Day before festival Aug 31,2017

We had a grueling drive here from Denver yesterday but thankfully arrived safely and are now feeling great. ( Michelle & I just had a massage, too!)

Our condo is good and not far from the theatre where we'll see most films.  Today we got the festival program and are thrilled at the films that will be here!
A sampling: Lady Bird ( not about Johnson) starring Laurie Medcalf;
Battle of the Sexes starring Emma Stone as Billie Jean King & Steve Carell as Bobby Riggs;
Hostiles staring Christian Bale;
Downsizing with Matt Damon, Kirsten Wiig, Laura Dern, Christoph Waltz;
Loving Vincent -- about Van Gough, which I appreciate after my trip to the Netherlands;
First Reformed with Ethan Hawke.

Some people who will be here include Christian Bale, who will be tributed this year, Ethan Hawke, Angelina Jolie, Emma Stone, the real Billie Jean King, and filmmakers such as France's Ford Coppola, Ken Burns, Alexander Payne.

Normally on Friday we only get to see a film in the evening ( on this kind of pass) but this year they're adding a couple more during the day. Super!

So we're off to a great start. Looks like back to back films so no promises about when I can write again.
( big thunderstorms today-- pouring right now. ).

Here's a picture of the 4 of us this year.

Jane

Telluride 2017. Aug 31-Sept 4

The group of us this year is Michelle, Julie B, Pat J and me. We rented a new condo this year, so we'll see how we like it.  We're going several days early, as usual, to get used to the altitude & cuz it's fun!
This is the first time I've bought the cheap seats with the others. . . instead of the outrageous Patron Pass.  I have very mixed feelings about this, but will see if I can adjust. I'm saving a lot of $$-- especially since they raised the Patron pass price a lot this year.

We also tried something new with travel this year. We're flying to Denver then driving the 6.5 hours to Telluride (after a night at a hotel at airport).  We'll see how that works.  :-)

I probably won't have anything to write until Friday or Saturday. . . once the festival is underway.
Until then,
Jane

Ashland July 2017 Oregon Shakespeare Festival

My sister & I drove to Ashland from Lincoln where we saw 5 shows in 3 days:

Beauty & the Beast
I'd never seen it before-- live or film --so finally the whole beastiality thing makes sense to me.  😉Lively, imaginative, and entertaining.

Shakespeare in Love
Adaptated from the film. Such a good idea to do that at this festival cuz the audience got all the allusions to Shakespeare. I especially liked this one.

Merry Wives of Windsor
A clever version complete with a sound track of 80 s music!  Very entertaining!

UniSon
Inspired by the poetry of August Wilson... It's a world premiere by 3 OSF company members. Unusual, creative & thought- provoking. I'd like to read it or the source material to get more out of it.  I was surprised that I liked it as much as I did.

The Odyssey.
Well, as you might expect:  Long!!  This one seemed to be the most traditionally staged.
I'd appreciated the shows with modern or unusual spins

As always, the actors, effects & staging were top notch!

We met up with cousin Jan & her daughter, Megan. This is the second year we have gone at the same time, though the three of them go annually.

The food, hotel ( Bard's Inn)and company were all terrific!

Jane

Sunday Oct 16. From Toulouse

We just spent the weekend in Rocamadour where I was unable to get on their wi fi, so now I need to catch up on several days.  I've felt bad because I would have liked to write more each day that included reflections, reactions, etc, but the pace of this trip has been fast and we have had precious few minutes of free time.  So here's what we've done since Thursday.

Fri Oct 14
We said au revoir to Sarlat ( which I really enjoyed) and set out on our journey towards Rocamadour. This was our first rainy day ( so we cannot complain). The region and topography really changed.  We're in the Lot Department ( state). Our first stop along the way was at a distillery in the town of Souillac.

April 19 windmills & tulips

Today is our last day on the cruise. Tomorrow we fly home.
The ship is enroute to Amsterdam and on the way we see windmills and then visit Keukenhof.
Fortunately Merle & I decided to stay on board in the morning so we could exercise, pack and have a short massage. We were able to see the windmill field-- over 20 of them-- at Kinderijk, which is where our shipmates went by bus to see.

The visit to Keukenhof was spectacular. I took a ton of pictures of the flowers.  I would have liked more time there, though, as there was so much to see.  This is a must- see place this time of year!  So glad I got to be there in April. Very special.

(One day I hope to be able to add pictures here.)

This was a good trip, though as I indicated before, I prefer more time on the land than this cruise could have.Lesson learned.
Farewell Netherlands.

April 18 --if it's Tuesday it must be Belgium

So....the way this trip is set up you only get a very limited bit of time in cities so it's reinforced my hunch that this way to travel isn't my favorite.

We docked at Antwerp. Morning excursion was a walking tour in Antwerp and afternoon we drove to Brussels.  It was Really cold again in the morning.

After lunch Merle left the group to spend time with an old family's friend who lives near here.  The bus first stopped so we could snap pix of the Atominium--- huge atom structure from the worlds fair in 1958. Impressive.

Since today was the only time we visited a French speaking city, I decided to go on my own so I could interact with the locals.  While the time here was very short, I did get a very positive feeling for this city--- it felt a lot like France.

I went to a museum very briefly then wanted to walk a bit in the city, to end up at the group meeting place-- the Grande Place.
I had to have a Stella Artois on tap-- my favorite beer that's from here.  Yummy.
Just had a short walk around.

This was " If it's Tuesday it must be Belgium...."
Next trip I'll stay on land.

April 17 Ghent & Brugge Belgium

Today we docked in Ghent and went by bus to see the ancient cities of Ghent ( morning) and Brugge (afternoon) .  These day trips were too rushed and short and we were a bit frustrated, but we did see some nice things.
In the morning it was really cold and the walking tour wasn't very comfortable. Today is Easter Monday in Europe people are off work and it's another holiday for the locals.  The number of tourists was huge!  We thought going in April would avoid the crowds, but that's not the case.  However we got some nice pix and saw beautiful buildings.

The main site we visited was the Ghent church--- Cathedral of St Baro-- the very famous altarpiece by Van Eyck. ( circa 1492).
We had lunch on ship then drove to Brugge.  Merle & I wanted to go at our own pace so we left the walking tour & had our own tour.  That way in the 3 hours we squeezed in a lot.

First we went to the small Groening museum where we saw what's called "Flemish Primative " paintings.  It's art from the 1400s with unusual  features--- very detailed and colorful and almost a 3 D effect. I found them to be very interesting!  Glad we saw them.
I noticed lots of dogs in art and in town--- unlike in the Netherlands. I must be missing  my puppy!  😉

We then went to the Church of our Lady where we saw the Michaelangelo Madonna.statue.

The town was REALLY overrun with tourists and that was not at all pleasant.

We saw beautiful swans and some tulips.