Escape winter

This week winter hit our city hard, thankfully DH and I had some plane tickets booked to the desert. We did everything right, checked in online, prebooked our cab and packed carry-ons only for a quick few days down south. 

Friday morning Mother Nature flipped the winter switch, heavy snow was falling throughout the day, the temperature dropped to minus 20 plus wind chill and the blizzard winds started around mid-afternoon. Our flight was set to go at 7:30 that night, all day flights were getting delayed, and then cancelled but ours said on-time. We waited for the cab to arrive for our 4:30 pick-up. Knowing traffic was going to be slow we had left lots of time, but no cab and at 4:50 gave up, loaded our truck and drove ourselves, the roads were getting bad, the snow was getting worse and still our flight said on-time. Get parked, get into the transport van, get stuck in traffic then finally get to the airport. Clear customs, clear security, flight still says on-time. Get to our gate, a different plane is loading when ours should have been there, delayed by an hour is the announcement we hear....

so we wait......and the other plane leaves, ours arrives and that's when the announcement of mechanical failure is made. No flight going out tonight. So back out into winter, into the transport van, back to the parked truck and back home. 

We find out we are re-booked for Saturday at 10:30AM. So we book another cab, go to bed. 

Saturday morning we wake to clear sky's and our cab actually arrives. It's a freezing minus 30 outside. Back to airport, back through customs, back through security and finally on a plane.

It took two tries over two days but we are successfully escaping this first blast of winter to land in paradise.

A hot mess or creative genius?

On Saturday I attended a 12 hour crafting event with a new group. I was trying them on for size. And it was an excellent day. The food was well organized, the venue was close enough to home that even if the weather wasn't great it would be an easy drive and the lady running the event seemed very kind and like she really loves crafting. 

I spent my day working on Christmas cards (got 19 made) plus four one off christmas card designs, plus two birthday cards, plus so many hand coloured gift tags that I lost count. There would have been more cards I am sure but I ran out of white paper, then I ran out of adhesive and then I gave up and say to knit for an hour or two before giving in and heading home.

My table mid-way through was a mess, I had glitter everywhere including all over myself.

But I am totally proud of all that I got done and will defiantly join the group of "http://stephaniebell.wix.com/letsgetscrappin " again.  Next time I will be better prepared with supplies and will plan on making a lot more cards.  Perhaps there is even a crafting weekend away in my not too distant future with this group. 

A yarn day

On Saturday in my home town it was our first (hopefully annual) fibre fair. 

It was small but well attended with two great yarn dyers who I hadn't seen in local stores very often.  I loved all the colours they both had, Ancient Arts Fibre Craft and Dragonfly Dyewerx.  There was also a lady with some great stitch markers and about 6 other booths. I hope it was enough of a success it will continue and grow in years to come.  And I must admit a skein or two may have followed me home. 

It was a beautiful mid-teens day, feeling more like early fall than mid-November. And our weather gods decided enough was enough. By noon on Sunday our street looked like this:

And I gave up and went downstairs to knit and not sit hating our change in weather. Today it's a very cold -14 (-23 with windchill).  As our weather gets colder I am pretty thankful for a few winter escapes we have booked to Palm Desert to help pull me through till spring.

Museum day in Stuttgart

Yesterday was a museum day for us. We wandered through both the Porsche and Mercedes-Benz museum. Both had tons of amazing cars. 

Seeing the first production 911 Porsche was very cool. 

Fun fact: Mercedes began testing ABS and airbags back in 1969.

The restaurant at the Mercedes museum was really excellent. I had the cheese spatzle and it was delicious with a nice rose wine.

If you are ever in Stuttgart I highly recommend seeing both museums.

Here are our collection of tickets from each museum we have toured through, except Moto Guzzi as that museum was free.

Today we are on the road back to Frankfurt for our flight home. It's been a great trip but I do look forward to sleeping in my own bed.

A second post today....which could have many titles....

The titles in no particular order may be.....

So happy I almost (cried, danced, shouted for joy)

A month in Europe and this is the first one.....

From Frankfurt and beyond but back to Stuttgart to find.....

Those who know me, know what I like.....

All this to say I was so happy to finally have a bath tonight.

It's nothing beautiful or spa like; but that my friends is the first bath tub I have seen since leaving my home on September 29:

I love having baths and I had just accepted that for Europe this was a luxury I would have to give up till tonight and it was so nice it deserved its own post!

Como to Stuttgart

Today was our big driving day, 500plus KM to get from Lake Como area through Switzerland, a little bit of Austria and back into Germany. 

For the return trip to Germany we choose a different driving route through the Swiss Alps, we left Italy at 18 degrees, clear blue sky and sunny, within two hours our weather had changed a lot.....

The drive through the alps was so picturesque and beautiful. The temperature change was a full 18 degrees. 

Once we got through the alps we had rain the rest of the drive, and the beautiful  Italian sunshine is a memory.  We had to find our way along a detour when the highway was shut down which added an extra hour and a half into our drive today. Now we are in Stuttgart at our hotel, Gastehaus Munzmay. 

We are down to our last two nights in Europe. It's been an amazing trip! We have seen and experienced so much but I am looking forward to cooking our own food and sleeping in our own bed and not living out of a suitcase. 

Mandello del Lario

We woke this morning in Nesso and spent the morning driving around part of Lake Como. The drive was amazing, one of the most scenic roads, narrow, winding its way along the lake, tight corners, DH was enjoying ever minute of the drive. We stopped and took pictures and just enjoyed the moments. 

"il dolce far niente"

The sweetness of doing nothing.

We drove around the lake to our 

destination for today, Mandello del Lario. A small town on the shores of the lake. We picked up some mini pizzas and ate lunch on a bench over looking the water. We wandered town, stopped for a coffee and tea and killed time till 3pm, when the Moto Guzzi Museum opened for an hour. The purpose of stopping in this part of Italy.

The iconic red door to the factory. The museum had tons of bikes starting from their first in 1921 onwards. DH enjoyed looking at them all. 

Having learned the hard way that when you are outside of tourist hell, it is harder to find places to eat DH and I went to the local store and bought some bread, meat, cheese and olives for dinner.

Tonight we are sleeping in a very small B&B in Maggiana. A mediaeval village with a tower. The B&B has been restored and modernized and is quiet nice. The old village is charming but there isn't anything up here for food or beverage tonight as the one Cafe is closed on Tuesday. Good thing we had stopped in town already for food!

Lake Como is a beautiful area, especially if you like tight roads. Would be amazing on a motorcycle for sure!