A little bit Kuckuck

The weekend was good. Really good. But busy.

I probably haven't mentioned before that Nate was appointed treasurer of the church we attend. That said, we were invited to the council meeting being held on Saturday. After the meeting we grocery shopped then went over to Jeff and Abby's place for dinner and some Nintendo Wiiiiii! The Wii told me that I was overweight, and you know, I really didn't need a Nintendo game to tell me that (thank you very much).

Sunday brought church and then the 1st meeting of the St. Cats Hikers Group. Okay, it really doesn't have a name, but we'll have to think of something. Despite advertisement only Nate, Elena, and I, and two others showed up. We didn't let the low turnout get us down though... in fact, in some ways it was quite nice.

Anyhow, we took the U4 out to Botnang to do the Kukucksweg (Cuckoo) trail. The trail is a nice 10.5km loop, with an additional hike that can take it up to 15.5km (9.3 miles). We strolled along, under a canopy of trees, stopping for a relaxing lunch (while the mosquitoes ate us). When we reached the add-on hike I thought that my poor legs would never make it... but somehow they did. The add-on hike was a walk up the Birkenkopf, or 'Rubble' Hill. The Rubble hill was once a normal hill, but after WW2 much of the rubble from the destruction of Stuttgart was pushed on top. The hill grew about 40 meters in height from the rubble.

At the top various pieces of rubble are lying about (strategically placed). It is a bit eerie seeing pieces of what was inevitably someone's house, bakery, school, butcher... This was the first WW2 memorial that I've seen in Stuttgart, and as always, it was sobering.

After the hike we just relaxed at home. You see. The weekend was busy. But good. Really good.