I have been away, or should I say I'm back!

Oh the life of a traveler....I am home. I think it is home. We have moved so much it is hard for me to really feel as though my feet are planted.
We moved back from Nuremberg to Indiana and within a year or so we moved again. Now I am living up North. It is beautiful here as I look out my back door and see 14 or so inches of snow. I miss the European traveling most of the time but I am trying to feel planted here.
There is a funny thing that has happened to me, most of my adult life....when I get a really good job...my husband's company moves us. So I decided after the last move to Europe I would "show" them. I called myself retired at a very young age chuckle chuckle. I now am busier than ever, working like a crazy women, and yet not pulling in a pay check. Crazy you might say, but I think not.
Life is too short not to get involved. I am very blessed to be able to work like I do. I am currently teaching art (for those of you who know me that is a love of mine) We joined a wonderful little church that was in great need of help.  So....I took the job and am not taking a pay check. So you see I am working just not like most people. I also lead a Women's Bible study, work on a web site, and do the publication for the same School/church.  On top of all that I am back to creating my Old fashioned Santas.  I have had two commissions in the last 3 months and I am finding it very difficult to find the time to really settle in and work on them. It is my most favorite thing to do and is very much like therapy for someone like myself. (My brain never shuts off and even when I am asleep I am creating something in my head)
I will try to get back to my post as that too is a wonderful outlet for us creative types....I have missed the travel and hopefully will be able to revisit my photography as I post. So I might have been away but now I am back. - well for now! I will be talking with you shortly. Pour yourself

a cup of coffee and lets get started.........

The creature won!

Did you every have one of those days?  Of course you have...well I thought about going out and buying a few plants for my deck pots. We have record breaking heat here - highs in the 80's and it is only mid March. Anyway I bought my plants and took them from the garage to the deck via the house. As I opened the door to the put them on the deck until I cold get out there I noticed some leaves on the chair.  NOT. It was a toad. As most of you know for all the outside things I do, gardening, mowing, edging, trimming etc etc. I just can't seem get past creepy things.  Maybe because I didn't have boys but somewhere along the way I got pretty squeamish. I turned around and slammed the door and walked right back to the garage.It is rather a really big problem. I have tried over the years not to be. To no avail.

So about 2 weeks ago I found a toad while turning over one of my many flower beds. I touched it thinking it was a clod of dirt and well that ruined that day. But knowing that they are good for getting rid of bugs, something else I don't do well with, I tried to be the grown up and let him stay. He won. I went in and washed up and called it a day.  Oh if I knew then what I know now he should have been jarred up and moved to a new state!

So he is back, or so I hope, as if it is not him I am really in deep trouble. I don't think I could handle more than one toad. Well let's face it I can't handle one.  It is the strangest thing as I can actually feel my heart jump in and out of my chest and I start to breath really fast. I think I could actually pass out! I don't like not being in control.  I called my husband at work. I figured he could tell me what to do, right?  Well, he had a very good laugh and then said just don't use that door.. Hmmm really that is as good as it gets? You're not going to jump in your car and drive an hour home to trap this little nasty creature that is tormenting your wife? Thanks honey! I know - not really but don't think the thought didn't cross my mind ha ha!

I got brave and bearing my good GERMAN boots and a pair of garden gloves I decide to move the whole chair outside the fence to the neighbors yard until the man of the house can come home and displace "the creature" for me.  It took me about 5 min to get up the nerve but eventually I started to move the chair slowly off the deck. Then he moved and  my heart about fell out my chest.  He hung on so I picked up the pace and got the chair half way across the yard when he took a jump.  Then a large scream escaped my throat and I ran for a bucket any bucket to put over him. I don't want to chew him up in the lawn mower later! So when my husband gets home tonight and the lawn is mowed all expect for a perfect circle under the bucket, that is why!

under the bucket is the creature

I decided to take a break I had had my workout for the day. I don't need to do an cardiovascular exercise because all the exercise in the world would not raise my  heart rate the way that stupid little 3 inch creature did.  Maybe I should move NORTH!

It is here and it is wonderful,,, Nuremberg's Weinachtmarkt

What a couple of days it has been. The Magic of the Christmas market is just that - magic.
Friday we headed down to the Alt Stadt to listen to the announcement from the lovely Christ Angel atop the Frauen Kirche.  She opens the market every year.

smokers

Weird little Prune people with walnut heads. They are said to be the
souvenir from the Nuremberg Market....I think it would be funny to buy one and then eat it. ha ha

Too many people down there in the market! And this is empty compared to Friday night!

Angels and Minors - my favorite

decorative Lebekuchen

painted Neuschwanstein and Albrecht Durer Haus

okay I had to get a German Santa to bring home. Mine is green and red and wearing flannel!

Schoennen Brunnen and Castle, these painted ornaments are Gorgeous

Okay so let's be honest - all the people on Friday night was a bit scary for me.  I can't believe how rude people can be. It was frightening how they push and shove to get a view and try to move when NO ONE IS MOVING! But even that couldn't ruin the evening.   We were like sardines and with all the stalls around the church there were very few "good" spots to see the angel.  However; the music was lovely and to hear the Angel open the market was great.  After the official opening people did start to move. We headed to dinner and then walked through the market a bit on the way home.  Saturday was much better, not so many people and we could really take in the sights.  A couple of glasses of gluwein (warm mulled wine) and some roasted almonds and I was good to go.  We went back again on Sunday and had an amazing brunch up in one of the restaurants overlooking the market and then head back through to snap some photos a pick up a few things to take back with us.  What a superb way to end our stay in Germany.

This is probably my final post from Wurzelbauer Strasse as we leave Friday to return to our loving girls and home. I will post more about our time here when I settle in. It was a tough trip this time but we did make many wonderful memories.  It is true what they say "Home is where your heart is" and for some reason my heart seems to have stayed on the other side of the pond this time.  I do love Germany, that will never change and who knows....where will be next!  yikes!

Getting ready for the Market...countdown begins

So tomorrow is our "American" Thanksgiving.  Which I will not be partaking of.  We tried to celebrate it when we lived in Germany the last time and while the food was good it was a bit of an ordeal.  The Pie alone cost something like 50 Euro!  It was hard to find the right ingredients. Not to worry our two grown children will prepare a feast for us when we return to the states - in early December.

With that said it is time to focus on the task at hand. The Nuremberg Christmas Market!  It is one of the largest in Germany and the most famous in the world.  And I have the pleasure of living right here. I remember years ago when my husband was here on a work trip, he called and held his phone out the window for me to hear the most wonderful sounds. I had no idea that I would make it to the market myself one day. I am anxious to look over the more than 180 stalls of Christmas things. It opens every year on the Friday before the first Sunday of Advent. Hmm that would be in 2 days....

The old town has been hard at work already for more than 2 weeks constructing the stalls and putting up the greenery. I am told that they are not allowed to have any artificial greens, no taped music, etc.  The more than 400 year old market has it all; mulled wine, gingerbread, Nuremberger sausages, and the most yummy warm sugared covered almonds.  It makes the most disagreeable night(if you happen to be having one) a pleasure.  The cold disappears and the people all seem to smile.  I can't think of a better way to end our stay in Germany.

Friday at 5:30 pm, I will be downtown waiting to see and hear from the Christ Angel. She officially opens the market with her prologue, from high atop the Frauen Kirche.

Be back soon with more....

More on Nuremberg....world's most expensive airshaft cover?

So I have been away for awhile.  I had a very quick trip to the states to share in my daughters wedding shower and to try and finish up a few details for the wedding. No worries I am back (grin grin) and ready to get on with the loveliness of this great town! The air is full of wonderful sights and smells and the Alt Stadt prepares for my most favorite time of the year...CHRISTMAS.

But back to the discussion at hand...this time it will be the Ehekarussell - Marriage Carousel.  It is a bizarre but interesting fountain in the southern part of the inner circle of Nürnberg. It was built in 1984, so rather new to the town, by Jürgen Weber, from Braunschweig.  A very controversial statue that had the city up in arms for quite a while. It depicts the poem, written some 400 years ago, from Han Sachs, a famous Nürnberger "The Bitter Sweet Marital Life." The poem itself is carved into a large granite heart at the start of the carousel.  Weber shows six different parts from many in the poem.  The ups and downs of married life, perhaps!

Mother feeding her children - pelican carousel, Chinese legend  reference.

a rather large women devouring cakes while her husband is skinny, Wolverine carousel

old skeleton couple, eternal fighting, carousel of lizard

loving young couple in a swan bed 

to the left, young women rising out of a shell with the trumpeter and billy goat representing lust. the rose column on the right shows the names of the artist and his second wife,,,hmmm

Hans Sachs the author of the poem depicted is on top of the ear of corn dancing

A few verses from Hans Sachs poem.

How often during our 33 years of married life

Were sweet and sour flavors

Mixed with happiness and suffering

First up, then down...

My wife is the heaven of my soul,

But also often my pain and hell.

She is my freedom and my choice

And often my prison and cause of nostalgia...

My wife is often amenable and good;

She is also often angry and furious.

She is my bliss and my heavy load.

She is my wound and my bandage.

She is my heart's delight

And she makes me old and gray.

Interestingly enough while doing research on this fountain I found this newspaper article from the "The Indiana Gazette" dated November 1, 1984.  A pretty interesting read.

Nuremberg citizens assail fountain

portraying ups, downs of marriage

The lndiana  Gazette / Thursday, November 1, 1984— Page 3

By BRENDA WATSON

Associated Press Writer

NUREMBERG, West Germany

(AP) — In the heart of old Nuremberg is a fountain so controversial that a closed-circuit video camera is trained on it around the clock to guard against vandalism. Called the Marriage Carousel, the 15-foot-high fountain depicts the joys and tribulations of wedded life as described fay Nuremberg's famed medieval poet Hans Sachs.Feminists don't like it because, as one said, "It portrays women as evil. It puts the entire blame for a bad marriage on them."Others pan it on grounds that it clashes with a nearby medieval tower.Either the fountain or the tower has to go," said Helmut Bloss, a City Council member.

It was built at a cost of 2 million marks ($660,000) in taxpayers' money over a seven-year period to conceal a subway grate, prompting a citizen to write in a letter to the editor of the newspaper Nurernberger Zeitung that it is "the world's most expensive cover for an air shaft."The newspaper devoted an entire page to letters from readers, with most attacking the fountain.A guard had to be posted at the fountain for six weeks this past spring to discourage vandalism as the statues were being installed. Police now keep watch via a closed-circuit camera linked to a nearby precinct station, but vandals have managed to throw liquid soap, red dye and even a rusty bicycle into the fountain.

The Marriage Carousel is a collection of statues portraying scenes from six phases of married life described in Sachs' poem, "Bittersweet Married Life." It was designed by Juergen Weber, a wellknown artist from Brunswick."She is a heaven to my soul, she is also often my agony and hell," goes a typical line from the poem, which stresses the ambivalence of married life.In the fountain, scenes from early,blissful stages of marriage are interspersed with the artist's conception of the tender union gone sour.A young nude couple embraces atop a swan. Next to them, a half decomposed old woman strangles her likewise degenerating husband atop a grotesque dragon-like creature.A compassionate young mother feeds two children as her husband looks on. Alongside them, a fat woman gorges on cake and coffee as her emaciated husband watches in horror.A young man trumpets his love fora beautiful woman while, next to them, a couple sits chained together in flames near a sign: " 'til death do you part."On top of it all is a statue of Hans Sachs, dancing gleefully.

City spokesman Norbert Neudecker said the fountain incited one of the loudest civic disputes in postwar Nuremberg. For two weeks in the spring, he said in an interview, the mayor's office spent more time dealing with the fountain than "really important issues," such as unemployment.That was when a newly elected City Council threatened to stop payment of the final 115,000 marks($37,000) needed to complete the fountain, Neudecker added. Lastminute political maneuvering saved it.Otto Peter Goerl, an architect by profession and a city councilman for 15 years, originally persuaded the council to accept Weber's design after proposals by other artists were rejected as too modernistic."Some people oppose it, others accept it, but it is always discussed. You can't walk by it without being affected in some way," Goerl said in an interview. "That is the purpose of art." Goerl maintains that the opponents of the fountain don't understand it. At his instigation, posters explaining the fountain are on display in the square accompanied by a statement from Weber urging citizens to view his work with a "sense of humor."

So art is art and I am sure there are admires.  I find myself stopping whenever I walk by and re-looking at this fountain.  I don't really like it, yet I am drawn to the "art" parts of it.  Subject matter not so much.  So if you are in Nürnberg, stop by and see what all the fuss is about.

A few detailed sights from Nürenberg, Germany (home)

The Schöner Brunnen Fountain - one of my favorites. No matter how many times I walk into town, for groceries, or coffee, or just for some fresh air, I can't help but stop at this amazing piece of art.


Some interesting facts... there is NO water in this fountain. It is located in the Main Market Square near the Frauen Kirche. It was built around 1385-96 by Heinrich Beheim. It is about 62 1/2 feet to the top. It has three tiers - Forty stone figures are arranged around it's octagonal base rising up to the top.  They are from the 14 century and represent the world view of the Holy Roman Empire.  The first row are the Philosopher and the Free Artists, the middle row the Evangelists and the Latin Church Fathers and the third row are the seven elector of and nine heroes.  The very top is Moses and the seven prophets.

If that is not enough to keep your interest the metal framing around the fountain can catch me forever.  The metal work is intricate in its own right. A beautiful example of Renaissance iron work. It was forged in 1587 by Paulus Kuhn.  Then in 1902 it was repaired by Albert Leipold. He then put in the well-known "golden-ring" that turns. 

Visitors are encouraged to turn the ring, three times 360 degrees each time,  and your wishes come true. (Okay I don't believe it but couldn't help to jump up and turn it myself)  A side note, what many visitors don't know is the "gold-ring" is not the original or real one.  There is a black ring high on the other side of the fountain that was the real one.  It is said that because it blends in with the ornate railing that the "gold" one was added to make it easier for tourist to find.  Bahhhh here we go again a little sparkle has left the fountain.  But perhaps that makes it more intriguing for those of us that know where the real one is.  I admit too that on many occasional while standing near the fountain I have, on occasion, pointed out the "real" one to a person or two!

Beautiful iron work

Can you see the little brass ring in the center above the horizontal black bar?

another view of the "brass" ring

right in the center you can see the original black ring!

 When the railing went up the sandstone figures were also replaced with shell lime ones. So when you are in Nürnberg, don't forget to turn the ring...the black one high on the back!