Oh My, Oh Deer!

Coming to work, I had to stop for a car that was stopped in my lane, not turning, just sitting there. I was a little annoyed until I tried to see around it and saw there was a deer in front of it. That's pretty common in our rural area, so I wasn't surprised. Then I saw a flurry of movement lower down, and as the deer stepped out to continue crossing the road I saw clustered tightly around her legs, three little fawns, so tiny and thin they were obviously newborns. I would say the most they could have been was three days old, but they might have been even born during the night, they were so tiny.

We usually have does come around our house every year with one or even two fawns, but it is unusual to see three. I didn't get a picture darn it, they were through the bushes and gone before I could do anything. (The photos are from the internet)  The doe was healthy and well-fed, so I think she has a good chance of being able to feed them all, if she can keep them safe from cars and coyotes.

First stop on the Bucket list

My brothers, Mark and Wayne, came for a visit the last week of May from their homes in Georgia and North Carolina. My youngest brother, Wayne, has just arrived at that point in his life where retirement is beckoning as his nest is emptying. Not to be a cliche or anything, he just bought a red Mustang convertible, and would like to drive it around the world. That not being possible, he has set a goal to travel all around the continental US and to go to the four corners of the country.

With that in mind, his plan for this trip was to get the first corner done, so we made a trip around the Olympic Peninsula with a hike out to the tip of Cape Flattery at Neah Bay. With our mom along, this was a four day jaunt with what remains of our original nuclear family. That is a sweet thing. Though we miss dad and Brian, we feel blessed to be able to be together as we are.

I warned Wayne that May travel on the peninsula is a dicey proposition, weather-wise, but he was philosophical about it since it was the only time slot that both he and Mark could make, saying that when visiting a rain forest, you have to expect to get rained on, and that he would bring along boots and rain gear. We did get showers, mist and steady rain, but also some sun, enough to make a good balance.

I'm getting the pictures uploaded to my family site, so I thought I'd make some entries here with a few choice shots.

Pomegranetes in My Lunchbox

The red plaid lunch box was the ubuiquitous accessory for little girls in the mid to late 1950's. Mine went with me to school in Tropic Utah most days. Tropic is a tiny town in the valley below Bryce Canyon Utah, one of a triad. The others were Henryville and Cannonville. My dad was ranger at Bryce, and a school bus took us between the park and the school via a dirt road that traversed a perilous feeling switchback road down the cliff face of our high plateau into the warmer (tropic) valley below.
Normally the lunchbox held a waxed paper wrapped sandwich of some sort, bolognae, tuna or peanut butter on Wonder bread, some Lays Potato chips, a home-made cookie, and healthy extras like carrot sticks or an apple. A nickel taped to the lid was for a carton of milk that tasted of wax and cardboard when drunk from the folded out spout. Sometimes though, my red plaid lunch box went home with more exotic contents than it came with.

Once a week at a certain time of the year those of us who could talk our parents into letting us have an extra nickel could go to the back door of the kitchen during lunch recess for an extra treat. We would watch for the produce delilvery truck to arrive and race back with our nickels to buy pomegranetes. They were a nickel each, so we would all come away with one of the heavy round leathery skinned fruits.

The fun then was getting them open, since none of us were allowed to carry pocket knives. The trick was to throw the fruit repeatedly on the sidewalk in front of the school until they cracked open. Then we could pry the tart-sweet ruby seeds out in clumps and devour them. When the bell rang to end lunch recess, we trooped in with our mouths and hands stained red, carrying what was left of our juicy treasures-usually about half the fruit. These would be secreted in our lunch boxes and go home with us to be finished after school or brought the next day in our lunches.

I can still feel the delight of sitting cross-legged on the grass with the sun warming my hair giggling with my friends while we burst the juicy seeds between our teeth, and the pleasure of saving away the remainder, like a ruby trove in my plaid lunch box.

Dieting with Harry is no fair

So hubby got on board with the eating plan last week, and there's an upside and a downside to that. First the upside-When we're on the same page with what we're eating there's a lot less sabotage-from him or from myself. From him because I'm not juggling what he wants to eat with what I want to eat and getting sidetracked eating with him. From me because if he knows what we're eating and not eating, it's hard to eat off the plan when we're eating together. Our recent four day weekend away did way less damage to either of us because we were discussing and making food choices with the eating plan as a guideline.

The downside-It takes awareness and effort not to get discouraged losing weight along with Harry. He's one of those guys that carrys a lot of muscle weight along with the optional weight, so I have to keep in mind the adage that he will lose twice as much twice as fast on twice the food and not let that discourage me.

You don't believe me? Here's what I mean. I'd been on the new eating plan two and a half weeks by the time he'd been on it two and a half days. At that point I'd lost two and a half pounds. He had lost three. Then we go away for four days, with a plan to stick to the diet two meals of three and have a little slack on the third meal, with one splurge meal on Valentine's day. Our goal was to come out of the weekend at least at the same weight we went into it.

So, Tuesday evening, after our first day back at home, we checked in with each other. Harry was despondent. 'How was your weight this morning?" I asked him. 'Higher than it should have been.' he groused. 'Wow. How bad was it?' I sympathized. 'I was up a pound.' 'oh.' 'How about you?' he asked. 'Um. I was up three pounds.' 'Good lord...'his eyes widened. Like I said. Twice as much, twice as fast, or more...

The better news postscript is that at least two of my three pounds was water weight from excess salt and a long car ride and was all gone this morning. I'm afraid to check in with him, he'll most likely be down three pounds today...

Day What?

Tonight's dinner, ready to stuff the veggies, avocado and a pan toasted Portobello GardenBurger in the pita halves...It was good!

Time for an update on my eating thing-I'm not going to call it a diet-no, I haven't quit, just having to reassess my over-optimistic plan to give a day-by-day account. Besides, there's nothing more boring than reading about every radish and push-up of someone else's eating and exercise plan.

I did well on the four day jump start last week, not fanatic about it, but good enough to come down a pound and a half. Then I just did my own thing over the weekend, but made choices with the idea of not totally sabotaging my good week. Such as, a turkey and veggie on ciabatta instead of the burger and onion rings I'd have treated myself with ordinarily-Yeah! Then no dinner while I wrangled four grand kids (6 mos. to age 5) for the evening while their mom and dad had a much needed date night. Added to over four hours walking around the zoo and some reasonable portioning on Sunday, I was elated to find myself down another half pound Monday morning-better than I expected!

I didn't go in to work this week-I'm on call, and wasn't needed, so I had time to finish working out menus and got to the store for what I needed for the next step after the jump start. I watched portions and ate lots of veggies until I could start for real yesterday.

I am having so much fun! Avocados, nuts, waffles layered with chocolate chips and smothered with sweet cherries, breakfast tacos... Well, the scale will tell, and we'll see what happens. The food is interesting and stuff I really like.

The down side is that I'm feeling full when I eat but hungry not long after, especially after lunch and supper. I feel like I did years ago on Atkins, when I ate strictly on the plan, lost weight, but would eat and eat all that protein and veggies but always felt empty. It's either the lower carbs, lower sugar, or I was really eating a lot more before than I realized. I'm trying to figure it out so I don't sabotage myself. So far I've gotten through by having two pieces of dark chocolate, which is allowed although not a part of the meals I'm eating. Then I have a couple of Altoids and that seems to help, plus I drink water so I'm not confusing hunger with thirst.

I learned a really cool trick for keeping a cut avocado from browning. I'll put that in a later blog.

Zoobee Zoobee Doo

Grandma!
Kevin and Andrew
Jake showing Zoe where we are on the map. He was really into tracking our progress on the map.
Sara and Teage-Papoose
Look Mommy, a snake!
A Young Harry potter
Monkeys, monkeys, monkeys
It's the only way to stand when you're looking at flamingos...
Cousins! Hayden, Spencer, Logan, Gracie, Zoe, Andrew, Jake on the Komodo Dragon sculpture
We had a great trip to the zoo Saturday. Kevin and Jessica came down from Ferndale with their three, Gracie-6, Spencer 4, Andrew 3. Elizabeth came from Shelton with Logan-6 and Hayden 4. Steve and Sara were up from Portland with Jake 5, Zoe 3, Leo almost two, and Teage 6 months.

The weather promised showers and sunbreaks and delivered showers and showers and mostly misty rain. As true Northwesterners, we thought nothing of setting out to the zoo with nine kids under 6 on a rainy day in January. Slickers and rainjackets and a couple of umbrellas were all we needed to get through the day, and spirits never seemed fazed, or even dampened by the drizzle.

All exept Elizabeth were there by 11:30, she joined us when we were checking out the monkeys. The kids stayed happy and energetic through 4 1/2 hours of ambling from one exhibit to another and a lunch break, wiith energy to spare at the end. (They were still clambering over the brass animal sculptures outside the zoo as we prepared to go our separate ways.)

Some of what happened-

*Jake age 5 followed a map carefully as we went from place to place.

*Gracie age 6 took lots of zoo pictures for her family with her Fisher Price camera (with a little help from dad and little bro Spencer).

*Tears happened only twice-When a monkey slapped the glass in front of Andrew's face, and when Steve helped Zoe into her coat against her wishes.

*Zoe 3 took care of pushing brother Leo the last hour in his stroller

*Elizabeth and boys got nose to nose with a lion (through the glass) before they joined us.

*Everyone got nose to nose with a Komodo dragon

*Teage was quiet and happy with his view from mommy's baby carrier, with never a fuss or tear.

*Spencer did his best to be a flamingo.

Hottest must sees for the 2-6 year group were:

"I want to see the elephants!" Jake

"I'm going to see the Komodo dragon!" Logan

"Where are the flamingos?" Spencer

"Grandma!" Gracie

"That's a snake!" Hayden

Day four

Insights and news from the last 24 hours:
1. Down another half a pound..Sweet! Even if it is just water, it's nice to see the scale go in that direction.

2. I have an iron will and a firm resolve...until Bethany's mom shows up in class with muffins warm from the oven....it was the smell that melted all my resistance...

3. Ok, small muffin at seven doesn't mean I can't get back on track for the rest of the day...Smaller breakfast at 9:30, prescribed lunch at noon. Will be walking four miles today, though my right knee is not too happy at the prospect.

Day 3- Weird Breakfast

This morning it was supposed to be unsweetened cornflakes, a cup of milk, 2 tbs raisins, and 1/4 cup sunflower seeds. I don't like cornflakes, they get soggy too fast, so I got grapenuts instead. They don't have sugar and they are whole grain. I checked the calorie equivalent, and it turns out the listed half cup serving is double the calories of a serving of Corn Chex or Cheerios. Hmmm...So I measured out a quarter cup. It looked pretty lonely and small in the bowl so I added the raisins, then what the heck, dumped in the sunflower seeds too, then topped it all with the milk. (I confess I added some splenda, not ready to eat cereal with no sweetner)

And, oh my, it was soooo good! What a surprise! It took awhile to eat with all that chewy stuff in there and was really satisfying. I had toasted the sunflower seeds previously, and that flavor with the nutty wheat and the sweet raisins was really good. It kept me full until lunch too, no late morning 'tummy grungies"! I will do that again even when I don't have to eat that combination for a diet.

Day Two

Like I said, I'm more of a do-it-yourself gal when it comes to dieting...but I still learn a lot when I try to follow a specific plan like I am now. So you can guess it wasn't a perfect day, but I don't count that a failure either. I'll admit I'm not totally bought in to this jump start thing. The authors bill this as a motivation booster that takes off a quick couple of pounds and inches through dumping water weight and getting the intestines emptier by avoiding bulky foods and lowerin quantity. That's supposed to give me lots of enthusiasm going into the plan with the higher calorie count and fewer food restrictions.

I just figure the water weight that comes off fast is just a salt shaker away from coming back, and I need the fiber to function properly ;). Then too, I know for a fact that that initial quick loss boost won't be enough to carry me all that far. So I find myself not taking this part as seriously as the authors would like. I ate the breakfast just as prescribed, and only changed the lunch by adding some veggies. Then dinner was completely different, but close to the same number of calories and the balance of veggies, carbs and protien. The dangerous part was that I needed to use up some half and half, so I made a quart of strawberry ice cream, which I tasted and then packed away in the freezer. Hubby is not ready for the house to be clear of desserts, so that's a challenge, but then I do better if I can eat a taste of anything I want. That helps me keep from craving and binging.

I WAS down half a pound today, LOL, but I'll be more excited when I know I've actually lost some fat and not just some water..

Weight loss-Day one of a new start

This year's iteration of 'We're going to lose that weight this year" arrived in the mail mid-December, ordered by my husband-with my name on it?! I'm thinking, "Hey, if you're going to order a new weight loss plan, man up and put your OWN name on it!" I'm more the 'do it yourself' kind of dieter, and I've never found a plan yet that we could stay on for any length of time, so I'm sceptical. It all sounds good to Harry when he's watching the infomercial, but in practice he usually morphs the rules of whatever diet he's doing into a clone of Atkins, which lets him eat a lot of meat and bacon. What's worse, whenever we diet together he loses twice as much twice as fast on twice the food...no fair!

But that said, I read it over and since it comes from a major health magazine and will let me eat the occasional quarter cup of chocolate chips, I thought it might be good to give me a jump start. The thing I want to be different this time is that I don't want to go into this with that euphoria that dissipates after awhile along with any hope for long term change. I'm going to follow along with this plan and see what I can learn from it. I'm looking for slow, long-term change as I work on the issues that got me here in the first place. That means persisting and resolving problems as they come up.

So today is day one of the four day jump start start to the Flat Belly Diet plan. It is intended to be lower calorie than the actual plan that starts on day five. I want to do the four days today through Friday and then go easy through a weekend of time with family and grand kids, and start the main plan next Monday.

I made the 'Sassy Water' this morning and have been enjoying that, it's full of cucumbers, lemons, mint and has fresh ginger in it. Breakfast went well, actually a little more food than I usually eat. I was hungry at noon and ended up making some changes to it. I had an avocado on its last 'legs' (that's an image, and avocado with legs-I feel like that sometimes) So I subbed that and some cuke for the tomato and rolled them with the string cheese in the deli turkey. It was really good. I also finished up half a cup of tapioca pudding afterwards. That's gone now.

This four day plan is supposed to be followed precisely, so I need to do better than that. Even so, I was very hungry by mid afternoon when I got to make a blueberry smoothie. The chicken is thawing for dinner, and I'm set for that, but I'm not liking how hungry I am right now. I must have normally been eating more than I thought I was. The dieters in the book all sounded like they white-knuckled this part, so I'm with them, it's only four days. I should be able to do anything for four days-right? Hmmmm. Not so far. We'll see.

I did the usual weigh and measure this morning. Uggggggg. That's motivating. At least I didn't gain over the holidays, and I'm not at my highest weight. That's something new for me. Some of my work on causes must be helping.

What to do with my day?

For anyone out there who's thinking that all you have to do is get the kids raised/not have to go to work and then you'll have plenty of time to get all those things done that you can't get to now, guess what? It ain't happening. At least if my life is anything like typical.

I'm not working this week, the patient load is at an all time low, which is not unexpected for this time of year, and of course having one 20 year old at home is not much impact compared to all those years with all those kids in the house. That easier schedule has been in place much of the past year, and I find myself still with plenty to do and then some. It's actually a pretty cool dilemma, one I have longed for for years and years, and I'm loving being able to add some things to the old to do list that could never fit there before. Still, prioritizing is more difficult thatn when I only had time for the essential necessities. It's pretty easy to prioritize when you only have time to work, eat and sleep, more difficult when there is extra time to use.

I try to plan out these suddenly emptier days to be productive and balanced, and maintain an ability to switch in a moment to other things that crop up. Today I had a great experience teaching. I was so grateful for the help I got from the spirit in teaching the lesson. I had only just had time to read it a couple of times earlier in the week. I got serious after nine last night to sit down and get it nailed down to specifics. As I read through the chapters again, (Alma 17-19, some of the best Book of Mormon stories), I realized that the way I'd planned to blend two lessons together weren't going to be adequate to cover the material. So I read and marked the chapters, formulated some ideas,and went to bed still not firm about what I was teaching beyond the historical account. I ended up with a principle to focus on that wasn't mentioned in the lesson manual at all. So I was looking for extra help from the spirit.

It ended up that I wasn't able to do the scripture chase game I planned, and my summary and application were more hurried than I hoped, but half the class passed of their scripture memorization for the week, and in the teaching of the lesson, I found the flow was spontaneously going from one scripture to another, back and forth in the chapters in a way I hadn't planned out, but was unified, engaging, and covered all that needed to be covered with some important insights coming out. I was definitely teaching beyond either my ability or my prepartaion. I was relieved that the material was all covered and the foundation laid for Kim to continue on with Chapter 20.

So back home with a rough plan for the day. Breakfast, finishing up the pictures I uploaded here last night, a needed half hour snooze, (five hours sleep last night) and then finishing up visiting teaching filled up my morning. I got home hungry, and got a call from Harry asking me to go into Tacoma with Chris's tire and to get all the tires on my car replaced. Whoops! There's the monkey wrench. A quick lunch-today's the first day of my New Year's eating plan, so no burger at the drive through...cleaned up the kitchen, and then off to Tacoma.

I was home by two thirty with new tires all around, which was pretty good time-wise, and even with all the other things I want to do, I decided that my resolution to blog more consistently needed to be honored. The only way to blog consistently is to sit down and do it. I'm trying to figure out exactly where and how much blogging I want to committ to, and not get spread too thin, but see what fits in with what I want to create in this medium. This is my experiment. This entry is too long, but it maybe lays a foundation for future entries...

Tuesday, May 26th- A rest day in Edelsfeld

Tuesday, May 26th, 2009 A REST DAY IN EDELSFELD

Discomfort in my legs resulted in a restless night for me. It was obvious that I had done too much walking for having walked over seven hours in the heat. I'd decided the night before that I wouldn't be able to go for another day of touring until I had rested and recovered, so this was a day in for me. I'd checked at the train station the day before for train connections to other cities and scrapped the plan to go to Rothenberg because of needing to make two train connections. Wurzburg and Regensburg were still on my list, but I was really starting to think going again to Nuremberg first to visit the museums I'd missed the first time.

I woke when Harry did and read until after eight when I dressed and went down to breakfast. Then I went back up to the room and worked on my geocaching information until my restless night caught up with me and I lay back down to a two hour nap-that was heaven, being able to just lie down and sleep when I felt like it! I was up again when Harry showed up with lunch. I'd saved some food from breakfast, since the dining room was closed for lunch and dinner on Tuesdays. He brought a 12 inch Subway sandwich with chips and a drink and gave me half the sandwich and a handful of chips. This time he had them put ranch dressing instead of oil on my half. I was able to save my brochen roll, cold cuts and cheese for a picnic the next day.

After lunch I finished working with the geocache information, then decided to try to venture out for a walk. Harry had brought some fresh hydrocortisone cream, so I put that on and headed out. I wanted to see the nearby graveyard and go to the konditeri for some pastries.

I reached the cemetary by going down the road behind the gasthaus and down a block, where it was on the corner of the next street. I turned left and walked up and into a gate into the grounds. The graveyard was fascinating. There was a small chapel and rows of plots, perfectly kept. The little square family plots were beautifully memorialized with marble headstones and marble enclosures that were filled with potting soil and beautiful plantings and other features. There were also wooden crosses with wooden enclosures which were also beautifully decorated and perfectly kept. There were several things I wondered about. First, the graves were sometimes individual, but more often family plots. They were either single or double width, but didn't seem as long as they should be. I checked the backs of some of the family ones, and they had up to eight names on them. I wondered how they fit everyone in? Did they put them in vertically? Surely not.

Also, some enclosures had little metal boxes on them that contained small brushes like bottle brushes and a couple of inches of water. What was that for? Later I asked Trudi about it and she explained the little boxes were for Catholic graves and had holy water in them that visitors could shake out to the points of the cross over the grave. She said the Catholic graves were more likely to have candles as well. About the size and the number of buriels per plot, she explained that they don't embalm and bury in plain wooden boxes, so that when another burial is needed, the previous has deteriorated and they just bury on top of it. When I described our practices of not only embalming, but sealed vaults and sealed metal caskets, she was visible repelled by that idea. When she asked, "Why would they want to do that?" I could see from her view how almost morbid it is for us to try to preserve the body that way, and how unnatural it is. She said that when they did a burial the enclosures and plantings were removed and the site dug up, and that it was full length even though the enclosure was not. After the burial they would replace everything and plant again. I really appreciated getting those questions answered.

I noticed also how handy and nice everything was for tending to the gravesites,with multiple watering cans hung on racks and spigots for filling them and so on. A group of women came in as I was leaving and they really looked intently at me as I went out, which made me feel a little like I was trespassing.

I went around behind the cemetary then, along the wall that bordered it and down one of the roads out of town. I passed a large home that had a shop and an annex that seemed to have hardware, gardening and electronics for sale. There was a lovely stone arched highway overpass that I walked under as I headed out of town. I passed an auto repair and signs indicating the exit from town and the next towns down the roads from the intersection, as well as the sportplatz. I wanted to walk a 6 km walking loop through the next town. I had found a depiction of the walking route and another longer one on signs across from the graveyard. Six KM is well within my fitness level, but I wasn't up to so much this day, and wasn't sure of finding the route without a map with me. The road straight ahead led right into a little woods, and had a sign for the sportplatz, so I thought I would see if that was close enough for me to manage to walk to ok.

I enjoyed walking in the woods and seeing it close up. The trees were of various ages, but mostly pretty young. There was a pile of brush on the edge like I had seen so often from the highway, from clearing, and a stack of wood on the inside edge near the sportplatz. That gave me a chance to take pictures of those common features I saw so often there. The woods were lovely, but not teeming with small animals as much as I would see or hear in a walk in the woods at home. There was less foliage and underbrush for things to hide and live in. I could hear birds singing, though and that added a pleasantness to the experience.

When I got to the soccer venue, I found it to be top notch, especially for such a small community. There were several big fields and a club house, with men working at one corner on some kind of project. I felt like going on and seeing how far I could get, but was aware I was still not in good shape and needed to be careful I didn't get too far away and overdo, making it harder to get out and tour the next day.

I headed back to town the way I came, passed the back of the gasthaus and headed back up the street I went on Sunday when I found the little ancient church a Kilometer from town. This time I took a lot more pictures and investigated the school grounds, noticing with particular interest the grounds of the kindergarten, which was in a cozy little building separate from the rest of the school. It had a little garden and a wonderful playground. The school had lots of solar panels on the roof.

I went to the konditeri and cafe and bought half a dozen pastries and walked back to the gasthaus. Hans, the owner, who doesn't speak any english, commented enthusiastically when he saw me bringing in the pastries. "Ja, zer gut!" I responded. I couldn't resist trying at least a little of each of the three kinds when I got into the room again. There was a flat round kind of slivered almonds in a crisp caramel flavored candy matrix dipped half in dark chocolate, filo dough triangles with raspberry filling, drizzled with icing, and wreath shaped circles with a shortbread cookie base topped with a round dark chocolate shell filled with dense chocolate truffle filling and drizzled with light chocolate. Those last were the best, but insanely rich. I had one later from somewhere else that didn't come near the flavor and texture of these.

Our neighbors on either side had checked out. The maids had cleaned for hours and hours. In the sitting area they left the books that were left behind in the rooms. I scored a cheap German/English dictionary that I used all the time after that, but left an expensive guide to Berlin for someone else that might be going there.

Our plans for the evening were to go to a nearby town to 'Zur Post', a restaurant recommended by a couple of ex-pats Harry ran into at the Italian place. When Harry got in, we headed out and found it, but it was also closed for the Tuesday one day a week closure. We headed into Vilseck instead and ate at a nice Greek restaurant Harry had been to before. Once again, I'd been in country for days, but still had only had one traditional German dinner. It was fun seeing the greek menu in German and English, with napkins that had greek words translated into german. I had grilled chicken, pita, greek salad, lovely deep fried potato slices and a yogurt dill and garlic sauce with cucumbers called ziziki. Harry had steak. I enjoyed the food and the atmosphere and watching the American and German diners. We had Italian ice cream next door afterwards. I had one scoop each hazelnut and chocolate in a sugar cone. It was the most smooth, fine textured ice cream I've ever eaten.

My legs were feeling more rested and recovered by bedtime, though the redeness was not much better, it wasn't itching or burning so badly. I was anxious not to lose another day of touring, so I decided to go back to Nuremberg the next day and catch the museums I missed and take the right geocaching pages and see if I could fill the gaps on those hunts. It was supposed to be cooler, and I planned to take it a lot easier on the walking and rest as needed better.

Next Post: Day two in Nuremberg

First day in Nuremberg

Monday, May 24th 2009 My first day in Nurenberg
Monday morning we got up early, got ready for the day and had early breakfast in the breakfast room, then we were off to Vilseck. At the train station, Harry helped me get a ticket from the ticket vending machine. The station is closed that early, but he had checked the day before to see how to get a ticket. The machine had options for different languages, so we didn't even have to try to translate German to know what to do. I was a little nervous about getting on the wrong train, especially when one pulled up close to the time posted for my train, with people getting on. So I turned to someone and asked, "Nurenberg?" She said 'Nein' and something else that was telling me that it would be coming soon. Soon the train was there and we were speeding through beautiful green countryside past little red-roofed towns on the hour drive to Nurenberg.

When the train arrived I spent a little while getting oriented, checking a posted schedule for trains to the other towns I wanted to day-trip to, making sure I knew how to get back to my track (Turn right at the Burger King!) and checking in at the information booth for paper train schedules to where I wanted to go. I tried to find the Bahnhof geocache without success, then used my tour guide map to find a way to Old Town. I missed the easy tunnel way because it was also a subway terminal, but found a way in by walking along the old medevial wall until I came to a bridge across the moat. That let me take some fun pictures. The moat is really a grassy park that surrounds the old town. It wouldn't have had water in it, it was just intended to slow down invading soldiers.

Once inside, I spent the day wandering all over taking pictures and looking for geocaches and geocaching waypoints (virtual caches). I had a whole stack of geocaches and waypoints, but accidentally brought my Munich info pages instead, so I was going by the coordinates in my GPSr only. I finally found one on a bridge under a lamp post, along with a geo coin just placed the day before. Woo Hoo! I found that the museums were all closed because it was Monday, which was disappointing. In Europe museums are usually closed either on Monday or Tuesday. The same is true for most traditional restaurants, including the one where we were staying.

Everywhere I looked I saw great old buildings, fountains, sculptures, fun bridges crossing the river that bisects the old town, and churches. There were areas that were pedestrian only shopping streets with more modern stores, Starbucks, McDonalds, and so on. Definition of pedestrian only is: Watch out for trucks and cars zipping around everywhere with no lanes, signals, crosswalks or signs to direct or restrain them! Especially in the early morning the shopping area is busy with delivery vans, cars belonging to those with business there that allows them into the area. They drive anywhere they can fit, and zip around and over the open squares with no regard for any convention or pedestrians who might be there. I was always on the look and listen for approaching vehicles.

Pretty soon the temperature started to climb. The days had been pretty warm, and this one was a peak of the heat wave. It got up to 30 degrees centigrade, which is the same as aabout 87 degrees farenheit. I planned to be in the Haupt Market (Main Market) at noon to record the old mechanical clock there. By then I was ready to sit in the shade for awhile and rest. I'd been walking for hours by then and was tired and hot. I found a good vantage point and was able to get a video of the clock, then went into a nearby market and got some citrus sodas and a marzipan bar to go with my brochen, meat and cheese and apple brought along from the Gasthaus to picnic with. I sat on my bench and had a shady lunch while I watched the crowds an the stalls in this famous square. It was like a farmer's market, with produce, crafts, and famous Nurenberg Lebkuchen cookies (a kind of thick, chewy gingerbread cookie) This is where the world famous Christmas market sets up, and contains famous churches and a fantastic ancient fountain called 'The Beautiful Fountain" for good reason.

After my picnic lunch and rest, I headed out again, though my energy was starting to flag a little in the heat. I walked uphill to the end of town at the base of castle hill. I'd been there several times by this time and had a good idea how to get up the hill to the castle, which the tour book indicated would be open for tours even on Monday. It was a hot, hot hike in the sun up the side of the hill to the base of the castle. I took it slow. Once there, and after a little rest to catch my breath, I found the ticket office and was told there were no tours in English and that it would be best to join a tour that was ending at the deep well part of the tour. That ticked included the museum and a climb up the tall castle tower. I agreed to that and waited in the shade of a tree, seated on a stone wall near the deep well entrance. When the tour showed up, I joined them, showing my ticket, and followed them into a small room in a short tower that was dominated by a large well, whose depth was lost in darkness. An iron grate protected the top, and had a metal dish with burning candles suspended over the center. The tour guide spoke English and did a sketchy translation for me of the essentials of what he said. I was impressed with the time it took for water poured in the top to reach the bottom, and when the candles were lowered down enough to light up the water below, I was really amazed at how deep it was.

I walked through the museum rooms, virtually by myself, to see armor, swords and other weapons. It was hot in the tower that housed the museum, but the views over the city were great. When I was done, I found a free WC, which was an improvement over what I'd found up to that point. The train station had a nice one, but it cost, as did the one in the Haupt Market where an enterprising man offered to make change for tourists using the turnstiles. I'd used one in the medevial wall near the walk up to the castle that was free, but really awful. I was learning not to pass up a free WC by this time.

Looking at the height of the tower, and assesing the fatigue in my legs, I elected to pass up the climb for the higher view, and contented myself with pictures taken from the lower walls of the castle itself. The tour guide had spent some time with me after the tour, answering my questions and describing a better way to walk down to the city level again. I folllowed his directions and made my way around the castle wall to the garden on the far side (the outside) of the castle. At that time of day it was all in shade, and consisted of view-rich parapets, overlooking the moat-gardens below, and narrow gardens of trees, flowers, and grass with stone benches, walls and walkways studded with old stone sculptured figures from the castle. Each part was a little lower than the one before, and there was a place to go into the wall overlooking the old town street below, much like the walls at Rothenburg. I finally exited through a tower at the bottom street level and was back in a part of the city I was familiar with.

As I headed to another area of the old town to see the marriage carousel fountain, I could feel myself fading. My legs were hurting, and I was dismayed to see some red, itchy blotches appearing on the inside of my lower legs. It was getting harder to enjoy the sights as I became more uncomfortable and tired. I moved more slowly as I went now, but soldiered on to see as much as I could, since I wasn't sure I would ever be back there again in my life. After the marriage fountain, which was over the top of any I saw on the trip, I moved slowly towards the exit to go back to the trains station. I'd decided to quit an hour before I had to and sit the last hour at the train, partly to make sure I didn't miss it, and partly because I was physically done in and I knew it. The blotches were spreading and deepening in color as I walked. They seemed to be triggered by the heat and all the walking.

I'd finished my water and my two citrus drinks, and I was parched by now. I found the tunnel to the bahnhof that I missed in the morning, and discovered it was full of shops, including a fresh juice bar. I studied the menu and worked out how to order a carrot orange drink in German. 'Eine gross fit mix, bitte?" I asked. That worked fine until she asked if I wanted 'oil' Then I had to revert to English to be sure what she was asking, and no, I didn't want any olive oil in it...When I walked away with my fresh drink, we were both pleased at our bilingual communication skills. The drink was just what I needed to restore my energy and hydration.

I sat at my track after buying a ticket from a machine (an old hand at it by now!) and my legs were hurting so badly I was very uncomfortable. The muscles ached, my feet were swollen, and the rash had spread into large areas that were swollen and dark red, like lobster shell color. I tried to keep them propped up, and got aquainted with a young soldier who seemed familiar with the trains back. He actually wasn't, and I almost missed the train from following his advice. But some other Americans found out it was our train, and I just made it on with a few minutes to spare, and was able to get a seat, which not everyone was able to do.

Harry was there waiting at the station, and we got some dinner on post, Philly steak sandwiches, and then went to the on post lake to see if we could hear the cuckoo bird. He was far away, and barely audible, and the lake was choked with algae and plants, and smelled like outhouse, not the idyllic scene I'd visualized when Harry first described hearing the cuckoo call while he sat by a lake.

By the time we got back 'home', all I could think of was getting into that big bathtub and soaking my aching legs and sticky, overheated skin. It felt lovely, and it was great to have the cooling air coming in through the balcony doors and lie back on our comfy bed and drift off early to sleep, in spite of the Americans in the courtyard still noisily celebrating with their Memorial day cookout.