Maddy's visit, end

We had a lazy morning with lots of time so as I cleaned the stall, Maddy came out and found my grooming box and started trying to remove the mud from Baasha.

She was gonna ruin her nice jacket (grooming: the process of transferring dirt from horse to human), so I forced her to put on our ugly work coat.

Baasha was so happy to have someone else grooming him. He started lipping her hands and fingers and I said, "Don't let him bite you, he never has but I'm still waiting for that first time!"

It was precious, the cuddling goin on, so I got a couple pics. The pics don't even show the precious part, oh well.

I washed his tail.

Maddy couldn't believe how much mud Baasha managed to get UNDER his blanket.

I took a broom to it, hehhehe. Good Baasha, letting me sweep you.

Then we went out to the pasture and it was very cold and windy, but the ground was finally not frozen and I was shocked to see my new plastic fence posts all crooked and dumb looking. Yah, I couldn't put them in the ground when it was frozen solid. So Maddy and I went along and straightened them all. She noted how many mole hills we have and I said, "Protected species, otherwise I'd kill them!"

We visited another church and the witch town of Odenthal. A lotta witches lived here and they have a tribute --this cauldron and the weathervanes with flying witches on them.

The next day we spent the entire day seeing my husband's city, Wuppertal. Of course we rode the Schwebebahn the entire route, and then stopped at fun spots.

First we went to a bakery where you can sit down and enjoy your breakfast, and we took forever deciding what we wanted and the two store employees were so fascinated by us, it was like we were freaks. Americans are taught staring is rude, in Germany it's normal.

Someone should really turn Maddy into a vampire cuz her human form is really clumsy! She tried so hard not to spill that coffee *lol*.

This old couple was sitting at the next booth and I knew they couldn't understand a word we were saying, so we just chatted away a mile a minute as usual. But when Maddy had to use the toilet and couldn't get in, they started both shouting at her in German, "You need a KEY! It's at the COUNTER! You need the WOMEN'S KEY!" and of course Maddy knew they were trying to help, but it was so funny! Maddy looked at me and my eyes were peering at the counter, where a key lay. Just my eye movement led her back to the counter and the old couple were completely satisfied that they had saved her. *LOL* I kept taking pictures cuz I wanted to get the old couple and I was curious about their "Gourmet Breakfast" baskets. From time to time the one employee would just stop her work and stare at us. It reminded me of the time I was in Korea and they had never seen red hair I guess and I was treated like a freakshow "Can I take my picture with you?" and kids pointing at me to their mothers.

We went to the main train station to buy her a reservation for her trip out that night. Then we went to the city center's market and looked at all the vendors. I had to get myself some Starbucks cuz the opportunity does not come very often for me to taste home. I asked the employees where the bakery items come from, cuz the muffins and brownies and such look exactly like what we have in Seattle. Do they ship them over or do they make them here? It turns out the cheesecake is made in England, and the brownies are made in America. (Did I get that right Maddy?) The employees were thrilled to talk English with two Seattleites.

Then I was on a mission to find one of those massaging chairs and sit there for a free massage. We found them and they said "Try me" on them but they were not plugged in! So we rolled them over to the middle of an aisle with an outlet and tried them right there, with customers staring at us. We compared the features of two models until we were totally relaxed and then a salesperson wanted to know if we'd be buying that - she needed her commission - and I said, "Yes, later."

The mall was having a science center type day, with experiments set up everywhere. I LOVE the science center and we had to try out all of the exhibits. We were talking and laughing and having so much fun people were staring and some even tried to speak English to us.

We were called "Englanders" twice, hehe. Most Germans cannot place accents and the likelihood is that we're from Europe, so that is their guess. If I speak German, people are more likely to catch that I'm American. It's always easier to place an accent if it's in your native language.

We were having so much fun it was clear we could spend the entire day in Wuppertal and not run out of things to do.

I wanted Maddy to try a traditional German bratwurst, and she picked currywurst. I was so sick of eating German by that point I headed straight to an Asian restaurant. The guys at the next table were staring at us so unabashedly, one of them even posistioned his chair so he could have a better view of our strangeness.

We went to a grocery store and tried to leave without buying anything. This is almost an impossibility in Germany because the stores are designed like mazes and you are not allowed to go out the way you came in. There is a gate you go thru, and I thought "Screw this" and I tried to force the gate so we could just leave the store without trying to squeeze past the checkout lines emptyhanded. Well I set off some sort of alarm and I almost fainted. This recorded voice said "ACHTUNG! THIS IS NOT AN EXIT!" - we totally deserved the staring at that moment.

We actually had to buy something to get out of that store, and I cannot say how many times I've had to buy some stupid little thing to just escape a store.

Finally we went to the town hall and I wanted to show her Pater Noster - the elevator with no doors. I hadn't been there in forever so my mouth fell open too when I saw it. Two elevators, one going up, one going down, no doors, no stops. You just leap in when you can, and jump out when you can. We waited til we had watched a while, then we jumped in the going down one. I guess I should have expected what happened, but I had forgotten.

First it goes totally black in there between floors. We held onto each other and gasped. This dimly lit horror film photo was stuck to the shaft and went by, making the experience even creepier. Maddy was like "What's with the scary photo!"

Then suddenly, this entire elevator just disengages and clu-clunk starts moving SIDEWAYS! We screamed and held onto each other tighter. Our lives were flashing before our eyes. What would happen?

Clunk! The thing shifts again and starts going up. AAAHHHH, I see, it's a revolving elevator. I guess that is logical, but we really didn't think about it before getting on.

Our shrieks were apparently heard because as soon as we jumped off the thing, this employee came over with a key and turned it off. We just stood there with wide eyes, in disbelief over what just happened.

We met up with my man later and Maddy said, "You gotta take him on that elevator." I said, "I would if they hadn't shut it down after we rode it!"

Omygoodness there is a great wiki article about these elevators - all of which are called Pater Noster ("Our Father" in Latin) and there is even an animation showing how they work. Check it out!

It became clear to me that cathedrals and castles are old hat to Maddy, she's been all over Europe and seen lots of them. The thing I think she'll remember most about Germany is the Schwebebahn.

Maddy's first Schwebebahn ride. She was amazed, "It swings!" and I told her I never tire of riding it.

She loved the story of the elephant jumping off of it into the river below, and she got a picture of the mural depicting that event where it happened.


Shiny.

There are 28 of them. One goes by every 3-5 minutes during the day.

At the endstation I said, "This is where they sleep at night." She replied, "Oh, it's the Schwebe-BARN?" and now I have to call it that.

That was it, the end of our weekend. We put Maddy on a train and even rode a few stations with her. On the train I said, "Quit smiling and look sad to be leaving!" so here is a photo of her trying not to smile.

I told my man all about our wonderful day and he said, "Can you speak German please?"

Oh, I guess, OK.