Spring has sprung in Kurpark

OMG!! Kurpark is absolutely beautiful! As I took my daily walk this morning, I thought I should share the park once again with you to show off the new life and colors. Everyone seemed to be out to walk, run, bike, sit on benches or blankets, drink beer and wine at the garden cafe, just enjoying the colors.

The Magnolia trees are my favorite... the colors of white and pink are so creamy and pure. The pinks are truly a sight to be seen.


And "yellows" are everywhere...
.the Daffodils are open and welcoming everyone to the park along with the Forsythia's....

they are also in full bloom... we have some of these in our backyard.



On my way back through the park, I stood under this canopy of flowering almond branches just laden with blooms. >>>>>>



The willows and all the trees are just beginning to show that soft "Spring green" color.





Even the paddle boats and row boats are ready and waiting to be used. Emily and Katie can't wait to come back this summer and use the paddleboat. Of course there is talk of 1 paddle boat + $3 bottle of Rheingau wine = real German park experience.


Speaking of the real German park experience, this is the Kurpark Wine Garten where every Sunday afternoon beginning May 1st, live jazz bands perform. We hear from the locals that everyone from grandma's, grandpa's, newborns and dogs of all types will be out enjoying the music. Nice way to spend a Sunday.



Hope you enjoyed the botanical tour of Kurpark. This will be my last post for awhile as I am heading back home to South Dakota for about 10 weeks to work at Medary Acres Greenhouse once again. Pete will keep you posted with his adventures.

For now, Tschus!!

Easter in Milano - Lake Como

Pete's birthday on Easter Sunday gave us an excuse to travel. In Europe, it's a 4-day holiday weekend over Easter so we took advice of friends who have been to Lake Como and took off. It's only a 1-hour flight from here to Milan! We went with some new American friends we met at the Easter festival a few weeks ago in Wiesbaden. After arriving in Milan, we took a short bus ride to the Milan Centrale station where we caught a train to Varenna, a little town on Lake Como. The picture says it all... wow was about all we said for the entire first day there. It was a beautiful sunny spring day on Friday so we took the ferry to see the other little towns surrounding the lake. Bellagio is one of the most famous towns. George Clooney lives nearby - there are plenty of sightings but none by us.

However, there was plenty of wine sampled and the day itself was so amazing, we had a hard time putting down the camera. Everywhere you turn is another interesting shot. The town of Varenna like most of the towns is built on the side of a mountain, so all roads lead down to the lake. The lake is really long and narrow so the only way to get across is to take a ferry. So that was the drill... take a ferry, stop at a cafe, drink wine, eat something, move on....



On Easter, we asked our hotelier at Albergo Milano if the local church was Catholic. She said "of course, in Italy we only chose one religion." So we went to the local church where we enjoyed an all Italian mass (except for some Latin that Pete remembered from altar boy days).

We unfortunately needed to check out and head for the train back to Milan. Just outside the train station we had booked sight unseen rooms at the Michelangelo Hotel. Turned out to be a fantastic location, a bargain and with beautiful rooms. We highly recommend it. This helped since it continued to rain on Sunday during our sightseeing.


Everything starts and stops at the Duomo in Milan. Nearby is the earliest known covered mall from the late 1800s. The Galleria Vittorio Emanuele turned out to be a great place to spend some time under the rain-soaked glass roof. More wine and great food.....
Of course, on our departure day, the sun shone again giving us a great view of the Alps as we passed over on the way back to Germany.
Ciao!