Unemployed Life

So since August 1st I have been officially unemployed, something quite exciting for me! Now, what have I been up to with all this free time? Lots! I have actually been quite busy, between visiting with friends, doing some travelling and playing softball. I was in Munich at the beginning of the month, then last week I went to Marburg and area for a night with a friend. And now my parents are visiting!

Lohrberg

Tamzin and I met up one day and explored an area of Frankfurt neither of us had ever been to. We went up to the Lohrberg, a hill in Seckbach that overlooks downtown. There are many small allotment gardens, a vineyard and an apple orchard. It was lovely to walk around, and then there was a restaurant where we ate lunch.

View of Frankfurt from Lohrberg

Bike Ride from Bad Vilbel

One Saturday I jumped on the SBahn and went up to Bad Vilbel, just north of Frankfurt. From there I was able to ride a short way down the Nidda river to the Kurpark. There they have a small gallery with a reconstruction of a Roman mosaic. It is a reconstruction of an actual one found nearby in the late 1800s. Entrance is free and there is a fair bit of information about the Romans in the area. 

Spring water flowing over the mosaic, as it would have in Roman times.

Shortly after I left the Nidda to go on the Grüngürtel hiking path. This was an interesting decision, as it was definitely not a specific bike path! I went up and down, over fields and along some very bumpy paths. 41 km later I made it back home! 

Is this really where the trail goes?

Marburg and Wiesenbach

In the middle of August I made another short trip. This time Anna took me to her area of Hessen: north of Frankfurt near Marburg. We started off the trip with a visit to Marburg, to see the Elisabethkirche, the old town and the castle. The old town is gorgeous with lots of old timber-framed houses. Unfortunately we did not catch a glimpse of the famous German actor Til Schweiger, who was filming that week in the old town. 

One of the lovely streets in the Oberstadt

View over Marburg from the hill, on the way to the castle

Many steps up to the castle!

And we finally made it! (And are already on our way down)

We then went to the small village, Wiesenbach, where Anna grew up. We stayed the night with her parents and the next morning I got a thorough tour (took a whole hour or so!). There are about 750 people there, and no shops. Very sleepy, and I get the feeling Anna is happy to be somewhere larger now.

Anna's house

Meeting Friends

Other than trips and sightseeing, I have been meeting up with various friends. I have gotten together with some of my old colleagues from school, plus spent some time with softball friends and housemates. I had a nice time visiting Dorthe and her new baby, Annabelle, before they fly to Canada for a wedding. 

Getting some smiles out of Annabelle!

More soon on our trip to Leipzig and Erfurt!

Short visit to Munich

At the beginning of August Anna and I made a short trip to Munich to visit Teresa. We went down on Wednesday and stayied until Saturday. It was a great trip, partly because we got to see some new parts of Munich and some things that have been on my to do list.

Wednesday we arrived about lunch time, so went to the Hirschgarten and ate at the beer garden there. Something I remember doing in 2001 with my family!

Enjoying the sunshine (unfortunately so were the wasps!)

Feeding the deer. There was a list of allowed foods, including carrots.

Went for a walk after to see Schloss Nymphenburg

On Thursday we took a trip outside of Munich to enjoy the sunshine. We took a BOB train (Bayrische Oberlandbahn) for about an hour to the Tegernsee. There we paid €2,50 to enter the Strandbad, where we could rent lawn chairs and umbrellas.

Getting comfortable and enjoying the beautiful view

We spent the afternoon rotating between relaxing, swimming and eating. We made friends with the lifeguard there, and after asking about stand up paddle boards he let us try out his lifesaving board. At the beginning we tried to all sit on it, but that just ended up with us all in the water. So we each took a turn afterwards.

Paddling around

The lifeguard then found out we could go just down from the Strandbad and rent the stand up paddle boards. We left our stuff and went over to check it out. As you could rent them by the hour, we rented one and each tried it out for 20 minutes. It turned out to be quite a lot easier than I thought! Still a bit rocky, but surprisingly relaxing to paddle around - unless a boat comes and makes too many waves!

Paddling on the lake

Thursday night we went to the Olympic Park right by Teresa's house. We had food at the festival there, and then watched the fireworks.

Friday we split up. The other two went shopping and I took myself off to the Deutsches Museum. Weather was rather rainy, and I was disappointed to find a long long line up at the entrance. But thanks to an overheard conversation by the American tourists behind me I bought a ticket on my phone and skipped the line! 

Spent all afternoon visiting most of the exhibits, of which there are many! I really enjoyed the full scale model mines they have deep in the basement. They had three of them, including a salt mine and a coal mine. 

Early airplanes hanging from the ceiling

We met up again in the evening, and went out for a last dinner together. Even though I don't normally eat sushi in Germany, Teresa took us to an all-you-can-eat sushi restaurant, where the food comes on a conveyor belt! It was really cool, and ended up being delicious. Though I am pretty sure I started with dessert, ate dessert in the middle and then ended with dessert again!

Watching all the possible plates come around the conveyor belt

Saturday we went out for brunch at a family run pancake place. Then walked around the English Garden before catching the train back to Frankfurt.