First October Week

For us, the start of October meant the end of our holidays. After our last hike on the last day of September (see my previous post), we left Naturns after breakfast on Tuesday, the 1st of October.

View from our balcony at 10 to 8 that morning.

It was raining as we left, but over the six hours of our journey, we saw all sorts of weather, and quite a bit of snow - I now wish we'd stopped for photos during the part that lead us across the Swiss Alps, namely Ofenpass (Fuorn Pass, see pictures and information here on wikipedia) and Flüelapass (click here for the wikipedia article).

The drive went so smoothly that we never really stopped for more than a toilet break, and were at O.K.'s at around 3:30 in the afternoon, just in time for coffee and the croissants we had picked up at the village bakery.

After unpacking and loading the washing machine, we went across the road to see his Mum. It had been a long day and we were both reasonably tired early-ish.

There was rain on Wednesday (2 October), but it let up long enough in the afternoon for a walk of a bit over an hour around the village. Otherwise, the day was filled with jobs in and around the house, and O.K. did some groceries shopping for his Mum and for ourselves.

Thursday (3 October) was a public holiday in Germany. The day serves to commemorate the reunion of East and West Germany, now 24 years ago.

It is also usually the day when the village band play at a trade show in Offenburg, and I come along for the day with other family and friends of band members. 

Getting ready

The village band at work

While they played, I roamed the halls but was quite underwhelmed, really. There was just such a lot of low-quality clothing, ugly deco, dubious health and cosmetic products on offer that I really wondered how the sellers of such goods make a living. If you were a houseowner, farmer or owner of a vineyard, you could find many useful services, machinery and tools, but I am neither. And so I was quite relieved when the band finished and we could go and find something to eat - there was plenty on offer, it was just a question of deciding where to go.

We were home for a while after that, enough time for O.K. to change out of his uniform and me into something a little more elegant for the rest of the afternoon and evening - we were invited to a family birthday with excellent food, nice drinks and good conversation.

O.K. drove us to Ludwigsburg on Friday (4 October); we arrived at my place after more than 2 hours on the roads, which were very busy. I had woken up feeling less than brilliant; the first symptoms of a cold I had noticed the day before had become worse, but thankfully, I was still well enough to unpack, load my washing machine, and get my shopping done (with O.K.'s help) for the weekend.

Originally, we had intended to see my Mum and my sister that afternoon or evening, maybe for a takeaway meal from the Indian restaurant round the corner, but it was not feasible. We still ordered Indian, which was alright but not as good as we'd anticipated, and I went to bed early.

On Saturday (5 October), O.K. went to the pharmacy for me and we had breakfast together, but he left soon afterwards; he needed to get ready for the working week, and I needed to nurse my cold which was by now in full swing.

I was still hoping that a day of complete rest on Sunday (6 October) would do the trick and set me back on track for the return to work the next day, but it wasn't so. 

We spoke several times on the phone, but I didn't do any of the many things I had wanted to do - it was a very different ending to our holiday, and I felt rather sorry for myself. Still, the holiday had been beautiful, and we had created another set of great memories together.

View from my kitchen window on Sunday afternoon. Not even this glorious sunshine could induce me to go for a walk - a sure sign that I am not well.