16 July 2012

Weekends

They're about pigging out on life, aren't they? Like this little mouse pigged out on the mielie cob I strategically placed to attract him.

So that was an outing to Karlsruhe on a Sunday, after we had returned from Hamburg on the Saturday. As we've learnt with most subsequent weekends: you can't really count on the weather. In the Karlsruhe case we were fortunate not to get rained out of our forrest barbeque, even if it was a bit cool. The rain courteously waited for us to leave.

The next weekend it was hot enough as we made our way to a 30th birthday party. I got to practise German applicable to festivals that we had studied that very day. "Vielen Dank für die Einladung", und so weiter. (In random discoveries: neither of the common Afrikaans songs sung at birthdays are to the tune of Happy Birthday to You. Do you know other languages where this is the case?) And then we listened to the crazy thunder and watched the rain racing down the windows of the hall. Later, a baby played in the stream of rain water flowing down the side of the street and his mother made jokes like "Haha! Yes, the weekly bath." I think more of us would have liked to be half-naked in that humidity.

Then it was July and we visited the outlet store wonder of Metzingen, but more importantly I finally saw Tübingen for the first time. I was only armed with a phone camera, so clearly I would have to return. And so that's what we did this weekend. First we stopped by the Ritter Sport museum and chocolate shop in Waldenbuch. We looked at some chocolate-related art while the rain came down. Fortunately that was all over once we got to Tübingen, so we spent the afternoon having a beer on a paddle boat. (We asked the boat renter if it's okay to drink on the boats—maybe a stupid questions since he also sells beer, but we just wanted to check—and then he was like, "Duh guys, this is not America!)

On our way to have dinner in Stuttgart the local train had to be rerouted onto the track that the regional train uses because of some problem in the tunnel, so we got the better view of the city. Well any view, really, since an underground view doesn't actually count.

All the bliss that was packed into that Saturday came in handy when Sunday was dreary and rainy again. Nothing else to do but potter around at home and take long naps.

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