Public Transport Week

Back in 2023, I used the same headline for a post about a week when I used public transport every working day . If you are interested, you can (re-)read that post here.

This past week saw me on quite a few journeys, too. I also had time for some good walks, plus O.K. and I had a fun night out at the Preismaskenball (literally "prize masks ball", meaning a Carnival themed dance where attendants can enter a contest for the best costume) in the village hall. 

Another highlight for me was a trip to Ulm for a work-related course.

Monday (24 February) was off to a cold start at 3C/37F in line with the season. A mix of clouds and sun followed, with the temperature rising to a max of 11C/52F.

After an uneventful morning working from home, I was able to participate only for the first 1 1/2 hours of an online conference in the afternoon before heading to the train station - I was travelling to Ulm for a course that was to start the next morning at 9:00. If you have been reading my blog for a while, you will be familiar with the many delays and cancellations that make using trains in Germany a very unreliable business. I did not risk a late arrival on Tuesday, and rather spent the night before the course at a hotel close to the course location.

It is a place I am very familiar with, having attended the Academy for Data Protection there in 2014, and returning every other year or so for some additional training, like now. I always enjoy those trips, especially if I get the chance at a walk along the paths I discovered for myself during my time there in 2014.

With only a 10-minute delay, I arrived at the hotel long before bedtime, and went out for a quick turn in the dark; just under an hour to stretch my legs and do a bit of revisiting.

Sunrise from my kitchen on Monday morning

There were 7 minutes between the first picture and this one.

Nightly view of Ulm from the top of the hill where I was staying.

Standard hotel room, simply but clean (and very familiar by now).

The course lasted all day on Tuesday (25 February). There was no booked lunch, and so I merely grabbed a snack and then managed a 45 minute walk; luckily, the morning's rain had stopped by then.

Not far from the academy, a path leads into the woods.

It is part of El Camino, as I found out back in 2014 during my first stay here.

This is where I turned back. The "disappointing" village can be seen through the trees.

The course was really good. We had three speakers, one of which was my old professor from 2014 (he is in his early 80s now but still going strong). Another one was my favourite speaker, a lady who can convey complex legal and technical matters in a manner that is understandable (and entertaining!) even to folks like me who have not been to uni. 

Afterwards, I took my overnight bag and walked the 6 km or so down into town to the train stations. Just like last time I was here (in October 2023), a drizzle was falling, but instead of turning into proper rain, at some point maybe half way down the hill it stopped, and I was rewarded by a beautiful rainbow - much more luminous and beautiful than what my mobile phone's camera caught.

A band of golden light (much more golden than what it looks like here) underneath grey drizzling clouds kept me company for the first part of the way down into town.

Ulm Minster - the tallest church spire in the world.

View from the bridge crossing into town centre

I was home precisely as the nearby church bells announced 8:00 pm.

Wednesday (26 February) was a grey, cold day that reached hardly more than 4C/39F. Local trains were chaotic, and instead of the scheduled 17 minutes, it took me an hour to get to the office. I was cold and not in the very best of moods by then, but work itself was perfectly alright. The way home was a little smoother, but the trains were extremely packed because every other train had been cancelled.

The weather was rather April-like on Thursday (27 February), ranging from icy rain to brightest sunshine and plenty of wind.

It promised to remain dry for most of the afternoon, and so I walked to Benningen after work, enjoying the birdsong and signs of early spring I noticed along the way. Several birds of prey were seen and heard; at one point four buzzards were circling overhead, but they were interested in each other rather than in finding food.

Friday (28 February) was more or less the same in terms of weather. I took earlier trains to Offenburg than usual, because O.K. and I were going to the aforementioned dance. This year, the music was even worse than usual, but we still had enough fun to last until 3:00 am. There are always friends, neighbours, fellow musicians and other people to meet, and it is fun checking out each other's costumes. 

Wall-to-wall sunshine on Saturday (1st of March) meant I was able to go for an afternoon walk on the fields. It was rather cold and windy, and so I was out for about an hour only, but I spotted storks and a large white heron (none of which I was able to photograph). Also, there are now snowdrops, aconites and crocus in many people's gardens to look at.

View towards Offenburg...

...and looking back towards the village.

Sunday (2nd of March) was spent our traditional way for Carnival Sunday: At noon, O.K.'s Mum hosted the family lunch with her home-made goulash soup (very nice and spicy). O.K. then had to go and meet up with the village band; as usual, they were part of the carnival parade through the village. 

Of course we went out to watch, and once the various groups (all in costume, and some making music as well) were past, we leisurely walked down the village road to the square where all the groups had gathered. Some of them performed, some just showed off their costumes once more. It was rather nice and warm in the sun on the square, but eventually, we made our way back up the street.

The village band gathering; this year, they lead the parade.

Followed by witches...

...more musicians...

...and some glitzy disco balls as well as other groups in full costumes.

By then, O.K.'s Mum needed a rest, and since O.K. was to remain with the band and play music several times more and at various locations throughout the village, as every year on carnival Sunday, I got my little red suitcase, and O.K.'s sister and her husband kindly drove me to the station.

About three hours later, at 7:00 pm, I was home. Phew! The trip had been ok but the trains had been quite full, and there was a bit of confusion about the second of the three trains I had to take, but it was all solved and the delay of 10 minutes wasn't problematic this time.

Here in my area, carnival isn't a huge thing, but in O.K.'s area it is. For me, life has turned entirely back to normal after the parade on Sunday afternoon, while at the village, Rose Monday and the Tuesday are busy with carnival celebrations and traditions - for them, it's all over on Ash Wednesday.

A Mostly Sunny Week

[Updated 27.02.2025 about the phenomenon we observed on the Friday]

Last week was often sunny but very cold until Thursday afternoon, when the weather began to feel very spring-like. I managed some good walks and spent Sunday volunteering at one of the 59 polling stations in my hometown, helping with the German-wide general election.

I returned from Offenburg on Monday (17 February) morning and started work as usual. My lunch time was spent having my customary back & shoulders massage at the nearby day spa. 

My sister and I had agreed to go on a guided tour after work, at a huge construction site at our old school. Only when she arrived a bit before we had to leave and I offered her coffee did I realise that half of my flat was without electricity! My study was fine, otherwise I would have noticed immediately that something was wrong; it was full daylight so that I had not needed the lights on in any of the rooms, and I had not been cooking and only drank tap water.

Kitchen, bathroom and bedroom had no power, which meant my fridge was not cooling, and the freezer compartment had completely defrosted - something I'd meant to do for ages but I rather imagined it would happen in a planned way, not like this! Unfortunately, I had to throw out two or three items from the freezer, something I hate - it's food, after all, and I am very unhappy about food waste.

Anyway, my sister gave me the number of the electrician who had recently sorted out something at our Mum's place, and he agreed to come the very next day.

We went to the guided tour as planned, and learned many interesting things about what it means to pull an old complex of school buildings down and building a new one, all step by step without the school having to close for the work - a HUGE challenge.

I suppose you can guess when the school was built! It hasn‘t changed much since then.

The spacious foyer, still smelling exactly the same - not surprising, as the ugly carpet is still the same, too!!

How many hours of my life were spent staring at a ceiling like this while a teacher was doing his or her best to impart some knowledge?

We quite like the concept of the new school buildings, and enjoyed the trip down memory lane when we spent the second half of the tour inside the old building that we knew so well from when we were about 10 years old until our late teens.

Tuesday (18 February) was sunny but so cold at -6C/21F that I didn't mind not having time for a walk. I was working from home, and the electrician appeared as promised. It took him all of 10 minutes to sort things out, but I know that sooner or later a bigger job is on the cards - I still have all the original wiring from when the house was built in 1950s, and the ceramic-head fuses which should by rights be in a museum.

sunrise from my kitchen on Tuesday

The evening was spent with my sister again, this time at our Mum's, for a nice meal and chat.

The weather was the same on Wednesday (19 February), my regular day at the office and busy but unremarkable.

Thursday (20 February) saw the start of the spring-like weather: After a cold morning just above freezing, the afternoon was much milder at 10C/50 F. There was a mix of sun and clouds, but it remained dry, and I was very happy to be able to walk to Benningen after work, even though by then there was little left of the earlier sunshine.

Lunch was different from my usual cheese sandwich, eaten in my yellow armchair while reading: My sister, my Mum and Mum's friend met at the Vesperkirche, an annual charity project my Mum used to be involved with and wrote a guest post about here. It was packed, which is good - the more people come, the more donations come in (I hope). We enjoyed our meal but both my sister and I were pressed for time since we only had our lunch break.

On Friday (21 February), the warmest day of the week saw the thermometer climb to 17C/62F, which is unusual but not impossible in our area this time of year. After work, my sister and I walked to our neighbouring town of Kornwestheim, where we revisited a few places our family has ties to, and were out for about 3 hours.

sunrise again

yellow and blue - my favourite colours

An unusual phenomenon in the sky (no trick or reflection, but really what we saw)

More unusual cloud formations above Kornwestheim‘s old church.

Statue of a mother with children of various ages in Kornwestheim‘s Stadtgarten (town garden, a public park we‘ve known all our lives)

Italianate living quarter built in the late 1980s. Back then, I found it somewhat ridiculous and pretentious, but looking at it now I have come to like it.

Witz means joke in German, but here it was simply the name of the shop owners, long gone and the shop closed for decades.

The photographer being photographed 😊
It was the first time in months that I felt comfortable outside without a jacket or coat.

Update 27.02.2025: My sister reminded me of the name for the phenomenon we observed in the sky, it was a circumhorizontal arc and has its own wikipedia entry here. (In our case, it didn't look like an arc, but that's what it was.)

Saturday (22 February) was a complete "day off" for me, with no appointments with anyone and no work - I could just do what I wanted, and I wanted a walk to Steinheim. You may remember that the route across the fields from Marbach to Steinheim, where my parents had their allotment until my Dad became too unwell to look after it, used to be my Mum and my favourite walk for some years. I still love that walk, even though my Mum is not physically able to do come along anymore. The last time I was there was in September last year, as seen here.

I boarded the local train to Marbach at lunch time, then walked to Steinheim, up the hill to the allotments, on into the woods and back to Steinheim in a wide loop, then back to Marbach across the fields - a total of about 18 km, which felt really good. I had a sandwich and my water bottle in my bag and took a 10-minute rest on a bench, enjoying the mild spring air (15C/59F). Arriving at Marbach station with 15 minutes to spare until the train home was good timing without having planned it that way.

a crocus field

a familiar view, but never quite the same

The river Murr flows through Steinheim

The village of Lehrhof looks much better from afar than up close (trust me)

Germany held a federal election on Sunday (23 February), and both my sister and I were once again volunteering at one of the polling stations. I really like this kind of volunteer work; it makes me feel that I am doing my bit for democracy (apart from voting, of course), and I hardly mind getting up awfully early for that on a Sunday. (I must admit I wouldn‘t want to do that evey week, or once a month or so.)

Our shift was from 7:30 am until 1:00 pm, and we were back by 5:45 pm to help close the polling station at 6:00 pm and then do the counting.

There were seven of us for the counting, and so we were finished a little before 8:00 pm. I am not going to turn this post into a political one; let it suffice to say that the outcome wasn't a surprise. It could have been "better", but it could have also been "worse", in my opinion.