Sommerliche Tage

What a wonderful summer so far! If a bit busy -- also expensive (!) -- it's been worth it.

Since June should really be its own entry, I'll start in the middle of July, when Mom & I headed out toward Regensburg to visit my friend Sara. She just moved to that area in July with her husband, Jared, a hippie-turned-soldier who's had some pretty unbelievable adventures in the Army before they finally got stationed in cool, green, relatively non-bomb-throwing Europe. It was so great to catch up with Sara again. We hadn't seen each other since she -- herself a hippie-turned-soldier -- left Tucson for said Army in 2003, and yet it was like almost no time had passed. Except for her having a husband and two adorable children! We had a lovely time: explored the town, ate famously delicious Bratwurst, drank beer, chased kiddies, escaped from the Gasthaus.

Oh yeah, the Gasthaus. For the most part, she seems to be settling into Germany pretty well; except for the first couple of weeks, when the whole family was stuck in two rooms in this bizarrely large, yet otherwise weirdly empty, Gasthaus on the lonely end of a sparse collection of houses that somehow, somewhen was generously granted its own name and "village" status. There wasn't even a bus going out there from the equally spooky train station twelve kilometers away... although after half an hour of trying, we did finally get a hold of the only taxi cab within a 30-kilometer radius. I mean it, the only one! Be sure to make your booking in advance! Might be charming, if it weren't completely maddening. Sara and Jared were ready to start throwing themselves against the walls by the end of Week Two, and I considered buying them a large mirror to make them think they had more space -- and maybe even roommates who looked just like themselves -- until they were finally able to buy a car and move into a real house in a real town nearby. I'm really looking forward to visiting again at the end of August.

But first, it was off to Scotland for Mom's momentous move! Check out her blog for details on our fabulous weekend hanging out in pubs and stomping our feet to live Celtic folk music -- IIIII mean, of course, registering her for classes and looking for apartments. (Come on, we did a little of that, too!)

Inverness is seriously great. Not only is everyone friendly and the town cute, but for such a middle-sized community (70,000, I think?), it's also hopping! There's always some event going on. And in the pubs, people actually dance: that kicking, jumping, Scottish-looking dancing that everyone must learn in school or something because they all look really good doing it. And of course you, as a Not Scot, don't even contemplate getting up and joining them because they're all so, you know, authentic, and you're, like, this dorky tourist and stuff. So you just sit at your table bouncing in your seat and having some more whisky. Until the Scots catch you at this -- then you are pulled quite bodily into the ruckus and your whisky-lubricated feet miraculously find their own rhythm. We had way too much fun, and Mom made way too many new friends!, for us to dwell too much on the sadness of Monday's inevitable parting.

But even the journey back to Edinburgh, while a bit melancholy, was very beautiful. The Highlands really look just like they do in the films. The train pulled out of Inverness into a low-hanging dawn, and I spent three hours watching the mist swirl between mountains and over rocky brooks that wound their way through dark purple heather. Kind of matched my mood. Add some atmospheric music to the mp3 player (in fact the "Gladiator" soundtrack is superb for watching landscapes) and you have yourself one transcendental train ride.

I didn't have too much time to brood, however, because the following weekend ging es gleich wieder los. Bert and I drove down to his mom's place on the Bodensee and, along with his dad and uncle, celebrated Gert's birthday. And I discovered where the sun goes to when it's on vacation from Scotland! On Friday night, we set up a tent under the apple trees in a garden overlooking the water, roasted potatoes in a campfire, and drank beer under the Milky Way until we simply couldn't stay awake any later.

By eight-thirty the next morning, we were waking up to the smell of fallen apples; taking a dip in the Bodensee; drying off on the grass in the sunshine; then having lunch in a Biergarten before driving out to yet another lake for frisbee and more basking in the sun. I tell you, it was vacation. Even the climate reminded me a bit of California: that golden light and soft air... riding along the coast with the windows down, summer-clad, cool wind on your sunwarmed skin, watching the light flash off the water and glow through ranks of graceful white sails.

On Sunday it was pretty hot, so on the drive home, we made a stop to walk through a lovely Altstadt and have ice cream coffee.

Just like Baden-Württemberg has a prettier "Ludwigshafen" -- on the Bodensee -- it also has its own Haßloch, this one friendlier and spelled "Haslach"

We stopped again near sunset because we spotted another lake from the road and simply had to get out of the car and jump in it.

Swim in meeeeee!

View from the lake. Isses net schee?

Monday, I actually -- gasp! -- got some work done. And then on Tuesday, Steve came!! He stopped through Frankfurt on his way to visit Shauna in India, so we got a whole day and night to play together. Which he and Bert took full advantage of, too -- I had no idea how late they were up hanging out until I tried to wake them up to trundle them off to their respective airports and jobs. Last word was that Steve made his flight on time... it makes me happy to think of him and Shauna reunited now!

So here it's Wednesday night, and Bert and I are already checking the weather to see how it will be in Bremen this weekend. He's got friends up there who've been bugging him to come up and visit for years, so it looks like we're escaping this wine country heat to check out some more ships, this time zurück in the cool north.

Anybody been to Bremen before, or Bremerhaven? Anything we should be sure to see? :)