Smoking on trains

 Talking with the triplets (I know it should be "to" but I am on even terms with them) I often discover things from my (very near) past that don't exist anymore and give rise to huge astonishment (to ALL of us). 

Take smoking: 

The children often play "train journey" with me - each of them has grabbed one of my posh little trolleys (two in soft silver pink, one in grey-black -- and the one triplet with a remarkable tendency to luxury and elegance always grabs the stylishly understated grey-black one!), sit on my sofa and present their tickets. 

I am ticket collector and locomotive driver in one person, and - as everywhere in the world staff isn't easy to get - also serve a hot chocolate in the on-board restaurant. 

Well, to come back to the "Once upon a time"- bit: 

I told them that in my youth people smoked in trains. 

I remember that sometimes when one could only get a seat in a smoking compartment after a journey the clothes in my suitcase stank of smoke (some of these compartments were only separated by a curtain, if I remember it right). 

Both, the triplets and I, were very astonished that smoking was allowed in trains, or at breakfast tables in a hotel, or in private households where a guest would politely ask if it is alright to smoke and then didn't even wait for the answer... 

PS: I have a vague feeling that it should be "smoking on trains" - would that be better? 

- Thank you, Tasker - I corrected it from "in" to "on". 

Work-Life-Balance

 I "won" a whole sunny Sunday: 

Google's User Helpdesk (if this is still the right word) doesn't work on Sunday. 

Hahaha: so not only Germany has a problem with "Generation Z", whom most older people insinuate that they will only work on four days a week - (they told us so), because that is better for their work-life-balance (but with the same full payment as before). If it weren't so dreadful and sad we would recommend a look at the VW - people who want to work but might lose their jobs, horrible. 

Google wants a work-life-balance too! 

Totally energised I had decided to resolve the "no-photos-on-my-blog"-problem - today - but: see above. 

So I'll take a long walk, and wish you a beautiful day too! 

It's Not That I Don't Want To

 I haven't written for a long time because I have a problem with Google: these days I cannot show you my photos, because I need more cloud. I am willing to pay - but that is really difficult this time, and I lose interest, hanging for hours in telephone waiting lines. 

I have the feeling that many of you are also a bit tired of posting - or have good reasons not to because of trolls or hate comments. 

I love to write - but I love to add my photos too. 

Maybe I try to write without them, maybe I stop. Though I would miss you - I love your blogs, and I love your comments - sometimes I have the feeling that with some of you I am friends. 

And two of you I have met in real life: Tom Stephenson in Bath, and Susan Scheid in America. And those beautiful towels by Joanne Noragon are such a special gift! 

Let me ponder a while... 

"Don't cross the bridge...

 ... before you reach it." 

These wise words are very often given to me as advice from my dear friend Christine. 

You see: I am impatient. I am a scheduler, I like to make plans. Worry about them. 

Today I got a beautiful example for that vice: how often had I discussed with friends and family whether I should renew my one-year-season ticket for the German railroad - the special offer "BahnCard100" for pensioners and retirees. 

I enjoyed its possibilities: with this ticket I can as often as I want take every train in Germany, on the spur of a moment, going as far in Germany as I want. For one year, "without paying" anymore. 

The only fly in the ointment was the price: 3880 Euros (= 3.319 Pound Sterling) - a special offer for us oldies. 

Quite a lot, I think. But I bought it. Although being at least 3 weeks a month together with the triplets so I had only one week a month - in which I travelled to Berlin, mostly, and sometimes to Munich. 

Mid-September I have to renew this Card. 

             OR NOT. 

As I said: I crossed that bridge often in my head. 

Yesterday I saw: no need for that. 

They do not offer this "special offer" anymore. (One can still buy the regular one - 2.class in the train - for 4.550 Euro. (3.894Pound Sterling)

No need to cross a bridge. I won't. I will buy the tickets I need, every time, and that's it. 

Sigh... It was so comfortable... But...

Wildflower- bunch of July

 

Just in time to post it - you see: the colour of July flowers is mostly purple, pink and lilac-blue. 

Purple lythrum (or purple loosestrife/willowherb) grows here everywhere at the border of little ditches. Red clover, bloody cranesbill (geranium sanguineum)and pink lady slippers (lotus australis, though I doubt australis) make beautiful eye-candy. 

As I was preoccupied with nursing my lumbago (caught me in Berlin, forced me to stay longer, thus missing my flight to Amsterdam and a week in the Netherlands), I could not post the bunch of June. Here it is: 

  

Beautiful Munich

Last week I decided to go to Munich (by train - which in Germany nowadays is a never ending adventure...) 

From my tiny village (1 track!) to Nürnberg the little red train needs only 40 minutes. But then I have to wait at least - and every time - 30 minutes, valuable time well spent on deepening my studies in mankind: the Central Station in Nürnberg is neither beautiful (but full!) nor safe (ranking position 3 in "the most dangerous Central stations in Germany" - running after Köln and Hannover - Nürnberg proudly presented 548 violent offences last year). 

But then - if it comes - the ICE to Munich speeds in 1 hour to its destination. 

This time I changed my visiting routine: nature before culture, I decided - so passing by the the Frauenkirche  

I took a few steps to the Hofgarten, bathing in the bewitching smell of flowering limes, 

crossed through the Diana Tempel: 

to reach the lovely "Englischer Garten" with the "Monopteros" 

and the "Eisbach" - light turquoise icy water, where surfers dash by.  

 I dashed too - and overdid it a bit to snatch up culture. 

In the heat, 31°!= 87,5 degrees Fahrenheit - Yours Truly walked all in all over 15,000 steps - meaning over 10 kilometres in relatively new ballerinas... ouch ... 

Next time I will be wiser, hopefully - otherwise: 

older, but not wiser. 

(Highly elegant position of legs and feet - but what can I expect after that gigantic walk? At my age?) 

Elating surprise in the English Bookshop WordsWorth (Schellingstrasse, university terrain) -  

the owner recognised me after almost 30 years! - and we chatted for a long time - but that is worth a few words in another blog post, I think. 

 

Après nous le déluge?

 

As the Flying Dutchman told me the newspapers and TV in the Netherlands were full of reports on the very bad weather we had especially in Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg. And it is not over yet. 

Luckily here we were spared catastrophes - on the photo you see the "Au" - a sort of natural overflow "basin" for a swelling little river. Two years ago I saw different pictures - no green left to be seen, seething water - and in the neighbour village many houses stood for a quarter under water. 

But Augsburg, Regensburg, Passau - they were no that lucky this year.