Blog 3.6.17
We are sitting on the patio in the shade as
it is too hot in the sun in the middle of the day. Sorry to all of you who are
in winter.
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Our terrace, Kerkrya
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We have been at our air b’n’b in Corfu for a couple of days and we
are enjoying this little part of Greek paradise. The flat is in the middle of the old
town one block from the main square and quite close to a church with very loud and
enthusiastic bells. The building has 3 flats and a house with white terraces
decorated with pots of flowers. Tourists stop to take photos of it all the time
so we are having to watch what we hang on the washing line. There is a pebbly
beach 5 minutes away and the water is cold enough to be refreshing but warm enough
to stay in for ages. The old town is now a UNESCO world heritage site and it is
really interesting to explore. The food is another winner. We buy olives from
huge tubs and feta scooped out of containers with liquid keeping it moist.
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| After dinner walk towards the port. |
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| Apartment gates |
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| Finding way around...Thanks heavens for maths,!! |
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| Museum frontage, current Asian exhibition! |
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| Lovely 'Step party" restaurant. |
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| Main door to our apartment. |
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| Beautiful columns...Greek!! |
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| Not our steps! |
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| Our steps! |
Katie dropped us at Wellington airport in the
wet morning dark a couple of weeks ago. We then had a wonderful few days in
Sydney staying with Colin’s sister Linda and Nick. Their first grandchild has arrived since we last visited them
so it was really special to meet our great niece Evie who is now a delightful 6
months old.
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| DeeWhyBeach |
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| DeeWhySurfers |
We flew Etihad airlines for the first time
and it was fine. The 15 hours to Abu Dhabi was the usual pain but OK. We
arrived around 5am and needed to get some local money from the ATM. Unfortunately
the machine would not return our card or give us money. The banks were still closed and the
foreign currency dealers are not allowed to issue local currency! Eventually we
took a chance on another ATM with another card and this time got the cash we
needed and our card back. We had a great couple of days staying in a lovely
hotel that had its own private beach. The temps were in the high 30 degrees so
we could not go out to swim between 9am and 4pm. Even sitting in the shade was
only comfortable for about an hour.
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| Our Beach from the 9th floor..... |
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| 39C in the shade!! |
Sarah met us at the airport in Berlin at the
beginning of a great week of being part of her life. She had arranged with a
friend to use her apartment as Sarah’s is too small. The building used to be the
old cloisters for the Catholic church next door and the apartment was sunny and
spacious.
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| Entry to the cloisters |
When the church bells rung we had to stop talking. The suburb called
Wedding was very multicultural and we felt that we passed the whole world by
just walking a block down the Strasse. Sarah is rehearsing with the GOA Company
to perform a work called “Exit to Endorphia”, a type of dance theatre, in July.
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| The Bleasi Roses |
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| Cloisters and the BELLS!! |
The group had been invited to perform some of this work at a festival in
Gorblen, a town about 3 hours drive north of Berlin, on the Monday night we
were there. So we attended the rehearsal for the festival show on the Saturday
and found the process very intriguing. It was great to meet the dancers and
choreographers.
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| Directors' Speech |
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| Extract from "Exit to Endorphia" |
The small group for the festival performance consisted of 5
dancers and a vocalist. They were from all over Europe, Denmark, Hungary,
Greece and Germany. On the Monday we hired a car and drove to Gorblen, or near
there at a little place called Marlin. This area was used to dump the nuclear
waste from power-stations - the locals held big protests in the 1980s to stop
this by chaining themselves to the railway tracks. They succeeded. The area now
holds this big festival every year to focus on peace and love. It certainly had
a Coromandel feel about it. The GOA performance was a great success. One of the
scenes is a spoof on speed dating and was hilarious. We will return to Berlin
in July to watch the whole performance.
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| Marg, Bear beside old Luftwaffe Bldg |
One of the things Sarah had organised for us
to do was a bike tour of Berlin. It was great although 4.5 hours biking in
temps in the high 20s left us needing a little lie down at the end of the day.
We had spent a couple of days in Berlin on the last trip but had not taken any
tours so it was great to get all the history and explanations.
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| Marg, Sarah, Berlin Bear |
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| "All good here officer" -CCTV |
One of the most
interesting things was a memorial to the Nazi book burning in the square where
this happened. Humbolt University has built a library underground big enough to
hold copies of all the books that were burnt.
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| Empty Library shelving under the plaza. |
You view this empty library
through a window in the pavement. Outside the university is an almost daily
book sale of the titles which were burnt.
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| Helmets needed to get by CheckPoint Charley!! |
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| To Sarah's apartment |
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| The Brandenburg Gate |
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| Memorial to the murdered Jews |
We head for Croatia on Tuesday to stay in
Dubrovnik for 5 days and then fly to the UK.
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