Tag Archives: Travel

Texas Bluebonnets

19 Apr

SUNDAY MEMORIES

Judy Wills

It’s that time of year again, for me to re-post this blog:

Some of my family is from Texas – actually my brother and I were born in Dallas, but moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico when we were small children.  But my mother’s mother (my Granny) and her oldest daughter, Jessie, lived in San Antonio for many years.

Consequently, I had known about the Texas Bluebonnets for longer than I really knew what they were.

Even though Fred and I lived in Fort Worth for many years, it wasn’t until we moved to San Antonio that I really knew about the Texas Bluebonnets.  And they are AMAZING!  They have been adopted as the state flower of Texas.

On the internet I found this:  As historian Jack Maguire so aptly wrote, “It’s not only the state flower but also a kind of floral trademark almost as well known to outsiders as cowboy boots and the Stetson hat.” He goes on to affirm that “The bluebonnet is to Texas what the shamrock is to Ireland, the cherry blossom to Japan, the lily to France, the rose to England and the tulip to Holland.”   Well said.

When Springtime comes to Texas – from the Dallas/Fort Worth area down to the Corpus Christi area – the Bluebonnets are in full bloom, from late March to mid-April.  They are the most dainty, beautiful flower, and we’ve see just fields and fields of them – like a blanket of blue in some cases.  I’ve been sent many pictures of them via e-mail through the years, and have enjoyed seeing them all.

There is even one of Bluebonnets in the snow!  Must have been a late storm – although Dallas/Fort Worth can have abundant snow in early Spring.

When we moved from San Antonio to Florida, I took some Bluebonnet seeds with me and planted them, hoping for some lovely spring flowers to remind me of Texas.  No such luck!  As I’ve just gleaned from google, they must be planted in the fall and have to have the wind, rain, and cold weather to make them leap forth in the Spring.  And the panhandle of Florida just doesn’t have that kind of winter weather.  Shucks!  Oh well, I then planted strawberry plants and they did very well.

But the Texas Bluebonnet is a source of great pride for Texas – as if they needed something else!  And they are just a beautiful side of Texas that most don’t know about.  I think a lot of people think of Texas as dusty, flat, and unimaginative.  But it is full of great differences, including some of the most beautiful flowers in God’s creation.  

I’m just so glad I was able to see them, and enjoy their beauty.

For the beauty of the earth
For the glory of the skies,
For the love which from our birth
Over and around us lies.

Judy is living in Central Florida with her retired U.S. Air Force husband of 50+ years. Born in Dallas, Texas, she grew up in the Southwestern United States.She met her husband at their church, where he was attending the university in her town. After college and seminary, he entered the Air Force, and their adventures began.They lived in eight of our United States, and spent six years in Europe, where their oldest daughter was born. She was a stay-at-home mom for many years .

  Judy has always been involved with music, both playing the piano and singing. Always interested in exercise, she was an aerobic dancing instructor, as well as a piano teacher for many years, and continues to faithfully exercise at home.

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Embracing Change: Seasonal Reflections in Florida

14 Apr

On the Porch

Onisha Ellis

Time. Where does it go?

In January I wrote about the hard freeze in Florida. The usual vibrant landscape was shriveled and brown.

To our new Florida residents, the landscape could be depressing, but to veteran Floridians, we know spring would bring new beautiful growth to most plants.

January

March

January Dead Shrubbery

March New Growth

Subdivision Landscape

These plants aren’t coming back

DEAD AMARYLLIS AND TREE

The amaryllis looked dreadful and the browning continued for weeks. Then one day in late March the bulbs put out new green leaves. The plants are family heirlooms, brought to Florida when my parents moved to Florida in the 1950s. I had been feeling sad that they might be gone forever.( I forgot to take a picture of the new growth.)

Moving forward- Valentines Day

We aren’t big on the trappings of Valentines celebrations. Crowded restaurants, kind of ruin the romance vibe. Two years ago Culver’s restaurant opened in our town. They specialize in ice cream with the Flavor of the Day rotating through out the month. If the restaurant doesn’t sell out of the flavor of the day, they pack it into pint containers and place them in a glass front freezer for sale.

Thus was born our Valentine’s day tradition. We include our daughter in the fun. Each of us chooses a flavor of a pint of ice cream. Then we share them among us. It may seem weird, but for us it is fun.

March-Spring Craft Fair

Our town has a spring and fall craft fair. This is the third year our daughter has participated. My husband has taken up carving walking sticks.and this year he joined our daughter to sell them.

The event is held at a large park on the Indian river. The day was absolutely gorgeous, a cool morning breeze and blue skies. As I walked the grounds, checking out the wares, I marveled at the beauty we were blessed with.

April Fool’s Day

Launch day for Artemis 2. To be honest, we thought choosing to launch on April Fool’s Day was not a wise choice. We were wrong.

As the count down marched toward 5 minutes and counting, several neighbors walked outside to watch as I did, from our front yards. It was a flawless day and a flawless launch. My husband, recuperating from surgery said the launch rocked the windows. There’s nothing like the rumble that penetrates the body.

And now comes May

The next two weeks of April with be busy with visits from Physical and Occupational therapies, working to get my husband strong enough to return the our beloved North Carolina mountains. Our cameras show the greening up of the dormant plants, my peonies are coming up and I can’t wait to see them.

I would like to say that I will be blogging more regularly once we are back in the mountains, but the days fly by so darn fast! We installed a bird camera over Christmas, maybe I will share pictures of our feathered visitors.

These are from January.

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January Recap

5 Feb

On the Porch

Onisha Ellis

Well, here we are in February already.

Over Christmas we were blessed with a ten day visit with our daughter.We made low carb cookies and candies together. Working together in the kitchen is one of my great joys.

My mother and I did the same. In her later years mom and I would sit at the kitchen table and chop up pork for Eastern North Carolina style barbecue, peel potatoes and snap green beans together.

But I digress..

We have very poor cell service at our place in Western North Carolina. My cell phone uses wi-fi assist to make phone calls. When we tried to activate that on my husband’s phone it wasn’t there.Assuming we were simply not tech savvy enough, we went to the Verizon store for help.

Many attempts by the Verizon employee failed.

But wait! There’s more.

You guessed it. Verizon had a new and better service plan for us and would throw in a new iPhone.

After 4 hours of the salesman juggling numbers, adding and deleting phones, we left with one new phone, a new plan and exhausted. It was worse than buying a car.

Of course it didn’t end there. We spent the first part of January deciphering strange and exorbitant bills and oh, I forgot to mention, we also had to get the Verizon Visa to take advantage of $20.00 credit on bill, Like we needed or wanted another card.

Next came the big Verizon outage.We were leaving a visit to a neurosurgeon in Orlando when I noticed my phone was in SOS mode. I thought the problem was my phone and began checking all the settings.

The SOS message set off a mini PTSD moment from Hurricane Helene days.

None of the “fixes” put out by Verizon eliminated the problem. Apple tech told me the fix but said it was up to Verizon to do it. Too stressful to write about but it was finally resolved. Hours of my life gone.

Next up- The brutal winter weather in the Southeast.

The frontal rains of the first cold front was moving in the day we planned to return to Florida.

We staged our belongings at the garage door and waited for the rain to slack off. My husband was anxious to get started. As soon as the rain lightened, we threw our belongings in the truck.

We were fortunate to only travel around 100 miles before the rain stopped. When we arrived at our Air BnB we unloaded our overnight items then found a place for supper.

Meanwhile, the weather reports for the cold front in North Carolina were looking ominous. Not much snow but major ice and power outages.

We were concerned about our water pipes, but decided it was foolish to be worrying. The pipes and our house were in God/s hand.

Thankfully, there was no damage except a tree leaning toward my husbands shop at the bottom of our property

A few days later, a rare snow storm arrived. We are in a valley town and the snow tends to go around us. Not this time. Our neighbor said we received around 8 1 /2 inches. Due to the extreme cold the snow melt turned to ice. We are glad we missed that. Once again thankful that our home experienced no damage.

To our surprise the cold weather actually made its way into Florida. Some areas had snow flurries!

Yesterday was gorgeous and walking the granddad was delightful.

January wasn’t all stress, of course. But I think it is why the month seemed to fly.

The month ended with a special evening event. So much fun and the fireworks were spectacular!

Did January whiz by as fast for you as it did for me?

I'm a winner

After my retirement, I decided to re-learn the canning and preserving skills I learned from my mother. I hadn’t practiced them for twenty years. I titled the blog Old Things R New to chronicle my experience.  Since then I have been blessed to have six other bloggers join me, DiVoran Lites, Bill Lites,  Judy Wills, Louise Gibson, Janet Perez Eckles and Melody Hendrix

In addition to blogging, I’m a general  “mom Friday” for my author daughter, Rebekah Lyn. I also manage her website, Rebekah Lyn Books  

My 2025 goal is continue to use my love of photographs and words to be an encourager on social media.

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A Small Serendipity

18 Jan

SUNDAY MEMORIES

Judy Wills

Reblog

I wrote this post back in 2014, and in re-reading it, I enjoyed the memory of it.  I hope my readers enjoy it, as well:

I really love the serendipities that happen in our lives at times.  Some are so large they just overwhelm us when they happen.  Others are just sort-of average, but just enough different to make us sit up and take notice.  And then there are the small ones.  Those that just happen in a flash…and then are gone, leaving us to wonder how/why did that happen?

Fred and I experienced that just recently when we went to Disney’s Magic Kingdom.  Busy day – lots of high school bands around – lots of Senior Trips around – kids in the same color t-shirts.  We usually enjoy seeing these groups.  Most of them are not terribly rowdy, and are just having a great time.   Occasionally we see them doing the “flash” thing – breaking into song or the “wave” or something like that.  

We had just finished a ride and were on our way to lunch, when a young man caught up with us and said, “would you be my stand-in parents?”  We stopped and I asked why?  He said his parents had just gone on a ride but he couldn’t get on, so…..  I began laughing and ask him what we could/should do.  He hesitated a minute then said, “how about a hug?”  And so that’s what we did – a group hug for the three of us – all of us laughing at the same time.  

And then he was gone.

I told Fred he was probably dared to do that by some of his classmates, but that was okay.  It was a fun thing.

MUCH later, I told Fred we should have told this young man that we couldn’t be his stand-in parents, but would stand-in GRANDparents work?  Nothing slow about me!

Photo credit – Google search; Disney.com

Judy is living in Central Florida with her retired U.S. Air Force husband of 50+ years. Born in Dallas, Texas, she grew up in the Southwestern United States.She met her husband at their church, where he was attending the university in her town. After college and seminary, he entered the Air Force, and their adventures began.They lived in eight of our United States, and spent six years in Europe, where their oldest daughter was born. She was a stay-at-home mom for many years .

  Judy has always been involved with music, both playing the piano and singing. Always interested in exercise, she was an aerobic dancing instructor, as well as a piano teacher for many years, and continues to faithfully exercise at home.

After moving to Central Florida, she served as a church secretary for nearly nine years.Her main hobby at this point in time is scanning pictures and 35mm slides into the computer. She also enjoys scrapbooking.She and her husband have two married daughters and four grandchildren, including grandtwins as well as a great-grandson and a great-granddaughter. She and her husband enjoy the Disney parks as often as possible.

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Cruise Memories-Part 2

16 Dec

On the Porch

Onisha Ellis

At the end one of Cruise Memories Part 1 I mentioned our active social life, meaning doctors, doctors and more doctors.

I had no idea how prophetic that statement would turn out to be. My husband developed pancreatitis which involved three procedures to clear it up.

Additionally, we drove a family member to Duke hospital in Durham, NC, a seven hour drive. Fortunately we were able to spend the night with family before repeating the seven hour drive. That was pretty rough on my husband’s strength. but we were happy to help.

Then we began another round of doctor, I mean social visits.

I am happy to say that we have ten whole days with no doctor appointments. And so, I give you, Cruise Memories Part 2

The final day of the cruise was a sea day. My plans for the day involved a trip to the Quiet Cove coffee bar and a lazy day of reading. The daughter had another idea. The Diaper Dash.

I’ve seen the race on the daily activity schedule on other cruises but it didn’t interest me. But hey, if my daughter wanted me to watch it with her, I was in. She promised it would be fun.

The race is held in the ship’s atrium. A specially made race mat is rolled out on the floor for the baby competition.

Point of order, Diaper Dash is the previous name of the event. It has since been “rebranded” but for the life of me, I can’t remember the new name.

As we waited for the event, I was stunned at the size of the gathering spectators.

The event even had an emcee who introduced each competitor complete with funny descriptions of their strengths as well as leading the cheering for the babies.

I hope the video above plays. The babies and their parents are so darn cute. I am now a Diaper Dash fan.

That evening we were treated to fireworks at sea. The fireworks were preceded by a deck party with lots of music. A crush of people went to the upper deck early to get a good viewing place. We didn’t want to be part of the crush so we held back. The husband isn’t a fan of crowds. He decided to stay in our stateroom.

It turned out that was a good strategy. The fireworks were directly overhead.

Off in the distance we could see lights from another ship. I assumed it was lingering for their guests to view the fireworks. I was wrong. To our surprise the ship in the distance began shooting off their own fireworks! It was another Disney ship.

After they finished their fireworks, our ship began. It was as if the sister ships were saluting each other.

We were in a perfect viewing area and the fireworks were spectacular. It turned out we were also in a perfect spot for going inside and grabbing an elevator before the crowds began surging in.

When we made our way back to our room, my husband said that he had a perfect viewing place during the display. The ships position placed the fireworks directly in front of our balcony.

The cruise was only 4 days but that was just right for us. Plenty of time to read, snack and enjoy delicious meals. It was fun exploring a new ship. I wouldn’t say no to another cruise on the Disney Destiny.

Christmas is only ten days away. We wish each of you the joy and blessings of Christmas. The birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

I'm a winner

After my retirement, I decided to re-learn the canning and preserving skills I learned from my mother but hadn’t practiced for twenty years. I titled the blog Old Things R New to chronicle my experience.  Since then I have been blessed to have six other bloggers join me, DiVoran Lites, Bill Lites,  Judy Wills, Louise

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Wood Inlay

5 Dec

SUNDAYMEMORIES

Judy Wills

Reblog

I wrote this back in 2013, but enjoyed reading it again.  I hope you do, as well

I’ve never thought I would be particularly interested in wood, types of wood, or just about anything related to wood.  I guess the first time I really became interested was when I was graduating from high school and a local furniture store gave a Hope Chest to every graduating girl in my class.  Now, I must say that the chests were VERY MINIATURE!!  More like a keepsake box.  But they were made of cedar, as a real hope chest would be, and finished beautifully.  After all these 50+ years since that time, my miniature hope chest still smells wonderfully fragrant.  That’s probably why I love the fresh smell of cedar so much.

When we were stationed in Germany in the late 1960’s, we came across some wood inlay pictures that really caught our eye.  The intricate “jigsaw puzzle” work of the artist…and the different color of the woods used…were fascinating.  We purchased just one picture, thinking that was all we could afford.  And while we cherished that picture, we couldn’t help but wish we had purchased more.

Marienplatz – Garmisch/Partinkirken 

Back to Germany we went in the early 1980’s – and we began our search for more of those wood inlay pictures, and especially by the same artist.  And we found them!  We snapped up two more.  All of the scenes are of places in Germany that were important to us and our memories.  We treasure them.  And we learned that this particular artist had cut enough puzzle pieces to make pictures for up to five years after his death! Amazing.  

Neuschwanstein Castle 
Konigsee 

But we’ve found other wood inlay that intrigue us, as well.  While visiting in the Chicago area, we stayed in a great old house that is now a Bed & Breakfast.

Roxana Bed & Breakfast 

It is situated on a lake that is reported to have been a playground for the likes of Al Capone and his cronies.  As a matter of fact, the room we stayed in was dubbed the “Al Capone Room,” and had pictures of him, one of his famous cigars, and two bullets he might have used.

Al Capone 

But what interested us the most was the dining room and sitting area.  When the new owners purchased the house, most of the rooms had wall-to-wall carpet.  When they pulled it up, thinking to replace the carpet, they found the most beautiful wood inlay floors imaginable!  So they left them uncarpeted, and open to admiration.  We most certainly admired them.  Just think of the imagination and planning that went into putting these floors down.  Beautiful!

Our favorite Mexican Restaurant in town has a gorgeous wood inlay Aztec calendar hanging at the front of the restaurant.  I’ve seen quite a few calendars before, but none this beautiful.

I’m still a carpet girl – and here in Florida, we have either carpet or tile.  But that doesn’t stop me from admiring the craftsmanship of those artists from long ago.

Judy is living in Central Florida with her retired U.S. Air Force husband of 50+ years. Born in Dallas, Texas, she grew up in the Southwestern United States.She met her husband at their church, where he was attending the university in her town. After college and seminary, he entered the Air Force, and their adventures began.They lived in eight of our United States, and spent six years in Europe, where their oldest daughter was born. She was a stay-at-home mom for many years .

  Judy has always been involved with music, both playing the piano and singing. Always interested in exercise, she was an aerobic dancing instructor, as well as a piano teacher for many years, and continues to faithfully exercise at home.

After moving to Central Florida, she served as a church secretary for nearly nine years.Her main hobby at this point in time is scanning pictures and 35mm slides into the computer. She also enjoys scrapbooking.She and her husband have two married daughters and four grandchildren, including grandtwins as well as a great-grandson and a great-granddaughter. She and her husband enjoy the Disney parks as often as possible.

 

 

 

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Cruise Memories-Part 1

13 Nov

On the Porch

Onisha Ellis

My husband and I enjoy cruise getaways. But it wasn’t always the case. Twenty five years ago, we were offered a chance to go on a three day Bahama cruise at a reasonable price. My husband wasn’t thrilled and reluctantly agreed to go. By the end of the cruise, he was hooked and looking forward to a seven night cruise.

Since then we have enjoyed many seven night cruises, some even longer. Earlier this month our daughter invited us to join her on a 4 night cruise. I was a little disappointed it was so short but wasn’t going to turn it down.

She lives within easy driving distance to the cruise terminal and it was an easy drive until we arrived at the terminal. I don’t know what their problem was but traffic was jammed up. We barely made it onto the ship before it was time for the Emergency drill.

Disney Destiny

Fortunately, our muster station dismissed us as soon the drill was completed even though announcements were being given. We dashed to deck 11 in search of food, having missed lunch. What we didn’t realize was that due to scheduling everyone missed lunch. Deck 11 is set up similar to a food court only much cooler. We made our food choices and secured seating before the rest of the passengers arrived. Those were some long lines!

We had set our hearts on ice cream for dessert but oh my, the ice cream line was two deep. Never one to miss dessert we retired to our room and ordered our favorite room service treat.

Two pots of coffee and chocolate chip cookies.

Our first and only port stop was Castaway Cay, the cruise line’s private island. It was a gorgeous day and the island is beautiful. These days our favorite place on the island is the cook shack. From the ship we made our way to the dining pavilion and claimed a prime spot. (With an ice cream machine view.)

Most people fill a cone with ice cream. Husband filled a drinking cup. To his credit, he didn’t go back for seconds.

For this cruise we rented a Feather Light brand mobility scooter. It collapses by pressing a button. Once collapsed it was easy to store in our cabin when not in use. On a previous cruise we had to leave the scooter at Guest services when not in use, a royal pain. It was also easy to put on the tram that transports passengers on the private island and the crew were very accommodating.

I only took these pictures on the island, not sure why. Being there brought to mind previous cruises when our grandchildren were young. Good memories.

It’s getting late and I have an early start tomorrow. We are back into the swing of our active social life, you know, doctor visits. Will continue the post next week.

I'm a winner

After my retirement, I decided to re-learn the canning and preserving skills I learned from my mother but hadn’t practiced for twenty years. I titled the blog Old Things R New to chronicle my experience.  Since then I have been blessed to have six other bloggers join me, DiVoran Lites, Bill Lites,  Judy Wills, Louise Gibson, Janet Perez Eckles and Melody Hendrix

In addition to blogging, I’m a general  “mom Friday” for my author daughter, Rebekah Lyn. I also manage her website, Rebekah Lyn Books  

My 2025 goal is continue to use my love of photographs and words to be an encourager on social media.

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The Cruise of a Lifetime-Coming Home

21 Sep

SUNDAY MEMORIES

Judy Wills

Reblog

Because our flight from Budapest was at 6:30 a.m., we had to get up about 2:15 a.m. to get ready, pack, and get on the shuttle bus by 3:30 a.m.  We had showered the night before, so all we had to do was shave (Fred), put on makeup (Judy), finish packing, and off we went.  There were 14 of us from the ship that were going to make that flight.

It was a 30-minute drive from the ship to the airport.  And when we got there, it was a “hurry up and wait” situation.  We waited 30 minutes for the counter personnel to arrive and begin taking customers.  We were first in line, thank goodness.  Even though we had our bags with us, she convinced us to check the larger bags, as the plane from Budapest to Amsterdam was “small.”  The flight took off pretty much on time, and it was a two hour flight to Amsterdam.  They did feed us breakfast, but it was nothing like we had before – a sandwich with either deli-thin slices of chicken, or cheese, with mayonnaise on it.  Well, Fred doesn’t eat mayo in ANY form! But we were able to get him some slices of cheese and chicken that wasn’t too “polluted” from the mayo.

We had a fairly long layover in Amsterdam, which was good.  Schiphol Airport is really big, and we had to go quite a ways to find our gate.  Fred said it looked like the lady in Budapest had checked our bags all the way to Orlando, but he wasn’t sure.  So when we had the attendant in Amsterdam check, sure enough, they were checked through.  However, she said we had to pick them up in Atlanta and go through Customs there.

The flight from Amsterdam to Atlanta was nearly nine hours long.  The fortunate thing about it was that we were on an Airbus, and were in the two-seat side, rather than the four-seat middle.  I always enjoy flying with just Fred, rather than three of us across.  They fed us lunch – we both had tortellini, salad, cheese and crackers.  A few hours later they had wrap sandwiches for us – Fred had a “meatball” and I had a veggie wrap.  Surprisingly tasty.  And of course, there was always the pretzels and peanuts.

We finally arrived in Atlanta – really nice to realize we were back on US soil!  We picked up our bags and headed through Customs and Immigration.  Not a bad thing, and we got through fairly easily.  We were glad to have that done in Atlanta, rather than having to do it in Orlando, when we were super tired.

The flight to Orlando was just barely over one hour.  As we like to say, they hardly got up when they had to start down again!  They did have time to hand out pretzels and soft drinks, but they were hurrying through it.

Richard Lynch picked us up and headed toward home.  When we discovered they had not had dinner yet – and our tummys were growling – we agreed to meet at Panera for a light supper.  Pam and Piper were waiting for us.  We were able to tell them a little bit about our trip, but were so very ready to get home.

We unloaded our suitcases quickly, as I HAD to do a load of undies, since all we had needed to be washed before the next day.  So with all that done, we were able to get to bed by about 10:00 p.m.  We figured that we had been in the air about 13 hours, and had been awake about 25 hours – with only cat-naps on the airplane!  We were truly and fully exhausted!   We didn’t even set the clock to wake us up on Saturday – just decided to sleep our fill.

It was wonderful to be home and sleeping in our own bed.

But we are so very grateful and thankful that we had the wonderful experience of the Viking River Cruise Grand Tour.  A cruise of a lifetime!

~~~~~~~~~~The End~~~~~~~~~~

Budapest, Hungary
Bratislava, Slovakia 

 

Vienna, Austria 

 

Passau, Germany 

 

Regensburg, Germany 
Nuremburg, Germany 

 

Bamberg, Germany 

 

Rothenburg, Germany 

 

Rhein River, Germany 

 

Kinderdijk, Holland 

 

The Gefjon – our long ship 

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The Cruise of a Lifetime-Part 14

14 Sep

SUNDAY MEMORIES

Judy Wills

Reblog

Since we had sailed overnight to Budapest, and had an early shore excursion, we were up by 5:30 a.m.  We had breakfast at 7:00 a.m. with Richard, Judy, Lucy, Roy and Jill, Joyce, Rick and Mary.

By 8:30 a.m. we left on the shore excursion for Budapest.  Some “Fast Facts about Hungary” from the ship’s info sheet:

Home to over a million people, Budapest spans both sides of the Danube River – historic Buda on the east bank and cosmopolitan Pest (pronounced “Pesht”) on the west.  Brimming with history, culture and attractions, Budapest is full of baroque, neoclassical and Art Nouveau architecture, and plenty to do.  Museums, shopping and restaurants are the places to be.

The bus took us around the town, then stopped at the square where we went on to the castle.

Funicular

Back to the ship by bus, we had lunch, then to our new room on the Lif, for a nap.

At 2:15 p.m., we had a “Budapest by Boat” tour, with our Program Director, Carl West giving the commentary.  

Carl West – Program Director 

We went by the Parliament Building, which is the most famous picture shown in the Viking advertisements – red-topped building.  Really beautiful.

We were back on the ship by 3:30 p.m., where we rested/napped and read some – quiet time for us.

We had our final/farewell dinner at 7:00 p.m. with Richard, Judy and Lucy.  While it was a fun time, we had our last hugs and “wish we lived closer to you” from each of us.  While I know it was a very concentrated two weeks with them, we all feel we forged a deep and lasting friendship, that will only continue when we all get to heaven.

Since tomorrow would be a REALLY early day (we asked for a 2:15 a.m. wake-up call, with a 3:30 a.m. bus departure time into Budapest), we showered that night, and were in bed by 8:30 p.m.

The Whale 

According to Google search:  That’s the “Bálna / Whale” (formerly called CET building) a modern shopping, cultural, and entertainment centre, as well as a tourist attraction on par with Paris’s Eiffel Tower, or the Covent Garden in London – at least that’s what the city leaders want it to be.

According to Google search:  The Shoes on the Danube is a memorial to the Budapest Jews who were shot by Arrow Cross militiamen between 1944 and 1945. The victims were lined up and shot into the Danube River. They had to take their shoes off, since shoes were valuable belongings at the time.

The memorial was created by Gyula Pauer, Hungarian sculptor, and his friend Can Togay in 2005. It contains 60 pairs of iron shoes, forming a row along the Danube. Each pair of shoes was modeled after an original 1940’s pair. 

~~~~~~~~~~To Be Continued~~~~~~~~~~~

Judy is living in Central Florida with her retired U.S. Air Force husband of 50+ years. Born in Dallas, Texas, she grew up in the Southwestern United States.She met her husband at their church, where he was attending the university in her town. After college and seminary, he entered the Air Force, and their adventures began.They lived in eight of our United States, and spent six years in Europe, where their oldest daughter was born. She was a stay-at-home mom for many years .

  Judy has always been involved with music, both playing the piano and singing. Always interested in exercise, she was an aerobic dancing instructor, as well as a piano teacher for many years, and continues to faithfully exercise at home.

After moving to Central Florida, she served as a church secretary for nearly nine years.Her main hobby at this point in time is scanning pictures and 35mm slides into the computer. She also enjoys scrapbooking.She and her husband have two married daughters and four grandchildren, including grandtwins as well as a great-grandson and a great-granddaughter. She and her husband enjoy the Disney parks as often as possible.

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The Cruise of a Lifetime-Part 13

7 Sep

SUNDAY MEMORIES

Judy Wills

Since we had to change ships today, Fred and I were up at 5:30 a.m. to shower and dress and finished packing.  At 7:00 a.m. we had breakfast with Richard, Judy and Lucy.  At 7:45 we completed our packing and put our bags out in the hallway as instructed. 

At 8:15 a.m. we reported to our assigned bus to leave the ship and go to Bratislava, Slovakia.

According to the ship’s info on Bratislava:   The emergence of Slovak national consciousness dates to about the 1700s.  The written language appeared before the 18th century, and near the end of that century a national movement began to encourage a Slovak identity and the development of Slovak Romanticism with a focus on popular folk traditions.  At the end of World War 1,Slovak identity was fully formed, and in 1919 Slovakia joined with Czechia to form a union of two western Slavic nations: Czecho-Slovakia.  But its independence was greatly limited by its strong economic, military and political dependence on Germany.

It was then conquered by the Soviets, who wanted to create a pro-Soviet and Communist Czechoslovakia.  This lasted until the fall of Communism during the Velvet Revolution of 1989.  In 1993, the Slovaks and the Czechs agreed to separate peacefully in what is called the Velvet Divorce.  The Czech Republic became a democratic state.  Slovakia became an independent nation. 

We arrived at the Bratislava Castle by 10:00.

It was quite windy day but not too cold.  While we didn’t go inside the castle, the outside was interesting. Because I knew the history of SPQR, I found this interesting. 

According to Google and Ancient Rome for Kids:

The letters SPQR stood for Senatus Populus Que Romanusa – the Senate and the People of Rome.  After defeating Tarquin, the last Roman king, the people started a new type of government, a republic.  A republic is a type of government whereby people elect officials to represent them in government.

As a publicity campaign, and as propaganda, the new senate had the letters SPQR chiseled, branded or stamped on everything that they controlled.  Public buildings, new coins, and even park benches got the letters SPQR added to them.

The people of Rome were proud of their new government, and were reminded every time that they saw SPQR that they were a part of the Roman Republic, and no longer ruled by a king.

At 10:30 we left for Old Town with a walking tour.  We saw many fascinating sights.  Here are some:

This little guy is called Cumil (pronounced as Chumil).   As the story goes, Cumil was a mischievous person who while working, used to emerge from under the manhole to look beneath the ladies’ skirts! (Tripadvisor)

Statue of Bratislava Cavalier Schoner Naci

Napolean – one of the few places to sit

We were given two hours of free time, to look around Bratislava on our own,  which is really too long.  We found no place to sit – no public benches. We finally went into a bakery and had a hot chocolate and a chestnut pastry.  We met and shared a table with Iris and April, sisters from Calgary, Canada (Richard called them “the sisters”), who were also on our cruise.  We complained to Carl West (who is from Bratislava, as is Billie, our concierge), that there were no public benches where we could sit and rest our feet.  He just laughed.  We think it is the city’s plan so visitors have to go into a shop to eat or drink in order to sit and rest.

At 1:00 p.m. we had lunch in the Austrian Trend hotel – it was a very good meal and the entire upper level was set up as a restaurant for our entire ship’s compliment. 

At 2:30 p.m. we were back on the bus for our trip Budapest, Hungary.  All the buses stopped for a restroom break at 3:45. The bus trip to Budapest normally takes only three hours, but took us four hours instead.  We were finally on board the Lif at 6:15 p.m.

At 7:00 p.m. we had dinner with Richard, Judy and Lucy.  Richard told us their tour guide, while going through Transylvania, told a story about “wampires… and the bus erupted with laughter. 

We were in bed by 10:00 p.m.  It had been a long day.

Judy is living in Central Florida with her retired U.S. Air Force husband of 50+ years. Born in Dallas, Texas, she grew up in the Southwestern United States.She met her husband at their church, where he was attending the university in her town. After college and seminary, he entered the Air Force, and their adventures began.They lived in eight of our United States, and spent six years in Europe, where their oldest daughter was born. She was a stay-at-home mom for many years .

  Judy has always been involved with music, both playing the piano and singing. Always interested in exercise, she was an aerobic dancing instructor, as well as a piano teacher for many years, and continues to faithfully exercise at home.

After moving to Central Florida, she served as a church secretary for nearly nine years.Her main hobby at this point in time is scanning pictures and 35mm slides into the computer. She also enjoys scrapbooking.She and her husband have two married daughters and four grandchildren, including grandtwins as well as a great-grandson and a great-granddaughter. She and her husband enjoy the Disney parks as often as possible.

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