It was wonderful being back home. We took a quick run this morning on Rivershore… No more snow but no leaves yet either. It’s always an interesting time of year.

We always run by the little tribute place to our friend Frances. This is the last place he was alive. I always feel his presence on this trail. What a great guy.

It was great being back at work… I hadn’t really taken off. I’ve been working pretty hard on a project that was in England so I don’t really feel it was a vacation but still it was nice to see everybody. And fun just driving around with all the road signs are in my chosen language.

 

A funny and weird thing happened… When I got to work as always, the parking lot at Northanger was full so I parked over at the C lot which is kind of a pleasant 10 minute walk back to work. On the way I was standing in front of The Burlington airport parking garage and there was a beautiful old tree that had a hollow part in it. I just took a look inside and was surprised to see two eyes looking back at me. This little guy was in there kind of eyeing me but also kind of saying would you please leave me alone? I’m trying to sleep.

Funny thing was is that when it was time to go home I walked by and he was still in the tree. He really is a night guy.

We had WRUJ meeting after work and my friend Dan had brought in some real vintage mixer equipment that he’s been donated. It was like old TTL level logic.

nice nice nice to be home !
nite all, nite sam
-me

We got up around five grabbed our stuff walked about 10 minutes to the bus station. Got a bus about 545 got to the train station and got on the one hour train to Frankfurt… Well, it was supposed to be an hour, but it turned out to be closer to two and so we were very glad that we had opted for an earlier train. Anyway, getting off the train and walking to the plane, couldn’t be easier in Frankfurt… it’s actually easier than driving to an airport. We spent some time in the very nice Lufthansa lounge and then got on a plane and flew first to Dulles and then onto Burlington. It was great to be back home.

gabe sent us a picture with his car.. he did some more racticing today.. and now feels ready to drive on real roads.  His girlfreind Mya comes in 2 days.. so she can be the copilot !

so nice to be home !

nite all. nite sam
-me

Today Diane and I drove our rental car Sixt .. and then walked to the used car dealer and finished the deal. It had been such a pleasure working with Tall at cara. This was exactly the car that we were looking for inexpensive, low mileage, fund to drive and safe.

On the way over, we walked by a traditional German clothing store where you could buy things like lederhosen and dirndls..  we coudn’t resist ! !

Talat gone early this morning with our registration and insurance to get the plates made for the car… And with that the car was ours! 

He said goodbye to our friends at Kara Auto. Talat I’ve been very wonderful to work with and we would recommend these guys to anyone who wants to buy a car there. Drove the car over to the university and gabe got to come out and take a look.

We left the car there and headed home. We noticed on the little picture frame with the video camera that it was snowing at home. !

Diane and I took a nice hike down through Gerbrunn and into the trails. its such a cute town !

Then a quick pasta dinner at home and then over to the parking lot near gabe’s lab to give him his first, and I believe only lesson on driving a stick

After a few rough starts, Gabe was driving around like a champ. I think he’s gonna really love having this car. On the way home we stopped to check the bus schedule. Diane and I have to leave at like a quarter before six tomorrow to get to the bus station to get to the train station to get to the airport in Frankfurt.

Then some quick packing and dog scratching, and then some sleep !

This had been a fantastic stay.  Gabriel has found a great place and a great situation. He’s been such a great host too.1

 

Early morning travels  tomorrow !

nite all, nite sam
_me

 

Today we went on a tour of Würzburgs main attraction Residenz . It’s a beautiful 18th century castle? Mansion? Hard to describe. It has like 180 rooms. It was the home of the archbishop/Prince of something or other. He hired Italian designers who did all these cool frescoes and beautiful marble. The building was almost completely destroyed in 20 minutes in World War II. And thanks to collaboration between German and believe it or not. American preservationist it was put back together in is really magnificent. We got a English-speaking tour guide which only happens I guess on Sunday and that was really nice. Then we just wandered around the place for a long time. Amazing stuff each room very different. We even got to see the room where Napoleon slept. 

After we left there, we walked down to find this really nice coffee shop that Gabe and I had found during my last trip. It’s run by an Albanian guy and his mom. Their whole theme is cheesecakes, though all of the cakes are very very different. We had a combination of things like trace Le cheesecake some sort of raspberry cake. I don’t remember exactly but it was delicious and so was the coffee.

Germany is very political so there was lots of posters around about the around war and other stuff. Germans pay very close attention to the news.

Then back to the house for a short bit some paperwork for the car purchase and soem picture hanging .

then we headed out walking distance to a sushi place that gabe had heard about. Couldn’t believe that there was a sushi place in walking distance from his home ,  and … It was absolutely delicious. Good is Japanese food. I’ve had anywhere in the world. It’s in this kind of weird Office complex. I can’t imagine how it stays in business, but I hope it does.

Been a beautiful walk home on this clear night. The moon and planes  were in a configuration that is always special to me.

http://johncohn.org/base/2012/03/26/monday-night-moon-and-venus/

 

We got home to find pictures from our friends, Sumner and G.. they got married this weekend !!!!!

It was a nice way to end the day. Tomorrow we buy the car Tuesday we leave for the Home.

nite all, nite sam
-me