Stacking stones, Mundenhof and Emmendingen

Hello, 

It's been a bit longer for me to send the blog, sorry, I've been doing instead of blogging. Here are a couple of articles about stacking stones from all over the world, from the last post, thanks Erwin!

http://www.weepeeple.com/drawer/stackingstonespage.htm

http://www.pinterest.com/kimbail56/the-art-of-stacking-stones/

Went to the Mundenhof to see some animals and to the Stadtgarden to talk to Stephan (I spelled it Steven before incorrectly) about our citrus trees in the winter.

Stephan showed us a grapefruit tree. The interesting thing about it was it was covered in ants going in lines down the trunk, and white grubs were visible on the branches. The ants feed the grubs sugar water. An ant got onto Stephan’s hand and he said, now it’s becoming a protective ant and wants to bite me. Honestly, while fascinating, I wouldn’t want it on my balcony and I hope our trees get stored away from it so ants don’t decide to migrate!

Here’s a service Stephan told us about and I think it’s a great business idea for nurseries. The citrus trees can get damaged below 7 ° Celsius so our options were to heat the winter garden by sealing it up and putting in a heater OR the nursery will come pick them up in October, house them in a greenhouse, take care of them, return them in April or May for a fee of course. The fee to my mind is quite modest, probably as much as it would take to modify the winter garden.  Yes, we won’t get to enjoy the plants while they are at the nursery, guess we would get “visiting rights”. 

Of course, would have made more sense to think of this situation before buying, but worth it to enjoy them now. I think our neighbours upstairs are enjoying as well, they have voiced concern about us watering them.

We had a nice lunch there at the Mundenhof,  but rather noisy under the umbrellas. Noisy because of the multiple groups of children, the age of day school kids. Each group have ball caps in a matching colour so their guides can easily keep track of them. So much energy! We commented to each other that it is a wonderful opportunity for city kids to interact directly with the domestic animals.

For a cafeteria style restaurant they serve a great variety of meals and drinks including beer and wine. Being a Friday afternoon some of the workers were there to have a beer. It amazes me the number of staff they have at both Stadtgarden and Mundenhof. Stadtgarden is a business, Mundenhof is non-profit.

Here are some videos that will give you an idea of the size of the Mundenhof and animals it has in it.  http://www.freiburg.de/pb/,Lde/234675.html

Many storks were in the nests. There were baby monkeys, so cute! The monkeys groom each other, parting the hair on another. I looked up it’s called “social grooming” done to maintain group health, resolve conflicts, advance to mating and other reasons I won’t bore you with.

Meercats were laying flat out, belly to the ground, legs extended out the back or sitting up rather sleepily. 

He/she looks a bit like it is wearing sunglasses! That's another curled around it's base.

We were there mid-afternoon so it was siesta time for many of the animals. A very enjoyable day in the green spaces and seeing the different animals and birds.

Cacti in the greenhouse, so many varieties!

On a different note, Christoph took us by ride-share car to Emmedingen, a village we’d been to before but charming to see again. Weather was stormy with heavy showers we were lucky enough to dodge most of the day, except while driving through a couple that made visibility almost nil.

The entrance gate, beautiful!

He talked to a local to find a local’s pub and it was excellent although took a bit of finding and outside of the downtown. It was called, funny enough, Cheers. Christoph had a lunch translated to “lumber hewer’s lunch” enormous! Three  kinds of meats, salad, home fried potatoes. He couldn’t eat it all and doggy bagged it home. Bruce and I shared a prawn plate and it was great as well.

Protestant church apse

Walked around some more into a Protestant church and then a Catholic one. Christoph is doing research for potential tours in the area so he was investigating legends and gathering pamphlets. 

Loved the slanted windows on the tower

We had a coffee at the Rathaus, City square and drove back through Freiburg home. I find it so very different driving through Freiburg instead of taking the tram. We passed tram stops so knew where we were most of the time but different neighbourhoods and outlooks are seen.

I wasn’t going to write about this in the blog but here goes because the outcome was so very satisfactory and we connected with a great company to fix the problem.

We have a bidet, many homes in Europe have them. It’s a running joke between Bruce and his sister about it’s use, D says it’s for washing socks that the Germans always wear with sandals and honestly they do.

Anyway I keep my toothbrush and paste in a glass in the cabinet above it. The other day it leapt out of the cabinet (of course I knocked it by accident) and smashed into the bidet. Glass did NOT break but bidet DID, large hole, very surprising!

We were figuring out a way to find a plumber or bathroom fixtures retailer when we walked out the door of the condo and there was a van that stated on it’s panels, that’s what they did. Kismet! So Bruce went and explained our need, no English from the fellow but with Bruce’s mime of smashing the bidet he understood and got us a business card.

So the incident happened June 25, I emailed the company after meeting the technician June 26 and the job was finished July 1^st. Neatly, efficiently and with what I consider a smart use of computer technology. The bill was prepared on an iPad, I signed it on the iPad and we’re done. He took less time than anticipated, left no mess including the old bidet and box for new one and was very polite. All good! As with all business all over the world there are good companies and not so, but we figured the fact that this company was at our condo building was a sort of reference in itself. Owners here are connected, many retired, and the Architect of this unusual building lives here.

Vinegar, my new friend. Like Windex is to the couple in "My Big Fat Greek wedding". Bruce let a pot of something over-burn on the stove, it was a mess! Scrubbing and scrubbing with purchased for the purpose, a cleaning glove and a SOS pad equivalent made a dent but didn’t finish the job. In desperation, having read somewhere in the back of my mind that vinegar would help. Pot is like new again! Saved about 50 euros to replace it.  So while scrubbing the pot I was rather stupidly wearing one of my favourite blouses. Of course splashes got it dirty, hand washed it, not clean, washing machine, not clean, new hero - vinegar, now clean! A bit more to this, I bought two blouses in Sevilla, rather expensive and let me say, without going into detail, they are very high maintenance! This is me, T-shirt and jean person.

We get to meet Ali and Andy tomorrow at the Taco Truck, looking forward to that. They are professional bloggers from the US, who travel a lot, been following them for close to a year. They live in Freiburg and are in their early thirties.

Met them, only rainy day we’ve had for months, we’ve had showers but this day it rained the entire day, not cold fortunately. Introduced ourselves, got our taco experience, moved a table to a place out of the rain and got to know each other a bit. Weren’t quite finished with that although the meal was, so we moved on to a restaurant to have a drink and continue talking. Andy is a self proclaimed “geek” , Ali has more social skills, they are both professional bloggers, meaning they get paid sometimes for the work, to write about travel, and writers of a couple of ebooks. They are unique in their travel philosophy, taking it slower, learning the culture, having learned that after traveling so many countries, each in a hurry. Ali has been travelling since she was 15 years old and I think has done about 30 countries. 

They have two websites each and a book written and for sale on Amazon each as well. If interested, email me and I'll send you all four sites they have. Andy is a software programmer living in Freiburg six years. He met Ali on Twitter over a technical issue she had while she was in the States. Quite a romantic story really, Bruce and I met on an internet site as well! Anyway won’t go on about them but suffice to say we enjoyed their company for the afternoon very much and hope to meet again in future.

Since we’ve been in Europe I follow travel blogs, to get ideas on how to make mine better and to learn about new places we might consider going to. I do enjoy writing and don’t post everything I write. A good friend asked me if a book was in the future and I cannot see it now, but maybe. The friend is an avid and educated reader so I must be doing something right for her to suggest it, I’m truly honoured.

Went back down to the Mundenhof on a Sunday. Full of families out enjoying the day, well, truthfully not all, some squalling kids, probably they were hot.  I can stand and watch the monkeys for hours, so active and funny! They are just going about their daily routine but from a human‘s perspective it’s hilarious, as said previously. 

See the belt below him, it connects to an aerial ladder across to another tree, he was desperately trying to remove it!

Look at the size of those horns!

Water buffalo, I think, enjoying a bath on a hot day. Again, big horns

Baby goat and Mama, it was hard to get this picture, there were so many people doing the same thing!

I can walk there, around the Park, back out, but enjoy sitting on Bruce’s knee and driving us home. Aside what has been said on other posts, it is a good machine, we certainly get stares, especially when I’m driving. We probably look funny, I usually have my pale blue sun hat on and sunglasses and two of us on the one machine must look a bit weird. Oh well, works for us.

Cheers, Bx2 and Lexi Cat - who is very affectionate these days, walking over the computer, and laying on her back, legs splayed, unusual for a cat to let itself be that vulnerable, to get picked up. Chasing her tail which she remembers to do every few months. Obviously successfully too since I've needed to sweep up tufts of hair from behind and next to the sheer curtains. You see if "I'm behind a curtain, you can't see me!" Sorry Lexi, not so, even when she hides from the birds. Still, always entertaining us.

Heeere's Lexi, for those of you that haven't seen her. She has one white eyebrow and her other is black, her markings on her nose are irregular which for us is part of her charm, along with a sweet and good nature when travelling.

Cheers, again, Bx2 & Lexi Cat