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September 10 Sunday sunny Bicycle touring Germany In the morning we drove with Anja and Kay and baby Louisa to some nearby mountains. There, we went hiking with dozens of other weekend strollers. Talk about getting back to the solitude of nature. Not. Something we definitely take for granted in Canada with our wide open nature spaces. Took a picture of two boys playing in a field. One was pulling the other in a wagon. The little guy in the wagon had glasses on his tiny face. Very cute. We walked along a stream. White and golden-maned horses were in a pasture. Water trickled down the opposite side of the path at various spots. Lots of ferns. Kay takes a bunch of pictures of the water and rocks. We see hordes of rock climbers tackling Nun Rock. Two small kids are climbing with their parents. No climbers are on Devil Rock. Well, I guess. It is a Sunday, after all. We hike to the top of a ring of rocks that form a wall. Hunkering down behind the wall of rocks, we have eggs, meat sandwiches, apples, and bottled water fro lunch. Louisa is sleeping after bouncing along in her carriage up the steep path. The single track route that we take down is even rockier and rougher. Must be a 4x4 baby carriage. After returning to Anja and Kay's, we ask about tick bites. This prompts Kay to drive us to his family doctor 30 kilometres away. The doctor says the meningitis phase for tick bites is only during June and July, so we don't have to worry about that now. Bacteria is still possible though, he says, and writes a prescription for Kay. Kay is a university student, so he gets free medical coverage. (Education itself is virtually free in Germany, too. There are no tuition fees. Foreigners can go, too, Kay says. If only I understood German.) We drive around and find an open Apotheke (drug store) in Chemnitz-not an easy task on a Sunday night. It is like a drive-through, similar to what we have in North America for fast food. The medicine is dispensed through a small slot in the side of the building to our vehicle window. On Kay's recommendation, we buy a tick remover tool, also. We had never heard of one before. The tool we receive looks like a pair of yellow plastic tweezers. It is designed to lock onto a tick's body. The tool comes with instructions to turn the tick counterclockwise. Who knew? If I had, I probably could have used our Cool Tool for yet another use! By the time we return to Anja and Kay's, supper is waiting. After supper, I run down to a public telephone on the street corner to call home. There is no phone in the four-story house where Anja and Kay live. They have been waiting something like over 10 years for phone service. And here I thought Telus was bad. With some difficulty with numbers and busy tones, I obtain an English-speaking operator and get connected to the proper number in Canada. Dad tells me that Wen Wong, a longtime childhood best friend, has moved back to Princeton after buying into the local Pharmasave pharmacy. Another high school chum, Lyle Thomas, has too. He has a job working for the recreation department in Princeton BC. "Should I look for a job for you?" my dad wants to know. "Not just yet," I persuade him. Kay and Anja say that Krict stole the elephant noise from them, so they had to come up with a new one. Love bird cooing. They gave us a hilarious demonstration. Kay also does a hysterical demonstration of a frog croaking, complete with puffed up cheeks. The best we could do was Sharon's fish lips. Personally, I'm not much into animal sounds. The squirrel in Ice Age, perhaps. |
