Day 7 Gambsheim to Strasbourg

 Today was the worst day of the entire cruise.  We woke up to rain.  Not that that made it a bad day.  It was  just drizzly.  Sadly the problem was that what I believed to be allergies was not, but was instead a full blown flu.  

George and I both caught it.  We had a dreadful sleep the night before.  We kept going between hot and cold.  I managed to work up quite a sweat and had hoped that it would be gone by morning but no such luck.  I stayed in bed while George went and told OJ that we simply couldn't join them.  

I wish we could say something nice about the day, but all we did was sleep. they did bring lunch to us.  And to let you know how sick we were, the beer was opened but not touched!  

Oskar and José went on their trip while George and I watched the locks go by.  

That afternoon George slept while I spent a bit of time packing.  Once that was done, I passed out again.  

Around 5 I got up to pay our bill, but the Hotel Manager refused to take it even though I was sick. He did allow us to have dinner in our room, but required me to return after 7:30 to pay the bill.  Not cool.  I went back to the room, slept some more, once dinner was finished, I again got dressed and returned to pay the bill.  

We slept the night through, and the next morning awoke around 8.  Said our good-byes to our friends and headed out to get the van and return to Italy.  

Along the way, we stopped to get some dijon mayonnaise for George and some good German sausages for me.  Our hotel for the night was in Milan and it was a just barely for me.  We arrived, I prepared a salad for us and a couple of deviled eggs, but neither of us ate.  Once again, we passed out.  

When we woke on the 16th, we lazed in bed until 10 and I was 1/2 tempted to just stay another day, but as it was only 4 hours to Panicale, we opted to just go for it.  We arrived home in good time, unpacked the car and crashed.

I write this 4 days later and am still miserable, but work must go on.  We returned home, had one day of rest, and then hit the ground running as it were.  

Monday was to be a day of rest, but George and I had packages to open, and updates to the work to see.

On Tuesday I had to pay our property taxes which were due Monday!  Now this may seem like nothing to most.  You get a bill for the appropriate government agency and pay your bill.  Here, your comercialista pays your tax bills, or you calculate them yourself and hope you got it right.  Thankfully we live in a very small commune and I was able to go over to the commune office and have them calculate the bill for me.  I won't tell you how much it was, but Kat's apartment in Ft. Lauderdale cost more than all of our places here in Italy combined.  

Once I got the paperwork, we drove the 15 minutes down the mountain to Tavernelle to go to the bank.  Thankfully there was no one in line before me so I was able to pay quickly.  While there I sorted out why my Mastercard wouldn't work in Germany and set it up for our trip back to the States this coming month.  After dealing with the bank, I dropped my glasses off to get adjusted and we returned home.  Just in time to meet with the elevator man who came in from Spain to check the electrical workings.  It passed inspection and we now have a working elevator in the Palace.  

I also met with the electrician and discussed the need for emergency lighting in my pantry.  There is no natural light in there and as there is a door I think it necessary.  Since we've been here we've noticed tat almost every storm in the castle comes with a blackout.  I don't want to be stuck in the pantry.

On Wednesday I met with the plumber to change the direction of the water jets in the Turkish sauna.  The 

decorator had them shooting out on either side of the body instead of at the body.  

I have told him many times to do things my way, and you would think with the amount of money he's making off of us he would.  Sadly, he still wants things his way.  This attitude of his has lost him the work on the pantry.  I was going to have custom cabinets installed, but since he didn't like my design and ordered his own, the plan was scrapped and he lost commission.  Fool!

We also met with the man who is going to install the new garage doors.  This was an ordeal as he wanted to make the entrance smaller!  The Tesla only has 5 inches to spare to get in now.  I simply told him if he can't do what I want I will find a new company.  That worked!  Garage doors will be ordered in the size and style that I want this week.  

Thankfully Thursday (today) has been free for me to write this blog post, put together some presentations for the upcoming IPP, and have a game with my lover.  

Friday I run to the bank again to pay for a new heating and water system for the palace and the garage doors.  You see, we get to claim a good tax break on the work being done, but only if we go through the bank to do it.  All of our bags are packed and will have been loaded into the van awaiting our trip to Rome on Sunday.  Here we have taken a hotel for the night prior to our trip to the States for IPP.  

It has been a busy couple of weeks and I hope you enjoyed riding along on the bikes with us.  I know it doesn't seem very puzzle related, but we were with good puzzle friends, and I know I would be shot if I told you about the puzzles that Oskar and George were working on.  Sadly, we didn't find any puzzles along the way, but I did get those boardgames for the Casa dei Giochi so I'm happy.  

Until next week...Happy puzzling all!