Why, Hello there

Seems ages since I've posted here, well a couple of weeks or so, but I've been under the influence of a virus and simply haven't had the energy to come up with the words and pictures.
I think I left promising pictures of Venezianische Messe 2012 which took place in Ludwigsburg in Germany in September, weekend of venetian style carnival, masks and music. Amazing costumes, many of which were homemade and speaking to local people it became apparent that some visitors actually bring a selection of costumes to change into.
The whole event kicked off on the Friday evening with a procession of over a thousand revellers walking through the streets from the train station to the town square.

We had a good vantage point, the local subway bar was empty and in the 1st floor:-) The crowd made its way into the square and after a prouncment by the local speech, the fun started. The first act to get under way was Teatr na Choduljach, a stilt act from Ukraine.

 Thanks to Bikerted for the video.

More photos and vids to follow, have a great weekend.

Germany, the Black Forest

I would love to share photos of the black forest, we found some really beautiful roads to ride along but pictures of trees flashing by are simply not interesting,
We decided to stay overnight at Freudenstadt as it looked a reasonable size town on the map although without wifi we couldn't really check it out in detail so we did it the old fashioned way. Ride into a town, look for hotel signs or tourist info office, follow them , get lost, get off the bike, tum it around and try again!!! Usually we look for a small hotel/guesthouse near the town centre with somewhere to park the bike out of sight. The bike may be old but its our only means of getting home !



So when we pulled up outside this hotel, my first thoughts were 'ok, well out of our league here, lets try somewhere else' but then I thought ' we're grown ups now (that always comes as a shock !) lets just see how much for one night'

We stayed to enjoy the luxury for a change, bathrobes and slippers provided, baby grand being played softly in the bar, chandeliers in the dinning room although we did feel a little uncomfortable being welcomed in to look around wearing scuffed black leathers and a days worth of road muck!





The view accross the forest was impressive as was the blue sheep on the gardens on the other side of the road!!
 

 

We ate in the town, admired the fountains, enjoyed ice creams and earmarked this as a good base for touring round the Forest area in the future as we had to be in Ludwigsburg the next day for the highlight of our holiday.





more soon xx

Road Trip....France....Buildings

So September started with me packing our bike with clothes and toys ready for a short road trip across the Channel. A few days less then usual due to family commitments but still plenty of time to pack in a few varied destinations. These post will probably be photo heavy as Biker Ted will be writing up the trip with all the details that I usually forget to put in!!

Our first destination was Colmar in France, a very picturesque town in France where , if you stare at the houses too long, you begin to wonder if its the houses leaning or yourself!!



our hotel for two nights



Bakery



Detail from the shutters

 

see what I mean by being a bit wonky!



A stream runs through the town



Small passage ways are always interesting although I had to wait a day for this one as the dustbins were out when we got there.



Still pretty at night time.

More about how we passed our time in Colmar (other than sitting in bars)  in the next post.xx

I'm Back!!

Firstly, thanks for all your wonderful comments about the shop. It's going to be hard work especially for the girls running it but it's a really comfy friendly place and four of us sat knitting after a spinning session there yesterday. We had the wheels set up near the bus stop so spent a lot of time waving at bemused passengers :-)



The reason that I've been a little quiet for the last two weeks is that we had a little run out on the bike, around 2500 miles around Germany and Austria....more about this later.



Will have to dash, dyeing to do, computer ink to buy and bobbin lace equipment to pick up.
Hope you having a great weekend!

more from Hamburg

As you can see, the sun was shinning still, different story when we got to Holland.

Glimpses of Hamburg (part one)

Theres something about these cranes that I find attractive, maybe its the symmetry?

A more serious holiday visit

As Ian plotted a route from Hameln to Heide Park, he noticed that the road would take us near to Bergen-Belsen. I imagine most of you would know the name but here is a link to their site. I'm not going to try and put my feelings into words but will add that the sound of machine gun fire which we assume was from the local nato base or the arnamonts factory made the whole experience even more sombre.
Just three photos, there will be more on my flickr site and Biker Ted will cover this in more detail later this year.


Wall Hanging
Made by Antonina Konyakina in Bergen-Belsen circa 1942 . Anotonia Konyakina hung the image of a cat she had embroidered on an old trouser leg over her bunk to symbolically protect her from mice (Reproduction)
Scarf
Made by Antonia Konyakina in Bergen-Belsen circa 1942



Barbed wire and wooden post from the camps original fencing.

Normal Service will resume ASAP

Hi, we arrived home about two hours ago feeling rather damp. It rained all the way from Dunkirk (france) to Nottingham (UK) 240 mile of rain, yuck, yuck ,yuck. Anyway, there will be photos and details in the next few days once I've done the boring stuff, washing, shopping, more washing etc. A small hint as to one of the places we visited, main tourist attractions were Chocolate, Beer and Lace!!

The open road calls

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Lindisfarne Trip

1. lindisfarne causeway, 2. lindisfarne Priory 04, 3. lindisfarne Priory 03, 4. lindisfarne Priory 05, 5. Lindisfarne knotwork 03, 6. lindisfarne Medieval style 01, 7. lindisfarne knotwork 001, 8. lindisfarne Priory 01, 9. lindisfarne 01, 10. lindisfarne medieval style 03, 11. lindisfarne causeway 01, 12. lindisfarne knotwork 05

Typical, the hottest weekend of the year and we travel 200 mile to be in the sea mist , it was worth it though. We had planned to visit several of the landmarks for the round britain rally on the way up but only managed two as we were late setting off due to Ian having an interview Friday morning. The hotel had been prebooked, great rooms, pub food, TV (exciting for us non TV folks)
After breakfast on Saturday we walked down to the causeway to watch the tide recede then went back to fetch the bike to drive over. Decided to visit the Priory and leave the castle until we can return and stay for a few days on the island.
Medieval story tellers, musicians,swordsman and even a lovely lady working with natural dyes kept us entertained.

We took time later in the day to catch up with some more landmarks, two of which I will blog about in more detail once the challenge has finished in October.

The only drawback to the weekend was that the bike developed and oil leak so we had to nurse her gently home and hope that all is fixable before our next long trip.This means that I will miss this weekends rally in Essex but will have a little more time to play with my new camera and get the embellisher out of its box at long last.

Taster for Marie

We have a house guest so blogging has been temporarily suspended but here is a taster for Marie of zquilts.





Our Journey to Lindisfarne Priory

Yes, whilst the rest of the country had sun, we had cloud and mist.

(added later)
OK, I confess, that is sea water on the road!! we had to wait for the tide to go out before we could ride to the island!!

Two Moons Rally 2008 Drake MCC

On Saturday night, three birthdays including Robbies 40th and my own 48th were celebrated in style.

New Blogger on the Block

Although we are both full of cold, Ian has today been helping Biker Ted set up his blog Biker Ted Diaries which will detail his motorcycle adventures over the last ten years or so. You can read the first installment here and there will be a lot more to come.