The Jazz Ballerina

Tonight we had the chance to go to a jazz concert at the Teatro Municipale.  It was provided by a clarinetist and pianist, and was truly excellent.  Provided you closed your eyes.

However, upon opening them, you saw... the jazz ballerina. The clarinetist was acrobatic, to say the least.  I'm not sure exactly how to describe it, but it was a cross between personal training, complete with lunges and squats, ballet (think pirouettes), and what Angela called Zeimbekiko -- a drunken Greek dance. We were waiting for him to misstep and trip on himself the entire time. At first it was distracting.  And then it was flat out hilarious. Meanwhile, the pianist was entirely unflappable.

Well worth the price of admission.

Love,

Alexandra

Lunch on the Adriatic

One of the beautiful things about our long trip by car was how the landscape, architecture, city structure, agriculture, and weather changed every time we crossed a political border. In the United States many political borders are arbitrary, for example at a certain line of latitude. Here they reflect ancient cultural boundaries or physical obstacles like mountain ranges.

My last post showed the family under cool overcast skies in central Slovenia. Four hours later we had a slightly late lunch in the Italian resort town of Lignano, on the Adriatic between Trieste and Venice. The contrast could hardly have been stronger.

Lignano was bright and sunny and called for shorts rather than jackets. It is a quite recent town, at least the resort part of it, and was crowded with bikers enjoying a sunny Sunday.

I took a few shots of the beach and sea. It is funny that the beach is one of the few places where the Italians seem to take orderliness in stride. The beaches are mostly private and you rent one of those spots you see in neat rows.
















Michael

24 hours after leaving the frog weather behind we found ourselves in Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia. It has a beautiful old town center that made it through the communist era in remarkably good shape. Since then the city has clearly invested in itself. We saw a lot of new cobblestone roads going down in the pedestrian town center.

Here is the family in front if the Triple Bridge.




Here are some views and architecture near the Triple Bridge.

















Some people you may know on the Butcher's Bridge:





















Jeremy and Alexandra in front of one of the dragons of the Dragon Bridge:








My pictures don't do the city justice. We certainly wanted to explore for a weekend rather than a couple of hours. If you are ever in the area I highly recommend that you go see Ljubljana in person. The downtown pedestrian area on the riverfront is beautiful even on an overcast day.

Michael

Location:Ljubljana

Beware of the What?

As we left Schwangau two weeks ago we encountered this sign:




Let's see that again...




No doubt about it. That is a frog.

Then, around the next bend we started seeing short green mesh fences:









Yes, the frogs are such a hazard that they erected fences to keep them off the road. Who knew?

And yes, we had frog weather the entire time we were in Germany.

Michael

Origami

Recently I have become fond of making origami. I found an amazing website, for those who are interested, it is www.origami-instructions.com. I particularly enjoy making itty-bitty origami. Here are some pictures of the origami I have made. Sorry about the crummy quality of the photos.

Although you can't see very well, there is a little heart, and it opens out into a box

This is flat, but then is becomes a box.... then it is flat again. I use one like it to store pencil shavings during class.

This is what happens when sisters fall asleep on my lap when I'm trying to make origami.
This is my smallest creation yet.

This would be an eight pointed vase if you could see it.

Those are coconut m&ms that we have thanks to Grandpa Jim,  Grandma, and Granddad

This is the same box as the one with the m&ms in it, but I coloured it

You can't really see it, but I drew a little green bow on my box

This is before colouring. The box is about 1" X 1"  X 3/4"

This is a really bad picture of a vase 

Ciao for now,

Florence

Morning in Alto Adige

We arrived at the agriturismo (a type of Italian farmhouse inn set up for vacation stays) La Pieve last night after dark. These were the views from our bedroom window when we woke up this morning.













That view is a little different from the ones in Atlanta.

Breakfast was downstairs.
















Michael

At the Autogrill

Today (Wednesday) was Day 1 of our road trip through northern Italy, Austria, southern Germany, and Slovenia.

It was mostly a car day because we didn't get out if Todi until 11:30. We did manage a long lunch in Abrezzo, but someone else will have to post photos from there because I didn't think to pull my iPad out of the car.

I did think about it when we stopped at an Autogrill, though. An Autogrill is a combined gas station, rest area, restaurant, and convenience store that is situated on toll highways so you don't have to exit and pay a toll. They are remarkably nice facilities.

For example, here is a selection of local cured meats available at this one:




You will not find that at your local highway gas station. On the other hand, they didn't have boiled peanuts.

Here Mom and Alexandra are finding a wine:




The boys were already back in the Ducato. Jeremy is smiling like that because he had just managed to pour a bunch of water into his seat.




Eleanor and Ashley were snacking, and decided that a less serious pose was better. That is Dad bemused in the background.







Florence? She didn't want to be photographed just then. Better luck next time.

Michael