Life on the 5th Floor--One Step at a Time

I have a Garmin Vivofit watch that measures my calories and steps each day. I’m a pretty active person, and before we came to Europe, I was averaging 10,000-12,000 steps a day. In the last 4 weeks that we’ve been in Germany, my average step count has increased to over 19,000 per day. I’m putting a heck of alot of miles on my shoes and enjoying every minute of it. We have been here for a month now, and only have a couple of weeks left. Time is passing quickly, one step at a time.

This last week’s routine of going to the grocery store each day and venturing into unexplored parts of Munich was interrupted by a brief trip to Switzerland. Joel had a business trip to another city in Germany, so I decided to spend the time with my brother in Zurich, where he and his family are living for the next 9 months. In years past, I would have travelled by train to Zurich, but there is an increasingly popular and much less expensive way to travel in Europe now--by bus. It cost me 34 euros, roundtrip, to travel there. In fact, it cost me more for two days of transportation within Zurich and the outlying area where my brother lives than it did to get to Zurich and back. We spent the time going for long walks and runs in the beautiful autumn leaves, walking around Zurich and window shopping (alas, I could not afford the sweaters and jeans for 1000 Francs, a woman’s wool coat for 3,000 Francs nor even a watch for a “mere” 145,000 Francs). It was really nice to be around family and I didn’t feel as lonely this week.

I got a haircut last week, which was also out of the ordinary. My hair grows really fast and I knew I would not make it mentally (only women with short hair develop such impatience) another 3 weeks if I didn’t get it cut, so I got a recommendation from one of the front desk workers for a salon near the hotel and made the appointment online. I practiced what to say in German and had to look up some vocab words I wouldn’t normally use (like how to say “I just want about a half-centimeter off the ends”), which was good because they didn’t really speak English. I was a little alarmed at how confidently he started hacking off about twice as much as I told him to take off, but my hair felt much better when he was done and it turned out just fine. I was not brave enough to get my hair colored, however, and will live with my gray roots until I get back and let my regular stylist take care of them. Ah, the vanity of the 51-year-old woman that makes a haircut the week’s highlight.

Other (more interesting, I hope) highlights from the week:

• On Saturday, the sun came out in the afternoon and so we took advantage of it. We visited the Schloss Nymphenburg and the beautiful grounds all around it. We went back to the park by the river where we had gone running in the morning (when it was cloudy) and took these photos of the magical autumn kingdom it had become with just the addition of sunshine.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• We saw dozens of teenagers on the subway, all dressed up for Halloween on Saturday night. As far as I can tell, they don’t really trick or treat, but they were clearly dressed up and headed somewhere. Halloween has definitely invaded here (all the stores had costumes and decorations for sale) in the last few years--there was nothing like this 30 years ago when I was here.
• I exercised and studied and did laundry and tried cooking a one-skillet chicken dinner with a lemon cream sauce in our tiny kitchen. It tasted great, but I wouldn’t advise any of you to cook with onions and garlic in the same room that you sleep in. Needless to say, we slept with the window open that night and were grateful our clothes didn’t all smell like fried food the next day. I will stick to omelettes, soups and salads for the next two weeks.
• I saw this headline on the CNN app a few days ago: “Thick Fog Shrouds European Cities.” There’s been fog every morning for the last week in Munich and I thought it was just a Munich thing, but then it was the same in Zurich. And apparently London and Paris and lots of other cities across Europe. So I didn’t feel so bad knowing there were countries full of people who had likely all been experiencing morning gloom along with me.
  
  
  
• I visited a couple of palaces last week where I saw dozens of ornately decorated rooms filled with enchanting (and sometimes forbidding) portraits and elaborately, carved furniture and I marveled at the talents that created such beauty. It was also strange to think that these buildings were once someone’s home. But then who am I to talk—I live in hotel. I came away being very grateful I didn’t have to live in a palace, though, and am looking forward to my own new home more than ever.