Day 33 NYC Library Day

 The view from the window this morning

  

 

 

 

Somehow MGM does not suffer from jetlag. That's not to say he doesn't get it, he was up at 5am this morning because he couldn't sleep anymore, but he doesn't suffer from it, no - he's firing on all cylinders right from the get-go. Me? I have no control over such things, I am at the mercy of my physical inadequacy. Sounds overly dramatic doesn't it but just find anyone who has to see me in the mornings and ask them what that morning with jetlag would look like and I bet they could paint you a picture.

 

So this morning the simple task of dressing was almost beyond me let alone the hectic NYC streets. A friend reminded me about the benefits of caffeine and energy drinks for just such an occasion.

 

This did not do the job

 

 

Sorry Americans I don't wish to offend but coffee coloured water is not coffee, nor did it provide the necessary kick start to my addled brain. Try as I might I could not formulate a plan or even keep up with MGM as he walked. Our solution was the hop on hop off bus. We quite often use this method for gaining a perspective on what we want to see in a city where we don't have the luxury of time, and I was very much mistaken when I thought we'd be able to do NYC on foot. The city blocks are  huge, but that has given us other opportunities to experience NYC. We caught a cab last night and the rode the subway today.

 

 

 

 

We both have things we want to do here and today we checked off one each. MGM wanted to see the World Trade Centre memorial.

 

It was very moving and I think it's very clever symbolism to use the footprint of the buildings and have the water flowing down like that - sort of like a water-shed of emotion.

 

 

 

 

This buliding will be a museum that houses the tridents from the facade of towers, and looks itself like a fallen building ... again - very moving. 

 

I was surprised by the airport-like security screening, but of course that makes sense, and pleased to find that you can visit this sight for free.

 

My agenda item for today was the NYC public library for which I have insufficient superlatives. Let's jsut say I was giddy and leave it at that.

 

 

 

 

 

 I want a desk like this in our new library UWS.

 

 

or this, see the long wooden bit that spans the room? That's a service desk.

 

 

 

 

 

 There's lots more to show you, maybe tomorrow.

Day 32 and then some

The view from the window this morning

 

It's a bit blurry isn't it, well I was a bit blurry too but I wanted to show you the colours ... so so me.

 

here's a better focused one

 

We started our day at 3am, we drove to Frankfurt =2.5 hours got there with enough time to get through all the processes and have just  30min wait before boarding our 1hr15min flight to Heathrow. More processing, more waiting before boarding our 7hour flight to NYC.

 

Now I did the math and I worked out we were traveling for 19 hours so explain to me how we arrived in JFK airport at 3pm on the day we left Germany. Actually MGM  did have a go at explaining it but my eyes started to glaze at "well Wend it works like this..."

 

So, since I didn't sleep the night we left Germany,  I felt well prepared for sight-seeing in the city that never sleeps, thankyou holiday adrenalin (think skippy happy, squealing & hand clapping).

 

 

 

riding in a NYC yellow cab

 

eating dinner in a diner

 

It's so cold here, -6 and breezy, we have to wear our thermals. Thank heavens for my good Swedish jacket, and the prediction is for snow this week, joy! You know I love Scandinavia and Europe, or you should I've been banging on about it enough, I thought I wouldn't be as happy in NYC.

 

I was wrong. 

Day 31 Gemünd, Germany

The view of the window this morning

 

A little bit of snow on the garden to accompany a little bit of drawing time (hopefully). We have some serious traveling coming up tomorrow, not just your longer than the average tourist drive to see something interesting, or a stupidly-long-only-AllansAbroad-would-consider-it-doable drive to the next accommodation but this-is-serious-we-MUST-get-our-act-together-today sort of traveling. We plan to arise at stupidugly o’clock (3am) be on the road at 3:30a?isthisreallyatimeofday?m to catch a flight from Frankfurt to London at 7:20abloodym. From Heathrow we connect to New York for the American part of our holiday.

That sounds way more substantial than it actually is hehehe … we’re only in NY for five nights but I do like to sound oh so world traveller-ish. We’ll be travelling for 35 hours tomorrow in one of those arrive before you leave scenarios; chasing the sun MGM calls it. If we were to keep on going we’d arrive in Australia the day before we left Germany!

 

So, with all this in mind, after we do the laundry (well after MGM does the laundry) we are spending today resting. Especially MGM who, let’s face it, will be doing ALL the heavy lifting tomorrow as I will be asleep on the inside while my outside shell puts on a good show that resembles a waking person. Our only outing today is dinner, one last trip to our fav food place - Nordsee (seafood mmmMMmmmm yummy).

For me, today is all about re-packing our bags to be airplane acceptable and two-person-carry-able. Boy! did our goods and chattels expand a lot taking advantage of having the car space. Once that mammoth task has been accomplished I hope to get some drawing done, and ... we’re back to where we started with my one and only photo for today.

 

I may see you tomorrow, depending on flights being on time, if not you know where I’ll be, flying fast chasing that sun to the good old U. S. of A. from whence you will have an abundance of oh so I-can’t-believe-I’m-in-NY photos.

Love you all chickens, kisses.

Day 30 3 countries

The view from the (car) window this morning

It’s impossible to get the car window clean enough but you get the idea…

beautiful,beautiful, beautiful.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our destination today, the oldest city in Germany,Trier - founded in or before 16BC. To get there we drove through Belgium for a little bit and, because we had some time to kill at the end of the day, we dipped into Luxembourg…3 countries in 1 day? No problem for AllansAbroad ;)

This is the welcome into the city of Trier.

Porta Nigra (black gate) built between 186 ND 200 one of four gates that protected the city. I couldn’t get back for enough to get it all in! I know my photographer friends would never be caught without the right lenses.

This is looking back at the gate from the city side, Becca will notice the scaffolding – you’re not the only one having this muck up your view and your pics. One of the downsides of low season tourism.
 

 

One of the things I like about these well-preserved ancient towns is that they are very walkable.

We followed the tourist path (you can see MGM consulting the guide)

and this is what we saw

Hauptmarkt (main market) there’s been a market here since 882AD

 

 

 

Trier Dom (Cathedral of Saint Peter)

 

IKR?!Seemed more like a Cathedral complex than one church.

We had amazing access to the whole complex for free. We walked all over...

Downstairs into the basement, expecting to be told "you can't go there"

 

There was a plaque that seemed to record the bishops of the church starting in 255 and going through to the incumbent who took up his position in 2005…impressive no?

Outside into the cloislter, still unimpeded! marvelous

That pink is the result of the sun on the windows, how pretty.

One thing we do miss out on traveling in winter as we do is the effect of the sun on stained glass but not today. Today we were treated to some truly stunning displays of sun on glass.

Look at what the sun did in another linked church in this complex, Liebfrauenkirche (church of Our Lady) the oldest gothic church in Germany

 

 

We walked to the far edge of the tourist route to see the reamins of Roman Baths.

 

Another gob-smaking building is the Konstantinbasilika (Basilica of Constantine) surprising in its lack of adornment. It was built by the emperor Constantine  at the beginning of the 4th century and contains the largest hall still existing from antiquity. It was once pretty fancy and used as a throne room, palace room but now it’s an evangelical church so no pretty stuff just simple brick walls and huge volume, so strange to see such a large ceiling space not held up by columns or arches.
 

 

So then, just because we could we went on to Luxembourg

 

 

 

one more church for today Notre-Dame 

 

 

 

 

And the sun sets on another delightful day, I’m so enjoying this trip and know that I am very lucky… very, very lucky to have this opportunity.

Day 29 Cologne

Yesterday's little hiccup was surprisingly disorienting. The result being we got into Cologne without hats, gloves, comfy walking clothes etc. and it took half the day to actually appreciate what we were seeing but you can’t bump into this…

 

without some jaw-dropping action

 

We almost attended service but the order of service looked pretty long so we just stayed for a little while to listen to the organ (which was pretty impressive) before continuing.

It’s a pretty city

 

um...let's try that again (nothing changes)
 

 

 

 

 

 

Cologne was bombed heavily in WWII so a there’s a lot of 50s architecture, but the site of the city dates back to 38BC so there’s some considerable history lesson to be had here, something the builders of an under-city tunnel discovered became acutely aware of when they started excavations. Poor beggars couldn’t dig up a thimble full of dirt without finding some amazing artefact. We walked through the museum that houses Roman relics and some of the displays were just glass cabinets full of ancient detritus with no attempt at all to categorise it, just looked like a bucket load from a digger. It was moving to stand in the presence of items that were used for ordinary things like cooking, eating, drinking etc.; written, you could even see the way latin evolved; created by human beings well over 2000 years ago... gives me goose bumps.

On a less cultural note Cologne also does excellent cake lunch, of which partook in this very posh establishment...Café Reichard (would have been wrong not to, right cherubs?)