Members of Sue’s ancestral family came to America in the
1870’s from a small village in SW Germany, Waldfischbach.
Castle at Landshut
Twenty years ago, her brother, John, found
the village and re-united with cousins who hadn’t heard from anyone from
America since after WWII.
They were
delighted to find American cousins, and we were delighted to find them.
Since then we have visited back and forth and
gotten to know one another well.Returning is like a wonderful homecoming.
View from the castle
One part of the family lives in Munich, and that was our first
stop.Ilsa and Manfred Roschy have two
children, Sabina (married to Korbinian) and Helmut (maried to Reiko) and four delightful grand children, Valentin,
Miriam/”Mimi”, Anna and Karolina.
Tallest all brick steeple in the world in Landshut
They
are Bavarians and very proud of it. Manfred and Ilsa are extraordinarily kind and attentive hosts.
Ilsa, no matter what the time, how many hours we have ridden around sight seeing, or how tired she or we might be, always manages to serve delicious and nutritious meals.
German breakfasts are always good and hearty, but Ilsa's, with its varieties of breads, jams, and cold cuts, are a wonderful way to start the day.
Manfred delights in showing us the beautiful, green countryside and sharing some of Bavarian's hidden treasures,
and this trip was no exception.
John, Manfred and Sue
Bad Toelz
We were
taken to an old castle in the medieval town of Landshut, to several typically
Bavarian restaurants, on a driving tour that included a beautiful lake
(Tagernsee), and to a picturesque village (Bad Toelz) that hasn’t seemed to
change much as time moves on. (Apologies for mangling the German place names.)
Town Hall
Bavaria is so prosperous these days and the cities, like Munich, are studded with modern architectural marvels, but the Bavarians also take great pride in their land and history. Visiting many of the villages and towns is like walking back in history, hundreds and hundreds of years.
Garden near Lake Tagernsee
In the company of all the family we had such a good
time. Our last day with them coincided with Father's day in Germany, so the entire family gathered at yet another wonderful Bavarian restaurant, along with some two or three hundred other Bavarians, many in traditional dress. The schnitzel, wurst, kertoffle, salad, beef and pork dishes were all sumptuously good.
The lake from "artist's corner"
In the course of the three hour meal, we got to visit quite a bit and to get to know these German cousins just a little bit better, and what a treat. We are not the best of correspondents, so having the time to catch up and really visit was lots of fun.
Sue, who really delights in being with young children, made a contract with Valentin
(9 years old) to come back in two years when he promised to speak English to her.
The Bavarian Roschys with Reiko holding the important contract
Sue’s side of the contract was promising to
listen.Kind of one-sided, but Valentin
loved it. We definitely plan on returning.
Coming back to Andalusia (Southern Spain) after forty years was somewhat of a shock. Many things have certainly changed. The region and people are more prosperous, but still not as prosperous as their fellow Spaniards in Barcelona and Madrid.
First impressions made when arriving at a new up to date airport or riding on a modern, sleek highways make you think that it is just like the rest of Spain or Europe; the sense of the old Andalusia, however, does return, once you spend just a little time there.
Andalusia is a place unto itself--almost timeless--and the people are quite different from their fellow countrymen.
For one thing, they are much more aloof and distrustful of others and a little less quick to warm up to visitors than their Spanish cousins--something we experienced 40 years ago, and something that doesn't seem to have changed too much in that time. Just underneath the veneer of modernity, their Islam influenced history is very evident.
One reason for returning to Andalusia was that we wanted to make sure that John and Bonnie got to see La Alhambra: the 13th century Moorish Palace in Granada. While we were in Barcelona we learned that you needed to get tickets ahead of time as it is one of the most visited sites in all of Spain.
We finally procured tickets for Saturday morning at 10:00 which would be cutting things a little close as we were not scheduled to land at the Granada airport until just before 9:00.
Fortunately, the plane actually landed a few minutes early, and while the others waited for the luggage, I (Larry) hurried out to the car rental counter to procure the car. It is a small airport, so the counter is right outside of baggage claim.
The young woman at the desk was charming and helpful, and spoke really good English. She recommended full coverage and renting a GPS, both of which I opted for--big mistake! (The car that was originally to cost us less than 200 euros ended up costing more than 600 for three days--but that's another story!)
She handed me the keys and the obviously outmoded GPS, and told me that the Nissan Juke was in lane number 15; walking out to the lot, I thought that a Juke was not going to be big enough for the four of us and our six pieces of luggage and assorted other bags. Well, it wasn't, but as the time was now 9:30, we decided that we needed to get to the Alhambra rather than argue about the car.
With the location already keyed into the GPS, we actually managed to make it there just before 10:00 o'clock--only to find the entrance swarmed with hundreds of folks waiting to get in, but we had no idea which group was ours.
Frantically scrambling from one group to another, we were finally directed to the Welcome Center. Thanks to technology (we'd bought the tickets online), they were able to locate our group and send us back to the meting place. Apparently there are so many people wanting to see the place that the authorities have restricted the entrances to three times a day: 10:00; 2:00 and 6:00.
Very few individual tickets are sold and almost everyone has to tour the site with a group. You are introduced to your tour guide and given a little radio transponder with earplugs which enables you to hear your guide without their having to compete shouting with all of the other groups. And there are a lot of other groups.
Our memories of touring La Alhambra, 40 years ago, are of walking around a nearly deserted, somewhat neglected, 13th century Moorish complex. We remember marveling at the gardens and some of the beautiful courtyards, but most of all, feeling that we had the place to ourselves with all the time we wanted to spend there.
Not so today. There must have been 500 or more people touring the complex at the same time as us--each in a group of 30 or so people.
The Alhambra is a huge place, and our tour lasted more than two and one half hours, much of which we felt like we were on a forced march. It was almost impossible to see the interiors of some of the buildings because of the crowds, and there was no time to linger at a beautiful view or contemplate the many years of history that the place holds.
At the end of our tour, we were all exhausted and disappointed. We could never recommend the experience, even if the Alhambra is one of the marvels of the history as their publicity claims. Like so many places we have visited--the Vatican, Trevi Fountain, or Cinque Terre, there are just too, too many tourists!
Our own version of Family Vacation
Tour over and it was time to squeeze back in the car; literally squeeze--John and Bonnie were in the backseat with three pieces of luggage stacked up between them. We keyed in the address to the apartment and merrily set out for our lodgings.
Twenty minutes later, after wending our way through the very narrow streets old Granda, we found ourselves stuck between two buildings on what our GPS claimed was the street leading to our apartment.
Just in the nick of time, a local woman stopped us and told us, what should have been obvious, that this really wasn't a street and if we went any further, we would end up driving down some very steep stairs just meters ahead.
Granada, from a hill above our apartment
Frustrated and cursing our out of date GPS, we called our landlady, got other landmarks and started out once more; but again, within 15 minutes, we were totally lost and obviously in the wrong part of town.
Finally, after a couple more calls, she suggested we stop a taxi and ask them to lead us to the place. That strategy worked--we would have never found the place otherwise, because the street really isn't a street, but a "cuesta" or staired lane that is impossible to drive on.
Once in the apartment, we found it to be reasonably comfortable, although the WIFI never worked very effectively and the showers had limited hot water and leaked all over the bathroom floor. Those caveats aside, it was very centrally located just off Elvira street, so touring Granada was fairly easy. Having a great little vegetarian restaurant just next door, Paprika, made it even better.
We enjoyed exploring some of the steep streets just behind our apartment and seeing some of the old, old neighborhoods with many of the houses and structures dating from the 13th to 16th centuries. Still, our most lasting impression of Granda is that it seems pretty seedy and run down.
Andalusian countryside
So we were happy to leave Granda after our two nights stay. We had parked the car and not used it while we were in Granada, but once we reloaded and realized once again just how crowded it was, we decided to drive back to the airport and plead our case for a bigger one.
Surprisingly, the car rental people were very understanding, and we ended up in a BMW SUV with a built-in GPS, so our ride to Cordoba and then on to Sevilla seemed like luxury!
Riding across Andalusia, it looks and feels like the US southwest or northern Mexico. It's very dry and punctuated with dramatic mesas and hills. No wonder the Spanish conquistadors felt like home. Mostly rural, there is lots of agricultural development, but you can go miles without seeing a town or other settlement.
Cordoba provided a pleasant half day interlude. The 13th-century La Mesquita, originally built as a Muslim mosque but converted to a Christian cathedral after the conquest, is well worth seeing.
There were quite a few tourists, but nothing like the mobs we had encountered in Granda--and there are moments when you are alone in one section or another and you could actually get a sense of the history and grandeur of the setting.
A Catholic cathedral was plunked down in the middle of it, sometime in the 14th century, but fortuitously much of the old structure was left untouched. We spent more than an hour ambling through the entire complex.
After a pleasant lunch, we returned to the car and completed our drive to Sevilla without incident. This time the GPS got us to our apartment, although the streets in the old quarter of town do seem to get progressively more narrow as you wend your way in, and the GPS had not wanted to take us to our apartment numbered 3--it turns out that's because the street becomes a pedestrian way in front of our building. But we made it without dealing with the maddening detours and dead ends of Granada.
Alcazar de Sevilla
Our AirBnB apartment in Sevilla was one of our most disappointing on this trip, if not ever. Although conveniently located and close to lots of the historic sights, it was not very clean and many of the appliances were not in good working order. Still we did enjoy our stay; there is much to see and do in the city, and two days were not nearly enough.
The Sevilla Cathedral was huge and quite interesting, with many treasures and fine works of art, including Christopher Columbus's tomb. We also enjoyed visiting the Alcazar, finding it more rewarding than the Alhambra. Many of the rooms are almost as old and quite as lovely as any that we saw at the Alhambra, and there were lots fewer tourists, so the experience could be savored and enjoyed much more thoroughly.
We enjoyed walking the streets, sampling the foods, and like Barcelona, there were quite a few street musicians and entertainers. Among the most interesting were two young Flamenco dancers whom we discovered on our last evening in the town, providing a lovely final impression.
We were last in Spain in the spring and summer of 1975, nearly 40 years ago. We and Spain have changed considerably. Spain was still under the iron rule of Generalissimo Franco, and the European Union was a Utopian dream.
For much of our 1975 trip we managed to stay within our $100 a week budget; this time around we are struggling to manage on a $200 a day budget. We were so naive in 1975; so young and foolish that we were up for almost anything. Now, we are old, out of shape, and avoid too much excitement. We can no longer claim naivete, but we certainly remain pretty gullible.
Sister and Brothe
Frank Gerhry's big fish at seaside in Barcelona
One of our goals in '75 was to learn to speak Spanish--we are still working on that; most of the time we can understand and be understood, if we stick to the present tense.
Barcelona, the first stop on our new Spanish tour, is, however, the capital of Catalonia--and the Catalan people are fiercely proud of their history and language. So although everyone speaks Spanish, you are more likely to hear Catalan in the streets of Barcelona and most of the signs are in Catalan. Still we were able to practice our Spanish quite a bit with our first test being our rapid fire talking landlady. She was full of information, suggestions, and helpful hints so it was a good to understand her.
In May 1975, Barcelona was our next to last stop, and we were running out of time on our Eurail Pass, so we only had eight hours to see all of its sights and attractions. We remember very little of our visit except walking along the sea side and looking for a restaurant where we could afford the paella. There were few high rise buildings and the people seemed a lot less prosperous than they are today, despite Europe's economic malaise.
Gaudi's Sagrada Familia
We are so glad that we now have had the opportunity to revisit Barcelona--what a wonderfully beautiful and vibrant city.
Barcelona seems to us, more than anything, to be a city of incredibly beautiful buildings and architectural wonders. Everywhere you turn there are interesting buildings, both new and old.
Barcelona's most famous hometown architect is Antoni Gaudi. We didn't have the time or energy (remember the part about being older) to see all of his more famous and well known endeavors, but we were able to see both the lovely and inspiring Sagrada Familia Cathedral and the Park Guell: both well worth the visit.
Columns shaped like trees
Facade sculptures
The Sagrada Familia is truly awe inspiring and marvelous to behold, and we were able to spend an afternoon exploring its beauty. Although Gaudi died more than 90 years ago, the Neo-Gothic Cathedral is still under construction. He devoted the last years of his life to this building, living by himself in a small cottage workshop on the building site.
Plants atop columns in Park Guell
Sue and Bonnie on our bus tour
View from the Park
Park Guell, which started life as a planned housing development, provides an opportunity to walk through a lovely park-like, but urban setting and to admire Gaudi's building genius. On the day of our visit to the park, the sky was a clear blue and the sun was delightfully warm, although overall the weather during our Barcelona visit was surprisingly cool.
Art Gallery atop Montjuic
On our second day in the city we took a city tour on a double decker bus with an open air top deck. We opted to stay on the upper deck so we could see more, but were chilled to the bone after our two hour ride.
Still it was the best way to take in this huge city and its many different neighborhoods with their interesting buildings and historic sights, like the beautiful national art gallery that sits atop Montjuic, one of the city's two small mountains.
In addition to housing Catalonia's artistic heritage, the museum's front steps provide a lovely view of the city of nearly two million people spread out before you. It was not hard to relax, listen to some of the best street musicians around, buy a beer or two from one of the illegal street vendors, and watch the sun slowly set.
Market fare
Barcelona, like so many other major European cities, prides itself on its culinary heritage and the food you can find in its markets and restaurants. In our few days there we were unable to really take advantage of all that the city has to offer.
Meat vendor
A walk in the city's "Mercat St Josep La Boqueria,"however, gave us some glimpse into what gustatory delights await a return visit. The crowded, often raucus market was filled with incredible sights and sounds
Dried beans and other dried foods
One restaurant, Mussol, we discovered on our first day and went back three times because we liked the ambience, food and service so much.
Mike, Larry, Sue and Dona at Mussol
We ate great gazpacho, good grilled meats and vegetables, and our favorite, "Pan con Tomate", grilled bread (which was described as Catalonia "caca" bread) on which a tomato spread was applied very lightly.
It was served with a whipped garlic and olive oil paste that was finger licking good. Discovering that our nice little neighborhood diner was part of a Catalan chain didn't spoil our enjoyment of the restaurant. We even invited some friends, Dona and Mike Morgan, whom we had met on the Cruise to join us for drinks and Pan con Tomate.
Woman With Bird
Speaking of our neighborhood, our AirBnB apartment was one of the nicest we have rented. It had two very comfortable bedrooms, two baths, a well appointed kitchen and a delightful patio.
It was a short distance to the metro and easy walking distance to shopping and other amenities. One of the neighborhood landmarks is a 35' sculpture of "Woman with Bird" after a work by one of Barcelona's native sons, Joan Miro. One of the extra added treats was that we could walk through a park and past an elementary school where we were often greeted by playing children.
You can see from the photos that Barcelona, like Spain and many other parts of Europe, is home to people originally from many other parts of the world. We really loved our time in the Catalan Capital, and we hope to come back for a longer, more leisurely visit.
Count us among the Converted. We had sometimes disparaged cruising-- but our 16 day repositioning trip across the Atlantic has totally changed our minds. A repositioning cruise is when the cruise line moves its ship from one area to another--usually with the change of seasons. This one aboard the Royal Caribbean's Serenade of the Seas started in New Orleans and ended in Barcelona, Spain.
Our ship, dwarfed by a 220,000 ton behemoth
With only four ports of call: St Martin, Tenerife, Malaga and Cartagena; it meant that we had 11days of relaxing and invigorating days at sea. If you watch your onboard spending, not always the easiest thing to do, we think it is just as economical to travel this way as to fly and it is certainly a lot more enjoyable.
Towel Creature
We were joined by Sue's brother John and his wife Bonnie, and we were pampered and coddled, overfed and entertained the entire time. There were about 2000 passengers and some 800 crew. The ship was in nearly pristine condition, as a result of the very hard working crew.
Sue a poolside
Someone was always varnishing, cleaning or painting on the decks; room stewards visited your room at least twice a day, including re-making your bed with clean sheets every night and leaving you a "towel animal" for your delight.
The food was plentiful, readily available at all hours of the day and night, and surprisingly delicious, given the fact that they make some 14,000 meals a day.
John & Bonnie with Urzula
Breakfast and lunch we usually ate in the Windjammer Lounge, a buffet cornucopia with a open-air seating on the rear of the boat, but we chose to be served dinner every night. Every dinner included three courses--appetizer, entree and dessert served by a delightful team of two young women, Ana Maria and Urzula, who were from Peru and Chile respectively. Like the rest of the crew, they sign on for an eight month contract, and from what we were able to gather, work every day of that contract, although when the ship is docked, they sometimes are released for a few hours on shore.
Once their contract is finished, they have 10 weeks of paid home leave. Many of the crew have worked five, ten or 15 or more contracts. Ana Maria has a three year old daughter, who stays with her mother in Peru--that must be incredibly hard. Urzula's husband, Christian is also a waiter on the ship and we got to meet him as well.
Besides being fed like kings, the crew does its best to make sure that every hour of the day is full of excitement and diversion--bands and combos play at various venues throughout the ship; bingo and trivia games as well as language classes and self-improvement lectures are offered every day. Each night, a song and dance review or variety act is performed in the 1000 person theatre. Many of the acts were outstanding and rival what you might see in Vegas or some other resort.
White People in the Tropics
When the ship docks at one of the ports of call, you can elect to take one of their extra cost excursions or explore the port on your own. At our first, we chose a sailing and snorkeling junket that was great fun and provided a view of the St Martin we probably wouldn't have found on our own.
Larry & Pablo Picasso
Although the snorkeling was kind of ordinary, it did give us another opportunity to realize once again how much we liked it. The sailing trip around the island on the large catamaran was really extraordinary and exciting. The water was crystalline blue and the sand on the beaches was as soft as confectioner's sugar.
The ship excursions in Tenerife and Malaga were more disappointing, so when we got to Cartagena we chose to entertain ourselves with a visit to a restored 12th century castle that provided great vistas of the town and harbor.
In Cartagena
One of the best surprises about the trip was how much we enjoyed our fellow passengers. Sitting down at a bar or waiting for a lecture or game to start, you invariably would get involved in a conversation with your neighbors. Almost all of them seemed to have interesting stories to tell, but they were also interested in our story as well. Of course, many of them are veteran cruisers and are delighted to provide tips on traveling and booking. Like with the airlines, no one seems to pay the same price. We now know that you need to research the best deals, shop and compare, or work with a travel agent.
Many cruises, like the ones in the Caribbean and Mediterranean involve stops at a port every night. Based on our experience in this cruise, we don't think that would like that, but we really, really liked the days at sea--looking out on the blue, blue waters surrounding you on all sides, feeling the wind, and marveling at the great big sky overhead.
Sitting on the deck, reading a book or more likely nodding off in a nap, was idyllic and made us realize how fortunate we are that we have the time and resources to be able to do something like a 17 day cruise across the Atlantic. As you can tell it looks like we are hooked and cruising may well be in our future plans--the 21 day trip across the Pacific is really tempting.
Charlie in Audubon Park, New Orleans
Our only regret with the cruise and with our planned three month stay in Europe is knowing how much we will miss Charlie and his family--we know he already has changed and learned lots of new things since we last saw him nearly a month ago.
Charlie and his Mom and Dad, AKA Bryn and Grant, traveled to New Orleans for Jazz Fest 2014 and a visit with the ever-welcoming Simpson Family. We are told that he liked the music and especially his special day with Auntie Lois.
It has been a while since we last posted. We have been in Denver since just before Christmas, but our sojourn this time is just about over--we leave for our Transatlantic Cruise and European Adventure on April 19th.
Test driving his big wheel
But we will be back! We have decided to make Denver our semi-permanent home. We plan to keep traveling, but we know we will always be coming back to Denver as our home base. To make it easier to do that, we decided to buy a place in Brooks Towers, a high-rise condo building in the heart of downtown Denver.
We have stayed in the building several times during our frequent visits and have found it the ideal location. Just a block from the great Denver theater and performing arts center and an easy bus ride to Bryn & Grant's house in the the Highlands neighborhood. In the good weather--which is often the case here in Denver, even in the middle of winter, we can walk along the Cherry Creek walking trail or window shop on the 16th Street Pedestrian Mall
Charlie & his two Grandmas
We are also beginning to explore more of the environs. Recently, Shirley Llafet--Grant's mom and Bryn mother in law, introduced us to Boulder. Just a 45 minute auto ride away, Boulder has lots of fun places to shop and eat.
The Pearl Street Mall is a great place to take a toddler like Charlie--lots of little pocket parks and plenty of other little ones to play and interact with. Charlie really like climbing on the beaver sculpture. We enjoyed our visit to Boulder so much that we took our friend Belinda Acre there when she visited with us for a few days.
Belinda & the Big Blue Bear
You guess? Giant's feet?
Among our favorite attractions in downtown Denver is the big blue bear standing in front of the Convention Center. We really love showing visitors around the area.
Although Denver is not as old as some of the eastern cities, there is still a lot of history-- and local landmarks make for fun tours and interesting city walks.
So what else have we been doing? Larry recently was a guest of Greg Llafet (Grant's Dad), along with Grant and family friend, Dave Wall, at a nearby pheasant hunting ranch.
The last time Larry shot a firearm was when he was in the Army (1972), but he surprised himself and avoided embarrassment by bagging one bird sitting in a tree, just waiting to be shot.
He was not sure what the experience was going to be like, but it was fantastic--walking in the Colorado countryside and the companionship and camaraderie were terrific. All of us had a great time--and it was a wonderful gift on Greg's part--so much so that all of us have signed on for a return visit next fall! Is an NRA membership in the future?
Charlie & Delilah
But, of course, the best part of being in Denver is being with Charlie and watching him grow and develop. He continues to enjoy his daycare experience, but he's also up for any outings that Oma and Opa might come up with. A couple of weeks ago, we invited his BFF, Delilah, to join us for a visit to the Denver Art Museum.
The museum is a great child-friendly locale. It can easily provide entertainment and interest for children and grandparents for several hours at a time--truth to tell, more fun and entertainment than we find at the local children's museum. Charlie loved showing the museum and its exhibits to his friend.
Denver also has a superb Zoo--just last Saturday, on a bright, early spring day, Charlie, his Dad, Grant, and Oma and Opa visited it. Again, the zoo does a great job of making the experience one that is safe and child-friendly.
Charlie particularly liked the gibbons, who have a great open air aerial walkway over the elephants, rhinos, and hippos' compound.
As we said, being with Charlie and his mom and dad make our time in Denver so very special. We know that we will miss them when we hit the road again, but we are looking forward to our upcoming travels.
If you are wondering, here is our planned itinerary:
April 19: Leave Denver for a visit with Larry's mom and siblings in north Georgia
April 23: New Orleans--visit with friends, Lois & Martin Simpson
April 26: Leave New Orleans for a 17 day "Repositioning Cruise" to Barcelona, Spain
May 12: Arrive in Barcelona; we will then be two weeks traveling to Granda, Seville and Madrid with Sue's brother and sister in law, John and Bonnie Roschy
May 24: 10 days in Germany visiting with the German Roschys (Sue's ancestral relatives)
June & July: Mostly in Italy--Tuscany and the Veneto, with a side trip to Istanbul to see Erin
We will return to Denver in August--where we are sure Charlie will be so big and grown up we won't recognize him!
