Poor Paul had to go on internet detox. We took him for a trip to the Garden Gnome Park in Trusetal, Thuringia. Not that he deserved that after last weeks’ lavender crisis but booked is booked and it would’ve been rather rude to leave him behind … So, as the boss gnome, he got to gnome along.
In the Garden Gnome Park Trusetal you meet gnomes from all walks of life. This wonderful park is home to over 2500 garden gnomes and, of course, also includes a Garden Gnome Museum. More on that in Gnomevember; I’ll spare Kiki more gnomes this month.
Our garden gnome Paul especially enjoyed talking shop with his buddies.
The classes really rekindled his spirits and
he polished up on long forgotten skills.
I couldn’t shake the feeling though he was enjoying the recreational activities more than the seminars.
He had a marvelous time on the mini golf course; even including 3 holes-in-one!
Paul also enjoyed some award-wining gnome medicine.
He even got to hang out with Snow White. You know, he always kinda had a thing for her. But what gnome doesn’t?
After all that lockdown time, it was really nice for him to get out of town and smell some fresh air. 50 shades of green work wonders on the eyes as well.
Most of all, he enjoyed the parties! Just look at that big smile on his face.
The internet detox though might go down in history as a nice concept but a plain stupid idea. We were out in the woods, literally. Try living without internet electricity for a few days. For big city dwellers the pace in Thuringia is rather different. You can’t even buy a few rolls quickly … While the slowing down feels nice while it is happening, Paul came back to a ridiculous cornucopia of emails, notifications, WhatsApp messages and real life stuff and all that newly found slowing down goes out of the window rather quickly …
I’ll catch up with you guys. Eventually.
PS. Turns out I was the first lunatic person ever to bring her own gnome to the Garden Gnome Park …
Weekend Movie – Gnomeo & Juliet
Postcards from the Garden Gnome Museum
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So, you are a girl???? Thought you were a male gnome…. PS. Turns out I was the first lunatic person ever to bring her own gnome…. 😉
With strongly hurting eyes I read through your fascinating and colourful story of poor Paul and it really amused me quite considerably, even though you’d have to pay me a lot to make myself go to that park…. 😉
Hope you’ll get back to Berlin speed in good time – my daughter in law is a Berliner Kinderl and she now lives for some years peacefully and relaxed in the Bündner Alps (Graubünden, Switzerland)….. but she still speaks like a rocket taking off!
It’s always funny when you find these things out 😉 It happened to me a few times as well when I thought, this person must be a girl/boy and wasn’t … My better half found the place a bit creepy, too. We’d hired a caravan and actually spend the night outside the park. Considering the gnomes come to life, it’s really a bit spooky. — Your daughter in law must have it hard sometimes with that dialect in Switzerland! She’ll probably end up speaking a mix of both… Sorry for hurting your eyes 😉 but kudos for sticking it out!
All is good!
The ultimate dream holiday! Henri is making reservations! 😀
He’s gonna love it! Plus, he gets in for free! They have a splendid collection
Fun!
Very good!
Thank you!
Two times in my life I visited Trusetaler Wasserfall / Waterfall . Never seen Gnoms there. Should be more observing
Funny, they share the car park 😉 It’s been there since 1996. Would you have gone?
Sounds like just the fun and unique experience to break up 2020. A little socializing couldn’t hurt the gnomes as long as there is social distancing – oh wait, that probably doesn’t matter for them. I laughed at the line from this post: “he got to gnome along.”
It was a really fun trip! They even used gnomes with masks to help distancing on the little park train. It was way too cute. The fresh air and just getting out work wonders as well!
Truly this year we need some light-hearted moments – it sure sounds like you had that atmosphere at this place. A couple of years ago I went to “Christmas in July” at Heritage Park, a place I often walk on weekends.
Santa was dressed like a Hawaiian tourist (shirt, sunglasses, sandals) and Mrs. Claus was dressed in more traditional wear.
They had fake palm trees and beachy items … the only thing missing was the reindeer, which is mostly why I went, for some photos for the blog post that day. But it was sickening hot and the reindeer handlers said it was too hot with all their fur, even in the shade. Bummer – so they stayed home (presumably that was at the North Pole).
It was just a one-day event, so I’ve not been back again and it was scratched this year due to COVID.
Oh that sounds like great fun, too! Chapeau for the handler to be a good deer keeper! Maybe these events will be back next year … fingers crossed!
I hope most events are back next year … I am participating in my second virtual 5K tomorrow – this one for a no-kill pet shelter. I walked last year – lots of fun, even though I don’t have a doggo to walk with. 🙂 There is a cool little store about 15 miles from where I live that has country-type items … I won’t go there as I don’t want to bring home more stuff for the house as it’s cluttered enough, and, if it is for outside … you do it at your own peril because people are stealing things left and right. But their featured items call out to me on Facebook. 🙂 This would call out to you to … advertising their Fall Gnomes:
https://www.facebook.com/thedirtyhoeLLC/
Steeling decorations from the yard don’t sound very American. What has the world come to? I remember the States as a place where you don’t lock your house … thanks for the link. While it’s right up my alley, does this store sell anything you actually need?
No, it is not very American, nor neighborly either!! The crime is getting very bad and I was horrified to find out last week, that a garage just six houses away from me, was set on fire and burned to the ground. The owner passed away last Fall and the house is up for sale. It was a detached garage so luckily the house was not damaged as the garage sits back quite far – it was the second garage burned down that night; the other one was 3 blocks away. It happened at 4:00 a.m. I follow the police reports and neighborhood forums on Facebook – there was nothing about it – are we that numb to crime that this doesn’t even get a mention anymore? SMH. I won’t go to this store because since I started following her showroom on Facebook, I see at least one thing I would like. All her items are creative with a homespun flair. Even the gnomes with their “Home Sweet Gnome” looked kind of country-ish. Best to stay away!
Stay away as far as you can! You probably don’t need it.. in Berlin they set cars on fire. It started with left wing activism but soon spiralled out of control. Not that destruction is in any way positive, but it’s different to kill someone’s Porsche that probably has great insurance or a 20 year old family car cause it happens to be an old BMW. It is strange times and for all we know Corona just highlights many things were unjust in the first place. I really hope people will take this on as a time for change for the better
When our Detroit professional baseball team (Detroit Tigers) won the World Series in 1968, they set cars on fire … first they stood on top of them and jumped up and down. Go figure. A local college football team a few years ago dragged a couch out of a dorm and set it on fire. I don’t remember if it was because they won and were happy or lost and were mad. Stupidity seems to be ageless. I hope people take the time to change too … so far it is not looking good here. The election has a lot to do with all the agitation, not all of it, but a good deal. I thought of you today Jeanine. I was driving home from the Park and saw something unique … a house and the Halloween decorations were out. Wait for it … black and orange flamingos. That is a first for me. In the front yard so you couldn’t miss ’em. I wonder if they bought them like that or just painted them for Halloween because the pink had faded? I looked on Amazon – of course you can buy them there … is there anything left that is not available on Amazon? 🙂
Wow, I would love to see that house! And yes, my first thought was check Amazon, too 😉 Enjoy your Sunday. I’ve planned a wicked treasure hunt for a kids sorry your birthday fell into Lockdown party. Fingers crossed it’ll go smoothly…
I hope it went well – thankfully you can finally pull it off all these months later! I think everything is on Amazon these days. In the Winter I was driving down a street a mile or so away and saw a huge snowman with decorations that were too perfect – like, where did you get the face, the charcoal nose/eyes/buttons, hat and scarf, even a pipe. Who has these things laying around the house? For kicks, I went on Amazon and Googled “snowman kit” – sure enough, the exact same items I saw were on Amazon. Pink flamingos are considered kitschy here, let alone orange and black ones or ones with skeleton bones. They have a company here that you can hire to put flamingos on someone’s yard for their birthday. It is called “Flamingos by the Yard” and if you have, say a 50th birthday, they’ll come and put 50 pink flamingos on the person celebrating a birthday’s front lawn and a sign how old you are. My mother threatened to do that to me when I turned 40 or 50 – I can’t remember now but I asked her not to, she quietly “retreated” and didn’t do it. 🙂 It’s early for Halloween decor – usually the harvest stuff comes out first, the haystacks and scarecrows, a few undecorated pumpkins. Is the Oktoberfest celebrations cancelled this year due to COVID?
To be honest, goings in Bavaria don’t really concern me 😉 but yes, it has been cancelled. Hey, if we couldn’t have Eurovision it’s just fair. That festival reached an unhealthy size either way
I just Googled Eurovision as I’d not heard of it – they cancelled everything here as well and now they are trying to decide how to have the Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade virtually – our big Freedom Festival Fireworks with Canada (just across the Detroit River from Michigan) was virtual this year. That’s a huge crowd and some fights always start – one time a person in the crowd had a gun – chaos!
Oh Linda, you haven’t heard of Eurovision? Thank goodness you found my blog 😉 You’ll hear plenty about it in Spring or look up the older posts. It’s one of the biggest events in the world!
Where have I been that I had to Google it? Here in SE Michigan, since I live about 12 miles from Detroit, the Detroit big events are the Electronic Festival and the Jazz Festival and people come from all over the world to see each of them. They are held on Memorial Day weekend and Labor Day weekend respectively. I will stick around or take a look back to brush up on my pop culture. 🙂
And no, just no, black flamingos that are supposed to be skeletons. Nothing is sacred anymore. 🙂
I hope the name of that store did not go to SPAM … the woman who owns the store is a landscaper and this is some stock from her store. I believe she is a Master Gardener and does landscaping for businesses and homes.
A fun trip for Gnome Paul and catch up with friends.
Count me in for some of that Gnome medicine, cheers 🙂
Any time 😉
🍺🍻Cheers, BK! Look out for my incoming ‘drink/Halloween’ post… there is a small dedication to you 😉
Oh, excite!!! It’s been a long week, this just made me smile! Thank you 😉
🙂 it was the gnome medicine that reminded me…
Aww, good stuff
Eine herrliche Geschichte! 🙂
Och, lieben Dank!