Witches and what-nots

I finished a needle-felted witch for the Fall craft show.

She's a morning witch and, like me, she can be especially witchy without her coffee.
 
So, now for the what-nots: a collection of photos from my trip that I found amusing.

 

 

Castles and pumpkins

I've still got a little jet lag I'm sorry to say. Or maybe I'm just allergic to housework. Sometimes I wonder if all the traipsing is worth it.  But of course it is.  As a nice lady from Sweden told me on a park bench somewhere along the way, "I'm collecting countries."

I'm collecting pumpkins.  I started early this year so I'd have a good crop for the craft fair.  Maybe I can add a little more change to my piggy bank.

One of the highlights of our river cruise was the day we spent watching castles go by.

It was a hot day and space up on the sun deck was at a premium.

We were lucky to find chairs in the shade under the awning, 

but it wasn't long before the river turned and we were in the sun.

Most of the castles (there are 40 along this stretch of the river) were built in the 12th Century.

Many were heavily damaged or destroyed during centuries of warfare and had to be rebuilt.

Only one remained completely unscathed--Marksburg Castle in the town of Braubach--until 1945 when it was damaged by American artillery fired from the other side of the river.

So now it's time for witches.  I have one week to finish them and that won't be easy.  They can be cranky.

Life jackets yes; lifeboats no

So there's really no room for lifeboats on a river boat. And there's really not much need either.  You could pretty much just walk to shore.  Just one of many differences between a river cruise and an ocean cruise.  Another difference is that once you return home from a river cruise you have to do a lot of resting.  On an ocean cruise you can do your resting right on the ship.

My apologies for not blogging along the way.  The post I did from the hotel in Amsterdam went instantly from my iPad to the blog, but things seemed to bog down once onboard. And since I had places to see and people to meet, I had little time to fiddle.

The trip was wonderful (24 days from Amsterdam to Bucharest via the Rhine, Main, and Danube) and I will share some of it here in the coming days, along with the crafty items I'm trying to finish for the October old hotel show that's coming up soon.

Thanks for hangin' in!