Today was all about Renate. Several of her school friends have been eagerly anticipating her arrival, and planned a reunion at a famous pastry shop. I can get behind people like this! We had some time to kill before the reunion so we went in search of her grandparent's home which is near our hotel. Then we drove by the house that she grew up in, and then motored into Alstadt (old town). She pointed out to us places where she worked, and where friends had lived. And the current pedestrian shopping mall, was also one back in the day. And she and her girlfriends used to go there to check out the boys. I see nothing changes. She then took us to where the public bathhouse used to be. For my Bay Area friends, this is a different kind of bathhouse. After the war a lot of people didn't have running water and if they did it may not have been enough to accommodate the number of people living in their home. So people went to the bathhouses to get cleaned up. We found the original town wall, and even a building that she has a painting of in her home that she did years ago.
We got to the shop early, but she was nervous about being the first one there. She wasn't sure she was going to recognize most of the attendees. Once we saw the organizer though it was all good. There were hugs all around, and eventually about a dozen women around the table with Mark as the token male. Most spoke enough English to allow for some conversation with us. And even with the language barrier it was fun to watch this group of women who had known each other for 60 years or more. It's amazing how much you can infer about someone's personality just by watching them. Who was the clown, who was serious, who was popular, etc.
Once the party broke up, Renate, Mark and I went to one of the women's homes along with another friend so that we could see her husband. We sat around chatting (well Mark and I trying to look interested) At some point Renate mentioned that Mark and I would like to get some Iserlohner bier glasses, and asked where we might find those. Well, Ingabore (sp?) was like a dog with a bone. The phone book came out and she started making calls, including to a guy she knows who recently closed a restaurant so he might have a good line on them. We finally learned that the only place to get them is at the brewery from 8-1700 hours. It was almost 1600 so I said we would go by there tomorrow. Before Renate translated that, they were asking me who was going with her husband to pick out the glasses? He would drive us. Uh, OK. So Mark and I climbed in with hubby (I still don't know his name) and took off. Now while he is a senior, he does have exceptionally good and firm reflexes with the brakes. And I do mean sudden. When we approached the brewery it was really unclear where we were supposed to go. He drove all around the buildings with no luck. We were about to give up when he saw an intercom attached to a wall. Through that he made arrangements and we got the glasses. Mark and I were joking that there was no way we could avoid buying them at that point!
While it was starting to get dark, he offered to show us the tower made famous by the design on the glasses we just bought. So up the hill we went to get a commanding view of the valley and the sunset to the west. The hills were still fall-like with leaves of many colors everywhere. But as we climbed many yards did have a light dusting of snow even though everywhere else looked like fall. We returned to homemade lasagna and I was entertained by the easy banter of these friends of so many years. We finally took our leave. Renate was exhausted after being "on" all day, and I worke up with a cold this morning- the same one Mark has had for several days, so it was back to the hotel early to get some rest. Tomorrow Munster with Karin and Tina again. So far no rain, but it is forecasted for tomorrow afternoon possibly. Cross your fingers that we miss it!
Linda
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