Sorry to have kept you waiting with part two of my Germany trip for so long, but it has been somewhat hectic lately. If you missed it, here is part I of my trip. At the end of which I hinted at more little hiccups. Well, nothing major really, but I still keep wondering: How can it be that someone books a flight, pays it, checks in for it, even checks his baggage at the airport and then… is a no-show??! I do not understand. All the trouble is over and then – flight missed. Hm, come to think of it, maybe it was someone like that guy I mentioned in part I, who got there a little late? I don’t know. But fact is that we had to wait for another half an hour at the gate, because the poor guys from ground crew had to find and unload the checked suitcases of the no-shows. Wonderful!
But despite our delayed start we got to Frankfurt on time. Blame it yet again on the jet stream. Which also made for a somewhat bumpy flight. But otherwise it was o.k. and Monday morning I arrived into Frankfurt, got my suitcase and still had time to relax in the DB lounge of the German rail service. I checked in on my email, sent a text to my hubby, had something to drink and then mosied to the platform. Boarded the train and three and a half hours later arrived into Bielefeld on time, where my sister already waited for me. We were just in time for coffee and cake at my mom’s place. What a surprise for her. Nobody had told here that I was coming for her 80s birthday – very nice! And in the evening the whole family assembled at a local restaurant to celebrate her birthday.
On Tuesday we, the daughters, took our mom out on a boat cruise on the river Weser. As kids we used to go there nearly every weekend, so it was a little trip down memory lane for us. But the river cruise was something new. And we had lots of time to spend and talk with our mom. Which was the whole point of the trip. The trip also included going through a sluice to get onto a canal. Quite a weird feeling being on a ship, on water, but about 10 meters above ground. The weather was far from perfect, but it cooperated, since whenever we were outside it was dry and it only rained when we were inside. Three hours later our trip was over and we finished off the day with dinner at my sister’s place.
After having had breakfast together on Wednesday morning, my niece dropped me off at the train station in Bielefeld, where I boarded an InterCity train, which took me to the southern end of Germany – Waldshut, my next stop on this Germany trip, coming up on my blog soon.
And this is my Mama one day after her 80s birthday π
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What a heartfelt gift of love ! Being with your mom on her birthday…………memories are fhe forever gift that keeps on giving+++
Thank you for sharing
Very true, Deborah. My mom was truly quite overwhelmed, by me showing up and then spending the with us out and about. It was well worth the effort.
What a fantastic trip! The boat ride looks like it was a lot of fun. Thanks for providing so many great pictures for our viewing pleasure!
You are very welcome, Megan. I always love to take the photos and share them. If I get a response, such as yours, it makes my day π
Great pictures! I had forgotten about those channel lock thingies! Thanks for sharing!
Haha – and I keep forgetting that you have already been there and done all those things, too, Debbi. Thank you for taking the time of visiting and commenting.
Your mother is just beautiful.
Hmm – wow – I don’t know what to say, Jamie. Thank you, I guess. I have to admit though, that I do love those photos, especially the last one, of her. I might have to do some editing on it.
A memorable event and – I suppose- a very welcome surprise to your mother to see you at her 80th birthday! I am impressed by the company at table and personally think that especially your common activities were the greatest contribution to the whole birthday celebration.
Claudia, I am very happy to have met you in Mannheim recently, even if we had only a few hours of time to spend. I hope you, David and your guests have a really good time these days and look forward to hearing from you again.
Michael
Hi Michael, yes, very true – our gift to my mom was ‘our time together’ and yes, she was very (!) surprised, in a good way π
I was very happy that you could make the time and the effort to drive to Mannheim just to see us for these few hours. Time is very precious and I truly appreciate it. I was so nice meeting you again in person… maybe on another vacation sometime soon…