Our weekend

This past weekend the thermometers hit the 33 or 34 degrees.
Normally this wouldn't be a problem, but the heat here is different - maybe it's just my imagination or the fact I wasn't expecting temperatures in the high 20s, let alone in the 30s!
In Portugal I was rarely without a jacket near by, even in the summer, whereas here we go for walks (and ice cream!) at 9:00 at night in our shorts and tops and I still feel hot! (Michael says I'm crazy!)
There's also the problem: "our cubicle (a.k.a aparthotel room) is a sauna"! It starts getting warmer at about 6 in the afternoon and then it keeps getting warmer and warmer making it impossible for us to stay inside. So we try to keep our indoor activities to a minimum, specially on weekends.

Saturday morning we went to Herrlingen to leave some things at the apartment. We also met the landlady's mother, a very nice lady we brought us flowers from her garden!

After lunch we went to a small park near the aparthotel and stayed the entire afternoon, until dinner time.

 

Michael tested the water temperature. Verdict - very cold and not good for a swim.

Sunday we went to a nature reserve near Herrlingen called Kleines Lautertal. It has several routes for bike riding and walking. We did the smallest one, 3km, not because we are lazy, obviously, but because it was too hot.

mini strawberries growing along one of the routes

Ulm's Festivities

Schwörwoche (Oath Week) is Ulm's annual festivity. The biggest events of this week happen on the weekend and on Monday.

Last Saturday we went to see the Lichterserenade (Serenade of lights) - Hundreds of lanterns or candles are released from traditional boats onto the river. Afterwards there's a fireworks display.

We got to the center when it was still daylight. Many streets were closed, as well as at least one of the bridges over the river. The streets were full of people drinking beer and eating gigantic hot dogs. We tried to find a good spot because I wanted to take lots of photos but it was impossible to do so. The bridge and the river banks were already full of people. So I had to "steal" this photos from the internet to show you what the Lichterserenade is. A picture is worth a thousand words!!

From here

From here

From here

From here

It was really very beautiful!

On Sunday there were other traditional events, like processions through the city in the morning and the Fischerstechen (Fisherman's jousting contest), a tournament on the river, in the afternoon. Unfortunately we didn't see any of these events - and it's an unfortunate thing because the jousting contest, for instance, only happens every 4 years...
 
Last Monday (schwöermontag) was the most important day of the Oath week although not a bank holiday. NSN allowed the workers to leave early and we went to the city in the afternoon and met with some of Mike's colleagues.
The celebrations begun in the morning, with the mayor showing up at the Schwörhaus (Oath house) and swearing to support and maintain the city's constitution.

But it's in the afternoon that the fun begins - it's time for the Nabada!! - a sort of river procession.
I'll let the pictures do the talking!

First came the big boats, with bands playing music!

Then came the big decorated boats.

And then came everyone else.

 

 

Once in a while, a group of people in one of the boats would shout something at the people who were watching and everybody would shout something back - a traditional saying, as Mike's colleagues explained. Then someone in a boat would start singing and everybody would sing along! Some people used some sort of water pumps and buckets to throw water at the people watching! It was such fun!

After the Nabada we went to a biergarten (big shock!) and ate hot dogs, chips and had the usual raddler! When we were all fed and hydrated (!) we went for a walk around the city center.

Mike's colleagues led the way.

 

We wandered about the center until 9 o'clock. Every street was full of people. There were food and drink stations everywhere. Some streets were transformed into "nightclubs" or discotheques with people dancing and listening to very loud music.

It was a very good afternoon and we really enjoyed it!

Herrlingen

Herrlingen is where we rented the apartment where we will be staying for, at least, the next 6 months.
It's a small village in the municipality of Blaustein, at about 8 km from Ulm and the Science Park, where Michael works.
Before signing the lease we went to visit the village, because we had only been there to see the apartment, and we walked around, just to have a general "feeling" and see the distances to the train station, the nearest bus stop and the supermarket.
We liked it. It's small, there are mountain around, there is a river near by and a small park with a biergarten!

General view of Herrlingen - image here

We went on a Sunday and there was a band playing in the biergarten. We ate chips and drank a raddler (beer mixed with lemonade). Schlep schlep!

Incidentally we discovered that Erwin Rommel's grave is in Herrlingen and that there is also a museum honoring him there.

Villa Lindenhof - where Rommel's museum is located

Donau/Danube

By day

By sunset

The trip

As expected, it was very tiring. Even on those days we only traveled 400 or 500 km we arrived at the hotel completely beat, mainly because the car is a liiiittle uncomfortable!

Still, we were able to enjoy the views and landscape along the way and, after arriving at the hotel in Bayonne, we went for a walk and visited a part of the city.

 

 

The next day it was cold and raining. We left Bayonne at about 7:30am and arrived in Choisey at around 5pm

Almost arriving at the hotel - 3rd day

The last day of the trip was also the most complicated in terms of traffic and driving difficulties, specially after entering Germany.
That "no speed limit" thing is not for us. It was extremely confusing because the speed limit wasn't constant. It was like now you have a limit - now you don't - now you have a limit again - now it's no limit round 2...And then there were radars all over, so we had to be careful.

But we arrived safely and, after checking in at the hotel and seeing where the Science Park (where Michael works) and the aparthotel (where we are staying) were, we went for a walk and had dinner at a typical brewery!

Yummy food!

Primeiro dia

Pois que no primeiro post falava eu de contar as nossas aventuras - e não é que a primeira semana nos brindou com algumas?

O primeiro dia "a sério" começou com uma visita "especial". 7 da manha, ainda mal nos tínhamos levantado, batem a porta do quarto no hotel. O Michael abre, troca algumas palavras com as "visitas" e volta para o quarto para vestir as calças de ganga dizendo que estavam 2 polícias a porta. ?Say what?
Mais uma troca de palavras com as "visitas" e ficamos a saber que há por aqui um outro Michael Sher que anda a fazer asneiras e a fugir da policia. O Michael mostrou o cartão de cidadão, verificaram que a data de nascimento não coincidia com a do Michael Sher que queriam e foram embora.
Mas foi uma experiência um bocadinho assustadora, especialmente para o Micha.

Fast forward para as 10:45 da manhã:
Depois de uma conversa, algo conturbada e multilingue, com a responsável pelo aparthotel onde estamos, recebemos as chaves para o apartamento e o Micha foi para o seu primeiro dia de trabalho.
Meia hora depois de estar no apartamento começo a reparar num barulho que parecia de agua a cair...Examinei a casa de banho, pensando que podia haver algum problema, mas o barulho não vinha de lá. Aproximo-me da entrada do apartamento e eis que noto agua no chão, e a base de um dos nossos sacos, onde tínhamos o calçado, toda molhada.

Ai ai ai ai ai....

Olho para o teto:

Humidade, muita humidade, e o que parecia ser água a escorrer das paredes...
Mudei as malas e sacos para outro ponto do apartamento e fiquei a observar a cena. Em menos de 10 min. havia já uma pequena poça de água no chão. Tentei encontrar alguém responsável pelos apartamentos no prédio mas disseram-me que a 2a feira estavam fechados. Vou novamente para o apartamento e começo a hiperventilar - a água já estava quase na porta.
Entretanto aviso o Michael, que telefona para o contacto que tínhamos e me diz que vão mandar alguém para ver o que se passa.

12:10: chega um senhor que não fala inglês e fica a olhar para a cena como um burro para um palácio. Entra e sai, volta a entrar e a sair, e regressa com um balde e uns quantos panos, que atira para o chão para absorver a água, que nessa altura estava já no corredor de acesso a outros apartamentos.
A hora seguinte foi passada de rabo no ar a tentar absorver a água com os panos.

Pelo meio lá consegui explicar, meio em alemão meio em inglês e linguagem gestual, que era portuguesa e que tínhamos acabado de fazer check-in.
Entretanto, e depois de verificarmos que havia 2 ou 3 pontos na parede de onde a água escorria continuamente, o senhor "abandona o barco" e deixa-me com os panos na mão.

Fast forward para a 1:30.
Volta o senhor, trazendo consigo outro senhor que me explica, em inglês, que o problema estava no chuveiro do apartamento de cima. Iam ter que remover o chão, encontrar o cano com a fuga e bla bla bla...

Fast forward para as 15:45.
A responsável chega para me mostrar outro apartamento, porque obviamente não podíamos ficar naquele, e pouco depois estava a mudar as nossas coisas para o apartamento onde estamos agora, a que chamamos de cubículo, porque não tem mais de 20 m2.

E estas foram as nossas boas vindas a Ulm!