A Kaleidoscope of Memories in Germany

Need a Dress for Octoberfest?

12th Century Interior Door

Park/Cathedral Garden in the City of Speyer

Flowers on a City Street

Christmas Store Soldiers

Standing on a 12th Century Floor

Padlocks Pronouncing Love Along a City Bridge

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We Were Sailing Along

We were drifting along a river and the journey was quiet and smooth (if you don’t count the Locks the first night).

There is something surreal and other-worldly about sailing down a river past story book villages.

I was expecting to see the worn out industrial sides of German towns like from a bus or a train in the U.S.  But we must have passed those city undersides at night because the views were of the never-to-be-forgotten other-worldly variety.

There was a song written in 1912 entitled “Moonlight Bay” often sung in a Barbershop Quartet style.  It  was one of a number of early 20th century songs used as titles for musical films made by Doris Day in the late 1940s and 50s.

The Chorus of that song kept going through my head as we made our way:

We were sailing along

On Moonlight Bay

We could hear the voices ringing

They seemed to say:

“You have stolen her heart”

“Now don’t go ‘way!”

As we sang Love’s Old Sweet Song

On Moonlight Bay

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Why I Love Virginia

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What in the World is That?

This week my friend Norma and I were privileged to be taken on a private tour of Ridgely Historic Gardens, an amazing walk backward in time through a mountainside property in the Alleghany Highlands of Virginia.

There was a slightly ominous, ghostly apparation hanging in the garden that prompted my first question.  “What is THAT?” I asked and was surprised and delighted at the answer.

Can YOU guess what that is?

Answer to come in my next post about Ridgely Gardens and the fascinating little town of Clifton Forge.

 

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Echoes of Children at Play

 

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The Spiral Staircase

Extraordinary Staircases from AD Features : Architectural Digest
http://www.architecturaldigest.com
Water Mill, New York staircase

More on Stairs.

I am preoccupied with stairs.

Oh elegance!

When I was a young girl with ah, so many longings, I yearned for  a splendid home of my own – a home with a sweeping spiral staircase!

As a new bride I harbored dreams of  the mansions featured in magazines like Architectural Digest – gorgeous homes of the rich and famous with circular staircases leading to enormous bed/sitting rooms, with silken draperies, libraries, and the artwork of the masters on the walls.

And my yearning for such a home was always punctuated by the impressive, inspirational, sumptuous spiral stairs.

And would you believe I finally did get what I wished for?

Have you ever seen the GEICO commercial about a guy who meets a genie and makes a wish for a million bucks.  And that’s what he gets – a million male deer?

My wish was exactly like that.  The genie appeared in the form of Bill (my singularly brilliant spouse) and he magically produced a spiral staircase for the house of my dreams.

The stairs are spiral all right, and they are

metal,

not particularly elegant,

slightly rickety,

 even dangerous

(particularly in lightning storms),

frightening to those who fear heights,

and the railing is similar to a stiff rubber hose!

Bill is a Civil Engineer who spent a lifetime building roads (not houses), but he knows all about blueprints and measurements and since he is a highway man, getting from one point to another.  The point is, his design plan worked.

We do have a lovely, much beloved, mostly one level, mostly comfortable, unpretentious home.  Bill designed it – drew out the plans and everything.  AND THERE IS A UTILITY ROOM IN THE BASEMENT.

Evidently, the most utilitarian way down to the utility room was to install a pre-fabricated metal set of winding scares stairs.

AND YES, BILL MADE MY WISH COME TRUE AND I DO HAVE THAT SPIRAL STAIRCASE!

It is not a million bucks, and certainly not a mansion, but who can complain with a literal wish coming true?

Eeeeeeek!!!!!!

 

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The Back Way Out

The Daily Post

Weekly Photo Challenge:  Beneath Your Feet

This week, look down and capture the ground beneath your feet.

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Steeple Story

Yesterday I was happy to see they are once again painting the beautiful restored steeple of the Lexington Presbyterian Church.  I remember this was the same church that was on fire in 2002 and how horrified we were watching the steeple actually fall down.

The Virginia State Police  ruled the fire was accidental in nature,

the result of the heating of wood while workers were scraping paint.

 

Photo from http://www.trainarchitects.com

The church is a downtown landmark on the National Historic Register and was attended by Thomas Johnathan “Stonewall” Jackson who was known to fall asleep during sermons.

From en.wikipedia.org :

Lexington Presbyterian Church is a historic Presbyterian church building at Main and Nelson Streets in Lexington, Virginia. It was designed by noted architect Thomas U. Walter in 1843, and completed in 1845. A rear addition was built in 1859; stucco added in the 1880s; the building was renovated and enlarged in 1899; and the Sunday School wing was added in 1906. It is a monumental “T”-shaped, temple form stuccoed brick building in the Greek Revival style. The front facade features a Greek Doric pedimented peristyle portico consisting of six wooden columns and a full entablature. The building is topped by a tower with louvered belfry and spire.

Starting in 1851, Stonewall Jackson was a member of the church and taught Sunday school.  In 1863 he was buried in the church’s cemetery.

 

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Rothenburg on the Romantic Road

When tragically, my sister-in-law was killed by a drunk driver, Bill and I and our son, Corky, tried to salvage those of her personal effects we thought would always remind us of Carol.

Our son rescued an etching which is now residing at our house. Carol must have loved this remarkable piece and the more we look at it, the more astonished and enthralled we are.  It is intensely beautiful in a unique way.

The etching is of a street beneath a clock tower in the medieval German town of Rothenburg.  The  mesmerizing image is a night scene, where under a clear starry sky, musicians are dancing and playing.

There is light coming from a nearby window and the silvery glow of moonlight creates shadows on the street. The old buildings’ flower boxes emit muted color through the evening’s glow.  And the whole effect is transfixing and transporting.

But the oddest thing about this story is that Bill and I are now planning a trip to Europe.

And before we had even seen or acquired this remarkable etching, we had arranged a tour of Rothenburg!

So, we will see the old city and maybe even find the very street where Carol walked and where the artist must have enjoyed the inspiration.

Rothenburg on the Romantic Road is perhaps the best preserved medieval town in Germany and the entire walled town is considered a living museum.  The wall connects five medieval gates complete with guard towers that date from the thirteenth to sixteenth centuries.  Gothic, renaissance,  and baroque houses and fountains are highlights of the town as you walk its cobblestone streets.

 

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Making Progress

Some things make me sad.  This was once a prosperous dairy in a rural part of my county.  Now it stands as a monument to  simpler times and natural spaces.  But, “that’s progress,” or is it?

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