I always have trouble adjusting between US and German time zones anyway, but this trip has been particularly troublesome. This time, I dove right into a hive of activity upon landing in Frankfurt. My thinking process was thus:
"Hey, I'll just keep busy and then I'll fall asleep during the hours I am supposed to be asleep because I'm all burnt out."
Great idea. In theory.
Upon landing in Germany (9am Germany time, 3am my "real time"), I was scheduled to drive to the base, see a comedy show and then see a community theater production of "101 Dalmations" and then go out to dinner. I blew off the comedy show and only saw part of "101 Dalmations". Woo! Aiming low!
The next morning (3:30am Germany time, 9:30pm my "real time"), we took a cab to Vogelweh to get on a bus for a Swiss border tour. We traveled for about 4 hours to reach the island of Mainau, which is known for its beautiful gardens.
We also spent time at a "schmetterlinghaus" --
After lunch (12:30pm Germany time, 6:30am my "real time"), we drove another hour over the Swiss border to the little village of Stein Am Rhein, which is known for lots of buildings that look like this:
We also saw a very old church, historic manholes (hee) and lot of art galleries that we liked very much (paintings and iron sculptures), but Switzerland is NOT the place to go shopping. Everything is way too overpriced!
Our last stop of the day (5pm Germany time, 11am my "real time") was at Schaffhausen falls. Oh my, I look so tired.
All day I was thinking to myself, "That's okay - Fred has to work on Sunday and Monday. I'll get myself all caught up in the next few days." Except, no. Fred is well-liked at work so everyone was, like, shifting the schedule on Sunday and Monday so he could spend time with me...
...and by "spend time with me" what I really mean is "run errands till we collapse".
HI, FAMILY!
(...my family is laughing right now because I totally married MyFather2.0)
Tuesday was supposed to be our "day off", but Fred had me up and out the door at 6:45am. We had to drop the car off at the auto repair store for a quick fix. So, he borrowed a friend's car and made me FOLLOW him on the autobahn in the FOG all by my sleepy lil' LONESOME. I might have made a right turn on a red light, which is not legal here...? I'm pretty sure I did that and it's not. I don't drive regularly, so to drive at all (!) in a foreign country (hello, speedy speeding trucks on the autobahn!!) was really...something.
Since we had his friend's car for the morning, we were all hither and yon until noon. Dudes - when I am in a show? I don't even get UP till noon.
I took a four hour nap that afternoon and then another nap after Fred made me run a 5k with him in the evening.
Then, of course, when Fred was ready to go to bed (11pm Germany time, 5pm my "real time"), I was very awake.
I'm on my SIXTH day over here and I'm still not caught up on my sleep.
