It feels strange to stand among buildings that have been here for 100s of years with their ornate architecture and ancient look and then to look at the building next door and it is a modern building made of glass with sleek lines.
One can walk through an alley-way between buildings and the walls and doors within it are all painted with a beautiful mural and often a quote or poetry. (Sometimes the words are even in English!) To get to one of the grocery stores here we walk through 3 painted alleys. However, some of them are marred with graffiti and once you leave that area, you see walls spray painted with tag lines, vulgar expressions, and cursory pictures. What a sad commentary on this generation.
As you stroll the cobblestone streets of town, music can often be heard from the street musicians who are trying to earn some money for their music. You may hear classical music played on the violin or mouth harp or ballads strummed on the guitar. As you turn a corner, you may see
a musician standing in the passageway playing beautiful music. These sounds are joined by the chiming of the church bells which ring out as the clock strikes the hour. However, though the air is filled with sweet music, it is also clogged with second-hand smoke. People everywhere are smoking and I have breathed in more second-hand smoke than I care to in my lifetime. Although smoking is banned in businesses, most have open fronts to the street and plenty of outdoor areas to sit or browse as well and the smoke just wafts in. If you go to a restaurant, do not sit by the door because the patrons will frequently get up to smoke just outside of it and you will be overwhelmed with the amount that keeps coming in.If one looks down while walking they will note that the cobblestone roads are filled with many colors of rock. The stones are also laid in intricate patterns which swirl in sections. Yet one will also see cigarette butts littering those stones as well as beer bottle caps lying in the streets.
There are people everywhere. Walking, biking, on mopeds or small cars, on trams, and trains. Congestion is common and yet, we have not seen an accident. We have seen one car with its front end smashed being towed by a van but, in general, we don't even see close calls. Pedestrians seem to have the right of way in many instances. Intersections do not all sport yield or stop signs but everyone seems to know who has to yield to whom. When you want to cross an intersection as a pedestrian, you touch a sensor on a pole. Soon a bell dings and the walk sign turns green and you may go. When it begins dinging, many people run to catch it. Bicyclists can reach out and touch the sensor and hold the pole without ever putting their foot down from the pedals of their bike. The cars here are mostly very small. Even the one Ford we saw doesn't look anything like the cars at home. If we were to drive these cars at home, we'd be at the bottom of the pecking order and would be taking our lives in our hands if we ever got hit by an SUV or a semi. However, here there are very few large vehicles so it's a more even playing field. We did see one pick up truck and one semi so far.
Yesterday we went to the park that the boys had found. There are places to go miniature golfing as well as to rent wooden row boats and row down a beautiful river. I decided we needed to return and try to get some of Michael's Senior pictures and some "regular" pictures of Jacob. There are many beautiful spots to do so. I wished we had bikes there. We often passed people who had ridden their bikes in and were sitting on a park bench reading their books.
We noticed that often baby seats on bikes are not in the back but attached to the handle bars in front of the adult. (Between the handle bars and the rider not in front of the handle bars.) This way they can still have baskets in front and back and saddle bags on the side. While we were waiting for the train we saw a woman bike by. She had a baby strapped on her back and what looked like groceries in her baskets and saddle bags. It was beginning to rain and she was furiously biking along (presumably to get home.)
Michael is not sleeping well. He got up early this morning to go running. He says he found a very nice soccer stadium. Now he is lying back in bed reading a book. He usually sleeps well every other night but last night was a night he should've slept and he didn't. I hope he doesn't get sick! I woke up with a back-ache this morning. Yesterday we all noticed that my stomach paunch is returning. I guess the wii exercises did make a difference! I'll have to get my list of Yoga and Strength training exercises out and start doing them. It's so hard once you're out of the habit. however, if it helps my back feel better, it will be worth it.
Have a great day everyone!
Ann
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