What the Art Teacher Wore: #65

Who knew The Force was so strong in Germany? Photo snapped outside a Lego store in Nuremberg. sweater: vintage, thrifted; skirt: Free People; scarf: France; boots: The Walking Company; belt: Anthropologie

Ermay, if I promise you that these are the last of my vacay photos will you forgive me? I'm hoping so as I've totally enjoyed sharing my adventures with you. As ya know, we spent lovely four days in Paris which I blabbered about here and here. On the fifth day, we flew into Nuremberg, Germany to attend the wedding party of some friends. We arrived in the morning where hubs promptly went off to work leaving me to spend the day in Nuremberg...

Old Town Nuremberg is the beautiful part of the city that is completely walled in. A lovely place called the Imperial Castle sits at the very top of this walled fortress, overlooking the lay of the land. I traveled to this city over the summer where I was able to get much better photos of the view. You can see them here, if you don't mind all the photos of our school mascot in the mix. I adored this shop window of antique dolls.

The food in Paris was amazing, especially the desserts. Which I greatly missed while in Germany. Don't get me wrong, I do love me some pretzel bread. But this here vegetarian can only eat so many stinkin' pretzels!

That Imperial Castle I mentioned earlier? Well, here 'tis. Not exactly what you were expecting when I said "castle" was it? I think I love this more than my vision of a cold gray stone slab of a building. I think I have a weak spot for timber framed houses. And flowery window boxes. Oh, also those striped shutters!

More Imperial Castle awesomeness.

So after eating, shopping and exploring my way through Nuremberg, I had to get myself to the actual wedding party. By myself. Without a car. With the help of some super friendly Germans, I found the train station, my train and made it safely to Neustadt an der Aisch. Yeah, you ask for directions to that place ten times fast. I huffed it back to our hotel from the train station just in time to get dolled up and head over to the party...where this was taking place.

Yeah, so I'm not German. And I'm not familiar with their traditions. So this one was very fun and unique to me. The deal is, as a guest, you bring old ceramic plates to the wedding party. The bride and groom (pictured above in their traditional dress) wait outside while you wish them well and break dishes at their feet. They then sweep up the dishes and throw them away until not a single shard it left. Keep in mind that there were about 600 folks at this party. This bride and groom were working for at least 2 hours while the rest of us drank and dined.

Me and Mitch (aka hubs).

Because my hubs works for a German musical instrument company (called Meinl, if you're interested), we've traveled there frequently. When we do, we always stay at what's become my favorite hotel, the Allee. It sits right beside a sweet little park with a pond where you can see the ducks swimming and folks out walking their dogs.

The following day hubs and I got up and took a day trip to the town of Bamberg, aka the Venice of Germany. As you drive through the countryside of Germany (which is exactly that, beautiful countrysides), you pass through these amazingly old towns filled with castles and churches older than the country I live in. sweater: DIY, here; top, coat and pants: Anthropologie; scarf: Orla Kiely

Everything was blooming. We strolled the streets and shops of Bamberg even stumbling upon a vintage flea market.

I struck a pose on this very bridge this summer. I had to snap a picture of this tour guide and her rapt Harley audience.

Okay Bamberg, Venice of Germany you may be, but I think I'd much rather find myself in a gondola than a kayak going upstream!

We ended our evening back in Nuremberg to have dinner with some friends. The city was insanely busy because they were celebrating something called Blue Nights...which was basically like a pub crawl illuminated with blue light bulbs. Hey, I'm down with any kind of celebration, don't get me wrong! Just as long as I'm not the one sweeping up a mountain of plates. 

Thanks for enduring the last of my Euro-vacay photos. You deserve a pretzel.

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What the Art Teacher Wore #22

Last Minute Bag Packing Monday: Yeah, I've gotten really bad at bag-packing-procrastination lately. Which means each trip I manage to come home with a new umbrella, toothbrush and a pair of shades. dress: thrifted Target dress that I added the big bow to last summer; hair clips: H & M

Well, hello, er, guten tag, amigos (what, you didn't know I was trilingual?). I thought I'd share with you what I wore around the states and Deutschland this week. I found these wonderful vintage vacation advertisements for Germany that I just had to share as well. My apologies for the photos, they aren't my best work. But the model was experiencing some serious jet-lag and gelato-hangovers so I did what I could. 

I do hope you have a lovely week. I'll be back shortly as I have a little traveling craft I've been working on that I'm excited to share. Until then, auf wiedersehen!

The weather has been absolutely lovely here. It's that perfect spring time temperature without any humidity like we have back in Nashville. Images via pinterest.

Flying Day and Night: Knowing that I'd be traveling by car and plane for 12 hours, I decided to wear the comfiest thing I could. dress: Gap with embroidery DIY you can read about here; tights: Target; sandals: DIY you can read about here.

I actually love a long plane ride. We don't have cable at Casa de Cassie so that wee telly and I do a lot of catching up on those 8 hour flights.

Dinner in Neustadt an der Aisch Wednesday: The company that my hubs works for is located in this sweet village. We snapped this photo on our walk home from a very filling traditional German dinner at a local brewery. sweater: vintage, thrifted; dress: vintage, Pre-Post Modern in Nashville; bag: Anthropologie, last winter

I love this country, especially in the summer. I have visited two other times in the late fall...which has been wonderful because of the Christmas Markets...but so chilly! The summer here means delightful temps and sunset at 10pm.

Guided Tour Thursday: I was so excited to have a sweet friend guide me through Rothenburg. Photos of my adventures there (as well as Jes') soon. sweater: Target, old; dress: thrifted vintage; belt and flower clip: H & M

But when my tour guide had to work, I was left to my own devices...that's right, me on the autobahn in a VW, of course! Thankfully I was once again in good company and bossed around by a GPS. 

Nuremberg, I Think I Love You: Okay, I know I do. I've visited three days in a row! It's the most delightful town. I've been through castles, churches, an artist's studio and shops. Lots and lots of shops. I was so excited to score my second pair of Irregular Choice shoes -- eep! sweater: Target, old; dress: Anthropologie, a couple years old; best shoes for walking on cobble stoned streets: Chacos, of course

I even managed to find some vintage Nuremberg postcards today in an "antik" shop. Vintage postcards are my fave, especially those with writing and postage, so fun.

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Adventures with Jes: Nuremberg

I have a feeling poor Jes is going to meet an untimely death at some point. Poor little fella almost dropped to his doom during this photo. He's like a stuffed tiger Mr. Bill. Oh...that just gave me a whole fresh batch of ideas.

 Greetings from Deutschland! Since arriving on Wednesday, I've managed to embarrass myself countless times with my wee stuffed tiger.  Thankfully, my real traveling companions have been great sports and have done an excellent job of pretending that a grown woman snapping photos of a flattened cat is the most normal thing in the world. It's probably a good thing I don't understand a lick of German.

I thought I'd share with you some of my favorite photos of Jes in the beautiful town of Nuremberg. This is the second largest town in Bavaria (that's a southeastern German bundesland or state). It dates back to 1050, if you can imagine. We began our trip at the Kaiserburg which consists of three castles that tower over Nuremburg.

Yeah, so they don't have elevators to the top of this view. Which is probably a good thing for the two-gelato/three-pretzel/five-German-chocolate-bar diet that I'm workin on.

 During the Renaissance, this town was the hot spot for artists, craftsmen and those intellectual types. Kinda like the Soho of the day, so to speak. And with views like these, who wouldn't be inspired?

Several buildings just like the one above are apart of Kaiserburg. One of the things I've loved about being in Germany in the summer is seeing all of the beautiful flowers in bloom. It seems nearly each home has a window box bursting with color.

Who needs an alarm system when you've got a lock like that? This door leads to the castle grounds.

If I don't drop Jes to his doom, he will most assuredly be stolen by tourists. Not only is he popular with the kids (who think he's a free toy they've discovered when I set him down to take his picture) but adults alike as they've also began taking his picture. I can only imagine what their facebook caption would say: "Freak show American with stuffed tiger -- only in Europe!"

At the base of the castle is the home of one of Germany's most famous artists, Albrecht Durer. During the Renaissance era, Durer was best known for his prints but was also an incredible painter and draftsman. I cannot wait to share photos of his home and studio with the kids this fall.

"Don't hate me because I'm beautiful," Albrecht Duer, 1471-1528

Dunno Durer? Recognize these hands? Well this is one of his many masterpieces. You can check out more here.

St. Lorenz-Kirche or church. This beautiful church was built pre-Renaissance. It sits very close to some of the most amazing shops known to man where I may or may not have stuffed Jes into my purse and spent way too many euros.

Jes spinning the ring at Schoner Brunnen in Hauptmarkt. It's said that if you spin the rings at this 14th century fountain in Nuremberg's main market, you'll have wishes granted and good fortune. Wishing for more beautiful days, adventures and hoping hubs doesn't find all of the shopping bags I've stuffed in my suitcase.

 Well, that's all of Nuremberg for today! Stay tuned for Jes' adventures in Rothenburg ob der Tauber and Bamberg...if he makes it that far. Thanks for reading.

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