Montag and I'm off of school for a week.

I'm off of school for a week due to some unknown German holiday. As most people know, Europeans, in general, love their vacations. Therefore, there are quite a few. Luckily, Kera's off tomorrow and we'll go for a ride and relax.

This past weekend we went for a mountain bike ride with some of the local ex-pats and a few "locals". Kera was doing well, but the pace turned out to be too fast (I don't blame her at all) and she went back about a 1/3 of the way in to the ride. She's a newbie mountain biker and you combine that with wet leaves on unfamiliar trail as well as a super fast tempo and it tends to make even an experienced rider, like me, nervous.

I ended up riding with the boys for another 3+ hours along with a 1 hour beer garden and food stop at the 1/2 way point. This beer garden appeared to be only accessible by riding or walking. Somewhere, I'm guessing, there are roads in to the place as there were just as many road bikes there as mountain bikes. All totaled, I'd say close to 200 bikes. "We're not in Kansas anymore Toto!"

By the time we got done, it was nearly dark, the fog was rolling in and it was getting cold. I still had about a 6 mile ride home and they give tickets for not having lights, reflectors, etc. in this town. I race home and through the English Garden as fast as I could.

While I was gone, Kera went wandering around town. I felt bad when her turning back, but she keeps telling me it was o.k. We just need to go with a slower group or by ourselves next time. We actually have a great time riding off-road together.

Other news... the apartment is coming together. We installed a track system in the hallway yesterday as well as a hanging globe in the dining area. We'd have hung two, but one was bent when we opened it. That means yet another trip to Ikea. We now have a cool TV stand and the TV is to be delivered on Friday of this week. This afternoon they come to finish installing the shower enclosure. Next Monday, they are supposed to install our kitchen (yes, in one day). I'm also supposed to register for Deutsch class level II on the same day. Phew!

Kera will be in London for a business trip for a few days, so I get do wrangle the whole thing solo.

O.K., have to finish installing fenders on Kera's bike, run to the bank and do some other errands. Have a great week and I'll attempt to keep updating this on a semi-regular basis.