Visit with Hanni and Peter
Trip Start
May 14, 2007
1
16
23
Trip End
Aug 25, 2007
Großostheim, Germany
Saturday, June 30, 2007
morning. I wasn't sure what to expect, but as I left the platform
I heard "Brooke?" I turned around and it was Hanni with Peter
standing beside her. They both look great!! I think Hanni
has lost quite a bit of weight since she was in the States.
We went to their car and they told us that we would first have a look
about Aschaffenburg. They took us to the castle. It had
been completely destroyed during WWII but was rebuilt and now houses
many displays including furniture, dishes, paintings, and cork
models. The cork models are of famous arches, buildings, and
landmarks such as the Colosseum and are really intricate. I
didn't know that people could be so creative with cork!! After a
nice tour, we went and sat outside a restaurant, had a beer, and talked
about what's happened since they visited America. They are such
nice people and I had a great time just sharing stories and listening
to what they thought about their visit.
After walking around the town a bit more, we headed to their town of
Grossostheim. They showed us their house and let us put our
things down in the room they'd prepared for us. Their house is
really cute and is just the perfect size for the two of them.
They have a really nice patio area and a bit of a yard/garden. We
ate some Kasekuchen (cheesecake) that Hanni had made that morning and
it was definitely the BEST cheesecake I've ever had (I got the recipe
from her so I'll have to try making it when I come home). They
mentioned playing Kegel, a bowling-like game and Julia and I said that
we would like to try it. Peter is the President of the Kegel
League in Grossostheim so he took us over to the lanes and we learned
how to play (luckily we were the only ones there so we only had Hanni
and Peter laughing at us). The game consists of rolling a ball
(slightly smaller than a bowling ball) without finger holes down an
alley at 9 pins (in a diamond pattern and further away from each other
than bowling pins) and trying to get as many down as possible. We
had a great time!!
We next went to the local school's 100th anniversary party.
There, we met some of Hanni's grandchildren and children. Hanni
bought Julia and I a bratwurst and it was the best one I've had so
far!! There were so many people there and the kids had many
activities to do-it looked like a lot of fun. After visiting for
a while, we headed back to Hanni and Peter's house and got things ready
for a barbecue. Hanni's children and grandchildren came over and
ate a wonderful meal with us-pork, turkey, potato-salad, bread, and
dessert. Julia and I then played a couple of rounds of table
tennis with Peter and Udo (I now know this is the correct way to spell it thanks to a Großostheim resident who contacted me) and
although they took it easy on us, we were really bad. By the time
everyone left for the evening, I was quite exhausted and we all went
inside and watched a bit of TV before going to bed.
The next morning we woke up, ate some breakfast and headed out to
Miltenberg. Along the way, we had some beautiful scenery-high
hills with vineyards all over the place and a nice river. The
town of Miltenberg was quite nice and had a cool castle with a great
view from it's courtyard. We walked around town a bit and saw the
'oldest restaurant in Germany' and admired all the beautiful
half-timbered buildings. Julia and I found a Flower store and bought
them some flowers to thank the for all their generosity and their great
hospitality and Hanni was really happy : )
We headed back to Grossostheim and Peter made reservations at the local
brewery for lunch...did I mention that we were driving in Peter's
really nice Mercedes-Benz?...At the Eder's brewery, I had one of the
best meals I've eaten since I've been in Germany-pork tenderloin in a
mushroom sauce with a type of noodles they call spatzle!! I got
the 'small' portion and it was all I could do to finish it because
there was so much! We went back to their house and Peter watched
some Formula 1 racing while Hanni, Julia, and I all took little
cat-naps. Afterwords, I asked them to take us around Grossostheim
(we'd seen so many other places but hadn't even been around their own
city)...Peter said that he would walk with us and we had a nice tour of
the town. It was very different than the other towns I've been in
because it was so quiet-there weren't any tourists!!
I really had a wonderful weekend and I'm looking forward to seeing
Hanni and Peter again when I visit Inge (Hanni's sister) at the beginning of August!!
Comments
Greetings from Grossostheim
I just came across your travelblog with nice pictures of Grossostheim and the region. It seems like you had a real good time here.
Being a native and proud 'Grossostheimer, who still - rather: again - lives here, I have a searchbot running that spits out any occurences of 'Grossostheim' in the blogosphere.
Next time you come here, make sure your hosts take you to one of the numerous beerfests.
Best regards
Klaus aka ulysses
P.S. The correct spelling is 'Udo' - but 'Oodo' would also make a nice firstname. ;-)
Aunt Julene
Looks like you had another nice weekend. I just showed Grandpa all you pictures and read him your entry. He is really impressed. Hope you are doing well and continue to have a good time.
Take care ---be careful.
Love
Aunt Julene