I have to confess that I wasn't really looking forward to this weekend! I mean we've done England, France, Italy... What the heck were we gonna do here in little ole Ingelheim?!
We ended up having a great weekend. Thursday and Friday evening we spent with the Langbeins. Yens and Bruce used to be on a project together and he has visited us in Canada and he and Ole are the couple we went to Austria skiing with this winter. They have two young kids, Hannah, age 6 and Fredrick age 4. The kids speak about as much English as our girls do German! Thursday evening we went for drinks and the kids for a swim and then Friday evening they had us over for dinner. I think all I need to say is that we ended up taking a taxi home... I have to mention that the Langbeins served little bratwurst for the kids. I held my breath and prayed for good behaviour... The girls loved it!!!!! Olivia had 3 of them! I'm not sure who was more relieved me or them!
The picture of the three girls is of Hannah, Olivia and Shannon. It is amazing how kids can just figure out how to have fun no matter what.
On Saturday we did some shopping in Mainz. Bruce got his haircut. I need a haircut, but I am nowhere near as brave as Bruce is!! He looks great!
After hitting the farmers markets(pears are in season, OMG they are good!) we headed off to Frankfurt. I've never been before and Bruce's last trip didn't impress him much but what the heck, right?
It was amazing! There was some big festival going on, so we drank beer, of course, we're in Germany for goodness sake, listened to old German drinkin' songs, and the kids went on a bunch of rides. Well Olivia hit a bunch of rides, Shannon is much more discerning, she did a trampoline thingy and then feasted on a giant ice cream concoction! After a dinner of wiener schnitzel for all we headed back to good old Ingelheim!
Sunday was what I think of as a typical German day. Grey skies and always a threat of rain in the forecast. We headed off to a colleague of Bruce's for dinner. Gerhard and his family are Austrian, have just moved to Germany from 6 years living in the U.S. and have three girls, who speak English, Sara 13 years old, Livia 11 years old and Sinja 7 years old! We had a great evening! The girls, all 5 of them, were so happy to be speaking English with girls their own age, it was amazing. It was like everyone had died and gone to heaven.
We were introduced to a new German, possibly Austria tradition. We arrived at 4pm and sat down to cake, ice-cream and coffee. Then later a full dinner was served. I think we'll be trying that in T.O.
After a fantastic evening and promises to get together again soon, we headed home! Ahhh, Ingelheim isn't sooo bad after all!
No comments:
Post a Comment