Hello Everyone! What a way to start the New Year - Huge Congratulations go to Lulu who has graduated from Boston College - such wonderful news, and we are proud parents. Bill decided we needed to do something spectacular to celebrate, and thus in 3 days he put together a whirlwind trip to Heidelberg and Munich in southern Germany - a side trip to Salzburg, Austria - and concluding in Berlin. Lulu and Bill begged (?) me to accompany them, and so here I am with a new travel blog and my Nikon! By the way, this trip was organized by dollie face painter Laura Schy, a fantastic and very patient travel agent (laura.s@travelstoreusa.com)
We took off from LAX on Friday afternoon, and landed 10 hours later in Frankfurt, Germany on Saturday mid-day to mild weather - in fact after having everyone tell us to dress for frigid weather, it turned out to be only 40 degrees with not a flake of snow to be found. The gentleman on the plane across the aisle from me said in the 25 years he has been coming to Frankfurt to visit family in January, that this was the first time ever that there was no snow on the ground. hmmm...Global Warming?
A little history here as to why Germany --- in fact a neighbor in the 'hood did declare, "Germany in January? What was second choice?" Well many years ago when Bill was just a high school fella (40 short years ago), he and his brother Peter and a very close friend of theirs Joey, spent the summer working on a farm in the tiny village of Habitzheim, just outside Frankfurt. The farmer who owned the small farm was a friend of Bill's Dad's nanny, Schatzi. Schatzi raised Bill, Sr from the age of 8 due to the untimely death of his mother. The farmer Jochim Uebler and his wife Hedwig have 4 lovely daughters, and thus they were all excited at the prospect of 3 young bucks from New Jersey spending the summer helping them out with the heavy labor involved in running a farm. As the years have gone by, stories continue to pour forth from Peter and Bill as to their experience of milking the cows, carting the milk by a tractor pulled wagon into the nearby small village, visiting the local pubs, and generally immersing themselves in the lifestyle of a far away country. What an adventure it must have been for those NJ boys, especially at a time where there were no cell phones, internet, air conditioning, or television!
In 1992 Joekim and Hedwig visited us for a week in LA - it was during this visit, after being married to Bill for 16 years, that I discovered my husband was fluent in German! From LA the Ueblers went to New Jersey to spend a second week with Peter and Janet. Two years ago Joekim passed away, but Bill was able to be with him towards the end of his life when, after visiting Kenya on a mission trip with Msgr Torgerson, he was able to take a detour up to Frankfurt.
Hedwig is now 82, and as joyful and active as ever. A testament to the closeness of their family is that all 4 daughters still live nearby with their own families, and the entire extended families gather at the farm every single Sunday afternoon for cake and coffee with their mother.
Here is a photo of Bill and Lulu with Hedwig and part of her wonderful family.
Here is Bill riding down "MEMORY LANE" in the tractor!!
Lulu with just a few of Hedwig's grandchildren.
After a delicious mid day meal of lentil and sausage soup, topped off with apple pound cake and coffee, we said our good-byes. Lulu took the helm of our car since she was the only one who could figure out the GPS…and maybe another reason she insisted on driving was she had heard about the “no speed limits” on the Autobahn! We headed south to Heidelberg, and truth be told Lulu was a very careful driver at 90 MPH, where she was being passed left and right by other cars – mostly Mercedes – roaring by! eeeekkkkk!!!
As we drove into Heidelberg, it was dark and very misty. We were happy to get out of the car and into a warm and inviting Inn, the Hotel die Hirschgasse. After dropping off our luggage in our overly pink chinz filled room, we headed down the creaky stairs to the wood paneled dining room.
At 8pm as the only guests, we were seated at the best table in the room next to a small fireplace. We ordered a simple meal of green salad and buttered noodles, and just took in the charm of our surroundings. The Inn was still decorated for Christmas, with red and green balls hanging down from the ceiling, pine boughs wrapped in red ribbons, and small Christmas trees spread throughout the room full of sparkling lights, straw stars, and red and white felt heart ornaments.
After dinner we were exausted what with all our travel and the time change, so up to bed and slumberland we went. Only, at midnight with the peeling of bells from the nearby tower waking me up, I could not go back to sleep. I was 100% wide awake. I tried reading the Fodor travel book Denni bought us… I emailed back and forth with Colleen who was on the beach in Thailand and John who was at home disputing he ever owned a pair of leiderhosen…I tried doing some needlepoint, and checked in on the room refrigerator more than once…until finally something resembling sunlight peeked through the curtains and I knew at that point all was lost and I needed to head down to the dining room for a strong cup of coffee as a new day had begun.
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