Secret Garden

Zumba-licious

2012-02-04T15:24:00.000-08:00

The deep thrumming of drums is punctuated by the random squawk of tropical birds. The rhythm pulses, and Britney Spears’ breathy, young-girl voice begins to overlay the insistent beat “this is extra-sex-alicious, and you want a piece of me…” I twirl my hips and step side-to-side, then dip and swing my arms high, first left, then right, then left again. My feet struggle to keep pace with the intricate steps, but it doesn’t matter. By the time I figure out the pattern, we are on to the next variation, now lunging, twirling, then lunging in the other direction.

“Shake that booty” Mary calls out, and a room full of wagging booty undulates around me. I am the oldest and heaviest in this Zumba class. All around me, young women in Spandex fly through the air, their lithe bodies easily jumping with the moves. I am determined not to falter, not to give up mid-class, even though I consider it constantly. But I love this stuff!

In the front of the room, Mary keeps up a fast pace. Her pony tail swings from side to side, and she wears a headset with a tiny microphone. “Single single, double” she shouts. “Take a walk”, then “Back it up”. Hot pink ribbons dangle from her hips and her knees, sewn onto her pants so that when she dances they sway and twirl in bright circles. The music fills the room, bathing us in hip-hop, Latin and African rhythms . I can feel it vibrating through all my cells.

The Indian man who always stands next to me in the back row dances joyfully, without a care for the doing the right steps. He simply keeps moving, swinging his arms and hips, and nodding his closely-shaven head, his heavy-lidded eyes half shut as he lets the music take him. Sometimes, when the step-work is too intricate, I watch him instead of her, and follow his movements. “Papa Americano” comes up next, with its jerky soundtrack and beeping horns, and for this one I know all the steps. I’m smiling so broadly that I am drooling, and I hope nobody notices when I wipe the drool on my sleeve and keep going. We mimic drumming on conga drums, then move into a swooping motion that is like picking up fallen fruit from the ground and putting it into a high basket behind us, repeat, repeat, repeat, “squeeze your booty”. By the time we get to the stretches at the end of the hour, I am soaked with perspiration, but completely blissed out. I made it for the whole hour! With the sound of that vibrant music still reverberating in my head, I'm off to the showers.

Pepper Pot

2011-10-25T07:38:00.000-07:00

Many of you know that our little Zuma never goes on a walk anymore (for the last several years) without her stylish Italian muzzle. This makes her look like a vicious killer, but it is really about food. Left to her own devices, she eats every edible morsel on the sidewalks and beyond, and in our neighborhood, with a junior high school and high school all within a couple of blocks, that can be a major issue. The streets abound with pizza crusts, twinkies, chips, chewed gum, spilled popcorn, discarded sandwiches, and so much more, when school is on. A few years ago we had a MAJOR vet bill when Zuma's appetites nearly took her out. Since then we've been extra careful.

But last night we went to Bookshop SC to hear a wonderful author (Donia Bijan) talk about her delicious new book (Maman's Homesick Pie), about growing up in a Persian household and ultimately becoming a professional chef. When we came home, we noticed immediately that the lovely arrangement of gorgeous fall peppers that had been in the center of our dining room table was completely trashed. Chewed up peppers were everywhere, and literally every single pepper had been tasted. Some had been mostly devoured! We knew immediately that Zuma had taken advantage of being un-muzzled. Peppers! Who knew??! All I can say is that when we go on our walk this morning, I'm taking two plastic baggies, just to be on the safe side!

Schuuuusssssss!

2011-10-20T12:00:00.001-07:00

Schuusss, that's what they say in Hamburg for bye-bye. It is almost sung in a high pitched, melodic way, two long syllables, and we have grown used to hearing that, along with many other memorable and sweet phrases here. Now we have had to say Schuuusss to our dear host family, and return to Santa Cruz.

It rained on Tuesday, and we spent some time packing up and getting organized. Kerstin drove us into the windy and grey center of town. We went to the Kunstmiele and saw a fantastic retrospective of the painter Max Lieberman.

We loved these wonderful paintings, drawings, pastels, and portraits, what a rich body of work they displayed.

After a yummy lunch, featuring something so delicious and utterly surprising, fresh rhubarb juice, we drove around and saw some of the sights, the Elbe River that winds through the town center, the new and enormous half-billion dollar opera house and arts complex being constructed in the dock area (middle photo), and some other new construction projects that are taking shape and transforming the old downtown streets into a vibrant new area for arts and culture.

Kerstin dropped us off at a big shopping mall so that we could have one last chance to drop a few Euros before heading home. Actually we have hardly shopped at all on this whole trip, so we had fun browsing all the stylish stores.

Heinz took great care to prepare the "grand finale" dinner for us, with champagne and a wonderful selection of cold meats, brown breads, and also assorted varieties of pickled herring and salmon. We topped it off with gingerbread cookies, all covered in chocolate or flavored icings. And so ended our last evening with this amazing family. It is difficult to convey the breadth of their kindness and generosity towards us. They spared nothing in making sure that we were treated like honored and cherished guests, every day, in every way. We had hours of laughter and great conversation. We played with their children. They drove us around and arranged numerous excursions and entertainments to please us. We were bathed in their kind attentions for almost an entire week. We hope they enjoyed it even a fraction of how much we did, and we are happy to know that Kerstin can once again focus on her painting and Heinz on his business without having the two American grannies hanging out in the background. They get the medal for tolerance, that is certain!

Our flight back to the US was long and pretty uneventful. We had time to shop in the magnificent Copenhagen airport stores. We stared at the grey and sour landscape in Iceland, we passed through the easiest customs checkpoint ever in Seattle, and we arrived home at about midnight last night, to the wild welcome of our two waggy little dogs. Today we are clearly jet lagged, but glad to be home, and happy to have the memories of the last 3 weeks to savor. Thank you, dear European friends, for all of it!!

Location:Hamburg, Germany

The Heart of the City

2011-10-18T01:09:00.001-07:00

We hadn't even seen downtown Hamburg yet, so yesterday Kerstin took us into the center of the city, where we wandered around little shops and galleries (many closed on Monday, alas), and had a lovely tea break in an old cafe. I should say tea and pastry break, because here the bakeries are unbelievably tempting and delicious. Today we each ordered a different kind of fruit strudel and then shared.

Later she dropped us at a very lovely shopping mall, where we spent some enjoyable time exploring what the Europeans are selling. It was quite a lot of fun.

Hamburg is a remarkably green city. There are so many trees and green parks and rivers that you cannot believe you are. In the center of a major city. It is very restful to walk in such an elegant place.

We were struck by the hundreds of brass markers in the sidewalks commemorating the Jewish families who were taken away during the Holocaust. In front of each house where people were taken (often whole streets of very elegant homes) these little markers name each person who lived there, their ages, and what became of them, for example "taken to Auschwitz, killed".

It is very moving to walk along these places and imagine those days when whole families were torn from their homes and taken away to the camps, never to return. It must feel strange to the people now occupying those houses to have that daily reminder just underfoot.

Last night we drove once again into the city, for dinner out in a very old and traditional northern German restaurant, again in the slaughterhouse district. This was the Schlachterboerse, a meat specialty place, where they warn that vegetarians should not even think about coming in. Heinz has a made sure that we experience the true cultural delicacies of food here. Last night was a highlight. He ordered crab soup for me and Daniella, and steak tartar (raw top-ground beef, flavored with spices and served on little brown bread squares). We drank dark German beer, and waited for the next courses. Finally they arrived (we are talking about 10 pm), and Madonna! They were not kidding about serious meat eating. At our table we had "gentleman's steak", pepper steak, calves liver with onions and apple slices, and a huge smoked pork loin with sauerkraut. On the side we had baked potato, mashed potato, roasted potato, and French fries, along with some sautéed mushrooms and a small bit of spinach. We all shared everything, and were so full at the end we could barely move. The restaurant was small and crowded and had the atmosphere of intimacy, gemütlichkeit, and long historic roots.

For a girl who leans heavily towards mostly vegetarian food, this trip has been quite a culture shock. Here it is traditional to have a huge plate of cold cuts on the table at nearly every meal. This includes liverwurst, many kinds of Italian and German ham slices, salamis, baloney-type things, and packets of raw steak tartar, sold here in tubes. There are also meat salads, marinated shrimps, and cheese platters. Heinz has also given us pigs knuckle, and a variety of meats from Bavaria, his native area. One evening he prepared an appetizer that was four kinds of fat (goose, duck, pork and?) each one served as a 1/2 inch thick spread on brown bread. There is not much poultry, but fish is also abundant here, and delicious. We have note yet had a single wurst, and last night was our first beer, but we have had an amazing quantity and quality of wine and champagne. I hate to imagine how hard it will be to get moving in the gym again once we return, which is coming up tomorrow.

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Location:Barkenkoppel,Hamburg,Germany

Quiet Sunday at Home with the Family

2011-10-18T01:02:00.001-07:00

This lovely family has a tradition of staying home together on Sundays and slowing down the pace, doing things together, and resting. We were happy to join them! After a lovely breakfast of yogurt, fresh fruits, and fresh rolls from the bakery,

we took a long walk through a park that runs along a river in this neighborhood. Young Jonathan led the way through wooded trails and local streets, and we loved the dappled sunlight and shimmering water along the way.

When we came back, Daniella taught everyone how to make paper boats. This kicked off many hours of boat-folding, first out on the patio

up in Kerstin's spacious studio. The children then painted all of the boats with wax and encaustic paint to waterproof them.

After dinner, we all went out to the pond in the back yard, where the kids put a tea candle into each boat, then lit them and launched a glimmering flotilla into the darkness. It was magical for everyone!

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Location:Barkenkoppel,Hamburg,Germany

Flea Market, Art, and a Dinner Party

2011-10-17T00:10:00.001-07:00

On Saturday morning Kerstin took us into town to explore the Hamburg flea market, a bustling street scene that sprawls throughout one area of the city. She knows that we have a Saturday yard-sale habit, and wanted to make us feel at home. It was fun to see all the junk they have for sale here. Somebody had one of those old-fashioned photo booths where you squeeze into the booth together, pull the curtain shut, then drop your coin into the slot and wait to make crazy faces together. We three squeezed in together for this strip of fun photos.

We had lunch in the meat-packing area in a place called the Bulleria, where there is a floor to ceiling window from the restaurant floor into the meat locker, where hangs a half-carcass of a huge pig, along with some other choice cuts of meat! I ordered some chicken dish, roasted in a casserole, and it was something like a stew of chicken, vegetables, and huge chunks of salt-pork in a soupy broth. Pretty good, if a little fat for my tastes.

After lunch we visited the studio of a a lovely artist friend of Kerstin's, Tita de Rogo Silva. She makes wood blocks and then prints the most whimsical and magical art, huge pieces about 14 feet tall! I think any child would be enchanted by them, and they are very fabulous for adults too.

We came home at about 4 pm to prepare for a dinner party. Heinz had done all the shopping, and Kerstin set a gorgeous table. They kindly invited a group of friends who all agreed to speak English for the evening. There were three doctors, two attorneys, and us, feasting on salad, goulash, and noodles, with a great trifle dessert prepared by Kerstin. The champagne flowed freely, along with many beautiful wines. Heinz keeps a great wine cellar, and he jokes that we will start the evening with a "Golf"' then move on to a "Mercedes" and often we end up with a "Rolls Royce" or a "Bentley" from his cellar. He is a magnetic and charming host who makes sure that everyone feels comfortable, cared for, and appreciated, punctuating the evening with many heartfelt toasts. This memorable party went until 1 am, with much laughter and good conversation.

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Location:Hamburg, Germany

Excursions to the Baltic Sea

2011-10-16T07:41:00.001-07:00

Our second day in Hamburg was planned as a big excursion day. Kerstin and Heinz drove us to the beautiful old city of Lubeck, which sits almost on the Baltic Sea, near the channel to Denmark. This old red brick town was the home of Kerstin's maternal grandparents, as well as the home of Thomas Mann, Gunther Grass, and many other famous German artists and writers. We wandered around the old streets, went up into an old church sttple to look at the view, then sat in the Ratthaus Square for tea time.

This city is also famous for marzipan, and there is a well-known store in the town center which has everything imaginable made of Marzipan, including many of the twins buildings reproduced in the windows of the store completely made of Marzipan!

We took lunch at a place that was a shipping guild hall since about 1400 a.d., and it was a venerable spot, with hand hewn beam ceilings, painted murals from the middle ages, and long wooden benches with brass fittings. The ancient atmosphere complemented the great food we tried, schnitzel, rutabaga soup, wild mushrooms in butter, and delectable green salad.

We visited Gunther Grass's house, and were amazed that not only was he an extraordinary writer, but also an amazing sculptor and painter. His collection is breathtaking, and made me want to re-read his books after so many decades.

At about 4 pm we took off driving again, about an hour away, to the weekend home of some friends of theirs in a village right on the Baltic, where we were invited to a dinner party. But first, we had time for another walk in the woods! (Daniella and Kerstin went to an art galleries instead). But I went off with the men and the teenage daughter, Anna, along a wooded road deep into a forest, where we were assured we would see some game animals. Sure enough, about 20 minutes along the road we heard some noises. At first I thought it was a wild boar, as they saw one of those the day before. But it became apparent that it was elk, up on the ridge above us. We could see two males with big racks of antlers, and they were snorting loudly and making almost a loud purring sound. The men immediately set out up the hill, into the brush, to get closer. We were trying to move silently, and got into some deeply swampy places, but we were able to get up close enough to see them clearly against the meadow and the setting sun. We watched them for a long time, then circled around up the hill above them, and took another trail back to the house. On the walk back we encountered a herd of female elk, about 20 in all, grazing in another meadow. It was all very exhilarating, and invigorating, and we arrived back in pitch darkness with a good appetite for the dinner ahead.

Our hostess had made a big roaring fire in the fireplace, and she served "raclette", something I've never had before. It is a Swiss dish, a cousin of fondue, with a special brazier on the table. Each person gets a personal little frying pan, which we filled with boiled new potatoes, sliced meat, and slices of raclette cheese. Then we put our little pans under the brazier and waited for the cheese to melt all over everything. We did this over and over, and also garnished our raclette with various pickled veggies, another delicious items, and a great selection of wines and local brewed beers. YUM!!

We did not get back to Hamburg until nearly midnight after that, and once again crashed against our pillows like a couple of sinking ships. But oh it was great fun!

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Location:Hamburg, Germany

A Big Change of Scene

2011-10-16T07:30:00.001-07:00

Our train arrived like clockwork in Hamburg, and Kerstin, Heinz and one son, Jonathan, were waiting on the platform to scoop us up and take us away to their lovely home here. They fed us a quick lunch, and then we headed out to the countryside for a long and beautiful walk through a protected area which is a wildlife sanctuary, bird reserve, and all-around gorgeous spot for walking.

There was a long, loop trail, and even a section that was a raised dam built in prehistoric times, with an ancient trail across the top. We saw a sea eagle in the top of a tree, and two red foxes playing at the edge of a meadow. Kerstin's boys are budding naturalists. The oldest boy, Nicola, loves nothing better than fishing and being out in the wild.

We stopped for ice cream on the way home. Did you ever see two more adorable boys than these?

That first evening here we were treated to a typical German dinner, with great bread and many dishes of cheeses, cold cuts, salads, pickles, and an especially yummy dish of black lentils with creamy barrata cheese on top. Between the not-so-much-sleep on the train, and the vigorous hike, we were quite ready to crash when dinner was through, and we slept, amazingly, until nearly 9 the next morning. Our accommodations are the best here, so comfortable, and our hosts are the prince and princess of generosity and hospitality!

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Location:Hamburg, Germany

On the Rails

2011-10-16T07:28:00.001-07:00

This post finds us 3/4 of the way along our rail journey from Bari to Hamburg, Germany. This little adventure is 24 hours long and so far has featured an extended (read breakdown) trip from Bari to Rome, where we missed our connection for the next leg of the journey. We were a little freaked, but the clever Italian conductors put us onto a super-speed train to Bologna, where we arrived a half hour earlier than the train we had missed! So we caught up with our reserved sleeper car, had a few hours sleep in our nifty cabin/bathroom. And now we are having tea in Munich, waiting for our last connection up to Hamburg, where we will visit our dear friend Kerstin and her family. Here is a very poor photo of Daniella about to climb the ladder to her bunk in the sleeper car, and another of our train breakfast!

European train travel is so civilized and comfortable. We are traveling first-class on a Eurail pass. We have spacious reserved seats each time, and stewards bring free drinks and snacks ( even champagne or wine if you are so inclined). There are dining cars for more substantial fare. It is so relaxing to sit back and watch the beautiful countryside slide by, even though we are often going 150 mph. Some trains even are equipped with free wifi. I'm a convert. I wish we had good trains in the U.S.

We are especially taking note of what a Green country Germany is. Even the tiniest hamlets have solar panels everywhere. There are wind turbines all along the way. And there are miles of lush green forest throughout the country. Every thing is spic and span, clean as a whistle, not a dot of litter or trash or anything out of place.

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Location:Muenchen hauptbahnhof

Last day in Italy

2011-10-13T23:31:00.000-07:00

Somehow this post got completely lost in the crazy stuck-ness of the internet over the last few days, so I'm recreating it now. We left our beautiful Italy behind us on the 12th of October. We felt so sad to leave Marina and Lello, the wonderful couple who cared for us so lovingly and cooked us the most startlingly delicious meals every day. We felt truly connected with them at the heart, and know we will see them again! Thank you both for every sweet and spicy thing!!

We drove to our next location along many winding back roads, where we feasted on the sights of the Puglian countryside, such as this amazing pink villa.

Our last night was spent at this gorgeous Masseria of Santa Teresa, something we found on the Internet for the crazy last-minute price of €68 which included a deluxe room, this infinity pool, and a huge and varied buffet breakfast in the vaulted room below. This place sits on a hillside a few miles inland from the Adriatic, and looks out to the sea and to the small seaside town of Monopoli. It was spectacular, but the atmosphere lacked the warmth and happiness of the Masseria Della Zingara.

The next morning we spent a bit of time walking around in the old seaside town of Polignano al Mare, enjoying the lovely weather and the sights and sounds of ordinary life here. Everyone was a hanging out laundry, shopping, sitting on chairs outside their doors, shouting from balcony to balcony, a regular little real-life operetta. The sign below advertises a horse-meat butcher shop.

Finally at about noon we dropped our rental car in Bari and headed for the train station for the ride north.

Location:Masseria Santa Teresa, Puglia

Finito in Puglia

2011-10-11T02:42:00.001-07:00

We are finished with the class here in Puglia. The last couple of days have brought us more indescribably delicious meals, a day of dramatic thunder and lightening, and rain (but fortunately no power outages). The air here is so fresh and pure and beautiful.

We had an all- group excursion yesterday to the famous town of of Alberobello, which has a large old- town center completely of stone trulli houses dating from the 1400s. It is a hilly place, and all the winding lanes are too narrow for cars to get through.

We spent about 4 hours wandering the many picturesque side-streets and absorbing the local flavor of this small town. I was here some 40 years ago, and while the outskirts of town have expanded with modern buildings, the old town remains the same.

This afternoon, after lunch, we will pack up the studio and head to one more night in another Masseria closer to the sea. Tomorrow we board the train for Hamburg! But what a joy to have been back in Puglia for this week!!! I love Italy!

Location:Contrada Selvafina,Polignano a Mare,Italy

Volare, oh oh, Cantare, oh oh oh ho

2011-10-09T04:11:00.001-07:00

Oh lucky me! I started yesterday with an early morning stroll down one on the nearby back roads. Although there was a steady sound of shotgun fire on nearby farms, I felt safe walking between the sturdy stone walls that line each side of the roads here. I saw this beautiful old trulli hut, abandoned now, in an olive grove with the twisted and gnarled ancient olive trees still standing and producing after centuries of weather and history have rolled over them.

Back at the Masseria (below) we had another day of encaustic class, punctuated by another stunningly divine lunch.

Lelo made stuffed zucchini flowers, once again spaghetti with lemon (because we begged him to!) and something I've never before had or even heard of. He picked a wide range of fresh herbs - rosemary, basil, mint, chives, etc. and fried them individually in a light batter. To say exquisite doesn't even cover it! Here is what they looked like, and below is Lelo preparing the squash blossoms.

In the evening we went into Polignano al Mare, a charming little seacoast village perched on rocky cliffs above the splashing sea. Here we wandered around town for awhile, engaged in delightful chats with various storekeepers, and finally met as a small group for a lovely dinner. The place was Chichibio, a fish specialty place, very elegant and homey at the same time. Daniella and I split a platter of San Pietro fish (?), a meaty white fillet oven-roasted with potatoes, olives, and tomatoes, very good. We also split a creamy canoli in hot fudge for dessert, then waddled out into the piazza ........ where there is this larger than life-size statue of homeboy, Domenico Medugno who was once upon a time (in my childhood I think) very famous for one song, Volare. Volare, oh oh, Cantare, oh oh oh oh! Nel blu depinto del blu, felice restare la su. The rest is gone, along with much of my memory, but I always remember how much I love to be in Italy.

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Two Days Slid By....

2011-10-07T11:52:00.001-07:00

The time is flying by here in Puglia. We learned something of the story of this place, and why it is called Masseria de la Zingara. The family who originally owned it were the people in the photo below. The padrone was a horse trader by profession, with gypsy roots, thus the name He is the man in the center with the curly mustache. This huge building were we are staying is a former barn/home. The family lived upstairs where we stay. The downstairs was full of cows and horses, thus the beautiful niches in the stonework where the cattle and horses were tied up and fed their hay in individual stalls. The place was bought by a British couple, and heavily renovated four years ago. It is now used for art classes, and occasional weddings, and events. It is stunningly beautiful.

Yesterday we went for a walk outside the gates where we saw several farmhouses like this old one just down the road, piles of stone still occupied after probably centuries of use.we picked fresh figs from the trees, and wandered in ancient olive groves with trees so twisted and gnarled that they were surely ancient, but still bursting with olives. It is no wonder that olive oil here is the most common product, and so flavorful and satisfying.

After a spectacular lunch of spaghetti in lemon sauce, prepared here just for us, we drove to a small seacoast town called Monopoli, where we wandered along the cliffs above the Adriatic, and watched families frolicking in the little coves below us.

We walked around in the old town, and drove throughout some of the impossibly narrow little streets, streets not made for cars but for pedestrians and the occasional donkey cart. It was a little hair-raising.

We returned to the Masseria in time for another spectacular meal, a tasty risotto on top of a lentil puree, with a bunch of Italian greens from the garden outside, and some small bread and cheese dumplings fried in oil, fantastic. We spent the evening meeting some of our new students, and putting the finishing touches on the classroom.

Today the class started. We have 5 students, 2 Canadians, one from France, one from England, and one American ex-pat living in Italy. It was a challenging day. With no decent paint, and with palatte heaters that were sporadic at best, Daniella had a rough beginning. But, as always, she showed her immense resourcefulness and pulled it off. Tonight we ate homemade Italian sausages, bruschetta with wild asparagus and cheese, and stuffed peppers from the garden, followed by a homemade gelato made from yellow plums, honey, lemon marmelade, in a mint and agave sauce. We are blown away by this magnificent chef, this gorgeous place, and the happiness of being in Italy, the best place eaver!

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Location:Puglia, Italy

The Colors of the Day

2011-10-05T13:16:00.001-07:00

Tonight we are sitting by this poolside, listening to the day end here at the Masseria, a converted farm in Puglia where the class is taking place. The moon is rising over these trulli houses, the typical form of building in this area. These cone-shaped stone dwellings are dotted around the countryside here, and one town, Alberobello, is completely made of these (we will go there later this week).

Everywhere, and I mean everywhere, there are stone walls. Driving along the country roads, there are stone walls on both sides, and the colors often include these rosy pink tufa stones that are local to this area. The landscape is very Mediterranean,with olive trees, vineyards, pines, and low-growing shrubs with pinks, lavenders, scarlets, and golden flowers, and every color of green bush and plant.

Literally all the buildings are also made of stone, and the place we are staying is no exception. The view above shows the courtyard below the little balcony outside our apartment. Everywhere there are niches, and vaulted ceilings, and stone archways. Even our classroom is a beautiful example of this.

Here is a view of the sky just before sundown, looking out across the empty pianurra. The white building on the left is the corner of where we are staying. Today we drove into the nearby village for various supplies. Thankfully my rusty Italian rises to the occasion when needed and we were able to navigate the back roads, find a few stores, explain what we wanted, buy it, and find our way home - phew! The chef here had lunch waiting for us, a lovely homemade brown bread with olive oil, tomatoes, and basil on top, and then a fabulous risotto resting on a bright green puree made of broccoli rabe stems. Yum. He is cooking our dinner as I write this. (See Daniella's blog for delicious details).

The drama of the day was that all the encaustic paints that Daniella mailed here last month did not arrive. This included nearly 100 colors of encaustic paint. It has apparently been seized, for awhile by Italian customs and we are not likely to get it before the class is over. Major disaster for us, but the ever resourceful Miss D. bought a set of oil paints in town. We squeezed them out onto paper towels to let the oil settle out, then spent all afternoon mixing the remaining pigment with encaustic medium. So voila, we made our own paint! The colors leave a lot to be desired, but hey, at least the class will be able to learn how to use them and we won't have to do a five day class without using color! This is our batch of babies. We are so proud!

Location:Masseria Della Zingara, Puglia

Italy, an Ongoing Love

2011-10-04T12:01:00.001-07:00

We are in Italy, today traveling on a first-class high-speed train on our way from Rome to Bari, a 4 hour trip. This is deluxe travel, lovely seats, big windows, and a steward who brings free coffee, tea, and snacks, even free champagne! The views are enough to bring tears to my eyes, all the green hills, small hill towns, cedar trees, small farmsteads, olive groves, vineyards. The beauties of the Italian countryside are unchanging and on such a human scale.

Our flights to Rome were predictably exhausting. We went on Iberia Air, and let's just say that we were underwhelmed with their offerings. We flew to Chicago, then Madrid, where we landed in a blazing orange and magenta sunrise, raced through the airport, and made our connection by the skin of our teeth. So much for seeing even the Madrid airport,

which we could tell was stunning! We landed in Rome at about noon, took a train to the termini and then to our little hotel.

Our room was small and comfy and had so many elements of purely Italian decor, like the ceiling to floor silk drapes, the wall to wall headboard that dwarfed the bed, and the cupids flying above the bed, their arrows all pointing down at the pillows suggestively! The shower was a tiny quarter circle cubicle that Daniella dubbed "the water boarding shower" thanks to the drowning shower head that filled every inch of the overhead space with water, so that breathing was an issue. But we are clean!

We spent a lot of our half-day in Rome trying to find butane canisters for the class to use. We telephoned every hardware store and camping goods store we could find on the Internet, to no avail, until D. remembered that we had seen a Korean restaurant in the neighborhood. We went right over there and sure enough, they told us where they buy them (a must-have for Korean cooking). We took a cab right to a small Korean grocery store where we were able to stock up on exactly what we needed! What a relief!

After that we went over to Campo dei Fiori, Piazza Farnese, and Piazza Navonna, favorites from back in the day when I lived in Rome. The Campo has gotten to be so tourist-centered that it seemed very changed and not so nice. But the rest of the area is the same, including the little courtyard at Arco degli Acetari where we had an apartment. We ate dinner outside on a piazza, fresh spinach, tortellini with piselli, bacon, and mushrooms in a cream sauce. Life is good! And so today we travel to Puglia!

Daniella also is keeping a blog, www.encausticopolis.blogspot,com

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Location:On a Train Between Rome and Bari

Off and Running

2011-10-02T06:58:00.001-07:00

Today we are off on our next adventure, flying to Rome via a stopover in Madrid (Iberia Airlines). Daniella will teach a class in Puglia, Italy, down in the heel of the boot near Bari. The last week has been a scramble of getting the house ready to leave with friends, thinking of what to pack, and taking care of the blizzard of "to-do's" on my lists. I've been like that old lady on YouTube who wanders from one room to another, getting distracted by everything and then forgetting what she was doing just a minute ago. In the end, we got out the door, but who knows what we forgot!

We tried something new, stayed at one of those park-sleep-fly hotels near the airport where, for the price of a cheap room you can leave your car for the duration of your trip. It was very restful to do that, since we fly out at 7:30 am, and return quite late on the 19th. We didn't have to ask any of our loved ones to give up sleep and drive us over the hill.

Internet may be spotty (at best) in Puglia, but I will post when I can. Arrivederci!

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Location:San Jose Mineta Airport

The Best Little Boy...

2011-09-10T08:53:00.000-07:00

Desmond is three years old, and is the best grandchild anyone could be lucky enough to have! He is sunny, energetic, and curious about everything. His conversations are priceless and precious. He speaks in full paragraphs, sings to himself, and asks amazing questions. Lucky me, I get to be with him several times a week for special grandma time. I always regret not writing down some of the things my children said when they were little, so I will take a minute here to record these few things about him. Desmond's vocabulary is quite huge, but he still says "potooter" for computer, "fananic" for mechanic, and "hoppatopter" for helicopter! He recently asked Daniella (whom he calls Zuzu) "Zuzu, is Zuma your daughter?" Zuma is our rat terrier dog! And one day after we came back from Australia he was telling me all about something and I said "Wow, Desmond, you don't miss much!" He instantly reponded "I missed you, Keema, you were gone such a long time." Heart meltingly sweet, this boy.

A week in Mendocino

2011-08-28T07:28:00.001-07:00

We arrived Friday afternoon in Mendocino where Daniella is teaching a 5 day encaustic painting class at the Mendocino Art Center. Drive up was gorgeous, through the rolling wine country of the Anderson Valley, then through the stately redwood alley, the Navarro River State Park, like being in a great, miles-long cathedral all made of tall trees. Finally the last few miles up the foggy and rugged coast, to this quiet little village. Here there is so little traffic that people stroll around in the streets. The pace of life is slow and quiet. Little shops and cafes dot the byways. The Pacific coastline wraps around three sides of this muffin of land, with high bluffs and golden meadows running down to the sea.

The class is small and intimate. There is enough space that even I am getting to paint. We are staying in a tiny apartment on the grounds of the art center, in a blue building nestled in the garden courtyard. This is pretty sweet, I gotta tell ya!

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Location:Mendocino, California North Coast

Home!

2011-08-03T07:12:00.001-07:00

After a pretty comfortable and easy flight on Quantas, we got back to California Tuesday morning. It was joyful to have our little Desmond race across the airport and throw himself into our arms. I think he missed us!

Everything fine here. Tomatoes ripening in the garden, little dogs happy, good Mexican food just down the street. Lots of new art exhibits to visit nearby. Weather, as usual, perfect. We are so blessed! Home feels really good.

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Location:Santa Cruz, CA

A Very Grand Finale

2011-08-02T13:35:00.001-07:00

Sadly, our travels in Australia are finished. We flew into Sydney on our last morning, dumped our luggage at an airport hotel, and raced into the city. We had places to go and people to see, and didn't want to lose a minute of our precious OZ time.

First we went to the Powerhouse Museum, where we met up with the lovely Anthea for a visit to a new exhibit there called "Love Lace" or "Make Lace, Not War". It was an amazingly varied show with just about everything that could be called "lacy" without being traditional lace. For example, the very first display was an old, vintage pickup truck that someone had cut through so that the doors, hood and roof were all pierced into a lace pattern. Other artists used echidna spikes (similar to porcupine quills), metal, ceramic, paper, cloth, plastic, and so much more. We got a little hungry, so Anthea drove us up to her neighborhood, called Crow's Nest, across the Harbour Bridge, where we had a little nosh and then visited her art studio for awhile.

At about 7 pm she dropped us off back in the city at a pub called the Clock on Crown Street. Here we met up with our little Sydney posse, Derek and Celia, and Sophie with her charming husband, Greg. Those of you who have read this blog before know that these people have become our dear and beloved friends and playmates here. Derek was our host and sponsor in SYD, and Celia and Sophie have attended two of our workshops. They are pure gold as human beings, and pure joy as companions. We had a long and splendid evening together, first at the pub, and the later at a deliriously delicious Japanese place down the block. We laughed until we ached, and then sadly took our leave. It was after midnight when we got back to our room, exhausted but so full of priceless memories of these weeks in Australia. And for certain, we will be back.

We leave with a deep attachment to this amazing continent. To be sure we have seen very little of it, but as much as possible we have been soaking in the stories, the colorful language, the ancient aboriginal history, the deep British roots, the voices, the constant joking and laughter, the sounds of the birds, the different neighborhoods we have visited. Most of all, our journey has been about new friends, new connections, and the pleasure of watching our students get fired up and excited about this new methodology which Daniella has brought them. We feel so bonded with Mark and Daina from Chapman and Bailey who launched us so elegantly, with Bernadette and Sue in Melbourne, with our Waxing Down Undah crew of 10 from Ballarat, with Anthea and Susan and others from Warringah, with the fabulous painters in our Sydney class at Parkers, and those in Brisbane. From the stables to the city centers, what a ride this has been!

We are so grateful for the way that our Australian friends have wrapped their arms around us, both literally and figuratively. We have been invited into many homes, treated to magnificent meals, driven around at all hours of the day and night. We have been given lovely and generous gifts. We have been treated to the most entertaining, informative, and sparkling conversations. We have been loved here in a big way, and in return we love Australia in a big way! Thank you dear, precious Aussies. You know who you are! You are Gorgeous and Brilliant!

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Location:Sydney, AU

So Done!

2011-07-31T13:25:00.001-07:00

Workshops are over! Six of them behind us. Daniella wowed Australia with her incredible professionalism, huge breadth of knowledge, and over-the-top sense of humor. It is a winning combination and people here are begging her to come back, and sooner rather than later!

Yesterday was a great finale to the class. People did "brilliant" work in the class, and mid-day we got take-away Vietnamese soup and sat out in the sun for a tasty picnic together. It felt good to clean all that equipment and then pack up our 10 boxes for the last time. I was utterly exhausted by the end, but we walked down to Chinatown for one last meal of "Ripper King Prawns" and Asian greens with garlic.

Oh, and I forgot to mention breakfast, pictured above. We were out walking and since it was Sunday morning, not much was opened. Then we saw people streaming into a small alley. We followed, and found a tiny, hidden jewel of a place where we sat outside on milk crate stools and ate the MOST divine breakfast we have had in OZ, and there have been some winners. D. had eggs Benedict, and I ordered the muesli. It was more like a rich granola full of macadamia nuts, covered in Greek yogurt, and a mix of raspberries, strawberries, and blueberries soaked in rose water. It was heavenly!! And some of the best coffee and chai latte of the trip too. Who knew that macadamia nuts are from Australia, more common here than in Hawaii??!

Here are a couple of random photos from the class. Sophie gave us a huge gift at the end, a copy of a big book of her gorgeous paintings, with a loving inscription. It you want to google her, she is Sophie Gralton, a fabulous painter and out-of-control fun person. She and Celia together are like an all day fireworks event, too much fun!! We will see them both once more, tonight in Sydney. Which reminds me. Get up. Pack. Go to airport. Fly to Sydney. Have one more day of fun. Fly to California! Yaaaay!!

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Location:Brisbane, AU

OMG - A Huge Surprise Today!!!

2011-07-30T13:52:00.001-07:00

We left our funky (but comfortable) B & ( no) B and headed out for our last encaustic class in Australia. We had heard that the class would be small, only 6 enrolled. It's a good thing, because we are in quite a small room, maybe as big as our kitchen at home, very tight quarters. By 10 am everybody had arrived except for "Claudia Schiffer and "Olivia Harris". We waited.

A few minutes later, up drove a big car and out stepped our pals Celia and Sophie, who were our students and wild playmates last weekend in Sydney! It was a huge, rollicking surprise. We were excited to see them, but also wondered how we could make room for two more people in a room so small and crowded. It turns out that they had enrolled under fake names to surprise us. Those rascals were really our Claudia and Olivia. And then the fun began!

It is a very good group. Besides them there are 2 lively professional women artists, one young art student, and a professor (man) from the local art college. Everybody jumped in fearlessly and began right away to paint!

At our lunch break we asked about where we could find something nearby, but Sophie said "oh no, let's go to Chinatown" so we climbed into her car and went on a quick and frightening ride into downtown. She jumped out, marched up to the first Asian person she saw, and asked "where is the best Yum Cha lunch?". We had seen signs for Yum Cha all over Chinatown but didn't know what it was. Turned out it was dim sum, and we had a fantastic banquet, with Sophie impulsively ordering dish after dish of wonderful things. Completely delicious! what a treat!!

We had to race back to the class, a bit late but we made it up at the end. Our students were gracious about it, and the afternoon flew by with much fun and laughter. At the end of the day, Sophie and Celia were ready to play, so we found a place to go for drinks, and then another for a lighter dinner of pizza and rocket salad. We talked and laughed for hours into the night, and finally they drove us back to our hotel. It was like going through a maze - we know how to walk to it, but not how to drive to it, and we circled around it in the dark many times before finally plunging into the little alley that takes us to One Thornbury. What a great day!

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Location:Brisbane, AU

Odds and Ends day

2011-07-29T03:32:00.001-07:00

We lazed about today, strolled down to Chinatown for lunch. Did a little laundry. Ate a cannoli for a treat. And set up for our sixth and final workshop here in Brizzie.

Tonight we found a place with excellent Korean food, and here is Daniella crying with happiness, or with excessively hot Kim Chee while eating her favorite dish, Kim Chee Chi Gae, best ever outside Korea!

And now for a little musical interlude. It has been pointed out by an Australian friend that my impressions of this country are sadly lacking in any commentary on music. Alas I am ill-equipped in so many ways to say anything at all about music, but she and another new friend have both sent us the same very moving and exciting YouTube clip as a starting off point. I love the music, and most of the performances take place in the elegant Sydney Opera House, where we just visited last week. I will link to it here.

But I will have to admit that my favorite music of all these days is the sound of the birds outside our window in the mornings, so exotic and melodious. We saw two of them singing a duet together this morning. They are Australian magpies - they have grabbed me by the heart! Here is a YouTube somebody recorded that is a near variation of what wakes us up each day so joyously!

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Location:Brisbane,AU

Into the Woods

2011-07-28T15:49:00.001-07:00

I've been longing to get out into the countryside, and yesterday we managed to do it. Since we aren't driving here in AU, we signed up for a day tour into the rain forests, south of here. Our driver picked us up at 6:30 am in this 4WD vehicle, and off we went.

We drove south along the Gold Coast for about an hour and a half until we got to Surfers Paradise, a city that looks like Miami Beach, miles of beaches with golden sand, and miles of high-rise hotels and luxury apartments lining the beach fronts. It was indistinguishable from many US luxury beach areas. In fact, much of the Brisbane area is indistinguishable from much of California. The city has every American excess, every junk food outlet imaginable, big box stores, glaring advertising in the metropolitan areas. It is a fairly young city, brash, and a bit vulgar in my opinion. And the countryside, similarly, looks just like California with a few exceptions.

We turned inland and drove a long way back into the interior where we began climbing the steepest, most winding road I've ever experienced. It wound up and around some mountain ridges for 42 kilometers before we reached the top and our first destination, O'Reillys, which is really a resort on the so-called Scenic Rim, that once was a ranch. In the middle of the Lamington National Park, it is a few acres scraped off clear in the middle of a dense forest of eucalypts and boo yang trees and many we could not identify. We learned, for example, that the aboriginals made boomerangs from cutting out pieces of the root shown above, which already has a natural curve in it.

The big attraction here was the catwalk through the treetops which meandered throughout the area and gave us the opportunity to examine the trees up close. Here is my favorite cat walker!

After the driver served us tea at a picnic area, we had to fasten our seat belts for the descent, which was all on a rutted and horribly eroded dirt road called Duck Creek Road. It took about 45 minutes to get down the road, jouncing all over the place. We stopped occasionally to look at the outstanding views from the roadside.

When we emerged, we drove through farms and many horse raising areas, very beautiful. On this journey we saw five kangaroos in the wild - three jumping across the field, one sitting bolt upright, and one crouched down in a golden meadow. I also saw a kookaburra, a wild turkey, and a gorgeous rose and grey parrot. But the wildlife spotting was very disappointing in general. We drove so fast through most places and there was no time to be still and look around.

After a picnic lunch near the little town of Canungra, "place of the owls", and another looooooong drive, we got to our last stop, a beautiful waterfall in deep forest in Springbrook National Park, that falls through a stone arch with a deep stone cave behind it. Normally the cave is full of glow-worms, but there were none to see when we got in there. Only the pretty waterfall.

Back into the 4WD for an endlessly long drive back to the city, stuck in traffic for most of the last hour. Overall the day had some interesting moments but not enough to justify a whole day, and all that driving. At least we saw some of the countryside, even if while whizzing by.

Got to our hotel at about 6:30 pm, tired and hungry. Since we have come to believe that our B&B sits in the middle of a dead zone (no public transport, no food, nothing but houses) we did a little Internet research and decided to walk out in a new direction. Lo and behold we found ourselves in Chinatown, just a ten minute walk from here. Had a delicious Vietnamese dinner, and thus ended a very long day with a bit of a sweet finale!

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Location:Brisbane, AU

Feeling Better

2011-07-27T00:28:00.001-07:00

Things are looking up a bit. A good cup of chai latte and some exhiliratingly blue sky did wonders for my spirits this morning. Today we walked for hours. In fact we walked all the way across Brisbane before we were done, and then part of the way back again.

We headed over to the GOMA, or Gallery of Modern Art. The sculpture below greeted us as we strolled into the big empty plaza outside the museum. The building sits on the bank of the Brisbane River, in a huge complex of art galleries and performing arts venues.

Inside we looked for hours at some wonderful exhibits. The big show was art work from the Torres Straits islanders, people whose homeland is off the coast of Queensland in the direction of Papua, New Guinea. The vibrant works of art shown here are similar to but yet significantly different from Australian aboriginal art. They use strong lines and patterns, but the colors and techniques are completely different. Themes reflect a life in tune with the sea.

This last one is an aboriginal piece that we saw upstairs in the Library adjacent to GOMA.

This photo is for Angela Gleason.

We walked through a big farmers market this morning, and then later went to the area called West End, where many ethnic restaurants and shops are grouped together. Our lunch was Greek, but it was hard to choose from so many nationalities. After a lot more walking (and we were too hot-imagine!) we caught a bus to somewhere reasonably close to our little B &B.
Now we are resting, listening to the exotic and piercing bird calls outside our window.

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Location:Brisbane, AU

Brisbane Blues

2011-07-26T03:32:00.001-07:00

We are in Brisbane. So far we feel like we are in a suburb of LA, in an isolated bed and breakfast, but with no breakfast, no public transport near us. Hopefully tomorrow will be cheerier. At least it is sunny and mild, or as they say here, "fine". Not so much.

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Location:Brisbane, AU

H20NO

2011-07-25T22:22:00.001-07:00

Yes, it is true. Yesterday the sun shone in Australia, and it was glorious. We had a "day off" and took advantage of it. For a few hours we became sightseers, after a long working week.

First we took the train into the city, and got out near the Royal Botanic Gardens. The impromptu planter above was not in the Royal Gardens, but something we saw along the way.

The gardens were the perfect place to be yesterday. Australians were rejoicing to be out in the sunshine. The park is full of formal and informal gardens, and avenues of huge old trees like these.

We met up with our friend Anthea, who was in one of our workshops, and together we toured the National Art museum, which has a rich collection of aboriginal art, as well as numerous contemporary art works. It was great to have Anthea as a guide and companion. She knew so much about what we were seeing, and she is a fun person to be with.

Next we strolled down through the gardens to a sweet restaurant with an upstairs terrace overlooking some tropical ponds and gardens. While we ate a particularly scrumptious lunch (parsnip, celeriac, and hazelnut soup shown here) we were entertained by an array of birds who came right up to the tables looking for scraps. There were several Noisy Indian Minor birds, and many Ibis who hopped right onto table tops looking for goodies.

One area of the park was notable for the huge resident population of Fruit Bats (flying foxes). The dark sacs you can see on the tree below are all fruit bats hanging upside down. Many were flying around in broad daylight, or stretching and scratching themselves, and they make a raucous loud screeching noise. I could have watched them for hours!

After lunch we strolled through the park to the Sydney Opera House. Anthea left us there, and we signed up for an hour-long tour of the building, which was highly informative and delightful. We got into most of the theaters where rehearsals were going on, stage sets being built, etc. Fantastic building, with an amazing history of how it was designed and constructed.

At sunset we sat outside the Opera House and watched a little rain storm that swept across the western side of the city as the sun went down. There was a rainbow, and this golden hued sky.

To end the day, and our week in Sydney, we walked around the city and into the Rocks area where we met Derek and Celia for a final, celebratory evening together. We chose the Lord Nelson pub, on the recommendation of our Santa Crus pal Kristine, because she told us they have the best fish and chips in the world. After a hearty plate of of them, we can't argue with her. Once again an evening full of laughter, good, food, and great conversation as we deepen our friendship with these two very sweet people.

Now we are in the air en route to Brisbane and our next adventures!

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Location:Sydney, AU

Learning the Lingo

2011-07-24T15:33:00.001-07:00

Bottle brush (after the workshop ended)....

Workshop number 5 is finished, and was Bonza (excellent). Great artwork happened, met faboo people, and we had an especially Ripper Rita (fantastic) time with our super hosts, Derek and Celia. They are truly "fair dinkum" (the genuine item), couldn't ask for more thoughtful, generous and fun people to hang with. We admire and love them both!

Tomorrow we are off to Brisneyland, of Bris Vegas, or Brizzie as the folks in Sydney refer to it. What fun we have had so far!

Even though this journey has not been so much about sightseeing, we have been deeply immersed in conversations with many Australians, and have been studying the language intensively. It is wildly colorful and exotic to us. Here are a few highlights so far:

Aussies tend to shorten long, multiple-syllable words and add an O. So we get "lingo" for language, "relo" for relatives, "ambo" for ambulance, "arvo" for afternoon, "smoko" for a tea or smoking break from work, "doco" for documentary, "dero" for a hobo, tramp (from derelict), "garbo" for garbage, "nasho" for National Service", and so many more. An electrician is a "sparky", carpenter a "chippie".

We love how people say "good on ya" when you have done something well, or when they are wishing you well.

There are many colorful ways to say that somebody is dumb or crazy: "he has a kangaroo loose in the upper paddock", "she is a few prawns short of a barbie", "a sandwich short of a picnic", "one brick short of a load", etc.

When you are suddenly surprised or amazed you can say "stone the crows!"', or "cut off my legs and call me shorty!", or "God strike me fat!" if you are a skinny person. If something is simple and easy to accomplish (you push a button and something magical happens) you can say "Bob's your uncle!"

Doing something quickly can be "in two shakes of a lamb's tail" or more often "in two shakes", or in "half a tick" (as in the ticking of a clock).

We love the great descriptions of various things: "mad as a cut snake", "cross as a frog in a sock", "grinning like a shot fox" (smugly satisfied), "dry as a dead dingo's dodger". A drunk can be a "two-pot screamer". Female genitals are called "fanny" or "mappa Tassie" (map of Tasmania).

A chicken is a "chook", and being ill is "crook", and people are sometimes "crook as a chook". Having sex can be to "root" or "have a naughty". Someone who talks too much is an "ear basher". To "whinge" is to complain or whine. You might be given a prezzie (gift) and you can only hope it is not bodgy (poor quality). Some Aussies get their "tucker" (food) at "Maccas" (McDonalds). A microwave is a "tuckerfucker".

And now, for fear of being thought an ear basher and making you whinge, I'll just say "Hooroo" (goodbye).

Oh, and be sure to check out Daniella's blog too!

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Location:Sydney, AU

Musing on the Archibald

2011-07-23T14:23:00.001-07:00

Some things are just eerily serendipitous. On our first night in Melbourne, several weeks ago, we went for dinner to a fairly lousy Chinese restaurant. It was noisy and crowded, and we were studying the menu when the lively young woman next to me leaned over and said "don't order the Lemon Chicken - it's like rubber." After that salient piece of advice, we struck up a rambling conversation and somewhere along the line, she said that we would have to go see the Archibald Prize exhibit out at Tarawara. We didn't know what she was talking about, but duly made note of it, and a few days later we made our way to the exhibit, using several trains and buses to get there.

In an earlier blog I talked about what an amazing show it was. What has been even more amazing is how the thread of it has followed us everywhere throughout Australia. Everyone talks about it. Many artists we have met have entered the competition. We have seen the work of the Archibald finalists in many museums and galleries. Last night when we visited Celia Gullett, one of her studio mates was a former Archibald winner, and several of his big canvas portraits were lying around in the studio, many about ten feet tall! If not for that random comment in a restaurant, we might have missed it all. Thank you, Rubber Chicken Lady!!

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Location:Sydney, AU

Artist's Paradise

2011-07-23T14:01:00.001-07:00

Yes, rain again yesterday. After we ducked into a little patisserie down the block for a morning chai latte, we were kindly picked up by Derek Parker, our host for this current workshop. Derek owns the Parkers Art Supply store where our workshop is happening. For starters, I carried along a bag of dirty laundry. We had spotted a laundry where you can leave your washing for a day and pick it up in the afternoon all clean and folded. I dropped it off at 9, but in the churn of the workshop, forgot to pick it up! They were closed, of course, when I remembered, and today is Sunday. Have no idea if they will be open, but if not, our luggage just got pounds lighter! Not such a bad thing we reckon.

This was an amazing workshop, full of many professional artists, many of whom regularly show at big galleries in Australia. Some of them have been experimenting with encaustics, and all of them were loaded with technical questions that took up the first two hours of the class, bam, right out of the gates! Daniella is eminently equipped to answer anything thrown her way, and so she made an impressive start to the morning. By mid-afternoon, people were making the most beautiful art works already. Can't wait to see where they take it today, but they are an exciting group, and SO thrilled to get this great class that Daniella offers.

At the end of the day, Derek and his partner, Celia Gullett, took us to her studio to see her beautiful oil paintings and collages, all inspired by the Australian bush. We drank Moet Chandon and talked about art. Next we went down to the Rocks section of Sydney for a lovely Japanese dinner together.

Then, like a magical mystery tour, Derek opened his art store and took us on a tour of the most magnificent art supply palace we have ever seen, stocked with the finest of artists mediums, papers, and canvases. We were stunned by the scope of it, by the beauty of the displays, and by Derek's generosity as he loaded up Daniella with an armful of gifts.

And today, Sunday, the forecast is for sunshine! We will be inside in the workshop most of the day, so we won't notice much. But sunshine, now there is a concept......Then tonight we pack up all our boxes once again to get them ready for shipment to Brisbane for workshop number 6, the final curtain call. This month has flown by, and at the same time it seems like we've been away for months.

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Location:Sydney, AU

Rain Does Not Dampen Fun, Does Not, Does Not. Repeat & Believe.

2011-07-22T14:16:00.001-07:00

Drenching rain continues here. Yesterday I went out for an hour-long walk in the morning, despite it. When it got too bad, I stopped under some overhang and sometimes got to chat with others who were seeking shelter from the massive amounts of water coming down. I walked in a neighborhood near us called Paddington, where most of the contemporary art galleries are located. I also saw a lot of these gorgeous old gum trees, just huge! Yes I got soaked, But it was worth it!

At noon we went out with our lovely and generous friend Susan. She first took us to a nearby gallery to seen the work of Jenny Sages, an Australian encaustic artist. The work was beautiful, and we also got to watch a DVD of Jenny working. She was not totally new to us. When we went to the Archibald portrait exhibit in Tarawara, her portrait of her (now deceased) husband Jack was one of our favorites of all in that show.

Next we drove over to Darling Point and Double Bay, two of the poshest areas in Sydney. There we did a little banking, some sightseeing, etc. The photo below was taken from the street where Nicole Kidman and Tom Cruise lived when they were together, complete with on-street security guard. The view is across a harbor to the city skyline, spectacular even in the wet conditions.

After a scrumptious lunch in Bondi Beach, we came back to the hotel to regroup. At 5 pm we took a train to Parkers, the location of our next workshop. In two hours, we got all set up and ready to start this morning with workshop number FIVE. What a marathon this has been! Derek Parker, the owner of this framing and art-supply business, is the fourth generation of Parkers to own this shop. He remembers working with his grandfather when he was a child, and most of the great art work of Australia for the past 100 years has passed through the hands of this shop. We are honored to be presenting in this venerable location, and delighted to get to know Derek!

Location:Sydney, AU

Afloat with the Warringa Printmakers

2011-07-21T14:31:00.001-07:00

Four classes done, two more ahead. Today a day off, until 5pm when we set up again. Everything turned out well in this last class. Most of the students are printmakers, so it was a stretch for many of them to turn on the torches, fire up the palates, and slather their work in hot wax! They forged ahead courageously and made some beautiful work.

At the end of the day, we packed our boxes in record time and set off with our host, Susan, in a pounding rain storm. In fact it poured all day yesterday, so the streets were flooded, and traffic was intense. After dropping off all the equipment at our next venue, we went to Susan's house to feed and walk her little Boston terrier, Lucy.

Finally we three went out to dinner in Susan's neighborhood, Bondi Beach, at a very special and unusual place, The Iceberg Club! This is a members-only club that sits right on the beach. Last night the waves were crashing right into the Iceberg's oceanside pool and washing up to the base of the restaurant. Here, to retain membership in the club, each member must swim in the ice-filled pool at least 4 times each winter! If they fail to do this, their membership is ended. It was a wonderful treat to be taken to this amazing place. Be sure to look at their web site to see the views of the pool, the city skyline, and the beauty of Bondi Beach. We had a delicious steak dinner watching the wild surf, then finally got back to the hotel at about 10pm. Tired but happy!

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Location:Sydney, AU

A Challenging Day

2011-07-20T02:05:00.001-07:00

Here are a couple of photos of our great. Little home away from home in Sydney. It is a charming old hotel in a charming neighborhood. Last night there was a fire alarm at 1:30 am which I totally missed. Daniella got up, went out in the hallway, and waited around for the firemen to give the all-clear, but I was so sound asleep I missed the whole event, very unusual for me, a usually light sleeper! I am obviously sleeping well here.

It began to rain heavily here yesterday afternoon, and the rain continued all day today, along with heavy winds. The forecast is for this to continue through the weekend. So much for tucking in a little sightseeing between work hours, but we will try.

We set up our classroom last night, and the space is very good, spacious, warm, plenty of electrical outlets. The location is in Mosman, about 45 minutes from here, across bridges, through tunnels, and out near Manly Beach on the outskirts of Sydney. A very kind woman picks us up in the morning and drives us out there and back again in the evenings. We are seeing a lot of Sydney while driving across it. Frustrating indeed!

We are done with day 1, having a picnic in our room, and watching some Aussie TV. Feels good to relax " at home".

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Location:Sydney, AU

OUT and about in Sydney

2011-07-18T19:32:00.001-07:00

Went exploring our neighborhood this morning. First stop was for coffee and chai latte at a small coffee shop called The Bunker, a local hangout full of people, dogs, and good cuppas.

Next we went to the National Art School of New South Wales to see a joint Korean/Australian art exhibit.

This school is housed in a former prison (or gaol as it's called here), a massive series of buildings inside a heavily fortified stone wall enclosure.

The skull and bones does not mean that we are at Yale, but is a leftover from prison life.

Next we wandered down to Oxford Street and found ourselves in the equivalent of the Castro, rainbow flags everywhere, gay businesses everywhere, and a thriving gay community.

In the center of this huge square is a monument called Camp Stonewall, a concrete bunker covered with tiles scrawled with gay graffiti and messages, and a sound system broadcasting first-person coming out stories. It was very moving,

Just before lunch we walked back in the other direction from our hotel, and within a few blocks found ourselves in the red light district, King's Cross. Oh, and about two blocks away is the Crest Hotel which offers complete Korean bath house treatments, scrubs, massages, ginseng soaks, etc. We just might have to bite the bullet and try it.

Ate our fabulous Thai leftovers for lunch, now getting ready to go set up the next workshop.

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Location:Sydney, AU

Bye bye Melbourne, Hello Sydney

2011-07-18T04:36:00.001-07:00

We flew into Sydney this afternoon. Here it is balmy with sunny skies, feels like summer after Ballarat. Our new hotel is Morgans Boutique Hotel in Darlinghurst, a snazzy neighborhood with everything a "foodie" could dream of just outside our door. A huge collection of casual ethnic restaurants, upscale grocery stores, a gelato shop, wine shop, great bakeries, and so much more. Better yet, we have a kitchenette in our hotel, so we can make some of our own meals, a welcome change from all the eating out. There is a supermarket about a block away, and the equivalent of a fancy Shoppers Corner on the next block down.

Yesterday we had a quiet last day in Melbourne. We made our way into a suburb to have lunch at the home of Gail, someone D. Met in Korea last year at the Papermakers convention she went to.

After lunch Gail took us to the Heide Museum built on the estate of a family who were artists and art collectors. There is a large sculpture garden and several exhibits there. It was a grey and drizzly last day, and the exhibits were also pretty dull.

We decided to go out for one last good celebration in Melbourne, at the Oriental Spoon again where we ate Kim Chee Chegai, and Bi Bim Bap. Yum!

It was sad to leave dear Melbourne behind. We have now had four separate stays at the Hotel Victoria since we came here, and thoroughly scoured the surrounding neighborhoods on our daily walks. It is an alluring and enticing city, so richly textured and colorful and comfortable and full of sweet surprises. Perhaps Sydney will get that way for us at some point, but today it feels as if we have left behind a dear old friend.

We have learned a lot about the huge role of sports in Australian culture. Football, or "footie" is a mad passion here. Every district has it's own team, particularly in Melbourne, and people swarm the matches in droves. The players wear shorts and jerseys, no helmets, no padding, and they play rough. It is quite amazing to watch it on tv. Another thing we learned is that Australia has a national holiday every year for the Melbourne Cup horse race. The whole country comes to a halt for the race, and, we were told, even the Aussie soldiers in Afghanistan stop shooting for four minutes while the race is happening!

Tomorrow we will go out exploring this new city. In the afternoon we set up for the next workshop. And it will be Thai food for dinner!! G'night, mates.

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Location:Sydney, AU

The Waxing Down Undah Women of Ballarat

2011-07-16T16:30:00.001-07:00

Here are some photos from our Ballarat class of fabulous women.

Liz

Christine

With their torches...

Kathryn

Kathryn again

Lisbeth

Janette

Dawna

Christine

Gaye

Mo

Margaret

Location:Ballarat, AU

Half way there.

2011-07-16T16:28:00.003-07:00

Our time in Ballarat drew to a bitter-sweet end yesterday. The class was terrific, such a remarkable group of women, so talented, playful, funny, and warm. We grew to love each of the ten of them, and know we will see them again someday. There were closing festivities in the frosty dining hall, and then we packed our bags and said a happy farewell to the dreary boarding school life we have been living. Loved the people, did not love the facilities!

Daniella got people folding boats wherever we went. These lovely ones were made by the marvelous Margaret from Bruny Island, off the coast of Tasmania. Her husband is a boat lover, so she made a big series of boats.
The photo below shows some of the finished student work on the last day of class.

We met a woman named Linda who has become a big fan of Daniella's by watching her DVD. She was vibrant, smart, and sassy and she offered to take us on an excursion yesterday, which we were thrilled to accept. It turns out, she is a terrific artist and a delightful person. She picked us up yesterday morning and first drove us to a town called Daylesford, a delightful spa town in the hills north of Melbourne. We visited a convent on a hilltop that has been converted into an art gallery/cafe/shop, a gorgeous renovation of a beautiful old building.

Here is Linda at the beautiful spa resort in Daylesford.

The sign at the entrance to the converted convent cafe, Bad Habits!

The view from the top of the convent, looking out over the countryside.

A typical Australian house from the gold-rush era. We have seen hundreds that look like this, with the elaborate cast-iron gingerbread trim.

Next Linda took us to Castlemaine, another lovely small town, where a gallery had an exhibit of her stunning assemblage pieces. Wow, she is so talented!

Finally we drove through spectacular countryside to her home, where we were treated to a fabulous lunch and tour of the home and surroundings. We met Peter and Lloyd, her husband and house mate, and had a delightful afternoon with them all. Weather was perfect, for a change, and we relaxed and soaked in the kindness and hospitality.

Finally Linda drove us back to Melbourne, a nearly 2 hour drive, and dropped us at Hotel Victoria once again. Very soon after we checked in, our friends Bernie and Sue provided valet service from our hotel to their place in Fairfield, where they had cooked us a totally divine meal: champagne, Turkish soup and bread, osso bucco with gremolata, mashed sweet and white potatoes, and many steamed vegetables, all served with their usual blend of spicy and stimulating conversation and laughter. We are truly the founding members of the lucky girls society, and blessed with these rich friendships we are making over here. We LOVE Australia and these wonderful people!

Location:Melbourne, AU

Cuppy Cake

2011-07-16T16:28:00.001-07:00

Dear Desmond,
You're my honey bunch, sugar plum
Pumpy-umpy ump kin
You're my sweetie pie.
You're my cuppy cake, gumdrop,
Snoogums-boogums
You're the apple of my eye!
And I love you so
And I want you to know that
I'll always be right here
And I love to sing this song to you
Because you are so dear!

Happy 3 year old birthday. We love and miss you so much!!
Keema and Zuzu

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Location:Melbourne, AU

Winding down in Ballarat

2011-07-14T14:23:00.001-07:00

On Wednesday evening, we escaped from boarding school and went out into the countryside for dinner at the lovely home of a friend whom Daniella had met in Korea. Rosalind, and her Irish husband Paddy built the place themselves with adobe bricks, hand- hewn beams from their own trees, and beautiful river stones. Every inch of the place was beautiful, and they made a lovely dinner for us, a welcome break from the daily boarding school meals we have been eating here. It's not that the food is bad, but I wouldn't call it good either.

Then yesterday we had another little break when we went into central Ballarat for the first time to visit a little gallery. The downtown looks remarkably like many of the California gold-rush towns, all historically preserved to tell the story of Australia's great gold rush years. The photo above is a quick shot of the street.

In the middle of yesterday afternoons class, Pamela, the resident Aboriginal artist, came into our workshop and gave a talk about the history of Australia's indigenous people. The map she is holding shows how Australia was held by different tribal peoples before the arrival of the white population. She is an amazing resource, and has a wealth of cultural knowledge to share.

Each class gets to decorate the "head table" in our freezing cold dining room with art work from the class. Our class contributed the little folded boats. Can you believe that D. has been folding boats all over Australia and gotten a whole bunch of people to join her?!

Today is the last day of class. For the most part (if you don't count the icy cold weather and lack of heat) it has been a great time. The women here are a resilient, joyful, and rowdy bunch. They work hard, love a good laugh, and are amazingly creative and enthusiastic. We have made some amazing friendships over the five days together. Yesterday D. was invited to come back in April, 2013 to do it all over again. We will think about that. Meanwhile today we have to pack up all the equipment by 3 pm, when it will be picked up by truck to ship to Sydney for our next adventure. Tomorrow we return to beloved Melbourne for two more nights at the Hotel Victoria.

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Location:Ballarat, AU

A day of Few Words

2011-07-12T14:31:00.001-07:00

Yesterday was all words and no photos. Today I have a couple of photos, and few words. The workshop is great, women are so loving it. Here are a couple of views of a class demonstration in progress.

Last evening Daniella gave her "teacher's talk" to everyone here at the Ballarat workshops. She was a huge hit, with her hilarious slide show, beautiful art slides, and highly entertaining presentation. The photo below shows Pamela, the aboriginal woman, doing a smoking ceremony for Daniella before the talk began. No, that other person is not Daniella!
All for now. G'day mateys.

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Location:Ballarat, AU

Morning Musings

2011-07-11T14:08:00.001-07:00

Back at McDonald's, Ballarat, having a lovely chai latte. This of you who know me know I am a mega-chai fan. Here in Australia they make the chai latte, which is essentially frothy warm spiced milk, with a lot of fresh nutmeg and cinnamon grated on top. It is a delicious substitute for the real thing, and even Mickey D's makes a great one! I am hooked.

The first day of the workshop was yesterday. The 10 women in our class are from all over Australia, including some quite remote islands and interior towns. They are wonderfully talented and excited about learning encaustic. Two of them even have a a lot of experience and have taught their own encaustic classes here, but they are amazed at all D. has to teach them. We are laughing all day as they regale us with assorted Aussie expressions and witticisms. We hear phrases their grandparents used, such as "stone the crows!" for when you are hugely surprised by something. We are becoming adept in the use of "good on ya, mate" instead of "good job". The linguistic chewiness here is delicious, full of color and humor and reflecting a deep affiliation with the British Isles, skewed by the Australian humor. Delightful!

Thankfully I am warmer today. There was a period of 24 hours when I was not a happy camper. The heat went off and one night we completely froze in our room. Camping in winter was my only analogy. I was not amused.

There are about 60-70 women here, most of them on the distant side of 50 like us. About a dozen of them are sporting flaming crimson hair, either partial or complete. It seems to be a trend among older women artists, I'm guessing.

There is one aboriginal woman too, who last night did a smoking ceremony for us all. She had a bucket of coals and she had each of us add a fresh eucalyptus branch to the smoking bucket. She told us that the indigenous people use this smoking ceremony to mark every important occasion, births, deaths, whatever. The smoke smelled beautifully fragrant!

Alas I have no photos from yesterday. I hope to do better next time!

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Morning in Melbourne, Afternoon in Ballarat

2011-07-09T15:00:00.001-07:00

After a great night at the Hotel Victoria, we spent yesterday morning strolling around Melbourne. Since it was Saturday, everybody was relaxed and the sun was shining (hallelujah!). We had breakfast at the Queen Victoria Farmer's Market again then set out strolling. We crossed the Yarra River and went along the Southgate Esplanade, a lovely walkway along the river banks.

There were magicians and mimes, lots of children, and many outdoor eateries. Melbourne has been designated one of the top "slow food"cities in the world. People take their cuisine seriously here, and the opportunities to eat spectacularly well seem endless.

This little knife holder display in a kitchen supply store caught my attention. Good for when you are having "one of those days"!

There are lots of horse and carriage teams in Melbourne. This team was resting under a bridge.

Hilarious street signs everywhere. Watch Daniella's blog for lots of these.

Australia has a big pub culture, due to it's British roots. Old signs like this abound.

The drive up to Ballarat was beautiful, and looked just like California, and then Oregon. Very green, rolling hills, ponds, sheep, gorgeous.

Ballarat is a town founded during Australia's huge gold rush, in the mid and late 1800's, so many historic places here related to gold mining. We are staying at the Ballarat Episcopal Grammar School, a private high school, very posh. We have a student dorm room with two beds, two closets, two desks and there are bathrooms, computers, washer and dryer, and a kitchen downstairs. They are cooking for us too, and last night we had a kind of large dinner served up. There are five classes going on here, in printmaking, collage, and encaustic, and five instructors from Australia, New Zealand, Tasmania, Germany, and then us. The classroom this time, especially after the stables, is like going to the Hilton!

This morning we unpack our 12 boxes again and set up. Student arrive this afternoon, workshop starts tomorrow! Missing our Desmond and our doggies and our friends. What's new in your world??

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Location:Ballarat, AU

Another Workshop Behind Us

2011-07-08T13:52:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we finished up the workshop at Bundoora Park with the papermakers. It was another frigid day, as the group photo below so amply illustrates!

We braced ourselves for what could have been logistically our most difficult day of the journey. The challenge was that we had to do the workshop, and then have every single thing packed up and out of the park no later than 5 pm (workshop ended at 4!) Since we are dealing with hot wax everywhere, tubs of it, and heated palattes, and 12 boxes of stuff all packed up, that meant a big hustle at the end. Fortunately Daniella had a plan that let us turn off all the heated elements at 2 pm, and still gave the ladies something good to work on. I went into my stable and began cleaning and packing in earnest (here is a photo of Sue and me trying to unscramble a knot of cables and outlets.

After that Sue and Bernie drove us and the 12 boxes and our suitcases back through Melbourne rush hour traffic to our hotel here, where we unloaded everything onto the curb and then into the hotel storage room until our next pickup this afternoon. Phew, that was a lot of schlepping! But all the women pitched in and helped with the cleanup, and we got through the day with a minimum of stress.

All day I was distracted by the birds, as usual. There was a whole lawn full of cockatoos feeding for much of the morning, right outside our stables.

Then this purple swamp hen strolled by. Every bird here is exotic to us. There was also a whole bunch of lorikeets, green, red and blue, but they flew away before I could get a picture. I borrowed a Field Guide to the Birds of Australia to carry along with me.

Last night we went to a fantastic Korean restaurant for dinner, the Oriental Spoon on Latrobe Street. We took along a young lady from LA who had just arrived yesterday for a 4 month student-abroad experience and was wandering around the hotel hallway in a jetlagged daze. Today we are off to Ballarat for a week for the next adventure, although we have the morning free. Hope we have some internet possibilities up there!

Bundoora Park and Papermakers of Victoria

2011-07-07T12:45:00.001-07:00

Yesterday was the first day of a two day workshop for the P.O.V. Papermakers group. Our classroom, amazingly was in a beautiful converted horse stable complex on a former estate of a wealthy mogul, now part of a public park. Because each stable was relatively small, we had to use three of them for our group, and because the electrical system was limited, and for ventilation and light, we had to work with the doors open. Essentially it was a day of working outdoors on a very frigid day, with all the challenges! The wax was not so happy. But the women were a great and intrepid group and all persevered and did beautiful work.

The concept of encaustic art seems new to everyone over here, although some artists have tried working with beeswax or paraffin. There is huge excitement about learning these new techniques, and people are begging Daniella for more. Yesterday we met a woman who organizes artists to fly into the Australian interior and teach art classes to the many people there who are hungry for this type of thing. So this is only the beginning!

Here you see Daniella in multiple layers of clothing, hat, gloves, boots, and pretty frozen anyway.

These two are Bernie and Sue, our wonderful hostesses here. They have kept us in their lovely home, fed us the most divine food ( home-baked breads and home-made jams, endless cups of warm tea, a great pasta dinner, a lovely picnic lunch, etc.) and we have enjoyed many happy hours of conversation with them and great laughter. The four of us are so compatible and have much in common - hopefully this will only be the first of many wonderful adventures together. Thank you dear women for a royal Australian welcome!

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Location:Melbourne, AU

Australia is For the Birds

2011-07-06T13:17:00.001-07:00

Yesterday we explored Melbourne a bit more, found a famous place called Hosier Lane, where every surface is covered with amazing graffiti. There were taggers at work and gawkers like us watching. We even saw a business for "exterior decoration" where you can hire taggers to come paint your property. Here is their van!

At noon we packed up and left our cozy hotel, "The Vic", in Melbourne and headed out to our next workshop venue. Two lovely women, Susan and Bernadette, are hosting us in their home for two nights. We like them both immensely, and have been chatting for hours. At dinner last evening (pasta, salad from the garden, homemade bread with garlic butter, Australian wine) the warned us "should you hear some odd noises outside your window tonight, it is probably just the fruit bats feeding in the lillipilli tree".

We did not, alas, hear the fruit bats (maybe tonight), but here in the outskirts of Melbourne we hear a gorgeous cacophony of bird calls. Rosy crested and lemon crested cockatoos are everywhere -we have seen fields of them. Also ibis, snowy egrets, lyre birds, huge flocks of starlings who fill the skies with their loud chatter. Then there are the lorikeets, budgerigars, mynas, crested pigeons, and a rainbow symphony of unfamiliar ones. There is so much bird life here, everywhere, that it makes us aware of how little bird life there is in the Santa Cruz area. The skies here are filled with raucous squawking all day long. Sad, really how little we hear at home.

And who knew that emus make a deep grunting noise like pigs?

It is cold and rainy the last few days. We are in multiple-layers of silk long johns and wooly sweaters. We hear that Ballarat, our next venue, is much colder. Strange to be in mid-winter in mid-July.

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Location:Melbourne, Au

This One's For Desmond

2011-07-05T04:26:00.000-07:00

Dear Desmond,

Today Zuzu and I went to visit some of the animals that live in Australia. We rode a long train, and then two buses, out into the countryside. Here are some of the things we saw that we thought you might like to see too:

This funny sign, and this big emu

a big lizard with a collar and a green snake

a wallaby and some kangaroos

some cuddly koala bears, and some dingo dogs

and some sleepy barn owls!

We didn't get pictures of the wooly wombats, the kookaburras, platypus, Tasmanian devils, spiny echidnas, and furry fruit bats hanging upside down by their toes, but we saw all of them too! We miss you and we hope we can take you here someday. Love and kisses, Keema and Zuzu

A Little Detour on the Journey

2011-07-04T11:51:00.000-07:00

I love this poem SO much....

This is what you shall do

by Walt Whitman

"This is what you shall do; Love the earth and sun and the animals, despise riches, give alms to every one that asks, stand up for the stupid and crazy, devote your income and labor to others, hate tyrants, argue not concerning God, have patience and indulgence toward the people, take off your hat to nothing known or unknown or to any man or number of men, go freely with powerful uneducated persons and with the young and with the mothers of families, read these leaves in the open air every season of every year of your life, re-examine all you have been told at school or church or in any book, dismiss whatever insults your own soul, and your very flesh shall be a great poem and have the richest fluency not only in its words but in the silent lines of its lips and face and between the lashes of your eyes and in every motion and joint of your body."

"This is what you shall do..."

by Walt Whitman, from the preface of Leaves of Grass. Public domain.

Independence Day in Melbourne

2011-07-04T03:02:00.001-07:00

We celebrated our independence today by having a true day off, having completed the first of the six workshops Daniella will teach here. The Melbourne class was great and people were wonderful, especially our hosts, Mark and Daina. They took us out to dinner twice in a row, once for Italian and once for a Vietnamese dinner, yummy. It is a relief to have gotten through with one job and have a breather before the next.

On this 4th of July we found out that the Australians are also thinking about Independence, from the US. This was a group of people lying down on the steps of the Flinders railway Station a couple of blocks from where we are staying.

Today we worked a bit on logistics of moving ourselves and all the equipment around Australia in a timely way. It is quite complicated, but we are working it out. We explored a street called Flinders Lane today, a wildly energized area with street cafes, tiny and vibrant alleys buzzing with energy, and numerous small shops and boutiques. Melbourne continues to be a city we love and would love to explore in a more leisurely way.

Yesterday we went to lunch at the Abbotsford Convent, a place that was founded by nuns from Ireland to rescue the girls and women brought to the gold mining camps in the late 1800's for prostitution. Of course the convent turned into a place where women and girls were locked away for life, forced to do industrial laundry, virtual slave labor to "save their souls". This beautiful old complex is now a center for the Arts, with former nuns cells and laundry rooms and dormitories transformed into artists studios, restaurants, and even a children's zoo.

Our lunch was in a fascinating place called "The Lentil"' a vegetarian hippie place where they make huge pots of delicious food, you eat whatever is there for the day, and you pay whatever you feel is appropriate, putting money into a little brown box. Food was delicious, place was packed with newly arrived immigrants, hippies, artists, and us! We have since discovered two similar places just near our hotel run by the Hare Krishnas, dirt-cheap veggie meals. Haven't tried them yet!

We did try a fast-food chain called Pie Face, where they make a ton of little meat pies with faces on them. Things here in the culinary world tend towards the British. We think we have had enough small meat pies to last a lifetime. Veggies, please!

Doing laundry tonight, tomorrow off on an outing. More soon.

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Location:Melbourne, Au

Melbourne Day 2

2011-07-02T13:53:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we took a tram from our hotel up to the Queen Victoria Market, a famous open-air market here in Melbourne. It was quite fascinating and mouth-watering. In fact we had a delicious breakfast there, Daniella opting for one of their spicy bratwurst sandwiches, and me for a smoothie! After that we hopped on a train and made our way to Chapman and Bailey where the encaustic class is happening this weekend.

All day we were there while D. taught an enthusiastic group of 12 students. Many of them knew of her through her DVD and book. One of the men rushed into the room early in the morning, gushed about how thrilled he was to meet "THE" Daniella Woolf face-to-face, said he had watched her DVD and couldn't believe he was actually going to get to take her class, then threw his arms around her in a giant bear hug. This girl has Rock Star status in Australia, at least in some people's eyes!

After a long and fun day, we were taken to dinner last night by Mark and Daina, the couple who own and run Chapman and Bailey, a phenomenal art-supply and framing shop, which caters to some of Australia's top artists. A delicious ending to the day, great Italian food. We are the lucky girls this month!!

Sticker Shock

2011-07-01T04:16:00.003-07:00

We saw a headline today announcing that the Australian dollar is at an all-time high in value. The US $ seems worth very little here. Trading today makes our $ worth about 83 cents. We feel it everywhere. The least little thing is about $8. Short train rides (hotel to airport) about $15. No free shuttles. Very sparse free internet.

On the other side, weather is lovely so far, grey but pretty warm (60 ish). Not bad for mid-winter!

Other observations: pony tails are "in" for women of all ages. Food so far is very English, lots of little meat pies, fish and chips, etc. But there is a big Chinatown just down the street from our hotel!

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Melbourne

2011-07-01T04:16:00.001-07:00

Flew into Melbourne early am. Love at first sight. City zings with vibrant energy. Perfect weather. Nice hotel. And then we saw the Indigenous Art exhibit a few blocks from here. Mind boggling, extraordinary, dreamy. Here's a sample of what we saw before heading over to set up tomorrow's encaustic workshop.

Now off for some dreams of our own!

Location:Melbourne, AU

Back in Our Bodies

2011-07-01T04:15:00.001-07:00

It has been said that it takes 3 days for the soul to catch up with the body when traveling across big time zones. Today, July 1, is technically our third day out and after a great sleep, we feel like new women today. Enough kvetching about our yesterday's glitches. Today we start over.

We did pull ourselves together after our first bkfst, including Vegamite on a croissant (!) and took the free loop bus down to the harbor. There we boarded a ferry to Manly Beach, a part of the city so much like Capitola, CA, or Sarasota, FL, totally laid- back and beachy.

The grand Opera House sailed by us on this ride, sails billowing, as we put-putted along. When we got back, we walked around the Rocks area and out onto the big Bridge that Oprah recently climbed. We had no juice for climbing, but it was lovely to be out in the middle of that bridge viewing Sydney from high up.

After stopping at a pub for a cider, we stumbled back to the hotel and fell gratefully into bed at about 6 pm AU time, just done done done.

Oh, and one more thought. We always talk about people's karma catching up with them sooner or later, and we think ours caught up with us yesterday. Many years ago we stayed for 3 nights in Las Vegas at a very nice hotel, and never were billed for it somehow. Last night we stayed at a nice hotel in Sydney and also paid for the two additional nights we missed by messing up our arrival dates. Karmic debt paid I guess!

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Into the Vortex in Oz

2011-06-29T18:08:00.001-07:00

We are safely on the ground, as of 6:15 am Sydney time, 1:15 pm California. Flight to SYD was on a massive, 600 passenger air-bus, fully booked. We spent almost 15 hours crammed in our seats, trying to get a little sleep, but also being fed free meals, drinks and snacks. We also watched movies, travelogues, played video games, listened to a vast array of music, and thoroughly enjoyed the world-class entertainment system, each with our own little screen! U.S. air travel is wretched by comparison.

It has been a looooooong day and night. First I blundered and had us taken to SFO ( by our intrepid Megan, with Des and Tommy along for the ride), only to pull out the itinerary and see it said SJC, YIKES! Still don't know how I managed that, but Megan swung us around and drove us right back to San Jose through pouring rain, and we made it in time. Our check-in was a scene from Laugh-in, with a blundering clerk who mixed up everything and would have sent us both someplace else at a substantial extra charge if his supe had not stepped up and rescued us. We were beginning to wonder if we had stepped into a bad vortex! And yes, apparently we did. D's suitcase did not arrive, who knows where it went.

Biggest disaster was to learn that we did not arrive on June 28 as our itinerary said, but on June 30. This means that we lost two days in Sydney, lost 2 nights in our pre-paid hotel, and have spent our first morning here trying to unravel all that. We will explore this afternoon, if we can stay awake, then must fly out to Melbourne tomorrow at the crack of dawn. But we are here, mateys. D. keeps saying, as I cry big sobs, "it's OK. Nobody got hurt". Well there's that......

Photos soon.

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Location:Sydney, Au.

Holiday Gratitude List

2010-12-21T05:08:00.000-08:00

Dear Family and Friends,
We are about to close out 2010, a year which for me has been full of wonderful blessings and joys. I know this is not the case for huge numbers of people, across the globe, and even in the midst of happiness my heart aches to know that so many are suffering. Let's hope that 2011 will turn things around and head in a more positive direction.

Mostly I am ecstatic to be lucky enough to live close to my grandson, Desmond, who is a bright light at age 2 1/2. Throughout the year, I've spent two afternoons a week with him regularly, as well as many other non-regular times together. I know how lucky I am! Here he is on his 'kateboard, in his blue "cow boots", about to head out on an adventure.

One highlight of the year was a day when our entire family had an outing together in Sausalito, at the Children's Discovery Center. Tommy and Annie joined us, and afterwards we went into San Francisco for a little visit to the Museum. The photo below shows all of us just after our picnic: Daniella, Kim, Megan, Phil, Tommy, and Annie holding Desmond.

The biggest personal sadness of the year was losing my beloved younger brother, Dick, to cancer in early June. We went to Florida for his memorial service and spent time with many family members there. I still miss him every day, and think of things I wish I could share with him.

Daniella had a year of gypsy living, traveling all over the U.S. teaching encaustic painting classes. She also published two teaching DVD's and a book. In April and May we went together to Holland (where she taught a class), then Berlin, Frankfurt, and on to Turkey for a wonderful vacation trip with our friends Wendy and Judy (same sisters who were with us in Korea the year before). We enjoyed every minute of this journey, seeing exotic new places and meeting great people. I wrote about all of it, and posted photos, on my (sporadic) blog, Her Secret Garden, in the April and May 2010 archives.

Because of so much travel, and the desire to stay close to Desmond, we barely made it to Whidbey Island this year. I think Daniella went twice, briefly, and I had only one very quiet week in October - not nearly enough.

Oh, and a big deal for me was joining a gym, hiring a fabulous and inspiring personal trainer, and spending the past year working out, as well as doing water aerobics several times a week. This tends to prove that you can teach an old dog new tricks! I am getting stronger each week, and it feels great. Better late than never, I guess!

There's so much more, but I want to keep this short. We love getting news from each of you, and thank you for the many wonderful holiday greetings we have received already this winter. I am so grateful that YOU are in my life. Wishing you holiday blessings and joy, and a heartfelt wish for a Happy New Year!
Much love,
Kim

Losing a Brother

2010-09-03T13:59:00.000-07:00

I lost my brother two months ago, to cancer. For a long time I've struggled to find words to help me come to terms with this huge loss, but everything falls short of expressing what needs to be said. First of all, I could tell a bit of the story. Dick got kidney cancer a few years back, and it recurred about 3-4 years ago, in his lungs. Over time, it spread to other places in his body, until he was unable to live any longer. He died on June 29 at the age of 63. He was the youngest of my three younger brothers, and the sunniest of the four of us. He is survived by his lovely wife, Marnie, who was with him for 36 years; by three fine sons, all married; and now two small grand-daughters.

Dick was a monumental hero in my life, the best of men, the best of human beings. He danced his life with exquisite grace. At all times, he balanced his ability to be utterly serious and committed to the task at hand with his gift of lightness, humor, playfulness. We saw this again and again, in his role as a parent, a worker, a craftsman, a neighbor, and a husband. It was especially evident in the way he died. Each week he devised small projects for himself. He made gifts for people, copied paintings he admired, spent hours setting his financial and legal affairs in order, made home repairs, baked some of our mom's most remembered recipes, did research about parts of the family history that had not been uncovered, and spent hours writing his own obituary and planning his memorial service. He continuously set small goals for himself, and managed to meet every one of them except the last one, to live until his second grandchild was born, two weeks after he died.

He endured his illness with amazing courage, volunteering for a series of experimental drug tests once it was determined that there was no hope for a cure. These drugs caused a wide range of miserable side-effects, and yet he persisted because he believed that he might make a difference for somebody in the future. He never complained or felt sorry for himself, but used each day and each hour to get his life in order, deepen his loving relationships with his family, and marvel at each hour he got to live. He looked at death as a new adventure, and was fearless in the face of it.
I always remember him as the happy little brother in our family, whose white-blond hair and sunny disposition were so striking. He loved music and made his own guitars, carefully carving inlaid designs into the surface. He wove baskets, baked pies, loved to fish and to wander off into the woods. He was the quarterback on our high school football team, and always had a swarm of admiring girls around him. He was as good a humorist and writer as anyone I know of, and left behind a box of letters that I hope someday will become a book, so that all the world will know of his quicksilver wit and verbal agility. His creativity and talent was outstanding. But most of all he was a loving, strong, and deeply ethical human being. In a quiet way, he took care of many other people in his community, never seeking any reward for himself in the process.

I have many cherished memories of him. He and I sailed across the Atlantic together in 1965 on a small passenger ship. My parents had assigned him to be my chaperone (!) and he and I both were happy to discard that role as quickly as possible. Years later he flew to California for my son's wedding, and helped us collect and arrange flowers, put up tents, string lights, and take care of the many "gopher" jobs that come with organizing a wedding on a remote farm. He took me to his local airport one day and sent me up in a one-passenger biplane for a little flight designed to deal with my fear of heights - an amazingly scary but successful moment for me, and a great gift from him. I have hundreds of wonderful memories of Dick, and every day I think of the sound of his voice, the shape and strength of his beautiful hands, the way he flavored his days with choice bits of music. He has been my rock and I will miss him every day for the rest of my life. I'm so sad to have him gone, and at the same time grateful for all he has given me. There are some video clips of Dick talking about his life here, if you are interested. They were put up by his son, Peter, who spent time in the months before his Dad's death making these recordings.

Listen to the Mockingbird

2010-05-19T08:10:00.000-07:00

A few days ago, some Facebook folks posted a cheery little youTube video of a young girl jumping up and down on her bathroom vanity, shouting a string of wild affirmations into the mirror about herself and her world. It was striking in its intensity and spontanaeity, a moment of pure and innocent joy in being alive.

This morning, lying in bed listening to one of the many neighborhood mockingbirds that light up daybreak with their lovely and varied songs, and in-air somersaults, I thought of that little girl. I love our mockingbird morning concerts, because for me they are a reminder to rejoice in just being able to be awake, alive, and participating in what happens here on earth. They are a gift of pure beauty, a vibrant pulse in life's heartbeat. Thanks, little birds!

Love my iPad, for those who wondered!

2010-05-18T21:25:00.001-07:00

Inquiring minds want to know! So many people have asked about how I liked traveling with the iPad. I thought it was the perfect little traveling companion. It is lightweight and so versatile. I was able to use it for email, internet browsing, reading books, writing blogs, listening to music, playing games, making travel plans, reading maps, checking on flights, navigating subways and buses, and so much more! There I am, above, on the patio in Kapadokya, iPaddling down the stream of consciousness.

The keyboard is very sensitive and takes some getting used to. I frequently switched from alpha to numeric keys when I didn't want to, and it has taken time to get better at avoiding that glitch. For the limited amount of writing I did each day, it was just fine. Someday I may get a little wireless keyboard, as they are now available.

The biggest drawback was not being able to download photos from my camera. We left the country before the photo card reader attachment became available. This forced me to use Daniella's laptop to download my photos, and often caused a lag on my blogs where no photos were available for a few days. Hated that part!

One fun and unanticipated bonus of carrying an iPad was being among the first in Europe to have one. They won't be released there until mid-June. Whenever I took it out, people swarmed around it wanting to feel it, try it, play with it. It was a real people-magnet, like having a puppy only not quite as cute! On our flight from Izmir, I sat with an elderly Turkish couple who now live in Munich. They spoke only Turkish and German, no English, but we were able to converse for two hours using only my very rough German and the iPad. We shared photos, maps, and used the drawing/art application to make words and pictures to get around the language barrier. It was engrossing and delightful to converse with the iPad as a helper! Neither of them had ever heard of it, and they seemed unfamiliar with computers. Yet the iPad is so user-friendly that they were soon enjoying it and easily able to navigate around on it. We had some great in-air bonding!

I can also report that Desmond, now age 22 months, loves to play with the iPad. He can turn it on and find his favorite apps. He begs to play with it. So for all those who are curious, I love my iPad! Go get one!!

Postscript

2010-05-15T09:00:00.001-07:00

For those who are interested, our tour was organized by Overseas Adventure Travel (OAT), and in my opinion it was great value for the money, and super well-organized and exciting. I see on their web site that you can catch a last-minute reservation for the same trip we had for as little as $1995 per person!

It goes without saying that one's traveling companions can make or break the travel! We were fortunate to have a lovely group for our time in Turkey, and now seems like an appropriate moment to acknowledge that and say farewell to all of you! Most of these photos were taken by Daniella, who has the best eye!

First of all, our fantastic guide, Erol, who was like a walking encyclopedia of knowledge about Turkey, past and present, and who surprised us every day with new "discoveries". Amazing person!Judy and Joe (below)

Wendy & Roger (below)

The irrepressible Daniella (below)

Bob & Linda (below)

Edie and Nonie (sisters, below)

Marilyn and Mary Kay (below)

Don and Maida (below)

Thanks everyone for adding to our fun and laughter! Happy trails to you all.

Journey's End

2010-05-15T08:05:00.000-07:00

We are back in Santa Cruz, after a long day and night and day, about 30 hours of travel over 10 time zones, stopping in Munich, Washington DC, and finally San Francisco. We were greeted by our doggies who gave us oodles of kisses to welcome us home again!

Yesterday was a bit of a fog, with the jetlag sandbagging us, although we did get to see Desmond, our grandson! One month away from him has been hard, and he has grown up so much and so quickly, many new words, taller, and running faster than ever! Lucky us!My little vegetable garden, that I left as dirt and a few tiny seedlings, is now fully flourishing, and we will eat good green things tonight!

I thought I'd share these photos taken in the airport in Izmir, Turkey, in the duty-free shop. In contrast, in the US any warnings on cigarette packages are microscopic.I also enjoyed this bit of "truth in advertising" at Ephesus.I have one more postscript to add about this trip (for now), and will do that in a separate post!

Gorusuruz Turkey

2010-05-12T09:30:00.000-07:00

I don't have the right keyboard to put the little dots on top of all the vowels in that word, "so long" to Turkey. But check out this site: www.charismahotel.com to see this amazingly gorgeous hotel where we are spending our last few precious hours in Kusadasi. We just got out of a dip in the Aegean and then the pool, and are getting ready for the farewell dinner in the outdoor dining room on the edge of the sea. You can see Daniella sleeping by the pool in the photo below, lower right corner!For our last excursion today we went to Ephesus. It is the second most popular tourist attraction in Turkey (after Istanbul) and it was pretty crowded with tourists. Nontheless, it was a magnificent site, a once ancient city known throughout the world, referred to often in the Bible, and a place that was first built up in the second millennium BC, and then grew to immense power and size (estimated population in Roman times was 300,000).

What remains is impressive in size and scale, for example a theater that held 30,000 people, a library that was ranked as one of the top three in the ancient world (below), wide paved streets, marketplaces, huge baths, walls, and lovely mosaic floors. What amazed me was how much of it is still unexcavated, waiting for teams of archaeologists to come in and unearth what remains hidden. In fact this is true at most of the ancient sites we have visited in Turkey. They represent a fragment of the historical area, and much remains underground. In the photos below, the light green areas that stretch on both sides of the city are unexcavated.My imagination was fired up thinking about what life must have been like in this city at it's prime, and wanting to know more about it. Our guide suggested we begin by reading Architektura by Vetruvius, and when I get home I may just start there! Other suggestions most welcome.

We were there all morning, and only saw a small part of what can be seen. We then went to the Temple of Artemis ruins nearby, where the Amazon women ruled. Here the site is completely broken down, but we could see the size and shape of the original temple and it was massive, on the scale of the Blue Mosque.

Lunch was at a Turkish style place out in the country (Cave of the Seven Sleepers) where we sat on cushioned benches around low tables outdoors and had the Turkish equivalent of quesadillas stuffed with vegetables and cheese. These women were rolling out the flat bread and baking it on a griddle on top of a wood fire.And now our trip is ended. In about 12 hours we'll be flying on the first leg of our journey home, Icelandic volcanos willing! We are happy/sad about this, happy to come home to all our loved ones, and sad to leave this fascinating country when we feel we have only scratched the surface. We want to know the language, taste more food, visit more villages, drink it all in deeply. We love you, Turkey!

-- Posted from my iPad

Counting Down The Clock

2010-05-11T12:39:00.000-07:00

Sadly we bid goodbye to our ship crew this morning, after a great four day cruise. We will miss the playful young Farouk, our serious Captain, the impish and lovable Emi, our chef and newest convert to Spite and Malice, the wiry and soulful Hassan.

It was a long drive to Ephesus, across high mountains, through a big agricultural plain (Meander River Valley) where honey and pomegranates and citrus and figs and olives are everywhere. We made a special lunch stop at Sirence, a tiny village high atop a winding mountain road. This is a Greek orthodox village, nestled deep in the heartland of Turkey. As with many of our stops, Erol had arranged ahead for a prix fixe meal, covered by the tour costs, and all we do is walk in, sit down and eat. No choice of menu, all a big surprise. Today we were surprised by an 11 course lunch of such extreme deliciousness we thought we would burst. I tried to photograph the entire thing, and I'll get something posted as soon as possible. OMG!!etc.......

Temp was in the 80's this afternoon, but we visited the Church of St. John Evangelist located at the very spot where the acropolis of Ephesus was once located. At its prime it was the largest church in Asia Minor. Supposedly John the Apostle is buried there, and it has a long history. We also went through the archaeological museum to prepare for tomorrow's visit to Ephesus. It was too hot and we were too stuffed to get much out of any of it, sadly although there were some amazing statues of Artemis. We watched some huge nesting storks, and tried to find shady spots or passing breezes. Yes, we are tired from all this fun.

In the late afternoon, we arrived at our final hotel, in Kusadasi right on the Aegean Sea, where we will spend our last two nights before flying home on Thursday. This is a five star hotel, quite new and luxurious. there is a lot of access to the sea right out front, plus an "infinity pool", a spa and sauna, gigantic restaurant buffet included (looked a lot better than it tasted), and internet access. yay!!! Tomorrow will be our last touring day. It will be hot again. We will love every minute of it and soak in how lucky we are to have had this phenomenal adventure.

-- Posted from my iPad

Location:Gazi Beğendi Sk,Kuşadası,Turkey

African Queen? No,wrong movie!

2010-05-11T07:37:00.001-07:00

We left the luxury of our sailboat this morning and boarded a little putt-putt river boat for a trip out of our cove, across the gulf, and up a nearby river. Both the boat and the river were, as Joe Stabile pointed out, very reminiscent of the African Queen. But our pilot fell short of Bogart's manly charms, alas. Daniella thought it was like the jungle boat ride in Adventureland at Disneyland, sans hippos and pith helmets. Anyway, we wound through a labyrinth of reedy marshlands, somehow following a main channel that would have baffled all of us. We were headed to another ancient site, Kaunos at Dalyan.This river was full of loggerhead turtles (huge) and blue crabs. Along the way upstream we encountered crab boats pulled up into the reeds where big turtles were circling for crab scraps, and men were BBQ'ing crabs. We put in an order, to be picked up upon our return downstream, and continued on upriver to our destination. Kaunos is a lovely spot, high on a promontory looking out over that gorgeous river/marshland area on one side, and on another down into a valley full of pomegranate and citrus orchards and red-tiled rooftops. There were a few shepherds up there with cows, and thousands of honey bees buzzing in the dappled sunlight. Turkey has a huge honey business, and we have had honey every day, some of it flavored with rose petals, divine. And yogurt three times a day, super divine! But I digress.

The amphitheater and mostly unexcavated ruins at Kaunos date to the 2nd century BC and were lovely small in scale compared to what we have seen so far, although there were some lovely chamber tombs. We wandered around up there in the heat of the morning, then returned to our river boat and back through the marshes, lazily, making sure to pick up those crabs to go with our lunch. Not that we needed more food.

Meals on the ship were lavish, succulent, and varied. Our lunch following the river trip was eggplant moussaka, greek salad, rice, mixed vegetables, bread, and fresh fruit for dessert. Every day at tea time we get tea with freshly baked cakes or cookies. Then there is dinner, a huge feast. Last night we had sauteed chicken breasts, shrimp, fried eggplant with yogurt, steamed cauliflower, Greek salad, marinated red cabbage, bread, couscous, and fresh green melons. As long as I'm digressing, I'll let you know that our typical shipboard breakfast consist of tomatoes, olives, feta cheese, a yellow cheese, cucumbers, yogurt, an egg dish, orange juice, tea, coffee, two kinds os honey, several jams, and muesli cereal. It seem impossible to ever feel hungry, yet at each meal, we rush to the table, mouths watering! Maybe the relevant film for the day is "la Grande Bouffe".

After lunch and a swim in the choppy blue sea, we pulled up anchor for a bracing two hour sail into the wind and spray to Marmaris, a party town, where we docked for the night near a pine grove at the foot of the mountain. We were within sight of the town, but out of earshot, so we fell asleep to the sound of owls in the trees and the gentle lapping of waves outside our porthole.

-- Posted from my iPad

Location:Gazi Beğendi Sk,Kuşadası,Turkey

Kimisolazi

2010-05-11T07:37:00.000-07:00

Never left the ship today. It was a day for total relaxation, sunning, swimming, eating super delicious meals, and soaking up this sunny sea. We've been gently rocking as if we were in a giant cradle, lovely! We sailed from the little cove where we spent last night, and came about 30 miles further west to Ekincik, another small cove. This one has a hotel or yacht club where many other sail boats pulled in all afternoon to moor for the night.There was great entertainment, almost Laurel and Hardy style, when a German yacht with 5 male passengers attempted to anchor itself to some rocks adjacent to our gulet. This is an operation that we have now watched our nimble crew perform many times with great efficiency in about five minutes. They race to the shore with a small dinghy, attach a rope to a rock or a piton, while simultaneously lowering the anchor from the bow. Then both lines are tightened holding the ship in place through the night. These Turkish crew members are totally shipshape. We have watched them and learned the meaning of "running a tight ship".

The German guys backed in next to us and spent an hour and a half trying to tie up. They first tried to attach to the same rock as we were using, and kept drifting perilously close to us. The engine on their dinghy gave up, and one ended up swimming back to the ship dragging the dinghy by a rope around his chest. None of them was able to tie a nautical knot. Their rope kept slipping, snapping, snarling, and coming undone. We watched in amazement as they struggled to attach the ship using a square knot, a completely futile proposition. Many times the rope snapped away from the ship and sank into the water. This meant that they had to paddle back to the rock, retrieve the rope, and start over ...and over... and over!

At one point they actually backed their ship right over the dinghy. Several times they backed up over their rope, lying slack in the water. They came perilously close to hitting our ship so many times that our crew finally hung bumpers around that side. And they never said a word to us, even though we were 10 feet from this riveting drama. Finally they gave up, yanked in all their rope and anchor, and pulled into the yacht club marina, which probably cost them a pretty penny, but maybe not as much as it would have cost them had they crashed into our ship. We were delighted to see them leave.

So that's all the drama from the high seas today, folks. Stay tuned for more tales of adventure in the few remaining days we have on this little journey! Life is really, really good here.

-- Posted from my iPad

Location:Gazi Beğendi Sk,Kuşadası,Turkey

Fantastic Day again

2010-05-09T04:14:00.001-07:00

NOTE: no time to arrange photos today, on a very short time frame for internet use. You'll just have to do the work of imagining which photos go with which part of the story today!

Before setting sail this morning we had one more land excursion, to a very touching ghost town, Kayaku, high in the hills above Fetiye, our port town. This community once numbered over 300 homes and several churches. It was occupied by Greeks for hundreds of years, until about 1900, when the Greek and Turkish governments made a deal to force the repatriation of those Greeks, who had never lived in Greece, and replace them with a similar group of Turks who had been living in Greece and had never lived in Turkey. The heartbreaking stories we heard this morning were about people torn from their homelands without notice, not allowed to bring many possessions, and forced to leave their entire village behind. Many left behind their children's dowries, their hand hewn furniture, their livestock and food supplies. Some had to leave so quickly that family members who were away at the time returned to find the village empty and the family torn apart.

The returned Turks, however, did not like this mountainside village they were given, so it became abandoned while the Turks built a newer village in the valley below. As we walked the streets of this sad place, those stories resonated. We saw strikingly beautiful stonework everywhere, and the remains of painted walls and simple mosaic floors. Everywhere we looked we saw the work of human hands, unsophisticated and beautiful, and infinitely varied.

Finally at around 11 am we set sail on our beautiful 110 foot sailboat. The water in this area is clear and bright turquoise close to land, and then a deeper cerulean blue in the main channels. We went first to a small cove where we tied up for lunch and swimming from the boat. Then we continued through the afternoon to a second cove, called Cleopatra's Baths. Indeed there are some ruins of a small Roman bath here, and the story is that Marc Anthony gave this land to Cleopatra as a little love token. Here we have sheltered all night, in such beauty and silence you could hardly imagine. We are surrounded by mountains, some snow-covered in a cove the shape of an oriole's nest.

Last night, in Cleo's honor, all the women put on heavy eye liner and eye shadow for dinner and a photo op, and great laughter. Food on the ship is outstanding and abundant. We lie around on deck, sipping cool drinks, chatting, reading, dozing, and feeling like gazillionaires on holiday. Finished off a wonderful day with a rousing game of Spite and Malice!

-- Posted from my iPad

Location:Mermerli Sk,Antalya,Turkey

Along the Mediterranean Coast

2010-05-09T04:14:00.000-07:00

After the swinging resort atmosphere of Antalya, we got a look at a big stretch of Turkey's southern coastline yesterday. Much of it reminded us of California's Hwy. 1 south of Carmel. We wound around soaring mountains and drove along steep cliff edges. Our wonderful driver, Abul, negotiated them like the manta mountain goats we saw along the way.But all the towns along this coast are truly agricultural areas. We saw literally thousands of greenhouses, mostly all growing tomatoes for export to Russia and Europe. We would typically be coming around a bend, high up on a mountain road, and we would spot a town down below that looked like a huge white-striped crazy quilt. As we got closer, the stripes were revealed as greenhouses bursting with huge tomato plants.We could see Greek islands as we drove along, and small beaches with sparkling turquoise water and white sand. In fact, this is called the Turquoise Coast for the striking blue water. Europeans vacation here, and Turks, but not many Americans so far.

We made two stops today. One was at another Roman city site, Myra, where there were chamber tombs carved into steep walls, another amphitheater, and many more beautiful walls and carved stones. We also went to the town of Demre to the church of Saint Nicholaus, the original Santa Claus, who is rumored to be buried there. The old structure has lovely frescos, and the whole area has a lot of homage to Jolly old St. Nick.. Turns out he was the patron saint of sailors and children - who knew?

We brought a banana slug t-shirt and gave it to Erol, our super guide. It has been fun to watch him wear it around these various Turkish locations. He did not know what a banana slug was, imagine!?!Last evening we arrived at our home for the next few days, a lovely wooden sail boat, for the exclusive use of our little group of 14! We have a crew of 4 jolly guys who cater to us like royalty. Rosemary, I keep thinking of you and knowing you would be green with envy. Had dinner on board last night, wonderful sea bass and lots of veggies. And I've just woken up from the best night's sleep in days in our cozy cabin. Today we set sail!!!

-- Posted from my iPad

Antiquities and then Rest

2010-05-06T20:39:00.000-07:00

As an optional side-trip, this morning a few of us visited the ancient Roman ruins at Aspendos and Perge, both located outside Antalya. Aspendos has a one of the most completely intact Roman amphitheaters anywhere, big enough for up to 12,000 people to watch the gladiators or the comedies and tragedies presented on the huge stage. The scale was jaw-dropping, and the beauty and majesty of the stones nearly brought me to tears.At Perge, there is an entire city, perhaps population 100,000, built by the Romans. The remains of the massive Roman bath complex alone must have covered a few acres. Then there were the market place shops, a huge stadium, paved streets, mosaic floors, marble walls, columns again beautifully preserved and massive in scale. It was an inspiring and awe-inspiring walk through history, as so much of this visit to Turkey has been.This afternoon we were "at leisure", quite a change after the fast pace we've kept so far. I used the time to sit by the pool and catch up on email and blog posting. We also enjoyed a video chat with Desmond, who is so much loved and missed!

Tomorrow we leave Antalya and head west along the Mediterranean Coast. We'll be boarding a small boat called a "gulet" and will spend the next 4 days sailing around the western coastline of Turkey, to Izmir, our final stopover before returning to California next week. There will be no Internet access on the boat, so we'll be silent and out of touch for a few days, although we will stop and hike at various locations.I'm feeling much better. But sleep has been difficult in Antalya. It is such a party town than music and noise blares loudly well into the wee hours. We are not amused. Bit as I write this we are listening to the "call to prayer" which is chanted so fervently about five times a day, beginning around 4:30 am, and broadcast on loud-speakers across every town in Turkey. I have come to love hearing it and find it centers me here, in this beautiful country, where my heart is attaching itself in so many ways!

-- Posted from my iPad

From Burqas to Bikinis

2010-05-06T06:50:00.000-07:00

Morning view from our bedroom window on the home-stay - mountains, lake, rosy light.
Day two on the Silk Road began with a poppy seed centered breakfast at the home-stay (poppy seed rolls, and poppy seed butter to put on them). Next we took a long stroll around the village, where the locals mostly watched us with a curious eye. We saw the town square (where people were herding cows out to pasture), the cemetery, many houses, two men-only cafes, and numerous women sitting on the curb waiting to be picked up for field work. We visited the village elementary school, grades 1-3, where there are 7 students and one teacher holding down the fort. Next year this school will be closed due to too few students to sustain it, and these kids will be bused elsewhere. They were smart and unafraid of us, showed us their school work, sang us a song or two. Delightful!

We said a last goodbye to our host family and headed off down the road. As we drove southeast, the landscape changed dramatically. We began in the lake area, and passed some more beautiful lakes along the way. Then we came into the Toros mountains and came through a long mountain pass that was like being in the Sierras, with pine trees and rocky crags around us.After lunch we visited the archaeological museum near Antalya, where there was a magnificent collection of marble and stone sculptures from ancient times, both pre-Christian and early Roman eras. Turkey, it turns out, has more ancient archaeological sites than almost anywhere, since this area was the cradle of civilization and crossroads between Europe and Asia for many thousands of years.Late in the afternoon we came into Antalya, a resort town on the Mediterranean sea, where we stay for two nights. We stepped out of our van in front of a shop displaying a wide array of mannikins in skimpy bikinis, and the streets were swarming with the young and the fashionable, both locals and tourists from all over Europe and Russia. Girls with loose hair flowing, strapless sundresses, and plenty of leg showing were everywhere, quite a culture shock after the last several days. Then we entered the old city through Emperor Hadrian's triumphal gate. What a country this is! So many contrasts and extremes.

Now we could easily be in any chic Mediterranean resort in this Turkish Riviera town. There are palm trees, bougainvillea, roses, citrus and pomegranate groves, oleander. There is plenty of beach and a big marina area. Hawkers abound, trying desperately to sell us trinkets or bring us into their shops and restaurants. They call to us in German, French, Russian, English, cajoling and pleading. We wave them off and continue walking. Tomorrow we get some free time!

-- Posted from my iPad

Location:Ömer Efendi Sk,Antalya,Turkey

On the Silk Road

2010-05-05T08:23:00.000-07:00

After a last breakfast at our Kapadokya hotel, we began driving southeast along the ancient Silk Road towards Antalya, a two day journey. At first we saw much more of the arid, rocky landscape we've been in for several days. Our first stop was at a big city, Konya, which is where the great poet Rumi died and is entombed in a shrine/museum devoted to him and his works. It was one of the most stunning spots we have seen, under a turquoise dome. We looked at relics, illuminated manuscripts, frescos, artifacts, and historical artifacts relating to Rumi and his followers, the Whirling Dervishes of Sufism. Crowds of Muslim pilgrims were there, and the women stood in line to kiss the glass case holding the 'holy beard of Muhammed'.

Our guide then took us up into the hills above Konya, to a 300 year old village inn for a wonderful lunch. In the last several days we have eaten a lot of yogurt rice soup, stuffed grape leaves, stuffed eggplant, rice pilaf, and rice pudding. It has been delicious, and varied in the way it has been cooked and presented, but getting a little familiar!After lunch, more driving, and a stop at a small farmers market. Some of the many things we observed were: numerous caravanserai, the ancient Silk Road stopover places, in various stages of repair or disrepair; shepherds everywhere, herding goats, cows, sheep; tractors pulling wagon loads of women going out to work in the fields; snow-covered volcanos; mosques everywhere, from grandiose to mini. The most beautiful mosque was one with a cedar wood interior, and mosaic tile entry, surrounded by stone walls. It was the Esrefoglu mosque in Beysehir. The most humble mosque I saw was attached to a gas station, out in the middle of nowhere. The city of Konya, when seen from the hills above it, was a sea of minarets.

As we drove across the wide Anatolian plain (a bit reminiscent of Nevada), our erudite guide spanned 1,000 years of Turkish history. He gave us the origin of place names and words, how the language works, the marriage and courtship customs, and so much more. Every day he takes us deep into his culture and Turkish history and regional politics. What an amazing guy!

The promise of the day was "a day in the life of a Turkish village". Indeed we arrived at a very small village in the lake district, called Budak, where our home-stay began. We stayed in a large family compound, of several houses and barns owned by Suleyman and his wife Nigar, their two sons and wives, several small grandchildren (one little boy just a month older than Desmond), and the ancient and wizened grandparents. They organized 8 bedrooms for us all, giving up their own rooms to go sleep at the Grands house. Our room was whistle clean, had two futons on the floor, with clean bathrooms nearby. Our window looked out at the lake and a snow- covered mountain, across the fields of opium poppy plants grown by the family, with state approval, to sell to Big Pharma.We had a charming evening with them. The women served us a great meal ( see above for standard menu)! With our guide as interpreter we chatted into the night with them about their lives, work, crops, frustrations, dreams (go to Hollywood)! One of our group is a farmer, and he and Suleyman had a lot to talk about, like tractors, fertilizer, etc. Finally we went off for a comfortable night's sleep.
-- Posted from my iPad

Down and Out Day

2010-05-03T20:39:00.000-07:00

Woke up this morning with a horrible head cold, which has plagued me all day and left me on the sidelines resting. Haven't been sleeping very well this week and here is the result. Bummer!

When we first woke up we stepped out onto the terrace to view the tufa towers, and there were dozens of balloons floating by. Apparently the air currents were floating our way today, so we got to watch another delighted batch of tourists have that exalted moment and remember how good yesterday was.

This morning was our Persian rug experience. We saw people weaving carpets on old wooden looms, watched silkworms being boiled and unraveled into threads, and learned all about the process of dying silk and wool with natural dyes. It was fascinating, and then naturally was followed by the now familiar hospitality moment when tea and/or drinks are served and the salesmen rolled out carpet after dazzling carpet in huge showrooms. Their pitch was suave and competent. They flung the carpets dramatically and unfurled them to best advantage. Several of our little group bought something wonderful (yes, so did we).The rest of the day, for me, was a wipeout. I stayed in the shade and felt awful while everyone visited the famous Kapadokya Open Air Museum, more dwellings and churches carved out of steep rock cliffs, now abandoned. We had lunch nearby, a delicious Turkish version of pizza, and at the next stop, another bunch of cliff buildings, I crawled into the back seat of our van and slept for an hour, very precious time. You will need to see Daniella's blog for photos.I did rouse myself to attend the Whirling Dervish performance at a nearby Caravanserai (a stopping place since ancient times on the Silk Road). This was very spiritual and moving, as well a astounding to watch these men spin in circles while accompanied by musicians playing flutes, drums, and an autoharp, and chanting beautiful Rumi poetry and verses from the Koran.Here's what they say about it in their handout. "contemporary science definitely confirms that the fundamental condition of our existence is to revolve. There is no object, no being which does not revolve and the shared similarity among beings is the revolution of the electrons and protons in the atoms, which constitute the structure of the smallest particle to the stars far in the sky.....and man carries on his life, his very existence by means of the revolution in the atoms, structural elements in his body, by the circulation of his blood, by his coming from the earth and return to it, by his revolving with the earth itself.......Thus the whirling dervish causes the mind to participate in the shared similarity and revolution of all other beings.". Beautiful!

Today, Tuesday, we travel to the area where Rumi lived and is revered, Konya. Tonight we have a home-stay in a small village with a family. There will almost certainly be no Internet hookup there. So this adventure will pick up again when we move on to Antalya.

-- Posted from my iPad

Up Up and Away

2010-05-02T20:52:00.000-07:00

This morning we discovered the joy of the hot air balloon! We were picked up at 5:30 am and taken to a field out in the countryside, where crews were inflating dozens of huge balloons. Our whole group got into one basket together and up we sailed, over the tufa rock formations, vineyards, fields, and horses. It was scary at first, and scary when we drifted right along the tops of those rocks. But our pilot has been doing this for 28 years for a living, and told us he had never injured a passenger. He was an ex-pat American who works in India, South Africa, New Mexico, Australia, Turkey, and wherever the balloon season takes him. He is a contract pilot and told us that flying a balloon requires the same kinds of skills as flying any aircraft. I thought of you, brother Tom, and how much I think you'd enjoy a similar career!!Anyway, the flight was heartstoppingly gorgeous, and we landed gently in another field, where the crew had followed us in a Land Rover. Graham, the pilot, immediately set up a little table and pulled out bottles of chilled champagne and freshly-baked cake. What a way to start the day! We all helped get the air out of the balloon, and watched as the crew packed up this giant mass of cloth (700 pounds) into a neat bag, and then hoist it onto the Rover.After a real breakfast at the hotel, we set out on what was described as a "challenging" hike, through the village and into the rock canyons and trails. We walked for a couple of hours, using hiking poles to help navigate the steep descents, sometimes edging along narrow trails that some of us (no names) slid down on our bottoms. It reminded me of the infamous moonlight walk in the Pinnacles that I took with Johna and Rosemary a few years ago. But this time I made it through without too much whining, and without removing the seat of my pants in the process. It was wonderful to be out in the countryside walking, on a gorgeous day, after the hectic weeks in Berlin, and Istanbul. The landscape here is so unusual. Along the way we visited several cave houses carved into the rocks. In the old days people lived in these all year round. Now a few people still do that, but many use them for summer homes where the cool caves are a welcome relief to hot weather.At the end of the trail we went to lunch at a cave restaurant, but chose to sit out in the garden to eat our shish kebab. Later we got into the van and drove about 20 miles to another village, Kaymakli, where we visited one of many so-called "underground cities", places where entire city populations and their livestock, lived underground in carved out rock chambers. This was beginning in the Earl Christian times, and continued for at least 1,000 years. It was like a giant anthills, with tunnels, vent holes, and then widened chambers for various functions. There was even a church in there. Most of us felt too claustrophobic to explore at any depth, but our guide told us that the tunnels and chambers go down 250 feet below the ground, basically to the water level. Mind boggling!

Finally, with minds fully boggled, we returned to the hotel for another delicious dinner and a few hours of precious free time. It has a been a great frustration to have the Internet access be so spotty - we are spoiled in that sense. I'll try to post these blog writings whenever I can get a signal, and will probably have to add photos later, as the process is quite time consuming. Sorry.

We miss friends and family and would love to hear from you!

-- Posted from my iPad

Officially Overwhelmed

2010-05-02T20:51:00.000-07:00

For the last two days, our Internet access has been sporadic, to put it mildly, and unfortunately that situation is likely to continue. Yesterday we flew from Istanbul to Nevsehir, a tiny airport maybe half the size of our local Costco, in the middle of Turkey, Cappadocia, to begin the next amazing leg of our journey here. Our guide had the driver pull into a tiny village (220 people) where we all filed into the mayor's office for a cup of tea and a chat about his job, his village, and what's going on his community (not much, but occasionally some teenagers act up and have to be brought back into line).

After these formalities were transacted, our small group (14) was split in half and taken to two village homes, where the women served us a very formal and succulent home-cooked lunch, using all their best china and linens.
Our lunch was a gut-buster! First we had a soup made of yogurt, bulgar, rice, lentils, and mint. This was a served with huge warm flat breads, freshly baked, and a salad of tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, parsley, lemon, etc. The idea was to roll it up inside the bread - yum! Next came a second soup, tiny homemade ravioli in a tomato and pepper broth, each one stuffed with a small bit of meat and cheese.

The main courses was a plate with roasted chicken, bulgar in tomato sauce, stuffed grape leaves, and stuffed eggplant, intensely delicious.

Finally the ladies brought us a creamy rice pudding flavored with vanilla, and sprinkled with fresh-ground nutmeg and cinnamon. We topped it off with Turkish tea in delicate glasses.

We exchanged many pleasantries, admired the house and livestock, heard all about the family, and everything was done without any of us understanding each others language. Lovely time!

Next stop was at a place where traditional Turkish pottery was made. The head honcho was a total character, very charismatic, a great showman. He was called Galip, and he threw a few pots, plied us with local wine, did some tricks, and gave away a few "prizes" to whet our appetites for his ceramics.

It was fun and interesting, and the stuff they made at the studio was stunning and expensive. We bought a blue and white bowl with tulips and crysanthemums, the official flowers of Turkey, as a remembrance of this wonderful country.
Finally in late afternoon we drove to our current hotel (for 3 nights) in Uchisar, a small village in a fairy-tale landscape of lava formations, tufa towers, caves, and a whole world carved out of stone. Our hotel is no exception, as it is on the rock, and the dining area and several rooms are carved completely out of rock. The photos below were all taken from our hotel room terrace.

We took a long walk and climb around the town before our lavish dinner, another multi-course extravaganza complete with more soups, a chicken dish, stuffed mushrooms, hard boiled eggs in yogurt with a pepper sauce, local wine, and a huge dessert buffet! You have to remember that our day began with the last of our huge buffet breakfasts at our hotel in Istanbul, already too much food!

This place is one of the most unusual and vivid landscapes I have ever seen. The village is traditional, old-style Turkey.

People are riding around in painted wooden carts pulled by donkeys or horses, plowing with horses pulling boards behind them with rocks embedded in the board to break up the soil.

The hand tools we see in use for cutting stone or working in the fields or preparing food are the same as they have been for centuries.

In many ways, time has stood still here, but at the same time tourism has certainly made its mark on the place. I'll write more about Sunday soon. We are officially overwhelmed!

-- Posted from my iPad

A Big Sweeping Day in Istanbul

2010-04-30T10:58:00.000-07:00

Where to begin? Today has been overwhelming by anybody's standards. We began with another of those giant buffet breakfasts on the roof terrace, and then at 8:30 we headed off up the hill to look at the Hippodrome (ancient chariot-racing site from the time of Roman Emperor Constantine) which now is a big city plaza with some Egyptian obelisks and the beautiful Sultan Ahmed (Blue) Mosque off to one side.We spent a lot of time in both places, and heard the history of that part of the city, and were appropriately awed by how much beauty we were seeing, and the sense of history beneath our feet for so many thousands of years. It is humbling to know that the US is only about 200 years old as a nation, and we are standing in the middle of ancient civilizations that date back millennia, places the US sees fit to boss around, plunder, and patronize in recent years. Here in Istanbul,the Muslim population is 98% and yet we have beet treated with unfailing courtesy and kindness.

Upon leaving the Blue Mosque, we went to the neighborhood of the spice market which also is where all the "hardware" and cooking utensils and so much more is concentrated for sale. We wandered up and down narrow streets and in and out of bazaars, tasting, smelling, and sampling great things to eat (many of them have already played a starring role in our breakfasts here). In fact, as I write this, we are snacking on corn nuts, pistachios, Turkish delight, etc.!Next we walked across the Galata bridge, crossing the Bosporus to the Asian side. The bridge was crowded with fishermen catching small silver fish like sardines, and selling them to passers-by. We took a short, uphill subway ride into the Taksim neighborhood, where we walked down a long, no-cars avenue, Istiklal Cad, that could have been Rome or Paris or many European cities. Very cosmopolitan, filled with young and lively people, plenty of Starbucks...

We had lunch in a little side street, wandered around a little, then got onto the van to go back across the Golden Horn for a long drive around a variety of neighborhoods. We got out and walked in an area where the old city wall is still quite intact. Went to a Muslim shrine with a men's cemetery, many were worshiping there. Through a portal in the wall, we were suddenly in a gypsy area, very ramshackle buildings, slapped up against the city walls, beautiful children, women knitting or working on sheep wool outdoors, many stares at our small band of foreigners invading their territory.We continued on and visited the Sokullu Mehmet Pasha Mosque, which had more beautiful blue tiles than the blue mosque even dreamed of, a much more intimate and stunning little mosque. Notice the prayer rug covering the floor, with a separate space for each worshiper patterned into the rug design.Also went to the patriarchal Greek Orthodox church, full of glowing ancient icons, and even the relics of St. George, slayer of dragons! Last, but not least, we took a long, leisurely walk through Balat, a working class neighborhood full of ordinary Turks going about the business of living. Out guide is phenomenal, brave, and unflagging in energy and enthusiasm. Tomorrow we fly East to Uchisar, Cappadocia, where we will be for several days. Wish I could record for you the sounds here, particularly when the whole city seems to begin chanting at the time of the call to prayer. And the smells, of spices, fresh cheeses, lamb grilling on charcoal, and so much more. This is a feast for all at the senses.

-- Posted from my iPad

Location:Ahırkapı Sk,Istanbul Province,Turkey

Oops, continued from last post...

2010-04-29T12:43:00.000-07:00

Somehow working from an iPad occasionally makes posting these days a bit tricky. I meant to continue to describe how we visited the grand old Hagia Sophia this afternoon, every bit as awesome as I've always imagined it to be, the fascinating Christian and Moslem layers overlaid and now being sorted out by restorers who are removing layers of plaster and paint added by one side or the other of this age-old controversy. The mosaics, marble walls, and stupendous architecture are utterly gorgeous.Finally in late afternoon, we went down to the waterfront and had a boat ride up the full length of the Golden Horn, riding close to the European side on the way up, and the Asian side on the way back, since the city's split down the middle by this body of water. Clearly Istanbul is a wealthy and cosmopolitan city. The water front areas resemble the Riviera with lavish villas, gardens, yachts, and of course a huge collection of palaces and mosques. Wow!We've been getting acquainted with our fellow travelers today, an interesting bunch so far. And of course we are tickled pink to be traveling with Wendy and Judy again.

-- Posted from my iPad

Location:Ahırkapı Sk,Istanbul Province,Turkey

OMG! Breakfast! And then the rest of the day!

2010-04-29T12:02:00.000-07:00

OMG, our first breakfast here nearly did us in. First, consider the 360 degree views out to the sea, and back to the Blue Mosque and Hagia Sophia, and the open air terrace where one can be at leisure. Then the food, holy Constantinople! the breakfast buffet from heaven, like a biblical feast with honey on a honey comb, dried fruits ( white mulberries, figs, apricots, cherries, nuts), yogurt, cereals, egg dishes, pastries, cheeses like the best you have ever tasted, olives, sun dried tomatoes, breads, cucumbers, fresh fruits, juices, breads, teas, coffees, halvah, Turkish sweets, and so much more. We could have stayed there all day and been perfectly contenteBut that was not to be. We walked up the hill to spend several hours at the magnificent Topkapi Palace, home of a continuous string of 36 sultans stretching over hundreds of years. Here we saw jewels, relics, paintings, exquisite tile work, and views out over the city that were nothing short of breathtaking. Our guide regaled us with wonderful history and stories so that the whole day had a depth and richness we would never have imagined.After a light lunch, we wandered uphill to the Grand Bazaar, an overwhelming shopping area with hundreds of shops/booths crowded into a tight area selling rugs, jewelry, clothing, ceramics, and so much more.

-- Post From My iPad

Location:Ahırkapı Sk,Istanbul Province,Turkey

Where West Meets East

2010-04-28T20:41:00.000-07:00

Nothing seems more emblematic of where we are than waking up hearing the "Call to Prayer" chanted on loudspeakers outside our hotel. That was a few minutes ago, outside the lovely room where we are in Istanbul. still pinching myself to believe we are really here!

We met our travel mates at the Frankfurt airport, after saying a sad goodbye to Connie & Franz, the best of hosts! The flight here was fast, only about 3 hours, and pretty uneventful. One scene will live in my memory bank of "worst-ever" flight stories. A young French couple, perhaps honeymooners, were stuck in a row across from the bathroom with a young man who was obviously studying plastic surgery on his huge laptop. Sprawled across the screen while I waited in line was a bigger than life color video of a nose surgery, with scalpel pulling apart the nostrils, peeling back the flesh to expose the bone, blood oozing out, eeewww! The screen was turned towards the aisle to avoid glare from the window, and the poor young couple obviously had been subjected to this view for hours, since the wanna-be plastic surgeon had the window seat. Grizzly.
Our wonderful guide, Erol, gathered us up at the airport, loaded us into a comfortable van, and brought us to our hotel just inside the walls of the old city of Istanbul, riding along the seacoast of the Sea of Marmara - stunning. He will be an excellent guide. He is smart, knowledgeable, fun, helpful, and has a terrific gift of gab. Last night he took us for a stroll up the hill to the beautiful central plaza, just outside the Hagia Sofia, and the Blue Mosque. The evening light showed off these buildings in exquisite color. The streets were quiet and friendly. We went for "a bite" to eat (translation: a feast) at a place called The Pudding Restaurant, or something similar. Food was good, laughter too. Daniella got talked into ordering a dessert called "chicken pudding". It was white, gummy, and made of chicken, mashed potatoes, sugar, mint, and ??? We all tasted it, and it was the subject of much hilarity.Stay tuned. Today should be a dazzler!

-- Post From My iPad

Location:Ahırkapı Sk,Istanbul Province,Turkey

Moving On - Turkey Day!

2010-04-27T21:07:00.000-07:00

Lucky girls, us! Sweet Connie came to the train station and picked us up, and has been the most amazing hostess for our time in Frankfurt! We've had two nights and a day here, with our friends Connie and Franz, and their two high-school-age daughters, enjoying their great hospitality and lots of laughter. They live northeast near Bad Kreuznach, drive the kids daily to an international school in Oberursel (about 1 1/2 hours drive each way!). Yesterday we were in the city of Frankfurt all day, strolling along the river, walking in the old downtown streets, and visiting a striking art retrospective of the expressionist painter Ernst Ludwig Kirchner. One of the many joys of this exhibit was seeing paintings of Berlin street scenes that were now very familiar to us.

In a few hours we fly on to Istanbul!!! All is well.

-- Post From My iPad

Location:Keltenstraße,Rüdesheim an der Nahe,Germany

Things I Love About Berlin

2010-04-25T22:59:00.000-07:00

Now that we are leaving this city, I'm treasuring some favorite things. Here, in random order, are some things I love in Berlin.

1. Our little nest here has been super comfortable and home-like. It will be hard to leave it.2. Bread. It is the best I've ever had anywhere. Brown, crunchy, textured, tasty, freshly baked, available in so many variations. If I go into a bakery, I freeze with indecision - so many perfect choices!3. German beer. As I mentioned earlier, love it. It tastes fresh and flavorful every time, a gustatory treat.
4. Public transportation. Gotta love it! This city must be easily 30 miles across, kind of like LA. But the subway, bus, and tram system covers everything, and you can buy a pass that lets you walk on and off any of them, all day and night. They are precisely on time, clean, safe, and easy to navigate. They constantly tell you where you are, what the next stop is, and where you are headed.5. Dogs everywhere, in subways, on buses, in stores, parks. there seems to be infinite tolerance for dogs, even off-leash. One little dog here was resting at the flea market!6. Graffiti. It is everywhere, and it colors the urban landscape in a unique expression of freedom and commentary. It is kind of like being in a continuous open air gallery without walls or curators, just art popping up everywhere. Some of it is quite beautiful.7. Change. Berlin is a place to feel hopeful. You can't go anywhere here without being reminded of the painful past: the divided city, two recent grueling wars, the Holocaust, broken buildings, broken lives, memorials, the knowledge that this was Hitler's seat of power. It even speaks in most of the art work we see, the torment of a people who have lived with a legacy of pain. You cannot ignore it.

And yet this city is vibrant, growing, healing, thriving. It feels good to be here. It is one city now, democratic, free, full of opportunities, full of life. Sometimes these days it feels to me as if the US is going off the rails (not that we have many rails to go off of)! I said to Daniella yesterday, we will be eating the dust of these Europeans soon. They seem so smart and focused on making life better for the people who live here. They are working on energy conservation in a big way. Their public transportation is excellent. They don't have a big military outlay. Everyone has health care. Their food and water is excellent. We don't see homeless people here or bread lines, something we take for granted in our home town. It's a good place, and it has done a lot of mending in the last decades. That gives me hope.

So off to Frankfurt this morning, and then we fly to Turkey on Wednesday. Auf Wiedersehn for now.

-- Post From My iPad

Doing The Reich Thing

2010-04-25T08:50:00.000-07:00

Sadly, today is our last full day in Berlin. It was this kind of a day here, sunny and caressing air, and the park outside our apartment (and indeed every park we saw today) were full of people enjoying the spring.

We set out once again to see the Reichstag building, having given up on it earlier in the week. This time the lines were much shorter and we got in - wow, it was sensational! You walk up a ramp inside a dome, with views out over all of the city, and views down into the Bundestag room where the German Parliament meets under the dome. It was spectacular to be up there at the end of our time here, and be able to recognize so many of the places we have visited in all directions in the city. The architecture was phenomenal!!!
After a quick lunch, we wandered over to the Hamburger Bahnhof, a former railroad station now converted into a museum of contemporary art.Their big show was called Bestiarium by Walton Ford, an American born artist who is causing a sensation over here with his huge and cruel and symbolic paintings of animals and birds, all references to the modern culture we share. They had rooms full of his huge paintings, as well as work by Andy Warhohl, Anselm Kiefer (below), Cy Twombly, and so many other familiar modern artists. That was our day! We're pretty worn out, and need to pack up for our journey tomorrow. We are a little triste to be leaving Berlin having barely scratched the surface, but at the same time excited about the destinations ahead of us.