Rain, rain go away!

Come again sometime after our vacation is over and we aren't outside every day . . . (doesn't really fit the tune, does it?)

My honey and I rode our bikes mostly in the rain yesterday. At times we were a little bit wet, sometimes more wet, and for a period of time, completely soaked. Well, at least our front sides which faced the rain.

Water, water everywhere

We tried to take a break at a museum about the Rhein River, which we crossed shortly before it enters the Bodensee. Unfortunately, it was closed. Only open from Wednesdays to Sundays. Ah, well, so goes life at times. It's a good thing we dry off easily. And that our bike tour operators supplied us with waterproof panniers.

In spite of the rain, the trip has been fascinating. We have learned about the Rhein river, Zeppelin airships, and stone and bronze age civilizations that lived in stilt houses over the lake. As an added bonus, I have managed to swim three times and hope I get the chance to swim in Switzerland before we return to Germany.

There is more rain forecast for today, but as a woman said to us yesterday, "In good weather, anyone can bicycle." I guess that means we're not just anyone. We're nuts!

Lake Constance . . .

. . . is a beuatiful place. (They call it the Bodensee in German.) Parts of it are quite touristy, as there has been a tourist industry here in some places for more than one hundred years.

Bodensee by day

On our first day out, we crossed the upper arm of the Bodensee by ferry to shorten the distance we bicycled. Every town has a small harbor, so we wondered about the possibility of chartering a sailboat to circumnavigate the lake. Except for my seasickness problem, and the fact that we don't know how to sail, it sounds like a winning plan!

Bodensee by night

This is a historic steamship that is over one hundred years old. I'm not sure when it was renovated, but it was fun to watch arrive at the pier after an elegant supper cruise. All of the lighthouses on the lake were flashing, which we were told is a signal that a storm is coming and you should get off of the lake. The faster they flash, the quicker you should move toward a safe harbor.

Today it is cold and rainy, so I may not take so many photos. On the other hand, we will bicycle through a small part of Austria, ending in Switzerland this evening, probaably needing dry clothes and a hot shower. We will also cross the Rhein river where it enters the Bodensee, so it's possible there will be many photo opportunities.

Playing hooky today

A long bike ride yesterday, up early this morning to catch a ferry, no time to write.

See you tomorrow!

Climbing the Brocken

OK, so I told you that to tell you this . . .

My back had been getting better each day, so we decided to go on a hike. We went way overboard and it is possible that the Brocken has broken us. It definitely bent us quite a bit. I think we were deceived by trying to figure out the kilometers.

After a short bus ride, the hike up was eight kilometers and a little over 300 meters of altitude. It was a lovely, mostly clear day (of which the Brocken has very few). At the start there were few other hikers, although they gained in number as we approached the top.

One cool surprise was a steam train that went to the top. The trains were fun to hear and to watch pass by.

The view from the peak was all that everyone said it could be.

View from the top of the Brocken

The problem was the descent. Deciding to hike back to our original starting point added four kilometers and an additional 300 meter altitude drop. Not one of our best ideas. We made it back, but were lucky that the sun sets late in Germany in the summer.

Calves, ankles, knees, and back are all still sore and recovering. Shares in ibuprofen companies should be purchased. We are grateful that bicycling is not weight-bearing, as we start our four day bike trip around Lake Constance today.

Long may the weekend warriors limp!

On the ferry

We survived driving our rental car in Germany. My honey got up to 160-170 km on the Autobahn while I gripped my door tightly. Hiking too much and then relaxing in a thermal bath has kept us busy.

Last night our hotel had no W-LAN (wifi), so I am writing this on the ferry to Konstanz on the south side of the Bodensee. Pretty cool!

The cool photo I promised, even the right size!

It's raining lightly now and the short-term forecast also calls for rain. So much for biking around the sunny Bodensee, sitting in biergartens enjoying ourselves. We can only hope that the forecast is wrong.

Monkey Glands

Two weeks ago I stood up from a chair wrongly and hurt my back. Not unusual for me, but the length and intensity of this particular injury was worse than normal. Because I thought it would hurt for a few days and then resolve itself, I went on a planned weekend to a rustic cabin with my book group for a few days.

But it hurt to move in any way. Sitting, standing, laying down, walking, it was all painful. The RICE cure (Rest, Ice, Compression, Elevation) did not seem to be working at all. So when I came back from my weekend away, I went to my chiropractor.

She thought it was some sort of disc problem, due to my symptoms and the persistence of the pain.

So my chiropractor did what she does, and there was some relief, although it didn't last. That night I was unable to sleep for the pain and the knowledge that I was going to be flying that day to Europe for three weeks. So I made an early morning appointment with my doctor.

My doctor's opinion was also major muscular strain and she prescribed a muscle relaxant, an opiate pain medication, and a topical pain relief cream.

When I went to get the prescription filled, the pharmacist told me that he didn't think much of the cream, and recommended an over-the-counter cream that he claimed many of his patients liked.  I bought it.

Later that day at the chiropractor for one last adjustment before the flight, she lent me a TENS unit for electrical pain relief. I took it and said thank you.

I brought every single pain remedy I could think of, even though when I researched some of them, some studies showed that the remedy didn't seem to do anymore than a placebo. I didn't care, if the placebo effect was as good as I could get I would take it.

The whole situation led me to a pretty horrifying thought. Although I sincerely believe in animal's rights, if someone had told me that monkey glands would quickly solve my pain, I would have seriously considered it. It made me realize how desperate and shallow I am when every move I make hurts. And how glad I am that monkey glands are not treatment for back pain.

By the way, I am considering using "Monkey Glands" as a title for the book I will write in November. I don't know what it is about yet, but I like that title.

Sitting on a House

First off, to my daily readers, I need to apologize. I thought that I had scheduled Part II of Copenhagen for yesterday. However, when I logged on this morning to post a very short "playing hooky" message for today, I realized nothing had posted for the first of July.

I decided to save the hooky post for the future and scheduled the already written Copenhagen post for this morning. Sorry! You may now return to your regulary scheduled post below.

The only reason that I feel free to write about the current trip that my honey and I are taking is because we have an awesome young man living at our house and taking care of it for us. Housesitting, if you will, although our roof is quite tall and dangerous, so I hope he does all his sitting inside.

It's such a ridiculous phrase, it got me curious. Turns out that housesit is a twentieth-century word that followed the word babysitting. Babysitting showed up in the United States sometime in the late forties according to several dictionaries. Not very old, but not new either.

But back to our housesitter. He is an Italian student working on his Ph.D. and is very polite. I know he is polite because he didn't say anything about our incredible mess AND he took us out to a very nice dinner. 

It's very calming to know that there is someone at your home when you're gone. Someone responsible who will collect any mail that the post office mistakenly delivers, who will pick up the free weekly newspaper that you can't unsubscribe from, who will bring inside the religious tracts, ads, and other pieces of paper that accumulate.

So thanks to those willing to live in a stranger's house, try to figure out their television set, wonder why they have three bottles of mustard in the fridge. I salute you!