Germany! Day One

Our oldest daughter is studying in Germany for the spring semester. A couple months ago that statement conjured thoughts of Covid restrictions and difficulties with testing and vaccinations. Now it raises questions about the stability of political institutions and potential violence. 

But two weeks ago, neither of these concerns troubled us. We had our booster shots, we had negative Covid tests just in case (which may have been a mistake - more on that later if my fears come to fruition. We made the mistake of going to a clinic to get tested that may bill us an exorbitant amount - but I'll worry about that when the time comes.)  We had plane tickets, a hotel reservation, a rental car reserved, KN 95 masks, comfortable shoes, and a daughter to visit.

Here we are setting off for international travel only momentarily maskless on our 14 hour journey. My parents came to watch the younger kids, as we again took advantage of a child studying abroad for an excuse to travel.  Travel from Texas to Europe is overnight - we left midafternoon and arrived midmorning in Frankfort. 

A credit card perk - visiting the airport lounge for a meal and free

Welcome to Heidelberg!

We rented a car from Frankfort, thinking it might be just as economical as taking public transportation (I don't think it was, after paying for gas and parking), more flexible (it was), and safer from Covid (another perk). However, we did not rent the GPS - thinking we could use our daughter's cell phone to navigate and only rely on our international plan, which charges per day of use. I had printed some google maps and directions from the hotel, but they didn't provide a lot of detail, so this was a source of marital discord over the first couple of days, because neither of those options provided reliable cell service while driving. We finally reduced the stress of trying to get where we were going by buying a map, which was not quite detailed enough, and checking the directions at our lodging places the night before or at a cafe with free wifi, and then screen shotting them, so we could read the directions without cell service. How did we ever navigate in the 90s with just a Let's Go, Europe! and vague notions of the locations of train stations? We never felt as lost then as we did the first couple days of this trip with more information at our fingertips than ever. Perhaps because of that false sense of being able to access information immediately, I did not plan very much for our journey, knowing that our daughter had ideas that she hadn't completely committed to yet.

Finally checking in to our small hotel.

The view from our hotel in Heidelberg - overlooking the Neckar river from high on the hill above the Heidelberg castle, or schloss. Hence, the name of our hotel - Schlosshotel Molkenkur. In spring when there isn't a covid outbreak, this patio has dining tables.

Gummi bears on our pillows

Junk food requested by our daughter and her friends, whcih took up precious space in our carry on bags, which is all we were allowed (plus personal item, of which we brought the maximum size, of course)

Here she is! In front of her accommodations - an old mansion on the hillside. Twenty-four students and a few staff, including the residence hall parents, live here.

The walk from her house to the town was downhill through a small, wooded park

Loved the moss covered walls.

Universityplatz. I'm bungling the spelling here,

Time for cafe cremas.

Loved the flower shops - more photos to come. The flower ships in each town were better than the last. 

A closer view of the Marian statue in the platz

Some almost familiar stores along the Hauptstrasse

Small details along the way

At the Jesuit church in Heidelberg

The interior of the Jesuit Church

A recognizable image

An image not quite so recognizable - this is Ruah, an incarnational represenation of the Holy Spirit in as a woman.

The sanctuary of the Presbyterian church was decidedly quieter.

The building where our duaghter has class.

Our first dinner out was at a restaurant called "The Potato" (Kartoffel?) in a little town about 20 minutes away down the river. It took us about 20 minutes longer to get there as we bungled our way along without a map. But the meal was worth it - meat, potato, salad, beer, and apple strudel with ice cream.

A hunk of raw meat which we cooked on a burning hot lava rock was the star of dinner.

Good night, little town on the Neckar River, whose name I can't remember!

Recent recommendations

 A little time today to catch up. Here are a few recommendations from recent watching/reading:

The new season of All Creatures Great and Small is airing on Sundays on PBS. I think if you subscribe to PBS, you can watch them all at once, but we are enjoying the anticipation of the Sunday evening family viewing time once everyone is in their PJs and ready for school Monday morning. The seven year old starts counting the days until the show on Thursday. I loved James Herriot's books as an elementary student. I wanted to be a country vet for a number of years. The show derivates from the books, but it is excellent escapism. This season is all about James trying to discern whether he should stay with the Farnons or return to Glasgow. The theme of finding a home resonates a little too close to my own sense of rootlessness/desire for rootedness.  Ready to emigrate to Yorkshire. 

We also watched Ted Lasso with the older kids over the holidays. It is adult viewing, for sure - not just because of the terrible language - but the relationships between the team and staff are warm and forgiving. Wounded people finding friendship and acceptance makes for heartwarming viewing. I think I could also make a home in England. 

We also saw the box office hits Encanto and West Side Story recently, the first at home, the later in the theaters. I think I prefer Coco to Encanto, although the theme of Encanto of appreciating everyone's gifts in a family is a good one to celebrate, although I thought the plot was a bit thin. It's getting a lot of positive press, and the music is super catchy - almost too catchy. I'd prefer to alternate the playlist with the songs from West Side Story, but only the 15yr old went with me to the show. We went while waiting for her to compete in a track meet in College Station. It was a reward to her for coming with me to the George HW Bush presidential library. I'm a fan of presidential libraries - lots to learn about contemporary history: the stuff you live through and don't know how it will be remembered, if you even realize you are living through history at the time. 

Finally, my reading in 2022 is off to a good start: I think I mentioned that I finally read Edith Shaeffer's The Hidden Art of Homemaking. It made me feel nostalgic for our early parenting days, when I was both more intentional about parenting, and less bombarded by images of what parenting should look like. I was not nearly the artful and intentional homemaker that Shaeffer was - partly because I didn't enjoy the art of a good deal of it. Reading it made me feel slightly guilty - we'll never have musical evenings as a family, nor will we sit around and read Shakespeare, much as I'd enjoy that. But I can get the laundry washed and folded and set candles on the table and put up some curtains and practice hospitality when we can. These days that mostly means providing taquitos and ice cream sandwiches to the teenagers. 

Next, I turned from homemaking to historical fiction. I binge read Pachinko by Min Jin Lee over the weekend. It is an excellent portrayal of the Korean experience in Japan beginning before WWII up to the 80s as it follows a Korean family that had to emigrate from their island country to that of their colonizers. They struggle to make a living in a country where they are despised, but because of their poverty and the conditions in Korea, they are never able to return. It is a novel full of heartbreak but also strong depictions of family devotions - sometimes to the point of tragedy. The book is long, an epic about a family whose hard work eventually pays off, but with a price. We have friends who are Korean, and when we had dinner with them a few times they commented on how they prefer Korean to Japanese ramen and Korean soju to sake, etc. Until I read this book, I didn't consider that the preference was more than just taste. 

I also finished  Tish Harrison Warren's Liturgy of the Ordinary which was the Chritianity Today book of the year in 2017. Warren and her husband are both ministers in the Anglican Church, and as I mentioned, she is the writer in residence at a church in South Austin. In a lot of ways, it reminded me of Kathleen Norris's Quotidian Mysteries, but with childcare and marriage added in. Norris's work focused more on the idea of making every moment holy, while Warren looks more for the holiness in every moment. Is there a difference? Perhaps only slightly. Several themes stood out - seeing each day as a gift from a loving God and honoring that gift instead of wasting it, as well as being content with the way things are instead of wishing them to be otherwise - which is my great failing. Her connection of dissatisfaction with being a consumer of life, instead of a grateful receiver, was pertinent. She also reflects on our attitudes toward work being oriented toward production rather than gift, reminding readers that Christians have a different perspective towards time, success, suffering, communion, etc. What we do should bless others - whether it's meal prep, sending emails, or some other form of what she calls "vocational holiness." There are lots of good quotes in this book, but not enough time to share them, because now I need to head to sleep, because glancing through this book again has reminded me that her last chapter on sleep is probably the one that was most necessary for me to read. She present sleep as something we do for others and as a response to God's generosity and our incarnated selves. I often, as in right now, skimp on sleep to do something I want to do instead of getting enough rest to serve my family and God tomorrow. 

So it's off to bed, even though I have a list of other things I wanted to write about, and a list of other things I should be doing. Maybe tomorrow.