Harvey Travel Arts

The Bronze Monkey of Heidelberg is not something people expect to see in Germany. Monkeys? Really? But, there has been a monkey of some sort in the city near the bridge for centuries. This particular version was installed in 1979 by Professor Gernot Rumpf. The first time I lived in the city, our FLAG class (Families Learning About Germany) took a field trip and visited the monkey. Now I love to show it to visiting friends and family. It's humorous and I daresay rubbing it is said to bring "good luck"--something I don't believe in, but a fun little thing for a photo op. And for those of you who are wondering; yes, there are some fun photos of me, Brian and friends with the monkey.

Brian enjoys Starbucks. Before we met, I had only been to Starbucks two, maybe three times. I don't drink coffee, and I didn't really have a reason to go. Now I have grown to enjoy our regular trips to Starbucks; I can get a wide variety of non-coffee beverages: tea, hot chocolate, steamed milk, cream frapuccino. But the point is, the stores have become commonplace and mostly trendy little boxes that all look somewhat identical. However, this Starbucks on the Hauptstrasse in Heidelberg is the most unique location I've seen. I'm not sure what the building was in its history, but the architecture is still preserved. The round loft is the most popular spot; so much that we have never seen it empty. Even the rest of the store is usually full of people, but we found a rare moment to get some photos of this great little spot. Enjoy the view!

Our move is getting closer, friends! This is the view Brian and I had from our former flat in Heidelberg. We were just a window away from a train, bus, and a bunch of quaint buildings, churches, homes. From this location in the south of Germany, Brian and I could go as far as Paris or even London--just add Eurostar--without getting on a plane or in a car. We traveled with my mom once from our hotel in Paris, walking first to the metro, heading to the train, switching trains once or twice, and off just in front of the flat. That was so convenient! Brian and I have been praying about our next place in Heidelberg. We will once again be living on the economy and have a small selection that the housing office will assist us with. Will we get a home with Old World charm? Another modern flat or townhome? Heart of the city near the Hauptsrasse? Countryside with more green space (grass!). I was starting to worry, but then remembered that God answered prayers the first time around wit...

I have been in knots about our move this past week. If you read last Friday's post, you'll see that Brian and I have an incredible opportunity to move back to Heidelberg. (The view from our old flat is seen above.) Something else happened this past week that caused my excitement to wane. There's a volcano in Iceland that I'm not going to try to pronounce or spell at the moment. The ash from this Icelandic volcano shut down airspace over most of Europe for about a week. There is still uncertainty about other volcanoes, and whether or not airspace will be locked out again. Ash is once again in my life. Seven years ago our household goods became ash in a moving fire. Now ash has stopped hundreds of thousands of people in their tracks, all of whom had to wait and travel an unexpected journey. Some have missed weddings, lost jobs, and missed family. At the same time, I was wondering what would happen if the volcano continued erupting until we needed to fly. Things...

I'm going through all of the random photos in the to-be-sorted folder. As I said in my last post, these are some old photos that have been scanned in from a disk. This one in particular took me down memory lane, and was a little bittersweet for me to find. It is a photo of one of our favorite restaurants when we lived in Heidelberg. Granted, this Cafe Journal location is actually in nearby Schwetzingen; the other one was on the Hauptstrasse in Heidelberg. The restaurant served delicous soups, sandwiches and salads for a nice lunch, or tasty entres for dinner. We preferred this location because it was a beautiful location to not only people watch (as you can do so easily on the Hauptstrasse), but to take in the beautiful palace across the road. This town had a great squre where the restaurants all were, a farmers market, and in the winter, ice skating. Some friends of ours lived there and we enjoyed spending many afternoons or evenings visiting the town. We really miss liv...