Going to Europe

Hey that's near me!!!!!!

don't worry most Dutch people speak English and almost everything is clearly priced too ;-)

please email me jessamy _ thompson @ orange . nl (remove spaces first please!) and I will help as much as I can and if at all possible I'd love a meet up (or two if the first is fun and we have time :-D )

Are you sure that 3 hours north of Prague is still in the Czech Republic? On my one trip to Prague, right after the Wall came down, there was no problem making myself understood. Probably even more people speak English now! IIRC there is a large American community there.

One thing I plan to track down some day is allegedly found near Dresden in the town of Pulsnitz. It's called "Blaudruck" (blue print) and the technique goes back centuries. They first printed blue designs on linen with woad dye, now it's more indigo on cotton. I saw some reproduction bed curtains in a museum, they were lovely, and the nice museum lady told me what to look for.

Another cool textile from the German state of Thuringia is "Plauener Spitze", a special lace-making technique that uses thread painting on gauze. Made nowadays by machine, so it's affordable. After stitching the designs, the gauze goes into an acid bath and dissolves, leaving the thread lace. Find out where you will be, and we'll be more help. Most actual quilting supplies and fabrics are imported from the USA (at great expense), so you don't need to buy those. But there are a number of interesting regional fabrics around, including a lovely range of woven stripes and plaids made in Germany (Westphalen Stoff). Roberta in D

"Tia Mary" schrieb im Newsbeitrag news: snipped-for-privacy@mid.individual.net...

Jessamy -- I will certainly e-mail you. If we will be anywhere near you, I would absolutely LOVE to have a meet & greet :-). Also, if we do this, you will need to think of what type of quilty stuff I can bring you from this side of the pond!! We'll talk more in e-mail :-))). Anyway, when we were in Amsterdam in 2002, I found that just about everyone spoke English and did so quite well! I was quite at ease wandering around town by myself while DH was in his seminars. I am sitting here looking at my VERY old world atlas and the nearest largish city to Dusseldorf is Arnhem. DH *still* hasn't found out the names of the places we will be visiting!! Anyway, the town is supposed to be just an hours drive north of Dusseldorf and I have no idea if Arnhem really is where we will be! I have just gotten off the phone with DH and told him -- insisted actually, LOL -- that he find out exactly where we will be on this trip!!! CiaoMeow >^;;^<

PAX, Tia Mary >^;;^< (RCTQ Queen of Kitties) Angels can't show their wings on earth but nothing was ever said about their whiskers! Visit my Photo albums at

I just phoned DH and asked him if the town that is 3 hours north of Prague is even in the Czech Republic -- and thanks for the correct spelling! He has no idea just *where* we will be -- only that Prague is the nearest city with an airport we can fly into! He is Slovenian -- his dad was born in Yugoslavia and didn't come to the States until he was five. His mom was born there also but came to this country when just a baby. Anyway, being raised amongst a bunch of "bohunks" and other assorted folks born and raised in various parts of Europe his attitude to where we will be is fairly blase'. He just says we will be somewhere in "one of those central European" cities -- LOL! Anyway, I have been quite firm in my request for the name of the town we will be in that is "about 3 hours drive" north of Prague. I must assume it is a fairly good sized town since the company he will be visiting makes intricate engine parts for gas turbines. Hopefully, I will have names later today. CiaoMeow >^;;^<

PAX, Tia Mary >^;;^< (RCTQ Queen of Kitties) Angels can't show their wings on earth but nothing was ever said about their whiskers! Visit my Photo albums at

On Wed, 7 Feb 2007 20:38:06 -0600, Tia Mary wrote (in article ):

Can't help you on what to look for, but it sounds like a lot of fun.

Maureen

Oh, that sounds like a fun trip!! It is nice that you will be able to go with him.

Luckily Venlo is "just" 45 mins away from me :-D

both Vienna and Prague have their merits visitor wise I'd be hard pressed to choose actually - good thing I don't have to LOL

Howdy!

Oh, wow! Thanks, Roberta! Good rem> Are you sure that 3 hours north of Prague is still in the Czech Republic? On

There's actually a fairly large quilt store in Vienna: Exquisity. And if you go to regular fabric shops, look for dirndl printed cottons and pretty silks -often found at the semi-official Austrian handicraft shops.

Tell your DH to check out traveling via Munich too -I'll take you to lunch, schedule permitting :-) And I know where the fabric stores are. BTW, train travel is delightful. Roberta in D

"Tia Mary" schrieb im Newsbeitrag news: snipped-for-privacy@mid.>> ....... Anyway, I have been quite firm in my request for the name of the

A bit off your route (two hours south-east of Prague), but you could look for Moravian blueprint near Brno - nice stuff, made in a restored factory you can visit.

Prague is overrated. It's a bloody great stage set for a Sigmund Romberg musical packed full of touts trying to sell you teatowels of Kafka and tickets for third-rate Mozart concerts.

============== j-c ====== @ ====== purr . demon . co . uk ============== Jack Campin: 11 Third St, Newtongrange EH22 4PU, Scotland | tel 0131 660 4760 for CD-ROMs and free | fax 0870 0554 975 stuff: Scottish music, food intolerance, & Mac logic fonts | mob 07800 739 557

We've been to Brno - stayed in the Hotel Santon out on the hydro lake (on the end of a tramline into town, very convenient as well as having a holiday-resort feel to it).

We really liked Brno. You have got to love a place whose town mascot is a stuffed alligator. It doesn't have any of the pretentiousness of Prague.

Nice places to visit near there: Telc (mediaeval market town with a wonderfully preserved castle) and an amazing cave system, one of the biggest in Europe, which you can get a boat ride through. And the Moravian blueprint. We didn't get to the Janacek museum, unfortunately (Janacek is one of my favourite composers, the Brno concert hall is named after him).

Moravia also has good wine and interesting Balkan-sounding folk music, both unlike what you get in Prague For both booze and music it's on the other side of a cultural faultline that divides the Germanic Western-European world from the Slavic/Eastern-European one.

============== j-c ====== @ ====== purr . demon . co . uk ============== Jack Campin: 11 Third St, Newtongrange EH22 4PU, Scotland | tel 0131 660 4760 for CD-ROMs and free | fax 0870 0554 975 stuff: Scottish music, food intolerance, & Mac logic fonts | mob 07800 739 557

What a wonderful adventure! I can't wait to hear about it when you get back, Mary.

Some people have all the luck! Harumph! Have a great time for all of us who wish we were going with you!!

THere is a lovely fabric store in Amsterdam which has fabrics that I adore. You can see it here.

I'm sure they sell there fabrics around the Netherlands. Have fun!

Tia Mary wrote in news:52vgoeF1qb9ueU1 @mid.individual.net:

sadly Amsterdam is over 2 hours from where Tia Mary will be :-(

Followup to my own post: some other places to see in Brno:

- the Spilberk prison, which was the Austro-Hungarian Empire's equivalent of Guantanamo Bay. The history is very well presented.

- the Augustinian monastery which has a display of mummified monks in the basement. It isn't quite as gruesome as it sounds. Looks a bit like some backpacker hostels I've been in.

- the Mendelium, the museum of genetics based around the place where Gregor Mendel worked. The displays are very inventive and there's a lot of stuff about the politics of genetics under Stalin (who had ideas about science as cranky as Dubya's, if somewhat less catastrophic in their implications). The loos are labelled XX and XY.

- the big tower in the centre of town. Amazing view if you don't mind heights.

============== j-c ====== @ ====== purr . demon . co . uk ============== Jack Campin: 11 Third St, Newtongrange EH22 4PU, Scotland | tel 0131 660 4760 for CD-ROMs and free | fax 0870 0554 975 stuff: Scottish music, food intolerance, & Mac logic fonts | mob 07800 739 557

So THAT is why the city of Brno was familiar to me! I have always been fascinated by Mendel and genetics so I actually paid a bit of attention to that part of my science classes when I was at University -- LOL! I will have to see about finding this museum. I won't have but 2 days there so sightseeing will be limited but this will be high on my list! Thanks so much for this info :-). CiaoMeow >^;;^<

PAX, Tia Mary >^;;^< (RCTQ Queen of Kitties) Angels can't show their wings on earth but nothing was ever said about their whiskers! Visit my Photo albums at

Howdy!

Jack, I do enjoy your travel reviews. ;-D

Reminds me of people who go to Matamoras and think they've been to Mexico, or to Dallas and think they've seen Texas. ;-D

R/Sandy