While Manja got to relax a bit the next day I headed to work, and upon returning we prepared for our upcoming trip to Wiesbaden to visit Doris. We dropped into bed early, exhausted from the week and knowing we had an early flight the next day.
The flight to Doris was uneventful – it went as smoothly as a flight can. When we got to Frankfurt airport, though, we spent just over an hour getting our rental car…. We had booked online through a third-party provider at Dollar. They, in turn, have a partnership with Hertz. But, dollar customers are only serviced in Terminal 1, and we arrived at Terminal 2. (we found this out only after waiting in line to pick up the car…). The person at the counter did give us directions, but they were wrong, so we walked away from the shuttle bus for 5 minutes before giving up, turning around and finding a sign to guide us to the shuttle. Once at Terminal 1 we followed the signs for rental car pickups, until we got to the Hertz parking bay…. Where we obviously couldn’t pick up the car, we had to go to the service desk first… We found the service desk, waited in line and finally got our car. Unfortunately all the small cars had already been rented out, so we got an upgrade, which was nice. The only problem was that he upgrade was quite a bit larger and felt like driving a limousine! Much later we saw that it was long enough to not properly fit into a standard carpark. But for all of that the car was very modern and nice, especially while driving on the Autobahn 😀
We got to Doris’ place around Lunchtime, and Doris had prepared some food for us all – a nice beef goulash prepared by the local butcher. Given that we were there on the first non-holiday, Doris hadn’t had a chance to go shopping, so we went to the supermarket together, getting everything we’d need for the next few days. With the shopping done Doris decided to give us a bit of a tour of Wiesbaden, and we stopped at a few sights, including the Russian Orthodox Church, which was really impressive. Toward evening we were supposed to meet up with Helga and Ditmar at a local wine bar, and we headed into the general direction by following googles instructions. When we got there, there was no wine bar in sight, we were cruising up and down what appeared to be a construction site…. Manja spotted a local resident and asked for directions – turns out google had sent us down the back way, the entrance to the place was one street further along. So we arrived a few minutes late, but with a story. We chatted throughout the evening over wine, a meat and cheese platter and eventually some pizza – the wine bar had a deal with a local pizza place to supply their patrons with food. Unfortunately the wine Bar already closed around 6, so we decided to take our party to the local sports bar near Doris’s place. We spent another hour chatting over wine and non-alcoholic cocktails before calling it a night and heading back to Doris’ place where I setup her computer to connect to Nikos photo blogs.
Bounchy squirrel!
Dancing Simon 1
Dancing Simon 2
Sunday morning we got to visit the Friedwald, which is like a cemetery/burial forest. The idea is that biodegradable urns are buried around a memorial tree shared by up to 12 people. Doris had decided on doing this for her own funeral but had only been able to purchase her spot from a map so far. Knowing this, we decided to check out her tree. I got to say that this is an excellent alternative to traditional cemeteries, and I loved how peaceful the whole place is.
We lost track of time a bit and had to rush back because we were meeting Manjas Aunt Jana and her family at Doris’ local greek restaurant. Jana lives about 30 minutes away, so Manja had arranged all this a couple of weeks before. The lunch was delicious and it was nice to connect the families a bit, I think everyone enjoyed it. After lunch Manja headed over to the Palace gardens with the family while Doris and I returned to the flat and prepared some coffee and cake. When the group returned from their walk we chatted until after dark! Eventually they had to head off, and we spent the evening together over a glass or two of champagne, some guitar music and some final touches in the updates and setups of Doris’ tech equipment.
On Monday Morning it was already time to head back. We had booked into an early flight because it was a workday and I would have to go to work making rare use of our flexible working arrangements. In the evening we were totally exhausted and dropped into bed.
Tuesday was already New Years Eve. We spent the day lazing about the house before heading over to Katrins for the NYE celebration. She was having a party with Kilians family and a few friends, and we were welcome to come along even though Manja was coming down with a bit of a cold. We had a delicious cheese fondue and Tiramisu before the clock struck 12 and fireworks exploded all around. The flat has a great vantage point in terms of the view, and we were regaled with fireworks all over the Berlin skyline. When that started to die down we even got some close-up fireworks as the gang went downstairs to set off a few of their own, some of which exploded at our eye level standing on the balcony 🙂
It wasn’t long before we had to head off to another engagement for the evening. We decided to walk to the Alexanderplatz, soaking in the athosphere, smoke and fireworks all around. By the time we got there, though, Manja was really not feeling well so we decided to head home instead.
Happy New Year everyone! I finally made it to updating everything that happened in 2019. We should be up to date soon 🤪
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