Let's continue to celebrate!

Wednesday October 5

We arrived back from Europe wayyyyy after midnight and more or less fell into bed. So this was the day of unpacking, sorting and washing the clothes etc.

In the evening we had the pleasure of picking James' sister Jane up from the airport. She had a pretty good flight from England and arrived at a better time.

Thursday October 6 

This is THE day, James turned 80. Thank the Lord! Jane gave him this card. I think it is brilliant. Ha-ha, he remembers the coronation of the Queen very well. That and her wedding. At the coronation his Dad took him and Jane to London and they were waiting at the edge of "The Mall" most of the day. Oh, the memories. For the Queen's wedding his grandma rented a TV. The good ol' days.

We were invited to the children "over the river" for dinner and I brought the birthday cookie I had baked. The children helped me decorate it. It was a fun evening.

Friday October 7

Helen was driving all day with William from Nashville. She kept us up to date on the progress. We always get a photo from the Virginia Welcome Center. 

Saturday October 8

Helen had to work. She is teaching virtual ESL. I was busy getting ready for the "open house party" starting at 4pm. Sarah had arranged to take all 4 cousins, James and Jane to a "Pumpkin patch". Oh, they had so much fun. Look at those photos and especially this VIDEO   (1:54 minutes).

The maze must have been the most memorable of all these activities. James reported that for a short moment they "lost" two of the children.

Each was allowed to pick one pumpkin to take home. 

The open house party was from 4 - 8 pm. Just before the time we put up the balloons Helen bought from Publix. She and Jane walked there and she said it was funny to walk home with those 3 very large balloons.

Sorry to say that we had such a good time (and were busy) that I didn't take one photo. Helen shared these few. Thank you.

We had a great time. I am sure the birthday boy did too. The next days will be a bonus with our visitors, the cousins and Sarah off work Mon, Tue and Wed. Of course Helen is unfortunately not on vacation. She has to teach but at least we were able to find her a good place and set-up for that. Stay tuned!

Trip Day 23 - going home

Tuesday October 4

We had reserved the hotel shuttle for 6:30 am and set the alarm clock accordingly. The hotel Raddison Airport was very comfortable. The shower was separate and unique. With those necessities separate it made getting ready much easier for two people.

You hurry first but after check-in and security you have a lot of time. Why not have a nice breakfast?

The food in the plane will be nothing like it, ha-ha. It was interesting to see that our trays said "Premium Economy" meaning we paid a little extra for leg room for tall James. I didn't know that would also upgrade (?) the food.

I sat in the middle of three seats at the side. I asked my neighbor to take this photo for me. The alps were just so impressive.

The transatlantic flight went as well as one can expect. 

We had quite a layover at JFK and were supposed to continue at 9:30 pm and land in RIC at 11:13 pm. That didn't happen though. We boarded almost on time but had to wait in the plane what seemed forever. The captain reported to us the plane had received too much fuel and needed to lose it first down to the maximum weight. Not sure what exactly that meant but the motors were running and we were inching along towards the runway. Considering how expensive that fuel is and especially considering the environment I was getting angry about it. Of course you feel helpless about it. 

When we finally landed way after midnight, we were lucky to get an Uber relatively soon and found all well at home, we were very happy and fell into our own bed!!!

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At the time I am writing this, desperately trying to catch up with everything, we still have not come down from CLOUD 9. And this blog is not the end of James' celebration. Stay tuned!!!

Trip Day 22 - Singen Mon

Monday October 3

I can't remember when actually my sister Ute had to catch the train at the station. Must have been around 9 am. Needless to say James and I had been so grateful that she had journeyed south and joined us for a few days so we could spent time together. After all, ha-ha, she is my older sister. (by evening we knew that her trip had gone very well too)

I had gone with Corry who was the driver of course. She and I both had to go to the bank so we walked from the station across into the city. 

This day was a holiday in Germany. German Reunification Day. The reunification happened in 1990 and was just an incredible day making a lot of difference to my family. But anyway, the city was very quiet because on German holidays nobody really works AS IT SHOULD  BE!

So, when we were looking for the banks I came across this: trashcans to keep the city clean. But ... they have very clever and funny sayings. Every one a different one.

This: Du bist einfach SAUBERHAFT. Play with words: if the S was a Z = "Du bist einfach zauberhaft" that would mean "you are magically". But using the S makes it the word Sauber which means clean. I love play with words.

Gib's mir! = Give it to me! (yes, put the trash here)

Eine MÜLLde Gabe bitte (another play with words) =  "Eine MILde Gabe"is asking for a donation but MÜLL is trash. Very clever I think. It sounds so similar. 

Wenn ich groß bin, werde ich MÜLLionär. It should be: Wenn ich groß bin, werde ich Millionär. = When I am grown up I become a millionaire. Remember: MÜLL is trash but it sounds so similar.

Sorry, play with words is something I really like. 

The city was nice. And so German. I enjoyed it.

We also had to drive back to the celebration venue. Somebody had left a bag with keys and stuff and somebody thought it was left by our group and sent to us. We brought it back. The door was locked. The owner was gruff on the intercom. We just left it in front of the door.

When Corry drove though I saw several photo opportunities ... and couldn't help it.

In the afternoon we were invited to Corry's oldest, Sebastian and family for lunch. He and his wife Melanie had just moved from Munich close to both of their parents. They were lucky to buy a really big house and had already done a lot of renovation but still had a lot to do. It is something though they can already be really proud of. And, they did this with three young children. We all know that life with young children is not easy at the best of times. But those three Marlene, Jorin and Jasper are really cute.

Melanie made a most delicious pumpkin soup (one of my favorite) with several "trimmings". After lunch we decided to take a walk. The weather was so nice. AND we hoped that the really tired Jorin and Jasper would take a nap riding in strollers.

But Marlene and Jorin wanted to ride their bikes. Little brother Jasper (soooo tired) didn't want to ride in the stroller either. He wanted to walk. And oh my goodness, he was an incredible walker with those little legs.  

Suddenly daddy Sebastian had to run because Jorin was a little bit too fast on his training bike and it was a busy street. Yup, parenthood.

Meanwhile Jasper still put one leg in front of the other and did not want to get into the stroller.

The area was so gorgeous. 

As all children do, Jorin has his likes and he loves trees. He ran ahead and sat under the tree. He needed his time there and wasn't easily persuaded to continue with the walk. I didn't blame him. It was so pretty there ... but only one stump to sit on. 

There is nothing so good than to sit on your dad's shoulders. 

After a while we came to the daycare Jasper would go to after the summer break. It seems a very special place. It's all about nature and in a beautiful countryside. 

The next two pictures are from a string along the trail of corn cob faces most likely done by the children.

We enjoyed our time with the young family but then it was time to go back. Corry did stop at a special place. It is called "Der Aachtopf" also Aachquelle. This is the biggest spring in Germany. 

Most of the water of this spring (River Aach) comes from the River Danube where it disappears underground at the Danube Sinkhole, 12 kilometers (7.5 mile) north near Immendingen and about 14 kilometers {8.7 miles) north near Friedingen. It was interesting and a very nice place.

At 8:30 pm we ate some dinner, thanks to Corry ... again. 

Then she brought us to the train station. We had decided that we really REALLY  had to get up too early the next morning to catch the train (and the connection) to Zürich to catch the plane home. We decided to rather get a hotel room close to the airport. We were very glad we did. It was way less hassle for Corry and for us. The evening train was very relaxing and easy. 

We found the hotel shuttle easily too. After we had checked in we went and got a glass of wine in the bar.

At the reception we also got the schedule for the shuttle in the morning. We booked it for 6:30 am.

We decided that it had been a very good decision.