YIKES!

I told Terry the other day that I REALLY need to post a blog tomorrow, he said, that is what you said last week......and the week before that........AND the week before that!

Yikes! Where has the time gone? It can't be almost Valentines Day!

It was hard to say good-bye to my Mom in January, we had such fun while she was here, so many stories that I should have shared along the way. Our trip to the markets plus our jaunt down memory lane to Landstuhl come to mind, but for this blog I will share a story from our Ireland trip.

Mom, Terry and I arrived in Dublin on St. Stephens Day, or Boxing Day as it is known in England. We had arranged to let an apartment on the south side of town near where the Rigney's live. We called Mikal and he agreed to pick us up at half one- which by the way is how the Irish tell time, it sounds quaint doesn't it? He was delighted to meet Mom and Terry, he then took us to his Mother's house where we were treated to a memorable lunch. She had obviously put some time into it, there was a huge amount of food and the table was set beautifully. She is is a charming and vivacious woman, Mikal calls her Mudds. I can only guess that it's a shortened version of Mother-Mudder-Mudds.......however, I never did ask. Lunch concluded with a special cake Mudds had made before her Spain holiday- (I didn't dare ask when that was) she did need a VERY sharp knife plus Terry to help hold the cake while she hacked into it.....I likened it to a fruit cake covered (sealed you might say) in marzipan! And she told us that she had saved cutting it just for us! She did rembember to unplug the blinking Christmas light atop the cake prior to consumption! Too funny, I didn't dare look at my Mom.

Mikal loaded us in his car and began a tour of Bray and the surrounding area. It was a beautiful drive that took us on a coastal route that included a peek at the residence of U-2's Bono.

At various times throughout the day, Mikals wife Aideen had called his cell, we could hardly help but hear his end of the conversation......things like "no dear, I really didn't eat much" (we certainly had) and "yes, dear we will be home round half six or so to be sure" We were just passengers along for the ride, I did wonder at the twinkle in both his and Mudds eye.....True to his word, we finished the sightseeing and the five of us arrived at his home to be welcomed by his family. Introductions made and then with drinks in hand............ we were led to the dining room and saw that Aideen had a formal dinner table set and we were the guest of honor!

I would pay good money to have a picture of the look Mom's face when the (heaping) plate of food was set in front of her, no wonder Mikal only picked lightly at lunch at Mudd's house! Needless to say the conversation and the wine flowed late into the evening. I do believe I waddled on the way outside to get into a cab back to our apt. I was very thankful there was not another "Irish Christmas Cake" for dessert!

love and miss you all

Christmas in Edinburgh

Edinburgh we decided would be the perfect place to spend Christmas this year and so it happened on the shortest day of the year, my Mom, Terry and I boarded a flight headed North to Scotland, the land of our ancestors.

What a wonderful city, I have said it more than once and all of my traveling companions agree, "I could live in Edinburgh" I can't really put my finger on what it is that makes this place so special. Is it the castle that dominaties the skyline? Maybe the famous Royal Mile or the amazing number of literary giants that have called this home. Perhaps it is the sense of the savage history that makes it what it is today, it just is!

We had a great apartment right in the heart of old town with a view of the castle out our window. What fun to watch all the holiday shoppers from our second floor perch. We of course did the obligitory tour of the castle and journyed on a hop on hop off tour which educated us on various famous landmarks throughout the city. Another memorable day was spent getting our pounds worth while riding on an all day city bus pass. Who knew that paticular bus does not loop back around, just another adventure and a great way to see more the city. Our goal that day had been to purchase dinner for Christmas and we ended up touring the town and finding some wonderful cheese at a real cheesmongers shop!

We had scoped out St. Mary's Cathedral the first day we were here so we could attend Midnight Mass with His Emminence Cardinal O'Brien officiating. The bulletin indicated carols at 11:30, Mass at 12. Thank goodness we arrived early to get good seats because there were no carols; the choir, the Cardinal and countless others processed to the altar promptly at 11:30 to begin the service. The cathedral itself is magnificent - arches, statues, frescoes and carvings. This all lent itself well to the pomp of a Cardinal's Mass with thundering organ, angelic choir and enough incense to waft us all heavenwards. All in all it was a beautiful service. The Cardinal, in his opening remarks welcomed one and all, especially a group all the way from San Diego, Texas! And lo and behold, as we were leaving, there was the Cardinal right at our exit so we shook his hand and exchanged blessings of the season. Amazing!

Now it is time to leave this city behind and travel to Dublin to re-visit with the Rigney family, so I say ......."Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night"

love and miss you all

Birthday Blog!

Here we are again another Dezember upon us, which many of you know kicks off what we refer to in the Adams family as Birthday Week. That special time before the Christmas Holiday season kicks into high gear. This week sees more than a few fellow Sagittarian's turning another year older. They include: our friend Jim Long, the twins, Jim and Joan Adams, Annie Butcher, Charlotte Thompson, my neighbor Llorenz, the hunter, Steve Adams and OF COURSE yours truly, privelaged to spend this year with my Mom who is visiting from the states. Naturally, the evening was spent with a few friends and naturally we had a few laughs................


The guests included our German friends Hanni and Josef , Josef's sister Annie as well as Dutch Roy and Belgique Julie. The menu , one of my favorites- chilidogs! It was funny watching their faces especially the mozzarella cheese stringing from spoonfuls of chili,. For dessert I requested Mom's easy quaker cake with broiled coconut topping. She commented, " such a simple cake Lizzy, are you sure?"

This simple cake turned out to be the evenings entertainment......everyone loved dessert and insisted on the recipe, or as Josef called it, the reciept...SO Julie, being Julie the "translator" was writing down Mom's dictation.....Hanni and Annie with all their questions and gestures, discussing stirring versus beating......rapid German/English/Dutch flying back and forth- everyone commenting...to make things more complicated we had to convert cups to milliliters, fahrenheit to centigrade, inches to centimeters etc, etc........our Simple Quaker cake kept getting more and more complicated.....there would be a lull in the conversation then someone would ask a question and we were off and running again........how much coconut......just what is cream in German, can it be doubled...... etc. etc. just too funny~




The evening concluded with everyone taking home a copy of what is now referred to as Kuchen von Judy! It was one of those "YOU HAD TO BE THERE" stories, but for those of us who were there...........it was another evening spent sharing and laughing with friends.

love and miss you all

St. Martin of Tours

11/11 @ 11:11; November 11th at 11 minutes past the 11th hour marks the begining of Karneval or Fasching. German children celebrate with a tradition that has evolved over time and has been ongoing for hundreds of years, they remember a reluctant hero, St. Martin of Tours. Children aged 11 and under gather together at dusk carrying lanterns and sing special lanterns songs, songs of the harvest and songs of the land, they walk thru the town, sometimes St. Nicolas joins them and usually the procession involves a bonfire as well as treats for the children as they remember St. Martin, a 4th century Roman soldier who is best known for his compassion for the poor. Many legends surround his life, my favorite is the telling of how he cut his cloak in half to share with a beggar who was freezing in a snowstorm. Traditionally, goose is eaten on this day, St. Martin is said to have tried to hide in a barn full of geese to avoid being appointed Bishop, the geese gave his location away. It is no coincidence this is the time of year when donations are asked for, all in the name of St. Martin of Tours.

My 10 year old friend Fatima asked if I would accompany her as our village celebrated St. Martin's day last Sunday. We met at the edge of town and it seemed as if most of the village was there, including the local marching band as well as our escort, the local fire department. Usually , the children make their lanterns at school, they are so colorful, all shapes and sizes. The evening was crisp and clear as dusk descended the anticipation and excitement grew. The band started playing and off we went...up and down streets, singing songs handed down thru generations, we marched thru town to the sound of the band and the melody of many voices. We stopped at one point and watched as a bonfire was lit, after gazing for a while, we continued thru town and on to the Dorfehalle, where children were given treats and a Weckmänner, a traditional bread in the shape of a man holding a pipe, only baked this time of year.





All throughout Europe variations of this celebration take place. Fatima told me that Tuesday, I must attend the Waldfuecht version, she is excited because there is a real horse and rider depicting St. Martin and it promises to be much bigger and better. I explained to her that being (the only American) included in the Bruggelchen festivities was a wonderful experience for me, a special evening spent with the villagers as they gathered together in rememberence of this beloved Saint......below a verse from one of the many songs sung:

Ich geh' mit meiner Laterne
I go with my lantern
Und meine Laterne mit mir.
And my lantern goes with me.
Dort oben leuchten die Sterne,
Up above the stars are shining,
Hier unten, da leuchten wir.
Down here we're shining.
Der Martinsmann, der zieht voran.
St. Martin, he marches on.
Rabimmel, rabammel, rabum.
Rabimmel, rabammel, rabum.
Der Martinsmann, der zieht voran.
St. Martin, he marches on.
Rabimmel, rabammel, rabum.
Rabimmel, rabammel, rabum.


And now to post this blog at the official start of the Karneval season..............



love and miss you all

Slideshow at 6:00!

It was fun to review pictures at the end of the day, and that is how slide show at six became the theme for time spent with Kerry and Rit who came here on "Holiday” from Anderson Island, Washington. We began our adventures in Amsterdam, then moved to Germany where we visited various places using our house as a home base. We created memories in both Aachen and Köln, the Larsen's then hopped a train headed for Paris where they met up with another vacationing couple from the island, Co and Dale. That foursome then experienced Paris for a few days*. Four became six when all met in Spangdalem, Co’s son David is stationed at Spang, so the Osheims and Larsens headed home via Koblenz and an interesting tour of the Burg-Eltz castle*, Co and Dale joined us the next day.







Sunny crisp fall days followed us almost everywhere we went, fall has been an unbelievably gorgeous season and seems as if it was special ordered just for us, how lucky and of course appreciative we are!

Six became eight when we were joined by Connie and Jim and all headed out on a road trip to France to tour the famous Alsace wine country. We drove along the wine route and visited several picturesque cities.* Connie and Jim had spent time at a hotel called Emme Buckel, run by the Faller family; who also own the restaurant and winery on the property, all run by members of their very large family. We benefited from their friendship with a personal wine tour, that had Julian, a charming 17 year old touring us thru the whole wine process, then the family treated us to a wine tasting complete with snacks. They were wonderful hosts and made us so feel so welcome, it was another special memory and one we won’t soon forget.

Adventure, laughter and good times followed us the entire time and as I sit down and recall the visit, I realize how hard it is to summarize, so I will share just a few highlights:

Most embarrassing moment: "CLEAN UP ON AISLE FOUR”
That is what Dale announced after Jim dropped a bottle of red wine in the grocery store, shattering and splattering the contents all over he and Connie.

2nd most embarrassing moment: “What for me?”
Kerry’s response when Edo gave a bottle of wine to “The American”

Best line: "You have problems, no HE has problems"
The line used by the train conductor when he realized both Terry and Rit were not actually holding valid tickets for our ride between Amsterdam and Sittard.

2nd Best line: "Dead guy in the floor"
Seems as if they were even buried four deep in some churches, we saw lots and lots of tombs and relics, several displays with just pieces and parts of "dead guys" so this became a fun line to use.

Those are just a few of the many "moments" and one more that I need to share, and that of course is the saddest moment and that was saying good-bye.

Love and miss you all

* denotes information that could possibly mean material for a future blog! including but not limited to the mosastary built into the rock cliffs , the clock at Strassbourg where an astrological clock at solar noon.....etc.etc. etc......

My First Half

Naturally we had a bit of excitement on the way to Köln where we signed up to run the 1/2 marathon........

A group of us decided to ride the train and it was in the city of Rheydt that the entertainment started. Our connecting train just happened to coincide with a fußball game and Rheydt, it turns out is the hub where fans are bussed to the game. The moment we got off the train we were surrounded by what I like to call the Red and Green fans......actually it was Möchengladbach vs. Köln. We quickly found our platform for the outbound train and stopped to gape at the scene in front of us.

There were riot police everywhere, mostly they were busy keeping the two sets of fans separated as they streamed towards their busses. There was a lot of beer drinking and the fans were very loud singing their teams theme song. We saw a bus loaded with "red houligans" who were shouting and singing and rocking the bus, it is amazing that the bus didn't tip over! The police were also busy video taping all the action, WOW! are the Germans serious about soccer or what! We were able to relax once we put all the chaos behind us and got on our connecting train headed for Köln.

Here we are on the first part of the journey, Connie and Jim dropped us at the train station in Geilenkirchen. What a wonderful experience it was to run in the in the beautiful cathedral city of Köln. I had the benefit of a two time marathoner as a trainer, okay my personal trainer is also my husband...but what better motivater could I ask for than Terry! I completed a 16 week training program and had a goal to run 10 minute miles. I was pretty much on pace at the halfway point with a 01:03:13 time, but ran out of steam at about mile 10, then struggled to keep up, still all in all I finished not too far off my goal time. And if I understand the results correctly I finished 340 out of 2234 in my age group, not too bad! Terry had the option of running his own race or pacing for me and he chose to run with me, and our/my final time............02:19:54!

Love and miss you all

Keep to the left!

What a wonderful holiday in Ireland, the on going phrase.......keep to the left. No easy task driving the car, steering wheel on the right, shifting gears with the left hand, driving on the left, plus listening to "the girls" echoing........keep to the left. Also one must consider the narrow and mostly bramble edged roads! Here is a picture of a typical road:

We zigged and zagged across Ireland in ten days. Begining with day one where we shared a wonderful meal and excellent hospitality from cousin Michael Rigney and family and ended with day ten, a coast to coast drive across the Emerald Isle. Each day had its own rhythm filled with laughter and adventures plenty........

Terry had work obligations and couldn't make the first part of the vacation, I set off to Dublin to meet with my cousins Annie, her husband Doug, my cousin Bridget and her husband Paul. We met up at the airport all according to plan. Off to rent cars......mind you now, keep to the left.... first destination Bray, a seaside village south of Dublin. We settled in our hotels and hopped the DART train to be met by our smiling Irish cousin Michael Rigney. He and his family, his wife, two sons, one soon to be daughter in law and Michaels Mother, they all made us feel so welcome. We shared a delicious dinner and countless bottles of wine. There were many stories and enough laughter to make my ribs ache the next day. After dinner, out came the guitars and the musical festivities began. We could have sang all night, but the hour was getting late and the Rigney's had a busy day plus a funeral to attend the next day, so two taxi's were called and transported us away, I was dropped at my hotel at and I do believe that Annie & Company had a nightcap along the esplande............ (I will beg Doug for a picture to insert here, check back later)

The next day our tour guide du jour, Annie, had us heading for Newgrange, a 5,000 year old site where, on the winter solstice a beam of sunlight penetrates thru a special opening and the suns rays are captured into a special chamber, truly a remarkable astronomical event, given the age of the sight. What a treat to be able to witness this firsthand, perhaps next years solstice?

We continued our journey thru the beautiful countryside and ended up in Athlone, the heart of Ireland on the banks of the river Shannon. We strolled through this picturesque town and enjoyed a late dinner, once again filled with laughte. The next morning we parted company the cousins continued west and I hopped an eastbound train headed to Dublin. I felt like quite the traveler having to navigate the train as well as a double decker bus to the airport, just in time to meet up with Terry and pick up our car, now mind you now Terry, I said...............keep to the left!

Terry actually did a great job driving, he got on the highway before he asked so where are we going? To be honest, the directions were a teensy bit vague. I knew we had to drive to the opposite coast, 3+ hours to Kilshanny from there things got a bit foggy something about a pub, take the fork then past the horses about 2 km bear left................We had a GPS but houses don't have numbers in rural towns, so we headed in the general direction. I think Terry was a little nervous, the roads were narrowing and some unpaved and slick with mud, but the GPS kept pointing us towards our destination. We saw a coffee shop/pub and decided to stop and get our bearings, perhaps make a phone call..........the place looked deserted but when we opened the door who do you suppose was inside? Annie, Doug, Bridget and Paul! We were we ever so glad to see them! After quenching our thirst on a pint we headed for our home for the next seven days!

It was nice to have a home base, with peat to burn in the fireplace. Annie and Bridget have a second cousin Patrick O'Leary, who Annie and Doug connected with on a previous visit. Patrick and his wife Una came a callin the day after we arrived. What a charming couple they are, my cousins cousins. They both spoke with a heavy brouge and Una had a sing song voice that demanded full attention to understand. They invited us to meet up with them at a pub (imagine) where they are known to dance the night away, mind you now, Una said don't get there much before 10:00, that is when the fun starts! Another memorable evening was spent with the O'Learys over an "American" dinner of fried chicken, mashed potatoes, and apple pie! They also had us to their place for lunch and then their son toured us through three houses that he built, what a treat, I really felt like we got to see a side of Ireland that most folks don't get to see.

Every day took us on another adventure, destinations included the costal town of Doolin, the beautiful cliffs of Moher, the Burren, an unbelievable 300 km area of limestone and legends. We toured Aillwee caves, we visited Lisdoonvarna where a month long matchmaking ceremony and festivities were taking place. We visited Bunraty Castle and it almost goes without saying............Blarney Castle. Of course Terry and I kissed the stone! Each one of these places has a story and even though I have kissed the stone, I fear this blog is lengthy enough so I shall leave these stories for another time........

love and miss you all