GSC, WInter 25, More Frankfurt

 The weather was lovely today and I just felt like walking. After coffee near Willi Brandt Platz with it’s giant Euro, I found Faber & Castell’s flagship store and bought a couple of pencils and a sketch pad plus a cool eraser and sharpener, plus a small sketch pad, then popped into the bookstore nearby and picked up some German short stories (intermediate level of course).

I just read about the verb genießen in one of my German blogs. Apparently it’s not used in the same sense that we over use enjoy; the blogger had other suggestions (Das gefällt mir oder hat Spaß gemacht) but when I bought host chestnuts and commented on the sunny weather, the vendor told me it was a great day to enjoy being outdoors. AND she used the verb genießen, and that, according to the blog, is the appropriate use.  So much to learn.

I went in search of the Dom and finally found it. It was destroyed by fire in the 1800’s, and rebuilt, then a good deal of the church was destroyed and most of the surrounding area was leveled during WWII. It was rebuilt yet again, in the same gothic style. It’s a well lit, happy, airy cathedral with modern pale pastel stained glass windows. 

One of the rebuilt streets parallel to the river between the Rômerplatz and the Dom (Saalgasse) was a sheer and unexpected delight; each of the buildings was a little different, modern in feel yet with a nod to the past… I photoed some of the buildings. 

The next stop was lunch in Sachsenhausen… then the Liebieghaus Sculpture Museum. The main theme of the ground floor galleries were animal bronzes by August Gaul.  Apparently there was a Berlin Secession Movement similar to the Vienna Secession… The museum has a deep collection of ancient statuary as well as European historical art, and the Gaul pieces were located here and there amongst the older works highlighting various themes… It was really good. His bronze lioness brought tears to my eyes although I can’t tell you why I found her so moving.  In the basement was a huge collection of ivory carvings… after my initial distaste, I started to admire the material and the skilled carving. I think I would look carefully at the exhibition before returning, since such a large part of the collection is not in my sweet spot, but I’m super glad I dropped by.

I did go out a bit tonight; there was a Pokémon meetup… Slightly more organized than the ones I did with P&W in RWC. Basically, after giving folks time to finish one raid, the host would yell out a nearby location and the 40 or so participants would then move to the next location, then back on her signal. The other notable difference was that level of cigarette smoke despite the presence of a couple of young children. The meet up was located between the giant Euro and the Opera House, which was playing music to the plaza. Was there a performance? Between 6 and 7 PM? Hmmmm… A somewhat surreal experience but I got to hear (and try to decipher) a lot of accents.

GSC, Winter 25, Zürich and Frankfurt

 Here starts the travelogue… I’m calling it GSC for German Speaking Countries. 

I spent 2 nights in Zürich; I spent a lovely afternoon with M and then had coffee the next day with an ex co-worker. M and I toured the Christmas Markets, then share some fondue… Jeez, I really like cheese fondue but I think only once every 10 years or so… I stayed at the Townhouse Boutique Hotel which is about 2 blocks from the train station; it’s relatively inexpensive, and it was clean and mostly quiet. Next time I’d try to find someplace a little posher.

Zürich just turned on the Christmas lights, which are affectionately named Lucy. Here’s a view of Bahnhofstrasse, with Lucy, in the Sky with Diamonds. Yep, it was cold. I also stopped for some chestnuts. Note: Chestnuts are nearly impossible to feel once they’ve cooled, so eat them fast!

I had some extra time before my train to Frankfurt left, and it was raining, so I ducked into a church, and failed to record its name. It’s in the old town near the Fraumünster. I popped in to take a quick look; it’s a fairly plain church with a white and wood interior, and as I sat down to look around, the organist began to practice. It was lovely…

On to Frankfurt, where I’m trying to prove that you can easily fill 2 days with things to do. I visited the Städel and spent 3 happy hours looking at art. Not sure if it was the art (which was amazing) or the fact that I was listening to music through headphones… I grabbed this photo from the roof. Is that not the longest river boat you’ve ever seen? 

I spent a fair amount of time thinking about art and how pieces “feel” like each other and how artists view something then riff on it. I’ll put comments on the photos in the album…

Afterwards, I found the Christmas Market; it felt like it was a mile long, winding through the old town streets! I’ll put comments on the photos for that too. It was remarkably nostalgic and brought back fond memories of my mother, and I nearly cried a few times… I have no idea where all that  emotion came from!! What triggered it was the old style ornaments, the wood things that spin around when you put candles under them, the vanille kipfel, and those wreaths and stuff that are made out of spices.  And the advent calendars. I ate too many kipfel. (Gipfel?)  I didn’t photo the barriers everywhere to prevent a car/truck from terrorizing the Market, but I did get the long line of Polizei cars…

It feels like the Market is more about meeting friends for a drink and some street food before than about buying presents, but there were a lot of stalls selling small presents, or Christmas decorations. The street food was largely German (and the potato pancakes looked amazing!) but there were a few other stands including one selling Vegan German food and a couple offering burritos and tacos. Lots of Glũhwein.

On the way home I put my cookies in my pocket and ducked into the Archeology museum; it’s got a lot of well preserved artifacts from a Roman town nearby in the 200s or 300s. I believe a sign indicated they’re dug a trench and erected stone watchtower but had never built walls, like they did on the Scottish border. I thought the museum was interesting but I’m not sure it was on the must see list. 

I can’t easily move the photos around so I’ll fix that when I get home; I’ll do a second pass on the editing as well. 

A link to the photo album for Zürich and Frankfurt is here; I.m working on commentary. https://photos.app.goo.gl/23kARYq7uhg57Lh58

Leaving....

I have a short list of things to do before I leave town.... 

Towels are hemmed and the hat is done. I've started the Age of Aquarius Poncho, from a pattern we got at the Portland Retreat, and Scotland vacation yarn; that'll be my travel project.

I never got around to writing about the sweater class I took in Ashland. The shoulders are really the trick of this sweater.  The shoulders look like set in sleeves but the knitting is easy like raglan sleeves. The front looks like this.

The sleeve is supposed to sit more naturally on the shoulder, which is the point of the tailoring. I was unable to talk the cats into modeling, and there are no babies in my life at this point, so I can't show it on a warm body...

I also cooked for the freezer to assuage my guilt from leaving DH on his own for T-day. I made some sausage and lentil soup, and these baked beans, but in the slow cooker; I added a little garlic and mustard.  Definately make these beans again. I think I'll do them in the oven next time, it'll warm up the house and make the consistency of the beans a little different.

https://dancearoundthekitchen.com/baked-beans-from-scratch/

Travelogue to commence shortly :)

Events, projects getting finished, projects getting planned...

I just finished the second of two events I did for our guild members! I think I've mentioned the first; a weave-in, where 7 of us came together and wove (mostly) from the same pattern. I have 6 new napkins waiting to be hemmed (five of which are identical and one is lovely but confusingly different). I had input the pattern into my weaving software incorrectly, so the motif is wrong but a consistant manner; then I noticed one of motifs is just wrong. I didn't notice it until days later, and I'm disappointed but once it's covered with BBQ sauce, who'll know the difference? Most of the rest of the group is still weaving off their projects, I'm looking forward to the pictures! (I'll post a photos of mine here once they're hemmed). 

Now that the event is over, I can finish the 3 unhemmed towels that I have that were waiting for the weave-in; I had them set aside to show the difference wet finishing makes to that weave structure. Now they can be finished!

Looks like there's a lot of hemming in my future... There are also 2 King size pillowcases that are worn on the hem crease; I'll hem those down to Queen size and get them back into the linen closet. (Note: Queen size is 30" deep as opposed to Kind which are 36" deep)

The second event was a study group in our guild called "Creative Endeavors" and I gave a quick card weaving demo/lesson. J had asked me to do it and I didn't feel good about saying no... I only had 2 hours minus their time for socializing and "Show and Tell" but managed to cover a whole lot (I think) and everyone got to play with the cards. A couple of people are pretty excited about trying it again so I offered to do a little warping and weaving clinic on a simple band. Now I want to do more card weaving. I'll have to wait until after my trip...

These two events took a lot of planning and work but the participants were very grateful and it was totally worth it. I feel like the guild needs more members teaching members and I'm hoping that by modeling the behavior we'll get more of that. I'm wondering if the space is the issue? Maybe I'll see if anyone wants to teach something here next summer.