Category: travel.

While my sister was visiting last week, she and I went on a weekend-long scrapbook retreat.  I know scrapping isn’t for everyone.  Plus a lot of people have gone totally digital with their pictures.  But I am still an old fashioned scrapper.  I like to play with paper, scissors and glue.  I love pretty papers in gorgeous colors, with different textures and patterns.  For me scrapbooking is just another creative outlet.

So Debbie and I spent three full days focused on scrapping, and although I didn’t quite finish with all of the pics from my Danube river cruise last November, I did get quite a lot done.

I tried something new this time around with my photos.  I printed all of them on matte photo paper and I love the results.  It may not be everyone’s cup of tea.  The most frequent comment I heard was that they don’t look like snapshots anymore, which is sort of true.  They may not look like snapshots, but yes, all of the pictures shown on these scrapbook pages are my own (or my sister’s).  I added titles to some of them (like the one above on the left) using picmonkey.  I print all of my photos myself on an inexpensive HP printer.  I just find it easier to print my my own, but I’m sure it’s not cost effective.  I like to be able to determine what size photo I want, and plan my page layout a little in my head as I go.

I try to hang onto things like the key cards from our hotel in Budapest (above) to add to my pages.

I also try to add a few vintage touches to my pages, like this fragment from a vintage French dictionary with the definition of the verb dormir, to sleep, on my hotel page.

You can see that my favorite shade of aqua plays a big role in my scrapbooking as well as my furniture transformations.

I’m still cutting up vintage books too.  If you are wondering, the ‘tin pins’, such as the “see the world” pin below, are from October Afternoon.

I often use pages from a 1963 etiquette book for my background.  This next page has a section about proper behavior in public while sightseeing.  The photo itself was taken at the Thurn & Taxis palace in Regensburg, Germany.

My pages tend to be a bit less cluttered than some.  I like leaving some room for the eye to rest.  I’m also trying not to overwhelm my photos on the page.

I took over 1,200 photos on this trip, but when I first got home and went through them I felt like I only had a handful of good pictures.  We had some dreary weather, plus it got dark so early every day.  The lighting just wasn’t optimal.  However, after I started monkeying around with my photos (in pickmonkey, of course), I realized that I could work with the lighting instead of against it.  In the end, these photos of Vienna that I printed in black and white are some of my favorites.  I scrapped them on a grey background and added some pops of bright pink.

The brads I used (that’s what those round things are below, for those of you not familiar with the term) are from My Mind’s Eye.

I use a lot of different techniques on my pages.  For instance, on this next page I painted the chipboard letters that say “Altstadt” (which means Old Town in German, by the way) and I used a rubber stamp with ink for the cursive writing that is behind the paper on the bottom right of the page.  The photos on this page were taken in Melk, Austria.

One of my favorite techniques is to paint the chipboard, and then add a rubber stamp with some pretty french writing on top like I did on the arrow on this page.

Here is a close up.

I also like to use these vintage looking ‘slide’ frames to focus your attention on a particular part of a photo, like this picture of Mr. Q and my sister with Melk Abbey in the background.  I’m also using the frame to help disguise some ugly construction equipment that was behind them.

I used another slide on this page of photos from the Castle Hill district in Budapest.

I hope you weren’t entirely bored with a post on scrapbooking!  I just had to share what I’ve been up to, especially since spending time scrapbooking means that I’m not spending time painting furniture.

If you are wondering about any of the elements on my pages that I didn’t identify, feel free to post a comment asking about them.

As for future travel, we’re thinking maybe Belgium for our next trip.  Specifically Bruges and Ghent.

Looks gorgeous, right?  Has anyone been there?  Have any tips for me?

But first, I have to save up some money, which means I’d better get back to painting furniture pronto!

Have you heard of love locks?  According to wikipedia the idea of love locks goes back 100 years, but they started appearing in Europe in the early 2000’s.  What am I talking about?  For those of you who don’t know, it’s simply the idea of affixing a padlock to a bridge or a gate as a way to symbolize your love.

I saw my first love locks back when Mr. Q and I were in the Cinque Terre in Italy in 2008.

We walked along the Via dell’Amore and wondered why all the padlocks?  Someone explained them to us, and we were so bummed that we hadn’t know about it in advance and didn’t have a padlock with us.

We vowed to pay attention the next time we traveled, and sure enough, when we went to Prague in 2011 we brought a lock.  And we researched in advance so that we could find the right spot.

It was a charming little bridge that was kind of hidden away in the Mala Strana, but not far from the main areas.  We attached our own padlock and figured our love was now unassailable.

Comically though, we missed the part where you are supposed to lock it, and then throw the key over the side.  Key?  Wait, what?  We brought a combination lock!  Ha!  Oh well, close enough, right?

Unfortunately, it seems that what started out as a sweet and romantic custom, has now become a menace.  Love locks are popping up all over the place.  According to BBC News, they are creating havoc.  Adding so much weight to often historical bridges that their structures are compromised.  Some just think they are an eyesore.

Personally, I think graffiti can be an art form.

But, I get it.  Not everyone loves it.  And the number of locks really adds up over time.  It costs money to remove the locks when there gets to be too many.  It’s not like coins in a fountain, where at least the value of the coins offset the cost of cleaning them out of the fountain.

Now that I have done the research, Mr. Q and I won’t plan to lock up our love again.  There were a couple of locations on our last trip where we could have done so, in Elisabeth Square in Budapest, or on the pedestrian bridge across the Danube in Regensburg, but we neglected to bring a lock with us this time.  At first I felt bad about that, but now I wonder if maybe it was a good thing.  We don’t want to contribute to the destruction of historic bridges.  We’ll just have to rely on our combination padlock in Prague and hope that it continues to do the job.

I hope you have your love all locked up this Valentine’s Day too!

Vienna is a handsome, lively city, and pleases me exceedingly.  – Frederic Chopin

The first stop on our Romantic Danube river cruise after boarding our boat in Budapest was Vienna.  I really should have better photos of Vienna for you.  Unfortunately, Vienna is the one stop in our recent vacation where being on a river cruise was a definite disadvantage.  That’s because we only had one day there, and the day in question was rainy and gloomy.  Vienna has so much to offer, and we saw only saw a fraction of it.  We did see some beautiful copper domes though.

And we saw the famous fiakers, or horse drawn carriages, although not many were taking a ride on such a dreary day.

As part of our morning guided tour, we walked down the pedestrian only shopping street.  I knew I wasn’t in Kansas anymore looking in the shop windows.

I really loved the old lockers in the Chanel window.

Our guide told us that Naomi Campbell had been in Chanel just a few weeks earlier and her driver was fined for driving her down the pedestrian only street.  You can read all about that here.  Do you suppose she bought a pair of these these pink plaid boots?

Well, clearly I don’t shop in the same places as Naomi Campbell, so I was content to just look through the windows.

Since the weather was so questionable, we decided to spend the afternoon inside in the Imperial Apartments and the Sisi Musuem.  If you don’t know the story behind Sisi, or Empress Elisabeth of Austria, hers is actually a rather fascinating story.  I think she was the Princess Diana of her day.  It was fascinating to learn more about her and to see some of her things, including her dresses and her rooms in the palace.

Later in the day, we visited the Christmas Market in the Rathauspark.  By the way, the Rathaus is basically what we would call our City Hall (the irony is not lost on me).  My day job is at the Rathaus, but trust me, my Rathaus looks nothing like the one in Vienna.

Anyway, I think my expectations were just too high.  All of the brochures made it sound like a magical place full of  gluhwein (a spiced, hot wine served in a mug) and handcrafted Christmas gifts.  Perhaps it is more magical in the snow than it is in the rain.  Perhaps I am jaded.  In the end, it was just a lot of tacky, overpriced stuff mixed in with a lot of food booths and it seems I am not a fan of having my wine served hot.  Plus, trust me when I say it’s nearly impossible to juggle a camera, an umbrella and a hot mug of gluhwein.

These are pretty, but did I have to go all the way to Vienna to find ornaments like these?

As we made our way around the Christmas Market, the rain just got heavier and heavier.  Finally we gave in and returned to our river boat to dry off and warm up.  Our next stop was in Melk, home to the famous Abbey.  I’ll share that with you soon!  Stay tuned.

I don’t know if you noticed the hat I used to draw names for the winners of the German decorating magazines, but if not, here is a reminder …

I dragged Mr. Q into a hat shop in Germany to purchase it.  He looks good in hats … well, some hats.  Quite honestly, he really can’t pull off a baseball cap.  But hats with a brim generally work well for him.  See?  Doesn’t he look handsome …

For some reason, we always seem to buy hats for him on vacation.  Is it because there are just more hat shops in Europe?

We saw a hat shop in Regensburg with an awesome window display, The Hatter am Dom.  They had rows of vintage hat sewing machines (at least I am assuming that is what they are) that immediately caught my eye.

Wouldn’t one of these be fun to display in your craft room?

They also had shelves full of hat blocks, and I admit I would not have know what these were except my friend Michelle of Rose Mille has her own collection of hat blocks and has educated me about them.

I think Michelle would have been in heaven at this shop!

This is not where we purchased Mr. Q’s hat though, his hat is made by Mayser, a German hat maker since 1800.  The very helpful clerk who sold it to us said be sure to never use heat to dry it because it could shrink.  Good tip, since we often put our winter things on the radiator to dry out when it’s snowy outside.

And what do you do after buying a fabulous hat in Passau?  Find a sidewalk cafe to enjoy your favorite beverage (coffee for Mr Q, wine for me) and watch the people go by.

I know Mr. Q will get a lot of use out of his new hat.  He’s worn it pretty much every day since we’ve been home.  He wore it to visit his grandparents the other day, and he says his 97 year old German grandfather looks even more handsome in it than he does.  We should have bought two!

“Budapest is a prime site for dreams: the East’s exuberant vision of the West, the West’s uneasy hallucination of the East. It is a dreamed-up city; a city almost completely faked; a city invented out of other cities, out of Paris by way of Vienna — the imitation, as Claudio Magris has it, of an imitation.”
― M. John Harrison, The Course of the Heart

Budapest was easily my favorite city visited on our Danube cruise.  I have to admit, as the above quote suggests, it is a city almost completely faked … and perhaps that is why I loved it.  Why faked?  Well, it is estimated that more than 80% of Budapest’s buildings were destroyed or damaged in WWII.  All five of the bridges that cross the Danube were blown to bits.  Who did all of this damage?  Well, pretty much everyone involved.  Americans bombed Budapest while it was occupied by the Germans.  Germans blew up bridges when they eventually retreated from Budapest.  I think the Soviet Union did their fair share of damage as well.

So basically, most sites in Budapest are reconstructions of buildings as they once were.  But going back even further, several of the most picturesque locations in Budapest were fakes to begin with.  Fisherman’s Bastion, for example, looks like a castle, but really is just a photo op with no substance behind it.  It was built between 1895 and 1905 as part of the 1,000 year celebration of the Hungarian state.  It was then mostly rebuilt after it was destroyed in WWII.

Vajahunyad Castle (below) is another fake originally built for the 1,000 year celebration, it was never a real castle.  But it sure is beautiful.  We got up early on a Sunday morning to visit it, and were really glad we did.  We had the place mostly to ourselves.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, we hired a private guide in Budapest.  Her name was Orsolya, and she was fantastic.  Here is a pic my sister took of Mr Q, our guide, me and my mom.  If you happen to need a private guide in Hungary, you can find her website here.  I really wish we’d had more time in Budapest, because I would have loved to take her Castle tour, or maybe one of her wine tasting tours.

We asked her to take us to some places that might be off the beaten track.  We knew we’d see the major sites either on our own, or with our cruise tour.  She fulfilled our wishes by taking us to the Metropolitan Ervin Szabo Library.  This is a functioning library that is housed in the 19th century Wenckheim Palace.

I suspect she had to pull some strings to get us inside, it seemed to involve her showing some I.D., signing some papers, and asking for the head librarian who had to come and let us in behind a velvet rope.  She led us past several floors of rather utilitarian library rooms, until we came upon some of the original palace rooms.  Imagine studying for your biology final in these rooms!

Orsolya said she spent many hours studying in this library while at university.

Before we parted ways with our guide, she told us about a coffee shop that was tucked away above a book store on Andrassy Avenue.  She pointed out the escalator and said ‘just take it up one floor’. We were able to squeeze in a visit the next day, and were really glad we did.

What?  Doesn’t the coffee shop at your local Barnes & Noble look just like this?

It was overcast and drizzly on our last afternoon in Budapest, so while Mr. Q and my mom stayed warm and dry on our Viking river boat, my sister and I decided to take a taxi to the top of Gellert hill and then walk back down again.  The panoramic views were lovely, if a bit grey.

The walking path down the hill was gorgeous in the rain.

 

Overall, Budapest was simply an amazing city.  The people were lovely; everyone we dealt with was patient with our total lack of Hungarian and our pathetic attempts to figure out their currency.  I can’t tell you how many times I messed up with their money, and the person I was paying handed me back the money they didn’t need (I’m not usually so bad, but 245.78 forints for one U.S. dollar is just not easy math and when a 500 bill is your lowest paper money … well, it was easy to get confused).  Not a single waiter sneered at us or was unkind.

The only thing I would have changed about Budapest is that I would have stayed longer.  One could easily spend a week to 10 days here, there was so much more we wanted to see but just didn’t have the time.  We never were able to tour Parliament or the State Opera House.  I would have enjoyed spending some time in their National Gallery and their Museum of Applied Arts.  The funicular was closed for repairs, so we weren’t able to ride it (it was scheduled to open the day after we left).  We would have liked to visit the zoo, and possibly spend some time in a thermal bath (Budapest is known for them).

Yep, it’s official.  We must return, and next time we stay longer!

Stay tuned, next week I’ll share Vienna, the Imperial City, with you.

P.S.  Thank you everyone who left a comment to win a German magazine.  It sounds like we are all of a like mind and love to get our hands on a good decorating magazine, no matter the language.  I’m keeping the drawing open until the end of the day on Friday, then I’ll pick 4 lucky winners and let you know who they are!

My favorite way to fill time in an airport is by checking out the magazines.  I almost always find some that I never see at my local supermarket.  Of course, when I am on foreign soil, that is especially true.  My recent trip was no exception.  We had some time to kill in the Nuremberg airport, so I nabbed a few German magazines.

In case you are wondering, no, I pretty much can’t read any German.  I just got them for the pictures!

It’s fun to compare decorating styles.  Of course, European and American decorating styles aren’t going to be wildly different.  I am sure that a lot of our trends here come from Europe, and vice versa.  I saw a lot of things that would be right at home in an American magazine.  The plaid wool throws in the picture above for instance.

Or the lovely grey sofa in this one …

To me though, the furs feel undeniably northern European.

And even though I know we can get SMEG refrigerators in the U.S. now, I still think of them as quintessentially European.

Some things need no translation, like the Christmas wreath and a fab farmhouse table with French bistro chairs.  Apparently these are coveted over there too.

And then you have something like this next one.  Title in English, decor in English (poster on the wall), but the rest of the article in German.  Is this room in Germany?  Look at the funky radiator under the window (at least I think that is a radiator), is that a clue?

I just don’t know, but I do know that I love this sort of industrial chic look.

Now that I have finished perusing my German decorating magazines, I thought it might be fun to share them with you.  If you leave me a comment, I’ll put your name in a drawing and 4 lucky winners will get a magazine (sorry, drawing open to U.S. residents only).  We have to make this quick, since I want you to get your magazine before Christmas, so the drawing will close on Friday, December 5.  Leave me a comment if you’d like to have one!

I feel a little bad about keeping it from you, but last week I was off in Europe floating down the Danube River.  I kept the actual timing of my trip on the down low for security purposes.  Before I left, I scheduled a bunch of pre-written posts to keep you all entertained during my absence and to make it seem as though I was home.  Were you fooled?

Well … I hope you’ll forgive a little subterfuge on my part and understand the need for it.

And all of that aside, I am back!  After 10 days touring Hungary, Austria and Germany, I must confess it feels really good to be home.  I missed my cat, my own cozy bed, my time zone and my paint brushes!  Now that I am home, I am wide awake at 4 a.m. and completely out of it by 6 p.m.  But I’ll recover soon and hopefully be back to painting furniture.

In the meantime, I will bore you with stories and pics (I took nearly 1,000) from my travels.  I have only just begun to start sorting through my pictures and deciding which ones I like (which will probably be about 20).

I may have previously mentioned my love for good graffiti.  I have some great graffiti door pictures from Barcelona and Prague, and now I can add some from Budapest.

We floated past some gorgeous little towns in the Wachau Valley of Austria, including this one.

If I have to pick a favorite city, it would be Budapest.

But each place we stopped on our journey had its own character, and they were all magnificent.  I’ll share them with you one by one and let you be the judge.  Stay tuned!

P.S.  Are you wondering which bag I chose to bring along?  Well, I chose the cheap one from Target.  And seeing as I somehow managed to get green gum stuck all over the front of it on the plane ride home, I am glad I did!  I don’t feel as bad about ruining a $30 bag.

P.P.S.  Today I get the bad blogger award for being completely oblivious to my own blogiversary!  I began my blog precisely one year ago today.  I am cutting myself some slack for not having a blow-out blogiversary extravaganza by blaming it on jet lag.  I had some grandiose ideas for a celebration, but none of them came to fruition.  Maybe later …