Adventure – Page 8 – Valerie's Voice

Prague Castle

Prague is home to one of the largest castles in Europe and we went to see it along with hundreds of other tourists. We took the tram to the top of the hill…most castles are on a hill because they are fortresses. We arrived, along with many others, and took our turn “oohing and aahing” over the hugeness of it. It dates back to the 9^th century.

What impressed me the most were the cathedral, the vistas, and the tiny houses.

Another side of the St. Vitus Cathedral…to get a flavor of the Gothic architecture and the hugeness of the cathedral.

On the castle grounds is the Gothic style St. Vitus Cathedral. There was an earlier church on this site in 952 but this cathedral’s construction began in 1344 and was not completed until 1929. Even today, the Cathedral is steadily being restored. It has two tall spires, 270’ high, and is very impressive. It has spectacular stained-glass windows, and one amazing window painted to look like a stained-glass window and it’s hard to tell the difference. There is so much history and opulence inside these cathedral walls.

One of the stain-glassed windows of St. Vitus.

Inside St. Vitus…note people in foreground of photo to get perspective of how big this cathedral is.

There were great views of the picturesque city of Prague from the castle on the hill. Prague is a beautiful city with the Vltava River running through it and diverse, beautiful architecture everywhere, complete with burnt-orange clay tiled roofs.

And then there is Golden Lane.

Golden Lane is a row of tiny houses built into the castle wall. It was a medieval merchant street and it captured my interest. The houses, I’m guessing, were approximately 8′ X 10′.

In 1484 a fortification of the north wall of the castle formed some kind of vaults that were used to house “lesser goldsmiths” until the revamping of the wall in 1591-94 when repairs were made to the vaults. In 1597 artillery men at the gate of Prague Castle asked permission to build little houses within the newly repaired walls which would take up only the depth of the original niches (vaults). The King agreed, however, the dwellings were not given to the men, they had to build them at their own expense. The houses were occupied until WWII, when the government bought them and now are a part of the history of the castle.

Even though the lane was overcrowded with tourists, it was quaint and fun to see these tiny houses that were built so long ago (and I thought the concept of tiny houses was a new one.)

One house on Golden Lane – you can walk in a few feet and look through plexiglass to get an idea of how the tiny houses were arranged inside.

What I find amusing is that we were surrounded by the opulence and magnificence of the castle and I was intrigued by one row of tiny houses built into the castle wall.

Seeing the grand castle and the tiny houses made my own modest home back in Minnesota feel “just right.”

The Hills Are Alive and So Are The Flowers

We had so many adventures during our time in Austria it’s hard to know where to begin…”Let’s start at the very beginning, A very good place to start”…well maybe not…my postings of our trip will not be in chronological order.

I’ll begin with the beauty of Austria…the mountains and hillsides, the streams and waterfalls, the wonderful alpine chalet-style homes with flower boxes dotting the green landscape.

It was a treat to be in a vehicle driving across country. Our friends had a small, white Renault with plenty of room for four people with just enough space for our luggage in the back… it was a puzzle each time we had to repack our luggage but it worked. In the cities we would leave the vehicle parked for days and walk.

Outside the cities, it was wonderful to have the freedom of a vehicle, and having drivers who were used to driving in Europe. We relied heavily on the GPS system. It took us through rotaries (round-abouts) and often took us off the main road unto narrow back roads for a short-cut – sometimes we wondered why – but it added to the scenery and always brought us back to the main road…well, almost always.

The Grossglockner moutain peak is 3,798 meters (12,461 ft), and is the highest mountain in Austria.

One of our planned routes was the Grossglockner Alpine Drive in the Austrian Alps. At one viewing point you could see ten mountain peaks over 3,300 meters, (10,000 feet). We were blessed with a beautiful, sunny day. There were lots of cars, some buses, motorcycles and bicycles climbing switchbacks up to the end of the road, to see the glacier. There were many places without guardrails and the roads were narrow and we wondered how the bicyclists could dare pedal up the mountain, especially in all the traffic. Whew…

Austrian Alps: The plaza where you could stop and look at 10 peaks over 10,000 feet.

Austrian Alps with glimpses of the Alpine Drive road.

The flower boxes on homes and business added even more to the beauty of the Austria countryside…they are abundant, overflowing, colorful, often multi-tiered, and just spectacular. Even though I was unable to get many photos of them, much to my dismay, the professional photos we see of these chalets with flower boxes are real. The flowers are that stunning. Here are a few photos but my photos do not do them justice.

Small restaurant along the Danube River.

Even this chicken coop had flower boxes! I love it.

Another Turtle on the Trail

Last week we were, once again, biking on the new trail in town when we noticed a turtle on the path. We stopped to take a look and discovered this turtle was a different species than the turtle we saw a few weeks ago.

I took a picture, hoping to identify it later. When I first saw the turtle I thought it was a snapping turtle, but I didn’t test it by dangling a stick in front of his face to see if he’d snap. After a quick research, I’m pretty certain it is a snapping turtle. Click here for more information.

I wonder how many species of turtles are in the area along the river, and near the path? Hopefully we’ll see a new and different one the next time.

A Table Creation

When my friend and I travel we often say it would be fun to look back on a map showing all the places we dart in and out of in one day. We criss-cross all over town, rarely following an organized route anymore since we have GPS. We have a list of the names and addresses of places we want to visit and plug the info into GPS. We also stop at places along the way that look intriguing.

We both agree, a map of our day would look somewhat like Billy’s trails portrayed in the comic Family Circus.

At the end of one day, on our recent trip to Oshkosh, we were headed back to our hotel when saw a garden shop so we stopped in for one last escapade. The nursery had slim pickings of annuals, and no perennials. So we decided to go into the gift shop next-door. As we looked around we noticed a few tables made from glass tops put over different items. We both thought a glass-top table might be something we could make (we’re always saying, “We can make that!” HA.) We had been looking at small tables on this trip, because I wanted one for our living room.

Back in Northfield I told my husband the idea and he thought it just might work. So we ordered a piece of glass cut to the size and shape we wanted. We found a mirrored, ceramic pot at Menards that happen to be the right size and height we wanted, and I cut a circle out of a place mat.

We turned the ceramic pot upside down, placed the cut-out place mat to secure the glass and to cover the bottom of the pot (which was now the top), and put the piece of cut glass on top of it all…and voilà…a wedge table to fit between our two recliners!

I have learned… you never know what ideas will generate when you step into new places.

A Rare Sighting

Last week while riding our on the new trail from Northfield to Dundas we stopped for a large turtle on the path.

We got off our bikes to get a closer look and found it was an unusual turtle…one none of us had seen before. We enjoyed looking at it, and wanted to touch it but decided not to. All the while it just stood there (do turtles stand?) waiting for us to leave.

We took in the wonder of it all, then got back on our bikes and continued on our ride. On our way back the turtle was gone.

The next day my friend did some research and found this turtle is called a Trionyx muticus. Click here for a link for more information. It is a soft-shelled turtle with and interesting snout and apparently considered a “special concern species in Minnesota”, which I think makes for a rare sighting.

It was fun to see this creature on the trail and hopefully it will find a safe place along the riverbank to make it’s home.

Memorable Hikes – Nerstrand-Big Woods State Park

Continuing my series on memorable hikes…

Nerstrand, as we affectionately call the Nerstrand-Big Woods State Park, is one of my favorite local state parks and I think it’s because I go there often. It’s only 20 minutes from our house where we currently live, and we used to drive down to the park from Burnsville where we lived years ago.

Nerstrand-Big Woods State Park, Spring 2018

There is no date for this memorable hike because I do not remember the year. We have gone on numerous hikes in Nerstrand-Big Woods over the years – too many to count or keep track of: wild flower hikes in the spring, long hikes in the summer, fall leaf hikes in the fall, cross-country skiing in the winter.

But the hike I’m writing about for my Memorable Hike series is when our two boys were young. We drove down to the park from Burnsville for the day. Gary had picked up a couple candy bars (which was, and still is, an infrequent treat) to put in his pocket for our hike. While hiking on one of the longer trails at Nerstrand Gary got the idea to go on ahead and place the candy bars near a tree. He wasn’t that far ahead of us to notice he was missing, and he did it quickly. Then when we were all together again, he mentioned to the boys that he thought there was a candy stand somewhere up ahead. The boys were young enough to get excited about that. We continued hiking and, lo and behold, there were candy bars on the ground under a tree. The boys were thrilled. It was silly but was quite fun, and to this day we talk about finding that candy at Nerstrand.

Who knew?

Whitewater State Park

A change in plans for family members opened up an opportunity for Gary & I to go camping over the weekend at Whitewater State Park, in one of their camper cabins.

This is Rainbow Trout, the name of the camper cabin we stayed in.

The camper cabins are cute…there isn’t a better word…just like baby animals…baby cabins are cute! The one we stayed in was only a year old. The cabins are like children’s playhouses. Inside are two bunk beds, a small picnic table with two benches, large, screened windows, electric lights and a ceiling fan and extra outlets. Each cabin has a small screen porch attached. Everything is built with knotty pine. The cabins are simple but functional and are a lot of fun to stay in.

Inside the camper cabin, from the porch.

Growing up in a kid-friendly neighborhood we had a shack in our backyard. It was a great place to play with the neighborhood gang. This camper cabin, which of course, is larger and much nicer than our backyard shack, brought back some fun memories of playing in, and on top of, the shack.

It doesn’t take long to get settled in to a camper cabin. Soon we were enjoying the great Minnesota outdoors. Whitewater State Park is in southeastern Minnesota, in a valley. The Whitewater River runs through the park, and beautiful, rocky bluffs surround the river and park.

One morning our hike took us up the bluffs with vistas at the top overlooking the valley. As we ascended so did our body temperatures, and at the same time the outside temperatures were climbing… into the 90’s, very unusual for our spring season.

Gary hiking on the trail. An interesting cavity in the tree.

Needless to say, we were very hot at the end of our hike so we quickly changed into our bathing suits and jumped into the spring-fed swimming hole in the river. It felt wonderful. This is something I rarely do anymore, but our bodies needed to cool down. I believe there is something very healing having your body surrounded completely by cool water. We could almost feel our body temperatures lowering to normal as we lingered in the water. Of course, many others in the park were also enjoying the swimming hole, but surprisingly it wasn’t crowded. It seems people stayed in the water just long enough to cool their bodies down.

Looking down on the park from our hike up the bluff. The swimming hole is the opening in the river with a sandy beach.

After we got out of the water we took showers in the shower house and then went out for an ice cream treat.

We found some fun ways to beat this unseasonable heat.

Delaware

Our planned route for our road trip to the East coast took us close to Delaware. I have never been to Delaware so I thought it would be a good idea to drive through the state and add it to my list of states I’ve been in. When I mentioned this idea to our host the morning we were leaving Washington D.C. heading to Pennsylvania, he suggested we go to the Hagley Museum in Wilmington, Delaware. So we did.

The Hagley Museum is along the banks of the Brandywine River and is the site of the gunpowder works founded by E.I. du Pont in 1802. The du Pont company became the largest American manufacturer of black powder.

A side view of the Visitor’s Center and museum.

The Visitor’s Center and museum, in a beautiful brick building, includes three floors of exhibits.

More beautiful and interesting brick building walls.

Outside the museum, there are 235 acres with historic buildings to explore, and tour different parts of the gun powder operation, including the the Powder Yard with live demonstrations.

One of many buildings along the Brandywine River used to manufacture gun powder.

A demonstration of gun powder being ignited.

You can walk up to Worker’s Hill where the worker’s lived on site, and tour Eleutherian Mills, which was the first du Pont family home.

The du Pont’s first family home. – both ends have been added on since the original was built.

I especially like touring older homes…like the Rockefeller’s in Williamsburg, and now the du Pont home in Wilmington. This was du Pont’s first home in America (they immigrated to America from France)…a few miles away is Winterthur, another du Pont home where the family lived, with 175 rooms. It is now open to the public but we didn’t have time to go see it. (Maybe another trip to Delaware – who knew there were such interesting places to visit in Delaware?)

I liked this wrought iron bench painted turquoise, and the yellow pansies and the lamppost at the entrance to the house.

The du Pont company went on to become the country’s largest chemical firm. The exhibits in the museum showed many examples of their inventions: nylon (including nylon stockings), Teflon, Kevlar to name a (very) few but there are so many more.

We enjoyed this museum a lot and I said to Gary, “It’s interesting that this morning we never even heard of this place and now, here we are this afternoon, touring it and enjoying it.”

O, the joys of travel.

Memorable Hikes – Bay of Fundy, Nova Scotia 2013

Continuing my series on memorable hikes…

Gary and I flew to Nova Scotia in 2013 and rented a car to tour the provinces of Nova Scotia (including the Bay of Fundy) and Prince Edward Island.

We were hiking around the Bay of Fundy during low tide. It was amazing to hike far out from shore on the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean, knowing in a couple hours water would rise to cover the entire area once again. And it would be deep waters. The record tide recorded is 53’…it was 43’ the day we were hiking around the sea floor in the Bay of Fundy. A park interpreter making a presentation on Alma Beach, at low tide.

According to Wikipedia: “The Bay of Fundy is a bay between the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, with a small portion touching the state of Maine. It has the highest tidal range in the world.”

I don’t really understand how tides work – I do know they’re connected to the moon’s cycle. I remember when we took a trip to Maine in the 80’s I learned there were two tide cycles each day: two high and two low. I was so surprised. Growing up in the Midwest and not living near the ocean I didn’t know such things. I guess I wasn’t listening in school either. HA

I remember while hiking in the Bay of Fundy, I once again was in awe of God’s amazing creation. When the massive tides recede, the endless mudflats are home to many sea creatures and people love to search for them when the tide is out.

We just enjoyed walking out on the sea floor.

(photo taken from travel brochure)

Who built the ark? Noah, Noah

And then some 700 more carpenters, including a few Amish men, rebuilt a replica of the ark in 2017.

On our way back to Minnesota from the East Coast we decided we were close enough to detour a few miles south to northern Kentucky and check out the Ark Encounter.

We asked a stranger to take our picture by the door of the ark. The door is too large to capture in the photo.

A Christian Foundation had the vision to build a replica of Noah’s Ark (without taxpayers money) to show people in this day and age what the ark might have looked liked.

The structure itself is massive… 510 feet long, 85 feet wide, and 51 feet high, an impressive sight to see for sure. These measurements were carefully calculated from information they studied about cubits, a term of measurement used in the Bible.

They researched the Bible and other resources to get an accurate design. Inside the ark there are three levels, with several exhibits on each deck.

They’ve recreated what the cages might look like, a possible watering system for distributing water to all the animals, and there was even an explanation to a plausible way Noah could have discarded animal waste, and so much more.

An idea for providing for reptiles and amphibians.

Different size cages for different sized animals.

A possible technique to feed the animals.

A possible technique for distributing water to the animals.

A possible technique for air ventilation.

Life-like images of Noah and his family were placed throughout the ark.

Life-size image in the “kitchen” area of the ark.

A work area among the living quarters for Noah and family.

It was well thought out and very interesting.

We decided it was worth the detour to get a new perspective on an old, old story.

This is a partial wall in a room filled with children’s books telling Noah’s ark story.

Click here to link to the Ark Encounter website.