Off the road

I'm busy paying bills and doing the last odds and ends before I leave for Argelès where we'll be for three weeks prior to going to Ireland for three weeks. I was thinking of all the places I've been this year from my Swiss base.

• Malta
• Andorra (2x)
• France (Argelès, Paris, Toulouse, Carcassonne)
• Spain
• Russia
• Germany (Stuttgart, Köln)
• Italy (Rome, although that wasn't intended)
• Netherlands
• Canada (Montreal)
• US (Upper State NY, Long Island, Cape Cod, Boston)

Trying to get the writing done in between enjoying each place has been a challenge. On the other hand, there isn't an experience I would want to eliminate.

I never expected to fly a flight simulator nor did I expect to spend time on a houseboat in Amsterdam. One of the great things about life is the unexpected fun.

Next year I hope to try and spend more time in my two bases, Argeles and Geneva with less travelling.

Do I hear laughing?

Strikes

In the spring a railroad strike stopped us from visiting with college friends in Strasbourg.

When we were in Montreal we were worried that the Air France pilot strike would prohibit our proper return. It was settled before we arrived.

When we arrived in Stuttgart we found there was a taxi strike.

Deep down, I support the concept of strikes, which is much better than laying down and accepting injustices. Sometimes it is the only way to catch the attention of the powerful.

By taking the Stuttgart U-Bahn, we ran into a very helpful man who determined where we were going, how to use the ticket machine and sent us on our way with smile.

At our stop--about two blocks from where I used to live--another helpful woman gave us excellent directions.

My pro-strike stance did falter as we pulled luggage up Route 27 bringing up memories of the candlelight march I witnessed when JFK was killed.

I still support the strike principle.

As a girl friend once said, "If you lie down and write welcome on your chest, you shouldn't be surprised if someone wipes their feet on you."

So be it greve, Streik, or strike... I suspect there will be many more strikes as the world financial situation degrades.

The reason we went to Stuttgart, etc.

Stuttgart, 23:54

Tonight was the reason we went to Stuttgart--to see il Divo. Of course, right after we ordered the tickets, they booked a concert in Geneva, but then had we gone to the Geneva one, we would have missed going to Stuttgart.

My old stomping grounds has developed an incredible public transportation system and the entertainment choices for all kinds of music, theatre and art were amazing.

We didn't take in the Cannstatter Volkfest which we passed on the strassenbahn, although Rick ran in long enough to get a chirozo and chocolate before continuing onto the concert. It is the second biggest beer festival in Germany.

The whole concert was show tunes. An early performance is on the video here.

Rick had booked great seats. First he selects a wonderful hotel, then he gets wonderful concert seats or maybe it was the other way around. It doesn't matter.

It's been a great two days. Now on to Köln. We will lose Julia for the next leg of the trip. She is fluent in German and I'm reaching deep into my database for words.

Schlaft gut.

puddles

The toddler* was dressed in various shades of peach and orange. Her coat was open, her skirt was short over her tights. Her shoes were mini boots. Her strawberry blond hair was just grazing her collar in waves.

She might have been pushing two.

The cobblestones at Schillerplatz in Stuttgart were still wet from the earlier rain. Puddles gathered in spots.

As her mother was talking with a friend, the little girl stamped in a puddle and laughed. She did it again.

She walked out of the puddle and re-entered.

Stamp, stamp, stamp followed by laughter.

In, stamp, out, in, stamp, stamp, stamp, out, in, out.

Happiness can be very simple when there are puddles to conquer.

Back "home"

For two years after I moved back to Massachusetts I was still homesick for Stuttgart. That was 50 years ago. Re-visiting the city today was wonderful, although we came not for nostalgia but the il Divo concert tonight.

This is the fifth time I've been back, and despite the gray and sprinkles, I showed Rick and Julia, the Neue Schloss, Alte Schloss, the gardens, my old apartment building, some of the architecture and even the telephone where I heard that John Kennedy had just been shot. (we couldn't afford a telephone back then and I called my then husband who was working and he told me.) Every one from that era remembers where they were when they heard the news just like everyone remembers now where they were on 9/11.

Of course the old booth has been replaced by something more modern. With so many cell phones I was amazed that a phone was there at all.

But there were new memories of the wonderful hotel with all its wooden carvings.

But outside the room was a pond full of koi. The owner raises them and his Koi awards are on one wall of the hotel.

One of a kind places make more than memories...the make mental treasures.