A Short Surprising Stop

We spent less than 24 hours in Nuremberg on our way from Prague to Passau, where our cruise was beginning.  I did not do my usual researching ahead of time, and arrived with no expectations.  It was just a city we were spending the night in on the way to our cruise.  I should have done a better job!  Nuremberg turned out to be a pleasant surprise!

Welcome to Bavaria!

We took a four hour bus ride to Nuremberg and arrived at 3 p.m. wondering if we were at the right station, where our hotel was, and how were we going to get there.  Our trusty smart phones told us we were less than a 10 minute walk from our hotel.  Our phones did not tell us that the walk would be over mostly cobblestones (ugh!).  We clickety clacked our way, dragging our bags behind us, to our lovely hotel.  It really wasn't very far, it just seemed like it with those bags and those cobblestones.  We only had a few hours before dark so we went out to explore the old town.

Turned out, old town was very close to our hotel!

Pedestrian streets and outdoor markets!

We wandered the streets and loved the markets, the Bavarian architecture, the manageable number of people (compared to Prague) and the numerous Christmas shops.  It was just what we needed after four hours on a bus.  The farther into the town we got, the more we liked it.  We found the Nuremberg castle, not hard....just look for the biggest and highest building in the Old Town.  We are such geniuses!  I think we managed to hit all of the high points on our walk....you know...church, castle, pub.

I wanted to bring them all home!  

Since our lunch had consisted of the random snacks TJ bought in the store before we left Prague, an early dinner was in order.  We found a nice place, near the church and sat outside for dinner.  We embraced Bavaria and ordered the "tower of sausage"!  The air was crisp and clear, the leaves were turning fall colors and we were in Bavaria drinking local beer and eating sausages!  Our own private Oktoberfest without the oompah band!  

Cheers St. Lorenz!

Tower of sausage!
Complete with mustard, horseradish,
sauerkraut, potato salad and yummy bread!

Feeling fortified, we walked to the river.  I am a sucker for arched bridges and reflections in the water.  Who needs an ancient castle or a Gothic church when you can just stand on a bridge and watch the river flow?  I looked at the houses along the river and wondered what it would be like to live in such a lovely spot.  I wondered what it would be like to live in a city with such a dark history full of wars, religious turmoil, destruction and human tragedy.  How many different feet have walked on those same cobblestones?  The stories they could tell!

The Beautiful Fountain

The 40 colorful figures that adorn the fountain represent the world view of the Holy Roman Empire. They are philosophy, the seven liberal arts, the four Evangelists, the four Church Fathers, the seven Prince-electors, the Nine Worthies, Moses and seven Prophets (Hosea, Daniel, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Amos, Isaiah and Joel).

Hospice of the Holy Spirit
Truth:  when I took this I thought it was just a lovely scene.
It was only after I got home that I discovered what it was.

Life along the river

Our time with our daughter ended in Nuremberg as she headed "home" to Berlin the next morning and we took the train to meet our cruise.  Who knew a year ago that we would be drinking beer and eating sausages with her in Germany?  What a treat it was to have this time together!  I think we were all pleasantly surprised by our short time in Nuremberg.  

Prague....Where Everyone Knows Your Name

Over a year ago we bit the bullet, along with two other couples, and made plans to go on a river cruise.  A lot of water has run under the bridge of life since we first made those plans.  It is interesting how life works out sometimes.  When we planned this trip we had no idea that our youngest daughter, the newlywed, would be living in Berlin. We had no idea that our summer shore friends would be in Prague while we were there.  We had no idea if the blue Danube would have enough water to float our ship all the way to Budapest.  We had no idea if we would even enjoy a river cruise but we planned and had faith.

Since we were already across the pond we decided to plan a little independent travel at the front end of our cruise.  We had always heard that Prague was a beautiful city so we decided to find out for ourselves.  Turns out so did about a million other people!  So many people!  Aside from all of the other tourists getting in our way we found Prague to be as beautiful as advertised.  One of the most special things about our visit was the fact that our daughter and her new husband met us there upon arrival.

Look, the astronomical clock...
and hundreds of cell phones in the air!  (guilty)

Hello, Prague!  Yes, you are beautiful!

We arrived in Prague on a Sunday morning and met our daughter and husband at our hotel.  We parked all of our bags with the staff there and headed out to brunch. That first day is always a challenge but we had a plan.  Stay awake and moving until bedtime.  Our favorite way to keep moving is to go on a bike tour.  We planned a 2 p.m. bike tour with the goals of getting an overview of an unfamiliar city, seeing some of the "must see" sights and staying awake!

Our bike tour in Prague may have covered the most miles we have ever done on a bike tour.  I'm guessing it was between 8 and 10 miles.  Of those miles, over half of them were over cobblestones.  There was no risk whatsoever of us dozing off!  I remembered that ride for days...every time I sat down.  Cobblestones are unforgiving!  The tour itself was very good!  I love getting to see so much of a city in a few hours plus the benefit of being outside.  We saw a secret courtyard, one of the coolest cemeteries I've ever seen, the famous Dancing Houses, a few churches, we learned some history and climbed up to one of the best views of the city on our ride.

Inside the secret garden is a wall
that looks like the inside of  a cave.

Never would have found this without a guide!

The John Lennon wall...it's a thing.

The point in the tour where Lisa gets distracted by a lovely view.

Giant Bronze alien babies.....

and Dancing Houses....Fred and Ginger!

Made it to the top and staying awake!

Husband and wife gravestone....Here's looking at you kid

A beautiful and interesting cemetery.
Alfons Mucha is buried here.

After all that biking on cobblestones we have earned our refreshments!

Thanks to our bike tour guide's suggestion, we planned to tour Prague Castle bright and early the next day and beat all of the selfie stick toting tour groups.  Our plan worked and we patted ourselves on our backs for being ahead of the masses.  Prague Castle was definitely worth the early departure!

St. Vitus Cathedral is massive!

The stained glass windows are amazing!

The Golden Lane inside the castle, housed goldsmiths in the 17th century,
 now houses souvenir shops...riches to ruins some might say.

Franz Kafka sculpture, interesting artist!

Jewish cemetery, unfortunately closed due the the
Jewish holiday.

One of the coolest things I've ever seen!
So glad we were able to find it!
Watch the transformation here:
Franz Kafka Metalmorphosis

Lunch turned out to be a yummy and unique experience.  Kantyna is a must if you visit Prague.  The bone gives the menu away, nothing but meat....and potato pancakes and deliciousness. 

TJ playing with our order markers.

When was the last time you saw grilled bone marrow on a menu?
Would you order it if you did?  I did....it reminded me of my grandmother's cooking!
It was decadent and delicious!

Wine or beer?  Both!

 Later that same day, after following Kelly and I around to all of our "must see" locations, TJ added his "must see" and asked if we could just stop walking for a while and find a nice wine bar to sit and relax.  We followed our trusty smart phones to one wine bar and decided immediately it was a "no".  TJ was beginning to get hangry...or maybe he was thangry, needless to say I needed to find a decent place and fast.  We ended up at a lovely wine bar, very near our hotel.  We walked in and there were two guys at the bar...they were the only customers.  We stood in the entrance area assessing the situation and one of them turned around and what happened next will go down as one of the best moments in Prague.  One of the guys' faces totally lit up and his mouth dropped wide open and he shouted, "Kelly Mahoney!?!!!".  There were hugs, introductions, mouths agape and two bottles of wine later we had learned more about our daughter's college days than we knew before we went into that wine bar.  They had worked together at the admissions office in college long ago and far away. He had run the Berlin marathon and was on holiday with his partner for the next week.  The world is definitely getting smaller!

Our second small world experience happened only an hour later but we knew it was coming.  We had a lovely dinner with our friends from the shore who also happened to be in Prague... after running the Berlin marathon.  All these healthy, fit people we know!  Dinner was great fun and Prague is now our favorite small town in Europe.  It's where everybody knows your name!

You never know who you are going to run into in Prague!
A big "quack out" to our Canadian travel expert for the
Blue Duckling 2 recommendation!

Our two days in Prague were all we had hoped for and a little more.  We strolled along the river and across the Charles Bridge after dinner and took in the views.  Prague really is as beautiful as everyone says.  I could definitely go back and explore in more depth.  The architecture is stunning, the history in fascinating and the food, wine and beer are delicious.  If you go, keep your eyes open because you never know who will be around the next corner!

A little evening eye candy.

The same building all lit up!

Up next, Nuremberg....and that cruise.

How the Mighty Have Fallen

In the past I may have complained a time or two about the "leaving" process when it comes to the farmhouse or the cottage.  There is the inevitable cleaning of the fridge, which I hate!  There is the sadness I feel when my flower boxes get shut in the dark garage for the winter.  There is the never ending list of tasks we must do to leave the house and the property safe and sound for the "off season".  This year there was an added a level of difficulty because tossing out seven bottles of salad dressing and countless odds and ends is way too easy.  Our added challenge came in the form of a hurricane named Dorian.

Friday, September 6, 2019
All is calm and beautiful!

We were good little hurricane veterans and prepared in spite of the deceiving blue skies.  We took in all of the outdoor furniture and potted plants from the cottages and the farmhouse.  We tacked down anything that could fly and become a projectile.  We filled many jugs with drinking water and made sure we had batteries in our flashlights.  We moved our grill to the back deck out of the projected wind direction.  It was Friday, Sept. 6 and Hurricane Dorian was scheduled to arrive in our little corner of the world the next day.  It was hard to believe how drastically things would change in one day.

With everything safely tucked away we woke up Saturday morning to a breezy, cloudy day.  We decided to see if the nearby farmer's market was open.  Only 3 vendors braved the windy morning so we bought a lovely heirloom tomato and some lettuce, because sadly ours is done.  On the way home we stopped at the fish market and bought a cooked lobster to make lobster rolls for lunch.  We also went across the street for some hurricane chips because what are hurricane provisions without some junk food?  We got home, made lunch and found a way to stream ESPN Game Day!  We were pretty proud of ourselves as we waited for Dorian.  And the wind continued to blow.

Bring it on Dorian, we have a lobster and some chips!

We sat and watched Game Day streaming from Austin where LSU and UT were playing later that day.  We had big plans to hunker down inside and watch the big game that night.  Perfect way to pass the time while Dorian blew through.  The wind continued to pick up but all was still good....until 3 p.m. when blip, blip, blip and then silence.  No power.  UH OH!  Dorian threw a flag on our perfectly planned afternoon!

As I looked at the storm through my kitchen window I noticed one thing we had forgotten to take inside.  My favorite whirly gig was about to take flight.  I asked TJ to go out and take it down before it blew away.  He put on a hoodie and raincoat and headed out into the storm.  We were bored and having a bit of fun when I decided to video the rescue.  I did my best reporting, "This is Scotia Woman reporting live from the Lorneville weather channel in the midst of hurricane Dorian."  I was Marlin Perkins to his Jim Fowler.  "While Jim faces the gusting wind and flying tree branches, I'll stand behind the house out of the wind and document his brave rescue of the whirly gig."

We were cracking ourselves up!  He did the perfect acting job.  I mean it was windy...but not that windy.  I think we may have pissed Dorian off.

We decided to go and check on my parents who were still at their cottage.  As we approached their cottage this is what we saw.

A tree behind their cottage had fallen on the electrical wires.

That explains the power outage.  We had to park at my sister's cottage since we were not sure we could safely drive under the wires into my parent's driveway.  By now it was raining and the winds were blowing hard... just like a hurricane.  We ran across the flooded yards and into my parents cottage.  It was still a bit warm inside but dark and eerie.  My Mom was in the process of packing up for their trip back home in a couple of days.  It is a long process only made longer and more challenging by a wheelchair bound husband and now...no power and the sound of the unrelenting winds and rain beating against your cottage.  She was a bit frazzled, as was I by this time.  There was no way we could move them out of the cottage in this weather.  We could barely stay upright just running across the yard.  Moving a man in a wheelchair was not an option.  They had to stay the night.  We made sure they had water, food, flashlights, blankets and a plan.   We left feeling very guilty that we had a wood stove to keep warm for the night.  They were going to be very cold!  Not a good feeling.

My stylish rubber boots came in very handy here!

There are not that many of us left here which turned out to be a good thing!  There were enough people that no one felt isolated but not too many who were inconvenienced.  The storm continued. We discovered our friends were going to spend the night across the road at my-cousin-who-has-a-generator's house.  We joined them for a couple of hours.  Not really a "hurricane party", more of a wine drinking, listen to that wind, look at those trees, are those the deck chairs sliding across the deck?  Party.

We also enjoyed their running water/flushing toilet.  What you may not realize is that when you live in a house with a well and a pump and the power goes out, the pump cannot run...so no water.  No water, no shower, no flushing toilet, no hand washing, no fun.  You can flush the toilet by pouring water into the tank and then flushing, but we only had so much water.  We were very conservative!

It was time to go back to the farmhouse for the night.  TJ and I had decided earlier in the day to spend the night in one of the back bedrooms of the house.  The wind was coming from the north and our bedroom is under some very large trees on the north side of the house.  It seemed safer to be in the back.  We drove up to the house and TJ saw our chestnut tree practically bending over backwards in the wind and told me to wait in the car while he checked around the house.  He was gone for a while and when he got back in the car he had a stunned look on his face.  He said, "You have got to come see this."

2 of our 3 GIANT poplar trees had been uprooted.

We went inside to see if there were holes in the roof but we could not find any...in the dark of night.  The magnitude of the trees was overwhelming.  They are not just big trees, they are huge trees!  How they missed our house is a miracle!  There are a few branches resting on the roof but it could have been devastating! We went to bed and continued to listen to the howling wind and rain.  I have no idea how I slept so well, but I did.  I guess with the trees down, I did not have to worry about them falling.

The irony of our video is not lost on me.  Where we earlier in the day had been laughing and joking was now covered with a tree.  Dorian did not have a sense of humor, only revenge.

Taken from the exact spot I filmed the video the day before.
YIKES!

Before Dorian, our lovely trees.

Thanks to Dorian, the mighty have fallen.

In the light of day things looked very scary!  We were SO lucky!  It will still be a herculean task to cut down those 3 trees, then cut them into small enough chunks to be taken away....somewhere.  What do we do?  Our insurance company is working on it but with so many other people in the same boat, we are just a number.  We are hoping for a plan of action before we have to leave on the 16th.  The power was out for three days.  I am thankful for my pack rat of a husband who never throws anything away.  He dug up an old propane stove out of the basement to make coffee and tea in the morning and warm up food for lunch.  Having a wood stove helped keep us warm.  Hurricanes in the south are usually warm weather events.  This one was not!  My poor parents woke up to a 50 degree cottage the next day.  It did not take much persuading to convince them they needed to get on the road the next day and stay in a hotel for the night.

Who knew that candle lantern made such cool shadows?

As close as I will get to camping!

My pioneer husband keeping my tea water hot
and my cinnamon roll warm!

With Mom and Dad safely on the road home, TJ and I continued to pack up the house for our departure plus deal with the fallen trees and many missing shingles and leaks on the cottage roof.  Thanks Dorian!  Maybe we were getting a little too high and mighty ourselves. 

Mixed Emotions

Days like today make me wish I could stay here forever!  The air is clean and crisp, the sky is cerulean blue with a few wispy clouds, the tide was out at the perfect time of day (late morning to early afternoon) which made for the perfect walk on the sandbars and I had enough to do to keep me busy but not too much that I was stressed or exhausted.  This would be the day I would like to put in a bottle and take home with me and take out when I need some cool, fresh, beautiful air!  I will probably also want to take this day out of my secret bottle on Saturday when Hurricane Dorian is scheduled to arrive up here.

The perfect sandbar day!

 The season is coming to an end and it is with a bit of sadness that I will say goodbye to another summer at Amherst Shore.  How does the summer fly by so quickly?  A question for the ages.  As I mowed the lawns at the cottages this afternoon I noted how much I prefer September mowing to June mowing.  In June the ground is soft and sometimes muddy.  The grass is new and wet which means it clumps up and looks almost worse after it gets mowed than before.  Today the grass was dry and blew away as soon as it shot out of the mower.  The ground was firm and I left no ruts with the wheels as I sped along!  It made me think how many other things are almost better later in the summer and if only we could all be here together to enjoy them.  No mosquitoes, no black flies, mass quantities of produce in our garden and plenty of time to enjoy everything.  Oh wait, I guess if everyone was here now, I would not have all this time...never mind.  I do miss them though.

Today was special in many ways. Aside from mowing!  The amazing blue skies have given me a new passion for my camera.  I have taken to driving around and finding old barns to take pictures of and hidden treasures along the roads.  This place is full of them, they are around every turn in the road.  Today was no different.  TJ sent me up a road he cycles regularly and I did find a few treasures.

The sky is so big here!

Maybe a few repairs are needed...

Risked getting hit by a dump truck for this one...
worth it!

After the walk, the drive, and lunch I went over to my parent's cottage.  My parents are here, by the grace of God, for another summer.  None of us thought they would make the trip this year, but they are very determined!  There is something about this place that makes all of us do crazy things.  We will get here come hell or high water.  They are in their last week here and Dad needed a haircut.  I was called to duty.  Now I am no professional, not even close, but for some reason they trust me to cut Dad's hair..and beard.  Maybe decision making is one of the first things to go when you get older.  I am not sure how close you are or were to your father but cutting your Dad's hair and beard is an intimate experience, at least it is for me.  Tonight, after the fact, I sat and thought about it and remembered that 9 year old Lisa wanted to be a hairdresser.  I wondered if those hours spent watching my mother get her hair done at the beauty school and teaching myself to cut hair was training me for this moment.  Today was the second time I have cut my father's hair in the last year and it has "gotten" to me both times.  Not sure how he feels about it all, but to me it is such a personal and intimate experience.  One I am sure I will treasure forever.   Yeah, it was a good day.

TJ and I went out to dinner, a rare occasion up here.  I had my annual fried clam dinner with a coconut cream pie chaser.  More calories than I need in a week!  It was so worth it!  Ok, I'll go for a run tomorrow.  We delivered take-out to Mom and Dad and raced home in time to see an epic sunset.  I have my priorities.  The sunset went on forever!  It started at 7:45 and the sky was still pink at 9:30!  On the sunset scale this one was close to a 10!  I really should make a sunset rating scale.. how long did it last, color, cloud quality, variety of colors, how much of the sky lit up, etc.  We sat and watched  until we were both too chilly and had to go in for warmer clothes.  I pinch myself when this happens...in September!  Never in my real life would I need warmer clothes in September or witness such a beautiful sky!

Panoramic sunset!

As if the whole day wasn't perfect enough, the whipped cream on top of the coconut cream pie was the bonfire to finish the night.  My husband loves bonfires.  I like them if the conditions are perfect. Meaning, the wind is not blowing the smoke into my face, there are no mosquitoes, it is cool enough to warrant a fire, I am in the right mood, I did not just wash my hair, I have no big plans tomorrow, and I just watched the perfect sunset.  OK, so maybe I am a little picky about bonfires.  Anyway, we had a good one tonight!  Icing on the cake, whipped cream on the pie.

Snap, crackle and pop!

The point of this is, it will all be over in a little more than a week.  The fresh air, the cerulean blue skies, the walks on the sandbars, the photo ops around every corner, the beautiful sunsets, my parents being here for what may be their last time, Thursday night bonfires, riding around on a lawnmower for hours, spending time with friends and family EVERY day, hearing the quiet, appreciating simplicity, walking or running along the shore road in the "air-conditioning", filling the vases in my house with colorful fresh flowers every week, sitting in my sun room any time of day, being able to go out the back door and harvest deliciously fresh produce out of the garden, and so many other things that make this place the most special place in my world.  So, it is with mixed emotions I was able to enjoy one of the (many) best days of the summer.