First few days

The good:  being with Daniel, no complications in the travel, Sassy settling in, feeling more at home than I expected, walking a ton every day, very good yet very inexpensive bakeries on every corner, learning my way around more quickly than I thought I would

The bad: the package I sent is being held hostage and I'll have to drag a 25lb. box across the city tomorrow, feeling stupid because I don't speak the language

The ugly: Heat wave, 4th story walk-up, no AC, no fans


As you can see, the good is far outweighing the rest.  

From the balcony I can see the local castle, a watchtower, and some sort of what-used-to-be official-residence-turned-hotel. No actual view of the Rhein, but it's less than a kilometer away. I've forgotten my camera every time we've left home, so no pix yet, but soon, I promise.


Day One:

Got in mid-afternoon and we drove up to Bonn.  Pretty views of the countryside including vineyards.  Honestly don't remember much of that day.

Day Two (Wednesday):

Took the bus to Bad-Godesburg - the nearest surburb-type place (under 2K, so walkable and bikeable). As is the case in many cities, hard to tell when we left Bonn.  Nice pedestrian zone full of shops.  We walked back.

Day Three (Thursday):

Walked over past the kids' school and down to the Rhine (again, under 2K).  Sat and had a picnic. The shade and breeze made it very nice.  Have to figure out two things:  what kind of tree we were under and what the structure we were sitting on was.  My speculation on the second was somewhere that they had cannons set facing the river.  When I have pictures, I'll have to have everyone put in their two cents worth.

Day Four (Friday):

Bus to Bonn city center.  Lots of pedestrian areas lined with shops.  Went into a beautiful church (where it was 15 degrees cooler) and sat for a while.  We went out to dinner and celebrated our 25th anniversary.  

Saturday:

Took the bus up to the entrance of the park on the Rhein to go to the big flea market. Cross between flea market and multiple yard sales.  ENORMOUS.  It went on and on and on.  We didn't get to it all and we still spent almost two hours walking it.  Walked home from there, stopping for a bite to eat.

Sunday (Today):

Went to the bakery on the next corner down and bought some pastry for breakfast.  Managed it, although not smoothly.  I went to say "ein" (one) and integrated Spanish and French in there and ended up with "une."  Fortunately, she guessed what I meant.  Early this afternoon we went for a walk.  Went south then turned toward the Rhein.  Sat at a biergarten overlooking the river and had some soda and potato salad (beer is so not my thing, but Daniel had one).



Things I've noticed so far:  


In the US, bakeries make a lot of their money on Sundays - pre and post church crowds, Sunday brunches, etc.   Here, almost nowhere is open on Sunday - our bakery is one of the few and it closes at 11.

On the other hand, the biergarten doesn't open until late afternoon Monday-Saturday, but is open at noon on Sunday. 

No open container laws.  Bikes - women in dresses on bikes.

The doors.  One would not expect doors to be so freaking different. Our doors always look like they are open because they extend around the doorframes on the inside.  

The windows/patio door:  Downright clever.  You turn the handle 1/4 of the way and it opens like a door.  You turn it 1/2 way and it tilts down so you get fresh air.  Yes, the patio door does this.  




The apartment feels like home - more like home than Applegate did for the last month or so.  Even though the kids aren't here, Meg & Donald's stuff is.  We've got a grocery store right across the street.

There's a bike at the shop for me getting tuned up and brakes fixed.  Oh, and the seat dropped (yeah, I'm short).  I'll have to get back into the swing of biking after we pick it up.

Yesterday and today were a little cooler, but it's supposed to be hotter again Tuesday-Friday.  Maybe I'll try biking over to the park on the Rhein and hanging out there to stay cool.  The park has free wi-fi.

OK, there's an initial rundown of what's going on.  I'm going to try to get a bunch of pictures taken this week.