Evolving Sweetie

Paris ~ Le Arc de Triomphe

I popped out of the metro right across the street from the Arc de Triomphe. It is beautiful and imposing. On our first day in Paris together, Chuck & I came out of this same station and kissed right here. Fact about us, we were very romantic and avid photographers. And both had the same bad habit of never placing ourselves/each other in the photos. We spent a whole 2 weeks in Europe and I have two pictures of us together and only a handful of each of us individually. I decided before I ventured to climb the 288 steps to the top of the Arc, I wanted to wonder down the Champs Elysees and make sure I captured photos of our hot spots from that trip for my own keepsakes.

Now you may or may not know this, but I have a love affair with Le Tour Eiffel (the Eiffel Tower). I love her (yes, I know technically "le" is masculine). I have little Eiffel Towers woven into my home, a clock here, a picture there, deck art etc. It's a symbol of romance, travel and beauty for me. In extravagant fantasies about my wedding day, I dreamed of sailing down the Seine past her during a reception with my family and close friends. Of course this was a girlish fantasy. But when we moved our wedding to Chuck's happiest place on earth - Las Vegas, we saw this as an opportunity to give us both a bit of our dream. Our wedding reception was at the Paris casino complete with it's own scaled versions of the Eiffel Tower and Arc de Triomphe. And so the Arc de Triomphe. Our private and most romantic wedding day moments were under the Arc de Triomphe replica at the casino. We had our first dance as man & wife serenading each other our song, "Fly me to the moon" underneath the Arc. It was one of life's perfect moments. And in Paris as we kissed in the shadow of the Arc, Chuck whispered our song in my ear. Priceless moments I will always treasure. 

And now back to the current trip! I wandered down the Champs Elysees and took pictures of the restaurants we dined at. The grumbles in my tummy let me know that 3:00 without lunch was long enough and it was time to put fuel in the tank. I grabbed a quickie ham & cheese sandwich and chocolate croissant at a lunch shop. I just couldn't step into the other restaurants without my Chuck. They are preserved in my mind as exclusively ours.

After I finished my indulgence down memory lane, I made my way back to the Arc de Triomphe. Below in the pictures along my journey on this grand boulevard - see if you can spot the Steeler fan. Yes, we really are everywhere.

The 12 major boulevards in Paris culminate into one HUGE rotary around the Arc. The traffic just whizzes by. Access to the Arc is via an underground walk way. I actually got to "save" a poor trio of tourist who were worriedly trying to figure out how to cross the circling traffic by pointing out the tunnel. The base of the Arc has their version of the unknown solider memorial. Climbing to the top of the Arc was not as bad as I feared. The first 200 steps are all on a spiraling staircase. Gave new meaning to dizzying heights! There were 2 floors at the top of the arc with history displays, an art gallery and gift shop. It provided good breath-catching breaks on the way up to the roof top deck. The views from the top were incredible, peering down Paris' famous boulevards. Even in the misty grey it was thrilling. I can only imagine how stunning it would be on a lovely summer's day. The Eiffel Tower was coyly playing peek-a-boo beneath the fog.

It's true that what goes up must come down. And I can definitely say down was the easier and quicker direction. Having already covered the length of the Champs Elysees twice by foot, plus my tour around the Louvre, I decided to give my feet a break and duck back into the metro. 

Au revoir Arc de Triomphe!

POSTCARDS from Paris - Arc de Triomphe & Champs Elysees

 

Site of Jeannette & Chuck' s romantic dinner in Paris

World's most expensive Cafe Au Lait & Croissants. Chuck & I had breakfast here last time on our way to our historic visit to Versailles. 

Photo from the middle of the Champs Elysees. Yes - there is a pedestrian stop mid way.

Had to get creative to get a picture of me on the Champs Elysees.  

 

Champs Elysees

Paris ~ The Louvre

After my trials at the Amsterdam airport, which included unloading my shoes and trekking to the gate with them dangling over my arm, I made the short trip over to Paris. I swear they build the runways for European airports miles away from the terminals. It seemed like we taxied forever. At one point the gentleman next to me swore in french that we were driving to Paris. Thank you to the kind man across the aisle from me who translated. I had a lovely french woman seated next to me who tried to help me find my hotel on the map. We couldn't find the street because it was not signed on the map. It was fine though as I was taking a taxi into the city as I did not want to waste valuable time. The only other eventful thing on the flight was that I ripped my headphones apart getting them out of the seat pocket turning my Iphone experience to a mono-phonic little roar. What can I say, grace is not one of my virtues. Even when I am all dolled up, I still feel like a bull in a china shop.

I got into my hotel around noon and headed the 2 blocks over to Les Jardin Tuilleries and the Louvre. Paris was socked in with fog all day long, which made for good museum weather. I took some pictures of the grounds, swapped photos with a nice asian couple and headed in. In theory you know this is a huge museum, even from the outside. But it really doesn't accurately prepare you for the sheer volume and mass of the halls. Nothing else is like it. 

Now-a-days you can take pictures without flash in the museum. Plenty of people were cheesing it up with all the masters. And miss Mona Lisa? She is a small painting under glass that you can only get as close as 10 feet to. And she is absolutely beautiful. Having been to Italy earlier this year, I quite enjoyed the Italian painters wing. My favorite hall was the Ruben room which was filled with wall to wall giant Ruben murals. Stunning.

It is true that you could spend all day and not see everything. At a certain point your mind just stops registering it all as the circuits are on complete overload. I did get to see some of all three halls and the most known sculpture and painting masterpieces. Man did my feet ache by the time I reach my last destination in the Dutch masters wing. Chuck made a wise decision to skip it last trip when he was feeling ill in Paris. There was no way he'd have made it through. It was bittersweet to get to finally experience the Louvre and yet, know it was a desire he did not get to accomplish. Perhaps he saw it with me that day.

After about 2 hours my internal museum timer went off and I headed out into the grey to wander through Paris. I circled over to the Palace de Royal, but it was under construction and not like I remembered it. Decided against going to Notre Dame to climb the bell tower to see the gargoyles as the Eiffel Tower was not very visible that day. Instead I headed into the metro to navigate my way to the Arc de Triomphe. 

POSTCARDS from The Louvre

 

 

Raging on through the storm

I awoke this morning raging with all that Chuck & I endured and lost. I'm consciously not posting this one in real time as I am fighting through to have a beautiful Christmas and I don't want to influence anyone else's holiday. But I am shaking with anger and sorrow. I'm like the mythical phoenix struggling to rise from the ashes of one life into the next one. And did you know the phoenix's tears have healing properties? They do have the magic to heal, you just need to shed a river full of them. And the length and depth of the river bank keeps changing.

I fight hard against being in this emotional torment fueled by anger and resentment. Anger doesn't help me. I'd rage, and claw, and scream with every fiber of my being if it could influence the final outcome. No amount of anger, righteous or not, will change the fact that the love of my life Chuck battled cancer, that we fought hard together with all we had... and lost. No rage can alter the ultimate answer to the thousands of pleads and prayers we sent up in smoke signals. Anger doesn't have the power to erase the horrible memories I am the soul surviving witness to. Fury will not rebuild the family and life that I lost. And my shouts could never drown out the sorrow and longing.

Why do I share this you may wonder? 

I believe you need to see the whole picture. I tend to hide these moments from the rest of the world. Maybe to protect myself, maybe to protect those I love. But letting the storms of anger down pour and rattle with thunder is part of the healing. When it blows through, if I don't resist it, it will pass quicker. So today it must rain. I'll shed molten tears of anger. My chest will crack open and a scream from the depths of my being will erupt through. And I will be left exhausted and unsteady in its wake. My soul will release a fraction more of the pain. And is taking another step into the future I'm creating.

The truth is I am mortally wounded. Actively, I work to make peace with Chuck's passing and focus on the gifts he has given me. The new path I find myself on will continue to flesh out, new loves and surprises will emerge, and different dreams will be fulfilled. Yet, the space in my heart that is Chuck's alone will faithfully beat out in morse code "I Miss You, I Love You" until we meet again in another time and space.

 

P.S. Editors note: the storm only lasted a day before it passed on and I rebalanced into the new equilibrium I have found for myself. And such is the journey with grief. You never know when a severe storm will come whipping through, you just have to weather it.

Christmas time was here

It was a lovely Christmas at my sister's abode. Santa definitely found us all. Presents were completely surrounding the tree. Luckily all us adults had a shot of coffee kick in before the festivities began. The girls were fun to watch as they opened all their new toys...pianos, dolls, games, little ponies, tons of books, new accessories to help make them fancy like Fancy Nancy, kitchen gadget and foods, etc. As you can see they had a wide assortment of goodies.

Santa figured out that I was staying at Heathers and left me a stocking filled with lots of treats. That was a wonderful surprise! And we adults added to our own kitchen gadgets. Ah, the way to make a foodie's heart sing. Spice bibles, cook books, panini pan, mandolin, digitial remote thermometers... smiles all around.

And what is Christmas without some bling. Heather & I got lovely necklaces from our parents. Mine is a beautiful smoky quartz and rust pearl choker. Mike got Heather a sweet pair of earring. And we all got some gift cards to give us the fun of finding our hearts desire.

Our holiday meals were delicious. I successfully made my first batch of risotto with a medley of wild mushrooms. Mike butterflyed the lobster-tails which was a beautiful presentation. Complete with garlic butter - it was a lovely meal. I decide to serve the king crab as a cocktail in pure form. It was divine. We had a homemade berry trifle for dessert.  Everyone loved it accept for Mairead who was afraid her peppermint lollipop would not be forthcoming if she ate the dessert despite our insistence otherwise. She was persistent and would not try a drop! Emily was so cute, as we were taking pictures her little finger was skimming the bowl edge to sample the whipped cream. Ah - a girl after my own heart. Truth be told, they both have my heart!

Christmas day started with a french toast casserole w/ real maple syrup and bacon. YUM!  And more french press coffee. Our dinner was a New York steak roast w/ garlic that Mike made in the oil-less fryer. It was mouth-watering scrumptious and perfectly done - great job Mike! And we had plenty of veggies - acorn squash, asparagus and mushrooms. It was a wonderful ending to our festive Christmas day.

We light a candle for Chuck and all our departed loved ones at holiday dinners to let them know we miss them and are thinking of them. And had a small toast to Chuck before we started dinner.

Most important to me was I got to spend days with my family. I was my second favorite self - Aunt Nette. Normally when I get this much time in the McAdam household I'm watching the girls for a parent's get-a-way. It was beautiful to get to spend quality time with everyone and share it together.

Happy holidays everyone! Hope yours was merry and bright.

Merry Christmas

May your heart be filled with the love and magic of Christmas.

My wish is that you spend the day with those you love. Hope you find your share of laughter, a good meal, warmth by a roaring fire, heart felt happiness and peace. 

To my Chuck - I love you honey, Merry Christmas. You'll find me celebrating with Heather, Mike and our lovely nieces. We miss you so much...

Happy holidays everyone and a very Merry Christmas to you! 

Nuremberg ~ Germany's largest Christmas Market

Welcome to Germany's largest Christmas market. And we hit it on the middle Saturday of the season. Along with seemingly every townsfolk in a 100 mile radius. Pictures can not accurately portray the massive dimensions of the crowd. This market is not for the faint of heart or the frail for that matter. We maneuvered our way through the market and by maneuvered I mean got tossed, shoved, nudged and strategically jostled ourselves towards the booths. It was nuts. By the time we made it to the end, both Janie & I were lost in a time continuum. What took us 2 hours to see we both bet 5 hours had passed. It was hard to really spend time at any given place.

We ducked out of the market for dinner at a large eatery. Our waiter was a hoot and had control issues over the menus. The menus reside at the tables. As we were trying to share ours with the surrounding folks we got a strongly worded "NEIN!"  I have a feeling we provided more amusement than we will ever realize. We ended up with Nuremberg's speciality - a dozen little tiny sausages, sauerkraut and potato au gratin-ish. Oh, and the "bread" aka pretzels we were lusting after at our neighbors table was our order that got miss delivered. The Europeans really have it together on the baking front. It was wonderful to warm up and lick our wounds for a while. While it is a fun market, it definitely requires some stamina.

The market surprisingly had less food options than the others we visited. Basically the Nuremberg racks of little sausages, some longer ones and sauerkraut. There was plenty of Gluhwien and hot beverages. The bakery stalls had all the fine german pastries, but I don't remember seeing the candy and nut vendors at this one.  The best food we found was on the smaller off shoots to the main market. The stand we got our sausage down from our hotel had a dozen different sausages grilling up at all hours. A little alternate market had a cheese fondue plate that came with it's own wooden platter to hold the cheese and bread cups. A bit salty, but still scrumptious. 

We had much better luck the next day when we arrived at market opening for shopping and talking with the vendors. One of our favorite booths sold stamps for ink and wax seals. We each bought our initials and I got a bee for waxing and stamps of the nieces favorite animals as a souvenir. There were plenty of booths to add to your cast of characters in your creche or buy a brand new one, as Janie did. The prune people were everywhere! The vendors here had a fine sense of humor that popped up as the gigolo teddy bear, the pope prune people, the dragon incense burners which smoked out the dragons nostrils... it was fun to catch. 

There were plenty of opportunities to buy Nutcrackers and wooden incense burners will perfect circle mouths. Ornaments were dangling by the hundreds. And everywhere you looked you could buy more hats, scarfs, wool socks and gloves. The Kids market had a stunning carousel that you self motion propelled the animals and balloons on. We only visited this at night and my pictures don't do it justice. I was wishing my nieces, big carousel fans themselves, were there to see it. And of course, there were the horse drawn carriages. All you would hear is the thunder of horseshoes clicking on the cobblestones. The horses were beautiful - Mairead would have been in love. I can't wait to show her the pictures.

This market was a must see for its sheer mass. But I would not recommend it on the weekend for anyone with limitations. It definitely was a bang to end our Germany travels on.

POSTCARDS from Nuremberg's Christmas Market

In a few days, I will update about my day in Paris.

Merry Christmas!

Nuremberg ~ misc

We spend 2 days in Nuremberg. Nuremberg has a lot to cover so I will start with our adventures around town and save the Christmas market for tomorrow. We stayed at a "themed hotel" - Hotel Drei Raben. Some of the rooms are made up in themes of German children's stories. After our room was moved to a 2 bedroom, we were lucky enough to get a themed room with a plastic duck, fairy tale writing on the wall and kingdom wall as a head board. It was fun. I loved the hotel logo which was 3 ravens that kept watch over Nuremberg to tell the tales. It was utilized everywhere, on the towels, the door glass, toiletries etc. It was very modern furnished hotel with this whimsical twist. The brunch at this hotel was the absolute best we encountered - fresh squeezed OJ, hand made german pancakes and a hot menu to order from, along with the continental breakfast. Definitely our favorite place we stayed on our journey.

Nuremberg is a larger city. And the market spilled out into all surrounding neighborhoods not just the main city square. We believe everyone in Bavaria decided to spill into Nuremberg that weekend. The crowds were massive. We lunched on some yummy sausage sandwiches and hot beverages. Janie won on the selection of beverages. She had hot chocolate with Baileys. I chose the eggnog and while tasty, the fumes from the alcohol could give you a contact high. 

On our first day wondering we ventured over to the clock tower and stumbled upon what has to be the most disturbing public fountain I have ever seen. The best we could come up with was it represented the 7 deadly sins. I've included in the pictures below the image of the lizard carrying a skeleton killing another skeleton. Pleasant stuff.

Our 2nd day walking the streets of Nuremberg, Janie spotted a german man in a Pittsburgh Steeler hat. We are everywhere! He didn't speak a word of english, but his wife could indicate that her sister lives in Pittsburgh and seemed to understand my pantomime that we were from there and could I take their picture. Ok - you have to have at least one totally tourist moment in a trip and this was it.  It seemed to amuse them and thank you kind folks for being good sports. The Steeler nation is spilling out overseas. Actually it is pretty rare to see team logos overseas. It's not prevalent in the culture. 

We trekked up to the Castle to overlook the city - you can see our shadows working our way up the hill below. It was a bright sunny day and we were looking it straight in the eye. We didn't have time to tour the castle, but were impressed with the views. As we made our way back to the hotel to get the car and start the long drive back to Amsterdam, we ran into groups gathering to start a parade.

POSTCARDS from Nuremberg

 

Holiday Dinners

I have spent the better part of today trying to come up with my menu for Christmas Eve dinner. In my family growing up the big holiday dinner at our home was on Christmas Eve. With Heather & I ending up in the same city, our new tradition is Christmas Eve dinner is mine and Christmas dinner is theirs.

Our roads are still frozen with inches of compacted snow and ice. With quite a few hills between our neighborhoods, I decided instead of us all traveling back & forth cross town, that I would go over to Heather & Mike's on Christmas Eve to prepare dinner and stay through the holiday. I'll get the extra bonus of seeing the girls open gifts from Santa. Celebrating the holiday together and our safety is the most important thing. It will make it a much more relaxing time with us not all on the road. Bring on the wine!

I spent the afternoon looking over cookbooks and making up my grocery list, only to throw caution to the wind when the grocery store fish counter had good prices on lobster tails and king crab legs. So long salmon! We are having a decadent seafood dinner. I haven't quite fixed my mind on what I am going to do with 6 legs of king crab, maybe crostini, maybe a caesar...it's a good dilemma to have. 

Having thrown my menu out the window, I needed some help in the wine department at QFC. I am a firm believer in asking for recommendations on wines, especially for special occasions. I have never been steered wrong. I picked up a Chablis from France and a Willamette Valley Pinor Noir. And a true Elswien (Ice wine) from Germany to go with the berry trifle for dessert. The extremely helpful wine stewards at the market were trying to finagle an invitation to dinner. Sorry, that is for a very exclusive clientele - my family.

What are you doing for the holiday meals? Any traditions you'd like to share?

Happy holidays and safe driving out there!

Driving in a Winter Wonderland

The drive from Rothenberg to Nuremberg was gorgeous. Its rare now-a-days that I can take a long drive enjoying the winter scenery. And it was a gift to be able to throughly enjoy the frosted landscape without fretting over our safety in the driving conditions. It was so peaceful. Hundreds of groves of evergreens painted with snow. Thousands of bare trees frosted in white. There was no place to pull over and take good pictures, so the one above will have to give you a glimpse. It was a jaw dropping beautiful drive. 

With Christmas music on the radio and a friendship thriving for decades, we were both transported back to our childhood home terrain of western Pennsylvania. It is as beautiful a winter landscape to travel - rolling hill after rolling hill of snow covered trees, fields of perfect white and little towns dotting the landscape. I've had many Christmas morning rides along her winter lanes. Gazing out the windows into the white wilderness, there was always that feeling of time standing still. And I'm grateful for this current drive's reminder of my own over the river and through the woods moments.

And then we are back in Germany, talking over holiday plans and drinking in the snowy views. In theory it was a short hour, but it could have spanned a lifetime.

Rothenberg

There is snow in Bavaria!  It must have fallen hours before we arrived as the trees were blanketed. The oddest part was the highways were dry with no sign of snow on them. It was eery to see the snow ghosted on the nighttime landscape as we drove by without a trace on the road.

Rothenberg is a walled city and an iconic quaint german town. A definite must see in any season. We stayed in the city walls. Note to self - next time stay outside the walls. The streets were built for foot and horse & buggy travel. Add snow and a bunch of people to the mixture and you up the fun factor. Somehow navi got us to our hotel near the town square. Poor Janie had to navigate into a back parking lot through a walled gate with a steep uphill pitch. Kudos for your making it - there was not a lot of room for error. We wondered up to the market square for a late dinner. The Christmas market was closed for the evening - sensing a theme here? We had our first authentic German dinner out complete with HUGE and thick chewy beers. I had pork with creamed mushroom sauce and spaetzle. It was very good. Although I did notice a vinegar note to all the vegetables here. Not a huge fan of that. We tucked in for the night after wondering around the main square taking photos.

The inn provided a hearty and good breakfast. We enjoyed the baked goods. Janie had a lovely bread with pumpkin seeds and I love the breads with fruit in them. They had some scrumptous lox as well. It was a good place to stay with a decent sized room. The inn keeper was quite nice and helpful. Personally, I think he was excited that we made it in before he headed home at 10pm. This is where I heard the tree called the Christmas Wood. I liked it.

On a side note Janie had an interesting observation. She's been to Germany before and being of clear Irish decent no one has really ever expected her to speak the language. Not so with me! With my strong german heritage I look the part and the german comes flowing out towards me. Everyone seems a little confused when I have not mastered the german language. It was funny to watch once we made the connection. 

We had to move the car into a public space before we could venture out. It was earlier than the market opening so we wandered around and took snow pictures. The snow drifts made the scenery more romantic and beautiful. Kathe Wohlfahrt is the big name Christmas designer in Germany based out of Rothenberg. We ventured into her shop early to beat the rush. She has some kitschy wooden ornaments and cute wooden people incense burners. But what I feel in love with was her hand painted pewter ornaments and the natural wood - unpainted nutcrackers. So this is where I indulged my travel budget. I bought ornaments for the family. Chuck loved nutcrackers so I brought the made in Germany natural wood one in memory of him. Now those of you that have known me since my theater days will find it funny that I actually bought a nutcracker. You see for at least 5 years I stage managed a production of the Nutcracker every Dec. And every few years I would be doing a classical version and a jazz version. This means I would listen to the Nutcracker music pretty much non-stop from Sept on. After having a near mental breakdown one Sunday morning shopping for show props because everywhere was playing Nutcracker music, I threatened everyone with bodily harm if I received anything nutcracker related. It actually took 10 years for me to enjoy the music again and not call cues in my head. But I digress. The nutcracker is handsomely regal and it will be a wonderful keepsake from the trip. Plus if you are only going to have 1 nutcracker it should be a unique one.

The Christmas market was larger than it appeared in the dark. And it was lovely to wonder through it snow covered. I sampled the hot apple cider which provided some good core warmth. We had our 1st encounter with the prune people. Neither one of us is sure of the significance or what you do with them, but here and in Nuremberg the prune people are everywhere. (Don't worry - none of you are getting a prune person for Christmas).  We did not buy much at this market as I supported the local economy in the Christmas shop, whittled away a few hours window shopping. 

Enjoy our snow filled adventures in Rothenberg. 

POSTCARDS from Rothenberg