A Weekend's drive away

A favourite weekend pastime of The Mister is to pack some clothes and drive a couple of hundred kilometers to visit friends. Sometime in September, we visited his college mate, who now stays in a 120-year-old house somewhere between Bremen and Hamburg. 

The urbanite in me expected actually something less stable looking, having known how the older blocks in Chinatown tend to look a little slanted when you're looking from the right angle. The house is surprisingly very sturdy and definitely doesn't look quite its age. 

The couple is currently renovating the second storey themselves (!) with the help of some friends. By the time we were there, the floor has already been constructed but the rooms not. Apparently, house-building is a huge hobby here. This friend's not the only one building a new storey or refurbishing the roof. If you get really bored here, you could make a trip to one of the many huge "Baumarkt" (huge store with hardware and building materials). It could occupy you for a good number of hours. 

The back of the house leads to a huge apple tree orchard. I've no idea how far it stretches exactly, but there are probably enough apples for the whole village for the winter. 

Below is my favourite photo of this trip. We simply crossed the empty main road and went up  a small flight of steps for this view. Sadly the serenity of the moment could not be captured by a camera. I'm still amazed that such a scene is within a hundred kilometers of the town where I live.