Day 57 - We might need an Ark

We learned that early Altena industries were fueled by swift rivers. The swift rivers were, and are, fueled by lots of rain. This year is extraordinary, even by Altena standards.

On our first journey from the house, a policeman turned us back because so much mud and debris has washed across the road. Luckily E knows an alternate route, and we continued on our merry way. However, we hear that the Berlin airports and Ubahn (subway) are closed, some bridges are threatened, and some streets are closed to parking due to the rising water. We drove past several swollen streams and wound our way up to the castle overlooking the town.

When I was a little girl, A and E took me to the castle. I was terrified of the dark stairs, and refused to come down until E held his cigarette lighter up for more light. This trip was far less scary, and we enjoyed seeing all the exhibits.

After the castle we had a traditional German lunch...Chinese food! So I was joking about the traditional part. A and E are regulars at this lovely little restaurant run by a husbqnd and wife team - he does all the cooking, and she serves and busses the tables. I am feeling rather ashamed at my language skills - or lack thereof. The couple running the restaurant spoke Chinese, German, and some English. My family has been conversing with us quite smoothly in English. I can barely put together survival sentences. A language course is definitely in order when we get home!

After lunch we planned to go to the Jugensteil Museum, but unfortunately it was under construction. There was still a very good exhibit of Christian Rohlf's work at the site though. His styles ranged from impressionist to pointallist to expressionist as the times changed around him. I mentioned that he was like the Madonna (as in the pop star) of the art world. Cz's sensibilities were offended, but I stand by the assertion. The museum also had a room of neat flower paintings, and an interesting wing of fashion history and marketing design. We thoroughly enjoyed our visit, sans art neauvoux though it was.

Home again for Coffee and Kuchen, and the arrival of my cousin and his very cute daughter. She was shy at first, but by the car ride to Muenster was flirting away with Cz in the back seat.

We arrived in Muenster in time for dinner (yes, we are in fact eating our way through Germany), which was prepared by S (my cousin's wife), a real treat since she usually only does the baking - and also a treat just because it was good! After dinner A ( the daughter) tried to get us to reqd to her. I was lucky, as she presented me with "The Very Hungry Caterpillar", which she know most of the words to, and therefore, I only had to point at the pictures, and she "read" the story to me. Poor Cz was not so lucky. It's good that German is generally phonetic -but it does have the tendency to smash entire sentences into a single word. He muddled through though, and A seemed well-pleased with his performance.

A only put up a little fuss over bedtime (Cz's job in the car was to keep her awake to ensure this), and then we kept G and S up well past their bedtime chatting. Tomorrow we will all venture into Muenster together. It is lovely to be catching up with family, and to have such great tourguides to boot!

PS we are currently in Brussels and Belgian computer keyboards are laid out well-diferent than home. Observe.

the zuick brozn fox ju;ped over the lqzy dog;

That's what happens when I don't stare at my fingers!