We went to a fascinating art exhibition called “To Be or Not To Be” the Clam-Gallas Palace in Prague’s Old Town. The first is called Hamlet, and the bust is a study of the contrast and struggle between life and death. The last image in this series has the names of the artists.
Paratrooper Heroes in Prague
We just visited a Czech Orthodox cathedral where seven Czechoslavakian paratroopers hid after assassinating Himmler’s sadistic right-hand man, Reinhard Heydrich, in Operation Anthropoid in 1942.
They resisted proudly but paid with their lives, as did their collaborators and many others. The attack set off a wave of far-reaching recriminations . I have never seen such courage on display.
Don’t miss this free museum when you are in Prague! Learn more at https://prague.eu/en/objevujte/national-monument-to-the-heroes-of-the-heydrich-terror-narodni-pamatnik-hrdinu-heydrichiady/
We got into a cab and it turned into a party.
Party taxi in Copenhagen! https://www.instagram.com/reel/Cis09mYpofm/?igshid=NDRkN2NkYzU=
#messysuitcase #Copenhagen #travelblog #travelblogger
Climbing Gozalandia Waterfalls
Wear good, non-slippery water shoes and a bathing suit if you decide to visit Gozalandia Falls, because you will not be able to keep from jumping into the enticing pool at the foot of this huge waterfall! The main waterfall is truly amazing, at least 50 feet tall, and there are several places where you can climb up and jump in (at your own risk). Or just swim in the pool at the bottom, watching fish swim around your feet.
There is a cement sidewalk and stairs to lead you to the main falls and several above, plus you can just walk in the creekbed.
The drive to get to Gozalandia on narrow, winding mountain roads is not for the faint of heart, which is the only reason you might consider paying a guide to take you. Otherwise, just set out on your own and navigate carefully! It’s about 1 1/2 from San Juan in San Sebastien.
The gate is open from 10 AM-6 PM, and there is a $10 charge for parking. Go early to avoid the crowds, though the community feel of lots of people watching each other swim and jump has its own appeal. Make sure you take time to enjoy a drink and snack at the end of the day in the little restaurant by the parking lot, which overlooks a green pond populated by turtles.
Be aware that the falls can be dangerous if there’s a lot of rain, so use caution and common sense.
Images of the Falls
Links
Info on the falls: Puerto Rico Day Trips.
How to get there: Google Map
Hiking Laguna Guaniquilla
We came to see the rocks in Laguna Guaniquilla, not far from Buye Beach.
But we found so much more in Punta Guaniquilla, an amazing nature preserves full of natural wonders!
We encountered distant vistas.
Unexplained ruins.
Mangroves seen from a different angle.
Spectacular Caribbean views.
Salt flats that hosted 10,000 skittering crabs.
Jagged boulders rising from the water of Laguna Guaniquilla.
Hidden caves with signs warning of potential seismic activity.
More hidden caves.
Sleeping frogs.
Interesting plants.
Termite nests, some fallen on the ground.
You reach this hike by heading south on foot from the local favorite Buye Beach, down a puddle-mucked, narrow road through a neighborhood of ramshackle cottages that face the Caribbean Sea. Bring lots of water, and definitely bring a camera!
Learn more from Para La Naturaleza
Hiking the Appalachian Trail
OK, so we can’t go to movies. We can’t go to restaurants. We can’t explore new cities, make new friends, photograph churches, practice Spanish, soak up the culture. But we can get outside and explore nature!
So while we have been living in Grandma’s condo in Mechanicsburg, PA, this Spring and summer, we at Messy Suitcase have been spending a lot of time on foot exploring the Appalachian Trail here. You can access an interactive map to get info about the trail in your region, if you live in the northeast United States.
Here are a few facts about the AT:
Total Length: 2,190 Miles
Number of States the ATTraverses: 14
Approximate Gain/Loss in Elevation: 464,500 Feet
Visitors Each Year: 3 Million
Here in Cumberland County, the trail has its lowest, flattest stretches, but there are still some hills to climb. Much of it runs along the Conodoguinet Creek.
How to Hike Safely in the Age of COVID-19
We have several rules we follow when hiking. We wear lightweight gators around our necks to pull up for use as masks should we pass anyone. We start early (to avoid heat) or hike during off-peak times because NO ONE else bothers to mask. We move well off the trail to let people pass. We wear long pants because of ticks. We are gluttons when we pass wild black raspberry or wild raspberry patches.
Frozen Pineapple Margarita
If you can’t be adventuring because of COVID-19, then it’s time to go on some journeys of the palate! So last night I created Frozen Pineapple Margaritas. I didn’t have Triple Sec but Simple Syrup did the trick. Here is the recipe:
Ingredients
- 1 cup ice
- 1/2 cup frozen pineapples
- 1 1/2 ounces tequila (White is recommended but reposado is also delicious)
- 1 ounce triple sec (or Simple Syrup)
- 1 ounce lime juice
- Garnish: Slice of lime
Instructions:
- In a blender chop ice and pineapples. You may need to add lime juice at this stage.
- Add other ingredients.
- Blend until smooth.
- Poor into chilled class with lime garnish.
- Enjoy!
Makes 1 margarita. Obviously multiply the recipe to make more. A blender will have enough room for three. Feel free to add extra ice depending on how thick you like your margaritas and how hot it is outside.
5 minutes
Locking our Love Forever with Love Locks
Happy Valentine’s Day! We wanted to celebrate the annual day of love by sharing the story of our love locks.
A couple of weeks ago, Bob and I attached a little gold padlock to the new Love Lock Bridge near the Riverwalk in San Antonio to lock our love forever, then kissed and took a selfie to mark the occasion. On our lock was written in Sharpie “RG & LH,” inside a hand-drawn heart pierced by Cupid’s arrow. The bridge was actually a chainlink fence along the San Antonio River, but it was covered with hundreds of locks of other couples declaring their undying love.
It was the 15th time we have declared our forever love by placing a lock on a bridge. Normally we are not super-sentimental people, but love locks are a ritual we have grown to cherish during our travels, leaving our mark on bridges and walls all over the United States, Europe and Mexico (so far).
Paris, France
It all started in the summer of 2016, when I was planning to accompany Gavin’s scout troop on a week in the romantic city of Paris. Before we left, Bob gave me a padlock and asked me to write our initials on it and hang it on the Pont des Arts Bridge, which was famous for having so many lovers’ padlocks affixed to it that it groaned under the weight, and authorities had had to cut them off. He had seen the bridge during a weekend he spent alone in Paris during a business trip, and thought it would be nice to have our own lock there.
Surprised and touched by this rare sentimentality, I happily obliged. After the troop set off for the next leg of their trip, Switzerland, I went down to the River Seine and searched for the love locks. The city had decommissioned the Pont des Arts Bridge in 2015 because of the weight of the locks, so I went to the Pont Neuf. It was covered with thousands of lovers’ padlocks tumbling down the banisters and onto the railings of the river walls beyond. Across the River Seine from where I stood was a magnificent view of the Louvre. I locked our padlock, blew a kiss to Bob across the ocean, and took pictures. I’m sure if the locks get too heavy, authorities will cut them off again. But until then, RG & LH will grace the Pont Neuf in Paris, the city of lovers.
It was a grand, and small, gesture of love. It felt good. It made me think about why I had married this man, what we had experienced together, and how special our life was.
Hamburg, Germany
Three years later, we were visiting my brother Patrick in Hamburg, Germany, and walking along the Elbe River when we saw another bridge covered with lovers’ locks. We didn’t realize the tradition had expanded beyond Paris. Since we were leaving the country the next day, we went and found a hardware store to buy a lock, wrote RG & LH with a Sharpie and enlisted Patrick to hang it for us. A few weeks later, he sent a photo of our lock on the bridge. (Thanks, Pat!)
And with that, we were off, searching for love lock bridges, or creating our own, everywhere we went, together or apart. While on a five-week tour through Europe, we hung locks everywhere.
London, England
In London, we strolled across the pedestrian Jubilee Bridge and listened to a street musician playing Caribbean steel drums while we snapped our padlock in a spot all its own and kissed above the Thames River.
Rome, Italy
After a long day of sightseeing as a family in Rome, when Gavin’s and my feet were aching from miles of walking, Bob trekked back in the rain to hang a lock over the Tiber River.
Sorrento, Italy
Farther south in Sorrento, on a solo weekend trip while I was off doing genealogy searching with some Italian cousins, Bob discovered an iron fence with love locks along the Mediterranean coastline about a mile from his hotel during his morning run. He spent the afternoon searching for a padlock and a Sharpie, but a torrential downpour forced him to wait to return until the next morning, when a break in the rain gave him time to quickly walk there and fix the lock in place before heading for the train station.
Hydra, Greece
In Greece, during a daylong boat trip, Hydra, an idyllic fishing village where bleached-white houses climb up the mountainside from the azure Mediterranean, offered herself as an entrancingly scenic host to our love lock.
Ludlow, Vermont
The tradition continued when we returned to North America. First, we affixed a love lock to a bridge in Ludlow, Vermont, where we have our second home.
New Orleans, Louisiana
Then we headed down to live in Mexico for the first six months of 2019. During a two-night on break the road trip south, we took the streetcar to hang a lock on a chain-link fence in New Orleans, under a banner that read Love Locks NOLA in front of the Eiffel Society, a club built from parts of a former Eiffel Tower eatery.
Leon, Mexico
When we came to Mexico in January 2019, the first city we stayed in was Leon, where we found the Puente Del Amor (love locks bridge) at one end of the Causeway of Heroes, a wide pedestrian walkway that serves as the gateway into the old city. After spending an afternoon looking for ferreterias (hardware stores) to buy a padlock, we put our lock through the padlock of another lock at the top. The bridge looked down upon a highway, with mountains in the distance.
Lake Chapala, Mexico
We never found a good spot in Tlaquepaque, where we lived for four months, or Guadalajara, the city next door. But we visited beautiful Lake Chapala, half an hour south, for a day trip and walked out to the end of a fishing pier to hang our lock on a rusted turquoise railing overlooking Mexico’s largest freshwater lake. On the way, we had been stopped by announcers for a local radio station who were broadcasting live, and thus posed for the obligatory selfie in our new orange Guadalajara T-shirts.
Guanajuato, Mexico
By far the most interesting place to hang our lock was the magical town of Guanajuato, where there’s an alley so narrow that people can kiss from across two balconies. There’s a tragic legend of a young man who was killed for stealing a kiss from the daughter of a rich man. We put up our lock and kissed across the alley. (Fortunately, Bob survived.)
Montreal, Canada
We lived in Vermont during summer 2019, and took a couple of trips to Montreal, Canada, hanging one lock on a bridge overlooking Gay Village and the other on a small bridge in the main pedestrian area along the St. Lawrence River, looking out at a huge Ferris Wheel.
The Farm, Cascade, Pennsylvania
When we visited The Farm, the family homestead in the mountains of Central Pennsylvania where Lisa’s paternal grandmother grew up, we hung a love lock from the rusty metal rope that secures the entrance to the old lane.
Thwarted
We were occasionally thwarted in our efforts. In the beach town of Cambrils, Spain, there was no official Love Locks bridge, so we scouted the promenade along the ocean but never found a spot where we could thread a padlock. There was an official Love Locks spot in Barcelona, but we didn’t have time to visit it. We have looked several times while in Burlington, VT, but have not yet found a spot for a padlock.
Part of the tradition of the Love Locks is to throw the keys into the river to seal your eternal love, but we don’t do that because we don’t think it’s good for the health of the fish or the river. Thus we still hold all the keys to each other’s hearts.
Our Love Locks Map
Click on each pin to see an image of the lock in its home!
Up Next …
We have just arrived in Mexico City and are looking for a place to hang our 16th lock. We’ll keep you posted!
Enjoy the video of our love locks experiences on the Messy Suitcase YouTube Channel. Happy Valentine’s Day!
Mexico, My Tummy and Advice from Kelly Clarkson
looking out at the spectacular view that has become warmly familiar in the five
and a half weeks we have been here. I have barely eaten in three days.
Mexico has to offer.
Gastronomic Curiosity
tourist Mexico, we are NOT eating at the Hard Rock Café or the typical tourist
traps. We are eating the Mexican way.
produce, bread, chicken and fish at local mercados (markets) and tianguis
(pop-up markets), which means we have to ignore the presence of the flies and wash
everything carefully with disinfectant before we can eat them. We enjoy meals from
puestos, food carts, often with seats, eating tacos, tortas and lonches (different types of sandwiches, filled with meat and cometimes smothered with sauce) and gorditos (little filled pancakes).
We love buying raspadas, which are shave-ice and syrupy fresh fruit, often
accompanied by sugar-drunk bees.
A delicious cup full of salmonella (Just kidding – raspadas never made us sick. Only supremely happy. Every damn day.) |
where we have made some magnificent discoveries. I found the best green salsa I
experienced in Mexico, with mouthwatering chunks of avocado, at a walk-up food
stand in the Mercado at Plaza Embajadoras. Whenever I can, I indulge in Horchatas
and Horchata Fresas, a uniquely Mexican rice, cinnamon and vanilla drink that
is made even better by adding fresh strawberries.
My favorite street food in Tlaquepaque: Elote (corn) with a (mystery) crema (cream of indeterminate origin) and queso (shredded cheese) o |
tequilas. We indulge in nieve de garafas, ice cream handmade in metal jugs
with ice and energetic stirring with a wooden mallet. Flavors include elote
(corn), pay de manzana (apple pie, with real pieces of pie), queso de zarzamora
(blackberry cheesecake), Ferrero Rocher, Nescafe, and often 10 or 20 more. Bob’s
favorite place in Tlaquepaque offered at least 60 flavors.
Hecho a Mano
are washed. You just have to not think about it.
The best salsa in the world … |
… and the pork tacos I smothered with them |
Paying the Price
a few days of service to the commode. I
don’t think you need me to explain the symptoms. It has happened to Beto and me
twice and Lex only once (she is not as adventurous, which may be a good thing).
we rest a lot (because we’re weak and moving is painful) and enjoy a riveting
diet of ginger ale, Saladitas (Saltine crackers), Gatorade and chicken and rice
soup. We call them inadvertent dieting opportunities, which have given us a chance to shed the pounds we gained scarfing down ice cream through every city we visited in Europe last fall. I assume each tummy bout makes our systems stronger and more acclimated to whatever may be in the food.
To Quote Kelly Clarkson
you stronger!”
Don Quixote in Guanajuato
Quixote right outside, and a brilliant baritone singing in front of the house
next door, so who we were we to say no?
Who the Heck is Don Quixote?
is a fictional character created by the Spanish author Miguel de Cervantes in a
book rather awkwardly titled The Ingenious Gentleman Sir Quixote of La Mancha. This
is what Wikipedia has to say about it:
Published in two parts, in 1605 and 1615, Don
Quixote is the most influential work of literature from the Spanish Golden Age and the entire Spanish
literary canon. As a founding work of modern Western literature, it regularly appears high on
lists of the greatest works of fiction ever published, such as the Bokklubben World Library collection that
cites Don Quixote as the authors’ choice for the “best literary
work ever written”.
even Aryk, the writer and English Literature major. This is what Wikipedia says
it is about:
The story follows the adventures of a noble (hidalgo) named Alonso Quixano who reads so
many chivalric romances that he loses his sanity
and decides to become a knight-errant (caballero
andante), reviving chivalry and serving his country, under the name Don
Quixote de la Mancha. He recruits a simple farmer, Sancho
Panza, as his squire, who often employs a unique, earthy wit in dealing
with Don Quixote’s rhetorical orations on antiquated knighthood.
Don Quixote, in the first part of the book, does not see the world for what it
is and prefers to imagine that he is living out a knightly story.
Don Quixote and My Mother
square, was founded in 1987 by the collector Eulalio Ferrer Rodríguez, a former
captain in the Spanish Civil War who, legend has it, traded a pack of cigarettes
for the book Don Quixote, and the book helped keep him
sane and captured his imagination during the time he spent in a refugee camp in
France. An entrepreneur involved in communications and advertising, he later immigrated
to Mexico and brought his devotion to Don Quixote to Guanajuato, which is now
famous for its annual, month-long Cervantino festival – even though Cervantes himself
never set foot in this city!
Eulalio Ferre Rodriguez |
An Amazing Variety of Art
probably the mansion of a mine-owner, and it houses in 16 rooms a striking collection
of different types of pieces by different artists whose theme revolves around
the figure of Don Quixote and the rest of the characters in the novel. There
are bronze sculptures, surreal paintings, sketches, multimedia pieces and more!