Visitors of the Parental Kind

The luggage arrived on Wednesday and guests arrived on Thursday. Mum and Bob popped across for four days of fun times in Fulda. And oh, it was fun :D

We met them in the big city (Frankfurt) for a day of big city life. We posed as an indie band in front of the Opera house. We went up a really high tower, which Mum hated, but we were impressed by. Bon views indeed. We found out that (almost) all restaurants in Old Sachsenhausen are seemingly shut at lunchtime, except one, which was well hidden through a garden and a long dark corridor. Quite a cute place, a bit smokey and mine and Mum’s drink of choice tasted like flat, gone off cider. Bob and Ragsy were very smug with their Binding beers. We were a bit tired after all the excitement so headed to the Zug back to Fuldatown. Ragsy whipped up a storm (and some very tasty food) in the kitchen and we all went to bed happy.

Day 2 was Fulda day and, despite the fact that it was the 23rd March, it was SNOWING. Snow everywhere. I thought we had done ingeniously well at timing our trip to Indonesia so we would miss all the soggy white stuff back in Deutschland, so imagine my dismay on waking up, the day before my birthday, and seeing everything covered in snow. Actually, I didn’t mind that much. It made Fulda look very pretty. Just look at the Dom – picture-postcard-stylee. We paid our respects to Bonifatius, the first Brit in Fulda, we trudged up the sludgy hill to Frauenberg to see another Catholic church and Fulda looking very wintry. Too much cold and white stuff so a cheeky coffee and cake at Café Palais before heading onwards to the Schlossgarten to continue our tour. In the afternoon we popped into Wiesenmühle for some of Fulda’s finest beer and then we watched the first half (as much as we could bear) of the quite atrocious Marie Antoinette. I think Bob was verging on suicidal when Mum finally suggested we stop the film…

Day 3 was MY BIRTHDAY! Mum and Bob came round bright and early for a breakfast present opening sesh (just like the old days). Lots of lovely cards and presents (thanks everyone!!!) and chocolate. Mmm. Then, the real excitement began. We headed to Europcar and took ourselves a VW Golf and headed to Marburg. What a pretty town. On a very steep hill but not a problem, cos Marburg has public lifts to take people from the bottom of the town to the top. How cool! We walked around, saw St Elisabeth’s big church (she was Hungarian and helped the poor and the sick. Saintly), me and Ragsy bought a very tasteful teapot (to brew our Indonesian tea in), we had a very quaint lunch and then, as the town clock struck 2pm, we stood in front of it and thought “24 years ago to this very hour, the world was made a better place!” Naturally, everyone was rejoicing. The very tuneful serenade from Mum, Bob and Ragil went down very well (with me, others seemed a little confused as to why they had chosen this time and this location to launch into song) and I was photographed in front of the clock to prove we got the time right :D Then we walked up a really really steep hill to the castle. A nice view. Mum was scared again, but we managed to capture her smiling (she is standing several metres from the edge), and look at the wonky church tower behind Ragil. Chesterfield eat your heart out. We returned from Marburg in one piece (good job Bob) and headed to Osteria del Mercato for some posh nosh. A very good birthday indeed.

Day 4 was the last. We went for a relaxing walk around Fulda lake and the sun almost came out. We also saw a swan, aw, go on…
Then the parentals left.
There was definitely a hole.
My thesis is trying valiantly to fill it.