Overdue

Back in the saddle

Well, howdy!  Been a couple weeks.  Sorry about that.  The first week was dull.  Second week was busy!

The dull week mostly involved David needing the car and uncooperative weather.  Honestly, my energy was low and my inspiration uninspired.  Not much to report there.  Though David did take the kids up to the top of the viewing tower in Kehl.  That was sort of cool!  Here are some photos.
(as usual, you can click each one for a better look)

The tower.  Note the size of the people at the base.

You better believe you hold on up there!

Nice view

Landing Pad?

View of the bridge

Also, this guy apparently jumped off the bridge and went for a little swim up river! A crowd gathered and was delighted.

Bridge-jumping swimmer

Busy Week

Busy week was more interesting- though objectively, I think it was probably more interesting on a personal level than an easily-shared one.  My mom came to town!  Not much can be better as a care package than the arrival of a person who truly cares!

Presents for the present

She brought gifts, too, of course.  Mom is rather known for that sort of thing.  Cheerios and Grape Nuts and Sugarless Maple Syrup were all welcome Tastes from the States.  The return of DS's razor scooter & helmet that he had had to leave when they were too heavy for our flight made him a happy camper.  A picture of a lion from his room brought a touch of the familiar.  And for me, shoes!  A couple pairs that I had accidentally left, and 2 pairs of walking shoes and a pair of boots that Mom and Grandma Connie had gotten for my upcoming birthday!  I only had 2 pair from my luggage, and I am not exactly easy to fit (size 12 Narrow, US).  So, I am thrilled to have comfortable shoes with which to do my typical German forced marches.

Stylin, too!

Actually, Mom was in full-on Santa mode, determined to make our German existence more pleasant in as many ways as she could afford.  David has a birthday coming up as well , so she went ahead and pre-gifted both of us.  We have a lot of rebuilding to do, so luxuries have been quite neglected.  Even luxuries we might have considered necessities in the past, like books.  Here, English Language books must largely be ordered from England which can be a lengthy and sometimes expensive process.  So, Mom brought a Kindle for easy-English reading. I must say, has been wonderful so far.  DS and I are trading it back and forth happily reading our own personal mystery series (Rizzoli and Isles for me and Chet & Bernie- about a dog and his PI partner- for him).  She also brought us a Garmin Nuvi to help with our perpetual directional challenges.  When it turned out to be a US-Only version, she replaced it with a European model here.  I LOVE IT!  You can see around every corner as you approach.  Completely reassuring.  I do have to experiment with the voice, though.  The default American lady is just a bit too much the task-mistress for my tastes.

But wait, there is more!  While here, Mom noted our lack of coffee-maker, microwave and toaster and rectified all three kitchen omissions.  Hopefully I repaid her generosity by putting each appliance to use in tasty ways.  I definitely enjoyed the opportunity to cook for an appreciative audience unaccustomed to my favorite recipes.  The poor little kitchen is overflowing, now, but far more functional!

Grill Microwave

Interesting note on the microwave- we got a common German version with a built in grill.   I don't know if they have these in the states, but I had never seen one before.  It is a normal microwave with a carousel and all, then at the top is an element like might be in a toaster with a little rack that holds food up close to it.  You can even set it to microwave and grill at the same time!  I guess that solves the food crisp/browning issues that microwaves have?  I am a little intimidated by that function, but I will need to experiment soon.



Visiting And Bodily Limits

The presents were wonderful, no doubt, but really, the week was about family ties and visiting.

Unfortunately, while she was here both kids came down with colds, I got a migraine and David wound up with MSG poisoning from a wayward wurst.  I also had my first Physio appointment for my shoulder which went well, but left me a smidge sore.  And, to top it all off, Mom twisted her "good" knee (by sneezing!) and wound up with some stability issues that she will need to take up with her doctor upon return.  

But, between and in spite of our physical challenges, we did manage to get in a lot of visiting and even some sight seeing.  We showed Mom around Offenburg, Kehl, and a bit of Strasbourg.  We ate out at our first gasthaus (wonderbar snitzel!), and had a lovely frühstück (breakfast) at a local backerai.  There were wurst, of course.  And many cookies, pastries, & pretzels- and much schinken (pork), there can never be enough schinken in Germany it seems!

We also made it to the Offenburg town museum.  That is an interesting place.    We had to lock up our bags, so I don't have pictures from inside, but imagine a moderately-large, open building with a stairway going up 4 stories in the middle of the open floorplan.  On one floor  the natural history and geological structure of the town with lots of rock samples, taxidermied local animals, and the like.  On the next level, Roman artifacts- including a burned out log with a complete skeleton interred inside!  The next floor inexplicably is devoted to African animals and artifacts.  A tall white lion dominates the scene with a huge mounted elephant head looks over it all.  Around the corner, a special exhibit of Tomi Ungerer's work.  Nice!  He is from Strasbourg originally.  You have probably seen his work- he did a number of children's books and many post-card sized ink and watercolors- many of them political and/or erotic.  He seems pretty unconstrained when it comes to emphasis.

At the top of  the building are artifacts from the more recent past.  Crockery, religious items from a defunct church, etc- climbing tight up into the rafters where the bell from an old church is hung!   Not bad for a small city museum.  And, other than the Ungerer exhibit, it is completely free!

All in all it was wonderful visit.  Here are some images from our adventures:

That purple blur is Mom coming off her plane, this lady did not appreciate the camera I guess!

Offenburg, at one of the fool's fountains with witches!

This big guy landed in David's hair early in the evening then woke us up slamming around the hall.

The kids made a Lego chess board and DS re-taught Bubby to play

Discussing their next moves

In Kehl, posing with the musical statue

This sculpture reminds me of one at UCSC that students called "The flying IUD"

Mom in front of the foot bridge between Kehl and Strasbourg

We even got another double rainbow for Mom's visit!

Kids and me in Offenburg

Bubby and DD at the Offenburg market

Silly

DS hit his head on a witch's broom!

Kids and me a bit tussled in Kehl

DS controlling the waters of a fountain

DH and DS dining at the gasthaus

Joan of Arc statue, St. Maurice Church in Strasbourg

Inside St. Maurice

Dunno what this is about, but LOVE it!

Seemed out of place, maybe a display from a sister church?

Lovely

Lit two candles (in back) for family who have passed

I want to hear that organ play!

DS Breakfast: hot cocoa, brioche, slices of chocolate (!) and a boiled egg.

Happy Hug

Nope, No family resemblance

Since when did I dwarf my tiny mother!?

Still no resemblance

Whaaa!!!?

Hmmmph

Heee!

New Look and Feel -- On Blogs, Hair, Castles, Music and Doctors

Howdy all!

You may have noticed that my blog has a somewhat different appearance today.  That is because, like all great artists, I have decided to tinker with perfection.  ;-)  A lot of occasional readers had been asking for easier ways to check out my photos.  So I have added a few new pages accessible through the tabs at the top.  Many of the photos are from previous blogs, but many are new (for instance, the entire Sign Collection page).  Check them out if you so wish.  They make me smile.  Maybe they will make you smile, too.

Also, I have gone with a lighter, airier theme.  It just felt better to me this week.  Next week it may all look like ducks or hobos or diagrams of molecules.  Who knows?

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Quick Update

So, what has this week held for our merry band of adventurers?

Today is another feast day, though honestly I have lost track.  I have no clue which one this is other than that it is the last one for about 6 months.  But, as a feast day, David has the day off from work.  So, he is currently taking the kids (cough) jogging!  I, on the other hand, am sitting at home nursing my sore shoulder.

"Sore shoulder?"  You may ask,'Why, Stephanie, didn't you injure yourself in that terrible Belly-Flop-for-the-Bus accident some 2 months ago when you first arrived?"  Why, yes.  Thanks for remembering.  Then I re-injured it a while later when I almost fell off a ladder painting the new apartment.  It really never seemed to heal right and sleeping on the hard sofabed has not helped.  So, this week we finally took the plunge and started our exploration of the German Medical System.

Here is what we have found so far:

• It was not hard to find doctors who speak English.  I suspect that the better educated you are in Germany (or the younger you are), the more likely you are to speak English.  Also, the American Consulate keeps a list of English Speaking doctors online.  So, that at least was easy. 
• Finding the actual doctor's offices was more challenging.  They are not necessarily in clearly marked 'medical buildings'.  They are just located in typically historic looking ex-house kinds of places strewn about town.  Parking, too, is a challenge.
• Wait time is variable.  For the GP we waited almost an hour in a small room with a coat rack and poorly behaved children.  For the Ortho specialist we waited 3 minutes, tops.
• Doctors visits here are pretty straight forward and no-nonsense affairs.  Each time we were shown into an office with a desk with a computer and chairs.  The doctor would come in and sit and nod to us, apparently expecting us to initiate the conversation.  No preliminary weight check or blood pressure or anything.
• The first doc didn't examine me at all.  She just asked questions, then referred me to an orthopedist and re-prescribed meds I had run out of since our arrival.
• The second doc  was dressed in a white polo shirt and matching white pants, looking very much like Sven-your-Masseuse-for-the-Day- if Sven were 6'3 and 140 lbs on the outside.  He name was Herr Doctor Lars Meiworm, which might not engender trust for the English speaker.  But, he had a very mild manner and seemed quite willing to take the time to explain things as best he could.
• German doctors apparently do not have any compunction about asking female patients to remove their shirts in the middle of their office.  Glad I was wearing a decent bra!
• While the doc spoke English, the staff did not.  They were all dressed in color coordinated polo and pants outfits, too.  The front office had pink and the technicians wore baby blue.  Technicians also have no issues about asking you to remove articles of clothing- in German.
• Best guess for my injury is that I compressed the soft parts of my shoulder (especially the rotator cuff) when I fell. Plus, the bruising of the surrounding tissue is probably continuing to irritate the already annoyed bits.  I may also have torn some tendons, but given my age he thought that was less likely.  So...
• Physical Therapy (called 'physio' here), short term anti-inflammatory meds and Ultra-sound therapy to start.  If things do not improve, we do an MRI and look at the tendons.
• Total cost for 2 docs, 1 prescription and a set of x-rays? 15 €    Of course, we do pay for insurance through David's work, too.  

The trip to the pharmacy was actually fairly amusing.  When we handed the pharmacist our Rx, he started in to explain something detailed to us in German.  We both balked and explained our German wasn't up to the task.  So, he asked what language we do speak, and when we told him English, he launched immediately into a grammatically-perfect translation of his original speech with a thick Australian accent!

Other stuff from this week:

I dyed my hair the very German color of "kirsch", which is a dark purply red.  I will post photos once I get it cut.

Speaking of Kirsch, we got stuck in a violent hail storm while we were at the Ortho.   Cherry-sized (see the clever tie-in?) hail-stones suddenly dumped from the skies.  Which would have been less surprising if it hadn't been in the 80's down here on Earth.  The hail only lasted 10 minutes or so, then it just started pouring down buckets of rain.  We were soaked by the time we got to the car.  But, not nearly as soaked as the streets themselves, which had become overwhelmed by the amount of moisture to fall that quickly.  Several intersections were quite flooded as we passed.  The locals were even impressed, which we could tell by the confused looks on drivers, the gleeful looks on pedestrians brave enough to venture through it all, and the chuckles of the little old lady who ran out to sweep the hailstones from her front walkway.

Summer Solstice is also World Music Day, which here means an uptick in busker activity and a big music festival in Strasbourg.  We saw a bunch of buskers at the local market and then made a trip into Strasbourg, but it seemed a bit crowded for our tastes. So, instead, we came back to Offenburg and ate ice cream past everyone's bedtime.  Sunset was technically like 9:50ish, but it stayed light until nearly 10:30.

This week we also saw our first castle.  Ortenberg Castle is just south of Offenburg on a hill surrounded by stepped vineyards.  It apparently was destroyed by a couple of mining explosions in the 1600's, but was rebuilt in the 1830's by a local noble.  It has a bit of a fake Disneyesque feel to it as a result, but is quite pretty.  It has now been converted into a youth hostel and was conducting an English Immersion week for students DD's age while we were there.

castle on the hill

goofy family

Not a bad view

How would a guy in armor get through there?

Every castle needs a volleyball court

Glad she is bowling and not weeping (one for the Dr. Who fans)

Bird of prey checking us out from her nest