Category Archives: June_W

Sunday 1st July 2018 – I FORGOT …

… that I had set an alarm for Sunday morning while I’m on my travels.

And so at 08:45 we had Billy Cotton bellowing out “Wakey Waaaaaa – KAYYYYYYY” all through the house.

It wasn’t as if we had needed it either because I’d been up and about for an hour or so and had had a shower by this time.

Dave was up a little later (he said that he hadn’t heard the alarm) and we had breakfast together. And I reflected upon my night’s sleep in one of the most comfortable beds in which I have ever slept.

The plan was that I would be away fairly early but Dave and June are very nice people and we were chatting for quite some considerable time, putting the world to rights, and it was gone 13:00 when I left.

My route from there took me down to Lindau, one of my most favourite towns in Germany. I’d wanted to go for a walk around but with running so late it was impossible.

And it was just as well because with it being the first Sunday in July in glorious, boiling hot weather, the whole place was crowded and there were queues everywhere.

I drove straight through (insofar as the traffic would let me), found a bakery for my lunchtime bread, and then found the only vacant car-parking spot in the whole of Baden-Wurttemburg to have lunch. My final tomato hadn’t survived the journey and so that was consigned into the deep.

My route then took me through Friedrichshafen where I had a row with a German taxi driver who wanted to block the dock entrance while he waited for passengers off the Swiss ferry, and then along the Bodensee, dodging from one traffic queue to the next, including one caused by a grockle who had a collapsed wheel bearing on his caravan.

Eventually, after many trials and tribulations, I could hit the foothills of the Scwartzwald and started to climb into the mountains.

It’s been years since I’ve been here too and I made it as far as Donaueschingen, the town that is said to be the source of the River Danube.

The mobile phone once again came up trumps, finding me a little apartment in the “Jagerhaus” – a big wooden chalet on the outskirts of the town.

€57:00 for a night in a large studio apartment, and this place is so good that I could quite happily live here. I have my own fully-fitted kitchen with everything that I need, including a fridge with freezer compartment to deal with my ice blocks.

There’s also a large portable desktop fan, and so I washed all of my clothes and set the fan up to dry them during the night.

But having used so much hot water with the washing, there wasn’t enough left to give me a good wash and I ended up with a cold shower.

But at least I would cook a nice tea of pasta, vegetables and chick peas, which was delicious.

And the bed looks comfy too. I hope that it is because I need my beauty sleep.

0

Saturday 30th June 2018 – WE HAD ANOTHER …

… early start today.

But this one meant business. Ulli was taking Hans off on a raft ride for his birthday and they had a long way to go. So we barely had time to exchange pleasantries before we all went our separate ways.

But I’d already been on my travels. Back on a job where I should have been retired but was still there. And instead of dealing with the post that was coming in, I was just filing it away un-dealt-with. And regular readers of this rubbish will recall that we’ve had several very similar travels to this one over the years.

For my part, I went off to the big shopping centre down the road. The big DiY place opens early so I went there to look for a German plug for the slow cooker.

A German plug will fit into e French socket but not the other way round, so to solve my cooking issues I’ll fit a German plug for mow. What I’ll do in the long term is to get a three-hole French extension and fit a German plug to that

I was in luck too. They had just the plug that I wanted, and for all of €1:89 too. So I changed the plug in the car park and now we are back in business.

There’s an IKEA just around the corner too so I went in there for breakfast.

But not breakfast in bed, like some lucky people.

Regular readers of this rubbish will recall that the other day Liz and I went to the IKEA at Caen. But they didn’t have enough of some stuff and they had sold out of some others. And so I went round and stocked up with what I had missed.

And it was cheaper than in Caen too.

I had to try a couple of supermarkets before I found a baguette, and then I headed off for the motorway. And we had an element of confusion yet again as The Lady Who Lives In The Satnav failed to recognise a grade-separated route.

having stopped for half an hour to eat my butties, I arrived at June and Dave’s at about 14:30. They live at Memmingen and June has just had a very major operation, so I was looking forward to seeing her and seeing how she was.

Catherine, her daughter, lives nearby so I went to pick her up and the four of us had a vegan pasta and a really good chat for hours.

June’s son had been a sound engineer for several rock bands, including Hawkwind and had played bass in several bands. All of his equipment was at June’s house and she had never heard his bass, a Fender Jaguar, played. And so I duly obliged.

Later that evening I took Catherine home and came back to June’s where I bedded down for the night in their guest room.

And the bed here is beautifully comfortable. I’m looking forward to this.

0

Wednesday 22nd June 2016 – I WAS OUT GALLIVANTING …

… at lunchtime. June and her husband were travelling back to Germany today and as we know, the motorway passes just a couple of miles from here. In fact, I’ve had more visitors here than I’ve ever had when I’ve been living in France, haven’t i?

But we started off as we meant to go on this morning. I was awake by 05:45, downstairs breakfasting by 07:15 and working on the laptop updating the blog by 08:30. That kept me out of mischief for a couple of hours.

I had a shower, a shave and a change of clothes (such are the highlights of my life these days that I record rubbish like this) so that I could look pretty, and then I hit the streets.

June and her husband appeared bang on time and we wandered off to the fritkot in the centre of town for lunch. The food was, as you might expect, very good there and there were no complaints from anyone, not that there ought to have been. And then we moved down into the main square for coffee and a really good chat. It was a beautiful morning for once, but soon clouded over as the afternoon wore on.

They left the town at about 14:30 and I wandered back to my little room, where a strange thing happened. Yes – I crashed out completely and not just for ten minutes or half an hour but for over 3 hours, which is quite astonishing. I was well-gone.

There’s been something of an upheaval here too. We had two people who left at the weekend, as you know, but someone who had been away came back this afternoon. There had been some confusion in the fridge when I arrived and when I went down to make my evening meal everything in there had been turned around. But now it’s all properly organised and as it should be, which makes a nice change.

For tea, I had boulghour, kidney beans and vegetables with rice and tomato sauce and very nice it was too. Loads of protein in all of that and as you know, I need to be on a high protein diet these days. I followed up with more of the spicy cake and soya custard substitute.

Liz was on the internet tonight so we had a long chat, and now I’m off for an early night. Despite the three hours or so of crashing out, I’m still exhausted and a good sleep will do me good.

-1