Berlin May 10

Famous Brandenburg Gate with the Goddess of Liberty

Before we left home, we heard that there was a German Rail Strike and we wondered if we would be able to use our EuroRail passes to get from Amsterdam to Berlin  It took a few advance trips to the train station ticket office to learn that there would be just a few trains running.  We were then booked to Cologne (a longer slower train) and all seemed to be going well.  Suddenly, a few stops before Cologne there was an announcement that we would have to disembark quickly and grab a local train to Dusseldorf where we could then connect to Berlin!  We quickly gathered our bags and scurried down 2 flights of stairs barely making the train.  In Dusseldorf we found our train and took the last 2 seats remaining (they were supposed to be reserved).  At any rate, we finally arrived in Berlin a few hours late and no worse for the wear.



Old American Checkpoint Charlie Sign

The next day dawned and we chose a "Hop on - Hop off" bus tour so that we could become familiar with this lovely city.  There is lots of construction going on. Of course, it was rebuilt after WWII - not to mention after The Wall came down in 1989, the East was reunified into the city. The Brandenburg Gate was designed as an Arch of Peace and is the former border of East and West.  While there, we happened upon an Israeli concert.  I spoke to one of the young men in the crowd. He told me that he and his friends became aware that their ancestors worked for the Gestapo.  To make amends, they were supporting and helping with this concert. 

Check out some of the other pics below.




Reichstag, German Parliament Building



An interesting bike!

 


Old and new buildings along Spree Riverfront

Little Green Man Traffic Sign



More Photos

 

Zuiderzee Museum - May 8

We took a train one hour north of Amsterdam to see the beautiful Dutch countryside.  Enkhuizen has a lovely open-air folk museum with preserved historic buildings manned by people who do a convincing job of role-playing the old villagers.  They were smoking herring, which many of the tourists were eating - a bargain at 2 euros each!  We opted for a Dutch hamburger... 

We learned about The Zuiderzee, a wild bit of water, that was diked off from the Atlantic in 1932. Some of the sea bottom has been reclaimed; the rest is now a large freshwater lake called the Ijsselmeer   The Zuiderzee Museum preserves the culture of the people who once made a living on the Zuidersee.

We were partly inspired to choose this  trip for our third and final day in the Netherlands by the song, The Dutchman, that was sung by Jerry Jeff Walker (one of our favorite Texas singers) - see below for the lyrics.




The Dutchman 

A Dutchman at the Museum

written in 1968 by Michael Peter Smith* 

The Dutchman's not the kind of man
To keep his thumb jammed in the dam
That holds his dreams in
But that's a secret only Margaret knows
When Amsterdam is golden in the morning
Margaret brings him breakfast
She believes him
He thinks the tulips bloom beneath the snow
He's mad as he can be but Margaret only sees that sometimes
Sometimes she sees her unborn children in his eyes 

Let us go to the banks of the ocean
Where the walls rise above the Zuider Zee
Long ago I used to be a young man
And dear Margaret remembers that for me

The Dutchman still wears wooden shoes
His cap and coat are patched with love
That Margaret sewed in
Sometimes he thinks he's still in Rotterdam
He watches tugboats down canals
And calls out to them when he thinks he knows the captain
'Til Margaret comes to take him home again
Through unforgiving streets that trip him
Though she holds his arm
Sometimes he thinks that he's alone and calls her name
 
Let us go to the banks of the ocean
Where the walls rise above the Zuider Zee
Long ago I used to be a young man
And dear Margaret remembers that for me

The Dutchman still wears wooden shoes
His cap and coat are patched with love
That Margaret sewed in
Sometimes he thinks he's still in Rotterdam
He watches tugboats down canals
And calls out to them when he thinks he knows the captain
'Til Margaret comes to take him home again
Through unforgiving streets that trip him
Though she holds his arm
Sometimes he thinks that he's alone and calls her name


The writer of the song, Smith, had never visited the Netherlands!  But it is a haunting love song.


We enjoyed seeing some gorgeous sailboats on a beautiful sunny day.  For more pictures, click on Photos

Tulipmania on Our 21st Anniversay

Enjoying the tulips on our 21st Anniversary

Twenty-one years ago today I married a wonderful guy - my dear Richard!  Today we are in the Netherlands and rode bikes through the gorgeous tulip fields and toured Keukenhof, the most beautiful spring garden in the world.  It was a great way to celebrate our wonderful lives together and we are both grateful for each other.

We also found a few hours to tour the Rijksmuseum, which was full of masterpieces by Rembrant and other famous artists.  We finished the day off with a wonderful dinner at Pompas.  Check out all the pictures by double clicking
Photos .

Amsterdam - May 6

Hotel Fita Amsterdam - We arrived on schedule, actually a few minutes early, at the Schipol Airport, breezed through passport control and customs, had our railpass validated and caught Bus 197 for 5 euros each.  Our stop was just about two blocks from Hotel Fita, #37 Jan Luijkenstraat.

We walked past #36 and #38, no #37 in between!  Number 37 is about a block and half down the street. One wouldn't want to try locating by street number in Amsterdam! I had a Google Map with the hotel location marked so this wasn't really a problem.

Our rooms were ready although we buzzed the door a little after 9 AM.  An elevator just big enough for two skinny Americans and nothing more delivered  us to our 4th floor room - very nice with a view of a roof garden across the street. 

We rested a bit and walked over to Museumplein and the Van Gogh Museum.  The line for the museum was a block long but I had purchased e-tickets for 12 PM on-line. We walked in at 11 AM.

For dinner, we walked to a restaurant on the edge of Vondelpark just a few blocks away from the hotel.  West wind blow at least a chilly 25 kts.   Lots of tulips in bloom.


Photos

Visitors from Perth Australia

Last November 2014 we visited Perth, Australia with the Friendship Force, a wonderful travel exchange group.  We were surprised that our Perth friends, Linda and Colin, visited us last week.  What a journey - they had to fly Perth to Sydney, Australia then to Los Angeles, onto Dallas, finally arriving in Ft Myers. 



On an airboat ride in the Everglades

We had a wonderful time visiting ECHO, the Everglades, and Boca Grande. We threw a welcome party here so that they could meet members of our Southwest Florida Chapter.   Linda and Colin are now visiting Friendship Force clubs in the heartland - they are in Oklahoma City.  We are so glad they came here and hope we can meet up with them again on another Friendship Force Exchange. We were so happy to connect with them!

Catching Up on Punta Gorda Life

Mom wearing her Easter Bonnet

Easter Sunday at Sacred Heart - We arrived 40 minutes early to find almost every seat taken. Worshipers continued to flow in lining the walls and spilling out into the vestibule. Father Jerry began by asking all the children to make room for adults by coming forward to sit on the steps of the sanctuary. Eventually children moved to the back of the sanctuary and adults sat on the steps. Three chairs sit on the sanctuary. Father Jerry selected one parishioner to sit with the Deacon and himself.  Still people stood all along the walls and spilled out into the vestibule.

Oddly enough Father Jerry placed a gift bag on the alter before beginning the service.  He is a creative individual but we had never seen a gift bag on the alter before.  Following  a one minute homily, Father Jerry picked up the gift bag and turned to the children.  He told them, "Someone gave me an Easter Egg but I didn't open it. Do you know what happened?  It hatched into a chicken!"  

For a second I thought a live chick would pop out of the bag, but Father Jerry pulled out a big fluffy yellow chicken and placed on the alter!.  Then he said, "The chicken told me something; do you know what it said?"  With that and a push of a  chicken switch, the chicken began to dance singing, "If your happy and you know it, clap your hands."  We all joined in singing this amazing Easter message.  

After mass we took Miss Marie to the Isles Yacht Club for lunch. 

Our Pedal & Play Rest Stop Team pose for a picture

Pedal and Play  Richard volunteered to run a rest stop for the Pedal and Play charity event here in Punta Gorda.  Steve Johnson, the event organizer, asked me to make the rest stop "fun."  What?   I decided to play off the "Who Put the Hit on Ponce de Leon" mystery ride.  Click on the link below to read all about it. 
I made up labels for water bottles reading:

Fountain of Youth 

 Spring Water

Bottled in Punta Gorda by PnP

A Juan Ponce de Leon Discovery

Since 1521

            

Photos       Story

 

Joanne celebrating her birthday on cruise

Cruise North  We joined Bob and Jackie Whitaker for a cruise north to Sarasota passing through the  Boca Grande Swash Channel coming and going and Big Pass coming back.  We stayed at the Field Club for two nights where we celebrated Joanne's birthday. Constance and Bill drove up to join the Whitakers and us for a birthday dinner.  Also, we stayed at the Venice, Bird Key and Sarasota Yacht Clubs. We anchored for the night on the way up and the way back along the ICW off Cayo Costa. 

Out on the Gulf with a light wind we sailed smartly along with our new Flexfold prop creating less drag than our old fixed blade prop. We were quite pleased.     

Glow worms in the Keys

Glow worm circular mating dance

We were intrigued when we heard about a unique event at one of the Isles Yacht Club's cruiser meetings - kayaking to view Glow Worms in the Keys!   What ? ?
From shallow and grassy bottoms on the bay side of Islamorada arise glow worms that put on a light spectacle.  This happens like clockwork 40 minutes after sunset 2 or 3 days after a full moon. 

Some of our friends cruised to the Keys in their boats and others, like us, drove down.  After a lovely early dinner, we drove over to Islamorada Marina to launch our kayaks.  We paddled a few hundred yards to the grassy flats and waited patiently. 

Suddenly all around us, female worms about 1/2 inch long rose to the surface glowing a neon green in the dark water. We watched as bright green dots, the males, zoomed straight toward the females.  Some females attracted multiple males. Each female released an iridescent plume of eggs as she and her male cohort(s) spun round and round.   It it is truly amazing! The action ended in about 20 minutes.  Following the glow worm show, we paddled through mangrove tunnels. In open water, brilliant stars filled the sky above us.   What a fun evening for all.  Check out some of the paddlers!