do they draw their energy from?

The photo above is not a new one.  It’s a photo of a shawl I made my mom earlier this year.  It uses traditional Estonian stitches and I think it’s one of the more beautiful things I’ve made.  It’s worth showing again on the blog.  I’m thinking now that I should make myself an Estonian shawl before May.  In bright orange so people know where I’m from.  That’s a little more subtle than flags on a backpack, and a lot more stylish.

Whirlwind

 travel  2 Responses »
Oct 102012
 

These days I feel like I’m living in a whirlwind.  As you may know, I left corporate life at the end of 2011 and decided to become an English teacher.  I went through training.  I went through long periods of unemployment.  Then a short stint at a “training” job that had nothing to do with training.  And now, in early October, I am, by golly, an English teacher!  And suddenly I’m in big demand and keep getting asked to teach more classes.  I started out with 1 class at a travel school and 1 class at a language school.  Then they both started asking me to teach more classes.  Nice, but crazy and chaotic right now.

Here are some observations about this life change.

First of all, I’m having a hard time getting used to this un-schedule.  I spend 2 hours here, 2 hours there, 3 hours somewhere else.  I have a worse schedule than I used to have as a split shift waitress (lunch – break – dinner).  And I have to find time to prepare for classes.  This isn’t like teaching in a high school where you have lesson plans and books all ready for you and you just have to come in an hour early and your day is sorted out.  Oh no.  Maybe there is a book.  Maybe it’s a reasonable book.  Maybe it isn’t.  Thank GOD for the internet and all the teaching resources I can pull from there.  I’d be totally lost otherwise.

And I guess that’s my second issue – I’m very slow at preparing for classes because I’M NEW AT THIS!  And of course I want to be good at it.  I have good ideas I think.  I just have to keep coming up with ideas and finding resources to get those ideas across.  Everything takes more time than it would a more experienced teacher.

I really like actually teaching the classes.  Once I’m organized and have my lesson plan ready, I really enjoy the teaching.  The students are interesting and interested.  This is the fun part.  This is what I trained to do.

So, I have to get the hang of this life and decide, after one year, if this is the direction I want to continue going.

The photo above was taken at a farm we stayed at last weekend, Huis ter Lucht.  They have turned part of the farm into vacation houses.  It was the yearly Family Weekend.  I think, kids and all, there were 26 of us.  We watched the milking, petted cows and chased cats.  I went for a long walk Saturday and ended up in a boat.  It was good to get away (not very far away, but still) and not think about anything.  Here are some more photos from the weekend.  I didn’t take my camera with me, so all photos were taken with my iPhone 4S.

Mt. Lassen National Park

 nature, photography, travel  No Responses »
Jun 262012
 

During our last week in California we spent a few days in a small cabin at Lake Almanor.  Mt. Lassen National Park is right next door so we drove there and did some hiking two of those days.  The above photo is DB standing at a roadside “vista point” on the main road through the park.  This was near the summit at about 8,500 ft (2,600m).

Our first day hike was from the Visitor’s Center to Mill Creek Falls.  The falls happens where two creeks come together.  Here are some photos from that hike:

There is a bridge over the top of the falls, which DB wasn’t entirely comfortable with.

This was about a 3 hour hike, round trip, on mountain trails that were gently uphill and downhill.  It was a lovely way to spend a morning!  After that we got a bite to eat and then drove through the park.  It’s not a big area to drive through and getting from one end to the other took about an hour.  Up at the top elevation we stopped to take some photos of frozen Lake Helen.  Before I knew better, I thought we might be able to walk around the lake.  That was until we got there and saw that it was covered all around with ice and snow!  I had no idea it was this high and still this frozen.

We stopped at the top of the summit and took more photos.  The first photo of this blog post is from that point.  Here’s another one.

For the rest of the afternoon we drove back to Lake Almanor.  Yes, it took a long time to get back since we drove around the perimeter of the park, to the east, then back south.  By the time we got back to our little home I had had enough of driving for one day!

The next day we decided to drive a shorter distance, from Chester to Warner Valley Campground, and then hike to Devil’s Kitchen.  The drive was partly on dirt roads, which weren’t always marked well.  We had to turn around once when we realized we’d taken a wrong turn.  It wasn’t far though – only about a 40 minute drive.  Then we started walking.  This hike was flatter and shorter than the one the day before – a “walk in the park”. :-)

We walked first through a meadow, then some wooded areas, then ended up at the volcanic pits, bubbling and steaming.

It was really interesting seeing, hearing and smelling this activity.  The sulphur smell was pretty strong, especially when the steam got thick and filled the air.  In some places you could hear the thick bubbling of mud deep in the ground, which made a bass drum kind of thumping.  I tried to capture that in a movie, but it was too windy and all you hear is the wind noise.

Here you can really see why it’s called Devil’s Kitchen.  You can imagine this as a cooking pot, making a nice soup…

As you can imagine, you were required to stay on the trail.  There were signs saying that the ground around the pools is fragile and crumbly and can give way under your feet.  It’s possible to get seriously burned.  We did as we were told.

It was a really nice day trip to this part of the park.  On the walk to Devil’s Kitchen we saw only another couple and they didn’t go farther than the meadow.  On the way back we ran into a small group, but those were the only people we saw.  We saw deer tracks and I swear there were bear tracks.  We finally saw a marmot, but he was pretty far away and I only had my 50mm lens.  Here’s the best I could do for a photo of him.

I had never been to this National Park before but I’d definitely go back again, maybe later in the year when more of the trails are open and more snow has melted.  I already miss the trees.

If you want to see more of my photos from our Mt. Lassen visit, I have a flicker set here.

Farmers Market

 food, travel  No Responses »
Jun 172012
 

This morning at 8am we went to the Chico Farmers Market. It was already pretty warm outside!
I bought veggies I can’t get in Holland: 3 kinds of squash and purple carrots.
I bought organic blueberries and feta cheese.
I bought cheese from my sister and gave her a hug. I don’t know who was more surprised, her or me.

20120616-175727.jpg

Where Things Grow

 Home and Garden, photography, travel  No Responses »
Jun 152012
 

The thing about California that defines it as something special is that things grow here. That’s why people came in the beginning and that’s why they stay. The weather is perfect for growing things. Just add some water if you need to and watch nature do what it does best – grow.

We rented bikes to use while we are here in Chico. Yesterday we rode for 2 hours through Bidwell Park, east to the golf course and then took a little trail in foothills country. It was our first experience with any kind of mountain biking, in the upper section of our ride. That part of the ride only lasted about 15 minutes but considering our complete lack of preparation (no helmet, no experience) we had a good time. No one got hurt and I learned not to brake on gravel (or you just slide).

Here are some photos taken in the early part of the ride, in Bidwell Park along Big Chico Creek.  Bidwell Park is long and narrow and runs through Chico, west-east.

And a little further along…

It was right after taking this photos that my camera fell.  I had put it back in its case but hadn’t zipped it closed yet.  Then my bike started to fall so I bent down to grab it, the camera came tumbling out of the case (I think the strap caught on the handle bars) and hit the dirt.  The big lens broke off the camera body.  Stupid plastic lens mounts!  Two tiny pieces of plastic broke off and now the lens won’t stay on the camera.  When we got home I tested the camera body with my other small 50mm lens and it works fine ( more photos below with that lens) but the big lens will have to go in for repair.  After some research online later in the day I found out that there’s a Nikon authorized repair center in Beverwijk, which is just down the highway from Haarlem, and I can walk in with it and get it fixed.  Stupid me. Happy to be able to get it looked at easily when we are back home.

Anyway…. this morning I got up (still early waking hours – the sun wakes me up at 6am) to find this beautiful cactus in full bloom.  M. says it only blooms a few days and then it’s done.  I don’t know how long it took to develop the flowers – a year? several years? But I’m happy to be here at the right time to see it and capture it in pictures.  Actually, this is what I wanted the 50mm 1.8 lens for, flowers and knitting projects.

And finally, a photo of Jake the cat.  I first met Jake when he was a tiny kitten.  He would run and jump on you with all baby sharp claws out, no matter how many times you picked him up and threw him off you.  He’s now 10 and mellow and cuddly and sweet.

Chilled in Chico

 travel  No Responses »
Jun 132012
 

We’ve headed north and are now staying with J. And M. in Chico.  They live in a house with a huge garden. The weather is hot and sunny. Today we rented bikes and biked for an hour in a park and around Chico. (at this moment we’re watching NL get badly beat by DE in Euro12; pathetic)
Huge garden
We brought J. a birthday present from home: 12 Dutch beers. I think he likes it.
J & M and beer
Tonight we’re going to Sierra Nevada brewery for a tour and dinner. Can’t wait! I also have photos from my birthday dinner Monday night, but they aren’t on Flickr yet. It’s not as easy to get all this organized with only an iPad, so I might show those later when we get home – a kind of food round up.

I plan to make it to the local yarn shop, Heartstrings Yarns, this week still. It’s a really big shop with a huge selection. Their web site is a bit sad, and is no reflection of the shop itself. I’ll let you know what I score!

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