Liverpool Love

Ahh, where to start? Well first off I am now living in my third country. It is no secret to anyone who has known me that I have wanted to try living in the UK for some time. When Javi got the job I was thrilled and excited. That emotion soon became a feeling of being overwhelmed. That feeling has lasted through today. However with each day my anxiety seems to fade more and more. Today as I was happily walking around one of the many local parks to me I couldn't help repeating in my head "this place is so beautiful, I am so lucky to live here".

Even though I have wanted to live in the UK for 7 years or so, and oddly the first place I so desperately wanted to live is only 16 miles from where I currently reside, I was overwhelmed. Why? Because I strongly feel that I failed in Madrid. I was not expecting it to be so hard. I was not expecting for me to be so set in my ways and resident to change. I did adapt to the culture a bit, and I learned a ton about myself, Spain, and the world, but at the end I did not enjoy living in Madrid. It probably had a lot to do with the fact that I was unemployed, and my DH was desperately unhappy at his workplace. However, if Madrid was a person I would have broken up with it with the infamous "it is not you, it's me" line. Plenty of people are very happy living in Madrid, and I hope they get the chance to stay, but I wanted my place to be happy too. I dare to hope that maybe I have found it?

I was in a state of culture shock for a while, and will probably have bouts here and there in the coming months. As I write I have been living here for 3 weeks (it took a while to get broadband). 
I noticed one day that I was upset because I did not get to at least visit the US for a "reset" in between the two countries. I thought that it was unfair and that I would have been able to cope better with the change (and who knows? I might have been) but I think that is because I am desperately homesick. I have not really been to the US (except 6 hours in an airport) in over 3.5 years, and I know that soon I will have to surrender my passport for the residency card process which can take up to 6 months. At least I will be stranded in a country that I have always wanted to explore.

It is simply marvelous to live in a culture more similar to mine, and to be able to speak my native language. I enjoy it very much. Although some of the slight differences in the language are simply alarming and hilarious, like when the technician installing my broadband asked me "where is your master socket" (main phone jack) and told me that he would "knock me up if he could turn it on, love" (that he would ring the doorbell and tell me if he had turned on our phone line). (For any UK readers that means "I will get you pregnant when I turn it on, I love you".)

Anyway, let me take you through the highlights of my walk this morning.

I currently live in a victorian terraced house, much less grand than this one. I took this photo to give an example of the marvelous touches of stained glass that they can have. It is much harder to take pictures here, as more people are concerned with their privacy, so I snapped this of an empty house, and quickly.

A house on Queen's Lane

I live within 0.2 miles of the famous Penny Lane, and I thought that today I would walk from the bank to the Penny Lane Millennium Green. One of the things that I love is that there are so many parks and green spaces in Liverpool, especially within a 1.5 mile radius of my house. I took the back roads and discovered this church. I have no idea if it is still being used or not, but isn't it splendid?

Dovetail Baptist Church

I circled the green on three sides before I realized that the only gate open to me was the one closest to my house. I am guessing that it is the one the all the tourists take pictures of. (Am I a tourist? It is hard to tell.)

The green was small, but gave a sensation of walking in a meadow.

After the green I turned West and walked Penny Lane to it's end. I passed a charming pub.

I crossed over the train tracks.

I took a touristy photo.

Then when I reached the end of Penny lane I turned right and walked to Greenbank Park, and I am glad I did. it is fairly tiny, but so breath taking. There were Canadian geese, swans, herons, and at least three kinds of ducks.

I think that big nest is a heron's, thoughts?

 The daffodils, crocuses and snowdrops are springing up right now, though, we might have snow this weekend.

Everything is green here, even sometimes the trees.

There is a beauty shot of the heron, some ducks, the terraced house in the distance, the vibrant green lawn and the blue sky (which is not common here, click to enlarge).

There was a little corner of the park that had been set up as an English garden. It is not very impressive right now, as it is still winter, but I have a feeling that it is will be interesting to see it as spring progresses.

Doesn't it look like something out of Secret Garden? And through out the walk, the air was sweet, the birds called and the area was beautiful. After 5 States, and three countries, I hope that I have finally found where I belong. Do you see just how beautiful it all is?

Lincoln

Somewhere in England in the East Midlands is the country of Lincolnshire, and nestled in amongst the farmlands is it's capitol city, Lincoln. It is quite possibly the cutest English town that I have ever seen.

View of the fields from the train.

Lincoln, while far off the beaten track, is well worth a visit. There has been a colony, town or city located there since 100BC. Because it has be around so long there are relics from every age: From the early axes and log boats found in Brayford pool and housed at the local museum...

Brayford pool

To the lasting remnants of a thriving 12th century Jewish community.

Jew's house is now a restaurant

To the gothic architecture of one of England's most notable Cathedrals.

The cathedral in the golden dusk

To the many tutor houses in the town centre.

The tudor visitor centre

To today where the only 18 year old Lincoln University is combing the old with the new and growing rapidly into a top class university.

University blend of old and new

Lincoln's University library

My husband and I found ourselves in Lincoln last Thursday after a harrowing journey involving an international taxi strike, delayed planes, and a complex train schedule. As usual while with my DH in England the weather was shockingly perfect. We spent what was left of the evening having a meal in a pub and simply walking around the town centre admiring the view. I was pleased to note that there is the same rose-gold slant to the evening light here as there is in France and Spain. While we were eating our dinner, on the back patio of the pub, five of the Red Arrows from the local RAF base did a fly over trailing red white and blue. I didn't have time to grab the camera so no photos, but I do know that they were probably practicing for flying over the Lincoln Festival on Saturday evening.

The next day dawned clear and warm I went off exploring on my own as DH had an appointment at the University. As this was the second time that my DH had been here I headed off to do some of the more touristy things on my own. It was a great feeling to wander about and know that if I was lost or need help I could just ask in my native tongue. 

Memorial in front of a small church

I went to the castle first. Lincoln Castle is up the aptly named Steep Hill road. The entrance fee was remarkably cheap, but the man whom sold me my tickets explained that I could only really go into the gardens and a small section of the wall. The castle is mostly closed for massive renovations and when it re-opens in April 2015 I hope that I get to see it. The plans for the renovations look super cool.

Castle tower from the outside 

The was the castle's last line of defense

Just across the square is the this gem of architecture. I walked completely around it before popping my head inside. Supposedly there are Roman mosaic ruins and a medieval library inside, unfortunately I did not have the time to see them. The Cathedral usually displays an original copy of the Manga Carta but it is on tour now and will come back for it's anniversary next year.

Even the outside had flying buttresses

Main call of the cathedral from the door

 One thing I really like about Lincoln is that they seem to really want to integrate historic structures into everyday modern life. Below is a medieval gate still in use for traffic, and there is also the only Roman gate still used for traffic in the world inside Lincoln as well.

To one side of the Cathedral is the ruins of the bishop's palace. Which was destroyed in an earthquake hundreds of years ago and never rebuilt. It is well worth the price of admission and to get the audio guide. Also I have seen online that they might do Shakespeare in the park here! That would be so fun.

So that is it, a short a sweet visit to Lincoln. I hope someday I might be lucky enough to call a place like this home. 

Yarn shops Bern

Just a quick overview of the yarn shops in Bern. All photos are taken from the respective shop's website because I again forgot to take pictures. I have linked to all the websites and they have many more beautiful photos to share.

Maglia Mania

This shop has limited hours but is well worth the trip. The yarn shop is in the basement of the building and in a doorway right next to the bank entrance you will find your typical European buzzer with their name above it. Just press it and then will buzz open the door for you. They sell only their own hand dyed yarn and they try to source as many of the fibers from Switzerland as they can. There is Swiss mountain silk in most of the bases.

The owner was fantastically friendly even replying to an email (in English) in advance when I was unsure of the directions to get to her shop. The shop was right next to my hotel but maybe 20 minutes walking from the historic town center. You could take the number 12 bus all the way there too, or it is just a walk up the hill from the train station. I think that it is well worth the visit.

Natura Handarbeiten AG

Sadly there is no real website for this store and no pictures. You can go to Goggle street view and just make out the first part of the sign behind one of the medieval statue fountains on the main street. The shop was small but packed neatly with German, French, and Swiss yarn. The shop assistant spoke very good English and was very helpful. Since this shop is in the center of the city there is no reason to miss it.

Near the train station there are two different stores that have not made it onto Knit Map yet. I learn about them from the Fresh Stitches blog and I include a link to each of the post below. (Go look, she remembered to take pictures!)

Loeb

Another blog post about Loeb's yarn from Fresh Stitches

Every European country I have visited has a yarn section in their huge multi-story department stores. There might be more than one, but the one I found was Loeb. Like many department stores it has multiple buildings. The one with the yarn on the 5th floor was just across the street from the end of the glass roofed bus hub.

The selection was amazing. I have seen many yarn shops with less selection. The sock yarn selection alone is worth the trouble of visiting. These German speaking countries know their yarn!

There was also other craft supplies here too, they even had seed beads (a thing that is very hard to find in Spain for some reason).

Here again, speaking English was not a problem.

Bastelzentrum

Other blog post from Fresh Stitches

Now this store had the biggest selection yet! If you visit here you might want to either know what you are looking for or that you have at least an hour to browse. You have to take an escalator from the main street to get down to the entrance. That "first floor" is what holds aisles and aisles of yarn, buttons, sewing supplies, (be still my hard) roving and felting supplies. Look for the stairs towards the back because if you, like me, are from a craft store deprived city the lower floor has everything your crafty heart could possibly desire. They had more craft supplies than most American big-box stores do.

Bern

 There was a time when we hoped that we would live in Bern. A time that seems so very long ago (but is only about 4 years). Now between new anti-immigrant and sentimentalities and some recent politics with the EU we will probably never get the chance. So when the opportunity came up to visit, we both jumped at the chance.

Bern is the small capitol of Switzerland, and with the very heart of the city being a UNSCO World Heritage site, a very nice place to visit. (If you go in May be sure to take an umbrella and a change of shoes.) Bern means Bear in German and the symbol was all over the city.

It was easy to tell when we had walked into the older part of Bern. 

This clock tower (in in the next photo from the other side) was built in the 13th century and still runs without electricity.

On this street (looking away from the last view of the clock tower) Einstein lived during the time he came up with the theory of relativity.

The street is dotted with fountains with statues.

The UNESCO part of town is located inside a loop of river. When you are on the other side of the river the views are breathtaking. (Sorry about the lighting on some of the photos. It kept storming and then was sunny so the light changed all of the time.)

There are brown bears kept just across from the "loop". When we were there, there were three bears, the parents, and this juvenile.

There was also sheep on the steep slope facing the river. I could hear them before I could see them, they were all wearing bells. As the Spanish would say "it was very Heidi".

Montpellier Day two

One of the things I really liked about Montpellier was the tram system. It runs often, quietly and there are four lines. Each line is painted differently so it is really easy to see from a distance if it is the line you want. There is even talk of a fifth one that will go down to the beach. (Although there was talk of that back in 2011 too.) If we move here having the tram to get around means we can put off getting a car.

Like I said, art is everywhere you look here. If one side of the building looks odd, it is probably because it is two dimensional (click to enlarge).

The center of the city is mostly pedestrian (although keep an eye out for vans and motorcycles) and tiny little streets filled with details in stone, iron, and stores.

The city also boosts an Arc de Triomphe 

If you are reading this as someone who wants to visit the city and is looking for something to do. I heartily recommend visiting the Jardin des Plantes or the Botanical garden. It is free, and open most afternoons (except Mondays). We did not get a chance to really visited it this time, more like a peek inside, but it is a truly beautiful European garden.

We next met up with a locally based knitter for coffee. She truly is the sweetest woman and let us ask question after question about living there. When we left her, it was a short walk to this view.

Do you notice how the light is beginning to turn pink for sunset? It does that in Madrid too, and I never get tired of it.

We then headed downtown to look for the last yarn store and for somewhere to eat for dinner. We walked through the narrow winding streets and window shopped, looking at all the art, in stone or otherwise as we passed.

Hopefully I will get to see Montpellier again very soon.