Catching up with friends: Christiane, Uschi

Yesterday we met up with a few of my old friends here in town. We had a late breakfast/brunch with my artist friend Christiane. She has not changed much. Her style of art is so unique and unusual, that she is not able to sell much of it, but she remains true to her morbid themes from old mythology.

Then in the afternoon we went to see my old friend, Uschi. She has had a lot of stress in her life, including most recently a baby (almost 2 years old now) with severe disabilities and a life expectancy of 2 years or less. Yes, that means any time now :-( The baby has a diagnosis of lisecephaly, something to do with atrophy of the brain, she has almost constant seizures, is blind, has a feeding tube, is unable to grow any hair, and only weighs about 10 pounds. It was nice catching up with her. She says that despite all the trauma this has caused her and her 3 older children, the last 2 years have been some of the best of her life! She believes she has learned a lot and it has helped her straighten out her priorities. Wow, God works in mysterious ways!

Ben continues to have a cold. It has moved from snotty nose now to coughing, which is never good with his asthma. I was up at 3:30 am listening to him cough persistently. I contemplated what to do to help him and decided to just pray for God to take his cough away. You know, I've never felt God has answered a prayer so directly and immediately ... his cough just ceased totally. After this miracle I could not get back to sleep, so while I lay in bed awake I marveled for the next 2 hours that he never once coughed again! Wow!
Today we leave for Paris ... it is winding down. Two nights in Paris, then home! Please pray that Ben continues to heal and is able to have the energy he will need for a weekend in Paris! Also, that his ears don't bother him on the airplane rides. Thanks!

German playgrounds are fun!

Yesterday, I did 4 loads of laundry and we mostly stayed home around my Dad's house. However, we did walk down the road to a playground and the boys had fun on the zip line there.

Daryl's impression is that the playgrounds here are not as "safe" as in the USA and therefore much more fun! He remembered a playground we went to on a previous visit (before kids!) with my brother David. I did not even remember it that well, but Daryl said it was awesome, and so we had to go there again with the kids! Sure enough, there were so many things on it that would be way too much of a liability in our law-suit-happy culture. The boys (all 3 of them) had a blast!

In the evening we went to my friend Nicola's house for a nice dinner and evening together. Ben and Alex and her daughter Svea played on their DS's or DSI's all evening. We were lucky enough that we were able to charge up theirs with her charger, since we realized once we were here the US charger is incompatible with the German voltage. Ben had been suffering from DSI withdrawal!!!

Castles, Castles, Castles!

We left our beautiful vacation rental in the morning and headed back up north. After a couple of hours of driving, we decided to get off the Autobahn and take a more scenic route. By the way, from high speed on the autobahn to hairpin turns in the mountains to super-narrow winding roads in villages, Daryl is becoming an expert German driver!! He says that despite the high speeds, it is actually more comfortable driving on the autobahn than driving on US highways, because the Germans are better drivers and follow the rules of the road precisely (what have I been saying all along?! :-)).

this is what the villages look like down south

Anyhow, we went to the Rhein river in Bingen, walked around for a little stretch break, then drove along a road that went right along the river up to Koblenz. There are so many castles along that stretch, it is unreal! It became a game of  "I see a castle ... where ... there ... mommy, take a picture ... I see a castle ... where ... there ... mommy, take a picture! and so forth and so on for an hour or more! It got to the point where Alex and Ben did not even get excited anymore and were reading instead of looking out the windows!!

The "Mauseturm" (mouse tower) in Bingen

Bingen: Ehrenfels castle

We drove past where the famous Loreley rock is (where legend has it a siren combed her hair and distracted the sailors causing many shipwrecks). It is where there is a treacherous bend in the river.

the Lorelei

Fortress Ehrenbreitstein

in Koblenz

We made it to my Dad's in time for supper. We ate at a local Chinese place and the boys loved it. They got to eat with chop sticks, which was a nice challenge!

Monday: Highs and Lows!

Well, the game was such a disappointment :-(, but it was still fun to watch! Good effort by the USA women. We had planned our day trip to Switzerland (Luzern) today, but when we checked the forecast in the morning, we decided to give up on it. It was iffy, 30% chance of rain, but when we looked at the live webcam on the top of mount Pilatus, the visibility was nil, just clouds! We were not prepared to drive another 2 hours or more south just to see fog and no Alps! Also, the temperature on top of Pilatus was 1 degree C, just over freezing, with sleet falling in the morning.

Instead, we decided to take a local hike. It was one of the shortest hikes outlined in a local hiking guide starting in our village, taking us to the highest peak in the region, the Todtenkopf. It is the location of the local TV tower and there was also an observation tower. The weather locally was nice, in the upper 60s or so.

you can see the radio tower in the background

We started out thinking it would take 1 1/2 or 2 hours, but it ended up taking us more like 4!! The incline was wicked at times, but it was gorgeous and we had a great time. We just wished we would have brought some water! Most of the hike was through the vinyards, but parts of it were in the woods.

the observation tower at the top of Totenkopf, 557m elevation

Ben running back down the hill!

another view of the peak on our way back down

We figured we walked about 6 km total, maybe 4 miles, quite a long walk in the hills! We gained about 330 meters of elevation from bottom to top of our hike.
After lunch, we hooked up with my brother Klaus and his wife and baby and drove to Breisach together. This town was only 15 or 20 minutes away and is on the Rhine river. Across the river is France! We took a nice walk, then had some coffee and ice cream at a cafe.

in Breisach

The Rhein river taken from across the bridge in France!

walking in Breisach

Then, for supper, we got together with David and his new wife and baby Bela for a nice supper. Even though it was chilly we sat outside on a patio for supper.

We were disappointed we did not make it to the swiss alps, but this was still a pleasant day!

Rainy Sunday!

This morning we woke up to thunderstorms and heavy rain. It reinforced what a real blessing it was to have had the awesome weather we had yesterday for the wedding! We were to return to the site of the reception at 10 am for breakfast together. Some people did not make it back, but most of the relatives and a lot of friends came. It was nice to see everyone again, though some had gotten very little sleep after partying so late!
We got to spend some more time with my new nephew, Bela, 9 months, and my new niece, Marion, 4 weeks.

Almut with her son, Bela

Klaus and Lauren with their daughter, Marion,and nephew, Bela

Bela meeting his new cousin, Marion!

It rained all morning until mid afternoon. My Mom and Daryl took naps while the boys and I took turns on the laptop. Ben and I took a walk when it finally stopped raining. Then Ben took a nap, he's still sleeping!

Tonight we'll get together to watch the big soccer game! Go USA!!!! We have one more week to go on this trip ... it is going fast! Also, HAPPY BIRTHDAY GAVIN! Sorry we missed it this year!

The wedding!

Well, the wedding was beautiful and the reception was such a great party. I bet I took 200 photos, but I'll try to select he few best ones to show here! First of all, the weather was just as gorgeous as it could be, sunny and maybe 80 or so. The church where the wedding was held was a beautiful little chapel at the top of a scenic hill.

It was so great to see all the relatives and old friends again, we stood outside and talked a lot even before the wedding started. As expected, the actual wedding service was not traditional. To start with, Almut wore a lovely BLUE dress. There were no bridesmaids or groomsmen. The "pastor" was one of Almut's friends and wore all black, including a black hat!

As it is typical in Germany, the bride and groom sat in chairs at the front during the service.

 There was a band playing very lively music before and during the service. There were several songs, a stand-up comedy routine (on tape), a puppet show, a few readings, and lots of interesting music. There were also traditional elements, like the vows and the kiss! It was nice.

My niece and nephew Charlotte and Bela!

My sister-in-law Lauren, baby Marion, and my Mom!

After the service we all went outside for a champagne reception and soft pretzels, either with or without butter filling (yummy!). We also took photos of and with the bride and groom.

The bride and groom with their parents!

They also did a German tradition where there was a huge canvas painting of a heart and the bride and groom cut out the heart and then the groom carries the bride through the heart-shaped hole. It was cute!

After that we left the church and drove to where the reception was held. The bride and groom drove through the towns along the way in a little red convertible with balloons and tin cans attached to the back of it. Many of the wedding guests followed and honked our horns. It was fun!

The reception was outdoors but under a roof, part of an old barn or a mill it seemed. There were many peacocks running around wild, which was really fun for the kids. Ben took about 27 photos of the peacocks, I'll show the few best ones :-)

Alex and Ben made tissue paper flowers for Almut and David as a wedding gift!

David and my best friend Nicola!

At the reception there were drinks, food (Indian -Yum!), dancing, a program (poems, readings, games) and a slide show. It was great and went on all night! We finally left around 11:30 pm. Ben was exhausted, since he's been fighting a slight cold (stuffy nose, sore throat, etc.). I heard the last guests left at 4:00am!!

Cutting the cake!

Mom and I read an Irish blessing

At some point in the course of the evening, the bride and groom changed clothes, I guess to be more casual or more comfortable for dancing, etc. Almut's other dress was beautiful, too, with a wide petticoat skirt!

Charlotte brought 3 of her girlfriends with her to the wedding. They dressed up to the hilt and looked like  they were about 19 instead of 14 and 15!

Those teenage girls had a blast dancing ... except there were no teenage boys to dance with, so they wound up dancing with Alex and Ben! Alex says this was his favorite part of the evening :-)

Overall, it was certainly a memorable occasion for all of us! We even got one photo with the whole family in it!