Summer scavenger hunt, part one

I read considerably more than I write, in every area, including blogs. One blog I enjoy is by a friend in England, whom I've "known" via internet for probably about 12 years, and met once in person, in 2003. This summer she participated in a photo scavenger hunt, which I thought sounded like fun and thought about participating in...but mostly forgot about, except for when reading her updates. A few days ago she finished, so I'm finally getting my act together to at least see which photos I have. There are actually quite a few lists out there with ideas, but here's the one I bookmarked:

1. A pier
2. A clothesline
3. A border
4. A roadside stand selling something
5. A train
6. A historical landmark
7. A person playing a musical instrument
8. A person dressed as an angel or a statue of an angel

9. A fountain

10. A horse

11. A shadow

12. A maze, labyrinth, or trail.

13. A library

14. A person playing with a ball.

15. Someone dancing.

16. A bride.

17. A church, chapel, cathedral, mosque or temple.

18. A movie poster

19. An outdoor stairway

20. A swing hanging from a tree (or a hammock)
21. A picture of you standing with something that symbolizes your nation.

 

I had intended to check in every once in awhile and go take photos, but I never did, not a single time. While in Germany, though, I did remember that "a train" was on the list, and as there are no trains in Cyprus, I made sure to photograph several trains. (I think one of the other lists must have mentioned "a train coming into a station", because that was what I actually thought I had to capture.) The train photos are the only ones that were taken specifically for this blogpost, the others just happen to have happened this summer. :-) As the official scavenger hunt goes until the official end of summer, I don't suppose I should have included photos from before June 21st, either. However, it has felt like summer since at least May, and still does, so there are a couple of photos from May. And now, without too much more rambling, here are some of the photos I have so far:

1. a pier

My brother, Shawn, was here for a couple of days in July. He and Lukas are looking (unsuccessfully, unfortunately) for a geocache here, on the main pier at the marina down at Finikoudes.

 

 Two of the many photos Jörn took of Katie while spending a morning with her not too long ago.

2. a clothesline

Elisabeth is hands-down my very best laundry-hanging-upper-helper. She hung up all of the things on the two spinny things herself, as she does regularly.

3. a border

 I don't know exactly where the border is in this photo, but I took the photo while hiking in the Troodos mountains in August, standing in the souther part of Cyprus, and the coast is in the northern part. While the border is admittedly disputed as even legally existing (the southern part of Cyprus and the vast majority of the world consider the northern part to be illegally occupied), it does exist practically.

 

5. a train (or two or three or...)

 

As these were the only photos I took specifically for this blogpost, and as usual, I kind of went overboard, it's probably just as well I basically forgot about the scavenger hunt all summer...

 

This is the S1 arriving in Angermund, Düsseldorf, where I lived for over three years. For two of those years I took this train twice a week to Duisburg for German classes and usually at least once a week into Düsseldorf to go to the library, plus several times to go to the airport, and the third year I took this train two or three or four or more times a week to see Jörn in Essen. In all those years, though, I rarely saw the train arriving--I was usually running up the stairs shouting "hold the door!" (or rather, "Offen halten!!") after the train had arrived in the station. On this day, we were taking the train to Mülheim (where we lived for eight and a half years) to visit my friend Peggy. And traveling with three small children and a carseat (because Peggy's husband drove us back to Margaret and Phil's house that evening), I was nice and punctual.

 

At Mülheim main train station, we went downstairs and took the Straßenbahn (tram/streetcar which is sometimes underground) to Oberdümpten, where Peggy lives. It was strange being only a ten-minute walk from our flat (which we still own, but is rented out) and not seeing it.

 

This is the transportation system from the long-distance train station at the airport to the various parking garages and terminals, and it goes by the grand and glorious original German name of "Sky Train."

 

It's fun to stand right at the front (there is no driver, so no engine to be in the way) and have a good view--here's Helen with Margaret, as Margaret and Phil accompanied us to the airport the day we left Germany. (And we'd taken the S1 to get to the airport--it's just one stop, and faster than going by car.)

 

We had a ten-hour layover in Vienna and went into the city. This photo was taken on the way back, taking a city train (I guess similar to the tram system in Germany) back to the main train station in Vienna.

 

And this is the train from the main train station to the airport, something comparable to the S-Bahn system in Germany.

 

6. a historical landmark

 

This photo could double for number 12 (a trail) as well. This is the Venetian aquaduct at one end of the Salt Lake Trail near our house.

These are fake Roman ruins in the gardens of Schönbrunn Palace. For all that, they ARE from the 1700s, so I figure that counts as historic, but mostly, I found it extremely amusing that they were built just because ruins were fashionable!

And here's a view of Schönbrunn Palace with Vienna behind it.

 

7. a person playing a musical instrument.

 

I could take a photo of Elisabeth who is right now banging on a wooden box with two wooden sticks and singing along, but I'll stick with the photos already sorted out. I already have too many anyway.

 

Marie playing "Happy birthday" for Jörn in May:

 

The next two photos were actually taken by our friend, Birgit, who visited in April. Helen and Elisabeth spend a lot of time at the piano, Helen picking out tunes fairly often, and Elisabeth has even done so a couple of times!

 Marie at her music school's recital. The last recital with that school, as her teacher moved to a different music school and Marie opted to move with him.

Despite all the violin photos, Marie actually spent much more time this summer playing the guitar, which she's teaching herself, than the violin. I took this photo while we were visiting friends up in Platres, near Troodos...

...where Elisabeth also "played" the recorder...

...and Lukas learned at least how to hold, if not play, an Irish harp.

 

 

I just added "part one" to the title and am going to go ahead and post this now, still hoping to finish the rest before the end of September...