Oppenau with the Rents

Well my last blog left off with my parents arrival in Oppenau.  When they arrived is when the fun really started.  All the events so to say were based on there arrival.  We all arrived at Tante Klara's house via Rainer's car from Helmut's.  We sat and enjoyed the company Tante Trudle came and so did several of the cousins or their wives.  We had coffee and cake in the afternoon and then a beautiful made by Tante Klara.  During the break we went and sat upstairs on the small deck on the 3rd floor of the house next to my room.  We sat out and talked with Clause and Rainer.  We brought some of my Grandma's ashes back to Germany so she could be in Santa Barbara and in Germany with her family.  We had asked Rainer to find out if we needed to fill out any paperwork to bury her ashes in the family plot.  He told that afternoon that there was nothing we needed to do and the family there had already gotten a beautiful wooden cross made with her name to put  with the rest of the family plot.  It was so thoughtful and we were all really touched.  Not long after we had dinner and I think Tante Klara psychically knew that my dad's favorite german dish is Roladin and made it for there first night in town.  It was delicious and I ate more then I needed.  Of course that is kind of par for the course when visiting the family in Germany.  You eat every 2 hours whether you're hungry or not.  It was an early night as we were all tired and the rents were jet lagged.  I think we were all in bed by 10pm.

The next morning I was up before the rents, which is a shocker and was the only day.  I had breakfast and attempted to catch up on my journaling while waiting for the rents to emerge from the cave.  They finally came out and we had breakfast.  I warned them not to eat to much because we were scheduled to have a big family reunion lunch at a restaurant close by at noon.  They ate breakfast at 10.  After breakfast we took a walk around the city a bit to get an appetite and made our way over the to restaurant.  It's really crazy to see all the family together in one place.  And this time it wasn't even the entire family and it was a lot of people.  We got group pictures and sat down and ate a wonderful meal.  I can't even remember what I had but it was good and came with spatzle.  We made our way around the table and tried to talk with everyone.  Then we pulled out Rainer's laptop and showed the family the CD of pictures Yvette had made for Omi's (my grandma)memorial service.  It was fun to see especially the old pictures from Germany.  After several hours we got kicked out of the restaurant and left to go for a walk with some of the family.  We drove with Rainer up the hill to the top to a park that had been created in memorial of the 2000 wind storm that tore the trees out by the roots.  You can actually walk through this park they created and see what damage had been done to the trees.  An entire section of the hilltop was leveled by the storm.  I got some great pictures and will try to put them on at some point.  After the park Rainer had to leave to drive back to the Bodensee (by Lake Constance) so we climbed in the care with Thomas and Petra and drove to a nearby area on the top of the hill where the paragliders take off and land.  You know the guys with the parachutes that run off the side of a mountain to catch the wind then just kind of sail around.  I was fun just to watch for a little while.  We saw some take offs and some landings.  After that we went back to Tante Klara's and sat back up on the little 3rd floor patio and talked with Clause and his son Marius and Thomas and Petra.  We just talked about all kinds of stuff.  Andreas, Thomas and Petra's oldest son, is considering coming to the states to practice his english and we told them we would be more then glad to host him in St. Louis.  We went downstairs when it started to get dark to find Tante Klara cooking something.  We were all thinking no more!!!  But it was just an omelette and bread, thank God.  It was a fun day and we didn't do much that night but watch german tv and I journaled.

The next day was Monday and we got and were having breakfast when Tante Klara brought out a bank book she had found in my father's name.  It was opened by his grandmother Sophie in the 60s and had been sitting in the bank untouched since the 80s.  She said she had already taken it into the bank and a woman there had done the research to see if it had ever been closed out and it was not.  So we headed off to the bank in the cloudy, misty weather.  It turned out that there were last 88.44 marks in the account which had never been closed.  So they asked my dad to return tomorrow to pick up the money after they had a chance to figure out the interest and conversion to euros.  After that we took a stroll around town and did the loop so to say, it's a small town so it doesn't take long.  We headed back to Tante Klara's just in time to be shuffled off to Tante Trudle's for lunch.  Trudle as always is adorably sweet and Gunther is Gunther.  We had a tasty lunch of deer goulash, canoodles (I don't know how to describe those sorry), potatoes, and veggies.  It was all wonderfully prepared.  AFter lunch we had ice cream which was super yummy too.  When lunch was over and cleaned up we headed off with Trudle and Klara to the cemetery to bury the rest of Omi.  I carried the cross up and Dad carried Omi and dug the hole when we got there.  I was really emotional for all of us.  It's like the final goodbye to Omi.  I think it was especially hard on Trudle as Omi died last September and Heiner the youngest of the family had really bad dementia and died in February.  So she is the last living Bachle of that generation which has got to be depressing, especially since she was 1 of 7.  I stood by and took pictures of the occasion for the family in the states.  When it was all over we headed over to see the rest of the family graves then down the hill to the house.

We decided to head out for the afternoon when that was all complete and borrowed Tante Klara's car to drive to Wolfach, a nearby city with a crystal factory.  Years ago on our first trip we went to Wolfach and my parents bought 12 lead crystal colored wine glasses one of which was broken at Christmas a year or two ago.  So we went in search of a replacement as well as red champagne glasses for my future wedding.  I bought blue ones last time we were there but I want red ones so it was worth a shot.  The drive over was nice.  Thank goodness for our GPS now named to my mother's horror Melba.  Although it took my dad a little while to really trust Melba it made things much smoother.  When we got to the glass factory we were a little disappointed.  No red champagne flutes in the classic style, no matching wine glasses.  So my mom bought 6 more in different colors as well as some christmas ornaments and presents.  When we finished up in Wolfach me made the circle to Offenberg and bought our train tickets to Venice for Wednesday and then back to Oppenau and Tante Klara's.  She knew we would not be all that hungry after our lunch with Trudle so she suggested pizza for dinner and her and I walked over and bought 3 small frozen pizza/flammekuchens for dinner.  When we got back we popped them in the oven and sat down to chat.  Not long after that Clause came by with his ex Monika (they are still friends after being together 20 something years which is absolutely awesome).  I love Monika and we had a great time talking and sharing.  They joined us for dinner which of course was forced on them by Tante Klara (it must be a german thing).  After dinner al the family gossip came out which was kinda funny.  We went to bed about midnight and let me tell you I was about ready to fall asleep at the table.

The next morning we were up early and had breakfast.  I can't remember what we did that morning so I don't think it was anything probably journaling and watching german tv.  We went to lunch up at Tante Dora's (my dad's uncle Heiner widow) with Tante Klara and her friend that we love Voltrout (I think that's how you spell it).  Dora had recently moved from the 2nd floor of the house down to the first floor which was weird for me because every other time she has been upstairs.  But we hiked the hill up to the house and had a nice light meal of wurstsalad (not my favorite but not as bad as I remember it) fried potatoes, and salad.  It was all good.  After lunch we had vanilla ice cream with hot raspberry sauce on it, mmm mmm mmm.  We sat and talked and laughed.  Dora's granddaughter came over and it was crazy because she is growing up too and it makes me feel old.  She was just like 8 the last time we came.  We also got a call from Dani, Dora's daughter, to say hello and she was sorry she missed seeing us.  She said next time we have to come for 3 weeks - 1 week with each part of the family.  After lunch we walked down the hill to Voltrout's house and had coffee and cake.  Everyone but Dana (the granddaughter).  We had chocolate muffins and a really good lemon cheesecake.  After we finished up the cake we walked back to Tante Klara's and 10 minutes later left to meet Clause, Helmut and the gang for dinner in Oberkirch.  Yes more eating!!  And people wonder why I gain weight in Germany.  I'm force fed every 2 hours literally.  We had a nice casual dinner at the local restaurant.  I had kasespetzle (see first blog) for my last german meal with new wine.  It was uber yummy.  We made plans for Helmut to pick us up in the morning and drive us to Offenberg to the train station.  He was scheduled to pick us up at 7 (as if that would happen).  After dinner I went with Clause to Monika's house.  She had so kindly offered to let me use her internet to write my blog.  So we got there about 9 and I spent almost 2 hours writing about Heidelberg in between some chatting.  But at the end the computer froze and the entry didn't get saved.  Hence the big gap between blogs.  Monika if you read this please don't feel bad.  I really enjoyed spending more time with you and Clause and Marius.  I made it home at 11:30 and went upstairs to repack my suitcase which was only partially done.  I think I finally got in bed and turned off the lights about 12:15.

I was up at 6:00, yes 6:00 am to get ready and packed for the supposed 7 am pick up.  I was downstairs about 7 when Tante Klara realized she didn't have enough rolls for breakfast and she was going to go out and buy some.  While we were persuading her not to Helmut arrive with rolls in tow.  I was shocked as he was actually 3 minutes early.  And with food.  We all ate breakfast together before loading the car.  Tante Trudle arrived to say goodbye to us and as always got teary eyed.  We drove off with Helmut and made it to the station with almost 20 minutes to spare.  we unloaded and said our goodbyes and thank you's to Helmut for the ride and hospitality.  Then headed for the platform to wait for our train.

The train arrived on schedule, as to be expected it's a german train.  We boarded and grabbed seats.  Unfortunately my suitcase is to fat to fit in the overhead compartment so I shoved it under the table and put my legs over it.  The first train we took was to Zurich and it was a beautiful clean comfortable german train.  When we changed trains in Zurich the Swiss train was not so nice.  But we found seats and stored our luggage.  Mom and Dad actually stayed awake for the majority of this leg as it was so beautiful going through the Swiss Alps.  Thankfully a cart came around about 12:30 and we got 2 sandwiches to split between the 3 of use and a drink each.  It's a good thing I was gettin hungry at that point.  We got all the way into Italy past Lugano when at a stop I can't remember the name of the train stopped and everyone had to get off with their luggage.  We had to show our passports and random people were getting pulled aside and their bags gone through.  We sailed right by and got back onto a different train.  A much nicer, newer, cleaner train for the last leg of the journey to Milan.  We arrived in Milan 15 minutes late.  Thank the lord we had a 35 minute connection in Milan.  We made our way over to the correct platform and waited for the train.  Dad had read in out husty-trusty Rick Steve's guidebook on Italy that the commuter train from Milan to Venice is usually really crowded.  So we jumped on as quickly as possible and snagged the first cabin with 3 empty seats we found.  It happened to be way down the platform and the first cabin next to the door.  We shared our cabin with a nice Italian business woman and a middle aged Italian couple.  That train was pretty uneventful.  Dad slept most of the way while Mom and I talked and I showed her all my pictures from Ireland and England.  When we arrived at the Venice Main station we weren't sure if our ticket went thru to Santa Lucia ( the station on the island) so we got off and ended up buying a ticket for a euro a piece to get to Santa Lucia.  We just missed one train and to wait 10 minutes for the next.  Once we got on the island it was 8:30 pm or something so we grabbed a slice of pizza in the train station because it was close then went out and grabbed a Vaparetto (water bus) to hotel per their directions.  Of course it was only one stop and we could have walked it in a matter of 10 minutes, if that.  But oh well.  We checked in to the Santa Chiara hotel which was really nice.  We settled into the hotel and I jumped in the shower while Mom and Dad went out to explore something.  of course they got a gelato but did they bring one back for me, No.  But that's okay.  It's not like I need it, especially after Germany.  We went to be early to get a good nights sleep for our first day in Venzie.

Coming Soon are blogs for  Venzie, Firenze, Assisi, Siena, Pisa, Cinque Terra, Lake Como (Varenna and Bellagio), Milan, and Bergamo.

At least I'm starting to get caught up!