We can’t believe another week has passed us by! I needed to attend a training for work from 3pm-midnight each day so I had the mornings and early afternoons off each day.
We hit two new pools this week. On Tuesday, the Holzergerlingen Pool and on Thursday, the Böblingen Pool.
Tuesday, we had a group of six moms and about 15 kids. It was only 70 degrees so we had the pool almost to ourselves. The “big kids” spent almost the whole time running up the steps to the slide and racing down all together.
While the moms were busy talking, we didn’t see the “Pool Meister” (manager) walking over and trying to get the kids’ attention on the slide. We did notice though when he started to angrily and passionately yell at them in German. He was foot stomping and everything! They had all stopped about halfway down the slide and the Meister was trying to tell them to get down. They couldn’t hear him from inside the slide though, so we all just watched as the Meister stomped up the steps and yelled at them while making all kinds of motions indicating they were kicked out. I should be mad at Brooklyn for doing it but we should have been watching them better. Once we got over the shock of the episode, it was kind of comical thinking back on the guy yelling at them. Anyway, the older kids were banned but the Meister said they could come back another day if they apologized, which they did. Our session was almost over anyway so we packed up and left.
Thursday, we went to our town’s pool. It is way bigger than Holzgerlingen, but not as big as Sindelfingen, which we all agreed was the best. However, it’s hard to beat the 4 minute drive to our community pool.
It was about 85 on Thursday so the place was absolutely packed. We barely saw the kids the whole time. The moms hung out in the shade and we compared our trip calendars and tried to make some plans for Christmas Market visits.
Thursday we also had our first German doctor appointments. Ryan wasn’t able to get his 11-year old shots back home because he was still only ten, but he needed them to start school so we were in a tough spot. Luckily there is a German doctor who a lot of Americans go to right in our town. We were in and out and they even put the whole package together for us to submit our overseas health insurance claim.
In October, we are supposed to go home for my cousin’s wedding (yay!). On Thursday though, we were notified that one of our flights home had been cancelled. We scrambled and spent a couple hours on the phone trying to get rebooked. Luckily, they were able to put us on a flight a day earlier and we will stay in a hotel in London overnight during our new layover. Unfortunately, after we got that figured out, we learned that the US has been added back to Germany’s quarantine list if you are unvaccinated. So, we’ve had to make arrangements for Ryan to stay in Germany because he can’t miss school. We are really hoping things change for the better though in the meantime.
On Friday, my aunt and uncle arrived from Italy! We haven’t seen them since 2018 due to covid. It was great to reunite with them, and having family around makes everything more fun.
They also had their car loaded down with goodies for us. I think there were about ten bottles of wine, packages and packages of espresso, limoncello, prugna, hugo, and Parmesan cheese! We are set up for quite awhile now.
Saturday, we went into Stuttgart and visited the weekly market and had lunch at Five Guys (and of course had a few aperitifs along the way). We had dinner at our local Italian restaurant that night.
Sunday we visited the PX on base for some shopping and had dinner at the Brauhaus in Böblingen. And of course, we spent three nights staying up late and catching up over some drinks. We can’t wait to do it again.
Gilcrests Abroad 