Italy!!!

I have just returned from Italy! The land of my ancestors!! It was beautiful and so much fun. Everyone thought that I was Italian! I felt at home. Now I need to learn Italian so that I will not disappoint people the next time I go there! I greatly enjoyed the pizza and ice cream. I recommend that if you visit Italy that you get ice cream every day. Try different flavors!

 I first visited Rome.  It was really hot…I would recommend that if you visit Rome, you do not go in July. It is also very crowded and expensive during that time since everyone is on summer break. I still had an amazing time though. The Roman Forum and Palatine Hill were so cool! Here were buildings hundreds and hundreds of years old! One can actually see much of these ruins from the street. It always amazes me how well the Romans built things. The Colosseum is remarkable. There is a small restaurant near the Colosseum from which you can see it while you eat. I went there several times. I visited Capitoline Hill and went in the museum. The art work and sculptures were breathtaking! I saw The Equestrian Statue of Marcus Aurelius by Michelangelo.

I also visited the Vatican and St. Peter’s Basilica. Both places are worthwhile. St. Peter’s is stunning! I would love to experience a church service there! I wanted to sit down and take it all in, but there were no chairs or benches to sit on. I think one could sit and take it all in for days! After the basilica I went to the Vatican, and because I had ordered my ticket online, I was able to skip the very, very, very long line. If you ever go to the Vatican make sure you buy your ticket online, or you may stand in line for hours. The Vatican is huge! And the sculpture collection includes pieces from Greece. The ceilings of the Vatican are all stunningly decorated and designed differently. There are also rooms full of paintings by many famous painters; including The School of Athens by Raphael. Michelangelo’s paintings in the Sistine Chapel are a must see. Make sure you are really quiet or else the guards will make you leave! Yes, Rome is a fun place to visit! Remember: Rome was not built in a day, nor can it be toured in a day.

My next stop was the beautiful land of Venezia! Venice is so beautiful! The water isn’t very nice, but the old buildings and canals are lovely. It was so neat to see gondolas and boats everywhere! I even saw a cruise ship and private yachts. Make sure you take a water taxi or bus to get a view of Venice from the water. I decided to do this after getting lost trying to find my hotel. Venice is a maze if you have never been there before. I was able to make my way around without getting lost by the second day. My hotel was right next to San Macro Piazza, and so I was able to enjoy the many festivities happening there. It was restful in Venice and I was able to just sit with my feet in the water and read. One day I decided to just wander around and see what I could find. I stumbled upon many nice areas, and even found the Ghetto. The Rialto Bridge was very interesting with the many shops built on it. I had fun going into the hundreds of Murano glass shops. Venice is definitely a place I would recommend people to visit! It is beautiful and refreshing!

4th of July

   Happy 4^th of July from Germany! Even though Germans do not celebrate this very important day, I did. I wore red, white, and blue and listened to patriotic songs! I attended a small BBQ with some other Americans. We also invited a few Germans…..so that they could learn to appreciate our American traditions too J One of the Americans went shopping at an American army base and bought American food for this special occasion. So we had a real, authentic 4^th of July with typical American food and drinks! It was great! We even had s’mores and country music, which made it feel like we were in the US. All we needed was fireworks. 

  Two little girls in attendance had fun waving American flags, even though they are not American! It was very cute. The kids also had fun finding sticks for the s’mores. One little boy who has never made s’mores before returned with a big log. His mom had forgotten to specify that it needed to be a thin stick! The kids had a great time with this wonderful treat. I would say that our 4^th of July in Germany was a success!

God Bless America! 

Spring/Summer in Mosbach

    Spring came late to Mosbach and left quickly. It was beautiful the few weeks it lasted! As soon as the sun came out, people were everywhere! Even when it wasn’t very warm, I saw many people sitting in the square or park soaking up the sunlight. They had been deprived of sunlight long enough! The flowers and gardens in Mosbach are very beautiful! Most Germans seem to have a green thumb! I love walking through town looking at the colorful gardens. Recently people have been putting flowers in their window boxes too.  The hills around Mosbach are thick with green trees and the fields are different shades of green. We had a picnic in the fields a week ago, and it was beautiful! In May there was a Frühlingsfest in Mosbach. For about 4 days there was a small carnival in town…with rides, food, music, and booths. People from all over the area came to enjoy it. It was fun, but very loud at night!

 
       I believe that summer has arrived a week early in Mosbach. This week it has been in the 90’s F! I am loving the weather, but it is a little too hot for most Germans. This is hotter than a typical German summer. Most German’s do not have AC…even in the public buildings! I couldn’t believe that the hospital here doesn’t have AC! The weather is a great excuse to get Italian ice cream! There are 2 nice Eis Cafés in town. With the nice weather also comes tourist and bikers. On Sunday part of the main road was closed down for a few kilometers so that people could ride their bikes. There are also a lot more people riding in the parks and on the streets. I have seen several walkers and hikers too. Of course with this hot weather the swimming pools have opened and the many people frequent the water parks or natural springs. We went to a meadow the other day that had a nice spring running through it. It was a great way to cool off! Mosbach has a nice park along the river and I have very much enjoyed running or walking through it. It looks like it is going to be a nice summer!  

 

Paris!!!!!

In the beginning of April I went to Paris for a few days with a friend. It was wonderful!! Paris is definitely the “city of lights”, and it looks beautiful from the Eiffel Tower at night. The Eiffel Tower is impressive and very fun to take pictures with! For some reason I thought the Eiffel Tower was taller than it is. I thought that I would be able to see at least some of it from most parts of the city. This was a wrong assumption. I kept looking for it as we walked around…but the buildings often hid it or I couldn’t see it from the angle we were at. Even along the Seine River there were times when we were close but I couldn’t see it. I really felt like I was in Paris whenever I could see the tower.

We also saw Notre Dame, which is amazing! I would love to have worshiped there! The stain glass windows were amazing! It was bigger inside than I thought it would be. We had lunch at a café right next to Notre Dame. One day we climbed up to Montmartre and saw the Sacre Coeur Basilica. Walking up all those steps was not much fun! But it was a good work-out and worth the view. The view of Paris from the Basilica was amazing! The church itself is gorgeous, even though it’s not very old. After touring the church we went into one of the squares where artists were selling paintings. We talked with one artist who took time to explain a bit about himself how hard it is to paint when it is so cold.

On our tour of Paris we visited random places like the Opera Garnier, Rue de Cler, the Jewish district, the Carnavalet Museum, the Holocaust Memorial, and so forth. We saw the Arc de Triomphe and walked down the Avenue de Champs Elysees, along which we saw where Thomas Jefferson lived. We ate a few times in the Latin Quarter, and of course we had French crepes. We walked along the Seine and stopped at many of the vender booths that were selling paintings, postcards, and books.

 

 

One of my favorite things we did was visit the Louvre Museum. The architecture on the Louvre is beautiful and I love how they combined two palaces together. The museum is huge and would take days to go through. We were only there a few hours and saw just a couple of things. We made sure to see the Mona Lisa and sculptures by Michelangelo. I would love to go back again and take more time to look at everything.

 

 

I think Paris is a must see. It is a beautiful city and one could spend days looking around! There is so much history that has been preserved. Even though we did a lot of walking and saw many things, I know there is still more to see. Maybe I will have the chance to go back some day!

Easter!

Happy Easter!! I hope you all had a wonderful Easter! When I think of Easter growing up, I fondly remember wearing a new Easter dress and hunting for Easter eggs in the back yard. The sun was usually shining and the flowers were blooming. It was spring and everyone was happy! Unfortunately, this Easter in Germany was celebrated without spring. It even snowed a bit on Easter Sunday! It was too cold to have an Easter egg hunt outside…or to take nice Easter pictures. I definitely did not buy a new, spring, Easter outfit. However, this Easter was fun and unique.  No matter how bleak Easter may seem in Germany, we can still be thankful that we are able to celebrate the Lord’s death and resurrection.

 

 

    I asked the Witherall’s 3 year old at the beginning of the week what Easter was about and she answered, “flowers, bunny, and eggs”. I asked the 6 year old and she said “Jesus too”. Sadly, this is sometimes the order we place Easter themes in too. We often get more excited about the chocolate and new outfits than about Jesus’ resurrection.

 

    The Witherall children enjoyed celebrating Easter despite having to be in doors the whole time. They did many crafts pertaining to Easter, and they had loads of fun decorating eggs. The children brought many plants and painted eggs back from school too. They received special Easter marshmallows from the U.S. which we all enjoyed! On Easter Sunday we all hunted for Easter baskets. I was thrilled to open up mine!

 

 

   Now we are enjoying our Easter candy and praying that spring comes quickly!

Holland

  Last week I went to Holland to visit some

close friends. It was lots of fun! The weather

was very cold, but it did not rain or snow. The

sun even came out for a bit! Even in winter,

Holland is lovely. It was interesting to see so

much water…canals and dikes everywhere. I

really enjoyed walking through Amsterdam.

The canal houses are amazing! It’s so neat

how they are built right next to each other!

Some of them are extremely narrow because

they were taxed on how wide the houses were.

I saw a hotel that built around a house

because the owner refused to sell. The house

almost looks like it is part of the hotel!

  (pic below)

One thing I had to get used to was looking out

for bikers. I had to keep reminding myself to

look for bikes as I crossed the street.

Somehow I managed not to be hit! The Dutch

really do ride everywhere, and it doesn’t

matter what age you are or how many people

are on the bike!

I visited Zaanse Schans, a touristy town with

windmills. It was so much fun! I saw how

wooden shoes are made and how practical

they are. The shoes are made from wet wood

and after they are carved out they have to dry.

They are so wet that if someone blows in

them, water comes out! There are even

wooden shoes for different occasions and

jobs: church, school, weddings, ice skating,

and so on. I also saw some working windmills,

but I wasn’t able to go inside. Of course I

could not be in Holland without having

cheese! There was a cheese shop that allowed

people to try different cheeses and spreads. It

was so much fun!! I couldn’t decide which

cheese to buy.

I love castles and I was so excited that I was able to visit one in Holland. I saw Kasteel de Haar, which was rebuilt in the 15^th century. In the late 1800’s the castle was owned by Baron Etienne van Zuylen van Nijevelt van de Haar and restored by the famous Pierre Cuypers. He modernized it and his renovations are what can currently be toured. The Baron really only used the castle one month out of the year. It’s a beautiful castle with lovely gardens and ponds.

Fasching

This week was Fasching or karneval. Most of the schools in Mosbach had Ferien (off from school), including mine. I had hoped to visit a bigger city in order to participate in the festivities, but things were really busy with the Witheralls and I was sick. However, I was able to partake of the Fasching traditional experience of eating Berliners. Last week my German teacher brought Berliners for the class so we could celebrate Fasching.

 

 

     Fasching is a pre-Lenten Catholic celebration, although many non-Catholics celebrate it. Originally it was a time of feasting for Catholics before they began fasting for Lent. For some it was a time of going wild and breaking the rules. Today it is a holiday in Germany and other parts of Europe. It is usually held the week of Ash Wednesday. It is a time of festivals and carnivals.  It is almost like our Halloween…everyone dresses up in costumes and eats delicious pastries and candy. People especially wear decorated hats and masks.  The children in kindergarten celebrate Fasching too. They were allowed to wear costumes to kindergarten and had their faces painted. The Fasching festivities also include parades, music, costume balls, and plays. Unfortunately, there was no carnival in Mosbach, but there was parade on Saturday that went through town. I also saw a large parade on TV…almost like our Thanksgiving parades!