Beer, Boats, and Bicycles (and bathrooms)

Today is Thursday. I woke up to the sounds of four or is it five children getting ready for school. Let’s see: Paul, Phillip, Peter, Ernestine and, ??? How does she keep 11 children straight? The house is calm and quiet. Never a raised voice or quarrel. We hope to meet the rest of the family today.

Gene is sound asleep this morning, apparently no problem with the time change.

Yesterday was lovely, Caroline had prepared pumpkin soup, apple and plum cakes that are more like Danish to me, yum and we spent the day in the sun on the back patio, enjoying a visit with Sina, Vic and Maria. It has been a cold and rainy summer, so everyone is glad to get a little vitamin D. Wiesbaden is green with only a slight hint of the coming fall colors. Caroline’s most favorite time of year.

After our 30 plus hours of traveling, (I won’t let Gene calculate it, afraid he will collapse with exhaustion if he really knew how long we have been up) we started to fade in the afternoon, so Caroline took us on little trip to the top of the mountain via a water powered funicular. The upper car is filled with water and it pulls the lower car to the top with its weight. The water gets dumped at the bottom and the top one gets filled It has been taking people to the top of the mountain for 150 years without any electricity. These German’s, so inventive.

We drank our half-liter German beers (hence the add “bathrooms” to our theme) at the top under a canopy in the warm afternoon. Pretty delightful. By 4 pm, German time, I was nodding off in the car. Caroline revived us one more time with fresh bread, brae cheese, wine, and we celebrated having stayed up until 8:00pm then we collapsed for good. The first day is tricky ,we needed to keep from napping in order to wake up on German time. Glad to say we were very successful at making the transition. I feel refreshed this morning and Gene is still snoring away under his feather bed.

I am enjoying the familiarity of Wiesbaden and the chance to soak it in a bit more this time. Wiesbaden was named for the hot mineral water baths. People have enjoyed the mineral waters since the Romans times. The waters remind us of Ashland as they bubble up in the town center.

Our visit with my Uncle Vic brings back memories of my dad. Vic is such a good imitation of my dad, it is a bit haunting. He is doing well, the German life-style has kept him healthy and unburdened. A gift we don’t much appreciate in the US. Simple living, lots of walking and minimum worry have served him well. I hope to see more of my Uncle during our visit.

Oh yes!! Mike and Susan. I am making progress on fitting the names to the faces.

Later,

Carol