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Dienstag, 11. Oktober 2016
Budapest Marathon
durhamfamily, 21:15h
Hi Everybody,
Elizabeth and I are keeping ourselves exceptionally busy this fall and winter. Two weeks ago we were in Berlin. Still to go in 2016 we have Rothenberg, Strasbourg, Athens, and Kentucky. And we just returned from an adventure in Budapest. I say “just” returned because we arrived home at 2:00am, only a handful of hours ago. After a shower and cat poop cleaning, I got what sleep I could and even managed a productive day at work.
I’m running on fumes at the moment, though, so we’ll just have to wait and see how detailed (and coherent) this post will be today. Let’s start at the beginning…
Mid last week, Elizabeth bullied a coworker of mine into watching Ozzie and Riker during our trip. Or, you know, something nicer-sounding than “bullied.” Sarah stopped by the apartment late on Thursday. She met the boys – who love her – and picked up our spare keys. Sarah was a god-send. We hadn’t found anyone else to look after the boys. Luckily, Sarah recommended for the future a local group of pet-sitters (like Craigslist, I guess), which should help us a lot in the coming months.
I left work at lunch on Friday in order to catch the train to the airport. And to pack. And to go to the grocery (Elizabeth wanted to sample new cereals. She was so excited that she couldn’t wait until we got home). I had practically four hours to kill, actually, which was perfect. After triple-checking the apartment, Elizabeth and I took a leisurely stroll to the train station, and… our train was cancelled. That happens sometimes. It was still the early afternoon, which meant that trains came every 30 minutes, thank goodness. Even so, if Elizabeth hadn’t padded our schedule, we might’ve missed our flight right then and there.
Chug-a-chug-a-chug. We arrived at the airport with very little wiggle room, timewise. We fought our way through security, throwing elbows and pinching babies, and… our plane was delayed. Germanwings(Eurowings), you bastard. We’ve come to expect delays with them. Warning: if you ever plan a layover between two Germanwings flights, go ahead and review the surrounding hotels at the same time. Our delay this time wasn’t bad – maybe 25 minutes. Smart-E (smart Elizabeth. Get it?) pre-booked/prepaid a taxi from the Budapest airport, telling them to pick us up when the flight arrived. Essentially, we were guaranteed a taxi no matter when our airplane decided to show up.
9:15pm or so we landed and found our taxi. The tiny man driver was the most talkative non-fluent person I’ve ever met. I am extremely jealous of people like that. He was well aware that he only had 200 words at his disposal, but that didn’t stop him from rattling them off over the 40-minute cab ride. Compared to my German - I know my German is better than this guy’s English, yet somehow he spoke more English to us in 40 minutes than I’ve spoken German in the past year.
However, no matter how much I admired and respected him, don’t worry: there’s zero chance that I’ll personally learn a lesson or anything. I won’t be speaking to anyone at work any time soon. My vow of silence will prevail.
10:00pm we arrive at the AirBnB. We were exhausted, cold, and smelly. But sleep would have to wait. Our AirBnB host was STAYING WITH US and happened to be SUPER TALKATIVE. Her English is excellent, for the record. During our three night stay, we saw her every evening and every morning (she made breakfast). If I may, I’d like to share some of the more entertaining tidbits. But first, a disclaimer: she is extremely nice and appears to be a fantastic single mother (her 11 year old son stayed with us, too). However, due to an unbelievably difficult decade, she’s grown a little… bonkers.
You know what – never mind. Text cannot do our conversations justice. Seriously, how am I to accurately reproduce the hour-long introduction to her fish? Sure, the conversation began with the understandable difficulties of obtaining and installing a 400 liter fish tank in a kitchen wall and the sexism of the fish market, but it quickly devolved into something much more… Sopranos. Quick summary – her first set of fish were amazing. There was a kingpin who knocked up all of the ladies and cleaned around the tank. He maintained a peace amongst the fish, big and small. Then along came the “gay one” (according to her, 25% of fish are gay). Mr. Gay Fish rallied the other fish against kingpin. They assassinated kingpin, GF assumed power, and then all hell broke loose: non-impregnated ladies, fights, whathaveyou. My words cannot convey the gravity of the tale, so I will cut it off here. Suffice it to say, GF received a sailor’s farewell.
What else? Well, Elizabeth and I could tell you minute details about every surgery and procedure, medical and dental, she had ever undergone. That includes the C-section. None of it needs to be repeated here.
Oh, and her dead cat? Yeah, that was stuffed and sitting in her living room.
Where was I? Budapest! On Saturday, we began with packet pickup. It was five minutes from the AirBnB (thank you, Liz), right at the marathon starting line. Hero’s Square. It was spectacular. Directly behind it was a beautiful castle, surrounded by an active festival (completely independent from the marathon).
Next we proceeded to the two-hour lunch buffet river tour – the most fantastic way to see a city and simultaneously overeat. Elizabeth must really love me. Then we spent the next six or seven hours exploring Buda (the west side of the river) statues and palaces. Of the gazillion statues in Budapest, Elizabeth mapped out a route to walk to all of her favorites. Naturally, Liz’s eyes were bigger than her feet. In the end, it was my task to drag Liz’s tired butt through the woods after her feet and enthusiasm wore down. It didn’t help that I was in a hurry to hop in bed… I had a marathon in the morning!
I’m sorry to say that we kinda spoiled dinner with our big lunch and exhaustion. Instead of something authentic, for dinner we grabbed some street pizza. It was still good.
Marathon day! In case you have wondered: I didn’t run whatsoever after the Berlin marathon. I used the two weeks for complete rest and recovery. Anyway… Sunday. Elizabeth walked me the quick five minutes to the starting line to the super late marathon start (9:30am), after which, I can only assume, Liz took a four-hour nap. The race, in short, was wonderful. It was well-staffed, with tons of support and not too many runners. I’m glad to have added it to my collection.
After the race, Elizabeth and I picked up some festival food before hurrying off to bed. She wasn’t feeling great, and so we both were in dire need of a nap. In the evening, we hit the town again, visited a handful more statues, and then ate a great Hungarian dinner. For easiness sake, let’s call it Terv Bistro.
Neither Elizabeth nor I were feeling much better on Monday. But we fought off our inner demons and waddled to Margaret Island. The island has some neat gardens and ruins. But no food, apparently. Not this time of year, anyway. Once we were good and starving, we rode the tram back into downtown and ate the biggest burritos we could find. Again – not exactly authentic, but who cares.
That evening we took another long taxi ride (not nearly as entertaining as the first) back to the airport. Oh my goodness… our Germanwings flight was delayed? No one could have ever seen something like that coming! The flight was so delayed that they wouldn’t commit to a gate for two more hours. I ate pizza. Liz groaned from her upset stomach. And we both feared the absolute worst… missing the last train out of Stuttgart.
We didn’t miss it, thank goodness. We caught the 00:36 from Stuttgart, We arrived home at 01:30. Though, it makes you think. What will we do on the day we DO miss that last train?
Elizabeth and I are keeping ourselves exceptionally busy this fall and winter. Two weeks ago we were in Berlin. Still to go in 2016 we have Rothenberg, Strasbourg, Athens, and Kentucky. And we just returned from an adventure in Budapest. I say “just” returned because we arrived home at 2:00am, only a handful of hours ago. After a shower and cat poop cleaning, I got what sleep I could and even managed a productive day at work.
I’m running on fumes at the moment, though, so we’ll just have to wait and see how detailed (and coherent) this post will be today. Let’s start at the beginning…
Mid last week, Elizabeth bullied a coworker of mine into watching Ozzie and Riker during our trip. Or, you know, something nicer-sounding than “bullied.” Sarah stopped by the apartment late on Thursday. She met the boys – who love her – and picked up our spare keys. Sarah was a god-send. We hadn’t found anyone else to look after the boys. Luckily, Sarah recommended for the future a local group of pet-sitters (like Craigslist, I guess), which should help us a lot in the coming months.
I left work at lunch on Friday in order to catch the train to the airport. And to pack. And to go to the grocery (Elizabeth wanted to sample new cereals. She was so excited that she couldn’t wait until we got home). I had practically four hours to kill, actually, which was perfect. After triple-checking the apartment, Elizabeth and I took a leisurely stroll to the train station, and… our train was cancelled. That happens sometimes. It was still the early afternoon, which meant that trains came every 30 minutes, thank goodness. Even so, if Elizabeth hadn’t padded our schedule, we might’ve missed our flight right then and there.
Chug-a-chug-a-chug. We arrived at the airport with very little wiggle room, timewise. We fought our way through security, throwing elbows and pinching babies, and… our plane was delayed. Germanwings(Eurowings), you bastard. We’ve come to expect delays with them. Warning: if you ever plan a layover between two Germanwings flights, go ahead and review the surrounding hotels at the same time. Our delay this time wasn’t bad – maybe 25 minutes. Smart-E (smart Elizabeth. Get it?) pre-booked/prepaid a taxi from the Budapest airport, telling them to pick us up when the flight arrived. Essentially, we were guaranteed a taxi no matter when our airplane decided to show up.
9:15pm or so we landed and found our taxi. The tiny man driver was the most talkative non-fluent person I’ve ever met. I am extremely jealous of people like that. He was well aware that he only had 200 words at his disposal, but that didn’t stop him from rattling them off over the 40-minute cab ride. Compared to my German - I know my German is better than this guy’s English, yet somehow he spoke more English to us in 40 minutes than I’ve spoken German in the past year.
However, no matter how much I admired and respected him, don’t worry: there’s zero chance that I’ll personally learn a lesson or anything. I won’t be speaking to anyone at work any time soon. My vow of silence will prevail.
10:00pm we arrive at the AirBnB. We were exhausted, cold, and smelly. But sleep would have to wait. Our AirBnB host was STAYING WITH US and happened to be SUPER TALKATIVE. Her English is excellent, for the record. During our three night stay, we saw her every evening and every morning (she made breakfast). If I may, I’d like to share some of the more entertaining tidbits. But first, a disclaimer: she is extremely nice and appears to be a fantastic single mother (her 11 year old son stayed with us, too). However, due to an unbelievably difficult decade, she’s grown a little… bonkers.
You know what – never mind. Text cannot do our conversations justice. Seriously, how am I to accurately reproduce the hour-long introduction to her fish? Sure, the conversation began with the understandable difficulties of obtaining and installing a 400 liter fish tank in a kitchen wall and the sexism of the fish market, but it quickly devolved into something much more… Sopranos. Quick summary – her first set of fish were amazing. There was a kingpin who knocked up all of the ladies and cleaned around the tank. He maintained a peace amongst the fish, big and small. Then along came the “gay one” (according to her, 25% of fish are gay). Mr. Gay Fish rallied the other fish against kingpin. They assassinated kingpin, GF assumed power, and then all hell broke loose: non-impregnated ladies, fights, whathaveyou. My words cannot convey the gravity of the tale, so I will cut it off here. Suffice it to say, GF received a sailor’s farewell.
What else? Well, Elizabeth and I could tell you minute details about every surgery and procedure, medical and dental, she had ever undergone. That includes the C-section. None of it needs to be repeated here.
Oh, and her dead cat? Yeah, that was stuffed and sitting in her living room.
Where was I? Budapest! On Saturday, we began with packet pickup. It was five minutes from the AirBnB (thank you, Liz), right at the marathon starting line. Hero’s Square. It was spectacular. Directly behind it was a beautiful castle, surrounded by an active festival (completely independent from the marathon).
Next we proceeded to the two-hour lunch buffet river tour – the most fantastic way to see a city and simultaneously overeat. Elizabeth must really love me. Then we spent the next six or seven hours exploring Buda (the west side of the river) statues and palaces. Of the gazillion statues in Budapest, Elizabeth mapped out a route to walk to all of her favorites. Naturally, Liz’s eyes were bigger than her feet. In the end, it was my task to drag Liz’s tired butt through the woods after her feet and enthusiasm wore down. It didn’t help that I was in a hurry to hop in bed… I had a marathon in the morning!
I’m sorry to say that we kinda spoiled dinner with our big lunch and exhaustion. Instead of something authentic, for dinner we grabbed some street pizza. It was still good.
Marathon day! In case you have wondered: I didn’t run whatsoever after the Berlin marathon. I used the two weeks for complete rest and recovery. Anyway… Sunday. Elizabeth walked me the quick five minutes to the starting line to the super late marathon start (9:30am), after which, I can only assume, Liz took a four-hour nap. The race, in short, was wonderful. It was well-staffed, with tons of support and not too many runners. I’m glad to have added it to my collection.
After the race, Elizabeth and I picked up some festival food before hurrying off to bed. She wasn’t feeling great, and so we both were in dire need of a nap. In the evening, we hit the town again, visited a handful more statues, and then ate a great Hungarian dinner. For easiness sake, let’s call it Terv Bistro.
Neither Elizabeth nor I were feeling much better on Monday. But we fought off our inner demons and waddled to Margaret Island. The island has some neat gardens and ruins. But no food, apparently. Not this time of year, anyway. Once we were good and starving, we rode the tram back into downtown and ate the biggest burritos we could find. Again – not exactly authentic, but who cares.
That evening we took another long taxi ride (not nearly as entertaining as the first) back to the airport. Oh my goodness… our Germanwings flight was delayed? No one could have ever seen something like that coming! The flight was so delayed that they wouldn’t commit to a gate for two more hours. I ate pizza. Liz groaned from her upset stomach. And we both feared the absolute worst… missing the last train out of Stuttgart.
We didn’t miss it, thank goodness. We caught the 00:36 from Stuttgart, We arrived home at 01:30. Though, it makes you think. What will we do on the day we DO miss that last train?
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Mittwoch, 28. September 2016
Berlin Marathon
durhamfamily, 17:29h
Liz and I have just returned from Berlin. Our first time ever. It was a fantastic, albeit short, trip. Every day the weather was perfect. Jackets optional in the mornings. We carried day-long subway passes, which we used constantly (the subway in Berlin takes you anywhere and everywhere). Best of all, everyone spoke English because of the marathon.
We left Schwäbisch Gmünd at 8:15 am Friday. Liz the tour guide, and me the baggage mule. I packed two randomly selected library books to keep me entertained – partly because our local library has a pitiful English section, and partly because I’m not smart enough to read German – which was plenty for me. Liz used the time to finish off the Codex Alera series, and then was content to watch the scenery pass.
Two trains and a little over seven hours later, we arrived in Berlin. Beautiful city. Even the graffiti was inspiring. But hold the fun - first we had to take care of business. We checked into our AirBnB hotel (we use AirBnB on every trip, and have had great experiences) in a quiet section of Berlin – in Schöneberg. Only five minutes from the subway. Roses were hanging from nearly every balcony. A cute Biergarten, full of trees and cobblestones and enclosed by a rustic metal bar fence, sat at the top of the street. The apartment guy was very nice, and his place was spacious and clean. For me, Liz triple-checked that there’d be a coffee maker (Senseo – the extremely reasonable single-serve coffee that’s common in Europe, at less than 10 cents per cup).
After dropping off our bags, we hopped right back on the subway on route for the marathon packet pickup. As quickly as possible, I got my race bib and t-shirt. Liz and I were hungry, and we have little patience for ploughing through a sea of thousands of people in any case. The race t-shirt fits great! Past races have taught me never to order a medium. It makes me sad. I’m officially a small in those “runner” t-shirts. I have to say, that makes no sense to me. I’m a medium in cotton. If “runner” t-shirts MUST deviate from the norm, they should deviate the OTHER direction, right? For example, if I’m a normal people medium, perhaps I should be a runner people large… considering that people who run 2000 miles per year tend to be smaller overall than those who don’t. But whatever.
Anyway, dinner was planned at Dicke Wirtin (fat landlady). We snuck in just before the evening rush. In other words: we didn’t reserve tables (never), but we promised to eat and run within 90 minutes, before the reservers came. Likely due to having starved ourselves on the trains (we didn’t bring food, and our layover wasn’t long enough for us to buy food at any station), at dinner Liz and I both almost died from overeating. That meal was my first, and probably last, pig knuckle (Eisbein). Holy crap was it tender and tasty. But it’s ginormous – and of course it comes with sides: salad, kraut, potatoes, and mashed potatoes with bacon (Speck). Liz’s plate, too, was epic, but much more sample-y in nature: meatball (Klops), beets, currywurst, more meat, cabbage kraut, potatoes… we’re lucky we made it home alive.
But alive we were.
Our second day in Berlin was, in my opinion, the biggest and the best. Liz and I were both excited to see the city. We bounced out of the AirBnB full of energy. We caught the subway early in the morning to (one of the 3) Berlin downtown, where we met up with a tour group. Surely we had breakfast? Yes! Zeit für Brot. Very busy, very tiny. A tad big for its breeches. But back to the tour.
For five hours, we obediently followed behind John Cleese’s clone, learning about some of Berlin’s history. We saw the wall, the museums, Checkpoint Charlie, the bunker, the imposing Holocaust Memorial. Honestly, we barely scratched the surface, but it was a good crash course. The tour ended at Brandenburg Gate, the massive entryway, and the highlight of the marathon.
Extremely hungry (it was already past 2:00 pm), Liz and I had a late lunch at… lord knows where. I can’t keep up with all of our meals. We took a nap, and then we picked up burritos from Dolores, before going right back to sleep again. We miss our giant burritos. If only we had a Dolores in Schwäbisch Gmünd! Well, no… we’d go every day.
Next was Sunday. Marathon day! The race was great. For me, at least. I can’t say that Liz kept properly busy. There were 40,000 runners from 122 countries, and an unbelievable number of spectators. It makes one feel like they’re in the center of the action at all times. Four or five fire trucks were posted, spraying endless streams of water. Every 20 feet was another form of music – big bands, rock bands, steel bands, Peruvian flute bands – keeping us all entertained as we plodded through Berlin. I passed handmade signs in every language. The best sign that I could read was “If Trump can run, so can you!”
At the finish line, traveling beneath that impressive Gate, I actually saw Liz cheering, which rarely happens. I gave her a big kiss before hobbling the last kilometer. 30 or 40 minutes later, I finally made my way back to her (we kept it nice and American – meeting at the nearby Starbucks). Together we strolled around Berlin a bit, enjoying the race atmosphere and stretching out my legs. But before long I was beat. Back at the AirBnB I took a shower and then we went to that Biergarten. I ate mac & cheese – because I could. And Liz watched, jealous, eating her mouth bags. Nap time again. Then pizza! We didn’t plan anything else interesting for the day. Liz knew from experience to leave marathon day fairly relaxed. Well, that’s actually a lie. We bailed on some dinosaurs (I’m speaking literally of dinosaurs, not derogatorily of elderly people). We didn’t feel bad about it.
Monday was another big day, though I’m afraid neither Liz nor I were particularly up to the challenge. The day started at Flamingos for breakfast. Tasty cakes and sandwiches, really. We toured two museums on our own, with a coffee break in between. It was all we could do to drag our bodies to the end. The museums were quite interesting, though. In the first museum were Egyptian relics. The largest attraction was the bust of Nefertiti. And the second housed brilliant blue reconstructed walls of Babylon.
3:00 pm, famished, we wandered back to Dolores for more burritos. No… wait… first I made Liz sit in a park while I shopped for secondhand English books from a street vendor (rickety tables, blankets, whathaveyou). I walked away with Dresden Files #3. Two Euro, which I was okay with. Then we napped again. You’re seeing the pattern, yes? And then went out for the best vegetable kebab in town. “Vegetable kebab” is a misleading title, considering how much chicken was in it. But there were also so many more vegetables than you’d encounter in any regular kebab. So good.
Tuesday was our trip back, and it’s as you’d expect. It’s always sad, losing the last “vacation” day entirely to travel. Liz and I ate train station breakfast (the breakfast place Liz picked was mysteriously closed) and train station lunch. Our first train was late, which caused us to miss our second train. We waited 45 minutes for our replacement second train, and then our replacement third train was cancelled. Typical train travel.
After nine hours, we were back in our Schwäbisch Gmünd apartment, exhausted but well-read. I finished “On Beauty” by Zadie Smith, and I am currently halfway through “Juliet Naked” by Nick Hornby. Once I’m finished with that, I’ll basically be out of library books that I’m willing to read. Feel free to peruse the Schwäbisch Gmünd library and make recommendations for me (Schlagwort “Englischsprachiger Roman”): http://stb.schwaebisch-gmuend.de/lissy/lissy.ly?pg=login&bnr=guest
Anyway, that’s it! I have a new marathon medal – number 18, if I’m counting correctly. And we’ve crossed another historical European city off of our list. In less than two weeks, we’ll be off again for Budapest. There’s so much to see!
We left Schwäbisch Gmünd at 8:15 am Friday. Liz the tour guide, and me the baggage mule. I packed two randomly selected library books to keep me entertained – partly because our local library has a pitiful English section, and partly because I’m not smart enough to read German – which was plenty for me. Liz used the time to finish off the Codex Alera series, and then was content to watch the scenery pass.
Two trains and a little over seven hours later, we arrived in Berlin. Beautiful city. Even the graffiti was inspiring. But hold the fun - first we had to take care of business. We checked into our AirBnB hotel (we use AirBnB on every trip, and have had great experiences) in a quiet section of Berlin – in Schöneberg. Only five minutes from the subway. Roses were hanging from nearly every balcony. A cute Biergarten, full of trees and cobblestones and enclosed by a rustic metal bar fence, sat at the top of the street. The apartment guy was very nice, and his place was spacious and clean. For me, Liz triple-checked that there’d be a coffee maker (Senseo – the extremely reasonable single-serve coffee that’s common in Europe, at less than 10 cents per cup).
After dropping off our bags, we hopped right back on the subway on route for the marathon packet pickup. As quickly as possible, I got my race bib and t-shirt. Liz and I were hungry, and we have little patience for ploughing through a sea of thousands of people in any case. The race t-shirt fits great! Past races have taught me never to order a medium. It makes me sad. I’m officially a small in those “runner” t-shirts. I have to say, that makes no sense to me. I’m a medium in cotton. If “runner” t-shirts MUST deviate from the norm, they should deviate the OTHER direction, right? For example, if I’m a normal people medium, perhaps I should be a runner people large… considering that people who run 2000 miles per year tend to be smaller overall than those who don’t. But whatever.
Anyway, dinner was planned at Dicke Wirtin (fat landlady). We snuck in just before the evening rush. In other words: we didn’t reserve tables (never), but we promised to eat and run within 90 minutes, before the reservers came. Likely due to having starved ourselves on the trains (we didn’t bring food, and our layover wasn’t long enough for us to buy food at any station), at dinner Liz and I both almost died from overeating. That meal was my first, and probably last, pig knuckle (Eisbein). Holy crap was it tender and tasty. But it’s ginormous – and of course it comes with sides: salad, kraut, potatoes, and mashed potatoes with bacon (Speck). Liz’s plate, too, was epic, but much more sample-y in nature: meatball (Klops), beets, currywurst, more meat, cabbage kraut, potatoes… we’re lucky we made it home alive.
But alive we were.
Our second day in Berlin was, in my opinion, the biggest and the best. Liz and I were both excited to see the city. We bounced out of the AirBnB full of energy. We caught the subway early in the morning to (one of the 3) Berlin downtown, where we met up with a tour group. Surely we had breakfast? Yes! Zeit für Brot. Very busy, very tiny. A tad big for its breeches. But back to the tour.
For five hours, we obediently followed behind John Cleese’s clone, learning about some of Berlin’s history. We saw the wall, the museums, Checkpoint Charlie, the bunker, the imposing Holocaust Memorial. Honestly, we barely scratched the surface, but it was a good crash course. The tour ended at Brandenburg Gate, the massive entryway, and the highlight of the marathon.
Extremely hungry (it was already past 2:00 pm), Liz and I had a late lunch at… lord knows where. I can’t keep up with all of our meals. We took a nap, and then we picked up burritos from Dolores, before going right back to sleep again. We miss our giant burritos. If only we had a Dolores in Schwäbisch Gmünd! Well, no… we’d go every day.
Next was Sunday. Marathon day! The race was great. For me, at least. I can’t say that Liz kept properly busy. There were 40,000 runners from 122 countries, and an unbelievable number of spectators. It makes one feel like they’re in the center of the action at all times. Four or five fire trucks were posted, spraying endless streams of water. Every 20 feet was another form of music – big bands, rock bands, steel bands, Peruvian flute bands – keeping us all entertained as we plodded through Berlin. I passed handmade signs in every language. The best sign that I could read was “If Trump can run, so can you!”
At the finish line, traveling beneath that impressive Gate, I actually saw Liz cheering, which rarely happens. I gave her a big kiss before hobbling the last kilometer. 30 or 40 minutes later, I finally made my way back to her (we kept it nice and American – meeting at the nearby Starbucks). Together we strolled around Berlin a bit, enjoying the race atmosphere and stretching out my legs. But before long I was beat. Back at the AirBnB I took a shower and then we went to that Biergarten. I ate mac & cheese – because I could. And Liz watched, jealous, eating her mouth bags. Nap time again. Then pizza! We didn’t plan anything else interesting for the day. Liz knew from experience to leave marathon day fairly relaxed. Well, that’s actually a lie. We bailed on some dinosaurs (I’m speaking literally of dinosaurs, not derogatorily of elderly people). We didn’t feel bad about it.
Monday was another big day, though I’m afraid neither Liz nor I were particularly up to the challenge. The day started at Flamingos for breakfast. Tasty cakes and sandwiches, really. We toured two museums on our own, with a coffee break in between. It was all we could do to drag our bodies to the end. The museums were quite interesting, though. In the first museum were Egyptian relics. The largest attraction was the bust of Nefertiti. And the second housed brilliant blue reconstructed walls of Babylon.
3:00 pm, famished, we wandered back to Dolores for more burritos. No… wait… first I made Liz sit in a park while I shopped for secondhand English books from a street vendor (rickety tables, blankets, whathaveyou). I walked away with Dresden Files #3. Two Euro, which I was okay with. Then we napped again. You’re seeing the pattern, yes? And then went out for the best vegetable kebab in town. “Vegetable kebab” is a misleading title, considering how much chicken was in it. But there were also so many more vegetables than you’d encounter in any regular kebab. So good.
Tuesday was our trip back, and it’s as you’d expect. It’s always sad, losing the last “vacation” day entirely to travel. Liz and I ate train station breakfast (the breakfast place Liz picked was mysteriously closed) and train station lunch. Our first train was late, which caused us to miss our second train. We waited 45 minutes for our replacement second train, and then our replacement third train was cancelled. Typical train travel.
After nine hours, we were back in our Schwäbisch Gmünd apartment, exhausted but well-read. I finished “On Beauty” by Zadie Smith, and I am currently halfway through “Juliet Naked” by Nick Hornby. Once I’m finished with that, I’ll basically be out of library books that I’m willing to read. Feel free to peruse the Schwäbisch Gmünd library and make recommendations for me (Schlagwort “Englischsprachiger Roman”): http://stb.schwaebisch-gmuend.de/lissy/lissy.ly?pg=login&bnr=guest
Anyway, that’s it! I have a new marathon medal – number 18, if I’m counting correctly. And we’ve crossed another historical European city off of our list. In less than two weeks, we’ll be off again for Budapest. There’s so much to see!
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Montag, 15. August 2016
Bier!
durhamfamily, 20:47h
Hi everybody.
On Saturday, Kyle, Liz, and I took a day trip to Freiburg. The first train we caught was before 7:00 am. Met up with Kyle's friend Mitch (an intern, 21 years old) in Stuttgart. And we finally arrived in Freiburg at 10:00.
We started the day at the weekend Freiburger Münstermarkt. Plenty of vendors surrounded the city's most beautiful church. It was very similar to the Saturday market in Schwäbisch Gmünd. Music was everywhere. Our favorite musician was a lone man playing his accordion (right?). In front of him was 10 or 15 stuffed animals that were dancing to the music and playing maracas. We ate some typical fair food - Wurst and the like. And then we headed up into the Black Forest.
"Up" sure is an accurate description. We climbed high above the city. Of course I don't have a picture for you, ha. Here's one of the church:
Beat from the hiking, we stopped at a nearby Biergarten. Because, nothing is better than a beer in preparation for all of the beer! We were seated at an overlook. Liz saw found some lizards. It was a lot of fun.
Before we knew it, it was time for the festival. We hurried across town, maybe a 30 minute walk, to the night club that was hosting the event: Craftival!
Needless to say, Craftival featured local craft beers. They didn't disappoint. There were at least 12 different booths, all with beers unlike anything we can get around Schwäbisch Gmünd. IPAs, Black IPAs, Brown Ales, Pale Ales, Tripels, Lagers, you name it. We tried practically all of the food, too. BBQ, pizzas, fries, ice cream... the Yufkas were disappointing - but at least we ate a giant waffle covered in chocolate. And of course there was live music to top it off.
We had a good time getting to know Mitch. And it was a good way to say goodbye to Kyle. We'll see him a few more times before he leaves (and take care of his little cats), and Chrissy, too!
Liz and I took off pretty early - trying to catch the 8:00 train. I say "trying" because... well... it didn't go so well. We got to the station just in time. BUT not in time enough to realize that our train was moved to a different track.
Yeah. Wrong train. Thank goodness it was going in the same direction. Liz was able to reroute us, and so we hoped off after half an hour and caught the next train toward Stuttgart.
Anyway, we're back to the grind now. Still a little worn out from Saturday. I basically didn't run at all last week (not like I've even started legitimately training), so my upcoming 3 marathons will be mighty interesting. I will walk lots and cross my fingers that I get to each of the finish lines without injury. I might start running again soon. Maybe not.
Liz has a few more weeks off before she starts teaching English again. I hope she relaxes and enjoys her free time!
Alright. That's all I have today. We'll likely have more at the end of September! I hope everyone is doing really well. Always feel free to write us, too. We usually feel pretty disconnected from everybody in the US.
On Saturday, Kyle, Liz, and I took a day trip to Freiburg. The first train we caught was before 7:00 am. Met up with Kyle's friend Mitch (an intern, 21 years old) in Stuttgart. And we finally arrived in Freiburg at 10:00.
We started the day at the weekend Freiburger Münstermarkt. Plenty of vendors surrounded the city's most beautiful church. It was very similar to the Saturday market in Schwäbisch Gmünd. Music was everywhere. Our favorite musician was a lone man playing his accordion (right?). In front of him was 10 or 15 stuffed animals that were dancing to the music and playing maracas. We ate some typical fair food - Wurst and the like. And then we headed up into the Black Forest.
"Up" sure is an accurate description. We climbed high above the city. Of course I don't have a picture for you, ha. Here's one of the church:
Beat from the hiking, we stopped at a nearby Biergarten. Because, nothing is better than a beer in preparation for all of the beer! We were seated at an overlook. Liz saw found some lizards. It was a lot of fun.
Before we knew it, it was time for the festival. We hurried across town, maybe a 30 minute walk, to the night club that was hosting the event: Craftival!
Needless to say, Craftival featured local craft beers. They didn't disappoint. There were at least 12 different booths, all with beers unlike anything we can get around Schwäbisch Gmünd. IPAs, Black IPAs, Brown Ales, Pale Ales, Tripels, Lagers, you name it. We tried practically all of the food, too. BBQ, pizzas, fries, ice cream... the Yufkas were disappointing - but at least we ate a giant waffle covered in chocolate. And of course there was live music to top it off.
We had a good time getting to know Mitch. And it was a good way to say goodbye to Kyle. We'll see him a few more times before he leaves (and take care of his little cats), and Chrissy, too!
Liz and I took off pretty early - trying to catch the 8:00 train. I say "trying" because... well... it didn't go so well. We got to the station just in time. BUT not in time enough to realize that our train was moved to a different track.
Yeah. Wrong train. Thank goodness it was going in the same direction. Liz was able to reroute us, and so we hoped off after half an hour and caught the next train toward Stuttgart.
Anyway, we're back to the grind now. Still a little worn out from Saturday. I basically didn't run at all last week (not like I've even started legitimately training), so my upcoming 3 marathons will be mighty interesting. I will walk lots and cross my fingers that I get to each of the finish lines without injury. I might start running again soon. Maybe not.
Liz has a few more weeks off before she starts teaching English again. I hope she relaxes and enjoys her free time!
Alright. That's all I have today. We'll likely have more at the end of September! I hope everyone is doing really well. Always feel free to write us, too. We usually feel pretty disconnected from everybody in the US.
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