May 27 2009
Last Days in Deutschland
Once we arrived in Stuttgart on a short flight from Berlin, Uncle Peter picked us up at the airport on his way home from work, and we rolled over to Elhofen on the autobahn. He and his wife, Moni, have a wonderful home in that beautiful village, across the street from a park where Sophie loved to ride the “ming.” Moni went above and beyond in her research of Celiac disease, and providing me with delicious gluten-free options I could have never expected.
Moni and Peter took us to see the Hohenloher Museum, eat spargel at a wine besen, and provided Sophie with plenty of toys and fun to keep her happy and occupied. Every morning when she awoke, Sophie would stand at the top of the stairs and shout, “Moni!” They became very good friends. Special thanks go to cousins Fabian and Ines for sacrificing their rooms/bathroom for the invading Americans.
The centerpiece of our trip south was the celebration of Tina’s Opa’s 80th birthday. Events surrounding that occasion included an intimate Grill Fest with family, then an exquisite luncheon at a lovely mountain-top restaurant, an afternoon at Opa’s with family and friends, and finally, a trip to the amazing Mercedes-Benz museum in Stuttgart.
We also spent a day in Heilbronn shopping with Tina’s biological father, Thomas, who flew in from Bulgaria. We also visited his mother, Tina’s beloved Oma, bringing together four generations of Schneiders for a glass of champagne (and for one, some milk). Thomas then reunited Tina with the wooden rocking horse she played with as a child — getting it to LA was a labor of love, but Tina and Sophie are both thrilled, so it was absolutely worth the effort.
Our trip concluded with a lovely evening at the home of long-time family friends, the Albers. Karl is the Buergermeister of Erlenbach, a village near Heilbronn known for its wine.
The journey back to LA was complicated by an Air Traffic Controller strike at Stuttgart, which forced us onto a bus for three hours to Frankfurt, where we then flew Lufthansa home. Peter remained with us until the bus departed, making sure nothing else would stand in our way of getting home. Those who follow my Twitter feed know that the flight would have been better if not for the asshole who put his seat back into Sophie’s car seat for the duration of the flight, refused to raise it, and complained that she kicked him. We were saved by a lower level in this enormous plane, housing six bathrooms, that provided just enough room for Sophie to run and shout. My faith in humanity was restored upon arrival, when an airport janitor volunteered to help us push one of our two carts loaded with eight pieces of luggage and a 30 pound horse to the shuttle stop, all for nothing more than a smile, handshake, and “welcome home” send off.
In total, this trip saw us traverse the 405 twice, take two shuttle rides, visit five major airports, jet across Berlin on the U-Bahn, roar through Baden-Wuertenburg on the autobahn, and bounce along on a stop-n-go bus ride through the middle of Germany. We visited dear family members, saw wonderful sights, experienced important history, ate great food, and returned safe and sound to The Valley.
Photos of our journey are available for viewing right here.