My big surprise - France!

For my birthday, Gerald arranged a surprise trip back to Versailles and Paris. I did not know where I was going until we reached the check-in desk at the airport and the attendant was quite amused. (It was my first guess too - we think alike.) We had stayed at a plush hotel near the chateau in Versailles some years ago and had a memorable dinner in a nearby bistro (above). So we did both again this trip, plus added a wonderful creperie to our favorite dining spots. Our room had a view of the chateau - here it is at sunrise on our last morning, and here are the bath's French doors.



I'd never been in Paris in the high season, and we went on Saturday afternoon. As it was also a city-wide day of music, it was totally packed, and hot too. We're acclimated to the cooler Nordic summer now so it was a challenge. But an excellent one, nonetheless. I was able to use my rusty French, since Claire wasn't there as interpreter, and we did find the tea shop we were looking for (Mariage Freres) after inadvertently walking almost across Paris. We were on the right street, just at the wrong end. Sunday we saw the dressage performance of the Versailles equestrian school - and they had one segment where they brought young horses into the ring and just let them frolic. They rolled in the dirt, nipped each other, and played tag - it was so unique and charming. Dining alfresco that warm evening capped off our long weekend. Gerald really outdid himself with this perfect surprise. It all began with a rainbow over the chateau (and Gerald) on our arrival. Like magic!

More of Berlin

The wall ran in a zigzag through Berlin, and there's a brick path you can see in some places to show where it stood. We think we ate our last dinner directly on top of where it once stood. Here's a display of parts of the wall near our hotel, in Potsdamer Platz. It's hard to even imagine where it stood now - with all the city bustling about.


More somber is the Holocaust memorial, on five acres surrounded by buildings, one with a fancy rooftop cafe - typical of Berlin's contrasts. As you walk through the blocks they overtake you in size - it's intense, thought-provoking, but beautiful too.

It was a wonderful trip, highlighted by seeing the bust of Nefertiti the day before we left - this doesn't really do her justice as she's behind glass. There's a whole island of major art museums so you can see quite a bit in one day. Again, I tagged along on one of Gerald's conference trips, so we're keeping to our goal of seeing Europe while we're here. Berlin was a very pleasant surprise.

Berlin

Germany is celebrating the 60th anniversary of the Berlin Air Lift and also their recent soccer (football) win against Turkey, so they are now in the finals. We were there a few weeks ago for the first time and people were already wild in the streets celebrating the earlier games. You could hear a collective roar from all over whenever there was a good play, and most cafes and restaurants had big screen TVs set up. We're not fans but it was interesting to see all the enthusiasm. Berlin is very lively and having seen some postwar images of its devastation after WWII, it is amazing how much it has been built up, mostly in the 90s, so lots of modern architecture, as you can see here beside the Legoland giraffe. They've kept the shell of the Kaiser Wilhelm church as a memorial, at the end of the main shopping street, and some buildings retain their bullet and shell damage too.

The Reichstag was rebuilt with a glass dome by an American architect, and is now a tourist exhibit. It's shown here from our boat tour, as are the cafes along the Spree River which I think would have been East Berlin.

More US visit pics

We were able to visit Gerald's family in Indiana and here's a picture from his Aunt Jean and Uncle George's farm, where we sat listening to giant bumble bees slowly hovering around the rafters of the porch. The Indiana days were the warmest of our trip and we spent a lot of time outdoors. When we were up in Michigan, we had a chance to go to the Common Grill in Chelsea for lunch, where we had our wedding lunch last year, to celebrate our one year anniversary with my mother and brothers.

And in other news, just as we celebrated Kaliecia's graduation so recently, Claire has now decided to attend the MFA program at the Dell'Arte school in Northern California. She's ready for the change from New York, and when she sent me pictures of her visit, I once again remembered just how beautiful California is, and what a great location for some indepth study of acting.

I'm done teaching for the summer and here's the site of our end of the year party, on Valkosaari Island. It's a boat warehouse in the winter. Fun to take a ferry to a work function!

Finally, a swan update - seems that they did not suffer too much from overwintering in Helsinki as you can see in this picture. Shortly after I took this picture today, another mom swam up with 4 cygnets and they chased her away.

Kaliecia's graduation

We returned to Helsinki after 7 flights in 2 weeks, culminating in an upgrade to business class after rebooking due to airport problems, so for the first time we were able to recline and sleep on our way back over the ocean. We had great visits with everyone - the peak of which was watching Kaliecia graduate and as promised, here's a picture of her with that fun flat hat (in that modern cphone pose), plus one of her with one of the ceramic art pieces she had exhibited in the student art show. There's another of Claire and Gerald browsing through all the interesting pieces in the show.