A Quiet June

We did not travel much this month. We wanted a quieter month. Chris had another trip across the seas into the USA. He had a conference in Baltimore the first week of June. He then went to Washington, DC for the weekend. He toured around Washington DC Saturday and Sunday and on Monday, he had a visit with the research lab there.

It is quite different than any towns around here in Germany for sure. The skyscrapers are forbidden in some towns where they still want the Cathedral to be the tallest building of the town. I am very much for this! There is nothing like seeing a huge historical building loom over the city.

As Chris was having a great time overseas, I was cleaning and playing around at home. I planted some more flowers in our sun room. I went on a boat ride around Chiemsee with Jia, a friend I have mentioned before. Chris and Justin (Jia's husband) had gone to Chiemsee on a retreat with MPQ. So us wives went this time. It was a lot of fun and very relaxing. We went through the palace of King Ludwig. One of three he started but never finished. There are two islands in this lake. One is the Man's Island, the larger of the two, and the Woman's Island. The Man's Island has the Kind Ludwig Castle with a monastery. The Woman's Island has the nun's convent. The retreat was at the convent, which is kind of funny in a way. Jia and I took the ferry around the lake at the end of the day visiting the different small towns around the lake. It was very pleasant, sunny and beautiful. The lake is surrounded by mountains. It was breathtaking. Unfortunately, Chris had the camera on his trip so I don't have pictures, but we have some pictures from Chris' trip at least. It was nice to just go and not be touristy and take pictures constantly.

The weekend after Chris got home, I had a four day weekend. It was another religious holiday for Bavaria. I don't know what it was this time. There are quite a few in May and June. (May 1, May 21, June 1st and June 11.) It was nice to have short weeks at work but it would be nice to spread out the long weekends. We can't travel that often! We like to take advantage of long weekends. However, this four day weekend falls right after Chris' gets back jet lagged and everything. So we took it easy. I got him to take one day at least to go somewhere. We went to Schliersee. Yes, another lake. This lake is close to Tegernse, in the alps. We had a picnic lunch along the lake and went on a short hike in the mountains. It was quite muggy. We did take the camera, but had forgotten to charge it. But take my word for it, it was beautiful; a lake among the mountains with a small town with at least two churches with a tall steeple.

Another weekend we invited Justin and Jia over for a movie and dinner. It was nice to hang out and make dinner for company. The following weekend we all went to Tollwood at the Olympia Park. Tollwood is a music festival. It was full of art and crafts being sold from all over the world and music playing from different places. There was a main event in the evenings. There is a similar festival also during the Christmas Markets in December. It was fun to go through. We sat and had a beer at one of the tents where we happen to see a Cheerleader Workshop. There were some teens doing a practice. Then the Munich Cowboy Cheerleading group did a couple cheerleading dances and jumps. It was fun to see. We thought it might be a high school group from the US with the name Cowboys, but nope, they were local.

That Sunday, Jia and I went swimming at the pool in Olympia Park. It is quite a place. There is one large lap pool. Several lanes marked for sport swimmer and the two lanes on the edge of the pool marked for play swimming and new swimmers. Then there is another pool that is for diving with the big diving boards and smaller diving boards on the sides of the pool. There is another pool for kiddies, shallow and two slides for fun. Another pool for training sessions, and not just a small training pool but full length but maybe half width. There is also a sauna and solarium. It is quite a huge place but then this is the Olympics building where they had the Olympics. It is nice to get back into swimming. We have been meeting every Thursday after work now or on the weekend if we couldn't do Thursday.