Visit to the Eagle Park in Alsace, France

We went to into Alsace region of France. Again, la de dah, just hopping into another country which I’ve said time and again but still amazes me, especially because you step or drive into a different language, architecture and culture. 

 

Just waiting about to be part of the show.

Went on a Sunday with Christoph and his son to a raptor flying display. www.voleriedesaigles.com English is The Eagle Park. They fly many types of birds falcons, eagles, owls and many others. (I’ll warn you now I’m not going to name them all but one.) 

That beak!

It was a lifetime experience I can tell you! Wonderful how the handlers showed the unique talents of each type of bird.

That neck!

Beautiful feathers

Viewers were sat on benches in a square, the moderator spoke about each, there were handlers inside and outside the square. Birds landed on a rocky ridge or on outposts attached to the castle ruins. To interact with the audience they had people sit on the gravel and have a large bird walk across their legs (must have clipped it’s talons). Children were given a gauntlet and birds flew to their arm. All of these feats, not tricks, but their natural talents, were helped along by bits of food taken from the handlers.

Oh, haven’t mentioned that yet, this whole facility is housed in castle ruins built with red sandstone, called Chateau de Kintzheim, lovely in itself.

Cloudy day doesn't show the rich colour of the stone.

I had to use the WC so walked back and found many of the cages, many owls which were huge and falcons, not so. 

There was a bird none of us had ever seen before called a Secretary, long legs anyway I’ll look for a link if my picture doesn’t show it justice, didn’t, they are quite rare and like to stomp on snakes for eating, yuck, but it was a unique bird in our experience.

http://animals.sandiegozoo.org/animals/secretary-bird do scroll down on the link to see the head feathers, like quills for pens.

Coming back from the WC a large owl flew over my head about a meter above me, wing span incredible. In fact the wing spans on many of the birds were a sight, showing all the multi-coloured feathers on them. Since I don't do well with action pictures I failed to get a good one, but not for lack of trying...

Wing span

Picture of the entry sign

An absolutely unique experience for us! A recommend to anyone visiting Freiburg, it’s not advertised in Germany, to be expected I suppose. There are two more falconries in Germany close by. One is stationed in Waldkirch but doesn’t stay there until mid-June, the fellow travels with his birds over the country on weekends, a one man show. The other is in Steinen and it is a touristic type place, zoo really but they do have many birds and do a couple of shows a day. 

Driving back we went through the pretty town of Selestat, you can read about it’s importance here. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S%C3%A9lestat (don't know why this link looks like it does but it works)

Countryside now, spargel, white asparagus, still in the fields under long wormlike rows of plastic. Didn’t see any strawberries but they are in season now. Lots of red poppies on the berms. Everything is really green in all hues and lovely to see. Also saw a beer stein modelled from two round bales of hay and two square ones for the handle, inventive! 

The area we were in is flat and there are kilometres of biking trails. We know people in our building that ride them, doing a 50 or more kilometre ride in a day. They do stop for beers and lunch of course. 

Cheers, Bx2 and Lexi Cat

Visit to the Pipe Organ Museum

It's either a bug or bird that has got her attention on the balcony in Sevilla

We’d been here a week and hadn’t made it downtown Freiburg until last Monday. We went to the Stadt Theatre district for Japanese food, weird, I know but we did. So much construction of just about everything it seems, jackhammers noisily busy and trucks and tractors dodging the many people and trams, utter chaos! We’ll go to a quieter end of town next time and of course to the market. 

A rainy but not cold Saturday afternoon and Christoph has trouble getting to us due to the above mentioned construction but makes it about 1 pm. So we hurry off to Waldkirch (in the Black Forest, means church in the woods) about a half hour’s drive from Freiburg. There are haunting looking castle ruins above the town. Haunting perhaps since every time we’ve been to Waldkirch (3 times now in 3 years) it’s been raining! 

We dine at a place we'd been to before, good local food. After go to the Organ museum (musical not internal). Unfortunately for me and others no pictures were allowed to be taken inside but here are links to see them. http://elztalmuseum.de Many are for circuses or fairs, meant to be outside and are very loud. They are absolutely beautiful, each in their own way. There was a team of moving “dummies” playing in uniform on a stage, their eyes kept moving which was a bit weird for me. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYDfSb6wEq8

Here are google images which show you the ornateness of the organs https://www.google.at/search?q=waldkirch+orgelmuseum&biw=1240&bih=631&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&sqi=2&ved=0ahUKEwiBq5HK9NnMAhVkKMAKHe7xB-0Q_AUIBigB

There was a hand turned one that anyone could do, Christoph got a good tune out of it, I was miserable at it, step on a cat’s tail sounding perhaps? The music is recorded on cardboard cards in connected stacks that go over pins in the machine, if you are old enough remember punch cards for computers? This shows my age and to be truthful that technology had pretty much expired by the time I entered the industry. Bruce does and remembers programming and carrying large boxes around of punched cards for an IBM 360. Make a mistake in one hole and you have to throw out the entire batch, how disappointing is that and a waste of time. There are very large stacks of these cards that re-fold themselves on the other side. They are stored in wooden boxes to keep them pristine and have to be re-loaded manually. Another aspect to think of, how they punched the cards to make the music, and it was top quality music too! 

Two floors of the museum devoted to them; next floor held examples of rich life (including a gramophone record player) and farming life which as expected are quite different. Final floor held church life and it’s accoutrements. So while it continued to rain we were dry inside and learning more about the area and it’s industries. There was also a display of mining for gems and the processing of them. It showed a row of people bent at the stomach over benches which looked extremely uncomfortable to me and I wonder why? Didn't find a reference for this.

One of the more interesting trips for us, not a stuffy museum for sure, and the kids that were there loved it! Having said "stuffy" I'm really not being fair and am beginning to think that most are not anymore. (Large generalization, for a large population of museums that I have never entered, but you get my meaning.) Looking back at the few we've been to, they are creatively interactive with the guest using multi-media techniques and displays. 

Cheers, Bx2 and Lexi Cat

Adios Sevilla, Hallo Freiburg

Great going away lunch with our pals Angela, Ryan, Pepe, Ivan and Lola at Manolo Leon in the patio. This is the only place I will order croquettas, fried balls of stuffing, depending what the place specializes in. It was wonderful  to sit and chat with good friends, eat good food and drink good wine, or tinto de verano (red wine with soda). 

L - R Lola, us, Angela, Ryan, Pepe, Ivan

For the second year we get to experience two spring times. Trees are in flower here and flowers are in bloom while in Sevilla the orange blossom is finished. 

We had a “New York” pastrami sandwich on Wednesday from a new food truck at the Rieselfeld market. The Holy Taco Shack has folded it’s tent and gone downtown to have their own restaurant. Geoff had been planning for a while. They were so successful the first day they ran out of food! Hopefully things have settled down now but I need to find out exactly where they are to get my Mexican food fix.

We had a lovely day with Christoph, touring the Kaiserstuhl and having lunch. Totally different from Sevilla, where lunch starts at 2 pm, that's when the kitchens close here in southern Germany. They close to feed their staff and open again around 5 pm.

It was so good to see Christoph again and swap stories of what has happened with him and us, he does not follow the blog so it was all news to him. 

Strange looking stork

Burkheim 

Currently he is teaching refugees German so they can integrate easier into this country. It is satisfying work for him and that adds to his quality of life.

He said this Spring has been cold and wet and today is really the first sunny day with warmth. It is Ascension Day, Father’s Day which means something else here, "Guys day" more like it, http://www.thelocal.de/20160504/why-germans-use-holy-ascension-day-to-get-wholly-wasted

Many hikers out today with their walking poles and Gortex pants, we also saw the men toting the wagon with beer, one had a boom box playing music as the young fellows walked though the village as noted in the above link.

Fruit trees are in full bloom and there are magnificent Tulips. 

This is how they store their wood.

The cuckoos are around! I keep thinking I hear someone’s broken clock but it is the actual bird. I have not identified what it looks like yet but now we know the reason there are handmade clocks in the Black Forest with cuckoos in them.

Another successful cooking session with Christoph and his son on Sunday. We made meatball goulash, an omelette and what Christoph declared was not typical German potato salad, that’s okay because they both liked it anyway. 

Cheers, B x 2 and Lexi Cat

Happy Mother's Day in Advance and Birthdays

“Buy art from living people, dead people don’t need the money!” (a saying I thought appropriate)

We are packing up to go to Freiburg and will be "on the road" Mother's Day so just wanted to wish those of you who are Happy Mother's Day!!!!! 

Three friends birthdays this last week, two here in Sevilla and one in Vancouver - Happy Birthday to you!

Our patio entry way

So this picture is what we walk/roll through every day and every day I appreciate it anew!

All for now, "see" you in Freiburg.

Cheers, Bx2 and Lexi Cat

Feria de Abril, April Fair in Sevilla

Just beautiful!

A little bit of history, not much, skip if you wish, later I’ll give you websites if you are interested you can go to, or not, all about choice… The Feria started as an event for farmers and ranchers to sell their animals. The tents acted as meeting places for people to do business and comfortably entertain prospective clients with food and drink. It morphed into other business people, political parties, service clubs, well-to-do folks, well, anyone that wanted to entertain prospective buyers of all sorts. That’s why it is invitation only and some say today that this is part of the tight knit community Sevilla is, some say it’s snobbery, usually those without invitations. 

There is a wait list and expensive fee to pay to “own” one. There are public tents but they get very crowded very fast and the food and drink is not of the quality you get in the private ones.

Ferias in other cities in Andalusia are more open to the public but Sevilla has maintained tradition. Anyway on with our day of it.

The horse drawn carriage drew up and Ryan, Angela, and us sat inside the open top, Ivan sat with the driver. 

Hola Abel!

Information about our ride thanks to Ivan: The carriage type is a Mirlor, Milord in English; our driver’s name is Abel; horse’s name is Jara. She is a lovely white and grey speckled mare, nine years old, is three months pregnant (gestation for horses is 21 months - wow, didn’t know that), she is used for riding as well as carriage so she wasn’t perhaps as smooth as those that are only used in the city but did well. 

Hola Jara!

Took a lovely drive through Maria Louisa Park. Seeing Sevilla through the open “convertible” top is the best way to see the architecture of the city. You can easily look up, directly at without windows and really get a feel for the historical buildings this city is so full of. Then it started to rain, so the driver stopped and put the hood up which only partially covered Ryan and Angela, they had to lean over to get under cover, sorry you two! Arrived at the “caseta city” and took a quick turn through some of the streets, there are thirteen, connecting the tents. The usual lanterns strung across the streets were in tatters due to the rain, they are made of paper. 

We were the first to arrive so we could get good seats and did. 

Ryan, Pepe, Angela, part of Bruce and look at the "tent"

Bar room in the tent, looks like a regular bar!

Now it’s about watching the flamenco dress parade, for me anyway. 

Not your usual picture of flamenco dresses and no horses except next picture...

Pepe joined us, then Ivan’s friend Maria and her friend Suzanna who is visiting from Sweden. We had met Maria before because she has a couple of flats for rent we had seen a couple of years ago but she wasn’t comfortable with pets. Very nice lady and it was good to see her again, we were an International group!

Zorro?! You can see the wet yellow sand.

We had drinks and food, of course. The caseta’s are catered by restaurants in town who close up their restaurants and work 24x7 in the caseta’s. We arrived at about one o’clock and they will be open with partying people until the very wee hours of the morning, all week! Reminds me of Stampede in Calgary but I think here in Sevilla it’s even more crazy. Music, dancing, singing and clapping to the rhythm start around six pm and the party goes from there. 

I did quite a bit of reading from other expat’s blogs because there is no way I was going to squeeze into a proper dress, so found out alternatives. I wore a fringed shaw, held together with a brooch (I read that’s important to show you know the “convention, not tied together” and big, for me, hoop earrings, striped blouse. Guess I did okay because Pepe commented how Feria I looked, he said it was perfect, Thank you Pepe! No one carries a purse to mar the image of the dress, there are pockets sewn into the ruffled skirts, clever! I did have to carry mine, not enough pockets to carry everything, would have looked like a stuffed chipmunk, in the coat pockets.

It rained off and on while we visited and the yellow sand, typical for here, got quite boggy. Women lifted their skirts and there weren’t many high heels visible, mostly like this type http://www.spanishoponline.com/gaimo-susan-wedge-espadrilles.html#.VxONy84_vVo coloured to match their dresses. 

Mothers and daughters wore the same dresses and flowers in their hair. 

Mom and daughter - twins!

You’ll see by the pictures, that’s another Feria necessity, I tried to go somewhat authentic without looking totally ridiculous, a flower would have on me. For the men and boys, suit jackets are pretty much “necessary” and older men wear a tie. Ivan wore a suit and tie, he said his mom would kill him if he didn’t, she’s traditional.

I would compare this event to a fancy dress ball where debutantes come out for their season to find husbands and men look for possible wives in the monied class mostly. Romances start at Feria frequently, and it makes sense doesn’t it, young ladies are dressed in their best colourful clothing and young men in theirs. There is dancing and singing, yes, it is like the cotillion style ball.

From what I’ve read the dressing up is done for a few reasons. For Sevillianos it is a party, so why not, it shows respect to the host, it is tradition. For Expats if they don flamenco dresses it allows them to be part of the festivities, many have lived here for years and speak perfect Spanish so why not invest the time, money and effort to enjoy it more. See the link to Sunshine and Siestas blog below.

Our carriage arrived for us to depart and as we were walking to it a lone, unoccupied horse came running down the road, reins flying! Our driver jumped out and caught it, Police were there, they started walking it but stopped to calm it down because it was scared. I don’t know (again, like with the nude fellow) what happened but it was a lady's horse, side saddle which only ladies ride, of course. Much speculation on our part and we hope the rider wasn’t hurt but the horse certainly could have been poor thing.

So, upshot, would I go again, I don’t think so, we missed the display of horse riders and women in dress on the back, and carriages with them in due to the weather but that’s about all really. Loved the day, weather could have been better but you can’t change that so no sense griping about it. Some expats go every year with their dresses and really enjoy, I’m not one of those, but today was special day to experience another ages old Andalusian culture event and it was wonderful! 

Wednesday in Feria week is a holiday for many store owners so they can attend. Thursday we were out and about and many flamenco dresses in evidence. Just saw two little girls dressed up and flouncing about joyfully in their dresses. Bruce commented you don’t see two dresses the same, even when we were at the fair. We think many are custom made, so pretty, every one, I think in a former life I must have liked flounces. When the women walk they move so wonderfully and showcase the colours. I’m really enjoying this fashion show, so different from anything I’ve seen before. Adding the flowers on the hair, combs, shawls and bangles and you get the complete picture, so many dresses are polka dotted and I’ve researched but don’t know why. 

http://www.spain-holiday.com/Seville-city/articles/five-things-to-see-and-do-at-sevilles-feria-de-abril

http://www.sunshineandsiestas.com/2016/03/28/feria-de-abril-as-foreigner/

That was our day at Feria! It was great!

Thanks to Ivan for organizing and inviting us to his parent's group caseta, Ryan and Angela for coming in the carriage, making it more fun, Pepe for showing us what is the usual tipple (manzanilla wine and soda) not to my taste.

Cheers, Bev, Bruce and Lexi Cat

Horses and Carriages and Costumes!

Waiting their turn in the ring, note the women's costumes in the carriage.

Big show, Ivan got us tickets to the, hmm, don’t know what to call it (in Spanish the ticket says Exhibicion De Enganches which Google translates to Display Hooks - What?! It was a horse and carriage event in the large bullring here called the Plaza De Toros De Sevilla. 

Look at the pompoms on the horse's head!

It was BIG, full of participants and spectators, colourful and a showcase of skilled drivers and horses. 

Ladies dressed in Flamenco

The carriages were of all kinds, even a mail one from London and several from Portugal. If the owners were driving they wore a suit and tie, if it was a professional driver they wore period dress of the age of the carriage. 

Lone rider, we figured it was a racing carriage, huge wheels!

Carriages contained mostly women dressed in flamenco dresses and mantillas but some had little girls in them who waved at the crowds like pros. It was a big event for Sevilla, streets blocked off and famous people came to celebrate, not that we saw any of them. 

Start of the Processions

The age of the drivers ranged from a lad of twelve to the oldest woman driving in Spain, of course one does not ask how old a woman is so we didn’t learn her age, many drivers were women wearing clothing appropriate to driving a carriage, pants and sturdy boots and hats. 

The horses are another story in themselves, mostly very well trained but did see some near mishaps mostly around the entrance and exit gates. Some almost danced across the arena, if paired, in time with each other in a high legged trot. There were singles, doubles, up to five horse teams and they were tied together in different ways which would make it harder or easier for communication with the carriage driver.

The Plaza de Toros de Sevilla bullring was built in the 1700’s and has been meticulously maintained for bull fights since. It is so very large, irregularly shaped, not round, not oval, three tiers. We were on the top and my fears of being squished between hordes were alleviated when we arrived, seating was hard benches but roomy. They rent cushions for the seats and if one was there longer than we were would be appreciated and needed. 

It started to rain and it was funny to see the sea of umbrellas that came out instantly, from seeing heads to umbrellas, all colours of the rainbow, only a shower. 

Sea of umbrellas and horses and carriages

Lots of horses and carriages, sometimes coming a bit too close to each other!

Ivan talked to some children, and helped them over the railing to get seated under the roof now seated in front of us, ages five to seven and in English because they are obviously learning in school. Here children are revered and sacred, no difference in other cultures, but here there children have more freedom and learn to talk to anyone, strangers, like adults do, more trusting atmosphere would be a better way to say it.

After the display we went to a traditional place for lunch called Restaurante Las Piletas meaning by Google, the pools, but we figured out it was troughs for horses to drink at.  Wonderful meal but large, no tapas here, being close to the bullring it had bull heads on the wall, jamon on the ceiling and a very long bar which was packed, Ivan had to reserve a table for us. Horse and carriage drove up for the participants to have lunch, waited, so we heard the horses neighing once in a while, a bit unusual for us, horses neighing? while on one of the major streets in Sevilla?

Another unusual experience to be filed away in our memories.

Wet day but we go out anyway, being from the West (wet) Coast and all. Open the door to find this little fellow, now how did he/she get to the second floor? Well it climbed the stairs of course, doubt it came up the elevator. Research told us it's  called a house Gecko, harmless, with sticky pads on it’s feet. As long as it stays outside our flat it’s okay to live here.

Awww, just please stay outside, Lexi would play with you and possibly hurt you!

All for now, off to Feria tomorrow, Sevilla's Spring Fair via horse and carriage - Just wait for the next blog!

Cheers, Bx2 and Lexi Cat

Road Trip to the Aljarafe and last bit of Semana Santa

Nazareno, love the colour and drape of his gown

Maundy Thursday and women are dressed in black dresses and black mantillas mounted on high combs in their hair. The lace is gorgeous and they fall as a cape over the dress. I should have taken a picture of three young ladies all dressed but was a bit shy to ask. Shawn wasn't, here's her version.

http://azahar.me/2016/03/24/ladies-de-luto/

Ivan suggested a driving tour of the Aljarafe, a mountainous area close to Sevilla, through small towns and white buildings. 

Church Steeple

Pine trees as we’ve seen before in part of Donada Park, we were in part of it, and lovely cacti which produce fruit people eat.

Pine trees

Lush patio flowers

Getting there and we came across an absurd incident none of us have an explanation for. Car stopped in our lane, naked man standing in front of it, honestly not a pretty picture, his clothes a few meters up, two smashed cars one on either side of the road, one in a ditch and people just seemed to be getting out. Huh! Don’t get the naked guy at all, and won’t speculate.

Rice is a huge crop in this area and there are man made streams and rivers which are dammed to control the water flow. Rice is planted in May and harvested in September which would be very hot work. Ivan compared it to the Everglades in Florida although I don’t think rice is a grown there, but the waterways. Rumour has it there is a lot of drug smuggling in this area due to the ability to hide behind the tall reeds, we would call them a type of pampas grass, and the maze of channels of water, roads are a maze as well. Lots and lots of storks in their large nests, even a stork “condo”. 

These two were along the road to the Visitor's Centre, nest was low to the road

Ivan used his GPS he named Sophie. Sophie is really handy and worth her weight, what ever it is, in gold, those few times Ivan doesn’t know his way. While he knows the areas around Sevilla very well she still comes in handy sometimes. It’s an app, but helpful and fun he’s named her Sophie.

Stopped and had lunch at a locals bar which had rice dishes mixed with turmeric and pheasant, chicken, duck or rabbit. Bruce would have eaten the sauce and rice, no meat because the meat was not the star in this dish the sauce and rice were, heavy on turmeric and other spices.  We dined outdoors under bamboo reeds made into a canopy. Local cat came running as soon as food was on the table and while she was so very cute we didn’t feed her, others did.

Pleeeeease feed me!

The whole day was really a treat, to get away from the City since we haven’t for a while and hadn’t thought we needed to but did really. Just to get into quiet places was lovely and green spaces too. 

All for now, 

Cheers, Bev, Bruce and Lexi Cat