Thwarted...

We are on vacation. We haven't really made many plans, but somehow it seems that most of those are getting thwarted. To begin with the mode of vacation as such. At first we - the parents - had thought it would be nice to introduce the junior to one of our favorite modes of vacationing , i.e. a several-day-bike-trip. (The interesting bit about this is that the junior was participant in a 1000-km-bike trip approx. nine months before he was born, before we even knew that he was going to be born. To which the gynaecologist said 'well, if he survived that, everything will be just fine'.) However, after first agreeing he then back-tracked and said he wasn't really up to the idea of having to go on a bike every day for several days, and for such long distances... (mind - we were planning on much less than that 1000-km-ride). So we changed the plan of how we would get to the destination, my brother-in-law's house near Lake Bodensee, and I was kind of disappointed because I had really been looking forward to finally getting back to bike trips. But as it turned out it was a good thing the junior backtracked because the heat wave just kept going and although I am tough and can really take a lot in terms of pushing myself, I do have to admit it would have been absolutely noooooo fun at all to be biking in the kind of weather we have had.
So we spent a few days near the lake. Gorgeous views, that you have to pay dearly for when you go to a restaurant with a view.

My husband wanted to go and see the David Clearbout's exhibition with sound installations at Kunsthaus Bregenz because he is very interested in aspects of sound, silence, listening, music... So when I went to visit my godmother he and the junior went to Bregenz and were severely disappointed because they say the could not understand anything that the exhibition was trying to show. Admittedly, the building itself is always great to see, but, as the junior said 'so we paid 9 Euros to go up these stairs...' obviously it would be more fun to enjoy the exhibition, too. My trip on that day, on the other hand, didn't go as smoothly as I had planned, either. I had taken the bike with me and planned to ride all the way back. But somehow I took a wrong 'exit' out of the town where my godmother lives, as a result of several construction sites and the rremains of a summer festival being taken down. So instead of trying to find my way back and get on the right track I just rode ahead and got on a train again after 30 kms into the not entirely right direction. Then the next day we wanted to go and see the August Macke exhibition in Lindau , but it was so crowded that we would have had to wait for almost an hour.

So we went for ice cream instead, and swimming in the lake after that.
All of this still in very uncommon heat for Germany, such that you break out in sweat simple from thinking whether you should not get up and get a drink of water or not...
Meanwhile we have moved on to my parents' house where we are house sitting for a few days. I had taken my next piece for 12 by the Dozen to stitch here on my mother's sewing machine (reveal date is August 31, and I better be on time because it is my challenge...). Not once did I consider she might not have a free motion quilting foot. Or that something would not be right with the tension.

Brief attempts to stitch without a quilting foot were abandoned when tension problems
resulted in repeated breaking of the thread.

I gave up quickly and will have to finish it when I get back home. No pressure... But I have other options for stitching.
But we are having a good time. It's just different from what we plan. And now I will have to go and watch soccer with the guys, simply for bonding. I will be spinning.