It's been a year since my last post! Time flies when you're
Not sure how it happened but I ran out of things to say. Or, rather, I needed to take a break from the grief confessional I kept finding myself kneeling in. Not having experienced therapy or counselling I used this place as a way to file away those sad things. It helped and I know at some point, I'll be sharing more here. I'm just not there yet. And that's ok. I don't think it's that I am not ready to share, I just need to pace myself and give it time.
So. What the hell have I been up to?
Remember last year we decided to plan a trip to Europe? We ended up on Viking's Danube Waltz cruise from Budapest to Passsau Germany. We started our trip with a few extra days in Budapest. We stayed right in the heart of the city (Pest!) and had one of the nicest Christmas markets at our doorstep. I wish I could convey just how delightful, lovely, enchanting, beautiful and welcoming Budapest is. The Danube divides the city--Buda on the west and Pest on the east. Buda is on the hill overlooking Pest and from there you can visit the Fisherman's Bastion, St. Matthias Church, the old castles and walk the cobblestone streets. The views are AMAZING. Pest is the livelier newer city with the wedding cake Parliament building, old Opera House, and street after street of mid-late 1800s fanciful buildings. I cannot wait to go back to Budapest.
We made stops along the way in Bratislava Slovakia, Vienna, Durnstein and Melk, Linz and Salzburg and finally Passau. If you have never been to Europe, this was an amazing introduction. The Christmas markets were full of sausages and pork, potatoes and onions and goose, duck and sauerkrauts and dumplings and cheeses and chocolates, gluwein and cider and schnapps with the heady aromas of wood fires, potpourris and candles; people laughing and crowding around heaters, tourists taking pictures, families shopping for gifts and trinkets all snugly tucked into city squares surrounded by dancing lights and fresh garlands under the watchful gaze of centuries-old churches, their spires lit from below along with huge advent pine wreathes, mideival city halls and building facades lit in blazing white lights, all while bands played and ice skaters cut figures on ice rinks under 50 foot live twinkling trees.
We loved the Christmas markets so much we decided to do another Viking Christmas Market cruise this December, the Heart of Germany. We begin in Nurnburg and end in Frankfort and travel along the Main. We are extending our stay a few days in Cologne on the Rhine. We spent a day in Cologne in June when we traveled (YES. You read that right!) on the Viking Rhine Getaway from Basel Switzerland to Amsterdam. Yes. Three Viking Cruises in a year. Call us crazy!
If you remember from some of my other posts, I had also started a new diet that was designed to help me get a grip on my IBS issues. FODMAPS is the diet, and it elimates short-chain carbohydrates. I continue to follow this and have managed to take off over 40 pounds in the past year. I am nearly symptom-free unless I get a wild hair and eat something on the naughty list. I pay for it, but the end result isn't a fatal illness or lasting damage, just some unexpected, unpleasant time spent reading in a quiet private place.
I think that's about enough for today. Musings include my utter frustration over the news yesterday of another school shooting. I'm also so ready for the elections to be over. I'd love to know if the onslaught of advertising (specifically the never ending idiotic negative tv ads) really helps voters decide who they should elect. IF they do, we are all in trouble. Another musing, don't drive on the NW side of our city at 4:30 on a Friday afternoon. You take your life in your hands. And why the hell don't people use turn signals????
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