It truly was a weekend for the books. The preceding weekend was exhausting, solo-parenting with my husband away from Friday at 5 to the wee hours of Monday morning. The kids don't like it, I don't like it. We went to several church services at our church where we could hang out with friends & I had help with the kids, and a dear friend, Sylvie, came over Saturday evening, but still, we just survived it. The weekend before that, we had just returned from Canada and were dealing with jet lag, taming the wild yard, washing and putting away, and sorting all the kids clothes: what's too small, too big, what can be sold at the upcoming Kinderbasar.
So this weekend was much-needed and such a blessing. We had had one more glorious week of late-summer sunshine, temperatures around 27 degrees every day which is my sweet spot. Not too hot, not humid, just gorgeous skirt and t-shirt weather. I worked until mid-afternoon Friday at the university while my husband, on his final day of paternity leave, took care of the kids and grocery shopped. It is typical for many people in Germany to stop working at around 2 or 3 pm on Fridays. All official offices, schools, universities etc will basically be closed to the public as of noon on Friday. It is a busy time for all in the service industry, obviously, but many others start their weekend sometime before 3 or 4 pm on Friday.
We decided spontaneously to visit a nearby city, Ueberlingen, which we hadn't been to in about a year. There were two main motivators for the trip - we wouldn't need to use the car, and Ueberlingen is on the other side of our lake in perfect position to catch all of the early evening sun. We put the kids in the Chariot, jumped on our bikes and rode the 3 km downhill to the sister-village Wallhausen. From Easter-October there is a passenger ferry which runs from Wallhausen to Ueberlingen. It carries people and usually almost as many bikes, as our area is the perfect bike-tourism destination. (We locked our bikes and Chariot on the dock and got a round-trip ticket.) The 15-minute ride is just right for kids, enough time to enjoy the view, the thrill of being on the water and exploring the boat, but not long enough to get bored.
We disembarked in Ueberlingen and enjoyed strolling around their Seepromenade (lake promenade), a long strip of restaurants, parks, ice-cream stores and places to access the lake for a swim or sit and enjoy the view.
My only complaint was that the last ferry back home was at 18:30, another hour and watching the sun sink towards the horizon would have been just fine with me. But we did run into our friendly pediatrician with his bike and a huge ice cream cone on the ferry, and did an informal check-up on the way back home saving us a trip to his office.
The steep uphill bike ride home ensured we got our weekend work out in. At home we got the kids in bed and topped off the evening with white wine, a French cheese plate and Les Miserables. And some Swiss chocolate. Perfect day.
Saturday I got to sleep in a little while my husband took baby on an early morning walk to the bakery for fresh bread. After our traditional leisurely Saturday morning breakfast with a strong cappuccino to try to wake this night owl, we got ready and took the Chariot (this time in its stroller-function) downtown on the bus to the Altstadt (the old part of the city of Konstanz, where all the shops are in the large pedestrian only zone). The bus is definitely the most relaxing option on a Saturday, we loved avoiding the traffic and parking.
We enjoyed the city before it got busy, browsing in a few locally-owned shops and, especially, hanging out for an hour on our favourite street. The Zollernstrasse is only a block or two away from the busiest parts of Konstanz, which are overrun with tourists and street performers in summer. But this street is quieter, mostly-pedestrian and features a high-end but inspiring Danish furniture/housewares store. I'm not in the market for anything but dreams at the moment, but I love to browse there. Just out front there are 3 small pieces of kids playground equipment (how to call them?), which our city has installed in various locations throughout the pedestrian zone. Our son loves these, and can play on them easily for an hour, running back and forth between them. What a delight for a child amidst mama & papa's errands and being dragged from shop to shop, to find something just for them? Even if we only have 5 or 10 minutes we always stop to let our kids enjoy them.
A chococcino from the real-deal Italian, standing-only cafe and dealer in espresso paraphernalia across the street made my morning.
We spent the next few hours at the annual Kinderfest put on by our city, with stands from many different Kindergartens and child-related businesses with free activities and giveaways for kids. A fire truck and ambulance to explore topped off the experience for our kids, who then both zonked out, one in the Chariot, one in the Ergo on my husband's back, enabling us to enjoy a quiet lunch date at our favourite gourmet burger restaurant.
Today autumn arrived with the rain. Today was Sabbath and rest and a walk with my babe in my new wellies.
Thankful.
