Free Wedding Chapel Time Lapse

At my last post I was getting geared up to photograph Alfredo and Elizabeth's wedding. Well, it has of course come to pass. The weather was let's say...interesting. Chapel Dulcinea provided a beautiful setting over looking the hill country as always. What was a little unexpected was a constant wind of around 15-20 miles per hour and gusts well over 30! It certainly helped keep the temperature down though. Even with the wind, it was a great day for a wedding.

The ceremony went off with out a hitch (and no one was blown over the railing). The recently constructed reception hall on the chapel's grounds also contributed to a carefree wedding. A short walk from the Chapel itself and there we were. The folks out at the Chapel did a really nice job with it.

Thank you Elizabeth and Alfredo for inviting us to share in your day. Also...we had a lot of fun!

The proofs should be ready and posted by the end of the week.

Next up, Charles and Erica. Amanda and I are looking forward to it!

Full Swing

Good Sunday afternoon!  What a beautiful day we have been given in good ol' Austin, Texas.  The sun is out, the clouds are scarce and there is even a good breeze blowing.

I write today from the patio of Austin Java at Southpark Meadows.  It has been over a week since my last post.  My failure to to update the blog however does not mean I there hasn't been anything happening.  I know in my earlier blogs I wrote about getting motion sickness after our last train ride in Germany.  Well, I was out of commission for 3 of  the first 5 days back.  I initially thought I was having the mother of all migraines until I realized that no combination of migraine medication and miscellaneous other drugs that focus on migraines/headaches were working.  What it took to finally make me feel better was motion sickness medication, meclizine and scopalomine.  I went to the doctor and he said I had an inner ear problem called areo-otitis which is what was definitely making me sick.  It is a common thing amongst travelers and scuba divers that deals with the pressure inside the ear not equalizing properly.  So, for now, I still am using the scopalimine patch and per doctor's orders, taking sudafed and using a nose spray to try to clear things up.  Let me just go on record by saying the nose spray is nasty.  Prayerfully the problem will go away if for nothing else so I don't have to use that disgusting stuff.

Immediately upon our arrival back at our home there were photo orders waiting to be processed.  Our first weekend back had us in full swing with Misty and Josh's wedding in Elgin.   Misty and Josh looked great and so did all of the bridal party.  The ceremony had an attendant making an unscheduled appearance.  Misty's little boy, Wyatt, decided he was much happier up with Misty and Josh than with the rest of the guests.  So, he helped himself and climbed on up to the elevated stage. It certainly got a few laughs. Kids are Kids.  The reception was south of Smithville at Kovar Hall (http://www.austin360.com/music/content/music/stories/2007/12/1209dancehallmap.html      look at # 11).  It is a neat country no frills dance hall that reminded me a bit of Gruene Hall in New Braunfels.  It was definitely a "roll up your sleeves" kind of joint.  I say that because one of the modern amenities that Kovar Hall lacks....air conditioning....and it was hot!  Unfortunately, Amanda started feeling really sick (had nothing to do with the wedding of course, just bad timing) and had to leave.  So, she didn't get to sweat with the rest of us.  Despite the temperature, it was a lot of fun.  Good food, good music, good people equals a good time.

Later in the week I met with Fred and Irma about photographing their July wedding.  Fred and I already knew each other so it was nice to have time to meet Irma and talk about their big day as well.  I look forward to being able to provide then with unforgettable images and service.

Saturday morning had Amanda and I started early and met Michelle and David in the booming metropolitan city that is Rockne, Texas for their engagement photos.  We met at the church that has special meaning to them to start with and then went next door to the grounds of the Rockne museum. Yes, that is right, Rockne has its own museum.  No really, I'm not joking.  David and Michelle looked great with the white shirts, jeans and boots.  They made for some really nice photos.  The location came with a bit of irony for Amanda and I.  In both of our lives we have never been to or near Rockne.  Now, in one week's time, we had been the twice.  We drove through Rockne to get home from Misty and Josh's reception.  Go figure.  Of course if not before, we will certainly be back for Michelle and David's wedding next April.

So that brings me to the present.  Amanda and i went to church this morning (www.hpbc.org) and will head over to Austin New Church (www.austinnewchurch.com) in the next hour or so.  The rest of the week will consist of a lot of computer time doing post production on the photos we've taken since we have been back.  We are also looking forward to Thursday and Elizabeth and Alfredo's wedding out at Chapel Dulcinea  (www.chapeldulcinea.org).

I want to end on a  thank you to everyone who has ordered photos over the last couple of weeks.  Your orders are greatly appreciated and one way I know that I did a great job.

Until next time, be blessed.

-Ryan

Good morning, evening, or afternoon. All can be appropriate right now. For me, it is 9 am Tuesday morning Western European time. If you are on Texas time, it is 2 am for you. Amanda and I have about and hour layover in Amsterdam before flying to Houston.

Most likely by the time I am able to post this, we will be in Houston and at the end of our journey. That is the journey ends but the trip has a couple of more days. We will stay a night in Houston and collect one dog and then a night in College Station to collect the other.

Finally, on or by Friday, we will be home. That will complete just over 30 days of traveling. We are so blessed that we where able to have this time together in Spain and Germany. We have many memories and of course a few photos to remember it by.

As much fun as we had, Amanda and I are ready to be home. We miss our friends and family here at home and of course, we miss our pets.

I will work on sorting and posting some of my favorite photos from our trip over the next couple of weeks. This first week is going to consist of a wedding and trying to catch up on emails and sort through a pile of mail that I am sure weighs several pounds.

Now we are off to our gate for our flight to Houston.

See you in Texas.
Church in Wiesbaden

View from the Rhein River

M M Winery in Eltsville (millions of gallons of wine)

God Bless.

The River Rhein

Good evening from Eltville Germany. Eltville is about 20 miles from Frankfurt and it sits on the Rhein River. I have heard many things about the Rhein River but in all of my travels to Germany I have not seen it.

We have been in the Frankfurt area for 4 days now. We have had a great time with a little exception. Our train ride from Göttegin to Frankfurt gave me a good case of vertigo off and on for a couple of days. The train moves around 80-90 miles per hour and everytime it went through one of the many tunnels the air pressure in the train changed quickly and dramatically. I finally took enough medication yesterday to reset my equilibrium (it sure did make me sleepy though). Today was much better. We took boat tour of the Rhein which lasted almost 3 hours. The boat had 3 decks and seated around 500 people. During our trip up river there were about 50 people on the boat. On the trip back, there were 4...my friend Reinhard and Petra, Amanda and me. The banks of the Rhein have many different villages, super green mountains and several castles. The scenery itself was pretty cool but being the only people on such a big boat made it even better. I think I will tell folks from now on that I arranged for a private cruise (if they haven't read the blog that is). To complete the boat tour...no motion sickness or equilibrium problems for me!

After we went into Wiesbanden and had some french pizza. It was really good.

Now we are done for the night and have a full day tomorrow. We will start relatively early and go back into Wiesbaden to go to a big church and then head into Frankfurt to tour the city.

We start our flight home on Tuesday, 12:10 am Texas time. I hope to post once more before we start our journey home.

Until next time.

God Bless.

Late Blog from Germany

Hallo from Germany. It has been a while since my last post. We made it from Madrid and to Hamburg, Germany with no troubles. Our flight was on time and our friend was waiting for us at the airport in Hamburg.

We spent 4 nights and 5 days outside of Hamburg in a small town called Maschen. We did not keep a busy schedule at all. It was a great vacation from the busy schedule we had during our time in Spain.

We were able to spend each day with friends and their families. Since our last visit to Germany, our friend Malte has had 2 children (2 1/2 and 4 months). We were so blessed to have the time to get to know them. It was fun trying to learn German from the oldest child too. I hope that my bad German did not confuse her too much.

We were also able spend an afternoon and evening in downtown Hamburg with our friend Kerstin. We walked around and and then had some really good dinner with pizza and interesting calamari. We thought that it would be fried calamari but, it was grilled instead. We all had a strange look on our face when the waiter sat it down but, we all tried it and it was really good.

On Monday afternoon it was time to leave Maschen and head to the booming metropolis of Lauenberg (population around 300). We rode a train to Göttingen where we were met with our friends Torsten and Petra. We went back to their home and had some coffee and cake on their deck. T'was a great day for that. The town of Lauenberg sits between two big hills (I stop short of calling it a mountain) and from the deck you have a fantastic view of the countryside. A nice dinner followed and a lot of visiting and storytelling.

Today we had a nice breakfast again on the deck during a nice cool morning and then went into the town of Einbeck which is about 8 kilometers from here. Einbeck is a very old town with many of the original wooden buildings from the 1500's still standing and being used. Some have been damaged by fire a few times and rebuilt but many of the originals remain. One of the strangest buildings has a problem and it leans several degrees to the left. Really strange to look at.

After walking around we went to the supermarket. It was not a walmart but it had some great stuff. The bakery has fresh bread straight from the oven. Not a place to go if you are hungry. We picked up some super stuff and had bbq last evening. Dinner was painfully good.

Today we went to an animal park 20 minutes from Lauenberg. The weather was perfect for walking around. Deer, elk, goats, rams, and a really funny chicken like bird that I forget the name of. It makes some crazy noises.

This evening it is off to Frankfurt and then to explore the Rhein area for a few days.

Sorry for the delay in the posting.

Alles gut and we I hope to write again soon.

God Bless.

-Ryan

Capital of Spain

From Madrid....
Our train ride to Madrid was nice and smooth. It was a holiday in Spain so the train was packed with people but, it was still a good trip. In coach class we got to watch a movie (and it was in English subtitled in Spanish), had access to the cafeteria car, and there was even a plug in for my laptap.

After a short cab ride we found ourselve at our hostal...yes, hostal..not a typo.

We got settled in our room and then went out. We walked to the Prado Museum just to see where it was at and then around the area our hotel was at. We had a very good dinner at a place called ¨Miau,¨ yes, that is Spanish for meow. They had a digitized photo of a cat on the doors. We thought it was funny. They food was really good though. After all this time I think we finally figured out the secret to getting good service in a restaurant...sit at the bar.

After dinner we walked around to a one of the many different plaza´s where people hang out. Our first clue should have been the amount of police presence there. Amanda found a clothing store that had some inexpensive clothing. I just wandered about outside the store waiting for her. It only took about 3 minutes until someone who we´ll call, an independant relationship consultant of the night wanted to make my aquaintance for 20 Euro. And in the spirit of the Howie Mandell game show.....¨NO DEAL!¨ So, after this there were 2 plain clothes police officers near that I saw making contact with different people so I thought I would visit with them. I told the officer that the lady had said to me and he said, yeah, she´s a prostitute. I asked if that was normal and legal here and he said yes. Interesting. Í did not know that. I let them get back to work and I again was just hanging out.

I video taped the area just to show the shady side of Madrid. There were another group of police officers that had come through and were making different contacts. They were 40 or so yards away from me with their backs turned my way. I had some other lady whom I highly suspect of being a coworker of the first tell me in spanish that I could not video tape here and I could not video tape the police. My response was ¨ok¨ however I think it was obvious there was a big hint of ¨go away¨ in it. She told me that she was going to run and tell the police...which she did. The police officers raised one a hand and told her to go away in the same manner you would try to get rid of a cat off of your front porch. After that, she just paced near me giving me the evil Spanish eye. I am not sure why this lady had problem with me but, she did.

As soon as Amanda was done in the store, we left that place. I the first 10 minutes were an indication of what was to come there...I didn´t want it.

We walked around some more and then made it back to the hostal without any other experiences with police or prostitutes...strange how that can actually be an accomplishment.

After a restful sleep for me at least (Amanda said she didn´t sleep very well) I write you this update and wait to see what the day holds here.

Tonight is our last night in Spain so maybe I will write again tomorrow before we leave. Tomorrow it is off to Hamburg Germany. For the most part, our crazy hectic days I believe will come to an end. Our goal in Germany is not to run all over the place (although we will be in 3 different cities) but to take time to visit with our good friends there. Hopefully there will still be time for updates and photos.

From Madrid...

(oh, and in case some of you are wandering...and I know probably a few of you are, no, I did not get a photo with the prostitute).


God Bless.

The Great Wall of Spain

Greetings from Sevilla.

Our train ride to Sevilla was a short 40 or so minutes. We were in a club car which had a little cafeteria in it. Big seats, not many people and an expresso make for a nice trip. Our stay here after a day and a half has been great. Amanda did a super job on our hotel, which is actually a 1 bedroom apartment. Living room, tv, kitchen, coffee, dishes, sink, and separate bedroom. It even has laminate flooring throughout.

We did not do too much on our day of arrival. We took showers after our morning of exploring the Alcazar in Cordoba and rested. We had a light dinner and then we were off to a flamenco show. This by far was one of the most fun things we have done...pricey, but, worth it. 30 euros each or about 45 dollars each. It was 2 hours of phenomenal dancing. I have never seen a flamenco show before. It was such an awesome display of music, singing and dancing. True flamenco is apparently an extremely expressive dance. The performers' faces had just as much to do with the dance as their hands and feet. As far as photos go, I was able to get some very interesting ones. The venue did allow photography but certainly was not set up to make that easy. The stage was dimly lit in shades of red and blue and the performers of course were often moving very quickly. Regardless of the conditions for photography, again, it was a great performance and one that I highly recommend at Los Gallos in Sevilla.

Today we had a nice and economical breakfast in the hotel part of our apartments (they manage both) and then it was off exploring. We hit the Alcazar and then the Cathedral. The Alcazar was HUGE. Once again, Amanda and I were separated at the beginning (which does work out well for both of us on occasions) and it was 2 hours later that we found each other. The Alcazar here had 4 or 5 different large gardens and 2 palaces with in its walls. It also had an abundant supply of doves, ducks, little blackbirds, and peacocks. The photo below is of the old bathhouse/suana. It is all natural lighting and it is pretty cool how the water reflects everything.

After 2 hours of walking there we went to the Cathedral. It is a massive building. It isn't near as colorful as the one was in Granada. This was done more in the gothic style. A lot of stone and not much light. It does however claim to be the final resting place of Christopher Columbus. There is quite the large tomb to let you know so.

After an hour in the Cathedral, I hit the Great Wall of Spain. All I wanted was to take off my shoes, put my feet up and do nothing. The pace and weight of carrying around my gear finally caught up with me. My feet, legs, back, neck, and head all seem to hurt at once...oh, yeah, and I was hungry. Amanda was feeling very similar so, we left. We went right across the street and had some good ol' fish and chips at this Irish Pub. The fish and the seats were very well received.

Next was a little more walking to a grocery store and then, finally, back to our apartment. A shower and a sofa felt really good. It is there that we stayed the rest of the evening with only one small exception. We left the room and walked 50 yards back to the lobby of the hotel to get the internet access. Soon, it is off to bed and in the morning 2 hour train ride to Madrid which will be our last stop in Spain.

So, it is that time again...buenas noches from Sevilla and I look forward to writing you in Madrid.

God Bless.