July celebrations

July - Part II

Despite feeling like July was mostly a quiet month based in Munich (which it was), we got quite busy at the end and I split our tales of celebration into two posts. You can read about quiet July and our awesome Alpine hike here.



Okay, we did already cover the alpine hike in the last post, but I couldn't resist this pic of a divine Alpine cow... complete with giant bell!!

The very next day after the hike was my birthday. I woke up to a beautiful breakfast prepared by Klaus and Cornelia:


33 again - how does she keep doing it???

Phil had asked me the previous week what I wanted to do for my bday and I'd started thinking about a trip to Munich zoo. It was a great call on what turned out to be a v hot July day. We patted the tamest goats, saw the birds of prey and watched the penguins showing off by speeding through the water.



So pretty!!!


Patting a kid - he was super cute


Intense...


Baby pink flamingo!!!

Even though Spring was a while ago, there were baby birds everywhere - ducklings, goslings, even baby pink flamingos - see pic above!! I think the two lynx Cubs were the cutest - but too shy for decent photos. Those and the little field mouse darting in and out of the garden bed next to us while we were eating lunch!

We spent the whole day at the zoo, followed by a delicious dinner made by Cornelia and then a Canadian band at my favourite Munich night spot, the Rattlesnake. I've waxed lyrical about my love of the 'snake before here. A fantastic way to end an awesome bday.




The band was great and so was this HUGE bday aperol spritz!!

So, a really fun bday. Thanks for all the lovely messages from Oz too - it totally made my day!!

The wedding
Our next celebration was a mere 2 days later and took us from Munich to Bremerhaven, a village in the north of Germany about 90 minutes from Hamburg where Phil's uncle Gerd lives with his lovely now-wife, Eva.

We arrived the evening before the wedding to find their back garden transformed by several huge marquees with seating for 120 people. We got to meet a whole lot of family - including Eva's son and nephew and their partners who were great company over the festivities.

The legal part of the ceremony took place in the morning at the Town Hall for a smaller group of family and friends, and we spent most of the afternoon chatting to various relatives and friends.



Pre-ceremony


Toasting the newly weds!

At 6pm, the big wedding reception began. It was a fantastic party!! A whole pig on a spit, endless delicious salads, a very full bar, a dance floor, a DJ and high spirited revellers; a perfect combo for a fun wedding!!


A packed house!!

We realised early on that our sweet waitress was Polish and spoke very little German. Phil and I wracked our brains for any leftover Polish words from our Warsaw trip... Ah, yes!! Jen-koo-yah (not the correct spelling) is the Polish word for thank you. So whenever she dropped by, we said it. She really seemed to appreciate it and reciprocated by bringing one round of Aperol spritzes after another... This may have helped our whole table get out on the dance floor later in the evening.

Maybe it wasn't just our table who was well looked after - one two three people had fallen in the swimming pool by the end of the night! None of them me... To be fair, two of them were teenage girls who pushed each other into the pool, pretty early on in the night.

In addition to being Gerd's wedding it was also a birthday celebration for Gerd and Phil's dad, Klaus (who are twins - did I mention that already??). So at midnight we presented Klaus with a birthday card and celebrated.

Our night ended with Phil and I running (me, barefoot) in the pouring rain back to our hotel at 1.30am. Good times had by all! Lucky for us, the post-wedding breakfast didn't start until 10am...

Speaking German
I also spoke a lot of German over those two days. It is fairly impressive given I have a vocabulary of about 50 words... and also strangely exhausting.

Cornelia had encouraged me to try speaking a bit more German a week or so before. So I had been practising a little before the wedding with a language app and speaking as much German as possible in Munich. But this was definitely a big test...

I prepared a little before we arrived, asking Phil how to say congratulations in German. He strangled some words.

'Huh? Say it slower, please'.

More slowly, I catch something that sounds like a malcontented cow chewing. Eventually, after several repetitions and a truly lengthy stint of practice, I repeat, 'hertzlichen gluchwunch'. Yeah, try that if you don't speak German! But I did try it - and strangled it a bit - but it seemed to be appreciated by the bride and groom.

The following morning, I hear a few people saying what sounds a lot like "congratulations". I say to Phil, suspiciously, 'what did that person just say?' 'Oh, they said "gratulation", it sort of means congratulations in German'.

Hmmm... you don't say. I ask bewildered, 'why on earth didn't you teach me that??'

'This one is more useful'... was the definitive response.

We now have a new German-learning rule... If there's a word that sounds JUST like the English word, teach me that one...

Overall, the German speaking went pretty well. It helps a lot when the people you are talking to speak great English so when you run out of words, you can shrug an apology and go with the English word. It also helps to have a translator (ie Phil) sitting next to you at the wedding! And all that practice definitely came in handy for our next few days post-wedding in Hamburg.

But more on that in the next instalment...

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