Germany

Day 2 in Deutschland – Gluhwein Fest (Sindersdorf, GE)

Authors Note: While in Germany – I’m going to try a NEW format for the blog: “short & sweet”   just a few words and maybe short captions to the pictures.  Why, you ask?  Well, recent feedback from (German) family and friends, indicates that (most, if not all) find it too difficult to take the time to read and translate… they just look at the pictures anyway.  And, since we’re here in Germany until the 11th of January with the content primarily focused on Stilla’s family and our friends here… I’ll try to tone down the blog and make it “short & sweet” starting today.  Here we go…

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Wolfgang and William in the wood shop.

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William’s new IKEA kitchen (below).  I helped William and Wolfgang install a few more pieces today.  We still need to put up cabinets and hook-up the dishwasher.

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In the hof. Stilla just got back from the garden with Opa.
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Wolfgang made this cool candle out of a birch(?) tree branch.
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Wood stove in Wolfgang’s woodshop. It’s cold here in Germany 😐

View out upstairs window towards the Volunteer Fire Department (Freiwillige Feuerwehr) house across the street.  The Glühwein Christmas (Weihnachten) party is scheduled to be held there later tonight.

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In the evening, we went across the street to the Glühwein party at the Volunteer Fire Department House.  This is an annual event held by the town Maibaum Verein (Maypole Club).

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The townsfolk gathered around the fires and tables set up by the Maibaum Verein.  They sold Glühwein, bier, wiener & bretzen (pretzels).  Lots of free stollen (cake) was also on hand.

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Neighbors and friends; Herbert and Werner.
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More neighbors and friends. (L to R) Claudia, Me, Stilla, Gunter.

Lone-standing burning log put out some good heat 🙂

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Family Friends; Silvia & Barni. They visited us in Colorado several years back. We did a RV tour together in our old Class-C through the south-west.
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Herbert, Xavier, and Stilla.
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(L to R) Claudia, Stilla, Gunter, Werner.  Claudia & Werner visited us in Colorado back in the early ’90s once.

We walked into the Maibaum Verein (Maypole Club) clubhouse.  No one was using it this evening because everyone was hanging around outside around the fires.

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There were some old pictures on the wall of us getting the maypole and putting it up.   I think these pictures were from the late ’90s.  The second picture down on the left side is of my old tailgate table and umbrella that I used to put on the receiver hitch of my Dodge Dakota pickup.  I was surprised to see these old pictures… pretty cool 🙂  I’m also in a couple of the other pictures (below) along with family and neighbors.

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My old Jeep CJ-7 (upper left in picture below).  I think I was hauling a bunch of the tree branches from the recently harvested Maypole tree.  Mid or late ’80s.  The lower left pic has three of Stilla’s brothers in it (Stefan, Wolfgang, Richard), a brother-in-law (Martin), and good family friend (Barni).

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Stay tuned for Day 3 activities… we’re invited to Stefan & Annerose house for dinner today (Sunday).  Stefan is Stilla’s youngest brother.   I’m sure there will be lots of good food to be eaten 🙂