Getting Settled in Bavaria
After a hectic year
of home repairs and improvements, we called a halt and took off on our
annual adventure out of the USA. This year
we
are spending a month in Bavaria, then taking the train to Prague and
cycling through the Czech countryside to Vienna where we will stay for a
week.
Our Lufthansa flight, direct from SFO to Munich, was packed. Even so, we were pretty comfortable and because it was a night flight we were able to get some sleep. The service was good and we felt pretty good when we arrived in Munich. Our home exchange partner, Evelyn Aker, met us at the exit and took us to our home for the next few days, the Kuss Muhle Inn.
Our room there was comfortable and pretty quiet, except for the kitty who meowed shrilly at 3 am every night. The first night we walked into the town of Friedburg and had a light dinner there and worked at staying awake until 10pm. We went to bed and slept well until 3 when the cat woke us. We took a nice bike ride through the countryside and forest trying to keep cool. The weather here has been unusually hot.
The next day Evelyn’s husband, Klaus, picked us up and took us to their house in Augsburg. This will be our home for the next month. Our house is located in a friendly neighborhood. The neighbors often gather together for meals or after dinner chats around a big table at the end of the access way. The house itself is very comfortable, with a large living room, modern kitchen, and several bedrooms. I especially admired the features of Evelyn’s kitchen, as she has several of the components I am hoping for in my new kitchen-pullout pantry, pot and pan drawers, and pullout garbage bin.
Don and I did a bike ride along the river. There is a large river that bisects the city of Augsburg, and the citizenry make maximum use of it. There were hundreds of people sunning along the riverbanks, swimming and pursuing various water sports. Don and I spent quite a bit of time watching people on the kayaking course.
I am quite surprised to see so many deep
tans. In addition to the river there are several lakes along the
way, man-made I think. A very nice place to be during this hot
spell. Evelyn prepared a
nice meal of lasagna and salad for dinner that night. We met the
three children, Daniel who is 19 and has his own apartment, Judith
(pronounced u-dit) who is 16 and will be spending the next year as an
exchange student in the USA, and Tobias who is 13. A very nice and
good-looking group. We spent the evening
discussing our exchange experiences, learning about their house and how
to find things and work things.
The next day the
Akers finished their preparations and Daniel drove Evelyn, Klaus and
Tobias to the airport to catch their flight to San Francisco.
Don and I rode our bicycles to downtown Augsburg, stopping at the central plaza and following the tour of the points of interest.
Since it was Sunday we could not go shopping, so we just made a meal of frozen pizza for Don and scrambled eggs for Geralynn. We spent the evening reading and downloading photographs and went to bed about 11, with hopes of sleeping through until 6am.
Monday I went grocery shopping and then we decided to take a drive to Lake Ammersee along the little country roads. It is still hot, and since we didn't get an early enough start on a bike ride, we decided to skip it today, and in the future we are going to do our rides at 6am when it is cool.
we
are spending a month in Bavaria, then taking the train to Prague and
cycling through the Czech countryside to Vienna where we will stay for a
week.Our Lufthansa flight, direct from SFO to Munich, was packed. Even so, we were pretty comfortable and because it was a night flight we were able to get some sleep. The service was good and we felt pretty good when we arrived in Munich. Our home exchange partner, Evelyn Aker, met us at the exit and took us to our home for the next few days, the Kuss Muhle Inn.
Our room there was comfortable and pretty quiet, except for the kitty who meowed shrilly at 3 am every night. The first night we walked into the town of Friedburg and had a light dinner there and worked at staying awake until 10pm. We went to bed and slept well until 3 when the cat woke us. We took a nice bike ride through the countryside and forest trying to keep cool. The weather here has been unusually hot.
The next day Evelyn’s husband, Klaus, picked us up and took us to their house in Augsburg. This will be our home for the next month. Our house is located in a friendly neighborhood. The neighbors often gather together for meals or after dinner chats around a big table at the end of the access way. The house itself is very comfortable, with a large living room, modern kitchen, and several bedrooms. I especially admired the features of Evelyn’s kitchen, as she has several of the components I am hoping for in my new kitchen-pullout pantry, pot and pan drawers, and pullout garbage bin.
Don and I did a bike ride along the river. There is a large river that bisects the city of Augsburg, and the citizenry make maximum use of it. There were hundreds of people sunning along the riverbanks, swimming and pursuing various water sports. Don and I spent quite a bit of time watching people on the kayaking course.
I am quite surprised to see so many deep
tans. In addition to the river there are several lakes along the
way, man-made I think. A very nice place to be during this hot
spell. Evelyn prepared a
nice meal of lasagna and salad for dinner that night. We met the
three children, Daniel who is 19 and has his own apartment, Judith
(pronounced u-dit) who is 16 and will be spending the next year as an
exchange student in the USA, and Tobias who is 13. A very nice and
good-looking group. We spent the evening
discussing our exchange experiences, learning about their house and how
to find things and work things.The next day the
Akers finished their preparations and Daniel drove Evelyn, Klaus and
Tobias to the airport to catch their flight to San Francisco. Don and I rode our bicycles to downtown Augsburg, stopping at the central plaza and following the tour of the points of interest.
Since it was Sunday we could not go shopping, so we just made a meal of frozen pizza for Don and scrambled eggs for Geralynn. We spent the evening reading and downloading photographs and went to bed about 11, with hopes of sleeping through until 6am.
Monday I went grocery shopping and then we decided to take a drive to Lake Ammersee along the little country roads. It is still hot, and since we didn't get an early enough start on a bike ride, we decided to skip it today, and in the future we are going to do our rides at 6am when it is cool.
