My great big German adventure

I spent the weekend in Germany going back to some of my roots and childhood experience. When landing in Dusseldorf I felt quite emotional and was a little scared as to how I might react when I met My friend after around 20 years. He was my first 'sort of' sweetheart as I was only around 11 when we met in Spain one holiday. However his mother and mine stayed good friends until my mum died. I always remembered him but our own lives took over and so we never kept in contact apart from Christmas cards. But as he contacted me last year by email not long after my husband left it seemed as if fate had stepped in. He gave me a lovely hug when we met :-) I was a little worried that his wife would think I was after him, but she made me feel very welcome and I got on with her very well. I was thankful that both of their English and my very rough German meant we could talk together ok. But we did have many silences and I couldn't decide if that was due to them being generally quiet or if it was just too difficult to have a more complex discussion. It was better by Saturday evening so maybe it was just because we were getting to know each other again. My friends wife did say he didn't talk much at home. On Friday I met his mum who is now 75 years old and struggling with her health. However she hadn't changed at all, it was so nice to see her. We went shopping to Aldi and there were so any food memories for me. I must visit our Aldi and see what I can get in there. The food in general was wonderful but not helping my diet at all. The bread and salami etc. was especially good. I had perhaps too much so not looking forward to getting on the scales after having lost some weight. We spent Saturday touring the city of Dusseldorf which I had never done. I hadn't realised how historic it was and that it was such an important city in Germany. On Sunday morning I travelled by train to visit my cousins who I also hadn't seen in around 20 years. It was a very emotional couple of days. I didn't recognise my boy cousin but I did all the rest. Between them they have a large family and it was so wonderful to be with them all. They made me feel so welcome and it wasn't long before I felt like I was part of the family. My closest cousin is now a grandmother. Her daughter who is the same age as my eldest has a beautiful three year old who is so cute and my two younger cousins both have children aged 10 and 13. Sadly my closest cousin also is separated from her husband and lives alone. I felt like a celebrity as they are learning English and wanted to see and be with their English relative. At one point everyone was taking so many photos ! And the food well wow wow wow! Lots of delicious German cake, bread, schinken and frankfurters. My childhood came flooding back. I will have to work hard on the diet now. We have shared addresses, Facebook contacts, Skype info etc. and all promised to stay in touch. I plan to go back before Christmas for a German Christmas market and to see them all again. I don't know why we stopped contact over the years. I guess our respective lives took over. I am amazed how much of my German has come back to me and I mostly was able to keep up and talk :-) It is also interesting to see how they live their lives so differently to us in the UK. It seems less stressful and in some cases more enjoyable. They enjoy buying nice things but live with minimal stuff. I need a big clear out at home and to re do things in the house to make it more German....... That will help me move on I hope. I am now sitting at the airport waiting for the plane. I finished my trip with a visit to Aldi to buy some German bread and frankfurters and then went to visit my friends mother again for cake and tea. I'm lucky in that being a BA silver card holder (because of work trips) I can use the BA lounge, so I can get wireless to write and post this. When I get to the UK I have to drive back and then go straight to rehearsal. I will be shattered as I have an early start in the morning for work. This has been an adventure for me and I managed it thanks to some great people :-)