Today is Sunday; I thought I'd remind you of that in case you somehow forgot that "Superbowl Sunday" in on, well, a Sunday.
Germany still adheres to the quaint, or old fashioned, or overly religious (take your pick) practice of closing most things down on Sundays. You really cannot spend Sunday running errands. There are no grocery stores, or clothing stores, or even automatic car washes open on Sundays. Your neighbors WILL express their displeasure if you mow the lawn, run the vacuum or do any other chore they can hear, or see, on a Sunday.
So, what CAN you do on a Sunday? Well, attend church, of course, if that fits your beliefs. Buy bread, so long as you show up at the bakery before 10:30. Visit a castle, museum, movie theatre, skating rink, theme park or pretty much any other tourist or entertainment venue. You can eat out. You can attend a fest, or even hold your own party (even a loud one--noise is allowed, so long as it is fun). On the practical side, you CAN get gas, so that you can get to all of these fun things.
For the first few months that we lived here, this drove us crazy. With our small kitchen, and not being used to this schedule, we were perpetually running out of fresh veggies or meat or some essential and not realizing until stores closed on Saturday evening. We wanted to get things done on the weekends, wax the car and trim the bushes. However, now that we have adjusted to this German mindset, we would not trade it for the world. We LOVE being forced to slow down and take one day a week to simply relax and enjoy each other and life. Most weeks we go somewhere on a Sunday. Maybe only to dinner or on a bike ride, or perhaps to a museum or pool.
Today, we headed out to the Tripsdrill Wildparadies. A "wildlife park" in the woods near Tripsdrill theme park, and about an hour's drive from home. Even the drive there is relaxing--the first half is on the autobahn, but the second half winds through one adorable old German town after another with bits of tree-lined road or vineyard views in between them.
After going into the main entrance gates, you are immediately on the lower trail through the woods. It's nice to be out in the trees and fresh air. This first section of trail (which take about 20 minutes to stroll along at a moderate pace) is an open area filled with deer. You can buy food to offer them if you want, or just enjoy that you are out on a "walk in the woods surrounded by deer" Here are a few photos to give you a feel for how the space looks:
(There are dozens of wild cranes in the area--like those above. The cage below them houses two cranes with injuries that prevent them from living in the wild any more).
Off to the side of the trail is a short "bird loop" with many birds of prey (half of which fly every day in two shows--which we have managed to miss thus far). The birds had recently been fed, which was a little disconcerting for us -- being birds of prey they were still eating the little birds that were their food. Nature in action just a little more than I wanted (don;'t worry, I didn't take photos to horrify you with!). Here are a couple of birds that were waiting for their turn to fly today:
The trail loops around past some fun little displays on tree types while you climb up to the high point in the area, from where you can take a rest and have something to eat or drink before either taking the second, smaller loop further back to see more traditional (but still big and "wild" looking) "zoo" exhibits with bears, wolves, cats, etc--or just head back towards the entrance, on a loop that includes an awesome ropes course style play area in the trees, a "barefoot trail" that encourages everyone to take off shoes in the warmer months and walk on a variety of surfaces, and a bison exhibit.
We had a snack at the central lunch place. It is only 1.50 Euro to get a big hunk of bread to roast (or 2 for a sausage). You can also get pre cooked food, but where is the fun in that?
As you can see from our attire, it was pretty chilly out there today. We decided to spend some time on the ropes course and work our way back towards the nice warm car:
(there's a nice view of the wolves from up there)
Just before we made it back out, Dave stopped to say hello to a bison on exhibit lol:
All in all we had a very nice Sunday outing. I hope, even if you COULD run errands, that you have a chance to have a Sunday outing instead sometime soon.
HAPPY SUNDAY ONE AND ALL,
Hadley
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