After a few wonderful days spent with our new family we caught the train to Memmingen enroute to Munich. Train travel in Germany is simple and very cost effective and is also very relaxing. We love cities but to go out to rural Germany was fantastic. A couple of surprises along the way. It is summer here and we were very surprised to see it so green here. In Australia is is always dry at this time of summer. The other surprise was the use of solar energy here. It is incredible to see these very old homes and buildings with whole roofs covered in solar panels.
We sat there passing steep hills covered in grape vines..I mean steep. We do not have that at home. Then to see castles dotted throughout the landscape high up on the hills and wonderful villages each with their spires reaching to the heavens along with the minarets of mosques
. There are homes with window boxes overflowing with colorful displays of flowers, now we knew we were in Germany. Did I mention how green it is here?
We have been to Germany 13 years ago with a tour company and remember driving through Bavaria wishing we could stay in one of the little villages. Our dream has come true.
Maja, Tomi's niece, collected us from the station. She is pregnant with her first child. What an amazing girl she is. More about her later. We stopped to pick up Veit (Sonja's partner) a great guy, very funny and he gets our sense of humour. Then home to see Sonja, Tomi's sister. Again we felt straight away at home. Maja had prepared a feast for us as her mother only returned from hospital that day. Traditional German food and so much of it . Enough for lunch today.
Maja took us for a walk in the hills that overlook their village. I felt like we were in the set of The Sound of Music. ...not a Julie Andrews in sight. It was a great opportunity to chat to her and unwind from our journey so far. We have heard so much about her from Tomi so it was easy to know her. After meeting Jens her partner, I know they are going to be great parents.
Sonja is fun loving and I suspect as hyper active as her siblings. Even though she was still sore from her recent op she insisted on Veit her partner taking us to all their favorite spots. We are thankful for that xx
We were shown to our room. A huge bed with Moroccan like adornments. The four poster bed is handmade from raw timber and and has been carved..... luxury. We have the whole place to ourselves. Maja and partner live upstairs and his brother lives downstairs. 13 people in the house but living separately. All his family live nearby. What a great life. The only noise I can hear now is the tinkling of the cow bells. The farm and house is away from the village. The houses are large and three stories high sharing common ground without fences with their neighbours.
Maja drove us around, also taking us to a beautiful lake.We have nothing at all like this in our country.
They live a healthy life with locally grown food and the only meat they eat is locally produced or killed..tonight we had deer that Jens had shot while hunting. Our evening meal with deer was delicious...another first for us eating deer. The vegetables and fruit are also locally grown at the farm nearby where Maja, Jens and Sonja work. They have a market where they sell their goods on a Friday afternoon. It is still like the ways things were done in the old days. There is a trend here now for people to go back to the land and start changing what they are doing about the environment. I know understand why Tomi and Rachel want to do this...it is the way to go. We have travelled around the countryside today trying to imagine what it would be like once winter comes and they are snowed in. I would love this life.....
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