Sunday, June 16, 2019

Spring in Freiburg

This post has pictures of the local Rieselfeld rose garden and the outdoor garden at the restaurant Chada Thai.
Lovely orange roses

Travel from Sevilla to Zurich to Freiburg meant planes and autos. Liz took me to the airport, very much appreciated. Flight was delayed after we had boarded due to high winds in Zurich, they had to re-direct planes to different runways. Landed, I meet at the meeting place of the driver that takes me to Freiburg. This van service is available between Frankfurt and Zurich airports, based in Freiburg. They do airport to door service, or visa versa. That day we were two passengers so he took the fellow home first which added time to my return journey. My flight delay caused the driver to be late for some thing else and he got, what I would say, a bit aggressive in his driving which made me uncomfortable. While the service is valuable to the fellow who got delivered to his door, no obvious transit in that town, I think next time I’ll be taking the train. 

The flat looks great here in Freiburg, Dawna and Erwin always leave it sparkling clean and it’s now 8 pm and the sun is streaming in the windows, frankly showing me that I need to clean my computer.

I had a great lunch with Frank, Ina and Rosie couldn’t make it, due to an important prior commitment. We talked about our travels, Frank has travelled extensively across western Europe and Australia. He told me of a time where friends and him travelled by car to Florence a 17 hour journey when they only stopped to gas up, this was in their twenties, ah, the young. 

May 30th is Ascension Day and a stat holiday, nothing happening too much. It is also Father’s Day which I’ve written about before where men get together and party with wagons of beer and snacks. I went down to the train station to find some of those fellows, they are amusing, but didn’t. Did get a Thai red curry from what had been a previous favourite, a bust, terrible in fact, and disappointing. 

Lexi needed a couch blanket, she has always slept on the couch, when she is not in bed and I gave away the one we had, not thinking, dumb mum. I bought a lambs wool one which when she isn't using it, lumpy, is a nice addition to the couch, made her happy, a goal in my life…

Couldn’t seem to hook up with friends in the building who were good to me when Bruce passed so I pushed and bought her a rose bush and him some Spanish wine and left it at the doorstop. We are getting together next week after their son’s visit this weekend.

Christoph took me for lunch, just called and was here in 20 minutes. We went to Chada Thai, always good there. He got talking to our waitress, she has a PhD and her thesis for becoming a Biochemical Engineer is in correction phase, smart lady. The garden there is always lovely!






Adrienne invited me to her house for breakfast, again those stairs to her place are colossal, but I made it and enjoyed the visit. We seem to be able to bounce ideas off each other, even life’s dilemmas. She is recovering from a fourth hip operation but still buzzing around her apartment. Her son lives with her which is a blessing in times like this since he does the shopping and probably most of the cooking. She told me there is a Paris metro station reserved and used just for filming movies, little tidbit most people probably don’t know. She also told me about www.carl-schurz-haus.de (English language button on the top). I visited the institution and was impressed by their library with many English language books and the friendly people working there. Dawna had left some novels here with instructions to get rid of them if not read so I took a picture of the spines as requested by Shawn at the institute and they may take them. I thought of it as a real find! Thank you Adrienne!
The bees were loving all the flowers.
Christoph is extremely busy now with tours into various countries for the summer starting pretty much now, so we’ve been getting together as much as possible until he leaves. He will do a tour for me for a few days in Dijon, France where I will spend the summer while Dawna and Erwin have their usual occupation of the Freiburg flat.

I chose Dijon because I love the mustard, long time fan, but they don’t make it there in quantities any more, mustard seed comes from Canada. It’s a city smaller than Paris or Lyon (Lyon by population is as large as Paris), but still has a metro. I am staying in two flats, one in the city centre and one outside with metro access, a month each. Thought it might be a change to swap city for more rural, the second is near a canal, yeah for water views!


Mini-irises in the mini-gardens around lamp posts here in Rieselfeld.
I’ve seen Frank, Ina and dog Rosie a couple of times. Ina had a severe knee injury a month or so ago and has had the operation to correct it this week. She wants to use a motorized wheelchair to walk Rosie while in recovery, I still have Bruce’s large chair nicknamed Pepe le Pew which needs new batteries. Poor Pepe, the bike not the person, has been neglected and was kicked out of our garage by building management the day before I left Freiburg in November. Found a garage for storage for it and still neglected. Today in an effort to get motorized wheels for Ina, Christoph took me to two stores that specialize in wheelchairs and other aids for people with disabilities. The first one will have a mechanic go over the chair, and install new batteries so I can sell it in good condition. Second will rent chairs short term, Pepe is too big for Ina I think, but a good day to get both sorted.

The farmers are taking the hay off the fields this week mentioned because of the many, many storks following the tractor for the good bugs they find, feast time for them!

All for now, just to let you know I haven't fallen off the edge of the earth. Cheers, Bev and the spoiled Lexi Cat