The beginning of February in Freiburg

Extended restrictions in Germany until Feb 14. Folks if you are counting on a romantic date that day, try to get a hair cut, wishing you luck with that.

This message was on a card I gave to Christoph, I had had the card prior to Covid-19 but found it especially fitting now and I wish it to you. Google translated.

Birthday wish 

I wish that your goals will carry you further than you suspect today, I wish that you will pave your way through all difficulties

I wish you so that your dreams never tire and your doubts never give way, I wish you friends, who shake hands with you in good times as in bad.

I wish you always new horizons and a long time for your life, go brave, don't ask about the profit, get new all the time and stay who you are.

My sister sent me this photo of photos of us, thanks Phyl! The pictures taken with a Brownie camera which looked similar to this one. https://www.etsy.com/de/listing/935873718/kodak-brownie-hawkeye-flash-vintage-film?ref=pla_similar_listing_top-2

Here in Freiburg we are in a weather pattern that is cold to the north mixed with tepid temps in the south so one week we get snow with low digits temp, next week, rain with mid teens. If you know me you know I prefer the latter.

 

Another wild sunset

Years ago I told you about the Mexican food truck that came to Rieselfeld market, The Holy Taco Shack, well, he opened a bricks and mortar restaurant, a dream for him, about two years ago. Of course the pandemic is hitting his business badly. I wanted to do the little bit I could and support him and had been meaning to visit since his opening so Christoph drove me over there this week and we ordered quesadilla and burrito to share as take away. Talking I asked how he was doing and if he would go back to the food truck. He said he had a lease there, debts and a family to support (two young girls). His situation is indicative of what has happened worldwide, just brings it home when it is happening to someone you know. 

All restaurant food is takeaway so if the destination isn’t in your neighbourhood and you don’t have a car it’s difficult to get to your favourites. Example, I get a medical pedicure every few weeks with Susan in Herdern district. There is also my favourite restaurant Chada Thai, mentioned many times before here, so we coordinate the pedicure with a visit there to get our favourite Thai dishes. Travelling by tram isn’t recommended here now unless needed for work. FFP1 (full face protection) masks are now needed in stores and shops in our neck of the woods. I have to say that when I entered the technology industry for work years ago it took me time to learn all the shortcuts for words, it seems the same now! 

I have new neighbours, they moved in mid-December, yesterday I came home to this! The tag says Warm Regards from your new neighbours, signed their names, bag holds biscotti.

Here are some links mostly virtual travelling, please let me know if they are useful to you, I try to watch what is informative but also contains a bit of humour.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YpQTdwCWO8 Susan Calman, trips around Scotland

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yke5iO5Cj6Y Judi Dench's Borneo Adventure

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pss3p22ElNE Toy Robinson's Thames River

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rj9HG6oNLj0 Niki's Positano Diaries, life on the Amalfi Coast, Italy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QP6CBmtnSvg This is Spain Speaks a kiwi and Spanish couple living in Madrid showing the intense snow they had on Jan 9 and 10.

Cheers Bev and the current lap cat Lexi

Snow, Sheep and Sunsets mark the beginning of 2021

 

This is what my "backyard" looks like today, pretty now but shut the city down yesterday, mainly due to lack of snow clearing equipment. My first snowfall since being in Canada! I did remember to clear the plants of snow on the balconies, they were weighed down and I didn't want them to break. 

Kids are loving it and making snowmen.

The sheep also came for a visit with their shepherd and his two trusty dogs. They overnighted in the fields and were taken away the next morning.

Blurry pics but had to use the zoom. 

Intense fog above and a couple of sunsets.

That's what I'm grateful to have seen over the past couple of weeks. While I cannot travel, I am comfortable in this Freiburg apartment with views.

Cheers, Bev and Lexi Cat for whom I think it is the second time in her life to have seen snow, she just wonders where the birds are.

 

Happy New Year!

 

Lucerne, Switzerland sculpture park 

The Vaccine

I think a teacher walked by and couldn't resist.

Happy, Hopeful New Year for 2021! Cheers, Bev and Lexi Cat

Merry Christmas! (?)

 

Hello Friends,

This holiday season will be different as we all know well. I have not been in Freiburg for Christmas before, first time for everything. Therefore my decorations are quirkier than usual, making do with what is here, as you know I do.

These glass marbles were bought years ago for a project Bruce wanted to make, they are pretty so I kept them and brought them out for this season. The picture is one of my fondest of us taken at Lake Louise, Alberta, early in our courtship when my hair wasn't grey and he had some.

Germany has been under lockdown since November 1, restaurants closed, it became more severe December 16 with retail shops closed and hair salons. If you didn't get your shopping done before, you won't, or get creative! Of course online shopping is regular now but then you contend with shipping and arrival times.

This is going to sound like an advertisement but I had a great online shopping experience this week. I met a fellow selling soups in jars at our Rieselfeld market a couple of weeks ago. The product is sourced locally, freshly made with a shelf life and organic. You order online (it was easy) and they deliver to your door which they did. Here is the website if you are curious but they only deliver locally they don't ship due to the four week shelf life and requirement to keep in the fridge.

 www.mm-lieferbar.com I found it to be a personal and friendly experience. 

This is why I don't have a tree because you know this is what would happen...

I have been enjoying the changing views from the flat and here are some.

Merry Christmas to you! Virtual hugs, Bev and Lexi Cat

A local day trip and some links

Christoph drove us into the Black Forest to a glass blowing factory and, what I didn’t know, a wood carving factory as well, in Wolfach at Dorotheenhutte. The woodcarvings are large statues done with chain saws. The glass blowing had two fellows working mostly on Christmas ornaments. 

I love to watch the process and have spent much time peering in the window at the Granville Island one in Vancouver. It was another bright sunny day and the leaves were at their fall best. 

We lunched at Gutach at a German style pub called Gasthof Krone and had their very local beer called Ketterer. 

What a great day and very grateful for it because five days later all restaurants and bars were shutdown for the month of November. 

I’m back cooking again and sometimes Christoph comes over, so kind, I find it better to cook for someone else.

Now some links for you.

This one is carpool karaoke, although when I see the word karaoke I cringe, thinking of botched examples, exactly what would come from me, but, this link features Paul McCartney and is very enjoyable!

 https://gallivance.net/2020/11/20/blindsided-in-liverpool-an-unexpected-beatles-journey/

This is an article written about Ivan, my friend and former guide in Sevilla.

https://www.expatsinmexico.com/this-spanish-expat-found-his-perfect-place-in-ensenada/ 

This one is Ryan and Angela's website which holds all our Switzerland trip pictures by place, look through the August ones which apply. Best picture of us on the wooden bridge in Lucerne (in my opinion).

www.jetsliketaxis.com

Belated Happy Thanksgiving greetings to my American friends!

I asked Pepe to mail me my Canada Goose parka, he thankfully did because it's getting rather cold here in Freiburg.

I guess Lexi thinks so too, my laundry basket is a good place to sit.

Cheers, Bev and the cat

Happy Thanksgiving!! and Day Trip to Villingen-Schwennningen

 

I am grateful for this view

This Thanksgiving may be quite different for those of you in Canada if it is not possible to get family and friends together. My hope for you is that you stay safe and enjoy perhaps a smaller turkey.

Christoph drove us on a day trip into and to the edge of the Black Forest to Villingen-Schwenningen, (say that three times fast!) about an hour and half from Freiburg. 

Munster church, it's steel doors had raised Carnival figures on it.

The two towns were merged as an area but remain individual.

The drive was beautiful through the forest and canyon. Villingen is a charming town with painted murals on the fronts of the buildings, four entry gates at the corners of the town. It was a grey day but I found the town absolutely charming!

The Carnival or Fastnacht is celebrated, hence many statues honour it. You can read more about it here https://www.wt-vs.de/de/tourismus/geschichte-und-brauchtum/fasnet.html

And here https://www.villingen-schwenningen.de/tourismus/ueberblick/fasnet-in-villingen-und-schwenningen.html

Carnival fountain

Images on all sides depicting life.

You know I like doors!

We lunched at a Swabian restaurant called Wirtschaft Sudhaus, Villingen am Münster which is run by an Italian family in a former brewery with the copper fixings still there. Food and service were excellent, but we didn’t get one of the unique tables that are housed in gigantic wine barrels. 

On a personal note I've had a cataract operation on one eye and the other will be done this week. It is a clinic that specializes in eye operations recommended to me by my trusted Optician. 

The procedure is fast, painless and efficient. Self administration of the drops is not always so efficient, takes a bit of technique and getting used to.

Happy Thanksgiving to you and your families! Yes, I will write about Switzerland soon.

Cheers, Bev and Lexi Cat

Comar, France

 Ryan, Angela and I started our three week "summer vacation" in Colmar, France for four days before heading to Switzerland. Here are some pictures with comments.

We had a really good lunch here of Tunisian food.

According to Ryan and Angela this is a Bev sized door, hmph!

Efficiency!

This is where we stayed, very old building on surprising noisy pedestrian street.

• All for now, Cheers, Bev
•