The End Of The Berlin Wall - November 9, 1989

On this day in 1989, the Berlin Wall came down. What I thought would never happen in my lifetime, did. This was such an amazing day for me for two reasons. My mother still had family behind that wall and this would make her very happy. The second reason was that my mother was in fact in the hospital on the road to recovery from Pancreatitis. She'd been there 8 weeks by this time and they were just getting ready to take her gallbladder out. I was able to tell her the news before she went into the operating room but I'm not sure she really understood. Later of course, after the anesthetic had worn off she understood and was incredibly happy.

That was the day she said we'd make the trip back together. That never happened and I went alone.

Remnants of the wall seen from the River Spree. Many people died trying to cross the wall and swim across the river to the west. Some made it...



The reunification has not been easy for both sides and the resentment still lingers today. West Germany accumulated billions in debt in the process. The east expected more and the west didn't think it would cost so much. I think that will take a few more years before that works itself out.

My cousin tells me that after "die wende" which is how reunification is currently referred to and loosely translated means "the turning point", the Russians took everything of value and left. Every factory was emptied down to the last screw and taken away leaving nothing for the residents for a new beginning. Those buildings and factories are a depressing sight.

A Residence For Russian Soldiers





It is still a very depressed area of Germany with no industry to speak of. Farmland lies fallow because nobody knows who owns it and with EU rules on output, well what's the point of growing stuff. The unemployment rate stands close to 20 percent in this part of Germany.

It is a beautiful part of Germany with the Baltic sea and there is some tourism but not enough. While I was there I saw no tourists other than a few Germans from the south. Things are a lot less expensive than in other parts of Germany and the Euro goes a lot further there.

The people here are very friendly and polite. They are also very resigned and cynical especially towards politicians. They have been promised much twice, once by the Russians and the second time by west German politicians and both times have been left to fend for themselves. The people I spoke with said that things were better before reunification. They all had a job, they had a place to live and food on the table. They didn't have the luxuries that we in the west have but now with so few jobs most still don't have them. They were all in the same boat.

Some things are better of course, you no longer have to worry about being spied upon by a neighbour or even a relative in some cases, and reported to the authorities. Now you can live and travel in freedom. I was told that prior to "die wende" every apartment building had a superintendent whose job it was to record all visitors in the building. So if you had a party for example, you had to register every guest. He had a book to write the names in and I suspect that he probably turned that in to the authorities for inspection from time to time. If you had a visitor that was known to speak against the state would you receive a visit from the Stasi? Can any one of us in the west imagine living like that?

The streets around the towns and villages are so clean, something the rest of the world could emulate. There is no litter on the streets, not even cigarette butts.

Even the horses aren't allowed to litter...



Not even one tiny piece of litter to be found anywhere, I think that's pretty cool, don't you?

From My Travels

It is said that the things that costs the least, at times give the most pleasure and so it is with some of the things I brought home with me from my recent travels.

A bag of sand of the Baltic Sea.


I'm sure that some of you will think I'm nuts to bring home sand, but there was a good reason. It was were my mother came from, a place she loved with a passion and spoke about frequently. It is also were we were meant to travel together and because of her illness and death, never happened. Today I did two things, I went to the cemetery and spread a little sand on her grave and cried a little and I put together a little memorial for myself the things from her favourite place.

Some shells and sea glass.

And some stones from Ruegen called Huehner Gott which roughly translated means Chicken God, go figure! I have absolutely no idea how that name came to be but these chalky stones develop natural holes and when you fine one it is meant to bring you luck. As you can see, I found a few and they now hang in my window. I need all the luck I can get after the recent financial meltdown and the current state of the world.

And finally I put it all together...


These things will bring me joy...

The Road To Nafplio

Those three mountains were weighing heavily on Steve’s mind as we left the village of Iklena behind. Map on my lap we checked every village on the way to make sure we were on the right track, my sweetie was so worried about getting lost. I didn’t really get that, I mean he speaks Greek and lots of tourists make this treck without worrying so much. In fact while we were exploring some excavation, I can’t remember which one now, we met a couple from Valleyfield, Quebec and they’d been driving all over the place with their elderly parents for over a month, and we also met a couple from Karslruhe, Germany who’d been doing the same thing since mid August. Neither of these couples spoke Greek and they got by just fine!! I kept telling Steve to chill out and not worry so much, we’d get were we needed to be eventually.

On the way to Nafplio we stopped in Kalamata to get a little food. Good old bread, butter and cheese worked best and we stopped at a roadside rest place so I could fix myself a honking sandwich. I was seriously hungry by this point. I’m sitting in the car, legs out when suddenly I feel this burning sensation on my butt. “Steve, I yelled, I think I’ve got a cramp” and jumped out of the car. He was just about to mutter something about “you are always complaining about something” when he noticed the car seat smoldering. As he previously tried to extinguish a cigarette in the ashtray the burning end dropped on my seat and eventually got hot enough to burn my b…m, not funny… Good thing I had a big water bottle handy, he he he…

We finally did make it to Nafplio. It is a bit of a drive; Pylos is on the Ionian Sea side and Nafplio is on the western side of the Peloponnese on the Argolic Gulf. My Lonely Planet describes it as one of Greece’s prettiest towns and I absolutely agree.



We drove through town and headed straight for the port and the old town where the Akronafplia fortress looms above the town.



This town has three fortresses with Palamidi being the largest. Since I was only allowed one more castle, I chose Palamidi as the one to explore and I’m glad I did.

Our first order of business was to find a room and that turned out to be no easy feat. Of course I immediately gravitated towards the Hotel Grand Bretagne, which was right on the waterfront but when we were quoted 160e for the night quickly left. Not exactly in our league, something more reasonable was our goal. We found a small hotel in the old quarter that looked really nice. We got a key to check out a room but when I got to the top of the stairs I had a real strange experience. There was a round hallway, something which I’d never seen before with 6 doors each leading to a room. I got a shiver down my spine, it’s as if I’d been there before. I told Steve I needed to get out of there right away and left. I’d had a dream long ago, and saw myself in room just like it. It was the hallway I remembered right away and even though I don’t remember much about the dream, I do remember that it was a not a good one. A most strange experience…

The innkeeper had a room in another building across the street which we then, (in spite of my misgivings) took for the night. I say misgivings because the bed was not big enough for two. What passes as a double here is really a three quarter by North American standards. We spent the evening exploring the old town, having a fabulous dinner.



I was right about the bed though, we had a horrible sleep and ended up almost divorced by five am. Smart man that Steve is though, instead of fighting with me he went in search of coffee and came back with fabulous cappuccino and fresh hot spinach pie. Gotta say that set me straight and happily report that we are still married. By eight am we were at our fortress and enjoying the exploration. I think if he hadn't gotten me the coffee I would have left him here...



My guide book says there are 999 stairs up to the fortress and I have to tell you I did not climb them. The actual number is under a bit of dispute so you’d really have to climb them and count them to know for sure. There is road access to the top so we drove up and I’m glad we did. This fortress is immense, the biggest one of the whole trip with lots of nooks and crannies to explore. There are also numerous bastions with amazing views. There were many stairs within this fortress and by the end of two hours I was pretty tired. The old hips are starting to act up a bit.

The view from the top was breathtaking.



The third fortress is on an island just west of the port and by the time we finished with Palamidi I was pretty tired. It's not really terribly big so I don't think I missed much.

After a quick lunch and packing up our belongings we were on the road again destination Athens. It was a three hour trip back and reasonably uneventful except that we got slightly lost coming into the city. It was good to be back in our quasi home.

Our last few days were spent with family and friends and in spite of really wanting to get home we were sad to leave.

By the time you read this post we will be safely back in Canada. Our flight with Olympic was one of the last to leave Athens. There was a general strike in all of Greece and we weren't sure we were going to make it home. Thankfully we did and now the unpacking and laundry begins.

As always, there are more photos on my Flickr page.

Will We Or Won't We...

Make it home tomorrow...that is the million dollar question.

All day there have been conflicting reports from various news outlets and including information direct from Olympic Airlines. There is to be a general strike (third in 7 weeks) will all forms of transportation grounded. We have heard things like "all Olympic flights grounded tomorrow" to "one flight per destination" to "everything is fine". What does one believe?

Well, we are either going to make it home or not but I am so ready to get out of here and back to a country where things function amazingly well compared to here.

I'll let you know how this turns out, meanwhile ciao...

Methoni - Another Fortress

I awakened Monday morning to a bright and beautiful day. This was the day we were to leave for Napflio but as we already know best laid plans and all that…

There seemed to be a decision made (without me) that we would stay an extra day. There was no food to be had other than my breakfast bars and cookies so Steve went off to look for some sustenance. He did manage to score some tomatoes, yogurt, cheese and bread. He also brought back some Turkish coffee which under the circumstances had to suffice.

It was decided that we would drive to Methoni with Maria and my sister in law Voula while Stavros took poor little Spyros to the doctor. Did I tell you about Spyros; he’s the cutest little four year old but sometimes I think he’s a little devil. He has been thoroughly spoiled and when he wants something he either whines until he gets it or throws himself down on the floor howling. That generally does the trick until the next time and he can really unnerve me. Guess I’m not that good around little kids any more. Anyway, poor Spyros was a little bunged up from the bad diet and needed some assistance in that direction so Stavros took him to the doctor to solve the problem. I’m happy to report that it did, all over the back seat of poor Stavros car, he he he… am I mean or what?

Voula, Yours Truly and Maria



Meanwhile Methoni, another fortress, more history and I soaked it up. Poor Steve has pretty much had it with this kind of thing but goes along anyway. Little does he know I have more castles planned.

This is a vast fortress has a Turkish bath, a cathedral, a house, a cistern, parapets and lots of underground passages. This huge fortification is surrounded by water on three sides and has a moat. The medieval port town was located inside the fortress and was the Venetians’ longest held possession in the Pelopennese. Real eye candy for someone like me who can imagine living in those times, not that I would have wanted to mind you.





This was the part of the fortress where the harmem lived and you can still see the grooves where the floors where. There were about 4 levels of living space.



After Methoni we went visited with a cousin, whom Steve had not seen for 16 years. He and his wife own a waterfront café and we spent a pleasant afternoon with them. The cousin George also took us for a quick drive to a bird and fish sanctuary. Everything within is protected so no fishing allowed even though we could see many jumping around. An abundance of mosquitos made our visit short.




We called Stavros to ask him to join us for dinner at the cousins and at this point everything fell apart. Stavros decided he wanted to go back to Athens right then and there, no explanation just “bring Voula back, gather up Mom and I’m leaving right now, you can stay”. By this time it was already after eight and there was no way in hell Steve was going to drive those mountain roads in the dark. So we stayed another night alone in the big house, and because of all the confusion caused by you know who, we again didn’t get any dinner. I think I’m coming back to Canada five pounds lighter.

The next morning Ilias and Maria, who in all the confusion caused by their son-in-law forgot about us came over full of apologies and food for breakfast. I can’t say enough about how wonderful these people are and how well they treated us, virtual strangers really.

We packed up our belongings and hit the road map in hand to tackle the three mountains and head to Napflio…

As always, more pictures in Flickr.

These posts are catch up posts and we are really back in Athens getting ready for our return trip. Unfortunately that may not happens as we just found out that Olympic Airlines is having a strike and our flight may or may not happen tomorrow. Wish us luck...

Sunday - Pylos Fortress

Sunday morning started bright and early with all of us trying to figure out what to eat for breakfast. Since very little planning went into this trip the lack of real food was palpable. Thank goodness for my stash of breakfast bars (I think ahead).

Today we went to Pylos with more of those mountain roads that I have come to loathe and fear. Every so often you see a shrine at the side of the road and you know that someone has missed the curve and died there. In spite of the tight turns there were still cars passing in what I considered dangerous conditions and by the time we reached Pylos I had a king sized headache from stress. These are not roads for those faint of heart…

Pylos is a pretty town, incredibly picturesque with a tree shaded centre square. The history as quoted from the Lonely Planet is;

20 October 1827, the British, French and Russian fleets, under the command of Admiral Codrington, fired at point-blank range on Ibrahim Pasha’s combined Turkish, Egyptian and Tunisian fleet, sinking 53 ships and killing 6000 men.

There was also the Fortress of Pylos to explore and from there many battles the biggest being the battle of Navarone. Without the shoes I bought to climb my mountain (remember that one)I would have been screwed. These shoes are god awful ugly but comfortable as all get out and with a solid sole there was no slip sliding on the uneven rocks that are all over these excavated castles.

So Steve and me were off to explore leaving the rest of the crew behind in town. After a couple of hours of climbing we met up with the rest of our party at a little seaside café for some fried Calamari and Ouzo. I needed to fortify myself for the trip back to the house and even though I hate Ouzo I had my fair share.

Then back to the house for what was to be a wonderful barbeque, which turned into a near fiasco. In what I have come to understand as typical Greek, or maybe just typical Stavros fashion, things don’t always work out as planned. He had brought what seemed like hundreds’ of pork chops from home to be barbequed, that’s it…just pork chops. We did stop in a market in Kalamata to buy water and when both my SIL and I tried to explain that we needed more than meat he said, “don’t worry, we can get everything we need in the village”. I guess he forgot that village shops as are most shops in Greece, close on Sundays. Remember that song “Never On A Sunday”? I think they meant more than sex…Everything is closed tighter than a drum. Not even a tomato was to be found so no salads or veggies.

The plan to barbeque went somewhat awry as it was too windy to start the fire outside so he thought to cook the chops inside on the fireplace! Bad plan, by the time he had the fire going and some coals happening the entire lower floor of his house was inhabitable from smoke. Not fit for mice or men. Step two was taking all the coals from inside to an outside grill, fire danger having passed.

That being done Steve and me spent the next two hours grilling chops. About an hour in we scored 3 potatoes, which also ended up on the grill, and we had bread. There were also copious quantities of wine naturally. As far as meals go, this one won’t go down as one of our better ones but I’ve learned to go with the flow…

We were rewarded though with an amazing sunset.

As always, there are more photos in Flickr with more to come in the next couple of days. We are gearing up for the return trip next Tuesday and I'll be able to catch up on all my favourite blogs...

Peleponese Trip - The Adventure Begins

The following few posts are being written in stages but publishing them will have to wait until I have Internet access once more.

We left Glyfada at around 10:30 Saturday morning and headed first for Moschato to convince my MIL to come with us. BIL Stavro also needed to make peace with his sister and convince her to come with us as well. By one o’clock everyone was finally ready and we headed out of town. Our trip took us through Corinth, Tripoli, Kalamata and finally the small village of Iklena, population 200 give or take.




From Tripoli the highway ended and the roads through the mountains began. To say that the were hair raising is probably an understatement. The hairpin curves up the side of the mountains were scary enough but driving down was even worse and after three mountains I was a nervous wreck. By the time we reached our destination I was ready for a triple scotch. Didn’t pack any though so I was out of luck.




My sister-in-law Pigi was unable to make the trip but her parents welcomed us with open arms. Lots and lots of food magically appeared starting with an appetizer that was strange to me but delicious the yellow flower that eventually becomes a squash, stuffed with rice and cooked in the oven with tomato sauce. There was a subtle hint of peppermint that made these little gems irresistible. The main course was rabbit stew again with a tomato sauce and pasta. I ate more than I ever thought I could it was so wonderful. There was also lots of homemade wine, which I consider gut rot, but what the heck…with a lack of scotch what’s a girl to do…

Maria and husband Ilias lead a very simple life in this village; very self sufficient they have their own rabbits, chickens, ducks, geese and also have a huge garden. The grapes they grow make the wine but in my opinion eating them was definitely better.

Most North Americans with their large homes can’t possible imagine living like this, but this couple in their late fifties live in one room. Their house is divided into various segments with upstairs being for their son and family, another section for a brother and family, a third section for a 93 year old mother and finally the one room with kitchen for themselves. Their washroom and shower is outside. I will try to get a picture but I don’t want to be rude or denigrate their lifestyle. They are incredibly content, happy and outgoing people.

After this huge meal we went to a house Stavros owns in the neighborhood that sits empty most of the year. The house sits on a hill surrounded by olive groves with an amazing view of the Mediterranean. Simply wonderful!

I have been given an award from one of my favourite bloggers Traveler One over at Stepping Stones; pay her a visit. I will post this and pick my fellow recipients when I return to Canada next week and have a little more internet time. As always more photos are appearing on my Flickr page...ciao

The Shawl Has Found A Home

The shawl that appears in my avatar was made this past summer as a birthday gift for my Mother-In-Law. I am happy to report that she was pleased with her gift. I guess since I no longer have it in my possession I'd better change my photo.

For her birthday dinner she wanted to eat something called Pinalie (boat) which is really pizza dough shaped like a boat and filled with cheese, meat, bacon and one egg in the centre. Personally I find this a bit rich and more of a brunch food but since it wasn’t my birthday, I didn’t have a choice.

Steve’s sister was missing from the celebration though, she had a spat with her brother (not Steve) the night before and absolutely refused to come. I asked her to forget the spat, it was her Mom’s birthday after all but she wouldn’t budge. The only person who got hurt in all this was my sweet MIL. I felt sorry for her, she was clearly unhappy. Why do families do this to each other?

Happy Birthday Lela…

Another Day In Paradise!

Greece is stuck in a time warp that according to my Greek husband is about 50 years behind North America. I’m a little kinder since I’m a visitor and think it’s about 20 or so. Who is right doesn’t much matter really since we, as a friend recently pointed out again; get to go home again while the Greeks have to live here.

Just from a practical standpoint getting anything accomplished here becomes a major effort. Yesterday my husband had to go to the bank with his entire family to make some changes to his Mom’s bank account. He was gone from about 9 in the morning until 3:30 and came home frustrated. He also discovered at the same time that a bank account he has and hasn’t used for a couple of years has been frozen! “What the f-ck is wrong with this country” were his exact words. I must say that my very mild mannered husband generally doesn’t use words like that unless he’s hit his thumb with his hammer while working which also doesn’t happen often.

His Mom recently needed to see a doctor and that involved going to the office, taking a number and coming back a few hours later to see if her number had been called yet. This could take anywhere from 3 to 6 hours. North Americans would be outraged but for some reason, which is absolutely beyond my understanding, Greeks take this in stride and just shrug their shoulders. That’s the way it is and they can’t change the system. They don’t even try. My SIL who is a Canadian citizen but lives here comes to Canada anytime she has a serious medical problem and I’m certain she is not the only one who does this.

Before I left for Germany my husband went to the pharmacy to buy some Voltaren for me only to find a note on the door that they were on strike for the day, huh...

The tram going from downtown Glyfada to my MIL house has been on strike two afternoons recently without warning. And grocery prices are about to go through the roof this week. At least there was a warning about that. This is already the most expensive country in the EU and I’m not certain how people can afford to live.

A few weeks ago I met a Greek man who spoke perfect German. He had lived in Germany for 25 years and was now retired and living back in Greece. He told me that he wasn’t certain that he could live here any more after the orderliness of Germany. He told me that in the lottery of Europe the Greeks got the best country but what they were doing with it was “a crime against humanity”, his words. A bit harsh perhaps and I wouldn’t have used those words exactly but coming from a Greek, very telling.

Corruption is rampant here and to get anything done requires bribes yet the inhabitants of this beautiful country seem either unable to unwilling to stop it. They just shrug their shoulders and do what they have always done, vote in the same bunch and just shrug their shoulders and hope for the best.

And for my knitting buddies note that I have one new sock, finished and the second cast on already since I've run out of English reading material. Tomorrow we will rent a car and try to get out a little more...ciao

Some Beach Weather Please!!!

I'm sitting here at the internet cafe wearing a wool cardigan, in Greece, in September. Crickey, that's not how it was last year and I'm told it's not exactly normal either. It's sunny today but in the shade it's downright cold. If this keeps up I might have to make a trip to IKEA for a down comforter. I hope that I'm not coming down with the cold that felled all of Steve's family two weeks ago, I've certainly been around them enough and my MIL is still not well. Considering that I hug and kiss her a lot maybe I'm getting sick too.

Other than the first week I haven't been swimming and that's so sad since I was really looking forward to that part of the holiday. Not to despair there is still time since we are here until almost the end of October.

Things are looking up on the home front though, we bought a space heater so we can keep warm and a couple of days ago I scored a cute little washing machine from a blogger buddy here in Greece. Now I can do laundry, hurah...I might even iron since I bought one too. Might as well go whole hog here right...

I know this is a bit of a boring post but I did want to at least show signs of life. Once everyone is feeling better we will do a little travelling and I'll have more things to say but for today...ciao

Back To The Sun - Not Quite

I was really looking forward to coming back to Athens – for the sun and of course to see my husband who didn’t come to Germany with me. In spite of having a good time on my trip I seriously missed him. I arrived here to dark clouds, cold and rain, hear that Herbert and Addi, it doesn’t only rain in Greifswald. I guess it followed me from the Baltics.

A little picnic stop on the way from Greifswald to Berlin. There's everything in that trunk but the kitchen sink. One thing was certain, I wasn't leaving Germany hungry...

While I was gone I had hoped a few things would be taken care of here in this simple abode of ours the most important of which being hooking up the solar panels to the hot water tank. Nada, zip, zilch… still no hot water. What the heck do I have to do to get hot water, geesh… On the other hand, the entire time I was gone my sweetie was sick with a cold as was his entire family and he spent the whole 10 days at his mother’s home. Didn’t leave him much time to get anything done.

Yesterday I convinced him that we really needed to go shopping and get some basics to make life more comfortable, you know things like chocolate, chocolate and more chocolate. A couple blankets were also a good idea since the weather was seriously cold and I froze the first night. I am pretty sure that sleeping on a rubber bed on a cold ceramic tile floor is the problem. There is no heat as yet since the heater needs service and finding the guy to come do it is not easy. Part of the reason it is so chilly in this building I think is because it is an unoccupied 4 storey building. No one has ever lived here so there is no warmth in it at all. Somehow I think that if there was furniture in every unit and people living here it wouldn’t be so cold.

Today (Tuesday) though, the sun is out again and it’s starting to warm up. It’s market day and it’s just up the street from us so I’ll score a frying pan and a few other odds and sods so maybe I can cook something for dinner besides a frozen pizza.

I am so trying to gather my thoughts about all the things I saw and heard in the former East Germany and put them to paper but since I am not a natural writer it doesn’t come easy. I am certain that some people had it hard while others not so much. I saw the film The Lives Of Others and maybe wrongly assumed that all were treated in that manner. If you were a member of The Party, life was certainly better than for those who weren’t and none of my family members were party members that I’m aware of. What I can’t forgive however is the fact that due to the political system of the day, I have lost a whole lot of family never to reconnect. Over 50 years without contact does that I guess. It was only due to the diligence of my parents and my cousin’s parents who faithfully wrote letters that kept us connected and gave me the opportunity to be close to this one wonderful cousin and his wife. One or two other’s showed some interest but most couldn’t be bothered to meet with me. Although it bothered me a bit in the beginning I do understand and don’t hold it against them. After all I am a virtual stranger to them.

This post is being written over a number of days because I don’t have any internet access and have to go to a café. Today though I will post it. It is downright cold here with a gray sky that I might have brought with me from Germany, who the heck knows….catch ya later…

A Final Walk

It's funny how fast 10 days can go by, it seems like just yesterday that I arrived here in my Mother's homeland. Today I took my final walk along the beach. Tellingly, it was a gray and rainy afternoon although the morning had started out sunny. The clouds hung low in the sky and my mood was similar. I shed some tears thinking back how I should have listened more to the stories my Mom was always telling me but like most people, I thought they'd always be there. Now I break my head trying to remember everything and find I can't.

I loved my Mom, more than most daughters I suspect but I think that came from being a tight and small family unit in a strange land. Since she died in May of 2007 I think of her daily but here in the town of her birth more so. I have met some cousins and and elderly aunt who is now bedridden and clearly in decline but some have shown little interest in meeting me. I suspect that a time span of over 50 years can do that. My wonderful cousin and his lovely wife whose guest I have been, have more than made up for those who have shown no interest. I have seen many things and have heard many stories about life in the former East Germany, some sad and some not so sad. I does my heart good to hear that not all suffered.

The saddest place I visted with Pennemunde and of which I will write another time. It is a very sad place and as I walked around and viewed an old submarine and saw all the abandoned buildings I felt someone walking on my grave. I have heard stories of people running over corpses to escape and somehow I could feel the ghosts. I could hardly wait to get out of that town. It was also where my father came close to loosing his life.

Today on my final day, I walked the beach, gathered some shells and stones and said goodbye...hopefully not forever.

Back to Athens tomorrow and as always, more photos on my Flickr site.

The Time Is A Passing

Soon it will be time to leave this very interesting part of Germany and head back to the warmth of Athens. I heard it was 29.5 c there this morning and here I'm shivering in 10c with lots of gray clouds and rain, brrr...

Yesterday we climbed to the tower of the Dom St Nikolai that also has the nickname of "Long Nicholas" and has a very austere whitewashed interior with a large solitary golden cross. Yes, that would be to the top of the tower in the photo below.



A Little Rest




And yes, those are socks and sandals on my feet...not very pretty but remember, I have a bad foot. Climbing up to that tower was an achievement for me with my foot and slight claustrophobia but I did make it. The view from the top though made it a very worthwhile climb.

A view of the University campus.



There are too many photos to post but they are all on my Flickr site, feel free to visit.

There are many historic buildings in and around the Markt and after the long climb up 260 or so stairs I deserved a treat.



Much to my dismay I couldn't finish that ice cream, it was just too big...

For The Offspring - It's Really 200 Kmh

I was telling my offspring that on the way from Berlin to Greifswald my cousin drove 200 clicks per hour and I'm not sure he believed me. Well yesterday he did it again, on the autobahn and this time being daylight and with camera in hand I have proof.



Another day of sightseeing, eating and of course shopping. We went to the Amber Museum in Ribnitz-Damgarten. There were some beautiful things to see as well as to purchase and of course I could not resist.



We have been walking the beaches looking for amber ourselves but have yet to find any. I have also collected a bag of sand and some seashells from the Baltic Sea which I'm bringing home to Canada with me. I will visit my Mom's grave and leave some there for her.

There have been tears along the way and also lots of laughter. My cousin and his lovely wife are making my visit memorable.

Of course there are many political discussions about life before and after the fall of the Berlin wall but these are subjects for another time.

As always, more photos in the flickr page on the sidebar.

Isle of Ruegen

Before we went off to do this...



And this...



And definately this...



I had to make a quick emergency trip to an orthopaedic doctor this morning and he was kind enough to give me four needles in my foot. I could simply not walk any longer and if you look carefully at the photo you can actually see me grimacing in pain. Such is life though and with lots of Voltaren cream it will go on. I'm not giving up on sightseeing...just wishing for better weather and a better foot. I'm tired of the raincoat and crummy shoes...

The Baltic Sea

My Mother had a love of water and absolutely adored our Nova Scotia trip. Today I saw why. There is a similarity between these two places on different continents.



The north wind was blowing and it was pretty cold but I had to get my feet wet. If I catch cold we will know why...



Tomorrow it's off to the Isle of Ruegen and I'm sure it will be a full day.

As always, there are more pictures in my flickr site and more will be added each day... oh, one other thing, spell check doesn't work here, blogger seems to think I should be writing in German so every word I write comes up misspelled, so if I miss a couple, forgive me...

Why Only In Germany?

What you may ask, well I'll tell you...seems that I always get el blotto once every time I come here and this time was no exception to the rule. Didn't see it coming either, it was just a quiet evening at home after a day of sight seeing. A beer with dinner, a couple or three glasses of wine later and then came out the bottle of 12 year old scotch that hadn't been opened yet. It went down nice and smooth, is probably my favourite drink but the second one wasn't necessary. My cousin has a bit of a heavy pouring hand and well, you guess the rest.

Today was spent mostly in bed nursing a headache and figuring out how to keep my tummy in line. Why do I do these things just once a year? Anyway, enough bellyaching for now. I did the bridge thing yesterday and that might have been the reason the little bit of alcohol affected me so.

My Grandfather among other things made ice cream for sale in the summer time and one of my Mom's jobs as a teen was to go with the ice cream wagon to the tourist spots to sell it. That would be the harbour at the River Ryck. She always crossed the bridge and talked about those times of her life fondly. Yesterday I walked across the bridge and thought of her.



More photos in my flickr page on the sidebar.

Sun, Sand and the Mediterranean

Athens is a city that never sleeps, at least it sounds that way to me. I refer to Athens generally but we are in fact 30 clicks south of the city in a suburb called Glyfada although comparing it to a North American suburb would be foolish. People here live cheek to jowl and there is no room to live (lebensraum) and there are certainly not the spacious backyards we are used to. Every available bit of land has been built up with apartments and life is lived on balconies from morning to night. Kids roam the streets till midnight just having fun and creating mayhem, and dogs, well I’m not sure what I can say about them except they simply never stop barking. Even with earplugs it’s been difficult to sleep. As was the case last year, I will adjust, it will just take a few days.

Our home (borrowed) is a bit rough at the moment. We still don’t have hot water in the apartment and showers are taken al fresco on a patio. We did finally score an air bed but with my bad luck (murphy’s law) the sucker leaks and it has to go back for an exchange. But hey, with my experience at our cabin roughing it is in my psyche. Tomorrow my sweetie is going in search of a washing machine. Last year I did our wash by hand for the whole 7 weeks and that is an experience not to be repeated this year.

Lest your think it’s all bad, rest assured there have been some great times already. My BIl has had us out on his boat twice and to say it is beautiful is an understatement. The sea is a wonderful green color and you can see right to the bottom. Jumping in off the back of the boat has to be the greatest thing to do. I just wish I could swim better and didn’t have a fear of drowning.






The time passes quickly and on Thursday I leave for 10 days in Berlin. Since I am a glutton for punishment, it's Olympic Airlines once again. It's a relatively short flight though so I'm not terribly worried. My cousin will drive from Greifswald, about three hours to meet me, we will tour Berlin a bit and then head back to my mother's birth place. I can't really describe how I feel about that right now, I'm sure with time the words will come, just not yet.

And, there has been knitting...

My next post will be from Germany...

Olympic Airlines - As Expected

Self fulfilling prophecy, I suppose maybe. When you don't expect much maybe you don't get much but in this time even Olympic outdid themselves. Apart from the usual superior mentality of the in flight staff service was cut to a bare minimum.

We got off to a bad start when we were asked to re pack our luggage at Toronto airport. Seems two suitcases were too heavy. Never mind that we didn't exceed the total allowable pounds, they wanted even distribution. So there I was on my hands and knees trying to re pack standing to the side of the line, grrr.

The take off was reasonably on time (4:30 PM) and soon we were winging our way to Montreal to pick up more passengers. The first sign that all was not as usual was that we were not offered refreshments on the Toronto to Montreal run which surprised me. I put it down to the fact that there were half a dozen babies on board and they were busy and cheerfully sucked it up. After all I had two huge bottles of water to keep me busy.

We left Montreal around 6 or so and by that point I was chomping at the bit looking for something to pacify my growling tummy. There was grumbling among other passengers as well but I still remained cheerful and scarfed down some cheese crackers I had stashed in my bag. By 8 PM we finally saw some activity happening and knew we would get to eat soon. Dinner when it finally arrived was a two by four inch piece of chicken, some petrified veggies and four small round parisienne style potatoes. A little salad, a cold bun and a small piece of what looked like a pudding style cake made up the rest of the tray. I grudgingly got another bun but let me tell you it wasn't easy.

Dinner done, the shades were drawn and we were expected to sleep...at 9:30 for crikes sake! The movie was playing but when we inquired about the head sets we were politely informed that nope, there wouldn't be any. Huh, we were expected to watch the movie without sound and Greek subtitles? Seems that way. I asked for a blanket and was also informed that Olympic wouldn't be giving out blankets any more.

Sometime during the night probably around 2 AM I was starving and being a little Hyperglycemic needed some food or juice. Steve went to ask for some juice and was refused. He came back in shock and told me the flight attendant told him that "if I give you juice other people are going to ask too, here have some water".

So there you have, lousy food, no headphones and no blankets on a 12 hour overnight flight and even feeling ill doesn't score you any juice. Doesn't that beat all... I really am going to have to look for a better way to get here next year.

We are semi happily ensconced in the same abode as last year but still don't have a proper bed. We are sleeping on two cots and no hot water. These issues will hopefully be resolved in the next few days. I don't have any internet access this year, seems the free network I accessed last year flew the coop. There is an internet shop down the road though and quite reasonably priced at 1.50 euro for an hour. I figure I can get here two or three times a week at least.

It's hot and sunny with a brilliant blue sky and the sea looks as lovely as I remember from last year.I can hardly wait to get to the beach...

Just About Ready

This past weekend was spent at the cabin fixing the roof...


Firing the kiln...
And closing up for the season...

We got home early afternoon and I promptly went back to packing, well some packing anyway. Two suitcases done two to go. I still have four loads of laundry to fold and I think I'll get it all done by noon tomorrow. Olympic Airlines will love us, they can charge lots of bucks for extra weight. There's just so much stuff I need for 7 weeks. I already edited my yarn supply heavily and I'm onlytaking enough for two pairs of socks and one cardigan. I hope it's enough.

Tomorrow at this time we'll be winging across the Atlantic heading to Greece. I'll check in when we have gotten settled and I can find an Internet connection, meanwhile ciao...