April in Germany

Right now it is the day after Easter( April 13th). I hope the Easter bunny was good to you all. The night before Easter, Harlan and I were walking home late at night. What do you think we saw? Bunnies, hopping around the grass. Do you think they were helpers of the Easter bunny?

Harlan and I have now been in Germany for almost two weeks. It doesn’t seem possible. We live in a very little apartment right near the center of town. It is only a 15 minute walk to the old part of the city with lots of cafes, shopping, old churches and buildings.

We have a lovely location because we are right next to a lake call Assee. There is a biking/walking path around it and I usually walk around the lake once a day, which takes me about an hour. There are always people walking or biking around it and there are sailboats and paddleboats on the water. It is spring here and the leaves are coming out on the trees and the tulips are up all over town. It is really very pretty.


Our apartment is very cozy, just big enough for Harlan and I. Our bed is our couch, so every morning we have to unmake our bed, and push our bed back into a couch. If we don’t, there is no room to walk in our apartment! Every night we pull our couch down and make our bed up!


Do you see Harlan in the window of our apartment?
This is the view from our window.

Harlan has been teaching a course at the university here (although he is now finished) so I have been exploring the town. Guess what? I still have to be extremely careful crossing the street! In Europe, cars are driven on the same side of the street as in Maine but I got use to crossing Australian streets and now I am all confused again as to which way to look.

I also have to be careful because there are many bicycles here. They even have their own part of the sidewalk to ride on. The red brick path is for bicycles. Don’t walk on it or the bicyclists will ride over you. Red means danger! It is said that there are more bikes per person here than anywhere else in Germany! It is rather crazy, I have to be very careful to watch out for bikes, even more than cars! At the train stations there are even parking garages for bicycles!



We have changed time zones again. We are now only 6 hours ahead of you. So if it is 7AM your time, it is 1PM my time on the same day. As I write this, you are all sound asleep! (It’s 9:30AM for me right now, what time is it for you?)