Weekend Walk: Big Boats

Tags

Boats, Corpus Christi, Hazardous Waste, photo essay, Shipping Channel, travel, travel essay

I liked the patina on this hook

At Whataburger Stadium

Battle Ship Guards The Baseball Players

Pirates!

Bridge near the stadium

We saw many boats on our recent trip to the Corpus Christi area.  I was really impressed with the size of the ships that stood in the shipping channel outside of Whataburger Stadium.  Plans are currently underway to make the bridge in the background of this last photo forty feet taller.  Right now, the larger ships have to download materials onto ships the size of the big white one in order to clear the bridge into port.  It is hard to imagine boats bigger than this behemoth.

I played with my editing software to make the reds stand out on both of the two big ship pictures.  I need to take a photography course and invest in some different editing software. Someday, when my ship comes in.

Barge blocks the waterway and carries hazardous materials

When we were on our dolphin watch, long flat barges stretched all the way across the waterway.  The captain remarked that the barges were sometimes a nuisance, but they were a safe and cost efficient way to transport hazardous waste.  It was scary to think we were sitting that close to at least ten of these floating garbage dumps.

Weekend Walk: Bonsai! (Almost)

Tags

Bonsai, California, Community Garden, Oakland, photo essay, travel, travel essay

Never saw a purple rose before…

On our recent visit to California, I spent a couple of hours at the Oakland Bonsai Garden taking pictures.  Since photography is a new pursuit, I find it easier to take pictures of objects because they stay put.  The enclosed Bonsai Garden closed minutes before I arrived, but there were some lovely flowers in the adjacent community garden facility. I used the photo editing program that came on my computer to create the blurred background in the photo below.  My semantics are probably all wrong, but I don’t know photospeak.

I’d never seen one of these before, either…

I have been playing with foreground and background focus.  I took a bunch of photos with different aperture settings, and I couldn’t tell any difference between them, but I had luck just taking the camera and putting it very close to the foreground objects to create some parts that were out of focus, some that were in.

Yellow flowers, white bucket.

I wandered across some ducks in a pond, so I played with shutter speed to capture motion.  These ducks were fun to shoot, although I didn’t capture motion the way I envisioned.  Gotta start somewhere.

This shy fellow swam away from me, fast.

His gregarious older siblings.

Taking photos has made me notice much more than I have in the past.  I might need to learn to balance viewing life through the lens with actually being in the scene. I say this because I took approximately five million pictures on the California trip. That’s a topic for another blog.  For now, I hope you are having a happy Saturday.

Something else I’d never seen.

DD: Prost!

Tags

Friends, Germany, photography, travel, travel essay

Prost is the German word for Cheers!  My last post about Germany is a toast to all of the interesting and friendly people we encountered in Munich.

Front Desk Ladies

Typical Street Front in Munich

The amber skinned girl at the hotel’s front desk, and the way she said, “Tschüss,” an informal term that means bye.  I love going to another country and listening to the natural way people speak a native language that on my tongue, dies a guttural death.  The beautiful girl was also very kind when Super Husband and I sat down on the couch in the lobby and fell asleep while waiting for our room to be ready.  I think I drooled a little.

Sellers

Guten Morgan is a song when Mandy says it.

Mandy, my friend and waitperson at the hotel restaurant.  She was so kind and helpful I asked if I could take her picture, and she said yes.  I loved the way she sang, “guten morgan,” to us each day.  Mandy made each morgan much more guten. (Sorry about the quality of the picture, Mandy. I’m still learning.)

The older gentlemen in that bar across the street.  His eyebrows were German.  Don’t make me explain, they just were. He had a true beer belly, and just enough English for us to communicate our order.  He was jolly. I wanted to take him home with me.

The fellow that sold me my two German books.  I can’t read them but I will love them forever, because of him.  He gave me a free postcard.  I wanted to give him a granddaughter- type hug, but I didn’t.  I don’t think Germans are big on hugging.

Friends and Guides

Vi, David, and Aga.  What wonderful folks!

David, Vi, and Aga.  These are friends we made when on our tour of Neuschwanstein and Linderhof castles.  When we went to lunch, we were serendipitously seated together and enjoyed one another’s company for the rest of the afternoon.  David and Vi were about to end their work in Abu Dhabi, and wanted to take advantage of the proximity of European destinations.  Aga, a business traveler from Poland, stayed an extra weekend to do some sightseeing.  Aga was much younger than the rest of us, but politely walked up the steep incline to Neuschwanstein with us, listening to our huffing and puffing.  I also appreciated her willingness to answer my meddlesome questions about what it’s like to live in Poland.

Steve, the guide I grilled for the entire train ride from Dachau to Munich.  I don’t think answering my questions about his own life and interest in the topic was required, but he gladly shared that information with me.  He also told me something interesting.  When WWII ended, the bridge in the far background of this photo was the only thing standing.  Well, the bridge, and a lone train track.

Train Station, downtown Munich

Munich 

Juliet the bare.

Here is Juliet. I toast Juliet, because for I don’t know how long, young men take a picture of Juliet when they go to the Marienplatz in Munich.  Guess where their hands go?  I bet you can.  At first, SH and I thought Juliet was a statue of the Virgin Mary.  I can tolerate this behavior with a made up Shakespearean character.  The mother of Christ would be a different story.

Munich.Let me stand here until I remember you. I’ll forget so that I may stay longer, remembering how I love your company.

Prost!

DD: Mozart and the Beautiful Tears

Tags

Austria, Mozart, Music, Salzburg, Salzburg Austria, travel, travel essay

The Mozart House in Salzburg, Austria

When Alan, our tour guide, pointed out the unassuming house of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, I suddenly felt tears prick my eyes. In the middle of a busy thoroughfare in Salzburg, Austria, I was transported back to a time in my life when emotions were so much more accessible than they are now.

As a college sophomore, I sang the role of Cherubino in Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro. I fell in love with his music when we began to rehearse the end of Act IV.  This video from the film, Amadeus, depicts the scene, in which the Count begs the Countess for forgiveness, and all is resolved.  As I stood on stage during the first performance, I remember thinking about how each of the characters had a different motivation in this scene, yet each character played an important role in the ensemble that created this majestic work of art. It was an incandescent moment, one in which I felt everything was right with my life.  I had tears in my eyes at the end of that performance, and Mozart had put them there.

Notice how the characters stand still, facing stage front.  In this scene, it’s all about the music, and the music is just glorious.  

I don’t know if Mozart was the first to layer characterizations through music this way, but it was certainly my first experience in which characters, singing from different perspectives, for different reasons, captured musical lightning. I don’t know much about music history, but I can see this layering of characters in many contemporary musicals.  Here is a scene from Les Miserables that demonstrates the way many characters with many different motifs come together to form a whole.

See how the art form has evolved?  The characters move.  They all have different things to say.  I can’t begin to imagine how difficult it must be to write a scene such as this.

Why did I cry when I heard that I was standing on the same street where Mozart had once stood?  Why did I pay ten euros to go into his birthplace to view his child-sized violin and examine a tiny lock of his hair?

It wasn’t because he changed the world, although it could be argued that he had a profound effect on the music and musicians that came after him.  I didn’t cry because it surprised me to learn about him during our trip to Salzburg. I knew he had lived there and had expected to hear about him.

I cried because of how Mozart had once made me feel on a day long ago.  I cried because I hear his influence in other beautiful music, like the Prima Donna scene from Phantom of the Opera.  I cried because the city was stretched before us in all its alabaster glory,and I was with the person I loved the most in the whole world.  I cried because I was overwhelmed with beauty.

The Alabaster City

Music is where my beautiful tears originate.  What about you?  What beautiful thing can reduce you to tears? 

DD: German Lessons

Tags

German languge, language, learning new languages, Munich, Neuschwanstein Castle, travel, travel essay

My kingdom for a, “schon,” Rick Steves,

Scene 1:

[At home, one week before the trip, my German Phrase Book and Dictionary arrives…]

Me: (Reading aloud) “The letter ß is not a letter ß at all—it’s interchangeable with “ss”.The ö has a sound uncommon in English.  To make the ö sound, round your lips to say “o,” but say, “ee.The German ch has a clearning-your-throat sound.”

Super Husband:  Do you need to take some medicine?

Me: No, I’m trying to say my ch’s in German.

SH: Good luck with that.

Scene 2

Typical lunch time fare. Along with lots of beer.

[Waiting to check in to our hotel room on our arrival in Munich, we order sausage and sauerkraut at the Augustiner in the town square.  The waiter returns with our credit card after we finish our meal…]

Waiter: Here you are.  Danke schon. (Looks at us expectantly for a reply)

Me: (Thinking– What do I say now?  I thought I was the one who was supposed to say Danke.  And what does “schon” mean?  That wasn’t in the guidebook. Oh, no, he’s waiting.  He’ll think we’re rude! Say something. Now! )  You’re welcome.  (Waiter acknowledges me and turns to leave. I speak to his back.) and Danke.  (softer) Danke.

Scene 3

Making new friends– one of the joys of travel.

[The next day, we eat lunch with our new friends David and Vi, who are from Texas, and Aga, who is from Poland.  As we make the steep walk to Neuschwanstein Castle…]

Aga:  I find that German is easier to learn than French.  Even though there are three tenses, and the words are long, they are put together in a way that makes sense.

Me: Yeah, I did notice that the words can be very long.  I couldn’t even attempt to put a sentence together.  Aga, your English is impeccable.  Is that why you came on the English tour bus?

Aga: All school children study English in my country.  Besides, I need it for my job.

Me: So you speak Polish, English, and German?

Aga: I’m learning German since I also have business here in Munich sometimes.

Me: I admire you for speaking so many different languages.  Now I need to stop and look at the view.  I also need to hug this tree for a minute.  Not that I’m out of breath.

Picture taking- a good excuse to catch your breath.

Scene 4

[Super Husband leaves the hotel room to spend the afternoon at the University for his business meeting.  I decide to stay in and rest. The housekeeper arrives to clean the room.]

Me: You don’t have to clean today.  We just need new towels and coffee service for the morning.

Housekeeper: Bitte?

Me: (Thinking—Bitte?  Bitte means please.  Does he want me to say something else?  Does he not understand me? How do I say I can’t speak German? Think!)  Sprechen zie English?

Housekeeper: (Looks at me, dumbfounded) Bitte?

Me: (Thinking—I said it right.  I’m speaking German and he still can’t understand me.  Even my German has a Texan accent!)  Okay, let’s try something else.  (I go into the bathroom and point to the towels) Clean towels?  (I move to the coffee service and pick up the dirty coffee cup) New cup?

Housekeeper:  Ah!  Okay!

Me: (Thinking—I’ll tell him I’m sorry.)  Entschuldigung.

Housekeeper: Bitte?

Me: Sorry.  Danke.  Danke schon.

Housekeeper: (Leaving the room with the dirty towels and coffee cups) Bitte schon. (Looks back over his shoulder at me and rolls his eyes at his co-worker in the hallway.) Auslanders!

Scene 5

Finally, someone who speaks my language.

[In the square near the Alte Pinakotek,which is the city’s classical art museum, we find a used book store.  When we enter the store, it is piled to the ceiling with books.  Some of them are quite old and falling apart.  There is a narrow stairway in the back of the room.  Old newspapers lay stacked in the stairway.  The owner follows us in from the sidewalk…]

Owner:  Guten Tag! Hallo!

SH: Hi!

Owner: (Switches to broken English) We have no English books here.

Me: I know.  (Smiling) Is it okay if we look around anyway?

Owner: Ya, Ya.  I give you discount.  You buy 100 euros worth, I give you 1 book for free!

(SH and I laugh)

Owner:  I leave you. You look.

Me: Okay.

[SH leaves me in the store to look around.  I find two books that I want, because I can always find a book I want. I go out to the sidewalk…]  

Me: (Showing the books to the owner) How much are these?

Owner: (Examines the two books) This one 10 euros, this one free.  How is this?

Me: Yes.  That is fine. Pay the man, SH.

(SH pays the owner and we start to leave.)

Owner:  Wait!  You take one of these! (Hands me a box full of old postcards)  Free!

Me:  Oh, Thank you.  Danke schon.  (I pick a postcard and shake his hand.)  Good-bye!

Owner: Auf Wiedersehen. Come back soon!

Me: (Linking arms with Super Husband) I could have stayed in that store for a long time.

SH: I know you could have.

Me:  He was cool, wasn’t he?

SH:  He spoke your language.

Me:  He sure did.

My free postcard–In the square near the Residenz.

Our Weekend Walk

Tags

Austria, Julie Andrews, Mirabelle Palace Gardens, photography, Salzburg, Sound of Music, travel

Okay people, we didn’t take a walk last Saturday, March 28.  We were tired from our trip to Germany.  We mowed the lawn and took a long nap.

The grass was knee-high.

Super Husband shredded on the tractor and I mowed close to the house.  He had a much bigger job than I did, but I kept the laundry going.

Bailey the Bold

We slept that afternoon just like the dog does– with utter abandonment and lots of snoring.

However, since today is Sunday and we DID have an interesting Sunday on March 21, here are some pictures of the “Sound of Music” portion of our trip to Salzburg, Austria.

The arbor at Mirabelle palace.

Fountain in the Mirabelle Palace Gardens

Channeling Julie Andrews- I’m the one in the brown coat.

For those of you who know me personally, I was sorely tempted to sing, “Do, a Deer,” while standing in the self-same locations which Julie Andrews (!) stood while filming The Sound of Music.  I squelched myself, because (1) the guide said singing season was in the summer, (2)because I was the only gobsmacked choir nerd in my tour group,  and (3) the tour was rather hurried, so I’d have been left behind if I’d have started singing.

In the summer, people appear dressed in their Sound of Music garb and the Mirabelle palace Garden is alive with the sounds of amateur singing troops, professional musicians, and student players from the Mozarteum, an elite music school located in Salzburg, Mozart’s home city.

Now added to my bucket list:

• Acquire Austrian Folk Garb
• Return to Salzburg in the summer
• Sing with the other gobsmacked choir nerds!  Sing!

DD: On Anticipation

Tags

anticipation research, children, happiness research, Packing cubes, rick steves, travel, travelpro suitcase

Anticipation. It’s making me wait.

When the children were young, we spent hours every summer bobbing around in our local pool.  One of the games they loved was called, “Going to New York.”  I was holding Mega Daughter in my arms one day, enjoying the cool blue water when I spontaneously said, “Let’s go to New York.”  Then I made motor boat/ plane/ car noises while I carried her to another part of the pool.  When we arrived in “New York”, I talked about everything we saw—the tall buildings, northern birds, men in suits, busses, yellow cabs.  After I talked my way through “New York,” I’d chug over to another part of the pool and talk about some other exotic locale.

As the children got old enough to join the conversation, we added destinations of their choice, such as the feed store, the deer factory, Grandma’s house, Disney World, and the Queen’s Palace.  I doubt if my children even remember this game, because they outgrew it as soon as they were able to leave my arms.   When I played the game, I wasn’t consciously trying to teach them anything.  However, now that I have hindsight and age in my favor, I hope I affected their ability to anticipate positive events while they visited the “world” from the safety of their tiny reality.

Recently, there has been some interesting research about the power of anticipating a positive event or experience.  It seems people gain more happiness from planning for experiences than having the experience itself.   Here are some interesting articles about this research:

• The Benefits of Anticipation
• Another Reason to Spend Money on Experiences Rather than Things
• Sometimes Its Good To Have To Wait

I heard about this correlation between anticipation and happiness on NPR just a couple of days before we confirmed our travel to Munich, Germany.  Normally, I would have stifled some of my planning impulses for fear of being labeled obsessive, but since I knew it would add to my happiness, I went plan crazy! Here are some of the anticipatory moves which gladdened my heart. I…

• Purchased a Bavarian guidebook and a German phrase book from Rick Steves, my European Sensei.
• From Rick Steves’ website, I also bought packing cubes. I don’t know how I ever traveled without these inexpensive little gems.
• Did an extensive search for a new carry on suitcase, including looking at Consumer Reports.
• Took an afternoon to shop for said carry-on. I pulled on handles and lifted and checked the weights of bags.  I finally purchased a 21” TravelPro, because it was the sturdiest and got excellent reviews.
• Watched YouTube videos about what Germany was like, gaining the perspective of people who are much younger than me. I really enjoyed hearing their ideas of what to do and not to do when coming to Germany. Here is the one I enjoyed the most, about the Werewolves and the Zombies.
• Researched and purchased tour tickets to some Bavarian Castles, Salzburg, Austria, and Dachau Concentration Camp.
• Bought a few “Easy Travel,” clothes. I always do this before a big trip, and it’s always enjoyable. This time I didn’t feel bad about it.

The view from our Munich Hotel room.

In addition to the research stating anticipation of an experience adds to happiness more than the experience itself, I posit the following: when we anticipate an experience, the planning we do actually makes the experience more enjoyable, therefore increasing our sense of happiness over the experience as a whole.  I feel this was true for me.  Because I did all of the things I wanted to do to get ready for the trip, we were stress-free when we arrived in Germany.  I was able to sleep for a few hours on the flight over for the first time ever, and I know my preparedness played a role in my relaxed state.

The other anticipation I made sure to savor was the anticipation of coming home.  When I was sitting on the airplane for the sixteenth hour in a row, trying to decide what my next movie was going to be (I watched six movies. Six.  In a row.), I anticipated the feel of my bed, the whoosh of the ceiling fan, and the thumping tails of my dogs. I noticed the wildflowers, the cattle roaming across the gentle slopes of hills, and the sunniness of my homeland in the days after our arrival.  Knowing that I was coming back to the experience of my everyday life gave me great satisfaction.

Now that I’ve experienced the power of positive anticipation for myself, I want to encourage you, dear reader, to think of an experience you want to have and spend some time anticipating that experience.  It doesn’t have to cost money.  “Going to New York,” didn’t cost us anything, but it was fun to talk with my children about the magic of faraway places.

And something we said to our children about anticipation must have stuck, because both our son and our daughter made their own trips to Europe in the month of March with their respective spouses. And we anticipated their pre-trip visits and phone calls home, their texts and emails during their trips, and the post-trip debriefings, which will take some time to finish. Our game of “Going to New York, Frankfurt, Brussels, Istanbul, and Paris,” isn’t over, and we anticipate playing it again with great joy.

Bicycles are everywhere in downtown Munich.

[Note: What about when we anticipate a negative event?  This research suggests our anticipation, or worry, doesn’t change the feelings the negative event produces, and the anticipation doesn’t soften the blow of the negative event when it occurs.  It sounds like the only benefit of anticipation is when it’s over something positive. Of course, my Grandma could have told me that over a cup of coffee.]

What about you? What do you do when anticipating a positive experience?  How did the anticipation add to your happiness?