This is Munich

mei ist des schee!

M. Sasek's wonderful book, This is Munich, has just been re-released this month. 

It's a wonderful gift for anyone who loves Minga. 

Books: Pierre Hermé Pastries + Henri's Walk to Paris

If you love pastries as much as I do, you'll be delighted that Pierre Hermé Pastries is soon to be released with more of his incredible creations.

It's supposed to come out March 1st, but when I pre-ordered his macarons book it came a bit quicker.

[if you want to read more about an apprenticeship with master pâtissier Pierre Hermé, check out  Food Beam, written by Fanny, a pastry chef / food blogger]

Let me know if you end up making something from the book, too! [here's an excerpt]

I think I will be making something from Pierre Hermé for my brother-in-law's wedding festivities in March.

Another great Parisian related re-release is Henri's Walk to Paris by Saul Bass. The illustrations are spectacular!

Send me an email or leave yours in the comments if you'd like a 10% off coupon and free shipping globally (before 29 February) on these books or whatever else you'd order from the book depository. (As always, I'm not receiving anything for these recommendations, but I love to share.)

Kritzelbuch

I keep seeing this book around town and it is absolutely adorable. It's the 'Kinder Künstler Kritzelbuch' (child artist scribble book) from Beltz&Geldberg.

You can see pages from the interior, which include beautiful fill in style illustrations from illustrators like one of my favorite - Philip Waechter (he did the cover).

They say things like 'Das bin ich' (This is me) and 'Und sehe ich aus, wenn ich gross bin' (This is what I look like when I grow up) with space to draw a self-portrait. There are other pages which give suggestions that allow imaginations to run wild.

Here are a few more from the publisher's website:
They say: 1. What grows here? 2. There are a lot of fish under the boat, aren't there? 3. Who was that?

(images: Beltz verlag)

London's Tube

Since I love subways we went to the London Transport museum, which is directly at the Covent Garden subway (as a side note I wouldn't recommend taking the steps when exiting - there are 193 of them!).

The museum is very kid oriented and unfortunately a little less than I hoped it would be, however the little ones were enjoying themselves. There was a lot to look at, but maybe because I've been to the Deutsches Museum and was able to see how subways were built.

This museum didn't seem as sophisticated, but they did have large exhibits of their underground art series. In all fairness it's dedicated to all forms of transport and not exclusively subways.

The Tube has such an interesting graphic quality - it's easily identifiable and I really appreciate that they have taken a rather mundane space and used it as an art platform. The marketing posters are interesting and definitely have a lot of visual appeal.

The gift shop was really impressive. I loved that you could purchase posters and virtually anything with the tube map on it.

I bought several dish towels for my slightly subway inspired kitchen and my quintessential children's book. They also had toys, dish wear, and clothes, as well as many books spanning all topics of transportation. The shop itself is definitely worth a visit.

Child Life in all Lands

While I was home, I stumbled across this antique book from 1906 about 'true stories of boys and girls in every land: their sports and games and how they live'.

I haven't read the entire book yet, but I immediately flipped to the section on Germany, and got a good laugh out of the description and drawing.

It says:

"This mode of swaddling has its advantages. Baby's limbs are in no danger of being broken by an accidental fall; he cannot scratch his little face to pieces with his sharp, rosy nails, after the manner of American babies; and he may be placed on a table, a shelf, or the counter of a shop, like a plate of soup, or a loaf of bread, or a parcel of goods, or anything else which cannot move."

I'm sure those were the days, when you could put your child on a shelf.

Here's another great excerpt:

"A party of peasants once had to carry their child some distance before they came to the church in which it was to be christened. It was winter, and the snow lay thick on the ground. After the christening ceremony, the parents, the sponsors, and the friends took something to eat at a near-by inn, to prepare themselves for the return journey.

They then set out in great good humor, and reached home safely with the pillow, but there was no baby in it. Perhaps they had by mistake held the pillow upside down; perhaps the blue bows had become loose; at any rate the baby had slipped out, and was found lying on the snow, half-way between the church and the village. Fortunately, he was a sturdy young peasant-child, and escaped with a cold in his head, which the fond parents tried to cure on reaching home by popping him, pillow and all, into the oven, that was still warm from the baking of the christening-cake!"

This book is certainly going to be filled with other gems. I can't believe how times have changed in just over 100 years!

Charley Harper

I just learned that Old Navy is selling Charley Harper clothing for babies and toddlers. They also have board books and puzzles with his gorgeous illustrations on them. I love that my home state can claim him...



(images from Old Navy)

Mallorca

It's really nice to be back after six days away. I'm trying to remember everything, but fortunately I also kept some notes and plenty of pictures to help.

We had a wonderful time and excellent weather up until the last day, but even then that didn't ruin our trip. All I had to do was think back to the flight in, over the Alps, and all of the snow, to know that I was very fortunate to enjoy the last days of summer weather with beaches close by.

The beaches were a bit littered, but I appreciated being able to sit by the crashing waves and admire the sand. The detail of many of the shells makes me in complete awe of nature. I even found a few pieces of beautiful sea glass.

There was plenty of shopping and laughter with the girls. I must say that I love shopping in Spain - they use more color and have really beautiful jewelry. That was my biggest weakness through the trip. I'm very partial in my jewelry choices and only like genuine stones and metals. While that may not sound too difficult to find, believe me - it is... until you go to Spain.

The girls biggest weakness was staying out late. That really made me feel old since I simply could no longer hack it. They got the biggest kick out of the late night antics and various drinks, which was funny. We had a great time meeting Catherine's welcoming friends - everyone was so incredibly nice.

Catherine has been living with a family since January and it has certainly been trying at times. One thing that really made me laugh is that Silvia, the mother, taught her how to dance like the flamenco dancers from her hometown of Granada. She said they learn by thinking of grabbing an apple, twisting it off the tree, and tossing it away. I was hysterically laughing as Catherine demonstrated, and when it didn't fit the song she would say, 'No, it's not ripe yet.'

A few small things that caught me off guard were seeing a DJ with an I love NY t-shirt, the amount of people we seemed to encounter from Argentina, and how content so many people seemed to never leave the island - not even to travel.

Uniquely Spanish things I observed include the yellow glow of street lights, metal garage doors covering store fronts, palm trees, limestone, and a laid back attitude about life.

Not everyone appears to be happy about being part of Spain. We encountered several 'Mallorca is not Spain' graffiti writings around town. Catherine's friend Vicky told us some of the people from the island would rather do things their own way, which doesn't seem like it would be changing anytime soon. I also saw some interesting things that reminded me of Basquiat's work.

One distinct difference between Spain and Mallorca were the windmills. They weren't unique to Palma and dotted the entire island. Some were more rustic in appearance, but they were all so striking.

We were also very happy to eat delicious local tapas and pastries. Traditional Majorcan dishes include manchego cheese, Pa Amb'Oli (Mallorquin tomato bread), olives, and many pork based sausages. I didn't try any of the meats, but the cheeses, breads, and fresh ingredients were great.

I am seriously still thinking about the delicious foods. As always, I also purchased some exotic salts. One is black salt, and the others are limited edition (lemon+lavender and orange+chili) from a local company called Flor de Sal D'es Trenc. They have beautiful packaging which never hurts.

Mallorca really had some surprises for me. I have always heard that it is heavily visited by Germans, however I didn't expect to occasionally wonder if I had stumbled upon some tropical piece of Germany. We didn't even visit the German area of Palma. The only dead give away we were in Spain was the Spanish architecture.

Dominating the sky line was the cathedral. I loved seeing the city from above because there were some amazing roof gardens - including one with a beautiful pool.

The cathedral is Palma's main land mark. It is enormous, beautiful, and originally built on the grounds of an Arab mosque. Whenever I see enormous and lasting structures like this I cannot believe that people were capable of building with such sophistication when they didn't have modern machinery.

I could not believe how large the cathedral was. It was surrounded by city walls, which were also immense. There is so much to see from every angle.

The chapel to St. Peter by Miquel Barceló is very stunning. I was also in love with the stained glass windows, particularly the one in the main chapel ('Capilla Real'- Royal Chapel).

I went as soon as it opened and was immediately struck by the bright colored circles that were cast on the back wall and floor. Someone definitely got things right when they were designing that.

We sat outside the cathedral enjoying the sun when I noticed tons of lizards scampering around the limestone walls. Not only were they climbing on it, but we also watched several go inside the small cracks. Catherine later told us there is an entire island off the coast of Mallorca called Dragonera. If I ever make it back I would like to visit.

I was very excited to see more of Gaudi's stunning work as well. He has several buildings through out the city and an enormous chandelier in the cathedral before he grew angry and left Palma. Thankfully not all was lost and he created wonderful things in Barcelona.

Following Gaudi's organic influence was a striking and apparently very old olive tree in the middle of town. I loved all of the curving lines and it's unique form. I never saw a tree like it.

The palm trees and bright colors along the streets also added to the ambiance. We walked around the city center and the narrow winding streets around the cathedral and continually found beautiful things. There were plenty of shops surrounding the area that also sold jewelry and the famed Mallorcan pearls.

We visited Porto Cristo (home to Rafa Nadal, the number one tennis player in the world) and the Cuevas del Drach (caves) on the East side of the island.

The caves were unbelievable. They are said to be 15-20 million years old. Unreal. After walking through and admiring the beauty of nature we enjoyed a unique classical concert played by people in boats. When the concert had ended we went on a small boat trip across one of the largest subterranean lakes in the world.

Plans changed quite a bit after we missed several buses due to imbibing a lot of sangria and sharing great conversation and laughs. Since the night was still young we decided to go out once we arrived back in Palma. Cat wanted us to try a traditional drink called Gin Xoriguer Mahon, unfortunately it's only sold by the bottle. It was a lot better than I expected, but an early evening for me.

The restaurants were quite good. Here's a synopsis of my favorites if you head to Palma...

Food + Drinks

Cappuccino- an upscale cafe chain with wonderful sandwiches, coffees, and thick drinking chocolate. It's a great place to pick up a quick bite to eat.

Tanto Amore - Fabrica 10. One of the best stone fired pizzas I've ever eaten. I'm still thinking about it. I also ate some of Catherine's calzone and it was equally delicious. 

El Boxto - Carrer de Velázquez 14. A fun concept where you have a beer tap in the middle of the table and it displays how much your table drinks on a screen. The tapas are fantastic and it's really inexpensive for the quality of food and entertainment factors.

Wineing - Apuntadores 24. A wonderful place for wine tasting. You receive a card when you enter and then can try a sample, half glass, or full glass, all while keeping tab on your card. The machine measures things out for you.

Churros con chocolate - This is usually available at many places around Christmas, but we were able to find several cafes that still served the traditional dessert.

Ca na Chinchilla Sa Botiga - Carrer Dameto 11. A speciality shop with wines, cheeses, salts, and olive oils.

Colmado La Montaña - Carrer Jaume II, 27. A small shop specializing in salts, meats, and cheeses that are local to the area. They also had the cheapest prices on Mallorcan salts.

If you want to bring back any alcohol I highly recommend waiting to purchase it at the airport so you can carry it on. I brought Stefan back some of the Gin Xoriguer Mahon this way.

Shopping

Zapping - Pas d'en Quint 1. A boutique store with beautiful and unique clothing at reasonable prices. 

Natural Mente - Carre Palau Reial 3. A natural shop selling beads, shells, and natural decorations. They also state the items in their store are responsibly harvested and legal to take home.

Jewelry - Edmund Arnold Joyero. Pas den Quint 4. I bought turquoise and coral necklaces at the shop across from Zapping. They have authentic stones and metals, but classic and simple pieces.

For my quintessential children's book I bought it in the book store at the back of the tourist information office at Passeig del Born, 27.

Locals Suggestions
Unfortunately we didn't make it to the following... hopefully next time.

Ummo- Carrer de Sant Magí 66. Upscale and unique dishes. Catherine has been before and she and her friends raved about it.

Beaches - locals highly recommended visiting Cala D'Eia (a rocky beach) and Son Serra De Camprina and Sa Ràpita. (I hope I spelled these right... I was copying from his handwriting).

Dragonera - the Dragon island off the West coast. From the images I saw the island and beaches are very beautiful. 

Prague

Friday, October 3rd is reunion day in Germany. I still recall sitting in school and watching scenes from the Berlin wall coming down. I also remember stores selling pieces of the wall and a friend bringing hers into school. I cannot believe how fast the time has passed and that next year will mark the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin wall.

Reunion day also means a day off of work. Seeing as though we haven't had too many long weekends lately, Stefan decided that we should go to Prague. I was hesitant because flight prices were absolutely ridiculous. We paid more to fly to Prague than we have to much further European destinations, but that's the price of having more time to enjoy the city.

Stefan came home from a business trip on Thursday night and I returned home from Salzburg. We then had to pack our bags and wake early to catch our 7am flight. It was rather exhausting, but we were very pleased to check into our hotel and take a nap before exploring the city.

When we got into town we quickly saw one of Prague's biggest sites - the Astronomical Clock. It's complexities and engineering are something I know that I will never understand, but I still appreciated it. There was a couple having wedding photos taken and I am sure they turned out beautifully. It was nice we could see it on Friday morning before the influx of tourists through the weekend.

Nearly everyone I know that has been to Prague has raved about it. Whenever I encounter a place that people go crazy about I get nervous. I don't want to set high expectations that it has no chance to live up to, but I also don't want to be pessimistic about why they would feel so passionate about this city.

After several discussions about why this would be the case, Stefan and I concluded that it's because it is romantic, has plenty of beautiful old and varied architecture, and because it's inexpensive. After major cities like Paris, London, and Rome, it seems Americans always go to Prague, Venice, and somewhere in Germany for the quintessential beer.

Typically when we travel I have a system that I follow. We book our flights, I book our hotel (which is always unique or design oriented), and then I read up a lot. We don't follow an itinerary, but we get an idea of things that would interest us and what is available in the area. Since we booked this trip only a couple weeks before we were going, and we had a visitor, I wasn't able to do that. I had a list of suggested restaurants, however I didn't even bring a computer or the addresses, so that didn't help.

There were several other things that really struck me that Stefan and I had conversations about: subways, food, and architecture.

The subway system is very clean and modern. I appreciated that there were clocks counting from the time the last subway came, so you would know how long you had to wait. I also appreciated the extra fast escalators, although it was a little daunting at first. It was amazing how inexpensive subway tickets were, and the rest of daily expenses for that matter. In Prague, there are a lot of warnings against pick pockets, which didn't worry me too much because it wasn't high tourist season and because we are always very cautious.

Czech food isn't really special. It's a lot of meat heavy dishes, goulashes, and potatoes. For lunch we opted to check out the grocery and grab a few things that we could take with us that were less carb loaded while we walked around town. Near our hotel was a Tesco, which I recognized from a trip to the UK. I recalled they had decent food when I was in college and hoped for the same in Prague. I was taken aback at the open bread bins, especially when I saw a filthy man reaching into them without tongs or any hygienic precautions. Food kind of went down hill from there.

I was really surprised to see so many German brands, even though Germany is so close to Prague. It also amazed me that they had food that was even more bland than Germany's. It was such a disappointment that one evening we opted to have sushi, which is just about as non-authentic as it could be.

The architecture is widely ranging - it really has something for everyone. One of my favorites was the Tančící dům or 'Dancing House'. It was designed by Vlado Milunić and Frank Gehry, who I really admire.

All of the old churches and synagogues seemed perfectly placed and steeped in history. Inside St. Vitus we even saw William Dafoe, from the movie Spiderman. I never would have recognized or noticed him, however someone asked him for an autograph and Stefan knew who he was.

The Jewish Quarter was very peaceful and special. The oldest active synagogue (the Old-New) in all of Europe is located there.

Oddly, one of my favorite places in Prague is slightly morbid - it was the Vyšehradský hřbitov, a graveyard near the Peter and Paul church. The headstones and statuary were just striking and very unique.

It also happens to be the resting place to many famous people from the area. Unfortunately I'm not up on Czech composers and literature, but it is definitely a beautiful place to be buried.

I had never seen headstones marked with a person's signature, which I really liked. The people somehow seemed more real. I don't know if that was reserved for famous people or if it was more common.

The mosaics were serious works of art and so beautiful. I really appreciated all of the attention to detail and the vibrant colors.

The streets of Prague are really interesting. Dust and cobwebs cover many of the statues and building façades. I can't recall a place where I have seen buildings that are covered like that. I would think the elements and weather would have cleaned the surface, but apparently not.

Prague certainly appreciates it's memorials, which were also everywhere. We saw many on the sides of buildings and also at Wenceslas Square, where protests are often held.

One area that seemed to be more pristine was a beautiful neighborhood near the castle which housed all of the consulates and embassies. I loved the winding cobblestone streets and colored buildings. It seemed much more quiet than the bustling tourist centers, like the Charles Bridge, which was even more crowded due to construction.

The castle gardens were very striking, but I did find it odd that you couldn't take photos there. I don't know how strict they are about that because we didn't go all the way in, but we could see a lot of it through the beautiful garden at the Polish embassy.

We didn't always avoid the tourist hot spots. I loved looking at the shop windows, which were typically filled with tacky t-shirts with phrases like 'Czech me out', crystal in all shapes and sizes, bottles of green glowing absinth, and nesting dolls.

If I get back to Prague I would really like to check out the museum of communism and the chocolate museum. Prague lives up to its bohemian reputation. They had street exhibits and beautiful photography. One exhibit was aptly called 'Alive' and it really did bring life and color to the area.

And of course there was plenty of graffiti, which always intrigues me. The skill of the graffiti artists is lacking a bit, but I did see a few interesting things through town. I think a lot of the urban edginess can tell a lot about the area.

One of Stefan's coworkers recommended the Letenské sady park. It is a great area to see the city from above and to see some interesting street art. There were many skateboarders enjoying their afternoon as well.

I loved walking through the park on a perfect autumn afternoon with the most beautiful golden leaves falling around us. It was quiet and romantic. The dogs were enjoying themselves and kicked leaves up as they ran.

Finally were my purchases. I could have bought nearly everything at the small Marks and Spencers grocery. I loved all of their simple, but beautiful packaging. I also loved that they have American brown sugar.

The children's book that I chose for this trip is about a small boy who finds a key and then thinks of all the possibility and wonderful things that could become of it. The book ends with him losing it on his way to school and another boy finding it beginning the imagination cycle once more.