And the moral of the story is...

I seem to have a tradition of getting sick at the very end of a long journey abroad. I've been sleeping off a bad chest cold since I got back from Spain, which was not helped by having to remain conscious for 24 hours-plus in order to catch three different flights on Saturday. What also didn't help was climbing Montserrat in a blasting icy wind on Friday. I'm hoping my hiking partner also didn't get sick, because the last time we ended a journey together, we both got sick at the same time.

I'm referring to the end of my walk on the Camino de Santiago when Enric and I visited a "miraculous healing" water fountain and both got sick in the same way (which I will not describe as it's too gross and you can use your imagination; needless to say it was an effective weight-loss program), after we had parted ways. I haven't heard but I hope he survived the Montserrat freeze unscathed.

On Thursday, after getting home at 2:00 am, we slept in, ate breakfast, checked out each others' documentaries and music videos, websurfed, had lunch, sat in the sun in the garden, played with a stray cat, and relaxed. So much for sight-seeing! But it was important to visit as well.

Neighbourhood cat.

Enric soaking up the sun: January in Spain. 

How to really enjoy a vacation: I'm not frowning, I'm squinting in the winter sunshine!

Then I caught a train to Barcelona to meet up with Florian and the two Lucs for the evening. On the way to meet them I came across the Sagrado Familia, a church of Tim Burton-like creepiness designed by Gaudi, inspired by the bizarre natural rock formations of Montserrat. I thought it was hideous in an appealing, Edward Scissor-hands kind of way, if that's possible.

I found the boys busy in an internet bar so I went shopping (a dangerous past-time in Barcelona this time of year!) and met them later. When the objective seemed to be to find cheap beer and wander around all night, I said goodbye and headed home. There had been some opportunities to hear music but I would have to look for those another time, since going to bars by yourself is not always fun or wise.

Friday was a much better day, consisting of a hike up the actual Montserrat itself.

Enric and I cheated and took a tram up to the monastery and then hiked the rest of the way to the summit, which was a pretty big undertaking unto itself. There was several routes leading to several symbolic and sacred places of note including a cave where the black virgin statue was found centuries ago. It now rests behind the altar inside the monastery cathedral.

Almost all the trails we followed had yellow Camino de Santiago markers, because Montserrat has been included in the Catalunyan branch of the Way of St. James. Once again, I found my Camino!

Again, that familiar symbol: the Camino de Santiago in Catalan.

A very significant event: on the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage on Montserrat, my Templar protector returns the hiking pole that helped others and was left behind when we both got sick from a healing fountain. We balance it on our fingers because it is important to lead a balanced life.

Completely frozen, we quit Monserrat in time for the last train down the mountain, and warmed up at home with hot showers and music before heading out to a nearby town for a final dinner: a wine shop with a restaurant that served wine with cold dishes including vegetables, bread, and fine cheeses. A truly excellent idea.

At the beginning of this trip I said to Rien and Nico that I thought this journey was going to be like another Camino, only instead of walking I'd be taking the train every day. Sure enough, it did end up being very Camino-like, and several times I was actually on parts of the Way in Tirol and Catalunya. It was so important to me to be able to see my Camino friends again and develop those relationships further, and talk about our respective walking experiences a year-and-a-half later. Also, the Mozart conference in Salzburg allowed me to make new friends with whom I walked another journey - a musical one - as we learned about making music together and studied the life of one rare human being: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

Now that I'm home I have a huge To Do list as a result of this trip:
- learn Spanish
- learn German
- improve my French
- play with other musicians more often
- return to Europe as soon as possible!

Quelle language yo hablo hoy?

Already it´s Thursday and I´m in Barcelona. Seems like world away from Vienna but it´s only just a two-hour flight! Like going from Winnipeg to Calgary. Different language, culture, history, ways of life, sociological attitudes, and climate.

In Vienna I wandered the first day and found the museum of sound where you can conduct the virtual Vienna Philharmonic. No matter how hard I tried to keep a steady rhythm, the damn orchestra would not follow! Maybe because it consists mostly of men, even today. In film footage they showed, I spotted only three women. WTF?

Time fled away and I met Monika for dinner near St. Stephensplatz (huge central cathedral). We ate at her favourite falafel place. Really good food. We discovered a free concert being offered later at another Romanesque church, possibly St. Michael´s. Violin played with baroque bow and viola da gamba. All 16th and 17th century compositions.

So lovely in that setting. To our immediate right was the remains of - I think - the first Pope Benedickt (there were no numbers next to his name), reclining graciously behind a glass sarcophagus in his Roman-soldier-style outfit. He´d been dug up from a crypt in Rome centuries ago and brought there. His skin-covered dried husk was covered in sparkles and jewels but you could see his ribs. Hard to believe, but close study confirmed for me that yes, this was an actual deceased human body. Yeesh. I hope he enjoyed the music too!

Last day in Vienna, Monika and I caught a guided tour of the Lipizaner horse training school, built in something like 1732 and located right downtown in the middle of old Vienna. Even though the stable was built in the mid 1500s, it´s still used and in perfect operating condition. There´s also a huge indoor winter training hall where Maria Theresa used to host 8000 guests at a time to see the horses perform.

Believe it or not: this 16th century building houses a whole bunch of white performing horses in the middle of downtown Vienna.

Next we walked the Ring, saw the Burg, the Hapsburg´s Imperial winter palace, just on the outside, and discovered the Naschmarkt, a very Viennese tradition: the snack market where you can buy a little of this and a little of that for your dinner, plus kaffi, und schokolade (coffee and chocolate)...(these are a few of my favourite things!)

Beethoven composed the 3rd, 5th, and 7th Symphonies in a little flat across from the University of Wien, around the corner from a house where Schubert later unsuccessfully wooed one of three beautiful sisters. Spiral stone steps led us up and up and up to Herr Beethoven´s old haunt and we saw the piano he played back in the day.

Usually 18th and 19th century artist renderings of people are idealized and you never get a solid handle on what they really looked like but a plaster mask taken of LVB´s face while he was alive really puts you in touch with the man. It stands in a display case in one of the rooms: severe and growly eyebrows, pursed grumpy mouth - that´s what he looked like. You could see every line and bump of his face.

It was too late to go into the house where Mozart lived on Dom Gasse but at least we found it. Same touristy souveniers as all over Salzburg were in the shop window. Central, busy, and full of life - a location perfect for the sociable little party animal, Wolfgang.

Monika and I ended our evening with dinner at a 400 year old wine cellar, something only found in the Quebec area this side of the Atlantic Ocean!

Wednesday morning I cursed myself for booking a 6:30am flight to Barcelona. Thankfully the train system in Vienna and surrounding area is so good I could get there in time. Arrived in Barcelona 9:00 am and was greeted by the familiar face of my Templar Knight. A jam session was priority after settling in to the basement of Enric´s family home and then we hit the town.

More winding cobble-stone streets, but different from Vienna because of the lush balcony gardens, palm trees, and extreme cleanliness. Way more crowded, to. Around 7:00 we discovered three random French guys from Marseille who joined us for a free Renaissance organ concert in the huge Cathedral, below which is buried the remains of the patron saint of Barcelona, St. Eulalia. When Florian wasn´t napping, he was fidgeting and making his friends laugh, but also listening to the huge ancient organ. The Adagios were brutal so we left after an hour but not before a bunch of old ladies who escaped before us.

Wandered again and found an awesome Tapas bar, then the Manchester bar, full of photos of New Wave artists and others from Manchester. Very appropriate since Enric just returned from that city. Of course, the boys found a cute girl from New York to chat up and I discovered a Montrealer living for a year in Spain.

It´s important to note that the trains stop running early during the week but we did catch a bus home. At 2:00 am. Today, mountains and castles!

The Danube isn't really blue

It's foggy today in Vienna, which makes for some great photography. I wandered through a fairground called Prater this morning. Crows calling through the empty amusement park made it kind of creepy. There's a lot of Geist Hauses that I'd love to see but the whole thing seems to be closed this time of year.

I arrived in this Art mecca of Europe yesterday after a fantastic week of studying the Mozart String Quartet in D Major K. 575 with the Manhattan String Quartet in Salzburg. Three hours a day of coaching and then museum touring left me with a huge knot in my neck. Last night my Camino friend Monika took me to a meditative free-dancing class which really helped loosen up my creaky old corpse.

All last week the food was fabulous at the Pitter hotel and it cumulated in a final farewell dinner. I now have a large group of American friends from all over the states, but a ton of the group were from Connecticut and Boston, two of my favourite places in the States! Also Chicago, another great town.

On the last day in Salzburg, I wandered up this big hill or outcropping thing that rises above the altstadt and wandered through an old fortress dating back to the 1400s. You can see snow-capped mountains in the distance and the narrow streets of Salzburg winding at your feet. The houses I thought were built into the cliff were actually buried in a landslide in 1669 but the facade-like fronts protuding were actually cleaned out so you can access them. But they didn't bother cleaning back the whole cliff. So that's why there's just the front of these houses sticking out of the mud-face.

Now, off to see old Vienna!

Christine

I'll have what he's having: Donizetti's Elixir of Love

The Salzburg State Theatre (Salzburger Landestheatre) put on an absolutely stunning performance of Gaetano Donizetti's L'elisir d'amore on Tuesday, Jan 11. The tiny stage's revolving floor accommodated a stark but effective set that converted from modern cubicle office to wedding party hall for this modern telling of an age-old theme. Nemorino is a poor little office schlub in love with his gorgeous boss, Adina. She falls for the dashing business man Belcore who also is a soldier and convinces her to marry him before he gets shipped out on duty. Enter the yoga-posing new-agey health guru Dr. Dulcamara, selling love potions (really just Bordeaux wine). Nemorino buys it and drinks it but is then told that it takes 24 hrs to take effect. He spurns Adina and laughs at her, confident the potion will work. But the soldier is to be shipped out early so the wedding is moved up to immediately. In desperation, Nemorino joins the army and pays for more love potion with the money. Meantime Adina's office staff, Giannetta, spreads a rumour to all the cell-phone-texting girls that Nemorino's just inherited a fortune from a rich uncle and is now loaded. They all chase him and Adina is jealous. There's a famous, beautiful tenor aria here by Nemorino that is standard in all tenor repertoire and it was a delight to hear it. Pavel Kolgatin was fantastic in the role as were all the performers. This performance was really well directed and coreographed. Little jokes and pantomimes were going on all over and the leads were flawless in singing and acting. In a duet with the Doctor, Adina keeps singing while attempting to swill beer and light a cigarette, which the Doctor grabs from her. So great to see opera in Salzburg! For a taste, there's a trailer for it on Youtube here.

Wednesday, Jan 12 was a performance by faculty members of the Universität Mozarteum: Piano quartet in c minor op. 15 by Faure, Divertimento " Le baiser de la Fee" by Stravinsky, Duo No. 1 für Violine und Cello by Martinu, and Piano Quartet in g minor Op. 25 by Brahms. The room allowed very live accoustics. The pianist and violist were solid and really excellent. Enrico Bronzi on Cello was a virtuoso, making faces the whole time and playing effortlessly.

Tonight was a cello recital of Bronzi's students. All were really good. So lucky to study at a wonderful facility. There's a huge modern wing at the Mozarteum with sound proof practice rooms.

Mornings this week are spent in coaching sessions with the members of the Manhattan String Quartet. I'm learning a lot. Breakfasts and lunches are included at the hotel and the food is always amazing. Some of us found a good place for cheap, healthy vegetarian dinners across the street called My Indigo.

Mozart's Birthplace

Afternoons so far have been organized with visits (and a lecture) to Mozart's birthplace and the house where the Mozart family lived later, which also houses an archive of original autograph manuscripts and letters written by the family members. Today I saw the original letter Mozart wrote to a priest who was a family friend, to tell him that his mother, Anna Maria, had just died in Paris. A very sober letter from a very young man, usually full of wit and fun.

Pouring rain here. Still need to look at the Mirabel gardens and a giant fortress on the top of a nearby cliff but hopefully when it stops raining.

In Search of Mozart: up close and personal

This morning we started this week-long conference in Salzburg with a viewing of the docu-drama of In Search of Mozart, a film full of intense, accurate story telling and LOTS of close ups and tight head shots of musicians, directors, conductors, composers and anyone who is an expert on Mozart's life and music. It made for intense story-telling but I found it a bit too uniformly full of close-ups and shallow depth of field shots that refused to resolve in a rack focus. Maybe I'm being a film snob but on the wide screen all those tight shots made my eyes want to fall out. But we learned a lot of Mozart's life and exactly how human he was.

Breakfast and lunches are included in this week and both were amazing.

The entire afternoon was a session on the first movement of String Quartet K. 575. Really good. I was on 2nd violin and was happy not to have to face walls of 16ths and triplets right off the hop.

Got to review Innsbruck as Jan 8th was a huge whirlwind: Bought a 24 hr Innsbruck Card first thing in the morning (29E), and immediately jumped on the Innsbrucker Nortketter car up the mountain and hiked through alpine trails to an Alm accessible in winter. Not much snow, lots of green grass. Then continued up the mountain to the ski runs at the top where the experts were doing big mountain runs. There was a winter hiking trail accessible to normal non-skiers so I had to summit the nearest snow-covered thing - in my Doc Martens. If a nine-year-old Austian girl and her dad could do it in ordinary boots, so could I! But cold and windy!

Mountain summit above Innsbruck, Austria

Having been on a mountain, I then hit up the Alpine Club Mountain display in the Imperial Palace, then ran upstairs to the actual Imperial Palace.

Castle Ambras' Spanish Hall - NOT Maria Theresia's Hall

Maria Theresia decorated her great hall differently from her predecessor male Kaisers who had their ancestors on the walls: she had all her children, their spouses, and their children presented to show how powerful she was by being able to create her decendants: such a smart and powerful woman.

Ran out of the Hapsburg family home just in time to catch a sightseer bus to Castle Ambras, a medieval castle renovated in part during the renaissance by one of those Hapsburgs. Some Medici wives were also involved there somewhere. Go read a history book for more info. I just took lotsa pictures and ran around. Then it got dark and once again I had to find my way down a hill without a headlamp. This time there were more people around to ask for directions. Instead of just sheep.

Castle Ambras Courtyard

That was my Saturday and that's why I wasn't performing at the Grant and Wilton coffee house in Winnipeg.

La Messe est la meme das tout la monde

I unwittingly ended up at an Austrian Mass this morning at - get this - Dom St. Jakob's, in front of which was a sign in a glass bulletin case with the familiar little yellow coquille de Saint-Jacques and a blue stripe: Jakobs Wieke Tirol, it said. How appropriate! As I`ve said to some friends this trip, this is another Camino for me. Travelling light with everything I own on my back, being at the mercy of others to help me find my way.

Can't seem to get away from the Camino de Santiago. Here I am in the mountains of Austria and there it is again: le coquille de Saint Jacques!

I was standing on a corner near the Imperial Hapsburg palace in Innsbruck this morning when an old lady came over to me. No English but yes, French. She`d worked as an Aupere (aupare?) in Paris as a young woman and remembered her French so we immediately made friends. She told me there was a service in process at the Church behind the palace where there was a music. She wasn`t kidding - a full military band was performing all the parts of the mass and accompanying the hymns at the front of Jakob`s Kirche, a high-vaulted baroque edifice. A photo of what it looked like after it was bombed Dec 16, 1944 was on a display at the back. It had been rebuilt so you couldn't tell it had been almost completely demolished by bombs. Amaying to think most of the places I have visited this trip saw the worst horrors of that war.

Fully restored after having been bombed in the Second World War

Procession after mass.

So here I go again on the Camino. Now, starting the conference in Salzburg. All is well. Strange to be staying in a proper hotel with a room to myself instead of a multi-bunk hostel. I will miss evening conversations with cute Swedish guys in the kitchen, though... ; )

Tchoosze!

When Silence Beckons, you`d better bring a headlamp

My walk down from the Kliene Scheidigg to Grindelwald this afternoon was lovely until it got dark. Then it was scary and I couldn`t see the ground in front of me because it was all a uniform white glow. But I finally made it by following these large glowing purple and orange-painted sticks stuck in the snow every few hundred meters. It was like a Tim Burton version of the Camino: Down a steep mountain in the dark on a slippery, twisting surface...alone.

At the Jungfrau Joch, highest point people who were not mountaineers like Ueli Steck were allowed to go

The Eiger North Face. Still a long way to go and dark is looming!

Eiger routes taken by various crazy people over the centuries.

While walking - alone in the dark - I finally remembered the title of that book by Joe Simpson: The Beckoning Silence. It was actually one of the books that inspired me to want to see the Eiger and this whole historic Jungfrau area. Rob Peters made me realize it was actually possible to get here and not just  a pipe dream. Now that I`m here, it`s beautiful but my Doc Martens are soaked and my jeans smell like sheep shit from tobogganing down the last bit past these farm houses. But it was worth it to stand there and see the famous North Face we`ve all read about and seen films about.

Okay, I wrote that on Thursday and am now in Innsbruck about to leave the beautiful Tirolean alps tomorrow to get to Salzburg for this music workshop which is the main reason I'm on these European wanderings. Travelling alone is starting to suck. But I met a bunch of nice skiiers in the Youth Hosel kitchen this evening so things are going a lot better.

Tyrolean alps above Innsbruck

Yep, that's a mountain. Italy's behind it somewheres.

Snowboarders from Pittsburgh, PA, of all places.

Summit shot

Internet is expensive and facebook is often restricted so those of you facebooking me, please don't. Just email me. I can't even open the facebook emails. A certain friend wasn't kidding when he said the Swiss were the inventors of anal-retentiveness: the second I went over my 20 min limit the other day while blogging, I got cut off and forbidden from re-accessing until the next day. Then I couldn't get anyone in Austria to change my Swiss Francs until this evening. Argh.  But saw a lot of museums today: the Hapsburg Imperial Palace, the Alpine Club exhibit, and some old Hapsburg medieval castle on the city outskirts. Also took a ski tram to the top of a mountain and took a winter hike. Cold and windy. But an amazing view of mountains.

Hapsburg summer palace. Desperately needs a ton of swishy ball gowns, clinking wine glasses, and some Strauss waltzes.

Out of time, got to run.

Sanctioning the Eiger

Missed yesterday despite the hostel having free internet because the web software security had been compromised and when I tried to go to the gmail or blogger websites requiring passwords, a bunch of warnings popped up regarding cookies and "unsecure". Two Nigerian guys were parked on both internet terminals from when I arrived at 3pm until 9pm when I tried to use the web. They let others use them no problem but asked me to leave their windows open. Then the whole time I was on the web, this one guy proceeded to ask personal questions of all the young female hostel guests traveling solo: What is your name? How old are you? What do you do? Where are you from? Where are you going? Do you have family? Do you have a boyfriend? What is your sister`s name? How old is she? What room are you staying in?

I am not kidding. This was the exact line of questioning I heard directed at an exotic looking art student. They didn`t waste time asking me anything having already sized me up in an incredibly creepy way when I first came in. White hair and a distinct lack of make up and fashion sense can save your ass in some situations. I couldn`t stand listening to this blatantly obvious human trafficker at work so I quietly went and informed the receptionist that the internet security was issuing warnings, and also told her about the man`s persistent questioning of the young girls. She hadn`t noticed (?!?) and was very happy that I told her.

I`m now safe in Grindelwald waiting to check in to the Downtown Hostel and will fill the gap between Jan 7 and 9 by going to Innsbruck since poor Florian has to work and then is a stunt man in a film on the very day we wanted to meet up. I`m going to pass on seeing Chamonix and Mont Blanc since it will take forever on the trains and is overly touristy, whereas Grindelwald is not as....although now that I`m here I have my doubts. Seems awfully touristy. However, a certain ex-lawyer-climber-cop told me to go to see Tirol, hence Innsbruck.

The Swiss Alps are beautiful so off into daylight to enjoy them!

Tchoosz!

Duesseldorf: Fashion Capital of Germany

Beware Duesseldorf, the worst-dressed Canadian ever is walking your streets - at least for the next 12 hours. Well okay, at least I'm not wearing bright yellow rain boots with white fur trim as seen on certain tourists in Amsterdam recently. Unfortunately I got in after sunset so it was hard to really appreciate this well-to-do, well-dressed town. The streets are uncannily quiet but I was only approached by one solitary street person asking for change on the Königsallee, the fancy fashion strip (everything closed). All I could do tonight was check into the Backpacker Düsseldorf Hostel (15€ if you go) and wander around the Altstadt area looking for dinner. I found it at Mateo, an Italian place in the heart of this shop and restaurant-riddled neighbourhood. The best cream-of-broccoli soup EVER, nuf said. Served with little whole wheat buns. I didn't need the spinach gnocchi at all but enjoyed the coffee after.

Tomorrow I will try to catch the Hostal's free breakfast right at 8:00 when it opens and wander to the Rhine River for some photo ops before I have to jump a train for Basel at 10:22. This plan of travelling during the day is ruining my sight-seeing and shopping abilities. Maybe an inability to shop is a good thing at this point! I still have 19 days to go and am no where near Salzburg! Speaking of, there's also been no opportunity to practice....argh.

Hamburg History

All museumed-out today. First thing this morning, Jorinna and I hit up the Art museum, spent too long in the old masters, and had to breeze past the Manet, Toulouse-Lautrec and Picasso rooms to make it to the Hamburg Museum on time. That was essential research for this evening's visit to The Hamburg Dungeon, a commercial Disney-like historical ride/museum with live actors trained to scare the crap out of guests. The problem was it would all be in German and unfortunately, Ich cann nicht Deutsch sprecken. We learned the correct history of Hamburg before getting the pop version: the huge fire of 1842, the capture and gruesome execution of the pirate whose name I can't spell ( he got the officials to promise not to kill the members of his crew who his headless body managed to run past after his head was cut off. His body walked but all the crew were executed anyway!). There was also a flood in 1717 when a huge storm from the North Sea caused the waters of the Elbe river to wipe out a large part of the harbour city. That was not in the Museum but was in the Dungeon.

One horrific statistic I learned from the Museum was about the Jewish community: over 17,000 lived there before the Second World War, and only a few hundred remained by 1945. Over 8,000 were murdered during the war. Also since 1613 when the first Jewish merchants came there from Portugal, they had faced persecution every few decades. There was a whole section dedicated to their story and every progression in time had the same: more persecution. This was so frustrating to read. Always persecution.

So floods, fire, pirates, and war were big parts of this city's history. The Dungeon did a good job making sure we remembered all that. I don't know if I should say how the tour ends because others may want to see it.

After that fun experience we ate at the best quality fast food restaurant I have ever seen: Jim Block, a less expensive version of a fancier restaurant. You order like at fast food but you get served on glass plates with actual cutlery, not disposable. And the food is good quality. Next we saw a movie in a "small" Hamburg theatre. The Tourist was shown in English with no subtitles at Siet's theatre. Huge differences of note from Canadian theatres:
- designated seating
- comfortable resto and lounge with coffee and liquor bar available while you wait before the show
- the "small" theatre is bigger than most Canadian theatres, even our Silver City ones. A normal-sized theatre is that plus a half. Hamburg is, after all, a city of 4.4 million while Wpg has 633,000+.
- there's curtains in front of the screen that swing open and shut: first for the ads and previews, then again for the main attraction.

Girls' Night Out

After a decadent late sleep, Jorinna and I went for brunch at the Alex, a fancy restaurant downtown, and wandered around a shopping area past the Hamburg Parliament. I learned Hamburg is one of three city states remaining in Germany left over from something like the 15th or 16th century. Then we went to see the art gallery (closed) and the museum of history (almost closed), walked the harbourfront and saw the Hamburg Dungeon and miniature gallery. It was a scouting mission to see what all we could visit tomorrow.

Tired and cold, we returned home for left-overs and a little visit with family. Then out to play glow-in-the-dark mini golf with a sister and sister-in-law. It was fun and silly and we played with language. I learned a lot about German and my friends learned a lot about how similar English is to German.

After lattes, we headed out to Hamburg's famous party street called The Kiez (pronounced "Keats"), which is near the infamous men-only (seriously!) street, Herbertstrasse. Yes, human trafficking and the exploitation of women is alive and well in Hamburg. It's rare to find equality in the sex shops and lap dance bars in The Kiez: it's mostly women being regarded as sex objects by men, never the other way around. Glassy-eyed and stony-faced women stood on street corners waiting with fanny packs around their waists, glowering. It's legal and they are licensed but they sure as hell didn't look happy. We walked down just to see this "world renowned" part of the city and then went for cocktails at a low-key pub-restaurant called The Joker. Snacks, water and wine, some girly drinks and good conversation was how we spent our evening in The Kiez. I sure know how to party!

This evening was a great way to really be an ordinary Hamburger and not a tourist. We took the bus, the train, and the bus a lot. I will really miss having an efficient rapid transit system when I get back to Winnipeg. I told my friends about the Weakerthans's song, One Great City and they really liked our attitude of kvetching about our town but still loving it.

Happy New Year's day!