The Gritty Virtual Assistant Blog

On Sunday, we got up extra early and headed to Rob’s parents’ house for a nice breakfast before driving to this particular Christmas market up in the Pfaelzerwald Forest.

Here’s the moon over Mannheim that morning; it was a clear, beautiful day:

Daybreak on the Neccar River:

Driving through the woods up to the market:

The market in the woods is an annual tradition in Rob’s family. It was so fun. Had pumpkin soup and gluhwein to warm up (it was CO-OLD!). The soup was delicious and I’m sure very healthy. Gluhwein is mulled wine (you drink it hot). We drink it all the time at home. It’s very watered down so you don’t get buzzed; it’s just gives you a nice rosy glow, LOL. You can go to just about any German deli or store and buy a bottle. Try it–it’s yummy. 

Pumpkin soup:

Some pix of the market:

 

A couple cute little miniature ponies:

Wild trout being smoked (we bought some–delish!):

This cute little “yoda” dog who was keyed in on the wieners his owner was eating the whole time:

After we walked around there and bought a few things, we drove to this little village in the Elmsteiner Tal (tal = valley) where the Spangenberg castle is located high up on cliff on an outcropping of rock that you can hike up to:

Creek crossing:

View from the trail:

Shots of the castle on the way up:

Inside the castle walls:

(Notice the stocks, LOL):

Summary of the castle history. Notice that it dates back to the 1100s:

Burg Erfenstein (burg = castle) which is another castle on the mountaintop opposite from Spangenberg:

The cool thing about these castles (they’re everywhere in Europe) is that most of the time, once you get up to them, they’ll have a lodge/restaurant in them so you can get a drink and a nice hot meal. So we hiked up, took in all the amazing feats of engineering of old and then cozied up inside the restaurant for some liver dumpling things and a couple beers (my first time eating any kind of liver in my life, and yes, I still do not care for it, thank you very much). 

The volunteer-run lodge/restaurant inside the castle walls:

Notice the real suit of armor on the right:

The Burg Spangenburg coat of arms:

Looking down on the valley below:

After hiking back down, we went drving around the countryside a bit. The little villages go back thousands of years and I just adore how cute and quaint they are. When it got dark, we headed back to Rob’s parents’ house and had sauerbraten and dumplings that his mom made. We always joke about how much it must suck to be Rob’s dad and have to eat all that “terrible” food his mom makes every day.

Really fun day. We slept like babies that night.

Yesterday, I went to Heidelberg by myself on the train to go shopping. It was a lovely day. But coming back, this sweet little old lady lost her balance as she went to get off at her stop, and fell and hit her head on the step. It was so horrible and gut-wrenching! Like a movie in slow-motion, it all happening before your eyes in a split second, but nothing you can do.

She lay there on her back, still as a rock, her eyes wide open, but unseeing. I thought for sure she was dead! The crack her head made when she fell, I fully expected a pool of blood at any minute. Luckily, as it turned out, she was only unconscious! 

Two women rushed to her side to comfort her. She didn’t come to for the longest time, and then just she lay there, which I’m sure was a good thing. She had to have had some serious injury with the force that she had hit her head. Another woman lent her scarf to put under her head. The driver poked his head out briefly and then we kept going. Not speaking German, I don’t know what was going on. I kept trying to ask if anyone had called for an ambulance, but the two ladies sittin by me couldn’t understand.

I’ll tell you what, I don’t know if this is typical, but it really makes me appreciate our emergency system here in the States. Nothing is perfect, and everyone is quick to criticize when something doesn’t go right, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing–it helps us improve and get even better. But if that had happened back home, that train would have stopped immediately, not moved another inch, and emergency would have been there within five minutes or less.

As it happened here, we kept going through several towns until we finally stopped and it was about 20 minutes before the paramedics showed up. After they had helped her to a seat and she had answered some questions, obviously to their satisfaction, they got her to her feet and walked her off the train. No stetcher or head brace like they would have done in the States.

And that’s as far as I know what happened because we then continued on our route.

To be fair, the spot we were in when she fell was a little farming village and Rob thinks that the driver probably called someone and was told to continue on to a certain point in order to get to a better location where the paramedics could more quickly and easily get to us. I sure hope the little lady is doing okay. That sound her head made being cracked on the side of the step is still haunting me.

So by this time, it’s very dark out and when we get to Mannheim, I’m havng trouble getting my bearings because they keep the lights on inside the train and it’s hard to see outside, and this huge, hulking guy had sat down down next to me and was blabbing loudly into his cell phone so I could neither see nor hear the stops and signs.

By the time I realized we were at my stop, it was too late and the doors locked so I had to get off at the next stop. Which was in the shopping district, but not anywhere I had been before so I got completely turned around in my bearings and ended up in some sex district, LOL. Signs saying “sex” and “eroctica” and posters obviously advertising nude dancing and escorts were everywhere I looked, LOL.

I finally made it out of there, but then had to trudge the long-way home. All that after realizing, I didn’t have our address or Rob’s phone number or his mom and dad’s address or phone numbers on me, LOL. I also wasn’t carrying the cell phone Rob’s parents lent me. I wouldn’t have been able to call anyone or tell a soul a thing about how to help me get home if I hadn’t found my way, LOL.

But I made it home safe and sound (where I promptly got all our contact info together so I have it in case of emergency) and we ate the leftover sauerbraten and dumplings Rob’s mom sent home with us on Sunday–ate it out of the same dish like a couple of fattening pigs at the slop, LOL.

Life is rough, huh?