Unintentional Housewife

Today I am not writing whilst waiting for a repairman. No, today I’m writing while the repairman is actually here. Apparently our bathtub is leaking around the edges and going into the bathroom of our downstairs neighbor. The good news is that we don’t have any water problems in our bathroom, but the bad news is that our neighbor (whom we like very much) has a giant water stain and puddles in her bathroom. So, as I type a guy is re-caulking our bathtub and hopefully solving the problem. 

 

The saga of the heater continues as our heater is still not working correctly (although it is working–we have heat–no worries), so Monday another heating repairman is coming, hopefully the 5th time will be the charm. 

 

On to happier topics! My parents left last week! Wait, that didn’t come out right. My parents were here and we had an awesome time. Mom bought all the chocolate she could carry, dad ate his weight in bread, we went to a bike race, went shopping, saw the Grand Place, the Manneken Pis, the Palace, and had lunch in a cafe that also doubles as a violin repair shop. But, we also went to Germany and had an incredible experience.

 

My mom’s father (Grandpa Moses as we called him) grew up in a tiny village in Germany and lived there until WWII broke out at which point he fled to Brussels where he lived for a year or so, then moved to France for a bit until he was finally sent to concentration camps back in Germany. He survived the camps and moved to the U.S. after he was liberated, in the late 1940’s. 

 

My mom had never been to see where her dad lived so we decided to make a little pilgrimage to Altwied, Germany, population approximately 800, to see the town. Mom was in contact with someone in the town (Herr Schneider) so he served as our guide in Altwied. We had lunch with the Schneider family and they couldn’t have been nicer. They spoke some english and we all pretended we understood german. The matriarch in the Schneider family had lived in Altwied her whole life and remembered Grandpa Moses and his parents so it was wonderful meeting her and hearing her stories. At one point we were looking at old pictures and she teared up and said “that’s my brother!”. Apparently her brother (who had died in the war) was in a class picture with Grandpa Moses (a picture we had brought) and it was a picture she had not seen before.  

 

After lunch we went for a walk in the village, and met other community members who remembered Grandpa Moses. We also went for a tour of a 12th century castle that sits on a hill overlooking the village and it was impressive. We felt a bit Pied Piper-ish on our tour of the village because as we walked, members of the community joined us, just to welcome us and by the end of the tour we probably had 10 people walking around with us. It was fantastic. We also went to a Jewish cemetery and saw the graves of my great-grandparents and great-great-grandparents. Again, amazing. 

 

We finished our trip to Germany with a stay in Cologne, and the cathedral in the middle of the city is one of the most impressive structures I’ve ever seen–there is a reason it is an UNESCO World Heritage Site. We had a wonderful visit with my parents and can’t wait for their next trip!

 

We are now getting ready for our next visitor, Kelly, who comes tomorrow to celebrate Thanksgiving with us! We are so excited for her to come and for Turkey day, our favorite holiday. It’s been a little challenging finding all the Thanksgiving ingredients (canned pumpkin still eludes us). Turkey is not terribly common here, you can buy turkey parts in the market, but finding a whole turkey has proved difficult.  But today I finally located a butcher who sells whole turkeys so I ordered a 5 kilo bird and we will see what we get on Thursday! We are having 4-7 people for dinner depending on some train/plane schedules and have more seats at the table so if anyone finds a last-minute e-saver and wants to join us, the more the merrier!

 

Happy Thanksgiving!

In: Belgium | | #