The wonders of Europe!

I have been in Europe for 2 weeks now. I thought I would have a lot of time to sit in quaint little cafes and write on my blog. So far in 2 weeks, this is the first time I have felt that I can sit and focus on my thoughts (and organize photos).

It has been a whirlwind of a trip. We have visited some of my husband’s family in England (Reading and Ludlow), spent one day in London, spent a day going down my husband and mother-in-law’s memory lane of when they lived in Barnett and also went to Bounds Green where the previous generation lived during the Blitz in WWII. Fascinating stories of how the average life of a 5 or 6 year old at that time was always carrying a gas mask wherever they went. To them it was the way life was. Their parents were the ones carrying the burden and anxiety of the reality of war.

I remember my father-in-law telling a story of when he was about 5 years old he found a unexploded bomb in London. He was very excited about his find and dragged it across their tile floor to show his mommy. She wasted no time picking him with the bomb very gently. He was quite upset that she would not let him play with his new toy.

We also went to Bangor, Wales and met Paul Sellers. He has an amazing and extensive online video school and has a great blog (https://www.paulsellers.com) and also has a woodworking school in a castle! He puts a lot of energy and time into sharing his 50 years of traditional hand tool woodworking skills. There are a large number of instructional videos you can view for free on youtube and on his website and he has larger, more thorough videos on his school for a very reasonable price. His genuine desire is to help people discover the joy of this wonderful world of traditional woodworking and to continue these skills into the next generations.

Next we flew Ryanair from Manchaster to Bremen, Germany. We were a little concerned about this flight because whenever we mentioned we were flying Ryanair, there was a sort of smile or sometimes even an outright laugh. I was beginning to understand why it only cost us 30 English pounds each. I figured it was only an hour flight and we could put up with anything for that short amound of time. We weren’t sure what we were in for. It ended up being a good flight – very basic, but we got there OK with no issues. If you don’t have a lot of luggage, it’s a great way to go because that’s how they make their money. My husband had to check his bag and it cost twice what the flight cost :}

After this we went to visit more family in Bavaria. Had a wonderful time, ate lots of great German food and saw some beautiful old Bavarian villages.

We are now in Munich. We will be here until we fly home next week. I start to teach my 3 day beginning carving class tomorrow at the Dictum School. There are still spaces available!

Enough rambling. Here are some photos of incredible architecture and carvings. There are many more but I have to resist.