All's Well that Ends Well

From June 2023:

I am back in Gommern after five months away during what I am tempted to call The Winter of My Discontent, but in looking back I can see that along with all the stress and strife, there were indeed some highlights. Our rather ambitious plan for winter 2022-23 included helping mom move to her new apartment, selling the house she was living in, and renovating an apartment/condo we had been renting out for the past 15 years. Matthias would be doing most of the renovation so also planned to come to Florida for an extended period. That being the case, we had the bright idea to add a trip to Peru, where we first met 20 years ago, into the mix.  To accomplish all of this, I would travel to Florida alone in November, and then meet Matthias in Miami on December 6th so we could fly to Peru together on the 7th. What could go wrong?

Night sky from Gommern apartment

I arrived in Florida in mid-November and was greeted joyfully by mom, who was pretty exhausted after going through the hurricane (Ian) that hit Sarasota the previous month. Fortunately, she (and family and friends) are okay, and the house didn't sustain any damage. However, a tree fell in the yard knocking out power for eight days, which caused a lot of strife, and didn't make the house look as appealing for sale as pre-hurricane. But then again, we got off easy.

We enjoyed a week-long visit from Laurene over Thanksgiving week and visited mom's new digs, which wasn't quite ready yet. She was scheduled to move there on January 11th. Then, Mom and I set to work getting the house ready for sale. We engaged a fabulous realtor (whom we both probably developed secret crushes on) named Fernando. I kept referring to him as Francisco and mom kept calling him Ferdinand, but that's okay because he referred to mom as Sheila, I think. haha. Fernando gave us a list of things to do, and based on his expert advice, we packed things away and moved furniture around in order to show the house at its best. We got that done in time for me to bus down to Miami and meet Matthias on 6 December, one day before our flight to Lima. And in the meantime, I got to sneak away for a night in Lakeland for a visit and very long overdue catch-up with my dear old friend Leoni, and her (German!) husband Norbert.

Cocktails at Michaels on East

Lakeland with Leoni!!

Mom's new parking space!

Matthias and I met at the airport and then headed to Miami Beach for the night. We had a nice time walking around and then found a fun dive bar that had great chicken wings, which was a long-awaited treat for us both. The next day we boarded our flight to Lima, arriving late at night but finding our way relatively easily to our cute hotel in Miraflores, an upscale neighborhood on the coast. I had a pretty ambitious three-week tour planned: first Lima; then south to Paracas to explore a coastal preserve; up to Ica in the desert; over to Arica, Peru's second city; up to Puno on Lake Titicaca; and finally over to Cusco (where we first met, and the only city I've already visited) before flying home. So, I figured the first day we would just hang around Miraflores and get acclimated. We had a lovely walk along the coast and great lunch at the market, where we could see on TV that the president had just "dissolved congress." We shrugged that off and continued exploring, catching some world cup soccer and enjoying a nice ceviche and seafood dinner. We also caught the news that the Peruvian congress wasn't impressed with the president's power grab. He was promptly arrested.

Hotel in Miraflores, Lima

Parque del Amor, Miraflores

Parque del Amor, por supuesto!

Checking the news the next morning, it seemed large demonstrations were expected in the capital, and when I asked at the hotel reception if there would be difficulty getting into the Lima center, she replied that the entire area was closed to the public. Oh well, so much for seeing historic Lima. Spent another day hanging around Miraflores. The next morning, I got an email from the bus company that our bus to Paracas was cancelled because of demonstrations blocking traffic along the Panamericana, the only road connecting to points south. In fact, people were stranded for hours on the road (could have been us if we had left earlier.) I rebooked our bus for the following day and so we spent yet another day in Miraflores. Following the news, we learned that violence along the Panamericana was increasing, not subsiding, and the road wouldn't be open for days, at least. So we had a decision to make. Should we pack it up and go home, or fly up to Cusco and tour around from there? We decided on Cusco and flew in relatively easily. We were able to move up our guesthouse reservation and in fact were the only guests there at the time. The room was a bit noisy ("street noise" at night - although on small pedestrian street, we could hear people walking by and talking quite clearly) but we were able to get another, nicer room the next day. We set off to explore the town and environs, checking out the places we visited 20 years earlier while I made plans to explore further afield. Unfortunately, the universe had other ideas for us. The next day a general strike was declared. The airport, museums, markets and most shops were closed, transportation halted, and marches and demonstrations were planned in Cusco and all around. We were advised to stay in the tourist area around the hotel and not venture down to the main plaza, where demonstrations could become violent. We rebooked our flight home, hoping that the airport would reopen soon, and spent our days in repetition (probably nice for Matthias, in hindsight) going up the hill to the ruins, which were closed, but we could still hang around and the little souvenir shop with the cart selling choclo (boiled large corn) and enjoy a snack. Places for lunch were still, for the most part, open although on the second day they appeared closed because demonstrators vandalized places around the plaza that didn't observe the strike. Fortunately, there were some nice restaurants on our side of town where we could eat dinner as long as we finished up before staff needed to leave to get home by the 8pm curfew that was imposed later in the week.  We had the guesthouse to ourselves all week (and I felt really sorry for our host) as people either cancelled their trips or couldn't get there - a group of guests were among those stuck at Machu Picchu and couldn't get back. And there's not much more to write about the experience, except that we got a flight home the day the airport opened, spent the night in Miami and got back to Sarasota the next day (quite a bit later than expected after our scheduled bus was cancelled - of course!)

Another day in Miraflores

Where it all began in Cusco - found what we think is the bar where we met.
Looks quite different after 20 years, though!

Cusco

Saqsaywaman

Some restaurants were open!

Our digs for our extended stay in Cusco

The one place we could hike to everyday.

Okay, this one is from 20 years ago. Changed much?

Well, we really could have used a better vacation to prepare for what awaited us in Florida. 

Continued, September 2023

I had all intentions to write about the nightmare renovations of our condo, but kept putting it off so long that I suppose it's better to just let it rest. Suffice to say, my mother moved to her new digs at the Sarasota Bay Club, we sold the house where she lived, and renovated the condo my mom previously rented out so we (and family) would have a place to stay when visiting. We wrappred that all up by the end of March.

Sunroom at Mom's new digs!

But wait, I almost forgot to mention the bouts of wonderfulness we did experience in Florida amid the stress. Jen and Brenda paid a visit and (although I was sick) we had a great time hanging out together and spotting alligators. Matthias and I got to meet baby Jordan Belle when Chavi and Andrew came to visit and had a super time playing in the pool, etc!  Then Matthias went back home and I stayed for an extra month to try to finish up. During that time, I got to spend some time with Stu, who came to visit for a few days. Then Josh, Elisha and Iona made the trip to stay in the almost-done apartment (no kitchen yet) and we had a blast! 

Jordan and Family

With Jen and Brenda at Myaka State Park

Ione and Family

Stu's visit!

When I got back to Gommern we set to work finding a new place to live. And wonder of wonders, we immediately found a promising property right away in Passau. We contacted the landlord and within a few days took a train across the country (8+hrs!) to see the apartment. It seemed perfect, so we agreed to sign a two-year lease. This was in April, and the apartment would be available in July, which gave us plenty of (too much, in fact) time to prepare for the move. Another bout of stress, but the move went quite well and we are settled in our new home in Passau! It's even better than we hoped. 

One of the beautiful scenes in Passau!

So now that we're finally settled in (and I have a new bike!!) we are about to set off on our first (and last!) bike trip of the year. Exciting to head out our door and be in the Alps (by Salzburg) in three days. We're leaving tomorrow so I just wanted to finish this up so I can start the next post fresh! Servus!! 

Links to photo albums:

Peru + 20

Home Sweet Home (apartment photos)

Scenes from Home in Passau