RUMMIKUB
My time in Winsen has fallen into a very pleasant routine. Once or twice a day I take the short walk to Heinrich and Elke’s house and have a meal. Lunchtime, with a hot dish, is the big meal in Germany with suppertime being bread or brotchen with meat cuts and cheese or sometimes soup. Both types of meal are delicious.
And then after dinner we clear the dining table, open a bottle of beer apiece and play a game called Rummikub in which we are dealt 12 tiles from a pool of tiles numbered 1 to 13, with each number in four colors. The goal is to be the first to get rid of your 12 tiles. You can either put down tiles in groups of three or more of a number in different color or tiles in numerical order of the same color. If you can’t play you have to draw another tile.
I am writing this on Friday, after having played twenty or so games I’ve waited until I finally won a game, last night, to write about our game playing. Elke is very clever in rearranging tiles already played and won the first few games, Heinrich is a dogged player who is determined to win and has won every game since. Last night, through luck, I barely beat Heinrich.
I am having a good time doing very little besides eat and play games.
No travel website would recommend this sedentary octogenarian life, but I am in Winsen, Germany, just where I want to be. I walk around a little each day and watch music videos and documentaries on my new huge virtual flat screen. Today, since Heinrich and Elke were going to a funeral, I cooked my own lunch of boiled potatoes, boiled eggs and fried onions.
Tonight we will play games.
BILLYBABA’S WANDERING 