Meandering in Europe

Here are a few pics from my recent trip to Europe. It wasn’t a regular tourist trip – some business, some pleasure, some vegging (and an annoying cold). 

First we went to London, where I didn’t take any pictures at all. I have plenty of mental images of editors, writers, friends, and the swans at Richmond. At a thousand words per pic, this would be a long blog, so I won’t even try.

Then on to Bordeaux, France, where I truly came down with the cold. We went for a long walk through a bird sanctuary called Le Teich. I saw a stork for the first time. Here’s a pic of a stork on its magnificently huge nest. I also saw some cute little water birds, which my hostess called poule d’eau (water hen) and which, in English, are (I think) coots...

This was special to me, because in my childhood I read all the Swallows and Amazons stories by Arthur Ransome over and over again. One of the recurring characters was a bird watcher, and in a book called Coot Club, a bunch of kids banded together to protect the coots’ nests on the Norfolk Broads. Now I know what a coot looks like. Sweet!

Next we went to Bavaria, Germany, where I had a great time visiting, vegging and revising a historical short story. We went into Munich and spent a while at Oktoberfest. I’m not a fan of crowds, but I’m glad we went anyway. There are vast restaurants with people swilling mugs of beer and whole cows being roasted. Here’s a pic of a bunch of beer barrels. The horses pulling the beer wagons were magnificent, but I didn’t get a good pic, alas. By the time we left I was longing for a horse of my own. No, not really. I was just so thirsty that I wanted my own barrel of beer.

Here’s a teeny little church near where we stayed. Isn't it cute? That’s me asking about the location of another (bigger) church.

I love visiting churches, but unfortunately, I didn’t get to go inside any of them. The Bavarian baroque churches have magnificent interiors. This one was closed due to woodworm repairs.  

I'm a huge fan of the lavishness of baroque art, so looking at photographs of the interior instead of seeing it for real was... not bad at all, actually. They were gorgeous photos, but I still want to go back and see the interior properly. Someday, I hope to write a historical that takes place in the late 1600s/early 1700s, just because I love baroque so much.

We also went to Fuerstenfeldbruck, where there’s another fabulous baroque church, part of an old monastery. The original monastery (built in the 13th century; the baroque buildings, obviously, came later) was founded by a duke who killed his wife because he suspected her of adultery. His penance was to build a monastery.

Didn’t go in there, either, although if I'd known more about the interior, I would have wanted to. Next time! We had a wonderful meal, and I had the beer I was longing for. It was the best non-alcoholic beer I’ve ever tasted. Wow.  

Here’s the firehouse in the town where were stayed. I love the picture on the front of the dude pouring a bucket of water on a burning house.

And here’s the enchanted garden where the Demon Wisteria is magically under control (or maybe it’s just the Bavarian winters).

Tomorrow – enchantment, fairy tales, and the October Treasure Hunt being held by the Petit Fours and Hot Tamales.