The Old and the Restless

After parking the car at the Altamonte Springs southern trail head, we began our trail ride. The trail immediately crossed a bridge over a creek that we followed for 2 miles. Paul is barely visible crossing the bridge. Close to the northern end of the trail we got lost - but stumbled upon a group of sand hill cranes. These cranes were not shy at all and let Sandra get within ten feet or so to take pictures.  When we managed to find our way back to the trail, it headed inland to a series of springs. This spring had picnic benches on which to eat our egg salad sandwiches. The northern trail end was at Markham, a freed slave village. The history of Markham continued. All traces of the former village have disappeared to be replaced by a gated estate home community. Paul coming back on the wide paved trail through the Florida scrub. Wild berries at the side of the trail.

Charleston is city on a peninsula and at the tip of the peninsula are gorgeous majestic homes. Typically, they are long and narrow houses (designed to capture the summer breezes) with entrances on the narrow side of the house and huge balconies along the side of the much larger side of the house. This is the house closest to the harbour facing Fort Sumter (where the Civil War started). This house is now divided into 3 condos. The same house from the narrow street front (see the front entrance in the lower right). This type of house is called a "single house" because it is only one room wide. The "simple" house next door, narrow on the street side and very deep from the street, is still owned by one family. While historic Charleston didn't have day care, modern Charleston does. The children get fresh air 6 at a time. This single house has a flowering Winter Cassia tree just inside the wrought iron gate.   A close up of the yellow Winter Cassia blossom. The stre...

This Barrie concert spectacular featured Carmina Burana sung by 3 choirs accompanied by the Huron Symphony Orchestra. While Margot was at the rehearsal, we showed Ella and Joshua videos of a previous concert. Below, Ella is telling Margot about the videos.

Show those teeth! Now that Megan is back at work, Thomas goes to daycare at a local school. I wonder if they sing this song there.

We decided to leave Vienna early to bicycle the Wachau (the very picturesque section of the Danube River Valley that starts 60 km west of Vienna from Krems to Spitz to Melk). So, we selected a B&B recommended by Rick Steves in Krems, punched in the GPS coordinates and drove there. Surprise! When we arrived, the B&B was only a hundred meters from the town square at Stein where we had stopped for lunch and seen the 10-10-10 wedding assembly line! [Mediaeval Stein and Krems are now one city.] That afternoon, we rented bicycles (at 5 euros for 24 hours each) from the municipality (with a lot of help with German translation from a former Denver resident who had returned to Austria). Our first stop of the afternoon was to take a picture in the now deserted Stein square with our three speed rental bikes. Each bike had a functioning headlight and tail light as well as a dual braking system. Safety was the watchword. Notice my bare legs! The temperature dropped markedly during the almo...

One of my memories from our first visit to Vienna (42 years ago!) was listening to a summer Strauss concert in the city park followed by coffee and dessert at a local coffee house. I wondered if I could find the Strauss statue again. It turned out to be right next door to our multi-story hotel this year. Nothing in the surrounding area looked familiar since there were no high rise buildings in Vienna in 1968 and there are many now. Different Viennese composers are honoured by statues in the Stadtpark. Here is the front of the elaborate monument to Strauss. And the back. Alas, it was too cold to have an outdoor concert. The principal "fans" of the Strauss statue are these ravens. The males of the species are interestingly bi-colored while the females are "traditional black". There were quite decent cafes in the area (at a couple of which we ate breakfast). But, other than locating the statue, I could not reorient myself as to where we went so long ago.