16 July 2011

Saturday and Sunday, 16. and 17. July: Korntal

Cousin Annemarie lives and works at a home for retired missionaries in the very small town of Lobbach.  She had a 4 room apartment on the top floor (living room, bedroom, kitchen, and bathroom plus a nice hallway.)  We did a quick tour Saturday morning then she drove us to Stuttgart.  We did some sightseeing and shopping in downtown Stuttgart.  It was market day, so we walked past some of the markets, buying fresh pretzels at the bakery.  I bought spätzle presses, a tool originating from the south so more likely to be found here.








Next we drove to Korntal.  It was a little early, so we went to a nearby park and talked for a while, the same park where Ännchen's husband, Luigi, had proposed to her several years earlier. Kristen checked out the fake horses and tepees.  
First we visited Tante Annemarie for a few minutes, then we went down to the basement to visit Tante Lore. She had a childhood friend come to visit her, so we only stayed a few minutes.  We went back upstairs to visit Tante Annemarie again then drove to Weil der Stadt to visit Ongel Engelbert and Tante Dorle.



The view from the balcony of the apartment in Weil der Stadt is really nice.  We had tea there with them and their daughter Barbara as well as two of her kids, Alessandro and Anna.  Tea included Bienenkuchen (honey cake.)    

(left to right: Anna, Sandro, Onkel Engelbert, Tante Dorle, Ännchen (Tante Annemarie's daughter), Kristen, and Barbel (Daughter of O. Engelbert and T. Dorle.)

We sat on the balcony and talked for a while before leaving to go back to the house in Korntal, this time upstairs where we were babysitting for Claudia's children while she went out dancing with her boyfriend, Alfred.  We played ping pong with Dennis and Benjamin, chased the guinea pigs, and practiced English and German.  Annemarie and I made pizza for dinner for us and the kids, some plain, the rest with tuna.
The garden house is at the back of the yard.

The backyard.


Claudia, Dennis, Benjamin, and Alfred

We stayed overnight at Claudia's house, and in the morning, Kristen, Ben and I went with Ännchen to the Lutheran Church.  They played a piece by Bach.  My German was not good enough to understand much of the preacher who spoke very quickly.  Ben and Kristen had fun  pretending to be old, using umbrellas as canes.  Claudia had dinner ready for us when we got back:  Maultaschen soup, Tuna steaks, and veggies. Kristen and Alfred joked about the tofu we had brought back from Eisenach.  We walked down the street and bought ice cream cones.  On the way back, a parade which only happens every 5 years was just starting.  Tante Lore came upstairs to watch it with us, but Tante Annemarie stayed inside.  One of the first cars had a sign in the window: "Gerhard's Oldtimers"  (antique cars are called oldtimers there.)  We also saw a logging truck.  I didn't have my camera with me, so we didn't get many pictures.




We visited Tante Annemarie one more time and then went downstairs and visited Tante Lore again.  Then we drove to the cemetery where we saw the graves of 2 cousins, Andreas (Dennis and Ben's dad) and Petra (wife of Johannes who is the brother of Annemarie and Andreas) as well as Onkel Rolf (actually Rudolf), the father of 8 children including Johannes, Annemarie, and Andreas.

Petra's is the tan stone in the middle.

Andreas' is an irregular shaped stone.  Annemarie had helped choose it, but this is the first time she had seen it.




We then drove back to Lobbach where we walked past the quelle (well) where Annemarie gets her drinking water.  We then walked through the forest, stepping over lots of snails and slugs.  It was fairly late by this point, we we went back to the apartment and had spaghetti and went to bed.





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