Hamburg, 28.05.2025: Strawberries and Shiatsu

Apples from the Altes Land

With my bad sore throat, I took things easy today. Just before noon, W. walked us over to the Wednesday market in the Winterhuder Marktplatz. This was such a treat, a real feast for the senses: bakery stands, meat stands, egg booths, cheese vendors, flower stalls, gorgeous fruit and fat, fat white and green asparagus. W.’s main objective was to buy asparagus, which he and K. will make tomorrow for us and for W.’s longtime friend V. and his wife also named V. 

In addition to the asparagus, which W. and the vendor chose carefully, the fattest ones, so many that the scales overflowed with them, W. bought some charcuterie at the meat stand and delicious olives and sesame bread at a vendor with olives, feta cheese, olive oil, hummus, pickled mushrooms, and other such delicacies. We then walked to the asparagus stand and purchased the asparagus, and after that to a strawberry vendor. I’ve just eaten a dish of the strawberries cut up; they’re delicious.

I spotted some apples that looked wonderful and bought several of them for us to eat in coming days and carry along when we drive south in a few days. W. and K. tell me they're grown south of the Elbe downriver from Hamburg, in the Altes Land. I've eaten a slice of one — amazing, nicely tart and yielding, with lots of juice.

I was scheduled to go with Steve and K. in the later afternoon to the massage place now owned and operated by W. and K.’s daughter A., who has specialized training in Shiatsu, but W. suggested I remain behind and rest, since I have quite a cough and we all thought a bit of sleep would benefit me. I welcomed that suggestion, though I insisted that W. take my place for a treatment with me paying for it, since the primary reason I’d agreed to go for a treatment by A. was to give her business. She charges €80 for a treatment and is apparently struggling to establish herself, since the national health plan doesn’t pay for this therapy. 

It was nice to have some introvert quality time in the afternoon and I did try to sleep, but my cough kept waking me so I slept very little. I’ve caught up on my diary keeping, however, and some other computer projects, so feel satisfied. Steve has just brought me a bowl of a delicious lamb stew W. and K. made for our midday meal, which is being reheated for the evening, and with that, a bit of the sesame bread, and a dish of strawberries, I have feasted well.