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56 days ago
Made it to October. The days are really getting shorter... it's dark now by 7pm. That's sad. I really like sunlight. Now, will we make a trip to the USA in winter? That is already in our thoughts. Can't yet say if we will or what. We've been out trying to do more bike exercise by taking longer trips. The weekends have been very nice surprisingly (usually the clouds roll in when you have those precious days off from work). This past weekend we were lazy and spent Sunday afternoon in the Old Town of Heidelberg and the Marktplatz sipping a beer and watching the tourists.
74 days ago
The weather has changed. We made a trip to the Bodensee the last weekend in August and although the daytime weather was perfectly warm there was a change in the feel of that warmth. The evenings were chilled and camping through the night so close to water made it difficult to stay warm. We enjoyed ourselves in spite of the cool evenings, drinking wine late into the night and having 'serious' discussions with our guest, largely driven by the effects of the wine. The following week, which included the first of September, the change became more evident. Just a certain smell in the air, you know? The days were and are still warm but as evening approaches you can feel that tinge of new air coming. We took a long ride through the local forests, patches of woods that surround this area of Heidelberg south towards Karlsruhe and the woods smelled of the tannens of the fallen leaves already carpeting the floor of the forest. Temperatures stayed in the low 70's and it was too cool for us ...
124 days ago
The OUTDOOR SHOW in Friedrichshafen, Germany is one of the biggest exhibitions of new camping gear in all of Europe. We had planned our first camping trip around this event, partially because we love camping and partially because it was the weekend of my birthday. What better reason to try out our new tent, purchased in October 2007 and never got to use in 2008 because of Bernd's illness. Friday, 17 July I left work early so we could catch the early 2:10 train which would then arrive in Friedrichshafen at 6:30. The plan was to have a nice birthday dinner in this lovely little harbor town on the border of Germany and Austria then bike the 10 kilometers to the hugh exhibition center where the campsite was. Checking the weather just before I left, there were pridictions of 'periods of rain' in the area. After 4 hours on the train and the clouds building in the skies, it began to rain. As we pulled into the station the skies opened up and disgorged a flood. We stood on the plateform ...
141 days ago
In the "good old days" when you made a reservation for air travel all you had to do was reserve your seat, be there on time and fly. After the tragedy of the World Trade Center (now known as 9/11) security became an issue and you had to be prepared to have yourself and your bags searched. The airlines got hit (cash flow) hard as people panicked and flew less for about a year. Then came the sky-rocketing oil prices and fuel costs took a bite out of the airline executive's bonus amounts. So they became creative and started adding on little charges wherever they could to maximize $$$. Let's charge for a second bag. Then, when they found that people accepted that little charge they said, let's charge for all your bags, more as you had more bags. That caused the carry-on bag circus where people began taking large bags on board and trying to force them into overhead areas. (that created some nasty issues for the FAs) Charges for food, charges for drinks - even water. (that one ...
143 days ago
My blood is now in full summer mode. It is thinner, I can tell. When the temperatures rise to nearly 30c (near 80f ) I am not all that uncomfortable. And when the temps dip to near 20c I call that cooling. This morning the temp was 18c and it felt 'cold'. How adaptable we are. Truth is, I am more a northern person. I like it cool. I like that 20c mark. I shall enjoy July. It is my birth month and on my birthday Bernd and I will go on our first camping/biking trip in over 18 months. He's better but still got some issues that may never completely be eliminated. We're working on living with them. I am really looking forward to this camping trip. It will be an easy one with more train riding than bike riding and it's only for 2 days. We'll meet up with his brother around the Bodensee (Lake Constance) where one can visit 3 different countries in a few hours. So, on with July.
