After the Family Trip - Day 18 + 19 - Singen

Friday July 12

These days are really easy for James and me. We are just floating along. Corry keeps saying not to worry. Today is Melanie's birthday and Corry always brings a certain cake. Here she is preparing it. The cake for the roll is baked and cooling.

While the cake is cooling we can play cards. 

The filling. Whipped cream with a package of stiffener, which Germans obviously use. I brought some home with me. Got to try it.

Raspberries!

All rolled up and ready to be put onto just the right plate!

3 pm. The birthday celebration starts.

Another (yearly) guest always has to bring this cake. I also need this recipe!

Melanie and Sebastian have 3 children and two more and a good number of adults made for a lively afternoon. Don't know why I don't have any photos. We had a nice time.

Later at home Corry found this picture postcard. I had been looking for some but it seems people don't write them any longer hence they are not offered for sale. I love this one. the Hohentwiel is such a big part of James' and my history.

Saturday July 13

Werner and James worked for the same company. Alusingen. James for 7 years until he was sent to the USA (for 18 month, ha-ha). Technically James worked for the same company all his professional life just in different parts of the world. The company had invited to an imployees and retirees fest, so the 4 of us went. It was self-serve but everything for free.

It seems that a weckle is the bun. It's a regional word which I didn't know.

There is the roast in the weckle.

But a real German thing (fast food) is a Currywurst (Bratwurst in curry sauce).

This sign was near where we had parked.

In the evening we were invited to Rita, a friend of Corry's. I had met her at the birthday party the day before and she wanted us to come for a "sundowner". She lives in an apartment and this is her view from her balcony. 

 

The "sundowner" was an Aperol Spritz, which right now seems to be the most popular aperitif cocktail in Germany. 

Rita had prepared some appetizers and we played a (our) card game. Corry had asked for me to bring one from home because Rita likes it too. 

But we could not go home without having had dessert. Oh my! Delicious ice cream with rumtopf over it. 

Rumtopf is a delicious, boozy German fruit compote usually enjoyed during the end-of-the-year holidays as a topping for puddings or other desserts. I like to use the liquid to make a hot drink like "grog" when it is really cold outside.

Rumtopf is started when the first fruit of the year has ripened. The fruit is prepped (bite size, pitted etc), sugar added and a strong rum. Other fruits are added when available during summer and early fall. Of course these were the good-ol'-days when people still had their own gardens.

And yes, I have a little bit started in my fridge. I like best pitting sherries, adding sugar and brandy.

The evening at Rita's was fun. 

PS: You know I like when you leave a comment. If you do anonymously please don't forget to sign it. It's more fun if I know who did it.

After the Family Trip - Day 17 - Singen

Thursday July 11

After  the very busy intense days with our children and boys to take it easy feels so good. It's almost 9 am when we have a leasurely breakfast. Corry is spoiling us. 

As reported they live in a cute village but it is not far into the bigger town Singen. It too has a pedestrian area and it is lovely to walk around. Corry and Werner need to go into a shop but we stay outside and look at this sculpture. Really not sure about it. It is huge and ....

The weather is very nice. Hot enough to enjoy an ice cream.

One of the things I wanted to do was find a gift for Melanie (daughter-in-law). We are invited to her birthday tomorrow. Corry has an idea. We find a bottle with an exquisite balsamic vinegar. They have tastings of different things and even open a fresh bottle of what I ended up buying. 

What we didn't know is that they gift wrap purchases with a fun machine. We had fun watching.

For the evening our hosts had the "old clique" invited. We were the 5 couples once again. It was so much fun. Corry had made a great dinner. She said that she always makes this same recipe for these friends because they expect it. 

Helen texted a photo from our relatives in England where she and William have a stopover on the way home.

And this concludes the evening. Time to go to bed. 

This was another fun day. 

Family Trip - Day 16 - bye bye Munich, bye bye children

Wednesday July 10

James and I don't have an agenda today and we have all the time in the World to help the others.  I can't remember for what I had set my alarm but the family of 5 had to be sent off first. I went to their room probably short after 6 to help. Then I walked with them to the Munich Hauptbahnhof, the train station. It was max a 10 minute walk. As I said before, location, location, location. 

Figuring out how to get the train tickets was a bit more difficult, even if you manage the language. And there were two different train lines going to the same place. But all was well. The three young boys are such great travelers. No heartache from them when it matters. 

I harried back to the hotel and went to Helen and William's room. Can I help? They were flying to England for a couple of days before going home. Same thing. We walked to the Hauptbahnhof, got the tickets, and off they went. Hugs, hugs.

And that left James and me. Strange. But what a wonderful time we had with our children and grandchilldren. Pray to the Lord that we will have another opportunity like that again. 

It also had left the Ritter Sports Marzipan I got yesterday at Lidl. 

I need a moment to refocus, then we packed up and I collected the parked rental car for 20 Euros as reported earlier. And we went on our way with the GPS set on Singen.

We stopped at an autobahn rest stop. Ha-ha, I cashed in my earlier potty token. The coffee felt good. 

Halfway of course we change from autobahn to countrylane which is somewhat tiring. Close to Singen we were looking for a place to have a leagerly lunch. And there was a zeppelin which needed to be photographed. Ha-ha, "luckily" we were in a traffic jam and this is the best I could do.

This looked like the perfect lunch place ... but it was closed for the day. Bummer.

We took a turn towards the Bodensee lake to find a nice place but as soon as we were there it started to rain. We decided to go to a supermarket, get a sandwich to share and continued. All good.

I can't remember when we finally reached the place of our friends Corry and Werner, but as always it was a big hallo. Since I had not been able to keep up with the blogs there were a lot of questions.

First thing though: empty the car and bring it back to the rental car people. Successful done!

What else? We probably played Five Crowns and watched a Eurocup game. 

I have to say something about friendship. Corry and I go back to a little CPA office where she was an apprentice. Later I had changed to a "real" company bookkeeping/financial department and when we needed somebody there she changed also. As I said, we go back a long time. We don't always talk to each other ... but when we do it is just like last week or even yesterday. They visited us in the USA several times and we are trying to get them to visit again.

Lucky are those who have real friends!

Family Trip - Day 15 - full day in Munich

Tuesday July 9

Breakfast was not automaticly included in our reservation but we opted to buy in. It was a good start of the day.

A photo out of the others' window. It's not guests parking there. 

The front of our hotel. As I said before: it was in a good location. 

One of the many interesting houses. Not sure why but I didn't take that many photos this time.

We were all on the way to the Viktualienmarkt, the Munich farmer's market. Sarah and her family had to stop at the park with the playground again.

I think we arrived and we found the others.

After that we wanted to visit the English Garden but it was further than we thought. Or may be it was just because it was quite a hot day.

This is not at all what I thought it might be. Our intro to the English Garden were the waves at the "Eisbach". Unbelievable the boys could have said there forever and watch the surfers. 

Finally the boys were ready to move on but we did not get far. This was too inviting for them.

After the swimming (of some of us) we continued to the Chinese Tower. It was a lovely walk in the park.

Since I had done no investigating beforehand I didn't know that it seems to be a second Hofbräuhaus. It's lunch time! But it is self-serve. We were too busy to decide, buy, pay and schlepp to take photos. But it is an incredible set-up. When all those tables are full, it might be still quite orderly and convenient. 

Then came the big question: how to we get back? I thought it could be a lot of fun to take one of those bicycle rickshaws. And we were immidiately approached. Except ... we needed three. 

James and Helen were first with Caleb between them and Colin on the back.

I wasn't that happy with ours. It was so inclosed/confined. The view was blocked. And the guy was too businesslike. But still William, Owen and I thought it was a nice experience. 

We were all brought to the Marienplatz and met there again. 

Sarah did some shopping on the way back to the hotel. She bought t-shirts. I love them.

In the evening we asked at the hotel desk whether they had a dinner recommendation. And they had. 

Andy's Krablergarten. It was outdoors and very German food. Several of us had really nice "Rolladen" (beef rolls). They were gigantic. And the potato dumplings were genuing too. Ha-ha, I didn't know that in Bavaria what I call Rotkraut is here Blaukraut (red cabbage vs. blue cabbage).

I was very happy that I was prepared. A tourist could be in trouble. Some places do not take credit cards (like Andy's) and some do not take cash. For a party of 9 that could be a problem!

On the way home the boys needed to stop at the park again.

In our room: time to work on packing. And ... the Eurocup is still going on.

Ah, how can this be? Tomorrow the children are leaving. James and I are so grateful.