Germany ~~~

Freidrich and Walter at Ghost Lake
The Nahre at Heidleberg
The narrow street where we stayed at Bacharat
Bacharat
Vineyard and crooked building viewed from the Rhine.

Thought it was time to take you all on Our trip to Germany, Sweden and the USA in 2004.

We went first to Germany, where we stayed with Walter's old school friend Friedrich and his lovely wife Edeltraud. Because Walter has been here in Australia since 1954, and has had very little opportunity to speak german, he was worried about being able to converse with Friedrich,
but within 10 minutes they were talking, flat out. To see them together after 50 years was just great for Edel and I. We also visited some of Walter's family, his cousin Herman and an Aunt, who has since died.

We had a marvelous time in Germany, saw and did so much in a short time, we wished we had been able to stay longer. We took a cruise on the Rhine, and saw a fantastic fireworks display over a number of castles, it was very spectacular. With Friedrich & Edel we went to Little Versailles, apparently and german prnce had married a french princess, and she was homesick, so he built her a little Versaille palace. There weill be some photos of it, and you will see that it is not very little. We went to Heidleberg ansd saw the casle and the lovely old town, we went through so many little villages, with cobblestone streets and crooked little houses, including the ones that Walter & Fred had lived and played in as children, places with so much history that it was hard to take it all in.

We ate great german food at home with Edel & fred and at some lovely restaurants, and drank some excellent wine. When we were there it was time for the neuwien, and it is the local tradition to have onion cake and neuwien, it was very good. We certainly crammed a lot in, in the two weeks we were there. It was hard to leave, but our itinerary had us moving on to Sweden.

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It's hard to feel middle- aged, because how can you tell how long you are going to live.