European holiday - part 2
The rest of the trip was pretty much spent visiting family either for lunch, or afternoon cake & coffee or for an evening meal.
Martin's Oma lives in a small village called Schönenberg. Schönenberg is located at the top of the mountain from a town called Schönau. At 88, Oma is the oldest resident of Schönenberg and even had the town mayor attend her last birthday!
On Saturday October 3rd, Schönenberg held a mini 'Oktoberfest' as a charity event for the local fire department. It was only a short walk from Oma's house so we decided to go for a nosy. There was a Flohmarkt (fleamarket) plus local beer and seasonal treats like Zwiebelkuchen; onion cake that isn't too dissimilar in taste to quiche Lorraine. We hadn't planned to meet anyone there, but who should we run into, but Martin's uncle Manfred! We sat with him for a bit and were then joined by Auntie Agathe and her sister and brother-in-law. Manfred somehow convinced Martin to compete with him in a traditional log-sawing competition! Katia and Christian were mortified but it was a good laugh - even if they didn't do very well! The best time was around 16 seconds and they took about 47 seconds... oh well!
That evening we drove to Lörrach to visit with Auntie Ursula, Uncle Udo, Martin's cousin Meike and her son Lennert. Evening meals were always a bit of a comedy with Christian. I guess it was our fault for not explaining to him that the Germans eat their hot meal at lunchtime and eat only cold food in the evening. Dinner for them usually consists of assorted cheeses, breads, sausages & meats, and sometimes tomatoes, cucumber, pickles and salad. Of that, Christian eats bread, tomatoes and cucumber! When we were at Ursula's (our third evening visit with the family) Christian asked if we were having "snacks" again! Highly embarrassing for us, but thank goodness Ursula thought it was very amusing! Luckily for him, he was able to have a bowl of soup when we returned to our flat each night!
We had a family meal with everyone on Sunday: Martin's two aunts & uncles, Meike, Lennert, his cousin Jörn, and Jörn's girlfriend Karin. The only one who was missing was Oma, as she wasn't feeling well. We went to a local restaurant and Martin shocked everyone by ordering ox tongue - ha! Christian was happy to finally get some hot food and made up for the other days by eating two meals! Afterwards, we went back to Manfred and Agathe's for more food - delicious homemade apple and almond cakes and coffee of course! Later in the afternoon we attempted to work off some of the day's indulgences by going for a long walk to a local wildlife park where a randy deer bull tried to attack Martin - I sure wish I'd have had the video camera!!
Monday, the 5th of October was Katia's 9th birthday! She was really looking forward to her special day and we planned to go to an adventure & wildlife park called Steinwasen Park. It was a short drive from where we were staying and the bonus for her (well, for us) is that kids who have their birthday at Steinwasen Park get in for free! We spent several hours there; actually longer than we'd expected to and like Legoland, it wasn't busy and there weren't any queues. I thought the mix of fun rides and wildlife was excellent.
We were lucky to get there fairly early and the weather stayed dry for the most part, but when it started to rain we decided it was time to go and drove to the lovely city of Freiberg. We have visited this city before, but this time found some new and unusal streets that we'd not seen before; was a shame that we didn't have more time to spend there! We did make time for a stop at a local ice cream shop for yet another colossal ice cream - which was a bit of a recurring theme! In fact, as expensive as most of Europe is (especially with the lousy exchange) ice cream remains very inexpensive. In Trier we bought 4 ice cream cones for a grand total of 2.80 € : cheap!!
Martin's Oma lives in a small village called Schönenberg. Schönenberg is located at the top of the mountain from a town called Schönau. At 88, Oma is the oldest resident of Schönenberg and even had the town mayor attend her last birthday!
Log-sawing in Schönenberg
That evening we drove to Lörrach to visit with Auntie Ursula, Uncle Udo, Martin's cousin Meike and her son Lennert. Evening meals were always a bit of a comedy with Christian. I guess it was our fault for not explaining to him that the Germans eat their hot meal at lunchtime and eat only cold food in the evening. Dinner for them usually consists of assorted cheeses, breads, sausages & meats, and sometimes tomatoes, cucumber, pickles and salad. Of that, Christian eats bread, tomatoes and cucumber! When we were at Ursula's (our third evening visit with the family) Christian asked if we were having "snacks" again! Highly embarrassing for us, but thank goodness Ursula thought it was very amusing! Luckily for him, he was able to have a bowl of soup when we returned to our flat each night!
With the Müllers in Lörrach
Ox Tongue
Big Bad Daddy Deer
Freiberg
After Freiberg, we drove to see Oma for one last "snack" and to say our goodbyes. The next day we had a quick visit with Jörn, Manfred & Agathe before driving back to Bolougne-sur-Mer. Our ferry back to England was booked for 10:45 pm; which gave us ample time to drive back.
So that's it for holidays now until Boxing Day when we're off to Austria!
The photo gallery of our trip is located below.
So that's it for holidays now until Boxing Day when we're off to Austria!
The photo gallery of our trip is located below.
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