Booking a train that departed at 6am wasn’t going to be a problem for me, since I was going to be jetlagged and up by 5am anyway …
The European train system is amazing — a full month ago, I booked this travel leg via the Deutsche Bahn website, and it went exactly as planned. I started out on a German “Inter City Express” (ICE) train in Paris, going 200 MPH, transferred in Saarbrucken, transferred in Neustadt, transferred in Landau, and ended up on a local train going 20 MPH as it rolled into Annweiler about 5 hours later. Where my aunt Renate and cousin Cornelia were waiting on the platform for me!
Annweiler is a small town in southwestern Germany, very close to the French border, where my mother’s side of the family hails from. As a child of age 14, I lived in Annweiler with my grandmother for a full year, going to the German high school there with my cousin Stefan and getting immersed in German culture. It was the beginning of a private, family exchange program that we ended up running in our extended family — I went to Germany for a year, than a cousin came to live with us in the U.S. for a year (including going to high school with us), then one of my sisters went over, and so on, back and forth for a good 15 years.
The extended family was gathering in Annweiler to celebrate my cousin Stefan’s 50th birthday. Stefan is the oldest of our generation — altogether there were (counts on fingers) nine of us born between 1963 and 1980, in two waves, as each of the three Conrad daughters had three children. Besides our generation, the older generation was fully represented, as was the younger generation, including the two latest additions Theodor and Lukas. I was the sole representation for the American arm of the family.
My first stop in Annweiler was to visit with Günther Frey. Günther is a longtime family friend, and by longtime I mean like over 50 years. He group with my mom and her sisters, and his wife Herma was my mom’s best friend growing up. Sadly Herma passed away a couple years ago. Renate joined me in visiting with Günther, which was very helpful because my German is always very weak at the beginning of these trips, and so she helped translate as needed. Günther looks to be in great health and it was amazing to visit the Frey household (one that I’d been in as a teenager) and catchup on the status of his children Anja, Klaus and Ulrike, now all grown and with kids of their own.
After parting with Günther, Renate and I met up with the whole family at a restaurant in the town center. After a bit of hanging out and snacking, we split up into various cars and headed out to a winery, where an afternoon tasting event had been planned. It’s just amazing to be driving through the heart of wine country in August, just before the harvest, seeing mile after mile of neat rows of grapevines flitter past. At the winery, Weingut Theo Mingus, more family showed up and we had a great time catching up. I got to meet my newest nephew Lukas, only 2 months old. My uncle Andreas was there, and we talked a bit about our upcoming sailing trip, which would be getting underway in about 5-6 days. But Andreas was rightfully a lot more interested in his grandson, his first. Can you imagine what that must feel like, to hold your very first grandchild in your arms?
After the winery, most of us migrated to the hotel for checkin. Well, not exactly “hotel” and not exactly “checkin”. The regular hotels in the area were all booked up (the region attracts nature tourist) and so we were going to be staying at the local hostel, the “Turnerjugendheim” or “sports youth home”, not really a youth hostel but somewhere between that and a hotel. OK, maybe it was a hostel, but it was a brand new one and I had been provided with a room for myself. My cousins had taken care of all of the logistics, and I just had to follow people around and enjoy the ride. So someone handed me a key, I settled into my private room for a bit, and we got ready for the evening’s party.
I got my first look at my other new nephew, Theodor, who is now about 6 months old. Just like his mother (my cousin), the cute meter is pegged on this kid, just off the charts. And Theodor got to meet Lukas!
Back into the cars and to the party! It was being held in a local restaurant, with a good 30 or so of Stefan’s friends and family all gathered to celebrate in a private room in the back of the restaurant. Great food, drinks and catching up. Stefan gave us a speech on the occasion, beautifully recognizing all of the people that had made the trip, and those few that were not able to make it. (Helmut and Sabrina and Marcy, you were missed!) A great time was had by all.
As far as the time zone change, I was doing pretty good until about 11pm, when my body hit the wall. Jet lag was really insisting that I sleep — never in my life have I wanted to sleep so bad. Problem was, I was reliant on someone else (anyone else) for transport back to the hostel. That finally happened at around midnight, and I finally collapsed into bed. … Only to wake up 3 hours later. In my desperately tired stupor, I had forgotten to take the melatonin. Melatonin is a natural hormone that helps you cope with jet lag by helping you stay asleep through the night. I have sworn by the stuff for two decades; without it, I will wake up halfway through the night. Well, I forgot, and so I woke up. Then other things happened (I got really sick). In short, it was a rough night.