Florists in Gera Germany

Why flowers get so expensive on Valentine's Day - CNN

It's an old economic adage. Supply and demand," said Charles Hall, professor of horticulture at Texas A&M University. "It's really expensive just to get them to the market."Refrigerated trucks Flower shops around the country have been preparing for Valentine's Day, the industry's busiest day, for months.Kroger, (KR) the country's largest florist, started getting ready for Valentine's Day last spring with growers in Colombia and Ecuador. The two countries were the biggest flower exporters to the United States during last year's Valentine's season, according to US Customs and Border Protection. "It's pretty complicated," said Jennifer Lien, Kroger's director of floral merchandising. "We have to keep a cold chain going. We have to make sure that the products keep the quality going from Colombia to Miami and then throughout the country."Kroger's floral team first estimated how many roses the company would need at its thousands of stores around the country. More than 250 million roses are produced for Valentine's Day, according to estimates from the trade group Society of American Florists.The grocery store also had to prepare its supply chain to preserve fresh stems along the journey from South America. Flowers are fragile and have a short shelf life. Any mistake along the route could spoil them. Although improvements in cooling technology...https://www.cnn.com/2019/02/13/business/roses-flowers-valentines-day/index.html

Germany's Romantic Road less-travelled - Good Food

Rothenburg-ob-der-Tauber (rothenburg.de) up the road. The fourteenth-century town is another delightful tangle of cobbled squares, geranium-draped houses and old walls. Its local speciality is the snowball (Schneeball), a variation on the doughnut. Look for those with dimpled surfaces created by their liquor content, since these are made in the more authentic traditional manner.Gasthof Goldener Greifen (gasthof-greifen-rothenburg.de) inhabits the house of a medieval m...https://www.goodfood.com.au/travel/germanys-romantic-road-lesstravelled-20190220-h1bj5h

Beyond Rosa Luxemburg: five more women of the German revolution you need to know about - The Conversation - UK

Kaiser to abdicate. In her memoirs, she says she even met Luxemburg in Berlin. Hilde Kramer. Family Archive of Kramer/Fitzgerald The revolution in Munich culminated in the declaration of the Bavarian Soviet Republic and Kramer became the official secretary in the city commanders office. When Munich was brought back under government control, after days of bloody violence, she was arrested for her revolutionary activities. She worked in Moscow and Berlin for various communist groups before fleeing to the UK in 1937 where she worked for the Labour Party. The writers Lola Landau and Cläre Jung were in Berlin during the revolution. Landau had written and distributed anti-war material and saw the revolution as a chance to create a new, peaceful world order, founded on democratic principles and social justice. Jung had helped deserters from the German army with money and accommodation. When the revolution descended into counter-revolutionary violence she described procuring guns and carrying them through the streets at great personal risk. Landau emigrated to Palestine in 1936 and worked for welfare organisations. Jung remained in Nazi Germany but used her contacts and skills from her time as a revolutionary to participate in resistance activities against the Nazis. Written out of history These are just five of the 256 women our research has identified – women who played significant roles in the revolution and in the shaping of Germanys new, albeit short-lived, democracy. Their eye-witness accounts reveal that they were fully involved in the revolutionary events and certainly didnt see themselves as onlookers to a male spectacle. The revolution was not just a fleeting moment in their lives but a stepping stone between their radical roots and later activist careers. They often took huge risks and lived precarious lives as a resu...http://theconversation.com/beyond-rosa-luxemburg-five-more-women-of-the-german-revolution-you-need-to-know-about-109209

Bush saluted by CIA comrades; service dog Sully comes, too - Stuttgart Daily Leader

Lyndon Johnson's death in 1973 that a sitting president was not tapped to eulogize a late president. (Bill Clinton did so for Richard Nixon, and George W. Bush eulogized Ronald Reagan and Gerald Ford.) Joining George W. Bush as eulogists Wednesday: Alan Simpson, the former senator and acerbic wit from Wyoming, Brian Mulroney, the former Canadian prime minister who also gave a eulogy for Reagan; and presidential historian Jon Meacham. In an invocation opening Monday evening's ceremony, the U.S. House chaplain, the Rev. Patrick J Conroy, praised Bush's commitment to public service, from Navy pilot to congressman, U.N. ambassador, envoy to China and then CIA director before being elected vice president and then president. "Here lies a great man," said Rep. Paul Ryan, the House speaker, and "a gentle soul. ... His legacy is grace perfected." Vice President Mike Pence and Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell also spoke. Political combatants set aside their fights to honor a Republican who led in a less toxic era and at times found commonality with Democrats despite sharp policy disagreements. Democratic Rep. Nancy Pelosi, a past House speaker nominated for the post in the new Congress, exchanged a warm hug with George W. Bush and came away dabbing her face. Bush himself seemed to be holding back tears. Pelosi and Chuck Schumer, the Senate Democratic leader, placed wreaths in the short ceremony before the rotunda was opened to the public. Sent off from Texas with a 21-gun salute, Bush's casket was carried to Joint Base Andrews outside the capital city aboard an aircraft that often serves as Air Force One and designated "Special Air Mission 41" in honor of Bush's place on the chronological list of presidents. Cannon fire roared again outside the Capitol as the sun sank and the younger President Bush stood with his hand over his heart, watching the casket's procession up the steps. Bush was remembered just feet away from what he called "Democracy's front porch," the west-facing steps of the Capitol where he was sworn in as president. Although Bush's funeral services are suffused with the flourishes accorded presidents, by his choice they will not include a formal funeral procession through downtown Washington. On Sunday, students, staff and visitors had flocked to Bush's presidential library on the campus of Texas A&M University, with thousands of mourners paying their respects at a weekend candlelight vigil at a nearby pond and others contributing to growing flower memorials at Bush statues at both the library and a park in downtown Houston. "I think he was one of the kindest, most generous men," said Marge Frazier, who visited the downtown statue Sunday while showing friends from California around. After services in Washington, Bush will be returned to Houston to lie in repose at St. Martin's Episcopal Church before burial Thursday at his family plot on the library grounds. His final resting place will be alongside Barbara Bush, his wife of 73 years who died in April, and Robin Bush, the daughter they lost to leukemia in 1953 at age 3. Trump has ordered the federal government closed Wednesday for a national day of mourning. Flags on public buildings are flying at half-staff for 30 days. Bush's passing puts him in the Washington spotlight after more than two decades living the relatively low-key life of a former president. His death also reduces membership in the ex-presidents' club to four: Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama. ...http://www.stuttgartdailyleader.com/zz/news/20181204/bush-saluted-by-cia-comrades-service-dog-sully-comes-too

The perfect destination foHere is why Germany is the perfect destination for your next holidayr your holiday! Discover nature in Germany - Emirates Woman

Alps are characterised by green trees and extensive forests.Rhön UNESCO Biosphere Reserve: at the corner of the three German states, Bavaria, Hesse and ThuringiaThe Rhôn hills are located in the heart of Germany and offer a wide range of beautiful views! And if you are a fan of athletic activities, you can try gliding, water sports, and indulge in a spot of star gazing.Jasmund National Park Mecklenburg-Western Pomeraniait takes you right along the cliffs and features enough natural treasures for several holidays. White chalk cliffs, lush beech forests and the shimmering blue of the sea. You’ll catch sight of a rare white-tailed eagle circling in the skies, while far below a thousand different species of beetle scuttle through the undergrowth in this landscape of contrasts.Black Forest National Park, Baden-Württemberg, South GermanyPerfect for cleansing your lungs. The remarkable feature of this national park is that some areas have been able to develop for more than 100 years without human intervention. This means that all the animals and plants that are found here live in authentic, natural surroundings.You can use Deutsche Bahn trains all over Germany, where it uses 100% green energy. In addition, you can take the InterCity Express for a unique experience, as it is a high-speed train that connects all major cities in Germany with speeds of up to 300 km / hour, and this is one of the fastest ways to reach between Berlin, Hamburg and Cologne!Check out their Instagram: GermanyTourismAr, and Facebook: Germany Tourism Arabia– For more about Dubai’s lifestyle, news and fashion scene straight to your newsfeed, follow us on Facebook Media: Supplied...https://emirateswoman.com/germany/

In Berlin and Erfurt, two murals belong to the people - People's World

The other mural symbolizes basically the same ideals but in a very different way. Erfurt, 200 miles to the south, the capital of Thuringia, is an ancient city, first mentioned in 742 AD. It has a handsome “old town”, with 25 churches and a grand cathedral crowning a unique, wonderful stairway. But post-war GDR needed millions of modern homes and it needed them quickly. Using its newly-developed system of prefabricated panels, it built whole neighborhoods of comfortable, extremely low-priced apartments, well connected by cheap city transportation, provided with new schools, child care and sport facilities, clinics and cultural centers, soon improved with trees, shrubbery, playgrounds, but with one weakness – their sameness. A number of sculptors and painters worked to overcome this; a leading light among them was Josep Renau (1907-1982). Born in Valencia, where he studied at the art academy, Renau became an active leftist, joined the Communist Party and, when the fascist putsch began in 1936, he joined in making the famous posters supporting the Republic. Put in charge of the Spanish Pavilion at the World Exhibition in Paris in 1937, he was able to encourage and then exhibit Pablo Picasso’s passionate, startling “Guernica” mural. After the defeat of the republic Renau escaped to Mexico, where he worked with the great Mexican painter David Alfaro Siqueiros. Invited to the GDR in 1958, he soon began work on his remarkable murals, almost as colorful as those of Moia but with bold, modern, partially abstracted forms which did not always conform to some administrators’ clichéd ideas of the officially-approved “socialist realism”. In spite of such attitudes, he became most noticeably successful with a series of murals, some vertical, some horizontal, always big and eye-catching, for a new city, Halle-Neustadt. It is still a goal of art-lovers’ pilgrimages. Old Erfurt also wanted such a bright attraction for its new high-rise housing areas, and commissioned a mural by Renau for a big new cultural center. Called “The Relationship of Humans to Nature and Technology,” it shows two large hands, one with an apple, the other a many-sided geometric object, surrounded by symbols and urging a symbiosis of both elements in building a better world. It was composed of 70,000 colored glass mosaic tiles, each about one inch square, and together full 7 meters tall and 30 meters in length ((23 ft. x 98 ft.) – truly an impressive sight! Sadly, Renau did not live to see its completion. Monimbó mosaic in Berlin, Gabriele Senft Many GDR works were discarded or destroyed after 1990, but the Erfurt mosaic (and the Halle-Neustadt murals) survived. But in 2012 the cultural center – like nearly all of its kind – received a death sentence. It was replaced by a shopping center, which saved the city costs and brought money into the pockets of persuasive new owners. As for the Renau work, due for demolition, it was again a small group of devotees who managed to rescue it – but only after it was sawed into many sections, put away in a storage building, and almost forgotten. But those who loved it did not forget it. It took them years...https://www.peoplesworld.org/article/in-berlin-and-erfurt-two-murals-belong-to-the-people/

Germany's second-highest traffic bridge opens - DW (English)

German Taxpayers Federation keeps tabs on areas where they believe taxpayer money was wasted and sums up the most egregious cases in its annual "black book." The 2019 report called out Thuringia's Environment Ministry for a flower-shaped mini-solar panel sculpture that was installed in the shade. The ministry defended the flower, saying it was never supposed to power the building. Germany's biggest wastes of taxpayer money in 2019 A bridge for mice After realizing that a new bypass road near the southern German city of Passau cuts through the natural habitat of the dormouse, officials got creative and built a bridge for the mice to safely travel over the road. The German Taxpayer's Federation (BdSt) had a bone to pick with the resulting structure ... Germany's biggest wastes of taxpayer money in 2019 Perilous path to safety (instructions not included) ... The bridge requires mice to climb wooden rungs up 7 meters high (23 feet) and run down a passage 20 meters long in order to travel safely over the road. The project ended up costing taxpayers €93,000; the BdSt said it wasn't clear if any dormice actually use the bridge. The city of Passau said colonies of mice were found near the road. Explaining the bridge's purpose to them may prove tricky. Germany's biggest wastes of taxpayer money in 2019 Stolen but golden This golden bird's nest was the prized possession of an elementary school in Berlin — until it was stolen. The sculpture, comprised of 74 branches made out of pure gold, was placed in a display case with supposedly shatter-proof glass. According to the BdSt, the artwork cost €92,500. Thieves tried to break in several times and managed to make off with the nest on their third attempt. Germany's biggest wast...https://www.dw.com/en/germanys-second-highest-traffic-bridge-opens/a-51355455

Discovering Thuringia, Home to Germany’s Enchanting Christmas Markets - Vogue

First-time travelers to Germany may flock to the livelier hubs that are Berlin, Frankfurt, or Munich—but hidden from the crowds in the middle of the country is Thuringia, one of Germany’s smaller states. What it lacks in size, it makes up for in a high number of historical landmarks and figures: it is where the composer Johann Sebastian Bach was born, where poets Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Friedrich Schiller lived and developed their craft, and where the Bauhaus art and design movement was first ignited. It is also home to over 400 different castles and palaces, all of which are anchored by the scenic Thuringian Forest that holds a variety of different hiking trails.Visit Thuringia in December, though, and it really comes alive: it happens to hold some of the best Christmas markets in the world. (We’re talking next-level, capital-F festive, seriously postcard-worthy Christmas markets.) Every holiday season, communities across the state set up enchanting booths filled with plenty of local crafts, food, and wine. They are usually erected in the cities’ main marktplatz, though some of them spread their markets out across town, or even host t...https://www.vogue.com/article/touring-germanys-christmas-markets