Allergy attack and seeing the valley

Wednesday, July 21, 2010 Day 21
After our strenuous workout yesterday, we were prepared to be sore, and set aside the morning for relaxing. We played games in the morning, and I had an allergy issue – I seemed to be crying in one eye; not too badly, but it persisted past noon. We had lunch, then set off to buy some groceries and to go to the post office. By this time I was crying in both eyes, and an allergy attack was in full bloom (pardon the pun). The post office was in one town, where we bought groceries, but when we inquired about an apothecary, we were told that the nearest one was in another village. We went there and located the apothecary without difficulty. I was able to buy what I needed and took a pill immediately. The attack began to subside and we continued on with our important agenda.

From the apothecary we went through picturesque towns and drove to a parking lot for a beautiful bridge over a deep ravine. Bungee jumping was available for those interested. None of our crew made the jump, but we did cross the bridge and hike up the other side for a bit. We could see rain moving in over the mountains, and since it was after 4:00, we decided that we should return to the car and our apartment. We were not interested in driving the winding roads in the rain.

Our hosts had planned a barbeque for Wednesday evening at 6:00. When we arrived home, they said that they would serve either on the porch or in the dining area, depending upon the weather. The clouds sprinkled off and on through out the barbeque, but we managed to eat on the patio. Our hosts were Andrea and Gunter. We were joined by Gunter’s parents, whose names we missed, and Gunter’s brother and sister-in-law, and their daughter Marina, who is six. She was cute – a very different personality from that of Sarah. The barbeque was good – we had sausage, chicken, potato salad, bread baked potatoes with yogurt sauce, tossed salad, bread and Almdudler (think Sprite and apple juice combined) to drink. There was Krauter butter, but the bread was already smeared with a generous amount of the same, so we were at a loss to know where to use it. At one point, one of us saw that they put it on their meat. Hmmmm. . . . Overall the meal was quite good.

One of the distressing things about the meal was that most of the attendees at the meal smoked during the meal. At least we were outside, where the wind took care of a good deal of the smoke, but more than our share drifted our way. It never occurred to htem to ask us if it bothred us or offer not to smoke while we were there.

After we were served, we were told to go ahead and eat and not wait on all of the meat to be cooked. They told us a German term which I have forgotten, which essentially means “good eating.” They asked what we say to at the outset of a meal. Wanda volunteered “Bon appetite,” then said that sometimes people say a prayer before the meal. Marina’s mother, who along with Gunter probably spoke the most English, firmly said “not here. We don’t need that”!

We ended the day as usual, playing games in the apartment.