Buddha's Flower - 4 My Sister

Title appropriately borrowed from song by Ottmar Liebert



So on day two in Holland, I met up with my fanmenco sis Kym.    We trekked by train and bus to get to Keukenhof where this photo was taken by some Asian sisters who asked that we take their photo for them.  I wonder where they were from?  Our boots were made for walking and after Keukenhof we hopped a train and spent the afternoon in Utrecht.

Needless to say my trip had come full circle in that meeting up with Kym was the intent of my return to Europe.  Kym and I go way back and Ottmar Liebert is the reason we became friends back in 2004 and we met up in Seattle in Spring 2006 for an Ottmar Liebert concert. She's been to Houston twice and so I promised a trip to Holland as I had been looking for a reason to return to Europe.  Last summer a co-worker and I began talking about traveling to Europe in summer 2015 but summer is peak travel season and thus Spring become the next option.  Also, our travel group quickly grew to five--the more the merrier!  Originally, I only wanted to travel through Holland and Germany for a ten day trip but we got such a bargain money wise for our trip and all the planning beforehand came to fruition in our seven days of travel.   I convinced Kym to join us in traveling to Cologne, Germany and six of us gals laughing, drinking and sightseeing not to mention partaking in the wonderful food was such a blast.  Blessed to have such great friends/sisters near and far and thankful such wonderful memories from our trip.

Netherlands - Dan Fogelberg

I was totally obsessed with Dan Fogelberg way back when!  He was just so dreamy with his poetic music and such a talent!  I didn't know that the album title is a play on Nederland, Colorado, the location of one of the studios used to record the album. Nederland is the Dutchname for the country known in English as the Netherlands.  Seems like everything is coming up Netherlands these days! ;-)

Transcendental Reunion

Transatlantic Sessions 6 - Mary Chapin Carpenter - with Aoife O'Donovan ...

from twenty thousand feet high, I saw the lights below me twinkling just like Christmas. 

 We descended slowly and the curve of the world passed 

with all of that flying above a mighty ocean and now we all are arriving. 

 Grab the carry on baggage and join the herd for the mad line 

to take our place-but where does everyone come from?  

Now I'm stamped and waived through and say my prayers and sing a hymn to the faithful...  

Finally, the tears and embracing that leap over hemispheres 

toward that transcendental reunion where all borders vanish, 

we are all travelers traveling, we are gypsies together, we are going and coming

 and we are  just finding our way to our next destination from night into day. 

 In giant birds belly, I flew over the ocean and from twenty thousand feet high

 and how the lights were glowing toward that transcendental reunion.

The last weekend of March ended with a bang as on Friday, I traveled to Galveston with a friend to see one of my favorite performers- the incomparable Mary Chapin Carpenter perform at the beautiful Opera house.  She sang this song (video linked above) which she wrote when she was traveling to Europe.  The past few years or so, I've been wanting to return to Europe and visit a dear friend and finally all that planning came to fruition on Monday, 3/30/15.  Thus, in a giant bird's belly, (KLM 747) I returned to Europe some 30+ years later and landed in Amsterdam just after 6:30 a.m. (Holland time)  and 11:30 p.m. Houston time.  I was a traveler once again travelling to a far away country with four girlfriends and the adventure began!