Busingen Honeymoon

As soon as I viewed the quaint villages of Switzerland and Germany, I knew I would take lots of photos of windows, shutters, doors, shingles, and flower boxes!  (Dan says that he will soon add a slideshow here in the blog to show some of these.) Being from North America, I’m easily charmed by the age of things in this part of the world; almost everything is so much older than similar things in the US. (Even in the US, I remember the first time I traveled to the East Coast, as a teenager, and noticed how much older were the city buildings than in the Midwest.)  Many buildings still have rolladen (the rolling, metal, black-out shades on the outside of windows), our apartment building included. (Here’s a video from youtube.com that shows how they work: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_KePLmie7lE.)

But, even though things are older, I’ve also noticed how inventive Europeans have been. Our apartment has windows that can either tip open at the top OR from one side!  Even the plug for our kitchen sink is unusual – it’s a plastic tube with a kink in it, similar to a vacuum cleaner crevice tool. And it works great; there’s no chance for sink overflow!  

Europeans in general are quite health-conscious. There are always people riding bicycles, walking, and hiking. We have joined them, taking opportunities to walk around in this small town (1400 people).  It doesn’t take long to get to the edge of town and take the walking paths that go through the farmers’ sugar beet fields or near the Rhine River.

Rhein River

1000+ year old church

One path leads to a 1000-year-old church that still has services and hosts concerts! Along that path, we’ve even seen a farm with Scottish Highland cattle (with shaggy bangs over their eyes). On another local walk, we found a farm with camels!

Similar to the Midwest, though, are the corn and soybean fields, the oaks and evergreens, the wildflowers, and lots of pumpkins!  We are anxiously anticipating the changing colors of fall leaves!

As I look out the eastern window in my second-floor office, I can see down the main street to the office where Dan works. Every building is topped with terra cotta shingles, some mossy and aged. Across the street from that office, there is a Catholic church with a bell tower that chimes every 15 minutes; you can tell which quarter-hour it is too! And every day at 11:00AM and at 6:00PM, the bells ring longer, for several minutes – it’s so joyful!

In the States, we have water heaters and furnaces in our homes. In this town, there is a water heater plant for the entire town so we just turn on our radiators and the hot water flows through, warming our apartment! Amazing stuff!

So, it’s clear that I’m still in the “honeymoon” phase of living in another country.  The things that make living here different are still fun and interesting, not frustrating (as long as I have an adaptor plug!).  So far, we’ve not encountered a situation in which we can’t understand or be understood.  One of these days, though, I may be entirely sure that I want to go home right this minute, and drive somewhere when I want to, watch TV, or wash and dry a load of clothes without waiting on someone else. But, until then, I’m grateful for the blessings of the beauty and the differences! 

P.S. More photos of this area are shown in a slide show in the right panel of this blog.