July 18 - 23, 2015 - Visit to Michigan

After our three week trip to Barcelona and Paris, I was home for eight days. I am not sure why I booked my summer travel so close together, but that is how it worked out. I played with the boys, unpacked, did laundry and repacked. 

The boys and I flew together to Michigan to visit Uncle Fred, Aunt Betsy and Omi in mid-July. It was great fun as always to visit Uncle Fred, Aunt Betsy and Cousin Mel in Ann Arbor.  Their vast garden was looking like a park. 

This visit, they had a new puppy dog named Maizey Blue who enjoyed the boys and whom the boys enjoyed in return. Together they exhausted each other.

After two days and many nice meals together, we drove to Rochester to visit my Mum. One of our cats Gusti is home with Omi. Both my Mum and our cat were happy to see us and as chatty as ever. The boys had fun playing with Gu, since they haven’t seen her since the Fall. 

During our four day visit, we played with the train set, made many fabulous arts and craft projects, took Omi out to dinner and played in the yard. Here's the front yard with a cat sculpture from us. 

Here's the back yard and gardens:

One of the days, Uncle Fred, Aunt Betsy and Cousin Laura came and took the boys to the Detroit Zoo, which was a big adventure. I tried to help Mum document all of the wonderful treasures at her house so that she can move someday, if she wants to. We have been cataloging all of my mother’s and father’s books so that perhaps we can donate the academic books, also.  Our time in Michigan seemed too short; we flew from Detroit to Seattle. 

July 3 - 9 , 2015 in Paris

Six Nights in Paris - 3 - 9 July 2015

After a wonderful week in Barcelona, we took a high speed train to Paris. I’m sure we could have flown there more quickly, but I thought it would be more interesting to see the country side heading along the Mediterranean and then up north through France. We arrived at one of the downtown stations and took the Metro to Saint Paul’s. From there it was a short, nice walk across a bridge or two to Il Saint Louis, which is the second of the two islands in the middle of the River Seine. The first island holds the Notre Dame Cathedral and is better known. Il Saint Louis is filled with lovely buildings, shops and restaurants and is very central. Here's the view down the street from our apartment window.

Crossing one bridge put us on the Left Bank and St Germain neighborhoods of restaurants and art galleries; crossing another bridge put us on the Right Bank and heading towards the Louvre, gardens and shopping areas. We even had a french cat living in one of the restaurants a few doors down from us. 

One of our favorite things about living on Il Saint Louis was walking back from dinner each night. We would walk back passing either in front or behind Notre Dame. This was our view on the 4th of July at sunset looking down the Seine from one of the bridges to our island. 

On the Sunday that we were in Paris, we attended a service at the church on our island and walked to Notre Dame to listen to the choir there, also. Seeing modern windows in an old, traditional cathedral such as Notre Dame was unexpected and breathtaking for me.

Later that day, we walked to Sainte Chapelle, built by King Louis IV and one of the only churches in Paris consisting of primarily stained glass.

I had booked most of our dinners via Trip Advisor on-line before we left. I like to try “foodie” restaurants and while in Paris, I wanted to try some of the best restaurants there.  So, every evening, Alle and I returned to our small flat, changed into less touristy clothes and tried some great Paris restaurant. Most of them were really good; our favorite was Pur in the Four Seasons Hotel near the Paris Opera House. All of the special Parisian treats we tried were really good as well, such as macaroons at La’Duree and Mont Blancs (a ground chestnut dessert) at Angelina’s.  Luckily, the best ice cream in Paris was just down the street from us on our own island at Berthillon.

We did all of the traditional Paris tourist things to do, I think. We took a boat tour down the Seine. We visited the Eiffel Tower.

We toured all of the Impressionist art we could find at the Musee d’Orsay, L’Orangerie

and Musee Marmatton. We looked at the exterior of the Louvre, but did not go inside. We assumed that we needed at least three days to do it justice and I have seen it before. We took great walks all around our island, around the gardens of Tuileries

and Palais Royal, 

the new galleries of Bastille, and interesting shopping areas. Here is the entry to one of the traditional indoor shopping areas, Galerie Vivienne, the precursor to our shopping malls, but so much more civilized. 

We could have spent any number of more days in Paris; there was still so much to see and do. 

June 26 - July 3, 2015 in Barcelona

Six Nights in Barcelona, June 26 – July 3, 2015

After a few days in Michelstadt, Germany we flew to Barcelona and arrived there early in the afternoon. We found our host’s recommended Aerobus from the airport into the center of town. Our apartment was just south of Plaza Catalunya, so we exited the Aerobus there with our rolly bags and made our way out of the south end of the Plaza, down the Port de L’Angel, a large pedestrian shopping street. Our place was on Santa Anna, a quiet smaller pedestrian street across from the pharmacy sign in the photo below. 

I had texted our host Mario and he met us at the apartment’s front door.

Our Barcelona apartment was up four flights of very tight, circular stone stairs, 

but it was modern, light and open. It was one large room with a living space and a low wall separating the bedroom and a door into the bathroom space with a shower. It was small and in a wonderful location. We could walk out and turn left onto Las Ramblas and from there walk all the way down to the port with its somewhat confusing statue of Christopher Columbus.

or we could turn right to de L’Angel and walk two blocks to the Cathedral with its wonderful Cloisters. 

Our first night we walked to the Cathedral 

and into Barri Gotic 

for a reservation I had made via TripAdvisor before we left, at L’Antic Bocoi Del Gotic restaurant. We got there when it opened at 7:30 or 8 pm and we were the first people there. Most people do not eat until at least 9 pm in Barcelona. On this night, it was good to be first because they sat us at the best table at the end of the restaurant at the window with a view of the square below.

We loved Barcelona, named for Barcino whose name graces the square near the Cathedral. 

One of the highlights was the Spanish Guitar concert we saw at Palau Musica. We had booked tickets in advance and found the “Palace of Music” was just a few blocks from our apartment. The interior is wonderfully decorative and the best way to see it was to see a concert.

One of the low lights is that I narrowly avoided being robbed while shopping at one of the markets on Las Ramblas. People had warned us that pick pockets were very aggressive in Barcelona. At one market stall, a man next to us asked a question of a vendor, while his female partner tried to take the wallet out of my purse. Luckily, I felt something and was able to hit my wallet out of her hands and reclaim it. 

We saw many of the Gaudi designed buildings. The first was the Palau Guell, a residence for the Guell family 

with its central worship or concert hall with many small skylights. 

My favorite was the Sagrada Familia cathedral. 

Gaudi designed it around 1880 – 1900, but much of it is only being built now. The stained glass windows, for example were designed and installed since 1999 by a Barcelona based artist.  

We got tickets to go into the Nativity towers. There is an elevator going up and the view of the city is very good. The way down, however, is via a tight spiral stone staircase. Some of the openings as we went down were a bit terrifying, but the views are great.

One of the areas further east from Barri Gotic was El Born. We walked there one morning to see the church Santa Maria del Mar. This is a view of it from another characteristic Barcelona street of stone with apartment buildings and shops on either side and vegetation in pots along the sides or in the balconies. 

There are great restaurants and shops near by. We had tapas for lunch here. 

We walked back to our favorite gelato place near City Hall and the government buildings called Gelaaati! Each flavor was made in the morning and the range of options and intensity of flavors was staggering. We really had to try something every day to get a full sense of the place. 

One of our other favorite ventures was the Joan Miro museum. One of our days in Barcelona, a Swiss friend of mine who lives in Girona came to visit us by train. After she arrived, we all took the “vertical” metro up to the “mountain”, Montjuic. We visited the Joan Miro Museum, which is the largest collection of his works in the world.  

Further up the road from the museum at the National Palace/Museum of Catalan, there is a set of waterfalls down to the street level of Plaza Espana. We loved the view down 

and then the view back up from the bottom. 

From there, we walked back to the Parallel metro stop where we had started and had dinner at a place I had reserved from home, Café Manilla.

It was one of our favorite meals while in Barcelona on our last night there. Onto Paris. 

June 24 - 26, 2015 - Kick-off European Holiday in Michelstadt, Germany

Between having a partner who was willing to be with the boys and a daughter who wanted to travel with me, I had a travel-filled summer. It started with an almost three week trip to Europe with Alle. Sometime in the winter before my daughter turned 16, I remembered my 16^th summer of traveling on my own and suggested she should think about traveling to visit family, see new European haunts, and perhaps travel with a friend. She told me that she would like to travel with me. I do not know whether that is because she likes how good the food is when I am along, she knows we will stay in good places, or she knows that I like to shop while on holiday, but I decided not to question it. I was just happy that my teenager still wanted to travel with me.

She left the week before I and spent a few days in Scotland with her paternal grandparents in Ayr. She flew to Frankfurt and we met in my mother’s family’s hometown of Michelstadt, Germany. It was so fun to see Luisa, who was our exchange student last year and our whole family there. Everyone was in town and although we were there only few days, we got a chance to see everyone in the immediate Schafer family.

Michelstadt is in the middle of the region to the southeast of Frankfurt known as the Odenwald, which is said to have restorative air and water. 

The small city began in 1100 in Roman times. Most of its buildings were built between 1400 and mid-1600. It has not been affected by any of the world wars and so most of the original buildings and some of it outer wall still stand today. It is in remarkably beautiful shape. Here is the city church and parts of the original city wall. 

Here is the city hall and the city church from the center of the town. 

While we visited, I learned that the city intends to put on a play about my grandfather, Fritz Kredel, written by a German playwright which will be based on the article I wrote about him and his work in the Printing Histories journal a few years ago. It's wonderful that there continues to be such an interest in him and his work in his hometown. 

While in Michelstadt, we ate at the city’s best Konditorei 

and tried Luisa’s favorite ice cream. We ate about two gelatos a day while traveling this summer, so finding the “best” became our trip’s challenge. We could have easily stayed with family and enjoyed Michelstadt and the Odenwald for much more time, but from Michelstadt, we traveled to Barcelona. 

March 12 - 22, 2015 - Disney World and Grand Cayman Island - Spring Break 2015

Four Days in Disney World with Two Five Year Olds

Alle’s Band was going to Disney World for part of Spring Break, so we decided that it was a good excuse to take the boys and meet Alle there. We went there for four days, staying at the Wilderness Lodge and visiting Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom. Not being a Disney expert, I wanted to make sure we saw all the right things for the boys. I had the deadlines for reservations in my calendar – booked the lodging in September, the meals in December and our Fast Passes for rides 60 days in advance in January.

It was a busy whirlwind, but the boys seemed to have fun. The things we liked were taking the boat from Wilderness Lodge to Magic Kingdom, seeing the characters at the character meals such as Pooh and friends at Crystal Palace, Belle and the Beast at Be Our Guest, and Mickey and friends at Chef Mickeys, finding some of the more interesting events and rides such as telling a story with Belle, the Safari and shows in Animal Kingdom, and happening upon a parade at Magic Kingdom.

Some of my favorite photos include our first view of the Wilderness Lodge lobby.

A view of Cinderella's castle

A distant view of Rapunzel's tower,

Pooh, wandering around Disney World,

Waiting to get into Beast's castle,

The Beast's Castle and Ballroom

The carved Tree of Life in Animal Kingdom.

Minnie Mouse and friends at Chef Mickey's.

A Week on Grand Cayman Island

After going non-stop for three days at Disney World Alle joined us, we packed up and we all flew to the Cayman Islands. We flew to Grand Cayman and spend a week at a lovely, relaxed condo on Seven Mile Beach. 

Our condo was right on the beach and the boys could walk out our door and run in the sand to the water. Here was our view as we walked to one of these beach chairs. 

The sand was fine and white and stretched forever, or perhaps for seven miles. The water was warm and wonderful shades of blue. Our area was remarkably quiet. We were often the only people on the beach and in the water. There was also a pool that the boys loved to swim in. One of our days, we left the beach and set sail for a few hours on the Jolly Roger pirate ship. 

Our favorite outing was to spend a day on a boat making stops to snorkel, see starfish, and swim with the rays.

The snorkeling was some of the best I've done in turquoise clear, warm water. Even Peter and Ted were able to see the varied and beautiful fish with their kid goggles. We all swam with the rays and fed them. In Stingray Cove, there were over twenty swimming around us. 

Cayman was so relaxed and very sunny - the perfect balance to Disney. We didn't want to return home.