It took us 38½ hours to get from home to St Mang, which is long enough for the journey to become a destination of its own.

Our eight-hour stopover in Dubai ran from midnight until the 08:12 flight. We managed barely two hours of sleep on deeply uncomfortable airport chairs, then found ourselves eating in a lounge at 04:00 in the morning, when nobody’s body is quite sure whether it is breakfast or dinner.

After landing in Frankfurt there was a long passport queue, made longer by the fact that only one of the twelve booths was open. Outside, Germany was very hot. We waited about an hour on the platform for our train, and then waited again in Ulm.

Hugo and Caro travelling south by train from Frankfurt
On the train south, still with a few connections left to go.

Then our train stood still while we waited for another train that had broken down. That delay cost us our connection to St Mang, so Anton and Paul came to rescue us from Kempten station.

Monja had made butter chicken for dinner. We had left home at 09:00 and finally got into bed at 23:30 the following night: 38½ hours after the trip began.

Thursday and Friday were mostly for working and sleeping. On Friday afternoon we tried to cycle to a lake, but the rain caught us before we got there. We abandoned the plan for ice cream instead, then went to REWE for groceries.

Caro outside the ice cream shop after rain interrupted the cycle ride
The lake ride became an ice-cream ride.

By the time we came out of the supermarket, the rain had disappeared and it was hot and sunny again—even though it was already 19:00. It only gets dark at about 21:00 here, which still feels slightly unreal.

For dinner we made pizzoccheri. Monja had buckwheat pasta from Anton’s aunt in Switzerland, and at REWE we found napa cabbage, Bergkäse and Parmesan to go with it.

Homemade pizzoccheri with buckwheat pasta, potatoes, napa cabbage and cheese
Our Friday-night pizzoccheri.
A bottle of local Met honey wine
A bottle of local mead — honey wine.