Winter weather

We had pretty pleasant Fall weather until after Thanksgiving, but then it got cold fast. We’ve had up to minus 18 degrees, but that is Celsius. That is just 0 Fahrenheit. The Nidda River in Bad Vilbel remained fluid until after New Years, but then it froze hard. They placed some heavy concrete blocks on the ice – probably to give an indication when the ice got thin – they break through and disappear. There was always a flock of ducks and geese on the river and on the pond in the park. We don’t know where they have gone. They were quite tame, and probably not capable of flying south. The pond in the Kurpark froze solid, and we saw a lot of children sliding on the ice – parents too.
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It was good to see families playing together. Families aren’t seen together much anymore. Young children can be seen with parents – especially mothers, but it is not common to see kids over about ten with their families. There aren’t many evidences of family life visible on the outside. There were only three children in the building we lived in in Bad Vilbel where there we eight families. We were the only adults outside the 25 to 45 year range. Unfamily planning seems to have succeeded in this country. Luckily we have heard sounds of children in our new apartment building, and we think there are two or three families in the building with one or two children each. Only LDS families have more than that now.

Our new apartment building. In this view we are on the right end of the building in the roof-level.
Our move was on Friday, and we spent most of Saturday trying to fix things and get settled a little. Sunday morning it started raining. The snow has now all melted everywhere but in the shade, and we’re back to a world of brown winter. The ice on the rivers has broken up, and with the rain that has come the water level is high. We didn’t have to scrape ice off the windows of the car this morning, but that may be because the car was in a garage.