Monday 14 January 2019

Last Week

For myself and O.K., work began again last Monday after the Christmas/New Year break. It was good to see everyone at work again, and the first days were not so busy as to already erase the feeling of being well rested. 
Still, I was surprised at how knackered I felt on Wednesday night - with only three working days under my belt!
 
It started to snow on Wednesday afternoon, and my neighbours' gardens and houses looked like this on Thursday morning around 8:00:


I loved the blue-ish morning light before proper daylight.

Just before lunch, this was my view across the Eastern half of Ludwigsburg from my office on the 9th floor:

It snowed again on Friday, so much so that visibility was very limited:


By the time I arrived home shortly before 5:30 pm, this was the view from my kitchen window:
 

An hour later, I was on my way to O.K.'s. The train trip there went a bit different than planned: Instead of taking a local train to Stuttgart and from there, an InterCity which would take me directly to Offenburg with no further changing of trains, I found out that the local train I meant to get on was cancelled and the IC 90 minutes late. 
The alternative offered required two changes, but I was glad for the opportunity to end up with a total delay of only half an hour by taking a different local train to Stuttgart, from there a TGV (Train Grande Vitesse, a French high-speed train that reduces travel time between Stuttgart and Paris to about 3 hours!), and for the last bit from Karlsruhe to Offenburg, an ICE (InterCity Express).

I must admit I was rather exhausted by the time I arrived there, but O.K. made it well worth by serving a delicious evening meal of salad, bread, our favourite types of cheese and a bottle of red. (Of course it would have been well worth even without anything to eat - just seeing O.K. is enough reason for me!)

Saturday saw the snow being washed away by rain, and when I arrived home on Sunday night (with both my trains being punctual on the dot!), there was not a single snowflake left to see. 

On TV, we see the masses of snow in other parts of Germany and Austria, with thousands of skiing holiday guests being stuck in small towns and villages where all roads leading to and from those places are blocked by snow and fallen trees. Some people have been unwise enough to go skiing off the official slopes, and several have died in avalanches. 
We were talking about this yesterday, and I said that I'd probably not even start my holiday right now if I had booked something in one of the places so badly affected. The firemen, Red Cross staff, volunteers and other helping hands are busy enough as it is.

Today is a mix of cloudy and sunny; not very cold. It gives us a welcome break before more rain or sleet forecast as the week moves on.

12 comments:

  1. Glad the snow has not really troubled you greatly - it seems that some places in the Alps have been badly affected. Here we have had sun today/ Last year we had terrible snow later on in the winter, so I dare not be hopeful that spring is on its way yet though!

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    1. I well remember the "East from the Beast" that kept much of the UK under ice and snow for a while last year, and I hope there won't be a repeat.

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  2. The view from your kitchen window is beautiful. The snow dumps do seem to be prohibitively large. I do not envy thouse who are snowed in or worse.

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    1. Those who have been living in the Alpine regions all their lives say it is not so unusual, and they always provide well for periods when they can not leave their houses or villages. It is the many tourists that don't know when they will be able to get home, and some of them behaving unreasonably, that make the situation more dramatic than it needs to be.

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  3. I like the kind of snow that stays just a while for you to admire and then, it melts and the roads are fine again!
    You know I do love your window view!

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    1. Yes, I know :-)
      We even saw some sun yesterday - it felt like April, switching between rain and sun every half hour or so.

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  4. I'm glad that your time with O.K. wasn't compromised. It does seem inconsiderate to put rescuers' lives at risk by venturing out where extra dangers lie. Oddly your post brought home to me how great are the compensations of age. I enjoyed my jobs. However the freedom to get up when I like (which is usually early anyway) and do what I like and go where I like when I like is great compensation.

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    1. The last four or five days before going back to work were the most restful ones for us. Up until then, Christmas and New Year hardly saw us more than one or two nights in the same place before packing up again and travelling back and forth. It all caught up with us then - one morning, we slept as late as 11, something that has not happened in decades!

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  5. Your snow photos are beautiful. I'm so jealous! We haven't seen a single flake so far this year and I'm beginning to wonder if we will. Sigh. I would love to spend a snow day at your house, enjoying that lovely view and reading a book!

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    1. It's all gone now, Jennifer, but we are still far from spring, so there is most likely going to be more snow and ice before long.
      You are welcome to spend a snow (or rain) day at my house any time!

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  6. So sorry your train trip was so complicated! Winter is really with you now, with all its problems and beauty at times. None of my sil's family in a small village near Rosenheim have had the terrible snow. I'm so glad you were able to enjoy visiting O.K.

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    1. Good to know everyone in your sil's family is alright!
      No snow at all left here since Saturday's rain, but I am sure it will be back.

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