< p > On Sunday morning, we planned to pack our bags and go to the beach and sea right after breakfast. Unfortunately, this plan did not work out because just before we left, Marius and my heart stopped for a moment: Frederik fell unimpeded from the approximately 1 meter high bed directly on his head/cheek. Both of us immediately jumped to help. The pain and shock were very great. So it took us more than half an hour to somehow calm him down, and then to test whether he had broken something or had been seriously injured and whether medical help was necessary. Except for a big bruise on his cheek, nothing worrying showed up at first. But some things show up later, as you know... That's why we canceled all plans for the day and stayed in the cool apartment and in a cool supermarket in the afternoon. Since Freddy quickly became excited about crunching cookies, we ruled out injuries to his jaw. Of course, a possible concussion scared us, but he showed no signs of it. So he came away with just a bruise!
Before going to bed, I dropped my phone, which is only four months old, on the floor and the display broke. Broken and that's it. For me, it's a medium-sized catastrophe for various reasons. Lucky me, I married the best man in the whole world and he immediately found out where to repair mobile phones here. And behold: not far from us in a big shopping center. So the first item on the agenda for the next day was already fixed - as long as Freddy was fine.
I'll quickly skip to this point. He was fine, even very fine. ;)
So today we made up for our early visit to the beach. On the way there (about 4 minutes by car, but only because there is a stop sign at every snail's pace...), we couldn't stop marveling. The houses are huuuuuuge, elegant, stately, clean, precise, somehow like in an exhibition city. The lawns and hedges are perfectly trimmed, large palm trees in the front yard, everything seems somehow unreal and yet we are right in the middle of it. We almost like every house here and when we imagine building such a house in Germany (you would probably have to win the lottery multiple times), we both had to laugh out loud because it wouldn't visually fit at all. We are curious whether the houses look like this only here in Naples, or whether it stretches along the Gulf Coast.
We will occasionally add a few pictures to give you a small impression. But imagine that each house has such an appearance.
Our landlord gave us an ID card which allows us to park directly by the sea in a private parking lot and use the corresponding private beach. This really made things a lot easier for us today and is really great!
So we marched to the beach with all our stuff and the child and had two beautiful hours. The sand is almost white and sooooooo soft!!!! Beautiful!!! And there are SHELLS!!! I haven't seen shells on various beaches for a long time! That was really nice!
On site, Frederik found a new friend: More like the grandma type. She is exactly the right age for a grandma, very warm, open, and willing to engage with Frederik's 34 times 'Hi' (he would like to communicate properly with everyone, but unfortunately his English is limited to Hi and bye bye). That's how we started a conversation and had to act as interpreters.
This led to an "adult conversation", opened by the lady with the topic "Whenever I travel, something bad happens somewhere" - referring to the terrible events in Orlando. We talked about a few political issues, and it also came out that this lovely lady lost her son on September 11, 2001 in New York - he was a firefighter on duty. It is of course very interesting how someone with this personal fate sees the current world events.
With Frederik on my arm and such personal and media stories in mind, my heart becomes sad and breathing becomes difficult, and I think of mothers who have to lose their children, no matter how terrible the circumstances. I wish for our families, all friends, and us to be spared such fates, that we can go through life healthy and brave, and that we can make it a little brighter - even if only in small circles.
Feel strongly embraced by all of us! Take care of yourselves and have joy in your hearts!
