Velbert and Bochum

FAMILY Time
On Thursday, June 18, we drove 20 minutes north to Bochum where we spent many hours getting to know our exchange student, Lennie (last one on the right), and his family.  Mom, Anita, and Dad, Stephan were very sympathisch (no direct translation to English, but you can probably figure it out).  The boys spent a lot of time building a world in Minecraft while Skyping together over the last few months.  Now they got to do it in person.

The Brakemann family has a fabulous house above the Ruhr river.  We had a tasty meal down by the river and celebrated. We are very super excited to have Lennie join our family this August!

  

Lennart:  Once a Don, Always a Don.

We were supposed to leave for Nüremberg early on the morning of Friday, June 19, but decided to jump ship and hang out with the Pennekamp/Schlothmann/Wohlgemut family in Langenberg instead.  So who the heck are they?  They are the branch of our family where we are double-related.  

See if you can follow this:  Steph's German grandmother had a brother.  Steph's German grandfather had a sister.  That brother and sister got married, too, and had two kids: Margaret, second from left, and Brigitte, fourth from left. 

We come from good stock.  Margaret is 85 and Brigitte is 87.  They both have great hair and all of their wits about them!  

Note future super model Alexandra, far left, and college boy Max, third from left.  They are my cousin Gabi's kids.  

Brigitte made that cake for us from scratch that morning: freshly baked "torten boden" (the bottom cakey part), heaps of Marscapone cheese topped with fresh strawberries, currants and blackberries.  It was one of the best cakes EVER!

I don't know where Max went, but notice supermodel Alex again.  Xandi (as she was called up until she became a future supermodel) had just picked out her graduation outfit.  She was "making her Abitur" the next day.

Now you can see Margaret, Gabi and Brigitte ("Tante Gitte") better.

This is Katherina, the baby of the Schlothmann family.  She could have been named Sunshine because that is what she is.

Here Gabi's husband Bernd-Joseph (Jup, for short - pronounced "yoop"), is fresh in from a long day in the chem lab. Jup is the poster boy for the word "jolly".  I have only seen him laugh. I have not witnessed him not laughing. Note future supermodel Alex to Jup's left.

2014

Sadly, this year we did not take any pictures with Moni and Heinz-Bernd, my aunt and uncle with whom we stay when we are in Velbert.  
I also failed to photograph the stunning Beautiful Homes and Gardens style backyard, which, due to the usually sunny weather recently, was looking amazing, particularly the rose trellises. They were so full of red and white and pink roses that they didn't even look real. 

So here are some pics from our short stay with them last summer:

We happened to be in Velbert for the one day of the World Cup Soccer Final, Germany vs Argentina in Rio, and, of course we won! 

And we got to watch it with Moni, Bernd and their cats, who hid because of the tension.  

And of course, no visit is complete without a visit to Eiscafe San Marco! 

And here we are again, a year later at Eiscafe San Marco.  Julian:  vanilla, because he is a vanilla kind of guy, with Sahne and Streuseln (sprinkles, which are really chunks of chocolate), and me: four "Kugeln" (scoops) "mit Sahne" (with whipped cream - the Germans don't mess around with this. It costs 1.-€ extra. You get what you pay for.)  Hazelnut, Mocha, Banana, Coffee.
That's my aunt Moni's sweater I am wearing, since I didn't have even a sock to call my name for the first few days.

Unfortunately, we did have to get out of Dodge (Velbert) after two lovely days with family, because we had a date with a wave and with a mountain climber coming up for which we could not be late!