Blooming marvellous

Slept in until nearly 11am on Sunday. I never do that...

The photos are here!

Sunday I went to the botanical gardens! It's an easy walk from the flat, up a side road off the main road leading to the office, and follow it all the way to a side entrance. I had actually gone halfway there yesterday when finding the local post office. I was on my own, as everyone else was recovering from watching the rugby, recovering from or participating in St. Patricks Weekend, ill or studying. It was drizzling, not enough to stop me, but enough to keep taking the lens cap on and off as I didn't want to get raindrops on the lens.

There was a queue to get in, which I thought was odd on a rainy and cool Sunday, but it turned out to be the last day of a huge gardening fair. That also meant the entrance fee was twice normal (10 Euro instead of 5) but I headed in anyway, armed with my English pamphlet. There were little tents selling everything from seeds and plants to garden ornaments and mini-chainsaws, and stalls with sausages and pretzels. I had a ham and cheese crepe - not very German, but I love them.

I digress for a moment - there really does seem to be sausage worship here. I was exchanging some comedy emails with friends in Reading about it, but it does seem to exist. When I was out at the post office yesterday there weren't too many people about, but there was a crowd of about 20 in front of a sausage van. And when we walked out to the Italian restaurant near G's on Friday night there was a little festival going on in the plaza just before it, with people standing around high tables and eating sausages - the liveliest we've seen Frankfurt so far.

I wandered around the outside areas first, the lawns were full of daffodils, crocuses and other tiny blue or white flowers. Mom would have loved it. There were several cherry trees in bloom, small lakes with white and black swans and ducks, and also tracks for a mini train, which wasn't running (I doubt the geese would have been asleep with their heads under their wings beside if it so). Taking the photo of the goose was funny - the eye opened while I was doing it, but nothing else moved.

There was a small section with seasonal plants, and loads of Easter decorations - they are everywhere. Then a small sub-antarctic glasshouse and finally the biggies - the tropical houses. I failed to make the connection between my glasses instantly steaming up and the camera lens doing the same - hope it's okay. Actually, I'm going to go and take it out of its bag now and let it breathe, which is what I should have done when I got home... Anyway, loads of weird and wonderful plant life and some amazing flowers. Plus the true objects of worship - the cocoa tree and coffee bean tree. There was even a cinnamon tree!

Finally there was the Palmengarten itself, half of which was given over to displaying more garden items such as furniture, and half of which was full of palms, etc. albeit with garden ornaments for sale dotted around. The weather made it very reminiscent of the Botanics in Dublin. It was a great way to spend a few hours, and I'll probably go back in the summer when the outdoors will be nicer.

Speaking of the weather, it's forecast to go sub-zero on Tuesday and Wednesday... BBC forecasts snow although the Frankfurt City website doesn't. Fun. Hope it doesn't affect my flight back on Thursday.

In other news, I'm definitely off to Cologne the weekend after Easter, I've booked my train tickets online - it will take just under an hour and a quarter each way on a direct train. Was also thinking of heading to Dublin as there is a bank holiday here close to Mom's birthday in May.

I spent the afternoon/evening trying to do some German study, and got through the first four units in the BBC Active German course before wandering off to have a look at the BBC Languages website. And there I found some distinctly 'interesting' phrases in the Cool German section. Think of your licence fee and despair - this is definitely Not Safe For Work. I particularly like the claim that the phrase "lick my arse" comes from Goethe.