Day 5 - Tuesday 18 April

There is remarkably little happening on the building site that is now behind us which is both good and bad.  While nothing much happens, it remains pretty quiet.  On the other hand we wish they would get on with it and get it finished.  For some reason I can't fathom out, work on the new internal connector road behind us has stopped while on the housing development beyond they seem to be building houses on demand and, as demand has tailed off a lot since the pandemic, few houses appear to be getting built.

One thing we did notice on Tuesday morning was that there seemed to be large palms trees moving and swaying about.  On closer inspection it turned out that the builders were installing mature tress to give the place an established look.

We had arranged for the couple who manage our house when we're not here - and they do a great job - to come round to see us, first to replace a dead light bulb in the kitchen ceiling and then to have a catch-up chat with us about things.  You might think that replacing a light bulb in a ceiling is a routine job, but with the vaulted ceilings that houses like these tend to have - which help to keep them cool - it's a more serious proposition.

All was going well until not just the bulb but the whole light fitting came out, so it became a job for someone with a longer ladder and perhaps some more tools.  It was agreed that electrician Nick would come round to sort it.

It was finally time to do something other than work on the house, so we went off the The Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow that is the EPCOT theme park, or Disney for adults as some call it.  This was not only to enjoy Epcot generally, but also to have a bit of a German day in the area of the park that is Germany.

Some of the borders look so good you might think that these are artificial plants, but they absolutely are not.

An early place to drop into was 'Butterfly Land', a lovely therapeutic spot to admire Nature's intricate handiwork.

Baby butterflies yet to emerge from their chrysalises

All made from succulents

We emerged to spy a confused-looking bear who knew there was a good reason that he had brought his large net with him but Pooh couldn't remember exactly why that was....

Then it was time for our regular tour of the World Showcase.

First stop - Canada

And then France....

....followed by Morocco

and Japan....

The centrepiece of the Showcase is, as you might expect, The United States....

Next up was Italy - 

Next up was Germany to which we will return.  More later....

and then China....

and a man doing some sketching....

Norway was our next stop.

The final place on the World Showcase is Mexico - 

The Day of the Dead or 'Dia de los Muertos'

Then we returned to Germany for our evening meal.  There was entertainment and a buffet with too much to take on, but we did our best!  The entertainment started on the hour and lasted for around 20 minutes.

There was general oompah music with one soloist playing cowbells and one or more on the Alpenhorn.  A  good time was had by all.

Beer and cheese soup, an unlikely combination, but it worked very well and was another first for me.

After a good look round the dining area on the way out, we made our way back to the entrance, stopping on the way to see the firework display.