being a tourist again

I was playing hooky the last two weeks and took a mini vacation with my dear hubby. We visited a quaint little town along the Mosel where we tied the knot ten years ago. Since I am totally integrated into German society, it was fun playing the tourie. I spoke English the whole time and ease dropped on other English-speaking tourists. I even ordered my food in English...not really, but I could have. ;-)
Can you guess where we were??

We were in Cochem and there was a very nice little wine festival going on as well on exactly the same weekend! What a cooincidence and to our luck.

It was so enjoyable to spend time just with my husband listen to good music and sipping on great Mosel wine with such awesome weather! What had a very romantic weekend filled with a river boat excursion to a castle ruin, fine dining, a tour of the castle and walks along the Mosel. Life doesn't get any better than this!

Here are some impressions of our mini vacation. Sometimes I have to remind myself how great it is to be living my own dreams.

We took a little river boat cruise to Beilstein. It wanted to sprinkle a little, but stayed dry for the most part.

 

 

We visited the castle ruins and the church/monastery as well as having a little appetite refresher. I ate a most fabulous split pea soup with ham. Oh, yummy!

After lunch and a bit in our tummies, we tasted some award winning Mosel Riesling and a glass of Kerner.

Back to Cochem an der Mosel for a site seeing tour of the Reichsburg Cochem - the castle where we got married and had a champagne reception. We were very fortunate on our wedding day with great weather as well as on our second honeymoon.

Thank you for joining me on my little vacation tour. And thanks for dropping by!

dubbed television - dubbed what??

When I was a "younger" girl, I loved to watch foreign television. I watched things like Dr. Who, Dark Shadows, The Avengers and other series such as Neighbours. I progressed onto movies such as "The French Lesson" and "La Boum." I think I watched this particular movie about twenty times first dubbed into English and then later subtitled.

Dubbed is when the actors are voiced over by another actor in a language you can understand.

Now, that I am living in Germany, I "enjoy" dubbed television and movies on a regular basis. Many people ask me if I can get American television here in Germany. A lot of series are picked up such as Once Upon a Time, Grey's Anatomy, Criminal Minds, Navy CIS, Two and 1/2 Men, Law and Order, CSI, Star Trek, Inspector Barnaby, 2 Broke Girls, Samantha Who, and The Simpsons. And to make it easier to understand, different countries wtihtin Europe deal with it differently. Most of the northern countries such as Denmark, Sweden, and Finland bring these with subtitles. Germany and Italy like to dub non-native programs. And let me tell you, Germany has mastered the art of dubbing. I am now able to watch Kevin Costner! He has developed a very sexy voice, since he has learned how to speak German. ;-)

The synchronization is also excellent. I remember watching a movie with my husband once, and it was very close to the end. I turned to him in realization, that I had watched the entire movie IN GERMAN, and it didn't dawn on me.
 
Probably the most well known German synchronisation actor is Manfred Lehmann. He is known as the voice of Bruce Willis, Kurt Russel, Gerard Depardieu, Christopher Lambert, Willem Dafoe, Rutger Hauer, Mickey Rourke, and Val Kilmer.  Can you imagine all of these actors rolled up into one person?

Also quite interesting - once when I was riding a train in the Pfalz, I heard a very familiar and quite sultry voice announce where the train was going to stop next. "Wait a minute!. I know this voice!" I remained puzzled the entire day but later found out that it was the very famous voice of Marilyn Monroe as spoken by Margot Leonard (in the German-speaking world). Now imagine that, such a sexy voice announcing the train stations. Can you imagine Nicole Kidman announcing the floors in an elevator?

Dubbed television - it can make some actors bearable and others nicht verträglich!

Happy Thursday! Hopefully the sun will come back out again...this month!

Yours truly,
Karen

snow before Halloween?

It started yesterday morning with a slight snow fall. The temperature was just right around 0°C, so I didn't think it was going to stay around very long. Even so, my tradition goes, with the first snow fall I always bake something usually fluffy white loaf bread. Since we already had a lot of bread in the house, I decided to make my favourite "German Chocolate Cake". 

In the evening, after dinner, and we were enjoying our dessert, I was surprised to see the snow still there. We accumulated about two inches which was quite a lot considering it isn't even November yet. (I remember a couple of years ago when my dad was visiting us, and the same thing happened. It snowed in October!) 

Needless to say, I went to bed and was surprised to see that we had twice as much snow today as we did yesterday. I am not ready for winter. My kids kept yelling...."es ist Weihnachten." And I told them that we hadn't even had Halloween yet! I still wanted to buy pumpkins tomorrow and carve them. This seems a little strange for me. My husband is outside right now putting on the winter tires on the cars. Better late than never?!

It did strike a new feeling in me though. I am looking forward to winter and new winter designs especially for Christmas. Seeing the white snow brightens my spirits, and is always more enjoyable than an overcast gray sky. Enjoy your week!

Karen

birthdays

My little girl is not so little anymore.  She celebrated her 5th birthday.  She is such a cutie pie, my little sunshine.  As with every birthday, I like to spoil the kids with a homemade cake for school, Kindergarten or home.  My daughter named at least five different cakes that she wanted me to make.  I decided on a rainbow sheet cake for Kindergarten and a store bought cake for her birthday party.  Yes, I bought a birthday cake.  My sister was proud of me.  Since there were only four/five guests to her birthday party, I thought it fit not to worry too much about a lot of baking and there were no siblings at the party either.  This really makes things easier.

Not only did my daugther celebrate her birthday, I also celebrated my 40th.  It is ALMOST hard to believe that I am THAT old.  Would I trade it for being 18 again?  NO.  I am happier than ever and know what I want from life.  Most importantly, I am independent and self-sufficient.  Although I notice I let my husband take care of certain things like bill payment, I still rely on myself to get things done.  No one is here to take care of you.  You have to make your own way in life, your own goals, ambitions, strengths, desires.  Find out what you are good at it and let it take flight.

Happy Birthday to all those who have birthdays in the summer.  I love having a summer birthday.  I loved getting an ice cream cake on my birthday...especially from Carvel.