PHOTO-A-DAY CHALLENGE
My Last Days in Germany
Week 121 of the photographic documentary of my daily life
It’s been a busy couple of days. Basically between two travels. We just returned from our epic journey through Transylvania covering 4000 kilometers on the road and now have one week left to pack up things again.
We did loads of laundry, had doctor's appointments, and met up with friends. When you hop from one continent to another as we do, you usually don’t have much time in between work contracts for meetups. But we make the time.
Let’s see how our week went.
Thursday, our first day back home. And yes, I did do a couple of loads of laundry, unpacked our bags, cleaned them and started with some paperwork that had to be dealt with.
I hadn’t taken a picture all day long and quickly walked outside just before the last light was gone. This is the view from my parents’ balcony.
On Friday, we decided to visit a Christmas Market since David hadn’t visited one in Germany yet. I chose the city of Esslingen over the one in Stuttgart since the Old Town includes a medieval section of the market. Very unique and beautifully decorated. More about that in a separate post.
On Saturday I invited over friends and family for a barbecue in the garden. Yes, it is late November but that doesn’t mean we can’t be outside.
It was a lovely get-together and we enjoyed catching up with all our loved ones.
This rose is the last rose blooming in my parents’ garden plot. She even withstood the first frost.
Sunday morning my mom woke me up saying I had to get out my camera right there and then. Still in my pajamas, I put slippers on and walked out of the entrance door.
A spiderweb hanging on the reeling had caught my mom’s attention. The sun hadn’t come around the corner yet and therefore those droplets of water were hanging onto the fine netting.
Two friends of ours had contacted us if they could meet up still before we left. We didn’t have time to visit them since they lived close to the Austrian border but invited them over for a visit.
They came Sunday evening and stayed until Tuesday morning. Yes, Wednesday was our flight but it was worth it for us. On Monday, we did a long walk across the fields and chatted loads.
Guess what, Tuesday it was time to start packing. We had less than 24 hours left until our departure and nothing was in the bags yet. But as you know, we’re used to it. Once we get the routines going, we’ve got all our luggage packed in less than two hours.
We want to travel lighter again which is why we have one more “heavy” flight ahead of us. We’re taking one of my inflatable paddleboards and David’s Kayak to leave them then in Namibia.
Those two items almost fill one suitcase each but it’s worth it for us.
Then we also have two complete rigs with our parachutes, snorkeling gear, and other sports equipment. Our personal belongings and clothes did take up a very small percentage of our luggage.
The next day we still had the morning to clean up the room and pack away the rest of our belongings staying behind so my parents had space again in the flat.
The journey started with loads of luggage as we each also traveled with two pieces of hand luggage. Or how our friend said, “you do travel like Africans”.
I guess we are Africans.
Arriving at Stuttgart Central Station we had the biggest struggle with our luggage since a long walk was necessary due to the massive construction work happening right there.
Once we made it to the train track we were surprised by a board saying our train to Frankfurt airport was canceled. What a great start to the journey.
I left David behind with all the luggage and walked to the information desk. I didn’t even ask why and what just wanted to know the next train we could get on.
It meant for us, waiting for another 40 minutes out in the cold. We didn’t travel with winter jackets because what do you do with them in Africa? We just layered up in shirts and hoodies.
I knew now again why I had booked us on such an early train. So we had enough spare time in case something doesn’t work out. Which is usually the case on Germany’s trains.
We made it in time to the airport and also managed to check in all our luggage. Then it was to relax in the excitement of the journey ahead.
The next leg of the journey will be in next week’s photo essay.
This has been my week in photographs. 7 days. 7 photographs. Anyone can join. Once. Or weekly. It doesn’t matter. We welcome everyone! Dennett started this photography challenge in 2020 and many have participated ever since.
Erika / Eileen / K. Barrett / Juan / David / Mia / Susan / LensAfield / Kim / Barbara / Diana / Barb / Sandra / Shruthi / Ellie / Pene / Olive / Gustavo / Jane / Penny / Jillian / Shell / Ivy / Lisa / Lynne
And these are the previous weekly photo essays:
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