Grounded

It's two and a half weeks now since we got back from Germany, and it's only now that I'm starting to feel fully grounded again, and not 'up in the air' (almost, but not quite funny). Obviously it's time I shared some of my photos and told you about the fabulous time we had out there.

For someone who hasn't flown for almost 20 years, I did quite well. Thankfully I had Ethan on one side of me and Sean on the other, and they were very good to their Mummy and held my hands when we took off and when we landed. Flying with vertigo was an interesting experience - every time the plane dipped a wing to turn (and it seemed to do that a lot) I had another attack. It's a good job the space surrounding each row of seats is quite small - I'm sure if anyone had seen my eyes jittering and moving all over the place (the medical term for it is nystagmus - it's an involuntary bout of eye movement) each time, they would have probably freaked out. It feels really weird too - not only is the room spinning but my eyes go wibbly wobbly wonky too.

I was surprised when we got off the plane that Friedrichshafen Airport was so small (it's not that I expected it to be as big as Stansted, but I did think it would be bigger). They have an observation deck on top of the terminal building, and Robert and Andrea were up there waving madly. Going through passport control was just like walking through the barriers at a train station - it didn't take long thankfully - and then we were through. I was pleasantly surprised that Ethan, who hasn't seen Grandad since he was about 3, and Andrea since his Christening when he was four months old, had no shyness at all - he was straight into their arms for huggies and kisses. We made our way to the car hire offices, marvelling at how warm it was there. We were delighted to find that, although we'd booked an Audi A3, we ended up with a Citroen C4 Picasso. Robert had brought Ethan's car seat with him (they are expensive in Germany, so I'd brought one here and couriered it over - it cost me just over £20 in total - a small price to pay to ensure his safety), and Ethan elected to drive home with them rather than come with us. We were supposed to drive round to meet them in front of the terminal building, but Colin was too busy trying to orientate himself to driving on the right hand side of the road, so he drove straight past where we were supposed to wait and turned left out of the airport. When he realised that they were nowhere to be seen we all ended up getting a bit stressed. Eventually we managed to get through to Robert on his mobile and they came and found us, and we followed them down to Eriskirch.

There were several things immediately evident about Germany - firstly, it was incredibly clean. I think we're all used to seeing rubbish littering the streets here, to the extent that we have become immune to it, so seeing somewhere such the opposite to that made it stand out all the more. Secondly, the roads were smooth and in very good condition - wonderful to drive on. Thirdly, it was all so incredibly pretty. I think I half expected it to be very industrial (and Friedrichshafen IS industrial, apparently), but it was all just so very charming and quaint.

I was also pleasantly surprised to find that almost everyone we met spoke some English - and I felt rather ashamed that I hadn't even thought before we went that it would have been nice to be able to speak a few words of German. Naturally, that's something that I am determined to change, and since we've been back I have been doing my best to learn some, so that when we go back I can at least manage a few sentences.

I had a very busy day on the Thursday - there was a party planned for the evening, with plate smashing (apparently a German custom meant to bring luck to the bride and groom), so the whole day was spent in preparation for that - including helping Sean to draw a huge chalk target in the middle of the drive.



The party was lots of fun - the alcohol was flowing, there was plenty to eat, lots of plates got smashed and I met lots of interesting people. This next picture is of Ethan helping Grandad and Andrea to sweep up all the broken china, and I just love it so much - look at that cute little botty, he's just totally delish. Unfortunately, both my boys were casualties - Sean got hit with a shard of china that left him bleeding profusely from a big cut on his leg; and Ethan cut his finger quite badly. But a good time was had by all, even if we were bitten to the extreme by mosquitos (and they were big mosquitos, not like the tiny little things we get over here). Fortunately, Robert and Andrea had some mosquito repellent, and one of their friends passed around a tube of antihistamine gel that helped to take the itch away for a short while.



Friday was the legal wedding ceremony, to be held in the Town Hall. I'd set the alarm on my phone nice and early so that we had plenty of time to get ready, and I was just about to get in the shower when Robert rang wanting to know where we were - it was only then that we realised that, although I'd moved the time on my watch forward by an hour, I hadn't changed it on my mobile ... oops. Fortunately, Colin was more or less ready, so he whizzed off to start picking people up while we finished getting ready. The wedding party enjoyed a pleasant walk to the Town Hall (about ten minutes away). The wedding ceremony itself was probably very nice, but it was all in German, so we didn't understand any of it. Anyway, before too long Andrea became Mrs Kent, and Colin had gained himself another Mummy and another three brothers.

After the ceremony we had a glass of champagne and stood round and chatted for a while before wandering back home to pick up the cars and head off for lunch. We went to a place in the mountains (I have no idea what it was called) that had stuff for the kids to do, and we enjoyed a delicious lunch of salads, meats and breads.

Unfortunately, Ethan threw a major tantrum (like we'd never seen before) because he was playing outside in the blazing sun in the sandpit, and I wanted him to come in and sit and have a drink and put some sunblock on first. He refused to sit and threw a major wobbly when we insisted. We felt we had no option but to bundle him into the car and leave - I'm sure I'm not the only Mum who feels that she is judged on the behaviour of her kids. He cried for about 20 minutes on the way back (we went the long way round, through lots of tiny mountain villages which were incredibly pretty), and it wasn't until we were nearly back at our apartment that we finally admitted that he was tired. He wasn't the only one - we were all exhausted as we'd been having very late nights and very early mornings for the last few days - so we took ourselves off to bed for a nap for a couple of hours, and woke feeling refreshed and ready for the bbq that was planned for our evening entertainment. The evening turned out to be hectic - as soon as we got to Robert and Andrea's I was dragged away to help with the lemon trees - Andrea had grown over 100 tiny lemon trees for all the guests at Saturday's wedding - and we had to cut out a printed lemon that had a poem written on it in German, which then had a hole punched in the top, and ribbon threaded through. There were also menu cards to be made, which I finished off while the others went to eat. After dinner we headed off to the dance hall where they were having the reception to decorate it and get everything ready. I was carrying a big box, and didn't realise that there was a tiny (about 1 inch) step from the corridor into the hall, and tripped ... I sort of did a trippy-wippy-dancey-wancey thing and managed NOT to fall, or drop the box ... but only just. Everyone thought it was very funny (and so did I once I'd recovered from the embarrassment). I sat and made fancy folded napkins with Bernie and one of Andrea's friends, while Colin and Pete (Bernie's husband) stood behind us indulging in anorak speak (they were talking about amateur radio). Finally we went back to Robert and Andrea's, had a couple more drinks, and headed back to our apartment, for yet another very late night.

Talking of late nights, it's past 10.00 pm here. I'm tired, it's been a very busy weekend, and I have to go and put clean bedclothes on my bed before I can get in it and go to sleep. So here is where I shall finish for now, and I will relate more tomorrow, and more photos.