Best of Summer Week

Last week was mostly pleasantly warm without being too hot; only from Friday onwards the rising temperatures meant exhausting long days and short nights. Still, some of the best things about summer were happening for me that week.

On Monday (6 July), my usual morning trains home from Offenburg to Stuttgart brought me back from the weekend with my husband. The morning was a refreshing 16C/60F, and it didn't get above 28C/82F during the day.

My cousin from Nice/Nizza (France) had arrived on the Friday before, and the four of us - Mum, my sister, our cousin and myself - met after work at the Italian restaurant close enough to my Mum's place for her to get there and back on foot.

I managed half my pizza and took the other half home to fry up the next day for lunch.

We shared a pleasant and delicious meal at a table in the garden and then went back to my Mum's for cold drinks and more chatting. This cousin is from our Dad's side, and the three of us are very close in age; we spent a lot of time together when we were children, and the old thread is still there, even though I have visited her in Nice only once and she had not been in Ludwigsburg for 8 years.

I was working from home on Tuesday (7 July) and walked to Benningen after work in spite of it being 31C/88F; it was hot and I did sweat, but it IS summer after all, and a strong breeze kept blowing so that the heat didn't feel oppressive.

It was a bit cooler on Wednesday (8 July) at a max of 26C/78F, and the afternoon brought more wind and interesting cloud formations to observe on my walk home from Zuffenhausen after I had spent the day at the office as usual.

Thursday (9 July) was an exact repeat of Monday in terms of temperature. After work, I walked to my sister's to pick up my cousin; we walked to the American Diner (Kullman's Diner) near the train station where we had arranged to meet my Mum for a meal. Again, we had a pleasant chat and reasonably good food at an outdoor table in the shade.

For dessert, we went to a nearby icecream place where unfortunately it was VERY noisy from the busy road (many of our town's bus lines go through there) and people naturally talking at the top of their voices to override the road noise. We didn't last there longer than it took us to finish our icecreams/drinks. My cousin and I accompanied my Mum to the bus stop and, once she was savely on her way home, I walked my cousin back to my sister's and then went home.

It had been a very nice evening, and my cousin and I welcomed the opportunity for some more catching up.

Friday (10 July) was a very busy day for me, but pleasantly so. 

I played host to a meeting with colleagues from my professional association at the office in Weilimdorf. My boss, who had planned to attend and hold a presentation, was on sick leave all week which meant I had to do it all on my own. No problem... but until everything was set up AND my guests (about 20 of them) were all greeted and settled, it was a bit rushed for me - especially once I found out that my order for coffee, mineral water and snacks had not gone through with our in-house caterer! Fortunately, the caterer's employees are all professionals and were able to whip up the requested catering at the last minute. I was truly grateful to them and said so.

The meeting itself went very well with various presentations/talks, lively discussions and good conversations during our lunch break.

I had to make sure to leave on time and arrived home mid-afternoon with about 40 minutes to freshen up and get changed before I was off to the station again, where I met my sister and our cousin.

We accompanied our cousin to Stuttgart's main station and then got on another local train with her, making sure she was on the right one to the airport; she was flying back to Nizza that evening.

My sister and I got off after one stop and walked back down to Stuttgart's Schlossplatz (Palace Square) where we waited for a friend of my sister's. The three of us had tickets for the Jazz Open, an annual open-air music festival that draws big names every year, with tickets very much sought after and often sold out quickly. Our tickets were for Lenny Kravitz, mine was last year's Christmas gift from my sister.

Lenny Kravitz caught my attention in the 1990s, and I have been losely following his musical journey ever since. This was the first time we were going to see him live. And what a concert it was!!! Two hours straight of song after song, during most of which he accompanied himself on the guitar. He changed guitars about 10 times, and his brilliant band were a force on their own. I could go on and on about how great it all was; his voice, the music, the stage presence of a true artist and exceptional musician.

Our tickets were for the standing space, and as the concert was sold out, we were standing among a crowd of people - all of us sweating away in 34C/93F on a paved square in the middle of a big dusty city. I don't need to describe the... erm... scents wafting around, and that part of it wasn't exactly pleasant, but believe me - at some stage I managed to block most of it out, and only what was happening on stage mattered.

Neues Schloss (New Palace), Stuttgart.

Schlossplatz, Stuttgart

A young woman was translating into sign language the songs' lyrics and whatever Lenny said to the audience. She was positioned at the side of the stage, and he made a point of going over and personally thanking her for making his songs come alive for those hard of hearing or deaf. My sister told me that in an online article she read about this year's Jazz Open, apparently he was the only artist who acknowledged the presence of a sign language interpreter, let along thank them (there was one at every performance). That, in my opinion, says a lot about Lenny as a person.

You can read more about the festival (in English) here.

The three of us managed to catch a local train after only a very short wait, and I was home at about 11:25 pm.

On Saturday (11 July) morning, I did only part of my usual cleaning round, packed my little red suitcase and took three different trains to Offenburg, where O.K. picked me up at lunch time.

We had a quick light lunch at his place and in the afternoon went to see one of his uncles and his wife a short drive away. They had invited us after O.K. had told them of our wedding in May. I'd met the uncle before but not his wife, but once we got talking over cold drinks in their garden, it was as if we'd known each other for a long time. She was very pleasant to talk to, and I am glad we went to see them.

Back at the cottage, we chose to have our evening meal indoors; it was still too hot out on the balcony. Once the sun was behind the houses, we spent the rest of the evening out there, sipping well-chilled rosé and observing the stars emerge in the darkening summer night sky.

Sunday (12 July) allowed us to sleep in, but of course with the hot weather and all windows open, nobody stays in bed very long, and we were sitting on the balcony with our coffee mugs early enough to still catch a bit of the morning's freshness. 

I ironed before it became too warm while O.K. prepared our breakfast of fresh fruit and yoghurt. Early afternoon, we drove to a nearby village where the village band were booked at a small but very nice village fête. It was held underneath large old lime trees on the village school's playground - very welcome on what was another hot day of about 36C/97F.

We had a drink and a chat with some fellow band members afterwards and then drove home where we enjoyed a light evening meal of rucola salad and a platter of tomato and mozzarella.

Dining al fresco, open-air concerts, spending time with friends and family, never worrying about what to wear against cold or wet weather - it really was a week that brought some of the "Best of Summer"!