Adventures in Deutschland: Days 52 and 53

Wednesday and Thursday were a bit uneventful for us in many ways. We needed to do laundry and to start to pack so my mom and Dave had the day to themselves and then met us for dinner. On Wednesday I spent hours doing laundry and taking my last trip to the grocery store (I am refusing to buy anything else now that we are so close to leaving). Therese's skin broke out really badly again so we kept her inside for most of the day, making sure she was plenty cool, had plenty of sleep, and was given plenty of cortisone.

We met my mom and Dave at the train station at 5:30. They had come to our town straight from spending a beautiful day in Lindau. The LOVED it, and who can blame them? It's a great little beachy island with picturesque views of Lake Constance and the Austrian Alps at every turn. They found a wonderful spot off the beaten path to eat lunch in front of the water. Their only bad experience happened on the way to the island. They had to switch trains at Friedrichshafen and it seems that the train they were supposed to switch to in order to get to Lindau was cancelled. At least this is what they assumed happened. Not knowing the language, it's hard to know, but one minute they were standing on a train platform with crowds of people, then the next minute there was an announcement over the PA and people ran in other directions leaving them all alone on this platform. They were able to catch a train to Lindau 45 minutes later.

For dinner we went to Alte Zunft, a cozy little bar/restaurant with dark wood and a good atmosphere. My mom and Dave wanted to split a pizza for dinner, but they wanted a combination of ingredients that was not on the menu (the menus will list about 15 pizzas looking something like "Pizza Mafiosa - olives, onions, and ham"). Todd asked in German if they could order a pizza with the toppings they wanted. The waitress said yes,then starkly turned around to get a piece of paper to write their order on while muttering (not under her breath and definitely in English),"But it's not proper." :-) After dinner we grabbed ice cream at our favorite place - Fernando's. My mom and Dave liked it so much that they got seconds so they could try new flavors (they had walnut, cookies, Irish whiskey, and chocolate). They caught their train to Ludwigshafen talking of plans to go back to Lindau the next day while we packed.

Thursday morning we spent a few hours packing and weighing our bags trying to get them all under the weight limit for our flight to Ireland (flights between the US and Europe allow for more weight than inter-European flights). We borrowed a scale from our landlord and rearranged our belongings a few times. We made it under the limit (we hope) by sending 9.5 kilos of books home via DHL. Todd has bought a few books here that you can't get in the States and I brought a lot of books with me to give me something to do during the day while Reese napped. Poor Todd had to drag our boxes of books (9.5 kilos = 21 lbs) all the way down to DHL in the city center, a 30 minute walk. While there we ate our final meal at Il Postio - spaghetti with shrimp and pork with pineapple and cheese (I know, it sounds disgusting but it tastes great). We then put Therese down for a nap. She didn't move for 2.5 hours. In this time we received an email from my mom saying that she and Dave had switched hotels and were now staying in Radolfzell near the train station. This would make it much easier for them to catch their train to Munich in the morning plus we could see them whenever we wanted since they wouldn't have to train back and forth. from Ludwigshafen. So how did they find this hotel? the woman the front desk at their Ludwigshafen hotel actually called around for them and found them this hotel in Radolfzell, enabling them to cancel their last night at her hotel.

In the afternoon my mom and Dave came to our place in order to use our Skype to call my sister who works for Delta and is managing their standby tickets. They still don't know which flight they will be able to come home on, and they were trying to figure out which one(s) to try for. Flying on standby is a little stressful, but you can't beat the price.

We visited my mom and Dave's new hotel room and then ate dinner at Hotel Kruez in their pleasant patio/bier garten. The food was delicious - Todd and I splite salad with ribs and a vegetable curry dish. They morning had been a bit cool and cloudy, but by that night it was clear and warm. During dinner we noticed that Therese had some hives around her ankles and arm so we made sure to head home nice and early to get her some Benadryl. Before we started up to our place, we walked through the main marktplatz where there were some beach chairs, speakers, and a big screen set up. They were about to play the movie Mr. and Mrs. Smith. Too bad it was dubbed in German. We took our final pictures and then said good-bye to my mom and Dave. They left for Munich early this morning.