Upon returning from our Alsace Region four day weekend, I immediately started getting set for D-Rock's wedding which was the very next weekend (last weekend). His wife, K's, mother is German so they decided to have their town of Oldendorf host the wedding. One of the perks of this is that because weddings are so rare there, the entire town gets involved in celebrating the wedding.
It was a six hour drive to get there, as it was pretty much on the opposite side of Germany. Because of a lot of variables, J was unable to come along. I also couldn't make her take the drive after work where she would have to drive in the dark. I missed her the entire time.
The car I rented, a 2012 Hyundai i10, had by far the worst engine performance of any new car I have ever driven. The three items to support my case are as follows: the car literally could only go 0 to 60mph in 10 seconds, if it was even that short; with the pedal to the absolute floor, it would actually slow down going uphill; and the automatic transmission would only stay between 1500 and 4500 rpm (going 80mph required 4500rpms). This all said, it did appear to get amazing gas mileage. I am curious to know if the manual transmission drives better, but J said that her rental automatic VW Golf drove in a similar fashion. In Germany, these car designs should be considered road hazards. Everyone drives fast with fast reaction times. That Hyundai did not cut it.
Interestingly enough, the only two differences in environment between Kaiserslautern and Oldendorf were the completely flat terrain and the constant wind (as it is very near the North Sea). There were lots of windmills and cattle all around. The town itself was nicely set up and appeared to have a lot of new building constructed in the traditional German styling. In fact, one of the houses across from the hotel I stayed at, the Landhaus Lastrup, had an architecture firm sign on it.
The wedding was actually celebrated over 4 days. I could not attend the first two days, but was able to attend the ceremony, reception, and a bit of the gift opening. The ceremony started at K's uncle's farm, the rally point for the bulk of the four days. It was a sizeable farm in terms of buildings there. His house, he told me, was build in 1972. His backyard garden was very pretty. And on his barn, as on many large buildings in Oldendorf, had a very long inscription written on it. I took note of that as I thought of something like that last year, for when I have a plot of land that I would tend the rest of my life that I would consider very special. I took a picture of it as I have yet to take the time to translate it.
The entrance was decorated by the local townsfolk, as were most of the decorations for the entire wedding.
The church, while seemingly newly constructed to my eye, was just as immense as the churches J and I saw in Alsace. This picture doesn't do the proportions much justice. The ceiling had to have been the equivalent of four stories high.
The ceremony was Catholic in basic form and in prayer and spoken or sung in German, but several elements were spoken or sung in English. It was a different experience for me in that I basically knew where we were in the Catholic service based upon previous experience, and I could pick up little things here and there being said, but as for the Americans sitting with me and for myself, we really didn't know much of what was being said. We did know, based upon body language and tone of voice, that D-Rock was being very well received and the entire town was thankful for D-Rock and K choosing to have the celebration done in Oldendorf. They openly and repeatedly recognized and appreciated that people were coming from America, England, Germany, and I'm quite sure other countries as well.
The reception was very nice with a large host of German traditions. We were greeted by accordion players:
The guestbook was a picture panel of the attendees making hearts with their thumbs and signing them.
The food was absolutely delicious. The best German food I have ever had in my life. We started with a soup that was K's personal request, a recipe of her grandmother's. Everyone at the table had at least two servings. I think I had three or four. Next, was the salad. Then was the main course: a large vegetable platter of steamed broccoli, cauliflower, spargel (white asparagus), brussel sprouts, carrots, potatoes, green beans, and a few more items; and a large meat platter of duck, pork, rolled up beef, and lamb. Dessert consisted of large scoops of vanilla ice cream with strawberries, raspberry syrup, cookie cream mousse, and a kind of cherry cream that tasted very much like yogurt (I had a few servings of that too).
The dancing went on all night until what I heard was 4am. About every hour on the hour was a traditional German dance of some variety. Everyone seemed to know the polka, and I spied at least a half dozen dancers doing the hustle and quickstep. There was one older guy in particular who was making up a blend of ballroom dances that his partner was able to follow. They definitely were having a lot of fun. Only the grandmother left early. Absolutely everyone else stayed until at least 2am. Here are a couple of the traditional dances they did...
(I'll try loading these later. I almost crashed my poor laptop uploading them.)
The next day was at the farm house with German bratwurst cooked by Germans in Germany. I had at least 6. They were damn good! :) The guys cooking wore leather aprons. Hard core! There was also a trailer-bar in the driveway. Yes, there were Germans having a pint at 1pm after partying until 4am the previous night.
Sadly, I had to leave early to avoid driving in the dark on the 6 hour drive back home. I got to meet some really good friends of D-Rock. One of them was also a food challenge guru who was impressed with my meterwurst success at the Gasthaus in Minneapolis. I did remind him that it took me over 45 minutes and if it weren't for the accordion player, I don't know if I would have finished. K-borg, this new guy C-Fan, and I may have a food challenge event in our future, depending upon when I get back to the Twin Cities.
Because the luncheon didn't start until 12:30pm or so, and I had to check out of my hotel, I had some time to kill. I came across this somewhat hidden rock formation.
Again, I have not gotten around to translating, but it made for good conversation with K's uncle who spoke enough English to carry a conversation. It turns out that these are rock formations that are thousands of years old and scattered all throughout the area. They are believed to be connected to the rock formations in Great Britain and possibly tombstones. There were so many in fact that Germany destroyed a few of them to build the nearby autobahn.
The whole experience makes me want to learn German as quickly and as fluently as possible. There was a lot I missed out on because of being lost in translation, and I want to close that gap as quickly as I can. Everyone there was very nice and it was quite a party!
Of course, so sooner do I get back home then J and I develop a full fledged cold which apparently has been lingering around most of Germany. I actually spent the whole day today sleeping. I hate being a slug, but because of my diabetes, my immune system is not as powerful as it used to be, so I have to baby myself with antibiotics when I used to simply shrug things off.
One last couple of observations that I think many people stateside don't know about commonplace Germany. The top three average car models you see on the road: Audi, Mercedes, and BMW. The next three: Renault, Opel, and Citroen. The next three: Ford, Mazda, and Porsche. If you see a Chevy, Hyundai, or Honda, there is a very high chance it's an American vehicle brought over from the states.
Windows do not have screens here. Most windows open two ways: swing open like a door or prop open from the top where the bottom of the window is a hinge.
Germany is further north in latitude than the state of Minnesota. This means that it is already still daylight past 10pm and as early as 4am and there will be an equally darker winter. The weather this year has been colder than usual, and we have only had about 3 days in the 80 F range.
Germany does not plow their roads. This means one of two things: the snow does not stay long or deep here (my suspicion), or the windy thin cobblestone roads make plowing impossible. Either way, we have shovelling in our future.
The wildlife here is very much like in Minnesota, only with a random difference here and there. Examples: Robins are here but are solid black in color, clover and geraniums are here but their leaves are pointier, bridal wreath bushes are here but with purple leaves, grass grows more wild and readily here whereas it has a habit of dying midsummer in Minnesota, slugs here are solid black and at least 5 times larger, and we have a large toad in our backyard just like in Minnesota but it stays in the open at night on our terrace.
Germans uber-recycle here with 4 types of recycling and then "residual" trash. Most towns have a "sportplatz" that typically has at least one soccer field with several other sport fields...but I often don't see people play on them. During German Holidays about 75% of local Germans completely disappear and then reappear on the next work day (we still don't know where they disappear to).
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