Deutschland mit der Familie

I'm writing from Geneva! We spent the last few days with the Egenbergers in Augsburg, but first family photos from Constance, as promised:


To our left would have been the Alps if it hadn't been so cloudy…

After checking out my "sweet pad" as I call it, we decided to see something of a different kind of beauty: Insel Mainau.


my mom and my sister on the bridge to Mainau


on Mainau


My mom kept saying how much Teri would love Insel Mainau.

We went to Mainau in the evening, which turned out to be a stroke luck - there was hardly anyone on the island. And in the butterfly house, which is normally jam-packed, we were literally the only visitors.


Another cool thing about going in the evening was that a lot of animals were out and about. (I assume the normal crowds tend to scare them away.)

So sorry for that anachronistic tangent, but I promised photos. For recap: first off was Constance, then Colmar, and then Augsburg to visit the relatives. The second day we were in Augsburg, Hermann, Anita and Rolf gave us an amazing tour of the city.


cathedral


more Augsburg: Sts. Ulrich and Afra


Jesus vs Whore of Babylon at 10pm only on FOX!


near the city wall


Egenberger reunion! (Though not in the photo, we also visited Walter, who will be 90 in August!)

In summary, the visit in Augsburg was amazing! Anita, Hermann and Rolf are wonderful people and spectacular hosts - thank you so much yet again for the great time!

Feiertag! Warum? Einfach so :D

Yesterday was a holiday. No one knows why, but it makes sense, because we hadn't had one yet this week ;) So I had the day off, and decided to go hiking. But what was going to be a few hour stroll quickly turned into a full-blown, day-long adventure!


I made a map of the area (above) to give you a better idea of the area. I started out wandering thru the natural lands between Sonnenbühl Ost and the university, and then ended up going to Egg, to Mainau, and then finally to Litzelstetten, a little town about two hours by foot north of my dorm.


My trek took me along beautiful Lake Constance…


thru fields,


and the Black Forest…


to little Litzelstetten.
Of course, once I got to Litzelstetten, nothing was open, because it was a holiday. While in town, however, I did hear this amazing quote from a little girl (about 2 years old): She was pointing out people to her mom and telling her whether they were men or women. She pointed to me and said "Da ist ein junger Mann" - one point for her! Then a group of four people walked by. Her mom asked her, "And what about them?" And her response: "Da kommen zwei Männer und zwei Mauer!" apparently conflating the words for men (Männer) and women (Fraue) to produce the word for wall (Mauer) - ie, "Here come two men and two wall!" I got a bang out of that, and the mom had a hand over her face, cracking up, too!



I sat on a bench here and ate my lunch.


In the background of this one, you can see Insel Mainau.

So that was my adventure - very quiet, very pretty. I felt like I needed something like that after Egypt.

die Insel Mainau und mehr schönes Wetter!

Yesterday was a holiday in Germany (Labor Day, or Tag der Arbeit), so we had no class. Chrissy and I decided to grab the opportunity and go to Insel Mainau, an island about 45 minutes by foot from our dorm.

Our route to Mainau took us through Egg. We saw two little boys working what is apparently the German version of a lemonade stand. We each bought a cup of Apfelschorle, which is something like sparkling apple juice.


Later on we passed this stand. Its owner just left everything on the table, even tho the sign said no one was going to be back to man the “shop” until Sunday!

Well anyway, we obviously made it to Mainau, which is known for its floral gardens.


These are “Star Wars Magnolia hybrids,” according to their sign. They’re definitely pretty, but mainly the name just cracked me up.


one of several flower sculptures


Mainau also has a famous butterfly house (Schmetterlingshaus) with a little waterfall, turtles, and fish. It was ridiculously crowded in there. It was difficult to get photos of the butterflies as they zipped by, but there were hundreds of them.


There is also this big greenhouse of orchids with a really expensive restaurant in the middle.


Chrissy posing as best she can


This is what most of the island looks like.


And I’d feel negligent if I didn’t put up one of my millions of photos of the Alps. This one I took from the U. That gross, lighter-colored building is part of Sonnenbühl Ost.

So my life really isn’t too shabby. And a week from today I’m off to CAIRO!