Life as I know it.: Ostern in Deutschland

Oh, what a weekend! A wonderfully long and delicious weekend filled with wine, snowballs and an endless supply of warm German pretzels and bread. Not to mention a house filled with family, a cute little cat and a five minute walk to the largest lake in Germany.

We arrived at Bodensee (Lake Constance) on Friday afternoon, after spending the night in Oberstenfeld at the Muller's house and successfully exchanging our winter tires for BMW labeled summer tires (Thanks Marius!). We were greeted so warmly, as we always are by Derek's German relatives (almost mine), with rocks painted with our names on the table, and of course kaffee and kuchen on the patio. We even got to spend the weekend with Chelsey- Derek's American cousin currently teaching English in Slovakia. The Streufert's house is beautiful - they purposely raised the front yard so that you can not see cars parked in front but can directly look into the park across the street. Hilde explained the family history again, which I enjoy every time and I think I will be able to repeat the history to anyone who asks by the end of our German stay. It really is special how close the Nestel family has remained.

After finishing our coffee, we walked the five minute trail to the lake, passing apple orchards and vineyards on the way. The Bodensee area is known for its pears and apples, and the orchards dot every free green space. The Bodensee is a massive lake surrounded by Germany, Switzerland and Austria. When standing in Kressbronn, our home base for the weekend, you can see Switzerland straight ahead, and to the left, you get a glimpse of the Austrian Alps. Depending on the weather each day, the view is different. Unfortunately, it was pretty cloudy every day we were there, but I still enjoyed the view! After our first look at the lake, we went back for a second round of kaffee und kuchen in celebration of the Muller's arrival - Uschi, Gunter and Sophia. Marius and Theresa came on Sunday. After a stroll around the island of Lindau, a quaint old town with a beautiful harbour overlooking Austria, we enjoyed maultaschen - a German "raviloli" that is filled with meats, veges, etc. It's also delicious cooked with an egg.

On Saturday part of the crew headed to Fredickshafen to climb a shaky tower overlooking the lake and city. We shopped around a bit then headed home for steaks, potatoes, and delicious orange cocktails that I can never remember the name of. Our evening activity involved searching for clues in the town next to Kressbronn in order to find the "treasure". I had always heard of geo-caching and thought it sounded interesting; and I sure was surprised to see how popular it is in Germany! You can read more about Geo-caching here, but basically, people set up stories and clues throughout a certain area, and you follow the clues until you find a box with odd little "treasures." I'm sure we looked quite funny searching for "double blinker" stickers on trees, benches, light posts, etc.

On Sunday we went on another geocahing adventure when Marius and Theresa arrived and then hung around the family-filled house until Easter present hunting time. Instead of hiding eggs, they hide gifts around the yard that you must find - it was pretty entertaining. After the present hunt, it was time for Easter dinner. I think I took about twenty photos of fish - but they just kept smiling and looking at me. (OK, a little cheesy I know). But dinner was delicious with fish-on-the-bone, potatoes and warm raspberries with vanilla ice cream.

Monday was one of my favorite days as we hiked up the Pfander mountain in Austria. It was much more of an up-hill "hike" than I had anticipated, but it felt good to move after eating so much in the previous days. We climbed the mountain, had numerous snowball fights and even stopped for some delicious apple saft at the top-of-the-mountain beer haus. We made our way back down the mountain in a fast-moving gondala and enjoyed a drive back to Kressbronn through the border-free streets of Austria.

All-in-all, it was a wonderful weekend. In many ways it felt like home, when all my sisters and I are in town and our house is full of people. At the lake, we managed to sleep seven people in one room - quite comfortably! I am so thankful to have family in Germany, as it makes this experience even more special and meaningful. Here's our weekend in photos: