midsummers eve

Although Thursday was technically a holiday in Germany, I spent most of it writing an essay or three and hunting for my next thesis topic. My aversion to being cooped up indoors cropped up and I headed out on my trusty “vintage” bike, back to the Hessen garden show and along the river. I spotted a lake for swimming, here’s hoping the weather gets better so I can take full advantage of it! It’s a great stretch to cycle, not too hilly and perfect for practicing to cycle without using your hands – which I finally managed, for about two minutes! Thankfully the pollen allergy (which happened to appear as I was standing waist deep in a field of wheat finishing some field work on Monday. and stuck with me ALL day.) had disappeared and I could enjoy the summer flowers again.

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A classmate and I took advantage of the extra perks of being able to enter the garden show for free and joined in a lakeside yoga class on Friday. I’m slightly sick of copying youtube yoga videos in my room so it was a nice change. A relaxing hour later and doused in yellow pollen we headed off to our “secret” midsummers eve fire weighed down with snacks.

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On Saturday we took a train down to Koblenz, stopping off in the quaint Altstadt, entering various churches, avoiding getting spat on by a quirky little fountain, drooling into bakery windows, posing at the Deutsches Eck, hanging my feet over the Rhine/Moselle, finding a giant thumb (?), taking the gondola up to enjoy the view from the old fort, getting more engrossed with the goats lounging nearby and stopping off for a piece of cake in what was reputably one of Germany’s best cafes. This was debatable, the cakes were good, particularly the wine one (the name gives it away really), but not the best I’ve tried! The evening was spent shouting at the tv, (or in my case just asking lots of probably stupid questions) which will be repeated for the next match this Thursday. Auf geht’s Deutschland!

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