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Minor German Gripes

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We arrived on a Sunday. It is German law that large shops (supermarkets) are not allowed to open on Sundays. We did find a shop in a nearby petrol station where we got beer, milk, coke, chocolate and crisps. Fortunately restaurants are allowed to open so we did manage to eat.

But very shortly after 7.00 on Monday morning …

And top of the list was dry shampoo – as you can see from the picture, badly needed!!!

And while I’m on little gripes:

    The instructions to get into the apartment were in German. Google translated into “the apartment is on the 2nd floor”. Having tried the key (unsuccessfully) in all 6 apartments on the 2nd floor, a very nice German woman was able to translate properly – 1st floor. Could Google, by any chance, be American???
    The toaster blew the fuse, and we lost WiFi. Got it back, though.
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Bremerhaven

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Jo is working in Bremerhaven, and I’m along for the ride.

8.00 on a Sunday morning for an extremely cramped flight – mercifully only just over an hour.

Found an amazing little cafe near Bremen railway station.

And Bremerhaven was looking lovely on our first day.

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That was Quick

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Just a week, and we’re back.

Not a lot to add apart from the photos – the first is the full moon, the second a misty morning sun.

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Just Chilling

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Just to show that even experienced travellers can make mistakes. Managed to book an electric hire car by mistake. The company supplied it but expressed surprise due to the lack of public charging points in the region. And when I asked how we could possibly return it fully charged they simply shrugged. So charged me for a “downgrade”!

Apart from that the food has been surprisingly good on the whole, and the pictures (when the sun is out) are great.

Total food miles – about 2 metres for the lemons and 4 for the oranges!

And just occasionally we do venture out a little bit.

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Sunday

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Fantastic villa.

So when it’s sunny, there’s little point in going anywhere else.

Little bit vexed when looking at the weather forecast. Sitting on the terrace where the forecast is showing wall-to-wall sun now, but actually looking at heavy low cloud. Such can be the frustrations of a privileged existence! Spent the day in Malaga instead, which reminded us of what we like about it.

But it’s Sunday as I’m writing this and the sun has reappeared.

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Nerja

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After Mexico we felt we needed/deserved(!) a holiday. So we booked a villa in Nerja – actually a bit inland nearer Frigiliana – for a week.

What a lovely place to enjoy our morning coffee.

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The End

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Made it. As far as we can calculate, about 22 hours door to door. Everything worked as it should have done, although it does bring home the absurdity of changing in the US. You have to queue (only about an hour or a bit more) to get through security – although the stress levels in the queue are probably correlated with how long people have to get their connecting flight. Then you immediately have to queue to get through security to get your flight.

Anyway, wonderful view of Monte Alban as we left Oaxaca

And a very welcome drink in Dallas

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Nearly the End

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In fact I’m writing this as we’re waiting for the taxi to Oaxaca airport. We have a 3 hour flight to Dallas, then a change (allowing 3 hours🤞) followed by an overnight back to the grey and miserable Heathrow. So a bit tentative, but everything is now out of our hands.

Anyway, back to Oaxaca. The tour on Thursday to Monte Alban was “padded out” with other stuff, which was OK but not especially memorable.

Mezcale tasting – tried the one with CBD band the one with worms, but they didn’t have the scorpion flavour …

Alebrijes factory

And so on. But I think I’ll finish with lots more nice pictures.

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Monte Alban

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Monte Alban is an amazing experience. We were on a tour to it with Viktor who is Mexican. Ever since he was 8 years old it has been his life’s ambition to visit Monte Alban, and we guessed he’s now in his 50s. I had never even heard of it before we went, so had zero expectations. Made me wonder how our experiences differed.

Anyway, enough of that. It is an extraordinary ancient city, and as always in Mexico stands at about 2,000m. It was so good, we actually took ourselves off there the following day to take another look.

Here’s a small selection of the pictures – and it’s almost impossible to do it justice.

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Chilling

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Apropos nothing at all, just seen only our third cat in the whole time we’ve been in Mexico.

Anyway, that is chilling metaphorically, as literally it really did hit 30 degrees. Everyone we’d met in Mexico said how much they enjoyed Oaxaca, and we began to see why. Usual plan was to broadly follow the walking route but more slowly, and with more frequent coffee/beer/lunch stops.

This one isn’t the cathedral but those “humble” Dominicans, as in Puebla. Solid gold again – none of that cheap gold leaf.

Colourful view of the main square – so much activity. Apparently there is usually a strike of some sort, and/or a protest, which attracts hundreds of street vendors as well.

It looks hot because it was.

Eventually retired to a rooftop bar.

And finally enjoyed the street art. “I know God never dies”