Mouse and Marmot

2011: Christmas Letter

This year has been filled with celebrations, traveling & happiness.  As we look back on everything that has happened it feels like two years. You can click on any of the pictures in this letter to see them larger or to see more from that event. 

Celebrations:

Grammy Dorothy turned 90 this year and had a big bash to celebrate. I crashed the party as a surprise. 

Grammy Jean turned 80 in the spring and we had a surprise party for her in Missouri that somehow managed to stay a surprise. 

On June 1st I did a solo performance as part of my Master's thesis project. I took a class to help me learn to develop and present it. Everyone in the class developed a piece and we did them as a showcase for a live audience. It was a thrilling experience during which I learned a lot. 

On June 12th I graduated with my Master's degree in Organization Systems Renewal with a focus on Developing Intercultural Competence Through Storytelling. It was a bittersweet weekend, celebrating two years of hard work and moving away from seeing my classmates every month - they have become a very important community for me. Two of my cousins graduated the same day - one from high school and one from college. 

The biggest thing we are celebrating we found out about shortly after graduation. On June 22nd we learned that I was pregnant! I said I wanted to try for after graduation but I had no idea we'd get that close. In October we found out that we will be having a girl. She is due March 1st and it has been a very comfortable pregnancy so far. At 3 months pregnant I was able to travel to Turkey and at 6 months I still have the energy to teach a Dale Carnegie class and take an improv class. 

 

Traveling:

Part of the reason 2011 felt like two years is that we took two amazing big vacations this year. In March we hit the #1 place on my list - the Galapagos Islands. We went on a smaller boat, the Samba, with only 12 other tourists. The boat, the group, the crew and the guide all contributed to one of the best trips of my life. The Islands, of course, helped, too. I am still trying to develop the words to express the experience, so hopefully I will get them up on this blog sometime soon, when I do. Ryan's favorite part of the trip was swimming with the sea lions. My favorite was watching and listening to the complex relationships between the birds on Genovese island. 

Our next big vacation was in August when we spent two weeks in Turkey, along the southern coast. It was Ryan's 3rd visit to Turkey and my 2nd. We enjoy the atmosphere and the people, who are very friendly. We made several friends on the trip and also met up with a couple of our Seattle friends, Sarah & Jon, half-way through the trip. Ryan's favorite part of this trip was taking a hot air balloon ride over Cappadocia. That was a highlight for me, as well, and I also enjoyed hiking from Kayakoy to the blue lagoon and swimming for hours once we got there. The details of that trip will also make it on to the blog soon. 

Ryan visited China, Dubai, Frankfurt, Hawaii and Australia for work. 

Within the U.S. we made the annual visit to Missouri for 4th of July. I took a trip back to San Luis Obispo, where we went to school, to visit our friends and their super cute baby boy. We also housesat for a friend on Camano Island, in northern Washington. We used the opportunity to cross the border and spend a day in Vancouver, Canada where we rode bikes around the park, went to the aquarium and saw an improv show. 

 

We didn't climb as much this year but we did get some shorter climbs and snowshoeing in. 

 

We wish you all a very happy holiday season and a joyous year in 2012!

Munich: Art & Rain

DSC_6721, originally uploaded by marmot_oo7.

At 6am the main pedestrian areas were piled with trash and a shopping cart had found its way into the fountain. A young man stumbled onto the escalator in the U-Bahn underpass while his girlfriend collapsed in a heap against the wall. Groups of 20-somethings gathered near the fountain. Nearby, another couple stumbled out of the exit. Saturday nights are for partying. This was the dreaded Morning After.

The tower in Michaelskirche opens at 10 am on the weekend. On my way, I took a peek into the other churches and was surprised to find them mostly full. At Michaelskirche only a few other tourists waited to climb the bell tower and I was the second one to the top.

The day was still clear, despite the weather reports calling for thunderstorms in the afternoon. I asked a man to take my picture for me, which he did. He introduced himself as Etem. He is originally from Anatolia, Turkey however he has been living in Munich for the last 30 years, since he was six. He is a former art major, who now designs and creates costumes for a theater. He offered to show me around Munich, and take me to the art museums, which sounded like a great idea (especially since all the descriptions are in German).

We walked through the Englischer Garten, where all the (naked) sunbathers lay, soaking up the rays. I wondered if they knew about the afternoon thunderstorms. The park is very big, the biggest on the continent: three miles long in one direction. We just caught a corner of it on our way to the first art museum. Next time, I'd like to rent a bike and see the entire park.

It was Sunday, so admission was only 1 Euro. I didn’t know much about German painters, but Etem showed me that they had a sense of humor. Indeed, even some of the most stern paintings had crazily drawn characters in them. One of his favorite artists is Brugel, who seemed to specialize in scenes with drunken peasants.

We stopped at a café next and got something to eat. It was near the University, and this part of town was much more bohemian and livable. We then continued on to the new art museum. The modern art museum showcased the modern masters like Picasso and Salvador Dali. However it seems the wheels fell of the cart (sometimes literally) in post modernism. One display that we thought was missing, simply consisted of an empty room with yarn outlining the door. The basement of the building housed an exhibit on product design. I found my Eames rocking-chair amid the displays.

Afterward, we cut back through Englischer Garten to catch the surfers. Long ago, someone placed some rocks in the river to make it more dynamic and interesting to look at, and voila, the perfect wave. It was like a half-pipe for surfers, they could just drop in - no paddling required. A few raindrops began to fall so we continued on through the park past groups of people playing boules, a game that included what looked like silver, baseball-sized marbles.

We sipped coffee at a café overlooking Odeonplatz.The trendy cafe was decorated with a mix of old furniture and the chandeliers were real, antique Murano glass. As we were waiting, Etem sketched out a drawing in his book, which he then gave to me. The storm finally rolled in, chasing people across the square, the wind flipping their umbrellas inside-out. I said goodbye to Etem and took the U-Bahn back to the hotel to avoid the rain.

I headed out again that night to do some last-minute shopping, however not a single store was open. Stores are closed on Sundays even in the main tourist district. A light rain was still falling, so I took shelter beneath the new town hall. A man on a bike rolled in next to me. "Scheiße.” I told him the weather is similar in Seattle. His name was Henry and he seemed to be content to tell me about his day while we waited for the rain to subside. He had gone flying that day at the airport in a glider and visited the grave site of an old friend, Heidi. His wife called, and he had me say hello to her.

Munich: Neuschwanstein

DSC_6599, originally uploaded by marmot_oo7.

The weather forecast called for rain and thunderstorms on Sunday, so decided to take a daytrip to Neuschwanstein Castle. Normally I don’t like tours - they tend cost more and you experience less. In this case, it really was the best option. Getting to Neuschwanstein by train would take twice as long, involve several connections and cost more. Also, a tour guide is required for touring the inside of the castle.

I met the tour bus early in the morning outside the train station, and took a seat next to a large man with a yellow soccer jersey and a baseball hat. His name, it turned out, is Leo and he is from Sao Paolo, Brazil. He traveled through Egypt last year. This year he was continuing through Salzburg, Austria into northern Italy and Florence. The American sitting across from me was mostly interested in the cute Russian girl sitting next to him.

Our tour guide was an older gentleman, with a voice that could make a wolverine purr. Once he started, he could not stop. He talked the entire 10.5 hours of the tour in a stream-of-consciousness-never-ending-history-babble. Including, quite a lot of time about the brown signs that show places of historic interest and how the idea originated in France and spread to the neighboring countries. He paused once - and everyone started laughing.

Our first stop was Linderhof Palace. It was the only castle that Ludwig II completed and the only one he spent much time in. The castle/palace was pretty small and upon entering, the influence of Versailles was immediately apparent. Even though King Louis XIV had lived 400 years earlier, Ludwig II (or Louis in French) admired the Sun King. The most prominent feature at the palace entrance is a statue of Louis XIV. Strangely, few paintings or images of Ludwig II or his family appear anywhere in the palace – most portraits are of residents of Versailles. The palace is well persevered, with all original furniture and decorations. After the tour, we had about 20 minutes to walk about the grounds. Given more time, I would have liked to visit the Grotto, a private underground stage for Richard Wagner plays. Instead, I climbed the steps to get an overview of the estate and watch the fountain display.

We made a 30-minute stop in the very touristy town of Oberammergau. The short stopover was probably added to encourage us to buy things at the shop. However, Leo and I walked to the other end of town to visit the nice church, with its standard onion-dome steeple and Roccoco styling.

We continued through the Bavarian countryside which sprawled around us like a giant lawn. The hills rolled by and soon we were in the Alps. The Zugspitze, the highest point in Germany, flashed in and out of view. More churches and villages rolled by, half-timbered with fairy-tale paintings. Passing corn fields and farmers on tractors reminded us that tourism isn’t the only business in the Alps. Soon, we arrived at the village near Neuschwanstein, which does exist solely on tourism. The village doesn’t even have a name because its only purpose is to be a tourist attraction.

Neueuschwanstein is Germany’s most recognizable symbol, though it is neither old nor historic (about the same age as the Eiffel Tower). Its fantasy good looks, which inspired Disney’s Sleeping Beauty castle, make up for the lack of history. Leo and I got a bite to eat before taking the minibus up to the top of the ridge. From there we hiked a little further to Mariensbukke (Mary's Bridge) for a stunning view of the castle and the countryside. Dozens of paragliders floated on the warm summer breeze. The updrafts are consistent throughout the year and you couldn’t ask for a much better view. Leo was afraid of heights, so I headed up off the well-worn trail alone, past the signs that said “Danger! Death!” The higher I climbed, the better the views got, but I only had an hour before our assigned time to enter the castle. Some students told me it was another hour to the top of Tegelberg Peak, so I stopped to take a few pictures before retracing my steps back down.

The crowds were pretty tame, probably because of the system of assigning entrance times. Although efficient, this did make the experience seem even more like a theme-park.

Only about a third of the rooms were finished when Ludwig II died (under very mysterious circumstances), and these were the rooms we saw. While Linderhof was heavily influenced by the style of Louis XIV, the rooms from Neuschwanstein were taken straight from the pages of Richard Wagner operas. This was one of the first places I had been that departed from the usual Louis XIV, Baroque and Rococo styles. The walls were decorated not with historic or religious scenes, but with operatic scenes from Tristan and Isolde. Ludwig II, a religious man, had his chapel and throne rooms gilded in gold, Byzantine style, with saints and religious motifs. Massive Byzantine chandeliers with colored-glass jewels hung low from the soaring ceilings.

Munich: Marienplatz, Michaelskirche & Frauenkirche

Munich, originally uploaded by marmot_oo7.

I arrived in Munich around noon, and took the S-Bahn to the Hauptbahnhof. My hotel was easy to find; only about a block away from the central station. I greeted the man at the desk in German as Claudia had taught me although, of course, he spoke perfect English. The room was as small as I had expected, although the bathroom was quite large. In fact, they were about the same size. Everything was spotless.

I had all afternoon still, so I decided to walk to Marienplatz. The weather was fine, and the main pedestrian street was full of tourists. I was surprised to see many Arabic tourists; the headscarves, burqas and even niqabs stood out amid the European attire (hadn’t I just left Dubai?).

The façade of Michaelskirche was covered in scaffolding but the interior was beautiful, with an impressive barrel vault. On the right-hand side, two open doors led to a staircase in the floor. I descended into the crypt, which held the remains of 40 Wittlesbachs, including Mad King Ludwig II, himself. Queens, kings, dukes and barons rested here - all with titles ending in “Von Bayern” - of Bavaria. King Ludwig II’s iron casket was the largest and his site was marked with fresh flowers.

Next, I visited the Frauenkirche (Our Lady’s Church). Her double-steeple onion dome is an icon that defines the Munich skyline. In the courtyard, a woman played the hurdie-gurdy.

Frauenkirche was cleverly designed to appear windowless when you first step inside. A well-worn black footprint in the floor is where, legend has it, the devil stood and laughed at the fact that they designed a church without windows. Take a few steps further, however, and you are greeted by the soaring stain-glass windows, including a few survivors from the war, that were previously hidden from view by columns.

At Marienplatz, the New City Hall and its Glockenspiel looked old and in serious need of cleaning. The Old City Hall, around the corner, looks new. A tent with a stage was being setup for an Iran peace rally. Later, Marianplatz would be filled with the sounds of traditional sing-a-long Persian music.

As I returned to the hotel, I was surprised to see barricades being erected and soldiers in uniform. It turned out the National Socialist Nazi Party (all seven of them) had also planned a rally. They held flags, gave speeches and played rock music to the large and jeering crowd. I couldn’t exactly understand what the crowd was yelling, but the finger they held up was pretty clear.