Lighthouses!

Most recently Zoe has been fascinated by Light Houses. While in Maine recently we saw Cape Neddick Lighthouse fondly known as as Nubble Lighthouse. Funnily, her beach towel that was given to her by a friend last year, which she is really attached to, pictures this lighthouse as well as dolphins swimming (another obsssion!)

(made on photo-notes)

I am thinking next month of an overnight camping trip to check out a few more New England Lighthouses (either Maine or Mass).


Here are some books we have from the library that we are enjoying....

The Little Red Lighthouse and the Great Grey Bridge by Hildegarde H. Swift and Lynd Ward
The Lighthouse Cat by by Sue Stainton and Anne Mortimer
The Sea Chest by Toni Buzzeo and Mary GrandPre
Birdie's Lighthouse by by Deborah Hopkinson (Author), Kimberly Bucklen Root (Illustrator)

The Artist at Work

Peace Cairns and Pollywogs

Day 4

Zega Lockatong Preserve Rosemont, NJ

Day 2

Island Beach State Park, NJ











Shaped by storm and tides, Island Beach State Park is a narrow barrier island stretching for 10 miles between the restless Atlantic Ocean and Barnegat Bay. It is one of New Jersey's last remnants of a barrier island ecosystem that once existed along much of the coast and is also one of the few remaining undeveloped barrier beaches on the north Atlantic coast.
The sand dunes and white sandy beaches offer habitat to maritime plants and diverse wildlife that is almost the same as it was thousands of years ago. The state's largest osprey colony, as well as peregrine falcons, wading birds, shorebirds, waterfowl and migrating songbirds, are found here. Island Beach is nationally known as a unique resource with over 400 plants identified, including the largest expanses of beach heather in New Jersey.

A Four Day GetAway!

Few words lots of pictures!

Day 1

Mystic CT, the Aquarium





Zoe was really eager to see the Beluga whales. She seems to be drawn to marine mammals.......and really wants to participate in the encounter prgram....it is her dream! but five feet she is not!! As we drove down we listened to a few Sarah Pirtles Cd's favorites these days with a few great Whale/Dolphin Songs (Dolphin Drummers, Whale Watch, Whale Sounds, Dolphin Dog, While Whales).........as well as Maria Sangiolos "Under the Mystic Sea" Sienna are you reading........What do you think a Marine Mammal Episode?

We had lots of fun trying to pick out the frogs and turtles in the marsh


Birds of the Outback Exibit

Alte furst-erzbischofliche Hofapotheke

Here's an Apothecary in Salzburg- I fell in love with this it and can just picture working there mixing herbal potions and homeopathic remedies. Just look at it.

Easter in Central Europe - Photos

Salzburg

The highlight of our time in Austria was the second day we were in Salzburg. On that day the weather was fabulous (the first non-rainy day of our trip!), we woke up early and spnet the morning walking walked town. It felt as though everyone was out and about. After days of rain everything looked clean and bright. It was the Saturday before Palm Sunday and everywhere little stalls set up with baskets of ribbons and greenery, flowers and pussy willows. All the children were making bouquets (for lack of a better word) to carry in the parade the next day. Many older people were wearing traditional Austrian clothes and there was music everywhere. What a great day to be in town.

We walked into the main square which was graced by 2 statues one of Mozart and one that you may recognize if you have seen the "Sound of Music"! of horses, a fitting place to be home base for the horses and carriage rides. We thought it looked like fun so we hired one. Zoe got to sit up front for the whole ride. Our driver gave us a consise yet thorough history of the city. It was a great way to see the city! You should have seen Zoes face as she rode up front with the driver. Pure joy!

Next up that afternoon was what Zoe had been waiting the entire trip! The "Sound of Music Tour" We climbed aboard a big coach which had Sound of Music scenes painted on it and off we went. The first stop was the Mansion with the lake in the front (which the kids fell into)........in reality two different mansions were used, one for the front view and a different for the back view and the whole inside was a set! And the mansion with the lake is now owned by Harvard University! We stopped everywhere learning more and more facts about the filming of the movie.....the gazebo, the monestary, the church, all the fountains and statues, and of course the hills. It really was fun! not a shabby tour, I really did not know what to expect. Zoe befriended a few American college students who were studying in The Netherlands and who also loved and knew all the songs and together they sang their hearts out! She sat with them the whole way. They were awfully sweet! The scenery lakes and snow capped mountains were glorious! Ironically most of the hills filmed were actually in Germany!





The next day was also full. We went on a tour of the Salt mines. Salzburg means "Salt town" We had to wear miners suits! Zoe looked awfully cute in hers! Not so flattering on Gina and me however. First, we sat on a "train" to enter the mine and then we walked a while before sliding down a slide. It was 30 meters long and steep as can be. We sat with legs over the slide and forked one another. The first time down Zoe was a little scared! but when we were ready for the second one we were all excited. As we walked through the mine we learnt all about how salt was made. At the end we rode across a lake deep under ground in the middle of a mountain on a boat . The lake was so salty, we even got to taste it. There was as much salt in it as there is in the Dead sea! What an educational trip. We do not have too many photos of the Salt mine as it was so dark down there.



The following day was the last day in Austria and we just spend the day walking the local markets and enjoying the spectacular views. We kept seeing thee painted and decorated bulls/cows around town and were dying to learn the story. Finally we did. Salzburg is a completed fortressed city and during the war they were all up on the hills behind the walls and were running out of food. In fact there were down to the last cow and someone said that they had an idea....so that night they painted the cow black and put her out to pasture on the hill so that the enemy could see. The next morning they washed the cow and painted her white and that night let her out on the hill so the enemy could see and so on for many about 10 nights.....the enemy thought oh these people have so much food left they will never give up and soon walked a way!

Alte furst-erzbischofliche Hofapotheke

An Apothecary in Salzburg- I fell in love with this apothecary and would love to work there mixing herbal remedies and dispensing homeopathic remedies.





I went in asking if they had Symphytum (comfrey) 30x. The kind lady apologetically said that they do not have any in stock but could get me some by 3pm. If just obtaining good homeopathics were so easy back home!

Prague

How to summarize our few days in Prague? What a city! 

The drive from Amsterdam was a little further than expected so we ended up stopping over night in Baroun. The highlight of the drive was for sure the street signs. Some of them were hillarious. I will have to find some and post soon. We made it the last hour or so the following morning and landed at a beautiful hotel called Hotel Evropa. It was a 600 year old building in the art nouveau style and although the guide book talked it town we recommend it if you are not looking for modern conveniences but art and beauty! Our room was huge, almost the size of my apartement and Zoe thought it was a palace. I will post some photos here when I get to Greece.

Some of our highlights were:

Food... Not for the vegetarian but very tasty. Very slim on fresh produce however. Creative as can be with potatoes.

We saw a performance at The Black Light Theater "Yellow Submarine" an interpretation of Beatles music! It was so fun. Black light theater is a typical Czech performance type where everything/ images/figures are painted with a special light which you can only see under special lighting. I am thinking of a fun similar project that we can do with our homeschooling coop when we return using this style of art/performance. Zoe was soo excited that she knew the song " Yellow Submarine!"

Marionettes puppets are also very popular. I really want to figure out how to make them. There were a lot of Pinochios (not a story we have read yet) and even some Pippi Longstockings (a favorite)aswell as many many traditional ones but Zoes favorite was a princess!!

Prague Castle. Amazing what can I say that has not been said. St Vitis cathedral, oh the stained glass. The astronomical clock! Wow.

Zoe was taken by the Easter Market at Old Town Square....Eggs galore, Czech painted eggs, goose eggs, duck eggs, chicken eggs....Beautifully decorated ginger bread. Pussy willows to my hearts content and lots of fun bunny decorations.

Probably the most random thing was the Barbie exibit inside of Prague castle!!

On the last day we took at day trip to Karlovy Vary This town is located about 2 hours and 15 mins from Prague and is famous for its very healing waters....hot springs. People are supposed to drink them to heal many ailments. Gina and Zoe tried it and the verdict "old rotten eggs!!"

I never did get used to Czech Krowns currency. It seemed that 10 postcards, a meal for 3, and a pair of shoes cost the same amount!!!!

 

We also had fun discovering a Czech childrens book author Zdenek Miler who has written many little Mole books. We fell in love with "Little Mole and Mothers" I'll post photos once we get home.

The Netherlands

or Amsterdam (with children!)

We arrived yesterday morning at 5am having been awake all night, boy were we tired. Luckily our hotel room was ready and no sooner did we enter the room we all fell asleep on the bed for a few hours! We emerged again at 1pm- looking for coffee and breakfast, while most people were looking for lunch. It was cold and rainy, still first thing we noticed were the daffodils everywhere....and green grass yeah! Goal one accomplished! And the second thing we noticed were the bicycles.......bicycles everywhere. Moms riding around with two or more children in tow. The bike seats are as simple as they come no fancy 5-harness systems! We walked around in the rain looking for a coffee shop. It was a little trickier than I expected as most of the "coffee shops" are for 18 and over. Well we found one and had a yummy though suprising lunch. I ordered a bagette sandwich with homemade, olive paste and gorgonzola. I read assumed it was a typo homemade olive paste etc. I am still not sure what "homemade" is raw beef? smoked beef?, ham? smoked salmon? other fish? My mystery meal was however really good!

We returned to the hotel for more layers Brrrrr! and decided that the best way to get familiar with the town was going on a canal tour. There are canals everywhere! More canals than roads, and a total of 2500 houseboats with running water and electricity. Most are pretty old, some even have gardens on the roof. The tour was great- of course it did not help with getting familiar with city. We saw so many different bridges...some brick, some wood and some metal. We followed the tour with dinner and a short walk. We were hoping for an early night but JET LAG kicked in especially the little person with us she wiggled and tossed around the bed for hours and hours and did not fall asleep until 3:30 am. As a result we did not wake up until 10am.

Breakfast was a fancy hotel buffet. Zoes favorite were the mini pancakeswith fake syrup! and a donught with lots of yellow frosting. The Dutch are BIG into waffles and donughts with frosting-pink,yellow, brown, stripes- they make one particular little girls eyes twinkle with excitement!

Todays plan was the Artis Zoo by getting there by canal boat! The name of the Zoo was "Artis" which means Nature as a teacher of Art" Zoe's favorite animals were the zebra, wallabies, elephants and giraffes! There were even a couple of Argentinean anteaters. Pretty cool. I had never seen one before. Funny to see raccoons at a zoo! They seem so exotic over here!

There were so many statues everywhere and Zoe wanted a photo taken with everyone! I think she took an assignment from her teacher Kate O'Shea very seriously! We walked and walked and had a good time. I am not usually a fan of Zoos but this city Zoo seemed small and sweet. It was Zoe's first Zoo experience. We had so much fun that we missed the last showing at the planatarium! I promised Z a trip to a planetarium when we return. She is pretty excited about that.We returned back to the hotel by canal boat.

By today the third morning in Amsterdam we were beginning to get the lay of the city. Imagine everywhere you turn either a bus, tram, car, van, bicycle, or herd of pedestrians coming towards you! or a drop to a canal! We are keeping a good eye on Zoe! and are finally understanding what comes which way and where we end up when we turn down a different street leaving our hotel. It sure is located in Central Station, literally!

It has been raining, cold and windy since we arrived. It is so mild we are told! Still that has not ruined the fun...though I wish I had brought Zoe's rain boots and pants! For puddle jumping, she cannot help herself. We really did manage to travel light this time.

This morning we decided to take a tour that led us outside the city on a bus. Good idea as we certainly saw things we would have never seen.

First stop

A windmill village. Windmills everywhere and traditional wooden houses. It is unbelievable how many canals and small water ways this country has. I am already dreaming about a kayaking/biking adventure when Zoe is a little older! Who is coming? The country is completely flat with super bike lanes that even boast their own traffic lights! I'll have to get a photo of them. You cannot imagine how many bikes there are. There is even a three huge story bike parking lot! where the bikes are parked so close to each other it is a woner anyone can tell them apart, or pull theirs out without all of them falling like dominos! Can you imagine that! Some people have decorated theirs with red polka dots or a basket of flowers so that they can recognize their own bike. I think there are more bikes than I have ever seen in my life! and NO helmets!

Next stop was a wooden shoe making workshop. Now this was super cool. Walls of clogs in different sizes and designs ranging from red polka dots, traditional clogs, to roller clogs to plain unfinished wood. We even saw some similar to Roseys dansko clogs! A man wearing the biggested clogs I have ever seen showed us how to make a pair! It took him just a few minutes! Wooden clogs are still worn by many outside of the city because they are waterproof and warm. A lot of the country side is reclaimed land which means that it used to be underwater. It is 3 meters (about 10 ft) below sea level! So it is very wet. Imaging pumping the Ashfield Lake and making it into a farm and living there!

We stopped to have Dutch pancakes for lunch. There are thin more like crepes. HUGE. Zoe kept wondering why she did not get a kids size like at Elmers. We miss maple syrup as the sugar syrup/mollases they serve here stinks! I met some of you are sugaring these days. We are so lucky that we live close in such a sugaring area it is really a gift we have. Easy to take for granted. In fact in general the food here has been non impressive. Maybe we just have not hit the right spots. We have been told about an organic market "noordermarkt" (market) but have not gotten there yet. Gina had a "champagne cream pie" that she said was totally yummy and decadent.

Next stop was a cheese farm where they make "Edam" and "Gouda". We keep seeing black and white cow motifs in the gift stores but have not seen one cow yet. Now this is fine by me as some of you may remember that I am not that fond of cows! but today we found out that they are still in their barns as it is still too cold for them but a month from now we would see 2 million Holstein cows out on the fields! Dairy is a huge export for the Dutch. How many of you have tried "Edam" or smoked "Gouda cheese". The cheeses sit for up to 8 months depending on how much flavor you want. Luckily we got to try some at the farm....yum yum!

Our last few stops were at fishing villages of the Lake Ijshell. The second one was my favorite it was called the town of "Marten" and had about 2000 inhabitants. It used to be an island so it keeps some of that feeling of being isolated. But in recent years it connects to the mainland by a dike. Basically a a long road on the water. Cool. The village is BEAUTIFUL, all the houses are hunter green with black doors and shutters and a red very triangular roof! each house also has a matching little house for bicycle storage and some even a smaller one for their rabbits! There were no roads on the "island" only a skinny, picturesque foot path and a narrow waterway, There is a parking lot outside the village where the locals leave their car! I loved the feel of this village and told Zoe that I wanted to move there and she immediately reminded me that we live in Ashfield and she loves it!! Although Marten felt so isolated it was only apparently a 45 mins-1 hour bike ride into Amsterdam! That was the last stop before we were dropped back at the hotel.

After a quick rest we set out again on foot to explore more of the city. After a good walk we stopped at a coffee shop, where Zoe had a smoothy and proptly fell asleep head on the table. It was only 5:30 but I think we wore her out. SO back to the hotel we went!! By 6pm we were all asleep!

I uploaded many more photos over at my flickr account.

and we are off....

in a few hours. Europe bound

Check list:

All packed up- NO

House cleaned- NO

Dressed and Bathed-NO

Animals taken care of-NO

Paper work taken care of-NO

Check back for photos and a travelogue

Travel Scavenger Hunt

This week I have a post over at Hilltown Families on Scavenger Hunts. It is one of a series of "Travelling with Kids" posts (here, and here). 

I am looking for creative ideas for a travel scavenger hunt for the trip Zoe and I are about to embark on with our friend Gina. 

Here is what I have so far:

Draw a picture or take a photograph of the Dutch Flag
Draw a picture or take a photograph of the Greek Flag
Draw a picture or take a photograph of the Austrian Flag
Draw a picture or take a photograph of the Czech Republic Flag
Take a picture of a Tulip
Take a picture of a wooden shoe
Step onto a canal boat
How do you say “hello” in Dutch
How do you say “hello” in Austrian
How do you say “hello” in Czech
How do you say “hello” in Greek
Collect a menu in Dutch
Collect a menu in Austrian
Collect a menu in Czech
Collect a menu in Greek
Buy a stamp in Austria
Buy a stamp Holland
Buy a stamp Greece
Buy a stamp the Czech Republic
Take a picture of a mountain?
Who was Motzart?
Take a picture of a castle?
Press a flower/leave from Holland
Press a flower/leave from Greece
Take a picture of a school bus
Take a picture of a train
Take a picture of a mail box
Take a picture of a statue

Here is where all you creative families can help. Give Zoe (and mum) a challenge. What can we look for, photograph, draw or try etc. Please submit all your ideas and we’ll post the final scavenger hunt and the results!

Zoe Travels the World: Join Us in Our Adventures

(this post has already been published over at Hilltown families)



Hi, my name is Zoe. Some of you may know me as I live here in the hilltowns. And while I love the hilltowns, one of my favorite things to do with MamaT is to travel. I LOVE to travel! I’ve taken an airplane to Europe when I was four months old, and I’ve journeyed by car from the hilltowns to Florida. I’ve traveled by bus and by train, and I even spent seven months in India (in utero!). I don’t remember much about that trip, but MamaT has stories to share!



This spring (March ‘08) we’re taking off again. I can hardly wait! We are flying to Amsterdam (Holland) and then caravaning through Eastern Europe to Greece to visit my Giagia (greek for grandmother). MamaT says that our trip this spring is just a warm up for the BIG ONE … a journey over land from England to Tibet! And all along the way we are planning our adventures with visits to many cities in seven different countries, including:

Berlin (Germany)
Prague (Czech Republic)
Vienna (Austria)
Budapest (Hungary)
Bucharest (Romania)
Sofia (Bulgaria)
and then into Northern Greece

You can follow our adventures right here on The Herbal Way or on Hilltown Families. You can read our posts, which will include photos, activities, maps and links to suggested readings. And when we return we’ll be sharing more stories and craft projects at the Children’s Art Museum in Shelburne Falls, MA.



POSTCARDS FROM THE ROAD

If you would like to receive a postcard from us during our travels, send us your name and mailing address, along with a donation of $1.50 to cover costs and we’ll send you a card during our trip. Drop it in the mail (please email me tlemos (at) noho (dot) com if you would like our mailing address) to arrive before March 7th, 2008. Our road trip will begin the next day!

Are you out there?

I am looking to connect with craft bloggers in Amsterdam, Prague, Berlin, Vienna, Hungary, Romania, and Bulgaria......Are you out there? ? ? ? A road trip is being planned ..... more on this soon. Please leave a comment if you have any links or connections for me. Thanks.

Cats of the Mediteranean.

If you are a fan of felines while on Greek islands there are many opportunities to photograph and adopt them. One night this little black and white kitten followed us home from the square, all the way up the hill. We fed her, groomed her and snuggled with her. Zoe named her Betsey. She spent two days with us before deciding to head back down to the square. We later learned that she was adopted by another family......but the name Betsey remained with her.










Let's pretend.....a favorite game these days. Very fun until the cat steals a mouthful of spagetti and runs off! Those cats will eat anything!



The cat is eating freshly fished and fried white bait!