Magnificent Mosaics

Our trip to Aachen was cold and miserable.  It was challenging to stay warm, my fingers cramped up all the time.   At least we found a mall where we could have coffee at McDonald's, and where we saw this big guy.  We had a lot of fun taking pictures with him.

Later though we walked into a church to get warm.  It was one of the best finds of the trip.  We found ourselves in the Palantine Chapel of the Aachen cathedral.  There are double arches in this area, and a high domed octagonal ceiling.  Every single surface is covered with beautiful mosaic work.  The subtleties in colour and in style were nothing short of incredible, and I could only imagine how long it had taken hundreds of workmen to find or make the tiles and craft the mosaics.  The dome itself has Christ on the throne, surrounded by 24 elders of the apocalypse.

We stayed here much longer than we needed for warmth. We stayed for the imagining of who may have designed the panels, and for appreciating the hours that went into crafting them around 1870-73.

Sometimes the best finds are those you stumble onto--and I'm so glad it was a cold and miserable day so we did.

The Grey Bus

One evening while we were walking to our hotel after having a wonderful dinner at Mongo's, we noticed a cement school bus sculpture.  We thought that it would be fun to take some silly pictures there, but after we read the sign for the bus, we couldn't imagine doing it anymore.

The Grey Bus is a monument to the mentally and physically handicapped people who were annihilated by the Nazis during WWII.  There is one bus that is permanently located in Ravensburg.  This photo is of the second one that travels the route to Grafeneck. Cologne is on that route, and the bus arrived here in 2011.

We returned to Canada on December 14th, the same Friday that so many children were killed in Newtown, Connecticut.  Pictures of the Grey Bus now will always remind me of this tragedy too.

Neither event will ever make sense to me.

Snow Day

We had the most delightful sight to look at each morning and evening out our window. We faced the Rhine river, and looked out towards the grand Cologne Cathedral and the Hohenzollem bridge.  It's a beautiful sight, and it was a pleasure to watch the trains cross the bridge, or the cruise ships and barges going underneath it.  There was a lone kayaker some days.  Even the night lighting added a bit of beauty to it. It lacked a little something on snow days though.  All four of these pictures were taken from our window.  What a difference a day made!

We were undaunted.  On this Saturday, we chose to leave the crowded city of Cologne, where no less than 15 river cruises had docked near the market.  We knew that it would be overrun with people, and well, we're not really the crowd-loving type.

The snow and the fog made for a magical morning as we rode the train.  The country itself is lovely, but there is just something about fog blanketed trees that speaks to me.   I love the mystery of it all.

We travelled to Koblenz, a city whose name means "at the merging of rivers".  Koblenz is situated at the point where the Mosel river (on the right) meets the Rhine river (on the left). The old part of the city was delightful, and it is where the market was held.  We walked on centuries-old cobblestone, drank glühwein with the locals, and peeked at some of the crafts for sale.

After that, we walked to the Kaiser Wilhelm memorial, a monstrous statue but a lovely lookout point.  We saw one of the river cruise boats navigate the turn, and it was quite interesting to see how they did it.  We walked to the point along the Rhine, and back again along the Mosel.

During the time we were there, this lovely gentleman played traditional Christmas carols for us on his accordion.  He was really quite good, and I appreciated his efforts very much.  What I especially loved was that he did it just for the joy of it, he wasn't accepting any donations at all.  Now, that's the Christmas spirit!

Love locks on the Hohenzollern

Hohenzollernbrücke is the train bridge that goes across the Rhine river.  From our hotel to the cathedral is roughly 1.5 km, and the entire bridge is covered by locks of all shapes and sizes  (though I did notice that there are many Abus aluminum locks, probably because they come in jewel-tone colours).  

Some of the locks were engraved with names and dates.  Others, like ours, were simple padlocks labeled with sharpie markers.  Almost everyone tried to do something that would make their lock stand out--I thought that adding a green ribbon to ours would make it more visible but apparently so did 2500 other people.    The strangest locks included an actual door panel riveted to the bridge frame, some large aluminum hearts chained to the fence, and some bicycle chains that were piggy-backed by all the locks attached to it. Someone even chained a small grinder to the bridge. 

We walked that bridge at least twice a day, and it never ceased to be interesting. We always saw couples adding a lock and tossing the keys into the river.  We saw people searching for a lock, older people leaning on each other reading the inscriptions, young people taking pictures.  I found myself wondering if anyone ever came to take a lock off the bridge if things didn't work out. 

There were far too many locks, in my opinion, that had Martin's name.  It's a real comfort though to know that only one matters.  It's on the hotel side of the bridge, right where the bank is, on the panel with the frog lock in the top right corner.  I don't know if I'll ever get back to Cologne, but I want to remember where to look. 

Cologne in December

We have been in Köln, Germany for a couple of days. It's been wet and cold and drizzly and rainy and sleety and damp and can't-quite-warm-up weather, but it's been fantastic. We have come mostly for the Christmas markets which we are enjoying. It's quite a culture, and it's all about being together, even though there is also a significant commercial aspect.

There are six markets here, of which I have seen four. Each market has its own character. There is one based around gnomes, another has an angel, the largest is based around the cathedral, and the fourth features Grimm's fairy tale characters. Many of the characters are placed on the roofs of the little Christmas villages. There is an ice rink in one, and all of them have carousels with horses and carriages.
It's a feast of smells too. Grilled bratwurst, currywurst and Weisswurst cozy up to the biggest vats of sauerkraut I have ever seen. People wait in lines for fresh potato pancakes and applesauce or for crepes and waffles, or mushrooms sautéed in butter, garlic and caraway. More people line up for souvenir mugs of glühwein, and each market has their own mug design. It is possible to take them home, or return them for a refund. There are spiced cookies, spice stalls and spiced nuts. Pretzels of all kinds are everywhere.

It"s a friendly atmosphere too, where the idea is to mingle and wish a happy Christmas to other revellers. Cozy on up to the table if you can find a spot, say hello, raise a toast and enjoy. There is quite a bit of Christmas music, some of it live. My favourite so far was the children's choir we heard on the first day. This morning the sun is warming the old cathedral with tinges of pink. It looks like the clouds are moving in again, so I must go.

As much as I like it here, I have had enough of being wet...but, at least I am learning how to order my coffee because of it.

Memory-making at the lake

A few weeks ago I visited one of my favourite people.  She and her husband live in a house by a lake, and my goodness, what a lovely place.  Every morning I would wrap myself up in several blankets and sit on their amazing sun porch just to witness the world waking up.  Morning light would ease its way in, painting the shadows with mauve and blue, tinges of rose.  The resident heron would call to the hawk, the hawk would echo back to the heron, a loon would add a comment or two and then someone made Arpeggio Boy get out of bed.  Once he started singing, everyone else did too and it was as magical as the cup of coffee that quietly appeared around the same time.  When the sun came up more, the fall colours decorated the lake edge.  It was easy to say that God lives there.

We took a little girl to the zoo, which is always a happy place for me.  They have a baby giraffe, and an important meerkat community.  We took the boat out on the lake, and it was a glorious day.  It was warm enough for turtle families to sun themselves on the logs.  I'd never seen that before.  The lake is full of heron, and my only regret is that I never got a great picture of them, but it wasn't for lack of trying and that is much of the fun.  We went as fast as we could, and it was a genuine delight for me.

We did other things too--we made pie and cookies, talked over oatmeal at the breakfast counter, and eventually I made friends with the dogs.  We had the best meals, things I don't have often so I appreciated them even more.  As lovely as all those things were however, the best was to sit together with mugs of Earl Grey in hand.  We talked, we laughed, we talked some more. Each pot of tea led to another, each story wove into the next.

This was a visit to celebrate friendship, to capture memory moments.  Thank you Nancy and Jim, for celebrating with me.  It was the loveliest time.

Home again

I went back to see my family last month, after too long away.  There were some beautiful moments--brunch with my mom, shopping for a coat with my dad. Breakfast with one brother, lunch with my sister.  I saw my youngest niece and realized again how beautiful she is.  She has changed so much since we last hung out, but it was a joy to have this time with her.  We talked about some serious stuff, cooked dinner together, went for a long walk. They were precious moments that came on the heels of some time to talk with my kid brother.  All rare things with me living several provinces away.

I enjoyed a zoo day with my niece, her daughter, and a very good friend.  The Edmonton zoo is tiny, but when you're six it's big enough for adventure.  What a blessing my grand-niece is.  She is a polite girl, full of joy coloured with a wee bit of mischief.  I am so proud of my niece who has chosen to put the happiness of her children above all else.  It hasn't been easy but she is making it work and because I see the kids so seldom, it is a joy to realize what a great job she is doing.

The rest of the visit included a few visits with friends--and sadly, there is never enough time to see them all.  I sat with a few new friends, listened to their stories, and thought again how blessed I am. I have people who love me on both sides of the country, and have made choices for a life that makes me happy.  I don't know why it is that it takes so long for us humans to sort that out.  I only know that it is such a gift when we do.

One of my favourite moments on the trip was after zoo day, when the four of us went out for noodles.  My grand-niece corrected us after a comical prayer and offered to show us how to do it properly.  After insisting that we close our eyes, she began with great solemnity.

"God", she said and then paused for a long time before continuing.  "Thank you for the world so sweet, thank you for the food we eat".

At this point, I was able to join in and help her finish with "Thank you for the birds that sing.  Thank you God, for everything".

What struck me most was that pause, that moment of making sure she was ready to have this conversation.  I imagined my grandmother beaming at it all.  And I promised myself to start paying attention like that in the future.