White Rock Christmas 2019

We spent Christmas in Canada. The town of White Rock is just north of the border.Here you can see why it is called "White Rock". There is a long, convoluted Native American legend about where this rock came from and why the place was founded. We noticed that the town keeps the rock painted white.

 This is the "longest pier in Canada" and really does go out quite a ways. It is VERY popular with tourists and local people. The fishermen use it a lot.

 This is a place called "Blackie Spit Park." It had a nice walk, good views and lots of birds. There is a fishing pier and a sailing club at this park, too. If you walk south, there are some very nice summer houses. It reminded us of the Cliff Walk in Rhode Island along the Atlantic Ocean.

 This is the view of downtown Vancouver from Blackie Spit Park. We were not that far from civilization. The weather was changeable. It was mostly cloudy while we were there, but we had some sun breaks and a little rain.

 This is a Black Oyster Catcher. 

 These are some of the many varieties of ducks. They interbreed, so it is hard to be specific.

 Here are two Bald Eagles enjoying lunch. They can't be American Bald Eagles, since they are in Canada. On the other hand, Canada is part of North America ...

 This is a Great Blue Heron. He was looking for lunch.

 This is the Surrey Sailing Club. The wind was blowing, but no one was there.

 Along the waterfront are two totems. They are a tribute to the Semiahmoo First Nation. We had a LOT of trouble finding them since the GPS showed them further uphill.

 This is Memorial Park along the waterfront. It was all decked out with lights for Christmas.

 We wanted to go for Christmas Dinner, but didn't know where. We looked it up on Yelp and phoned and got one of the last openings at the Boathouse Restaurant on the waterfront. As you can see, we had an excellent view. This is the official sunset on Christmas Day.

 We went along the waterfront after it got darker and found only one snowman.

 Here is Memorial Park after dark with all the lights turned on.

 The pier was also lit up and there were literally hundreds of people walking the waterfront and pier. The weather was spectacular.

 On our evening walk after Christmas Dinner, we were thrilled to see Mt Baker across Semiahmoo Bay from the pier at White Rock.

We weren't disappointed with our 5th Christmas Beach Trip. We hope you had a wonderful Christmas and New Year!

Germany 2019

After our river cruise in Portugal, we travelled to Munich and Nordlingen in Germany. The weather turned rainy.

 We took the hop-on-hop-off bus. Normally, we would have done a walking tour.

This whole scene is VERY German. Notice that the rental electric scooters are neatly lined up instead of being helter-skelter all over the sidewalk like they are in Seattle. Notice how well behaved the children are in their little rain suits. They are waiting for the green WALK signal. So cute!

This is the Rathaus (City Hall) at Marienplatz in Munich. Why are all these people waiting in the rain?

Twice a day, the glockenspiel plays and the figurines dance around in the tower. All of the walking tours start and end here.

We visited the Deutsches Museum (it was raining!). This is the world's largest science and technology museum. There were a LOT of visitors.

The museum had a lot of "technical" toys for kids. 

Even the coffee shop was "science oriented"! Did you notice the Periodic Table of Coffee?

We stayed in an "Ibis Hotel". This is our favorite chain of hotels in the world. They have the best breakfast you can find. Here is how you get your Nutella to put on your croissant.

This is also very "German". Compared to the American motel waffel machines, this is beautifully engineered.

We went to Nordlingen to visit a Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) member who lives in Germany. She is an associate member of the Tillicum DAR Chapter in Washington that Alonda belongs to. The pig is there because in 1440, a pig saved the town of Nordlingen from being invaded by Catholic soldiers. The pig is revered in this town.

Nordlingen is one of only three cities in Germany with intact city walls. This is one of the five gates.

"Reimlinger Gate. 1362  Oldest original city gate from the late 14th Century. Guarded the important former Roman road to Augsburg and Italy. 1602/1603 improved with a new upper story with breastwork and remodeled Watch ready room and general strengthening."

Here are Ramona and Alonda at the Gate.

Alonda and Jim on top of the city wall.

Here are Alonda and Ramona guarding the city!

One of the two museums we visited was the City Wall Museum. As you can see, it is on the City Wall. Nice view of the town.

They also had marionettes on display in the museum.

The second museum was the RiesKraterMuseum (Gigantic Crater Museum). 

The town of Nordlingen sits in a large crater. It was assumed to be a volcanic crater until 1960, when scientists discovered that the type of rocks found could have only been formed by a meteor impact about 15 million years ago. This museum and the City Wall Museum are both well worth the trip. 

You remember Oscar Mayer weiners, don't you? Here is Oscar Mayer's house in Koesingen!

This is Oscar Mayer Platz (a roundabout by his house). He donated a lot of food back to his hometown after WWI. It was actually costing more to ship food to Germany than the food cost to purchase. He is very lovingly remembered here.

We hope to return to Nordlingen in three years for their "Historic City Wall Festival". Residents will dress as craftsmen, musicians, jugglers and artists of the medieval city