Finding the book, Codex, that I've been looking for since I got to Germany

You may recall in an early blog, my luck at finding The Magician King by Lev Grossman at the Frankfurt main train station, and ordering later, at a small local bookstore, his other two books, The Magicians and The Codex, his first book.  The Magicians came in the next day.  More than a month goes by, I go to the bookstore every few days, The Codex is still on order.  We leave for Ireland.  On one of the first days in Galway, we are walking along the street where all the musicians play, and there are a lot of bars and restaurants, and shops.  Some high end shops, a book store, some cheap trinket shops for souveniers.  We go into the book store, I ask if they have The Codex, no, but they can order it, 10 days or so to get it in.  I say no thanks, we're traveling.  We go in and out of the trinket stores full of baseball caps, key chains, post cards, plastic jewelry, bins of tumbled stones, I'm sure you know the sort of stores they are.  And they're tiny.  But we finally go into a larger one that has big tables piled high with books.  They are the publisher's slush books.  Of course we always look at the books.  I'm across the store from Steffi, and she calls me.  Mom, what's the name of the book you're looking for?  She fills in the answer, The Codex.  I say yes, still busy with postcards.  She says, well, I think this is it.  I go over to her.  There on the table are probably ten or so copies of The Codex, normally 5.99 Euros, marked down to 3.99 Euros.  I almost cry.  There's my book.  I have an urge to buy them all, but refrain and just take one.  Another 'who would have ever thought'.  I read the book while we were in Ireland.  Very good, I loved it.  Of course, when I got back to Frankfurt and went into the local bookstore, The Codex had come in while I was gone, and I felt obligated to buy it.  12.Euros.  So now I have two copies.  Life is good.  I am happy.

Galway photos day one

Sitting outside at Corrib Village.  It didn't rain on us one time in Ireland. Lots of sun.  

Glaway is on a huge bay, and the Atlantic Ocean.  Lots of water. Lots of clouds, no rain.

On the first tour. someplace.

Dinner first night.  Great Italian restaurant with candles in Glaway.  

Park art in Eyre Square, Galway, where all the city buses come and go from. 

Wall art in Galway on the side of a building. No name, no artist was named either. 

The Corrib River, a rushing wide body of water, emptying in the sea.  There are life bouys all along the river with instructions not to steal them, or someone may drown.  

First of Irish Blogs

You may have wondered what I've been doing since my last post June 4th....well, we left on the 9th for Ireland and came back on the 14th.  I have now what I call 'bus butt' when means all those hours on the tour buses has taken its toll.  The bus seats are narrow and hard, just not shaped like I am. Today, I walked along the Main River to work out the kinks.  It's overcast, will probably rain later.  There are hundreds of ducks along the walking path, parent ducks and baby ducks, and a few swans who think they are foster parents of some of the ducklings.  The swans will attack and hiss, and so will some of the mother ducks.  I took my straw hat and when they run at me, I bat at them with my hat.  I was looking for one of the many Saturday flea markets, but wasn't successful in finding one.  It will take several blogs to cover Ireland.  But as a recap in this one, we flew Ryan Air which was only 40 Euro each round trip, but they charge a lot if you check any luggage so we each took a backpack for 5 days of traveling.  The trip was easy both ways.  Once in Ireland, we landed at Knock Airport, sort of in the middle of the Island and in the middle of nowhere, we took a bus to Galway.  A 1.5 hour trip.  Not bad.  In Galway, we stayed at a Youth Hostle called Carrib Village.  The river that runs through Glaway is the Carrib River.  We took the bus out to the Village.  Our room was on the second floor, clean and spare as it is a college dorm room.  Shared bath, kitchen and lounge down the hall with a t.v.  Steffi watched the soccor games on it when she could.  I think Germany is doing well in the playoffs.

We started our tours on day two.  Three tours in three days, rested on day 4 and came home on day 5.  More later.  Photos on separate page.

Paris June 2012

Just a picture that I like from someplace where we ate.

The bus to Paris.  It's early in the AM.

Me and our host, Mariella.

The Eiffel Tower and the Seine River. 

The Golden Flame. 

Paris 1st trip

Who would have ever thought that at this time of my life, I would be in Paris.  But, here I was, standing on the banks of the Seine River, with the Eiffel Tower behind me.  We had gone to the Church of the Sacred Heart, up 100+ steps, and then down some narrow cobbled streets to Montmart.  There were artists outside painting, and many pieces of art displayed.  I bought post cards instead of 100Euro paintings.  When we first arrived in Paris, we went to the top of the 59 story building called Tour Maine-Montparnasse.  The tower building is 689' high and is mostly offices, the restaurant closed for renovations on the 56th floor.  From the top we could see all of Paris in all directions.  Stunning.  Beneath the tower are the catacombs, we didn't see them. We saw the Arch de Triomphe and the Champs-Elysees, the Sacred Heart Church and Montmarte.  We drove by the Louvre and the Moulin Rouge Caberet.  When we go back, we'll go into the Louvre but there wasn't time this trip.  Of course we saw the Eiffel Tower, and as it got dark, the tower was lighted.  Beautiful.  One of the most memorable parts of the trip, which one might think is a simple part, is that Steffi and I sat on a bench in the middle of a busy intersetion in a small cement park where the Flame of Liberty is.  It is a copy of the flame at the Statue of Liberty, covered in copper. It' been there a long time and  it's positioned near the bridge at the exit of the Pont de L'Alma tunnel, where Princess Diana died.  It's probably exactly over site in the tunnel since it's set back from the edge.  There are writings with Sharpies about Diana & Dodi's death and the date.  This has become the unofficial memorial to Princess Diana and was covered with flowers after her death.  There are still flowers being placed there.  We sat there probably aan hour, it was peaceful in spite of all the traffic. There was a boat trip down the Seine, and we were there as it got dark and the lights of Paris came to life.  It's beautiful.  So even though there's horrible traffic, and crowds of people everyplace, there's no place like it in the world.  Who would have ever thought.....the city where Picasso, Cocteau, Pound, Ernst, Diego Rivera, Rousseau, Miro, Degas, Beckett, Matisse, Modigliani, Hemmingway, Fitzgerald, and yes, Hull, has been.  Photos in separate blog.

The gift on Monday

We have one movie channel on t.v here in English.  Today, they showed An American in Paris with Gene Kelly and Leslie Caron.  What are the chances of that?  Although I've seen the movie several times, having never been to Paris, the settings and scenes have never been very significant, but since our trip to Paris, I now recognize the  Church of the Sacred Heart, the steps up to it, the Montmartre where the artists paint and show their work, and I've actually stood in some of the same scenes that are in the movie.  There wasn't even a day's lapse between getting back from Paris, and seeing the movie.  Pretty amazing gift. Life is good. Thanks.

Trier on Friday June 1st 2012

This is the Porta Nigra, the fourth story is to the other side.

Oldest bridge in Germany built by the Romans. The supports of stone still support vehicle traffic.

The underground area beneath the arena of the amphitheater. All of the ground is covered with water.  The wood is the actual wood used by the Romans, reinforced with bolts in modern times. 

The arena of the amphitheater.  More steps.