well we are on our way. the plane is leaving the sun of june 14th and will soon greet the dawn of june 15th…
i have been thinking a lot about what this trip means...to me...to gin. gin has been calling the first part of the trip her “farewell tour”. three months ago i would have agreed with her and now here we are…i have declared that this trip (the first half anyway) should be our Annual Farewell Tour…i would be happy to say farewell to europe with ginny again and again and again…
i am really excited about paris. it was my favorite stop in 2009 on the lindbloom-larsen france and italy tour (it was on this trip that ginny’s cancer began showing symptoms…that was nov/dec 2009). Wow what a year and a half! Anyway, we will be spending 4 nights in paris on this trip. on thursday we will be having coffee with austin friends tim and bonnie rietz…our paths cross in the city of light for one day…i am humored by this for sure.
the second leg of the trip takes us to germany. ginny is thrilled to be returning to “her village” (rimbach) and visiting life-long friends. i am really pleased to be making the trip with ginny. her years in germany as a young woman are often talked about…i want to see it…hear it…taste it and smell it. we will have several days of visiting. ginny has provided a cheat sheet for me…
erika – former landlady – NO ENGLISH
thea (dorothea) – widow of willie jakob – NO ENGLISH
hans jurgen schmidt – our host in rimbach – retired director of martin luther school – ENGLISH (yippee – the man speaks english)
we will spend a day in heidelberg visiting a friend of ginny’s from the german department at the university of north dakota in the late 60’s…and then off to hamburg to meet another und colleague. brother dan will meet us in hamburg and then we are off to copenhagen. denmark will bring more visiting and an opportunity to explore the larsen’s roots (she be a dane)…
on july 30th i say goodbye to ginny…put her on a plane bound for home and i travel on to turkey. this part of the trip excites me quite differently than the “farewell tour” with gin. turkey seems so much more exotic…a land unlike any other I have been. the plan was that gin and i would make the trip to turkey together. we have dear friends living there this year and promised to visit. for a number of reasons, not worth explaining, i am making the trip alone, representing the lindbloom-larsen household. i am very much looking forward to time with joce, byron, haakon and allegra johnson-pihlaja. oh the sites we will see…istanbul…ephesus…izmir…turkey’s largest water park (haakon and allegra are 9 & 11)…hot air balloon rides at dawn…and living life with friends in their 300-year-old ruin rental. i have followed their life this year through blogs (www.omightycrisis.com) and facebook and am anticipating the experience that has been their life for the past 11 months…
well the sun is gone and my fellow travellers are settling in for the night. i believe it is time for criminal minds (i downloaded a few episodes for the trip)…will finish up the second to last diet coke (have one stashed away for later in the trip...no diet coke in europe and this girl is addicted)...
we arrive at 7:30 am wednesday. first thing on the agenda? café crème and a baguette….
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