Schwetzingen Palace and Garden

Dear Family and Friends,

The doctor that repaired Chuck's hand suggested we take a day trip to Schwetzingen Palace.

The palace is located in Schwetzingen, a town about a 45 minute bus ride from Heidelberg,  and was a summer retreat from May through October.

Although the weather was cold, rainy and windy, we decided to make the trip anyway.

We walked from the bus stop, at the train station, a few blocks on tree lined streets to the palace.  We got glimpses of it before we actually arrived.

Chuck had read that tours inside the palace were available but unless we were there on the weekend, our tour would be in German only. 

When we inquired about a tour, the lady told us we were in luck because our tour guide spoke English and would include us in the tour.  We bought the tickets for about 10 euros each.  There turned out to be 3 couples on the tour.  Only one couple spoke German, the other couple besides us were from North Dakota and also spoke English.

The fellow in the red sweater was our tour guide.  Although he lives in Germany now, he is from Scotland.  His English was very easy to understand.

We did not tour the whole palace.  We only toured the apartment of Carl Theodore.  

We started with his bedroom.  As was the tradition of the day (1700's) the wallpaper and drapes were made out of the same pattern.  

Another room we saw was the room for playing cards and other games

The Ladies bedroom is below

This is the attached bedroom of her personal maid.

Below is the dining room.

This peacock thingy in the middle of the table was probably peacock pate our guide told us.

The side board shows examples of the exotic fruits and other foods that were offered here.

The tour was very interesting and lasted about an hour.  

After the tour we decided to hunt for a place to have lunch.

Although there were tons of outside eating restaurants, the weather was cold and rainy so we wanted a place to eat inside.

We found a nice place and we ordered:

Me:

Veiner Schnitzel with salad and fries.

Chuck:  Don't know the name.

But it was on a very light crust.  Topped with camembert cheese and loganberry jam.  It was yummy.

We both left stuffed and we have half the veiner schnitzel left for our train ride tomorrow.

After lunch it stopped raining so we decided to go back to the palace and tour the gardens.

The huge fountain had several statues of nymphs on swans.

I even spotted one sitting on the edge of the fountain.

So many beautiful hidden sights.  

These three babies are playing with a goat.

And..YES, we found the perfect piece of art for Chuck to pose by.

We really enjoyed our visit.  The weather held off enough so that we did not get drenched in the rain.  

We took the bus back to our hotel.

We have decided to leave Heidelberg tomorrow and travel to Dusseldorf.  We have never been there and would like to get ourselves a little closer to Amsterdam so our train ride will not be so long on Sunday.

I will take you there with us of course.

For now, we are tired babies and are going to get a good night's sleep before getting on the train in the morning.

Love,

Nancy

A relaxing afternoon in the old part of Heidelberg

Dear Family and Friends,

After our morning getting Chuck's hands fixed, we went to our hotel and got some rest.

Later, we decided to take a tram to the old part of Heidelberg.  Here are a few pictures of our adventure.

We wondered around the old city through many different plazas such as the one above.  Now days these plazas are filled with hotels, bars, restaurants and lots of great places to sit out, have a snack or refreshment and enjoy people watching.

The castle on the hill, in the photo below, is the famous Heidelberg Castle.  Because we had visited this castle on a previous trip, we decided to relax and just enjoy the city below.

Chuck and I wandered around and window shopped.

There were many souvenir shops with goodies such as this.

But mostly we just sat and enjoyed being in this lovely old city.  We were very grateful to have the hand procedure behind us. 

After a good nights rest, we are taking an adventure to a different castle.  I will share about this trip with you on the next post.

Love,

Nancy

 

Chuck gets his hands repaired

Dear Family and Friends,

Chuck has suffered from a condition known as Dupuytren's Contracture since he was about 60 years old.  On Chuck this condition manifests itself by causing his fingers to get stiff in a curled position.

He has had treatment on his hands twice before.  It can return, and in Chuck's case this is what has happened.  The first time he had it treated was in May, 2005.  The second time he had it repaired was in 2015.  Both times they were repaired by the same doctor in France.  When it was past time for the procedure to be done again (Covid prevented a lot of things) the doctor in France had retired.  

Chuck researched and found a doctor in Heidelberg, Germany that does the exact same non invasive procedure.

I was able to photograph the entire procedure both times in France, but this doctor preferred to not have any extra people in the procedure room.  So I am adding a link showing the last time Chuck had this done.  This link also explains why we chose to have this procedure done in Europe.  I am not sure if this is being done in the U.S. now or not. 

https://watsontravels.blogspot.com/2015/08/both-hands-repaired-and-all-is-well.html

I took the pictures above just before he was seen by the doctor.

I went in with Chuck for the consultation and took a few photos.

Something new this time around is a glove that Chuck will wear at night for about six months.  It will hold his fingers in place and help prevent this returning.

Below, the doctor is fitting Chuck with the correct size glove.

Then it was time for the procedure.  

It did not take long.  Chuck said it was much the same as the two times before.

Here he is in his white bandages.  He looks like Mickey Mouse in white gloves.

After Chuck had his hands repaired, we went to a nice Italian restaurant for lunch.

Chuck ordered a pasta dish with lamb.

I had pork medallions with a mushroom sauce.  

We enjoyed our lunch and then took the tram back to the hotel to rest up for more adventures.

I will share that in the next post.

Love,

Nancy

We've made it to the Netherlands and tomorrow we head off to Heidelberg, Germany.

Dear Family and Friends,

Before leaving Ecuador we experienced a roller coaster of emotions, not sure if we would even make this trip or not.  As everything came together at the last minute, our spirits lifted.  

William picked us up on Saturday morning and we were at the airport nice and early.  We got checked in with no problems.  Before we knew it, we were on our way to Quito. 

We arrived in Quito about 10:00 am.  Our flight to Amsterdam was scheduled to leave at 4:00 pm, so we went to the food court across from the terminal to have breakfast.  We hung out at Juan Valdez, a coffee shop, and waited until time to check in.

Our flight went very well.  I cannot say enough good things about KLM airlines.  We have always had such positive experiences with them.  The flight attendants are extremely helpful, one assistant insisted on putting my carry on suitcase in the the overhead bin for me. They were all very patient and really put the passengers at ease. Unfortunately, this kindness from the stressed, overworked airline employees rarely happens on U.S. airlines these days.  

We arrived in Amsterdam a few minutes ahead of schedule.  Unfortunately, the gate we were assigned was still occupied by another airline.  After waiting on the tarmac for about 40 minutes we were assigned a different gate.  This, of course, was no problem for us because we were at our final destination, but I felt sorry for the travelers who had connecting flights.

There were other delays before finally getting through immigration.  We had heard that the Amsterdam airport was experiencing problems so we were expecting the delays and took them in stride.  The other passengers seemed to be doing the same.  

Now for the fun part.  

We had decided to go to Haarlem from the Amsterdam airport by train.  The train runs right below the terminal.  This is a very easy thing to do.  

HOWEVER, when you are OLD, like us. (We have limited hearing and sight.  We shuffle along.  AND we sometimes get confused.) Mind you, this does not keep us from our independent travel, but we have to take our mistakes in stride.  We certainly entertain ourselves a lot.  

I won't go into detail, but what should have been a 45 minute train ride with one station change, turned into a two hour train ride with 4 station changes and an unnecessary subway ride.  BUT, the important thing is we arrived to the Haarlem train station.  In our defense we were travel weary from traveling 12 hour across the Atlantic ocean.

Tomorrow we are taking the train to Heidelberg, Germany.  We knew we needed a day to get over our jet lag  before this trip, so this is why we spent today in Haarlem. 

Today, we slept until well after 10:00am.  Hopefully, this will take care of our jet lag.  Also we walked a lot in the sunshine to get some exercise before we head out tomorrow.

I did a selfie this morning before heading out.  I look like a granny girl scout leader.  

I am pretty sure I will not get confused for a local.

These are some photos I took of this beautiful city as we wondered around and enjoyed the sites.

Chuck robbing the ATM so we can have some euros for the day.

A few of the unique buildings here.

  

Street scenes:

Chuck checking out this very small unique car.

A flower market

A tourist canal boat

A couple of locals on the canal.

The museum was closed on Mondays, but we saw the Corrie Ten Boom house and museum from the outside.

Last but certainly not least, we went out for dinner in a popular outdoor restaurant across from the cathedral.

Chuck ordered Crab Claw.

and I had a Lady Steak...

Both were delicious.  All in all, it was a wonderful first day and now that we have wondered all over Haarlam, we are ready to take the train to Heidelberg.  It only has two station changes...wish us luck.

Wishing you all a very tranquil 4th of July.  Until next post...

Love,

Nancy

Protests are over - - Goodbye to the Troubles in Ecuador

Dear Family and Friends,

Not too long after I posted to the blog yesterday about the protests in Ecuador they abruptly came to an end yesterday afternoon.

There are smiles everywhere now.  People know that the worse is over. The roadblocks are gone and goods can freely flow into the city.  Of course we are happy because we should be able to go on our trip with no problem.

I wanted to share this good news right away just in case you might be worried about our city and about our trip.

So thankful,

Nancy