A Postcard A Day - Friday 22 February 2019 - Friday Smiles

Hello Lovelies,

It's Friday again! Gosh, that week has flown by! It's been a lovely week weather wise. We have been eating outside on the terrace all week.

I'm going to show you some of my postcards that arrived this week:

 This card comes from Germany and was sent by someone called Gabi. The town is Ulm. She tells me that Ulm has the highest church tower in the world, and that Ulm has a very nice Museum of Modern Art.

And I received another card from Finland. My favorite naughty aunties illustrated by Inge Löök.

Sent to me by Isabel. She writes that she bought the card from Mrs Inge Löök herself at an annual book fair in Helsinki.

This is the stamp. Quite fun don't you think?

Earlier this month we went to Almería for a few days. Here are some photos of the impressive cathedral.

It was built between 1524 and 1562 in the gothic style with renaissance facades.

 It was built as a fortress because of Berber (North African) pirates attacking Almeria. You can clearly see this in the next (old) photo which I got off the internet:

We stepped inside into a huge court yard/cloister.

There we found a door into the church bit:

 Inside is very impressive. We were given an audio guide (in English) for a detailed explanation. This photo is from the leaflet: (Much better than my photo)

 One of the chapels with a lot of art:

 This is in the room where the clergy used to (and probably still do) get dressed. In the large drawers, the vestments are kept and there are mirrors. Here I am having a bit of fun photographing myself in the mirror.

That is my for today. I'm going to link up with Annie at A Stitch In Time and with Virginia at Rocking Your World Friday. 
I'm afraid I haven't got many funnies this week, but a few things to think about. 
The one about marriage is quite funny, I saw it somewhere else and someone had added something about a joker, but I have forgotten the punch line .....

Have a lovely weekend,
Big hug,
Lisca

A Postcard A Day - Tuesday 19 February 2019 - T for guitar museum

Hi everybody! It's Tuesday, so off we go to join Elisabeth and Bluebeard at the T-Party. You can join in with a blogpost that has a beverage or a reference to a drink in it.

I usually start with showing you some postcards. (My hobby is Postcrossing, which is a worldwide postcard swap). This week I received two postcards from Finland, a country that has a lot of Postcrossers. 

This beautiful, cold looking card was sent to me by Pamela, who tells me it was -5 degrees C with 30 cm of snow. She is looking forward to spring as she is 'getting tired of the white stuff'.
The stamp is beautiful too. It features the northern lights or aurora borealis. A natural fenomena that I have yet to witness in person (But I'd love to)

The second card comes from Finland too. It features a yummy looking waffle with cream and jam! It really makes me hungry for the wrong things! I love waffles, but they are not good for my figure and that is the reason I have never bought a waffle maker. I might have to relent though, after seeing this....

The stamp has a very handsome dog on it. I assume it is a sleigh dog. It's not a Husky, and it's not a fox either as it is wearing a collar. It seems to have a very thick coat to keep it warm in the snow.

Last Sunday we went on a little trip to nearby Almería. It is on the coast and about an hour and a half drive from home. But we had never been there, so we decided to have a look what it has to offer.

We found a nice hotel in the centre of town (so we could leave the car and walk). Car parking space in Spanish cities is at a premium and not every hotel has parking facilities, but this one had. It was built underneath the hotel and was accessed by a car elevator. This was new to me. We'd never  used one of those before, so that was fun. I have put photos of the hotel on my previous blog (Friday).

We'd been to a party on Sunday afternoon, so we weren't hungry in the evening. All we wanted was drinks and tapas (snacks). In the Granada province (where we live) we get a free tapa with every (alcoholic) drink. Here in Almería they go a step further in that they let you choose your tapa. Wow, that is good. 

In the photo you see the tapa list on the table, Hubby had a beer and a burger, and I had red wine with a Russian salad. Very nice. Hubby then liked it so much, he ordered another one. The total bill 4.50 Euros! (beers 1.25 x 2 = 3.00 plus 1.50 for a glass of wine. The tapas are free).

The next morning we went sightseeing. We visited the Guitar Museum.

It was all about Almerían guitar builder Antonio de Torres. (some blurb from the leaflet further down in yellow).

The bottom floor featured a giant model of his famous guitar. I took this photo from the upper gallery. One can walk underneath the guitar model, where there is a lot of information about De Torres's guitar building. 

The maker's label that is inside the guitar, was stuck on the floor. We saw it as we walked underneath the huge structure. When you walk in, you don't realise you are walking inside a giant guitar. It doesn't become obvious until you go upstairs, from where i photographed the label.

The ground floor houses a replica of Torres's workshop, and described the tools and the method. It also showed all the different kinds of woods. Very interesting. There was a video explaining and showing how a guitar is built. In Baza (we live just outside Baza) there are still a couple of guitar builders and we have been in their workshops a few times when hubby, who is a guitarist, needed something. I am always fascinated by their art.

There was also a photo exhibition about what Almería looked like in Torres's days (19th century).

Going up the stairs to the first floor, there were famous guitar-themed works of art. Then we looked at the players gallery. A compilation  of great guitar players in history (including people like Hendrix and Clapton).

There was a space where acoustics were explained and one could 'have a go' at playing. So hubby had a little strum on one of the modern guitars lying about.

Then there was an exhibition on the history and development of the guitar from antique guitars to lutes and vihuelas. (see this short article from the Encyclopedia Brittanica). 

At the end there were headphones where every antique instrument could be heard.

Here is a copy of the leaflet about Antonio Torres:

I hope you enjoyed the visit to the guitar museum. We certainly did. I don't play the guitar but I have lived with a musician husband for many years and have been 'roady' to his gigs whenever I had a weekend off (he led a ten piece folk band). And now living in Andalucia where guitar playing (flamenco and classical) is in their blood, it was a very interesting experience.

Happy T-Day,

Stay safe,

Lisca

A Postcard A Day - Friday 15 February 2019 - Friday Smiles

Hello lovely Friday ladies,

I can't believe it's Friday already, and the week has just flown by. 

I'm going to Join Annie at A Stitch In Time with some funnies at the end and I will also link up with Virginia at Rocking Your Week Friday.

First off are some postcards I received this week. 

This card comes from The Netherlands and the cute blond boy is in fact the king of the Netherlands, king Willem Alexander, when he was a boy

There were some interesting stamps. The stamp on the left has the king's face on it and the stamp on the right celebrates 100 year since the foundation of De Ploeg (The Plough).

The Groningen artists’ collective De Ploeg was founded on 5 June 1918 in response to an exhibition of local work at the Pictura art lovers’ society that excluded a large number of young artists. Painters including Jan Wiegers, Jan Altink and Johan Dijkstra decided it was high time to abandon 19th-century ideals. Reacting against the work of artists like Jozef Israëls, Otto Eerelman and H.W. Mesdag, they let go of old traditions to seek new paths in painting. Vincent van Gogh, a forerunner of expressionism, served as a major source of inspiration; the artists of De Ploeg held his penetrating work in high esteem. 

"Since there wasn’t that much to do in Groningen when it came to art, I thought of breaking ground, digging up the earth, and I thought of ploughing. That’s where the name De Ploeg [‘The Plough’] came from." – Jan Altink, 1918

The second card comes from Germany, namely from Stuttgard. It is a map card, and I love map cards, so I am very pleased with this card.

The card had this picture printed on the back (as a thumbnail) .

This stamp has the cute-factor.  It features baby raccoons.

So, what has my week been like? Saturday, I had a baking session and had my first attempt at cinnamon rolls. I must have used old yeast as they didn't rise, but we ate them anyway and they were still good (but not as they were supposed to be). On Sunday, after church, we were invited to dinner at friends from church and we had a lovely time. There were about 10 of us round the table. These sort of gatherings do wonders for my Spanish, as one of the ladies is a teacher and speaks English. She actively corrects me and that is very helpful.

After the meal we left for Almeria (we had the suitcases in the car). Almeria is about an hour and a half drive from where we live. It is on the coast and therefore a bit warmer than here. Our hotel was in the centre and it had parking, so we could do everything on foot. The car parking is underground and the hotel has a car lift. Very strange:

 As most older buildings in Andalucia, this hotel was built around an inner courtyard, the patio. All the rooms are either on the street side or overlooking the patio. Here am I looking into the patio.

 We went out on Monday morning, full of enthusiasm only to find that all public buildings (such as museums) are closed on Mondays. Bummer! So we walked along the boulevard:

 And could only look at the Alcazaba (Moorish palace/castle). There was a footpath that went quite high around it, though we couldn't go in. It is an impressive building.

 And the views are fantastic. 

 There was a ferry in the harbour, that we watched leaving. They are the ferries that go to Marocco and there is also one that goes to Algeria.

 Some more views of the Alcazaba. We actually visited it the next day, but the photos of that will be for another blog. (Possibly on Tuesday)

We came back on Wednesday, Thursday I did some scrapbooking. I'm still working through my pile of photos from 2016. 

Here is hubby eating a pastie in Bath.

 My best friend Ineke, who came to visit me that year.

 Just a photo of me. I have used another of my collage clusters that i made last week.

I think I'll leave it at that. This is becoming rather a long post. Well done if you are still with me!

Have a lovely weekend,

Stay safe,

Hugs,

Lisca

Here are some funnies: