9/4 anniversary

It's the start of year 26. Year 25 ended on a high note in Europe. Year 26 sees us enroute from Europe to USA. Sacha shot this when we were in Bad Godesberg.

Olds sold (to do)

Sept. 8 Rick sold the Olds after putting it in the driveway on Bishop and placing a FOR SALE sign in the window. Our answering machine was filled with people interested and someone (Ben) brought the cash out this morning. It's a nice way to be greeted back from vacation. :-)

Barb did an A-Plus job in handling the Labor Day rush of people wanting to see the Olds.

More things on my to do list:

1. Plan Rick's birthday party for Sept. 20
2. Take Ivy to vet on 9/11 at 3:45
3. Go to Avanti on 9/13
4. Go to dentist on 9/14

What Rick wants for his birthday party is sauerkraut and dumplings, probably thinking about the excellent sauerkraut we had on vacation. Plus, he wants a cherry pie. It's much better than a birthday cake.

CNN,BBC International

TV in our hotel room was most interesting. The two English-language broadcasts were BBC World and CNN International.

Sports coverage is very big on both of these channels, including football (covering David Beckam alot), basketball (mentioning LeBron), baseball (even mentioning the Indians), regular football, basketball, golf, tennis, world games, etc. etc, .etc. Ads on these stations heavily promote travel to places like Africa, Greece, and Kazakhstan (I am not kidding, the land of Borat). Ads showing green cars and other conservation and anti-pollution efforts are also big.

Clarrissa Explains It All in its Deutsch-language version is big. Go figure. The Daily Show with John Stewart International Edition was most interesting on CNN, including a disclaimer in the beginning of the show that it is a parody. Rob Riggle from actual Iraq was featured.

Some of the news stories (related to US and othersie) while we were there were Idaho Senator Craig and his Minneapolis airport stance (he he), Cheney drinking a beer in Australia while traffic was stopped for security reasons, and, of course, the withdrawal of British troops from Iraq.

This was the weekend of the 10th anniversary of Diana's passing. That of course was heavily covered on the BBC station.

Paullander,USA

Paullander is a traditional German restaurant in Bad Godesberg. Our waitress did not speak English, which we found an exception throughout our travels in Germany. Making it through our menus was for the most part fun.

Sacha brought her German-English dictionary. While she normally gets by in German and is taking classes, she doesn't know all the words on menus, like, in this case, the word for liver, which was featured our last day for dinner at the Paullander. We did not order the liver but did all order our meal with SAUERKRAUT, which was outstanding. It is cooked for a long time I imagine and the flavor is vundervar (couldn't resist putting it that way). I want to try cooking sauerkraut for a long time when I get back home.

Shopping, by the way, in Bad Godesburg was fun. Woolen tights is something I have searched for at home and could not find. I never was happy with what I saw for woolen tights on the internet. But Bad Godesburg had them. I also enjoyed looking for candy and especially chocolate which was in ample supply throughout the shops in Bad Godesburg. Woolworths (gasp!) had a very good selection of candy.

Bad Godesberg - Bonn (Siegberg Banhoft) - Frankfurt Airport was our return itinerary. Instead of taking a taxi from Bad Godesberg to Bonn/Siegberg we used public transportion going through the Hauptbanhopf (main train station or maintrainstation) in Bonn.

Luftansa and Air Wisconsin (via Philadelphia) brought us home. The Lufthansa vegetarian option was an excellent noodle dish for lunch (a bigger meal than dinner) and veggie sandwich on very dark pumpernickle for dinner (the smaller meal than lunch).

On the flight the documentary about the pandas in DC that was shown was really very good. Oceans Thirteen was the first Oceans movie I ever saw. It was ok. I like watching Matt Damon. I like Ellen Barkin and thought she was very good. The story was ok with Denero and Gould an interesting touch.

Brussels

The huge central square where we had dinner and where our hotel was was holding a beer festival of some sort when we were there. There were people and tents and activity all over the place.

Brussels is supposed to have the best waffels and chocolate in the world. Rick had a waffel covered in chocolate and Sacha and I split a huge waffel topped with bananas, chocolate syrup, and whipped cream.

The double decker sightseeing bus was great. The Museum of Money had one of the best displays I have ever seen. It not only did a good job with interactive versus static displays, it also did a good job with the multiple languages. Belgium's involvement in developing the common Euro currency was interesting to follow. Really!




Priceline messed up on showing us the location of our hotel.

Bruselles/CleOrch

On to Bruselles!

Saturday morning we took the ICE James Bond train to Bruselles.

On the trip, Rick, Sacha, and I sat with someone (Matthew Wright) who was performing with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, singing the Damnation of Faust, not the lightest piece on earth. We discussed which orchestras were the best, with Boston and Cleveland mentioned. I found this on the Web about what elevates an orchestra from good to great.

http://www.clevelandorchestra.com/html/Specialevents/specialevents.asp?ID=42

THE CLEVELAND ORCHESTRA

Recent national and international news coverage February 2007

The Wall Street Journal

February 9, 2007

What Elevates an Orchestra From Good to Great?

by Willem Bruls

What's the world's best orchestra? The short answer: It depends.

The same names come up on most lists: the Berlin Philharmonic, Vienna Philharmonic, Amsterdam's Concertgebouw Orchestra, Dresden's Sächsische Staatskapelle, the Orchestra of the Bayerischen Rundfunks and the Cleveland Orchestra.

But beyond a point, how does one rank artistic perfection and beauty of sound? Or a specific musical interpretation? A better question to ask: What makes several orchestras the best? And what makes the difference between a fine orchestra and the top tier?

Personality

Just like singers, different orchestras have different sounds, a nuance that gives a characteristic emotional quality. There is a certain souculture in the orchestra you can really hear," says Pamela Rosenberg, administrative director of the Berlin Philharmonic. "We still have this burnished, creamy quality, whereas Vienna is more brilliant and brighter. The bass quality of Berlin is quite pronounced."

Austrian conductor Franz Welser-Möst, chief conductor and music director of the Cleveland Orchestra, says, "It is mostly something that has grown over decades and for some orchestras over more than a hundred years. And it is nothing only one conductor does.

The Berlin Philharmonic stamp has been put on by many great conductors. Things pass on from generation to generation of players." The variation has become less marked in the past 30 years, as conductors and players have become more international and as the end of the Cold War has opened up Russia and Eastern Europe to Western sounds.

Recordings have made it possible to hear -- and learn from -- multiple interpretations of a piece. But still, the differences remain.

"Vienna comes from a Central European tradition, that means a darker, a more sensitive sound," says Dutch conductor Sir Bernard Haitink, former chief conductor of the Concertgebouw Orchestra and the Staatskapelle Dresden, and recently appointed chief of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, in the 1995 documentary "Conducting Mahler."

"Amsterdam is more clear, with more clarity and a bit more objective. Berlin is very muscular, a fantastic machine; Vienna is more capricious." The Dresden Staatskapelle is said to have a bright and sparkling sound, with discipline and exactitude.

The Cleveland Orchestra is often called sophisticated, detailed and refined.

Mariss Jansons, chief conductor of both orchestras of the Bayerischen Rundfunks, in Munich, and the Concertgebouw, sees different families of sounds: "I would say that the Concertgebouw Orchestra and Vienna represent one direction, and the Bayerischen Rundfunks and Berlin the other direction. The first two have this wonderful sound that is connected with the beautiful halls they play in: the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam and the Musikverein in Vienna. They both have a wonderful feeling of style. Berlin and Bayerischen Rundfunks are very strong orchestras, with power and excitement." Performance Space "Amsterdam and Vienna might sound a bit passive, just because of their excellent halls," says Jan Diesselhorst, a cello player at the Berlin Philharmonic.

"Whereas we need to play with more power in the modern Philharmonie [hall] in Berlin." The Philharmonie, built in 1963, is bigger, so the Berlin orchestra must play louder, especially the strings. The shape of the hall, with the orchestra centered and the audience seated around it, also requires a different balance. Amsterdam's Concertgebouw and the Musikverein in Vienna, both from the 19th century, are built in the classical shoebox shape. Their wooden construction and many ornaments also resonate sound, while the Philharmonie is mainly concrete, which doesn't.

Mr. Welser-Möst says Cleveland has a "transparent" sound -- each instrument can be heard. "It partly has to do with Severance Hall, which is relatively small. Even if we play a Bruckner symphony, the brass does not overpower the strings," he says. "[We are] very much about detail. We don't go for the big sweep or the big bang. The ensemble is a huge exception to the other American orchestras...which have a more muscular style."

Repertoire Technical aspects, combined with the personality of an orchestra and the musical traditions of a city play a role in a group's success with a particular repertoire. "The core of our repertoire is of course the period of Viennese classicism -- Mozart, Haydn, Schubert, Beethoven -- over the 19th century -- Brahms, Schumann, Bruckner, Mahler -- until the Second Viennese School -- Berg, Schönberg, Webern," says Michael Bladerer, double bass player of the Vienna Philharmonic. "Many of these composers wrote their music for us or with our orchestra in mind." The orchestra is especially famous for its Mozart, Haydn, Beethoven and Schubert -- which fit in well with the intimate style and hall. The emphasis of the Berlin Philharmonic is on the later 19th century, with Mahler and Bruckner, and grand symphonies with philosophical and political implications that seem to suit Berlin's modern hall.

Bonn/Bad Godesberg

Bad Godesberg is adorable. Meeting the people at Media Tenor was wonderful. Everyone is friendly with wonderful English. Meeting Sacha's friend Zuzanna is just the greatest. Moving Sacha from Zuzanna's flat to her new place in Bonn, near Poppelsdorf was also quite an adventure. Poppelsdorf is in the university region.

Breakfast at the Hotel Zum Adler reminds me so much of something my mother would love. The buffet included fruit, youghurt, musli, fresh pastries and breads, lox, brie and other cheeses, tomatoes, cucumbers, hardboiled eggs, scrambled eggs, juice, tea (with a large variety of herb tea), coffee, and, in a wonderful touch, a variety of vitamins.

BeethovanHaus was one of the places we visited during the day (while Sacha was at work). Rick and I took the train to explore Bonn and BeethovanHaus. The Beethovan museum looked like it was closed, but it was fun to explore. Bonn is clean and orderly. The mix of older buildings and new makes for interesting sight seeing.