Germany and family - what a great combination! We gained ten pounds each from four meals a day and Lee managed to learn a bit of German. Getting to Germany from Prague was a breeze on the regional Deutsch Bahn (DB) train. Tickets were even purchased in advanced and mailed to us in Chicago! Pulling up to the train station in Wermsdorf, we were greeting by Jazz’s grandmother (a.k.a. Omi Marianne), her dad’s mom, and her uncle (mother’s brother). We were immediately whisked off to Omi Karin’s house (also home to her aunt Antja and uncle Gernot) for a warm bowl of bean soup with coffee and cake (getting hungry just recalling it!).
Overall we had nine days in Germany, and all but one were spent with family in Wermsdorf (Omi Karin and company) or Oschatz (where Omi Marianne lives). Oschatz is the larger of the two towns and is a twenty minute drive or an hour by bus, so we found ourselves traveling back and forth a bit to visit both grandmothers. Our days were mostly spent either in the house cooking, eating and / or cleaning, or in the garden picking beans, strawberries, apples, zucchinis, cucumbers and tomatoes. We also spent time most days going for an hour or so walk with Jazz’s grandmother and grandfather, writing a few blog posts, visiting with family and friends, and wrapping up some other project-type work for Engineers Without Borders. While it rained quite a bit, we still got by (actually it was a nice break from the sun in Spain and Portugal) and ended up with several nice days as well.
As to the food… We’ll just say we are still working off the weight two weeks later in Russia! At one point we were surrounded by six cakes (apple pie, rubarb pie, sour cherry pound cake, chocolate crumble mouse cake, chocolate gingerbread and poppy seed cake)!!
Breakfast and dinner was generally bread, cheese, cold meats and pickled veggies with tea, while lunch was the larger meal with cooked meat (duck, veil, cow tongue, beef, etc.) and veggie sides (potatoes, sour cauliflower, mushrooms, pickled cucumber and beans, etc.). Evenings were spent chatting, playing cards or looking at old pictures with a cup of tea or maybe a black beer.
Half-way through our visit Antje and Gernot pulled us away from the house for a day drive to Meiβen. We walked through the old castle (Albrechtsburg) and its exhibits, including examples of how the past kings lived, narratives about the queens’ lives (for example bearing ten children and marrying at age six), how the castle was constructed and the Meiβen porcelain making process and history.
After the Albrechtsburg we walked back down to the town center while taking a close look at the decrepit buildings still scattered throughout Meiβen due to legal and financial constraints. During the process we started up a conversation with several workers tasked with rebuilding the terraced garden walls of the castle. They brought over a sandstone brick that they found which had been laying on top of the walls since the 1870’s (when the gardens were originally constructed) with the royal emblem of the king embedded on it. The emblem was still intact (i.e. not covered in moss, etc.) because it had been laid face down. It was pretty neat to see this guy pull out a stone from 1870 they just happened to dig up and luckily notice while repairing the wall! We rounded off the day with a bockwurst, ice cream and whirlwind shoe shopping for Lee (apparently Europeans don’t generally have feet larger than size 45 - size 10 ½ in the US, because there were only a handful of the ugliest shoes available in a 47!). We made our way back that evening, with Jazz getting a haircut and Lee finishing off the night drinking Irish whiskey with Antje, Gernot and their friend.
Sadly we had to leave, but we managed to find our way back to Prague (even after getting off at the wrong station in Dresden for a transfer, talk about heart-stopping minutes and running pell-mell through the Dresden Main Train Station!) and felt right at home again at Karen’s apartment. We even stopped by the same restaurant for some yummy garlic soup, before heading out the next day to Finland.
Next Up: Relaxing in Helsinki.
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