Friday, Dec16
In the last 24 hours Rylan has been developing a reaction to something. Hives, burning and itching. We called the hospital and they immediately booked a taxi. 9:30 and we were headed back to Stenum so they could check Rylan out. It took quite a while but eventually they ruled out a meds reaction or an infection. They put Rylan on a cortisone IV and we settled in. Dr came back in and said he’d would check in on Rylan at his next rounds at 6 pm, and then again in the morning. Nooo. Not what we wanted. I pled with the nurse that we be allowed to go back to the hotel in Bremen for night, and rather come in the morning to meet the Dr again. She gave no promises. By mid afternoon the IV was finished. The pink linoleum was not helping the mood any, and the whole picture seemed so depressing. Rus and Dalen stopped in then. I asked the nurses if we could go walking outside, as laying in a hospital bed does not help Rylan’s back any, neither does it distract him from the itch between his toes, in his hair, and everywhere. The nurse laughed and said, “go anywhere, but be back by 5:30!” So we staged a coup. Walked out the front door, down the road a short way, then the guys picked us up in the VW and we went exploring. Walked through an Aldi store in the next village. Found the remains of the Stenumer megalithic tomb, dated approx 5000 years old.
Back to the hospital where we pretended we had been on a good walk. By this time Roberts showed up so it was a party of cheer when the Dr poked his head into the room. He looked more than surprised to see all of us. Maybe that helped spur him on to better thinking, as he said Rylan should go back to Bremen. A taxi will be at the Park Hotel in the morn to bring him back to Stenum for another checkup.
All six of us piled out of the hospital and we headed for supper. There is an impressive lack of signage in this area, so it was chaos in the town as we wound through the city park trying to find Emma am See. I’m pretty sure it’s the first time two VW’s have been fogging down a bike trail on a crispy Friday evening in December. We found the restaurant so in the end it was a success and receiving a few good German swear words never killed anyone.
Supper was all it was meant to be at Emma am See. Wiener schnitzel, grilled salmon, gnocchi with Mediterranean vegetables and basil, bacon wrapped venison, and good old mashed potatoes. Deeelicious.
Back to the hotel and fired up the coffee perk while we sat in a circle and contemplated the unlikeness of us six social drinking in Germany on Friday, December 16.
