FRIDAY's FAVE FIVE

Ever since I returned from my cruise I am not feeling well. The return flight which should have taken 2 h at the most, took finally 6 h waiting time and a stop in Frankfurt, Germany and we arrived at 1 am at home ! It took me nearly a week to recover from another cold, which I probably caught waiting in the airports. I think from now on I won't take a plane anymore only if it's impossible otherwise. I would rather take a train or a bus, I have time.

As it didn't get better I finally went to my Doctor. Now I have to go to a physiotherapist ! I am so fed up, I always had a very good health and wasn't sick before all my miseries happens. My Doctor, between the lines, told me that I am so fragile since Rieck's passing away, and I have to recover psychologically too. 

My friend Laura whose husband died a month ago came for a coffee and to admire my terrace.

She is in the same situation as I was last year, drowning in paperwork, despite a notary ! It's even worse because her husband was working for his own and not an employee. 

 My son had come for a day from Amsterdam and had cleaned the terrace and put a new carpet on it. I am very happy with the result ! As I once had complained that bottles are so heavy to carry, he did his shopping, and bought for me 6 crates of non-alcoholic beer and 3 with sparkling water. Now I have to drink certainly for a few months ! It was really nice of him. He is like his father or he buys not enough or for a whole army.

Even Rosie who during the whole winter didn't go out, loves the new "living room" and watches the birds from there.  My two neighbors came on Wednesday and as it was so warm, instead of buying a cake I had bought strawberries which tasted real good. But suddenly we had to carry everything inside as it started to rain. 

I am still struggling with my my papers to check and file and was looking for somebody to take care of this as I am not myself yet, I am afraid to make mistakes. Isabelle who solves all problems for me, proposed to do it for me and once everything is in order we will meet regularly and she will play my "secretary". Fortunately she checked my tax filing, because she found a paper in their which apparently I hadn't sent to the tax office to get quite  a lot of money back from Rick's last pension ! Maybe we will find more money !

When I wanted to take my car out of the garage I suddenly saw this car with a license plate painted in black and white strokes over the numbers. I hadn't noticed that before and thought, what the heck is that now, maybe a drug dealer who had hidden his goods here in our garage. 

 I informed the building administrator ! Maybe the car is stolen. Who knows. 

That was all what happened this week ! Aw yes I managed to take pictures from the Garda Lake, Rick's home on my television they are quite good, as if I had been there, but what it had changed !! I hardly recognized it; In 68 when I saw Torbole for the first time, it was a sleepy little village, and now it's known internationally for windsurf !!

 

 

As usual a cat never does what you want ! I only tried to make a nice selfie of the two of us !

more participants at Susanne at Living to tell the Story.

 

 

 

 

 

 

HODGEPODGE June 8

 1. Tell me something you remember (or if you're not there yet, something you look forward to) about being 35.

At 35 I worked the whole day and had a little boy of 5 years old. I don't remember anything special, except that we were fully busy ! Despite that I liked cooking and we often had a lot of guests. And today I don't cook anymore I am on strike ! For me alone it's not worthwhile. 

2. Last time you 'burned the candle at both ends'? 

When Rick was diagnosed Parkinson and I had not only to take care of him but sell the house, the move and then as Rick got worse and worse finally find a retirement home for him, because he needed survey 24 h ! this lasted until he passed away. I think I burnt more than one candle on both sides.

3. Are you someone with the 'gift of gab'? Elaborate (which shouldn't be a problem if you answered yes teehee).  

Yes, I certainly am. You can put me in front of a room full of people and ask me to give a lecture on cauliflowers and I'll do it. (Although I don't know anything about cauliflowers)

4. Do you request a special meal on your birthday, and if so tell us what that meal is? Do you want the same kind of cake year after year or will any flavor work? Do you want cake at all? Growing up were birthdays a big deal in your house? Are they a big deal now? 

I never cared about food when I was a child and didn't eat cakes, I was not and am not a sweet girl ! I celebrated with my school friends, who ate the cake my mother had baked with pleasure ! Grown up we went for birthdays to a restaurant and I got a gift.  

5. 'Age is just a number.'..agree or disagree? Tell us why. 

The birth date in my passport doesn't fit at all with me as person ! I I'm still up for any foolishness or adventure. I get along much better with younger people than with those my age. But also with much older ones. I mean that you are as old as you feel and not the date  in your passport.

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

After having been angry enough about my return flight and feeling better, all I can think about at the moment is the nice weather, sitting outside and reading. Problems should go to hell.

 

WORDLESS WEDNESDAY

 

A folklore evening with local Serbian food during my Danube cruise

more participants here, and Image-in-ing

DANUBE CRUISE

I am back from a very disappointing Danube Cruise. Instead of sitting on the sundeck and enjoying the beautiful landscapes of different countries, I was locked inside the ship.Nowhere was it mentioned that the ship navigated during the night and was anchored in the town's port which we should visit during the day.

 If I was lucky, our ship would be between two others and I could admire the bedrooms or dining rooms of the other ships, or we had a wall on either side. If I would have taken a coach and done the same tour I would have seen far more and spent a lot less money. 

Here are a few pictures which I could take from the ship. Unfortunately I couldn't take part in the excursions because they were all walking tours and I couldn't take part in them for health reasons. 

 

We started in Munich, which fortunately I had seen already and looked for a place to sit. I was not the only one who couldn't follow the running walkers. I should have taken a thing like that ! I don't know how it is called.

Opposite the Munich Opera house where we were all sitting in a Restaurant, waiting for the bus with the others,  taking us to the boat.

our ship which we took in Passau

and our itinerary, from which I saw Budapest because I had been there two times, and Bucarest.

 

View from my bed ! 

That place was the one we all had hoped to sit and rest during the day and slowly moving !

An advantage ! View from my bed, while we navigated during night

All other pictures I had to take from the ship, and sometime zoom.

                                    

 

The last 6 pictures I took in Budapest where we stayed during the day.

and during night

We approached the Iron Gates which is a gorge on the Danube. It forms part of the boundary between Serbia (to the south) and Romania (north).

This part of my cruise "The Iron Gate" in Rumania,  was the most beautiful part of the cruise and exactly how I had imagined a cruise. We navigated the part of the night and the whole day and it was absolutely gorgeous and interesting.

A sunset in this area.

And then we finally arrived in Bucarest, where our cruise ended. But that will be another post, because we saw a lot and had to walk !

If I may give some advice before you book a river cruise, ask if it is also suitable for the disabled. Not all seniors are good walkers. The 70 and 80 year old travelers  have mostly seen all the churches, castles and monuments and just want to rest. That was the case for almost half of the guests who were not happy at all with their cruise. Especially that we navigated mostly during night.

The ship, the crew, the food, the rooms of the company Rivages du monde were perfect there is nothing to say. I hadn't realized either that we were only Frenchs and Belgians and everything was in French. I had thought that we were more international as "monde" is the word for "world"

Next time if there will be a next time, I will pay more attention, but for the moment I am rather disappointed !

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