Summer in Germany

It all started out quite harmless, but ended with a 5-day stay in hospital.

Summer in Germany, a tradition for me now for the last two decades. Visit family, hang out with old friends, do some Germany-specific shopping (shoes in large sizes, green frogs, proper bread, that sort of thing). Pretty standard. Unfortunately this year was a little different. I had been having back pains all year on and off, as it turned out when I finally want to see a doctor at the beginning of my visit, I had been carrying a gallstone of immense proportions and it had to come out, inclusive of gall bladder. So what started as a few weeks respite from the heat ended up with a hospital stay and two weeks of recovery afterwards.

But it wasn't all bad. I got to spend a few days in London with Alex, Jason and Fay, combining this with a whistle-stop tour of some of London's major exhibition spaces (Rebecca Horn at the Hayward, Frida Kahlo and 70's installations at Tate Modern). London was under a cloud of fraught emotions at the time, a few days after the Underground bombings of July 7th, but seeing friends and good weather made up for it.

I also managed to spend time in Weener with Matthias, Ellen and Luca. They have settled in fabulously well at their new house by the port, surrounded by boats, sheep and assorted tourists. This summer they were inundated with visitors taking the opportunity to see the sea (or at least the Elbe) and take in the clean North Sea air.