Collection Complete

My son's Europe collection is now complete and he can bid a fond farewell to the experience.

His final sword just arrived.

This one is much more elegant and detailed than the Lionheart sword. It is another heavy weapon, but came with its own wall plaque.

Thank God it also came with its own mounts and brackets. Another wall in his man cave is going to hate me very soon.

This one is a Robin of Locksley weapon (also known as the Earl of Huntington - better known as Robin Hood) and sports a pretty red crystal embedded in the pommel. The blade is etched with elegant runes and the hilt is decorated with two eagles' heads. It's a lovely specimen. No wonder it cost a bit more than the first.

The store also included a large brochure (in German, of course) that included examples of many other swords, specifically swords of kaisers and those of historic German nobility. My son visually devoured it and found several additional swords that hadn't been on display when he'd been in the shop. He's already making a mental list of those he'd like to have, though he wants to wait until he goes back (if he chooses to do so) because the group received nice discounts for purchasing in the local stores. How considerate of him. Hmmm...

Just a glance at the website reveals that they received some very good discounts indeed. He did good.

Now if he decides to return in two years...

Slaying the Snowman and Other Sword Tales

The deliveryman just came bearing a gift.

My son finally received one of his swords purchased in Rothenburg, Germany during his Europe travels.

Comparatively speaking, it's actually rather lightweight for as long as it is. The medallion at the cap of the handle sports the familiar symbol of Richard the Lionheart. It's a nice rendition of a medieval knights sword.

The sword quickly found its place on my son's sword rack in his man cave. It's a good thing the sword was a little lighter than some of the other ones because I don't know how much more weight the wall can hold. Now there are only two open slots left on the rack.

The remaining sword to arrive has a home ready for it unless it comes with a separate hanging plaque. Another wall in his man cave already sports Anduril from the Lord of the Rings, but it hangs on it's own plaque. Had to buy special mounts to screw into the wall before hanging it because THAT, my friends, is one heavy sword (not to mention the thing is loooong!). That poor wall would kill me if we tried to hang another sword on it.

Never realized my son's penchant for swordplay until he was four. I bought him a cute little plastic sword, with which he summarily slayed a snowman and broke the tip off into it. We finally found the tip when the snow melted, but that poor sword didn't last long no matter how much superglue we used. Then he received another larger plastic sword as part of a costume a few years later.

Then came fencing classes when he received his first "real" sword, an electronic rapier weapon. He's been collecting various swords ever since, including two from the Final Fantasy movie sitting on his bedroom dresser. Sometimes I forget about those.

Of course, I have a tendency to support his fascination when birthdays and Christmas come around. Fantasy is my favorite genre remember.

For now we'll await the next brave deliveryman to grace our doorway, once again bearing a gift from the Old World to the New.

The Time Has Come

Well this is going to be my last post on my son's Europe adventures until his return. I'm leaving this afternoon to go up to Kansas City to pick him up tomorrow night.

My old choir buddy has lived in Kansas City for almost two years, and she's invited me to spend the night tonight and hang out tomorrow until my son arrives Saturday evening. It's going to be so nice to have time to chill and talk about life in general. I've really missed her.

We used to wreak havoc together in choir, but in a good way. Sometimes church needs a little pick-me-up of energy and excitement. She and I rather bounced off of each other that way when we got to going. Always so much fun and rambunctious. There's really no one else right now that I can do that with in the soprano section, so I'm on my own except when she comes for a weekend visit.

So anyway, I'll be staying with her until time to go pick up my son at the airport. My goodness, it is so hard to believe that sixteen days have almost been wiped off the calendar already. The time has flown this week especially.

Last we left off, they just spent an absolutely fantastic and glorious day in Venice, Italy. Thursday they awakened to prepare for another departure into Germany. On their way to their respective village, they stopped off for a couple of hours at the Dachau Concentration Camp and Museum. What a sobering experience that had to be. Quite a change from the previous day's excursion in Venice.

They had a special Jewish song in their repertoire to commemorate their visit to Dachau. What a haunting moment that must have been to stand in the gallows of hell and sing the song of the Jewish peoples who were snuffed out there. Gives me goosebumps just to think about it.

That evening they arrived in the village of Rothenburg, an ancient walled city of Germany where portions of the old wall still stand today. Wow! Their hotel was in the heart of the old city near these ancient ramparts. After dinner they had time to explore the history of their final stop-off on their European voyage.

Today they've presented an early afternoon concert in historic Rothenburg Market Square, and at this very moment they are finishing their late afternoon final concert at the Franziskanerkirche (Franciscan Church). I wonder how it feels to be giving their absolutely last concert of the tour. Makes me feel a little sad just thinking about it, though I'm sure there are many who are ready to get it over with and come home.

Market Square is where their famous "Christkindlmarkt" or Christmas Village is located, a spectacular area that is Christmas year-round (I hope he plans to purchase a memento from here, we do love our Christmas after all). Another interesting tidbit of Rothenburg is that it was a defensive position, built high upon a plateau above the Tauber River. Therefore there are numerous ancient fountains and wells dug around town. One sounds especially interesting - St. George's Fountain. Located near where their early afternoon concert took place, this fountain has supplied water since 1446, topped with a figure of St. George complete with a dragon.

I remember that movie about St. George and the Dragon! How funny that he goes to the village where this fabled event took place. :-)

Shortly after dinner tonight, they'll be having their last Farewell to Europe party at the town hall. Will they dance the night away, or will they be so tired that they'll just go back to their hotels and crash? For tomorrow, they load up the coaches one last time to transport to the airport in Frankfurt. Then it's back home to Kansas.

I'll be anxiously waiting for that first glance of recognition.