I could tell all that walking took it’s toll on mom yesterday. She woke up late this morning still coughing, her throat very soar to swallow and her eyes were very puffy and swollen. She kept asking what was on the agenda for the day, but just by looking at her, I could tell she wasn’t going to be in any condition to do much of anything. So I told her to go back to bed. Dad seemed pretty exhausted himself, so I packed up my laptop, got dressed and told him I was going to make the walk down the hill towards the tourist office and see if I could connect to their wireless network to do some banking and answer my email.
It was a short fifteen minute walk into town (all downhill), but I wasn’t looking forward to making that climb back up to Haus Berghof when I was through. The highlight of my walk was finding a beautiful 1965 Porsche 356 parked in the driveway of one of the local homes. I still miss having one every time I see a nice one on the road.
I didn’t have any success finding a network I could connect through, so I ended up sitting outside St. Englmar’s Church doing some writing. The sun was still coming out over the mountains and I had been sitting in the shade with only a short sleeve T-shirt and realized I was finally cold for the first time in years. Just as I was wrapping things up and getting ready to leave that spot for some sun, Dad pulled up in the car.
He was hoping to find someplace open in town for a cup of coffee, but being that most everything is closed on Sundays, he was lucky to find the bakery open and serving fresh bread. I ordered a couple of pastries for breakfast and a cup of coffee for Dad. I think it was the first cup he’s had since we arrived in Germany. I had left my laptop outside on one of the tables while I went in to order. I wasn’t worried about anyone taking it in this tiny village, plus there was hardly a soul awake at this hour. I was shocked to discover that when I came back outside, my computer must have picked up a signal from somewhere, and had downloaded new emails and sent everything I had waiting in my send folder. But the connection was gone by the time I returned and I couldn’t find one again. At least I had something to work on now until next time.
We drove back up the hill and found mom awake, watching T.V. and working on her needlepoint. We prepared a nice breakfast for us all and by the time I had washed all the dishes and cleaned the kitchen, both Mom and Dad looked like they were down for another nap. It was a beautiful, sunny day out without a single cloud in the sky anywhere. I thought perfect for some more pictures, so I packed my backpack again with laptop and camera and drove back into town again, telling them I’d return in about an hour.
This time I parked the car on a different side of the Tourist Info office than earlier and low and behold, I found internet. I sat in the car, parked on the sidewalk getting work done and chatting with a few friends back home before my battery was about to die and headed back to check on Mom and Dad. They were both just waking up again when I returned, but I could tell Mom still wasn’t feeling too well. So we all just relaxed for the rest of the day. We made a very tasty pork tenderloin in the room and spent the rest of the evening trying to plan some things for the rest of our stay and watching German T.V.
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