Mannheim was frustrating... Seeing Julie was great and it saved me to be around a friend because traveling around in Mannheim nearly killed me. Some other great things; seeing Sandrine, an old friend who used to dance with Ballet BC back when I was a Mentor, such a surprise as I had no idea she was in Mannheim with company right now, the huge water tower/fountain saved my aching feet, the Birkenstock store and being in a Spanish restaurant in Germany while watching the Germany versus Spain World Cup game. Sounds like the beginning of a good joke, (I have no punchline) Another highlight was Heidelberg, a small Gothic town about an hour away from Mannheim where there is a very old and beautiful Castle on a hill overlooking the town.
I was only in Mannheim for a day and a half which was nicely filled with Julie, Sandrine, Hippie footwear and water fountains, I have now made my way to Stuttgart; my home town. I'm staying with my Mum's cousin Andreas, his wife Imogen and their two daughters, Liz and Stella. Andy quite possibly lives in the most amazing house in Germany. It's in the winery hills just outside of Bad Cannstadt, there are very few houses out here and it's placed perfectly on the banks of the Neckar. He has a small bike that I've been using, every day for the past four days I've ridden in the sweltering heat the forty minutes along the river and through the park to the Schlossplatz. It's tough but I have to dance in a week in Vienna.
Friday, I saw the Young Opera perform, Andy works for the State Theatres so I got a free ticket, it was very modern and I very much enjoyed seeing a not-so-traditional Opera. Saturday, the whole family rode into town to the Stuttgart 21 rally. Basically, the city wants to cut down all the beautiful trees in Stuttgart's main park to make a "newer and better" Train Station, an underground version. Reminds me of when they cut down all the trees on downtown Granville for the Canada line, but these Stuttgart trees aren't just saplings... Today, I visited with the Great Aunts... They are so sweet, but they exhausted me mentally, they speak about zero English and trying to chat for 4 hours in German was hard, but very good for me. Tante Maussi even gave me a little grammar lesson which I later applied and she seemed pleased... Another rally and then a ride home with Andy in a wind storm, we missed the thunder by one minute...
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