Wilting in Wien

Fourth day in Vienna.  Such a beautiful city, so much music and culture.  So hot, no air conditioning, and no ice cubes!!!!  Arg!!!!

First day in Vienna we took the students to "Barber of Seville" at the Statsoper.  Good experience, good singing, beautiful opera house, but limited view seats which was depressing.  The students did their final project in May on the Staatsoper so it was cool for them to see things first hand.  On Saturday we walked to many of the sights in the city center, and went to the Kunsthistorisches Museum- an art museum that features the art collection of the hapsburgs.  Yesterday the students went on a bike ride of th wachau valley and mom and I didn't go along.  We went to schonbrunn palace, st. Stephens cathedral, johann Strauss house museum, and I went to "Die Walkure" at the Staatsoper.  It was a wonderful 5 hour performance, and I'm considering traveling to Seattle to see their Ring in August.

Met a new friend, Margaret, who is 75 and traveling the world who lives in Seattle and loves Wagner. The idea for the trip came from her.

Today we looked at some Jugendstil architecture, ate at the Naschmarkt (pasta and Fanta for me, schnitzel for mom!), visited teh Brahms memorial in Karlsplatz, and ten had a wonderful tour of the Staatsoper with a great guide, Carmen.  The students had good questions and will add their new primary sources and photos to their spring semester research.

Came home and crashed and am trying not to melt.  No circulation in the room and so much noise you can't sleep if the window is open. Oy. Doing laundry in their one machine, and I got bit by a horse fly!!!  Travel- the divine and the benign and the insane!!!

Off to fold laundry and try to find a breeze!

Berlin, Leipzig, Dresden, Prague, Brno

A little behind on blogging. But we are having a good time and no students have gotten lost or broken their legs.  We have had one stolen passport, one stolen purse, and one hospital stay but as of today everyone is intact.

Brno is the Capitol of Moravia- who knew? Today we went to a Roma Museum, and then I went to the Janecek museum.  Heard folk music in Freedom Square and then just finished a meal at Hotel Pegas. I had a delicious chicken dish and Fanta, Mom had goulash! Yum!!!

Tomorrow we leave for Vienna- Vienna State Opera tomorrow night!!!!!! Can't wait!!!!

Ich bin in Berlin!

From the lobby of Amstel House Hostel in Berlin!!!!

Long day yesterday and I'm going on more than 48 hours of no sleep. Other than some catnaps....

Arrived in Berlin after uneventful travel around 8 am.  Took the bus to the hostel with Gene leading the way, and then after checking into the tiny, tiny rooms we got out w Ezra and Gene to walk around the city and start to get acquainted with the subway system.  The weather is in the 50s here and overcast but as Cam says much better light for taking pictures.  Tried out a local food market, where Mom and I tried spinach strudel (NOM NOM NOM!) and I filched potatoes off of Gene and Ezra's plates. We walked down to the western shopping mall area to pick up our Berlin welcome passes for travel on public transportation.  Some interesting large modern art sculptures around, and a church which survived WWII and now is completely hidden from view by restoration walls.  Ezra left to pick up two of our students at the airport, and Mom and I went with Gene back to the hostel where we are still trying to stay awake.

Can't believe it but we're hungry. Will wait til the UWEC team is downstairs so we can go explore the street food. Currywurst anyone????

Am about to fall off my perch.  Tchuss!!!


BTW- Currywurst is delicious!  It is a wurst with lots of curry powder dumped on top. Fries with mayo and ketchup on the side!\.

Take Two!

I'm back!!!!!

It's been a year.  And now it's summer again, and again I travel to find myself.  I've had a great time to New Orleans already, and in about 20 minutes I take off for Berlin!

19 hours of travel later, I will arrive at Tegel Airport.  See you then!

Mitra

Stockholm stories

Nancy and I are headed back to WI tomorrow. We've had some great adventures in Sweden- we went for a boat tour of some of the Archipelago today, we went to the Vasa Museum ( which had a complete Swedish warship from the 1620s!), Skansen (open air museum w bears, wolverines, moose, lynx, foxes, etc), and I've eaten a moose burger, Swedish meatballs, artichoke soup, pancakes w cloudberries, lingonberry sauce, and goulash with dill pickles and sour cream (fantastic combination!), and a tiny bite of herring (ug). I also drank a shot of Swedish snaps (not like schnapps at all). Great shopping! We walked the medieval part of the city every day-Gamla Stan- and made it to  3 other islands.  It is beautiful here, and almost everyone speaks English so we had no trouble communicating with people.  Nancy is very friendly, so we met lots of nice Swedes (and one opera troll, who I'll tell you about later).

Pictures, and our Top Ten Best and Worst lists coming up in the next few days!!!!

Pippi Longstocking and Lingonberries

That about sums it up!

BMW tearing up the countryside!

Tall, handsome Swedes everywhere.

Sweden-we're hEre!

A drive to Madison, a ten hour flight, a rental car, a road trip to Linkoping, adventuring to find Rinna, the town in which Nancy's grandmother was born and baptized, and navigating a Swedish mega-grocery/home store later, we're settled in a cottage out in the southern Swedish countryside. It is cool weather, farmers have just put up the hay, and we are next to a lovely lake. Very nice. We're making bread and soup (ok, Nancy is) and then will have icecram and fresh strawberries. More tomorrow, but we're fine.