Mittwoch, 9. Dezember 2015
Almost Home
durhamfamily, 17:12h
Happy Holidays!
As we will travel home by the end of next week, this will likely be my final blog post of 2015. I cannot speak for Elizabeth... but odds are that she won't be posting anything either.
The past 10 days have been extremely eventful. I'm sorry for not posting anything over the weekend, but we were busy making memories! I don't have much in the way of photographs, but I'll see what I can dig up.
The fun began last Tuesday, when we visited the Esslingen Weihnachtsmarkt (Christmas Market). We hopped on our usual train to Stuttgart, plus another short subway ride to Esslingen. Esslingen is a town near Stuttgart, which hosts a large, medieval-style Christmas Market. We were very impressed by the hundred+ booths and several stages of medieval performers (acting, dancing, torch-throwing, racquetball eating...).
Of course I don't have any pictures of that cool stuff. Elizabeth does. Bug her.
When it became simply too cold, we found a fancy Glühwein establishment which included an inside section, rescuing us from the cool drizzle outside. There, we found some FIREBALL Glühwein. Clearly, they had good taste. So far, Elizabeth and I have not found any Fireball whisky (or anything similar) here in Germany. But we have not given up hope!
Then work happened for a few days...
On Friday afternoon, Elizabeth and I left for the Netherlands! There is a direct flight from Stuttgart to Amsterdam that is unbelievably inexpensive. We traveled there so I could run a small marathon in Spijkenisse. I wasn't prepared at all, but that's never stopped me before!
The Netherlands is beautiful. The landscape is completely flat and covered with water. There are plenty of windmills around. Elizabeth probably has some pictures of those as well.
Spijkenisse itself was very cute. It is surrounded by water, and we immediately came across a public petting zoo. Of course, we were the only adults not accompanied by children. The food in the town is more expensive than I'd prefer, but that's to be expected. Our little town Schwäbisch Gmünd isn't exactly a tourist hotspot.
The race, late Sunday morning, was killer. The flat terrain seemed like a good idea, and being surrounded by water sounded nice. But I have never run against so much wind. The smartest of the runners stayed in close packs, in order to benefit from each other. I tried that for 40 minutes, but I grow bored and too competitive... to my own, slow, steady, gruesome demise. You can see me in the picture below, having just passed one small group and about to catch up with (and pass) another small group. Because I'm an idiot.
Long story short, at mile 23, the race turned directly into a strong wind, once again. My body erupted with a strong protest. The final 3 miles of walk/running are ones I'd like to forget.
But as always, the race ended, and life went on. Elizabeth and I celebrated briefly with a literal bucket of french fries before jumping back on the subway to Amsterdam.
With our remaining time (half Sunday, half Monday), we took in all that we could. We ate fresh seafood. We drank craft beers. Walked all around the city. And visited both the Van Gogh Museum and the Rijksmuseum.
Although we spent little time there, Amsterdam was a terrific place. I wouldn't mind returning for another visit.
The best part of the story was... "Nothing happened"! Despite the fears of travel, we went everywhere we wanted without incident. I hope this will be a big step in making us feel more confident that we can travel places without fear of dying. The only thing that sucks is that we were told to buy subway cards - which cost of 15 euro and gave us the privilege to pay for subway tickets. They expire in 2021. Hopefully we'll either use them again or at least find 2 people who'll make use of them.
Lastly, we did come home with a virus. It caught Elizabeth first, and then dragged me down a few hours later. We were lucky that it didn't hit until right as we arrived home. After spending all day yesterday in bed with fever, we dragged ourselves out to the scary German doctors and got medicine. It was unbelievably easy. We should've done it sooner.
At this point, I still need to figure out where to send different things (I have a receipt for medication that I think I need to mail to the insurance company), but that's the easy part.
Anyway, that's all I have. Here - I stole some Netherlands pictures from Elizabeth:
As we will travel home by the end of next week, this will likely be my final blog post of 2015. I cannot speak for Elizabeth... but odds are that she won't be posting anything either.
The past 10 days have been extremely eventful. I'm sorry for not posting anything over the weekend, but we were busy making memories! I don't have much in the way of photographs, but I'll see what I can dig up.
The fun began last Tuesday, when we visited the Esslingen Weihnachtsmarkt (Christmas Market). We hopped on our usual train to Stuttgart, plus another short subway ride to Esslingen. Esslingen is a town near Stuttgart, which hosts a large, medieval-style Christmas Market. We were very impressed by the hundred+ booths and several stages of medieval performers (acting, dancing, torch-throwing, racquetball eating...).
Of course I don't have any pictures of that cool stuff. Elizabeth does. Bug her.
When it became simply too cold, we found a fancy Glühwein establishment which included an inside section, rescuing us from the cool drizzle outside. There, we found some FIREBALL Glühwein. Clearly, they had good taste. So far, Elizabeth and I have not found any Fireball whisky (or anything similar) here in Germany. But we have not given up hope!
Then work happened for a few days...
On Friday afternoon, Elizabeth and I left for the Netherlands! There is a direct flight from Stuttgart to Amsterdam that is unbelievably inexpensive. We traveled there so I could run a small marathon in Spijkenisse. I wasn't prepared at all, but that's never stopped me before!
The Netherlands is beautiful. The landscape is completely flat and covered with water. There are plenty of windmills around. Elizabeth probably has some pictures of those as well.
Spijkenisse itself was very cute. It is surrounded by water, and we immediately came across a public petting zoo. Of course, we were the only adults not accompanied by children. The food in the town is more expensive than I'd prefer, but that's to be expected. Our little town Schwäbisch Gmünd isn't exactly a tourist hotspot.
The race, late Sunday morning, was killer. The flat terrain seemed like a good idea, and being surrounded by water sounded nice. But I have never run against so much wind. The smartest of the runners stayed in close packs, in order to benefit from each other. I tried that for 40 minutes, but I grow bored and too competitive... to my own, slow, steady, gruesome demise. You can see me in the picture below, having just passed one small group and about to catch up with (and pass) another small group. Because I'm an idiot.
Long story short, at mile 23, the race turned directly into a strong wind, once again. My body erupted with a strong protest. The final 3 miles of walk/running are ones I'd like to forget.
But as always, the race ended, and life went on. Elizabeth and I celebrated briefly with a literal bucket of french fries before jumping back on the subway to Amsterdam.
With our remaining time (half Sunday, half Monday), we took in all that we could. We ate fresh seafood. We drank craft beers. Walked all around the city. And visited both the Van Gogh Museum and the Rijksmuseum.
Although we spent little time there, Amsterdam was a terrific place. I wouldn't mind returning for another visit.
The best part of the story was... "Nothing happened"! Despite the fears of travel, we went everywhere we wanted without incident. I hope this will be a big step in making us feel more confident that we can travel places without fear of dying. The only thing that sucks is that we were told to buy subway cards - which cost of 15 euro and gave us the privilege to pay for subway tickets. They expire in 2021. Hopefully we'll either use them again or at least find 2 people who'll make use of them.
Lastly, we did come home with a virus. It caught Elizabeth first, and then dragged me down a few hours later. We were lucky that it didn't hit until right as we arrived home. After spending all day yesterday in bed with fever, we dragged ourselves out to the scary German doctors and got medicine. It was unbelievably easy. We should've done it sooner.
At this point, I still need to figure out where to send different things (I have a receipt for medication that I think I need to mail to the insurance company), but that's the easy part.
Anyway, that's all I have. Here - I stole some Netherlands pictures from Elizabeth:
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