Une Canicule, Rehab, and Swiss Friends

The thing about writing a blog is that you are supposed to have something interesting for people to read.  On this vacation so far that has simply not been the case.

I arrived in Frankfurt Tuesday morning at 6 am and all the horror stories I'd read about registering for the new EES system the EU has put in place didn't materialize, likely because there aren't a lot of flights that arrive at that time in the morning.  It took less than15 minutes to scan my passport, do the fingerprint scan and talk to the customs officer.  Incredulously, my luggage was there waiting for me when I got to the baggage claim area.  The one small glitch was that the car rental office (Alamo) wasn't open yet and even when it was 1/2 hour later the car I'd rented wasn't in their system so I had to wait an hour.  However, after that, it went find and I was on the #5 autobahn heading south by just after 8 am.  The drive went pretty smoothly although driving through a heavy rainstorm near Karlsruhe was a bit of a challenge.  I got to Rhinau by 11:30 so pretty much exactly when I expected.  Once I settled in, I took a bit of a nap.  It was going to be a very hot day.  

And, speaking of hot, "une canicule" or "vague de chaleur" (or, in English, a heatwave) has hit most of Europe and France is no exception.  The temperature for the next week or longer is expected to be in the high 30's!  I'm no fan of that kind of heat.  To give you an idea, here are a couple of maps I saw and there are heat advisory warnings for most of France.

Sue (the friend I'm staying with) told me that the French Government is starting to enact some laws to try to counteract the increasingly frequent heatwaves,  For example, parking lots of a certain size have to provide a certain percentage of covered parking.  Further, again depending on the size of the lot, the covered parking has to have solar panels on it.  Because the weather is so hot, we have not ventured very far from the house.  However, we had a couple of short outings..

The first one was to visit Sue's husband who is in a rehab hospital.  I wouldn't ordinarily write about that sort of thing but I wanted to contrast the difference between what happens in Victoria versus in the German health system, particularly because I know several people at home who have recently had knee replacements.  I know at home for knee replacements you are pretty much discharged from the hospital once you can prove you can walk a bit.  Then, managing the recovery seems to be left pretty much to the patient in terms of rehabilitation.  Well, not in Germany.  After a week in hospital after the surgery, the patient is transferred to a rehab hospital and the recovery is carefully managed by doctors, physiotherapists, massage therapists, etc. and, in addition, there are lectures plus activities to enure the recovery goes smoothly.  I was quite impressed when I learned about this.  The facility is lovely, located in a park-like setting with nice rooms (from what I could tell), a lovely dining room and every kind of exercise and other kinds of equipment available.  Pretty impressive.  I know these are my usual travel photos but thought I'd include a few of the facility.  Besides, at this point it just about all I have!

For the weekend, my friends from Switzerland came to visit.  They arrived later Friday evening after a nightmare storm hit Zurich.  I think Roger said there was 15 cm of rain in 2 hours.  Also, the strong winds took many large trees down.  Who says there isn't climate change!

Last evening, we had a traditional Alsatian tarte flambee dinner.  Needless to say, no one was willing to build a fire in the outdoor pizza oven with the temperature being so high so we just used the oven.  Tartes flambees typically have toppings of mushrooms, onions, lardons and Emmentaler cheese over a layer of creme fraiche.  They are delicious.  We also made one of apple, creme fraiche, almond, sugar and cinnamon flamed with Calvados as soon as it comes out of the oven.  In spite of how hot the kitchen got, we had a lot of fun.

Today is the summer solstice and, throughout France, cities, towns and villages hold "fetes de la musique" annually on June 21st.  Unfortunately, because of the heatwave, many have had to be cancelled including the one scheduled here in Rhinau.  Further, we have heard that because of the heat, it is forbidden to serve alcohol on patios, terraces, etc.  Clearly, this "caniicule" is being taken seriously.

So, my apologies that this is a somewhat boring blog.  Interestingly, I looked at the temperature for the first port of call on my upcoming cruise - Rosendal was 2' early this morning with a forecast high of 18'.  That is going to be a real shocker - but also somewhat of a relief!