A random Thursday holiday

It's a holiday here in Deutschland, Father's day as well as Ascension. As a product of Catholic schooling from age 5 until 22, I am a little miffed that I never had a day off for Ascension, until I came here.

Normally, when the public holiday occurs on a day mid-week, Tues-Thurs, I would usually take it easy the night before and maybe go to the bar and then sleep late into the holiday because the Lord and the rest of us here in the Fatherland know that the only thing open today is the churches and the bars/restaurants, although in B, the bars are actually shut also. Usually Germans will bridge the holiday and take the Monday or Friday off in addition, but I've found if you're in the mainstream travel group, that works 'usual' office hours, then you're in competition with most of Germany to get the long weekend and the prices end up sky high, so personally I won't take the bridge day. As well as the fact I like to conserve my holidays so that I can go longer distances and stay away longer, although more infrequently.

This holiday was a little different because I already came to the conclusion that I needed to spend the day packing for Saturday morning and catching up on housework/laundry. Also, I wanted to get my plants in order before I left since I need to take a few of them to the office to be personally watched over and others I can set up with saucers of water and they'll ride out the two weeks without me since Germany is not expecting a heatwave (fingers crossed).

So since the day was anticipated to be lazy, I had some time. D. was so kind to offer to cook me dinner on Friday so he also needed the day to himself to do his work since he would lose Friday night. So I took the opportunity earlier in the week to call the Post Frau to try to arrange a walking date for either Wednesday or Thursday, and fortunately she chose Thursday.

The Post Frau is the owner of the Post Dog, whom I absolutely adore. Here in B. there is some extreme road constuction going on in two parts of the main road through town, which is throwing off everyone's timings. I've been missing her since it started as I still leave my house at the same time, but I get to the office 10 minutes later so I end up passing her in the traffic. However, I did see her briefly before I went to the US the last time, and she mentioned seeing me walking in town, and would I like to go walking with her perhaps, and I could take her handy number and perhaps call her?

As anyone living here knows, to receive an invitation from a German that you are not somehow affliated with (through work, school, church, kids, whatever) is quite a feat, so I did not want to treat it lightly. I ended up staying longer in the US than anticipated and then going to the UK, but I didn't want to go back to the US again without making the time for her, lest I appear rude here.

I called her on Tuesday and she said, yes of course, as long as the weather is good, Thursday would be good. We agreed to meet at 11 and sure enough, she was there with the Post Dog at 5 til 11. It was slightly spitting rain, as it had yesterday also, so not the best day for a long walk, but still acceptable. We went to one of the trails off of B. The Post Dog sat at attention facing forward in the middle of the backseat the entire time, but reacting with excitement when she turned into the parking lot, as he knew where he was. In addition his 'Dog Friend' was there, but they were heading off on a different trail.

We went to one of the trails she likes, a shorter one because of the weather. The Post Dog was permitted to go off-leash, as he is rather well-behaved around other people, although she put him back on the leash whenever we were near another dog that he did not know. We conversed in German, although she has some English, but really it was easier for her to just explain in German with examples when I did not know a word. I now understand, her husband has allergies and is very overweight, therefore he does not accompany her much on walks, nor does he go out much with the Post Dog.

It was a lovely walk, especially as the river was full due to the recent rains, so everything was very fresh. We did cross over with the Post Dog's dog friend later and they took turns chasing each other, even into the river. There was some foam in the river where it collected in a corner near some tree roots, it seems that the Post Dog is absolutely facinated and somewhat afraid of foam.

In the end we walked for two hours. We saw one set of people who were walking with their beer wagon into the woods (the Father's day tradition), that seems to not be limited to fathers. Overall it was a lovely day and the Post Frau suggested that once I come back from America again to call her and perhaps bring D. also. Not bad for a random Thursday holiday.