Sunday, June 16, 2013

Travels: Munich

I was on the road for most of the past few months, which explains the radio silence here.  Most of my travel was work-related, but DH and I enjoyed a few days of relaxation in Munich, where I had time for a little photography.

I enjoyed the colors and textures of the Viktualienmarkt in the Altstadt, the old town center.  This lively outdoor market offers all manner of tempting produce and prepared food:




I also found a lovely quilt shop, Quilt Et Textilkunst:


The shop includes a gallery in the back, and for 1.50 Euros, I saw a wonderful exhibit of quilts by Lucia Schmücking.  I didn't buy much fabric, since most of the shop's selection consists of quilting cottons readily available in Canada and the U.S., but I couldn't resist a gorgeous half-meter piece of Japanese fabric, as well as a couple of spools of variegated Valdana thread.  I though the thread was something different and not readily available at home, but it turns out that Valdana is a Canadian company!  Oh, well.

The woman at the counter didn't speak English, so I had fun working on my admittedly limited German.  I wasn't sure of the fiber content of the Japanese fabric I was buying, so I tried to indicate my feeling that it might be a mix: "Es ist nicht 
nur Bauwolle, ja?" (It's not just cotton, yes?)  The response--"Doch, es ist Baumwolle" (Yes indeed, it's cotton)--offered a perfect lesson in the use of "doch," a German word that doesn't have a direct English equivalent, but indicates insistence and correction/contradiction.

Quilt und Textilkunst had some of FVMQG member Cynthia Frenette's Kona Modern Quilt fabric displayed prominently right through the front door:




Where other people take pictures of beautiful architectural structures, I'm often aiming my lens at the patterns on the floor.  Here's the mosaic pattern in the Dianatempel at the Hofgarten:



If you've followed international news recently, you know that southern Germany suffered from terrible flooding earlier this month.  Munich, fortunately, was largely spared, although the Isar River was running fast and furious.  We arrived in time for the tail end of the rain, but after one gloomy day, we had three days of glorious sunny weather.  On our final evening, the light towards sunset cast a gorgeous glow on the city.  I tried to capture some of the special golden gleam in this photo of the clock at the Deutsches Museum:



By that time, the water was starting to recede, and I spotted a beaver happily working his way down the Isar:


The water also had turned a wonderful shade of jade green and white:


Now I'm home and sewing again.  I've got a new quilt top approaching completion: more photos soon!

1 comment:

  1. Thanks for a glimpse into your travels! So cool that you found Cynthia's fabric in a quilt shop in Germany!

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