Bangkok to Germany

Our flight over the snow-covered mountains of Afghanistan was stunning. We arrived in Hannover just before midnight Sat. after being awake more than 24 hours, since we got up at 5:00 a.m. to be at the Bangkok airport and there is a 6 hour time difference between Germany and Thailand. As Mark Twain says (Following the Equator),the hours are stale from disuse, but we gained some more of the time we left behind at the international date line in Jan. When we changed trains in Fulda, it was not so cold and my fleecy and socks and scarf were adequate, but it was much more wintry here, just above freezing and raining, and people were wearing winter coats, gloves, and hats.  It was nice to see Jens’s smiling face and have his help with the luggage. Jens picked up our keys for us, drove us over to the Leibnizhaus, and helped get our stuff up the elevator and into our apartment. It turns out to be the same apartment Ross and I stayed in when we visited Rich at Easter break from Edinburgh 6 years ago. It’s got a window seat in the bedroom and the living room looks out on a square with a pretty well (see picture below). It's in the pedestrian zone in the city center. It was lightly snowing Sun. morning and starting to stick. Very quiet except for the sound of church bells, a sound I love.

Leibnizhaus (we lived in the modern part on the left on the third floor)

View out our living room window on Easter Sunday: Holzmarktbrunnen = Wood market well

View out our window of the Holzmarkt square, Historical museum, and half-timbered houses

View out our living room window of the parking lot and Leineschloss-Niedersächsischer Landtag (former palace & parliament for this province)

Sat. when we got here, we were so tired we were about to fall asleep on our feet, but first needed to wrestle with fetterbetts to get them into the duvet covers, a task I dreaded the first time I lived in Germany. Fetterbetts are basically puffy and shapeless, and  you have to tame them  into submission to fit them into square covers. The trick that every German housewife has mastered is to grab a corner of the fetterbett and hold it tight so it can’t get away, and then almost turn the cover inside out as you establish it firmly in the inside corner of the cover. Next you grab it with your other hand from the outside so it can’t escape. Then you try to do the same with the other corner with only 1 free hand. If you let go of the first corner, you’re sunk and will end up with a shapeless lump. When you have both corners trapped from the outside, you give the whole thing a very firm shake and let it know who’s boss and it will suddenly give up  and turn into a nice square cover.  The ones here are quilted artificial filling instead of real goose down, so they were easier to tame, and luckily both Rich and I are old hands at this and our skill came back to us.

We took the light rail out to church, enjoying the beauty of the falling snow, such a contrast to Bangkok. We were finally glad to dig out our winter clothes after schlepping them ¾ of the way around the world. It was ~27 F (-4 degrees C). Last week we were in a Lao church and this week sang in German. A nice intro with a kid playing a beautiful alto recorder solo. Everyone is v. friendly and glad to meet Rich’s frau. After church we were invited to Benno’s family for lunch. (Benno was our German exchange with us who lived with us 2 years ago.) It was his father Helmut’s birthday Fri., so they had planned a surprise bbq with neighbors and guests, but had to have it inside. 3 kinds of cake.  A very nice beginning to our stay here.

Helmut's Birthday Cake

Today we unpacked and got set up with the Leibnizhaus and the bank and bought some groceries. Rich walked to work and I'm going to find out about concerts, soccer, etc. Nice to unpack and have a real kitchen.