Forget Italy-Germany is Amazing

Richard, Bernie, Victoria, Julia, Irmie, and Raphaela
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I think we last updated our time in Venice maybe?  Time flies when your on the road like this.  Anyway, after I finished all my classes we had a wonderfully relaxing last day in Florence, were we picked up our last minute souveniers and ate some great meals and wandered from piazza to piazza one last evening.  Last Saturday we traveled by train all day long to Munich, which in Munich is called Munchen, which I think is adorable because as my mom said it sounds like Munchkin.  Let me tell you that the farther north we traveled the more gorgeous it became.  We got to go through the foothills of the Alps in Northern Italy and through Austria.  Tuscany doesn't have nothin on Northern Italy.  Wow, it was breathtaking.  We sat in the dining car for like three hours and just kept ordering stuff so we could stay there with the panoramic windows.  It was one of the greatest views I have ever seen.

Mmmmmmm...breakfast
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When we got to the Munchen train station we were greeted in the best way, by family waiting for us.  My mom and Aunt Tricia came to visit our extended Heindl German family, who were also there to greet us.  We got a warm welcome from Richard, his wife Irmie, and their two youngest children, Victoria and Raphaela.  We would meet up with the older children, Julia and Bernie later.  (Heindl family please forgive me if I spell the names wrong).  We all ate a traditional Bavarian meal and Richard began his week-long tour of wonderful Bavaria by showing us around Munich in the car and by foot around the city hall and cathedral.  It is such a lovely city- so clean, and we finally got a break from the heat.  Germany was quite cool the whole week while we were there, much to our pleasure.

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Of course it was wonderful to see my mom in the middle of our overseas trip.  I was definately homesick and seeing her was like a shot in the arm of home.  I also haven't seen either of my parents since Christmas, so it was a great reunion.  A little family history:

The town we visited with the Heindl family is the same town my great-grandfather immigrated to the United States from in 1911.  He settled in Mississippi as a farmer and through a set of interesting circumstances, lost contact with the family in Alteglofsheim, Germany.  My uncle had a business trip to Germany in '99 and went to the town hall looking for the family, who sent him to Richard.  Richard is very interested in family history and had kept accurate records that followed the family to my grandfather, but stopped there.  They were told my Papa was killed in World War 2.  Since my uncle's trip we were happily reunited and they have been to see us in the US.  This was my, Mike, and my mom's first time there, but my aunt's second.

Mom in front of Altegofsheim's bakery, where Irmie got fresh bread every morning
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We could go on and on for pages and pages about how wonderful this family is.  They opened their home and their hearts to us.  Every morning Irmie went to the bakery for the best breads we have ever eaten.  Every afternoon Richard took us on a personal tour of some unique area of the homeland he is so proud of.  We saw Regensburg, the Alps, the cathedral and castle of Altegolfsheim, the place where the Pope will visit this fall, the castle of the Dream King, and the Heindl farmland that has been in the family since my great-grandfather lived there.  We also got to meet our other family there- Gottfried, Hildegard, Angela, Karen, Martina, Gertrude, and Christian. (I hope all names are spelled right)  This was the most wonderful time of our whole trip, getting to know these precious people.

Tricia, Irmie, and Mom in the castle of Altegolfsheim which is now a music academy
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Mike had an especially good time with Richard's kids.  He was constantly messing with them and making them laugh.  The last night Bernie had challenged him to a game of fuseball.  All the kids got to play against him and help him out also, as Mike needed lots of extra help.  Bernie smoked him.

It was very funny for all of us trying to work around the language barrier, but between the family that speaks a little english and those that don't, we were able to figure things out.  This was a very special time for us all.