Unplanned

This is the Kochbrunnen (meaning “boiling spring“) in the centre of Wiesbaden. It‘s one of the mineral springs that make Wiesbaden a spa town; not really boiling, but almost 70°C  hot when it leaves the ground. Its different minerals can be seen in the colours around the water outlet. 

In the background is the former „Palast Hotel“ from 1905, a grand Jugendstil (Art Nouveau) building. In the 1970es, when Jugendstil was considered kitschy, and the hotel wasn’t in use anymore, it almost got demolished. But some citizens fought for it to be rescued and converted into social housing apartments.

I hadn’t planned on spending a day in the city. P had his first vein operation today, and the original plan was for him to take the bus into town, and for me to pick him up afterwards. But it rained so hard this morning that I offered to drive him there after all. They told me that I could pick him up after 90 minutes, so it didn’t make much sense for me to drive home in between. I fed the hungry parking meter (Wiesbaden charges six Euros for 90 minutes parking) and went for a walk into the city. 

90 minutes later, I put another two Euros in the parking meter, went back to the clinic, and waited. 
And waited some more.

Then, they told me that P didn’t feel so well and they would keep him in the clinic for another 90 minutes, to make sure he was well enough to go home.

So I stopped feeding the parking meter, and drove to a little supermarket, did some shopping and got a coffee and sandwich for my lunch, before I went back to collect a very exhausted P.