Day 8 (1 Mai) - Food!

Day 8 (1 Mai) – Food!

It’s Labor Day here, so everything is closed.  We have to entreat Frau Schwemmle to lend us some wrapping paper and a card that we had hoped to buy in Schwann.  I have brought a huge assortment of chocolates from Cocoa Bella in San Francisco.  I hope that she will enjoy them.  We have breakfast at the hotel, and then have a couple of hours before the festivities begin again.

At eleven, the cousins gather again, only this time with the addition of old friends and acquaintances, and some who were unable to make it the previous evening.  It’s a wonderful gathering and we meet many new friends.  Philipp has a friend, Oris, who drove from Milano, to join him for the celebration.  I finally meet Armin, a cousin, about whom I’ve heard a great deal over the years.

Once again we gather in the Weinstubbe where there is sekt and appetizers, toasts, and a very happy Maria.  We meet a host of people, and I again get to speak with my cousin Karl Hiller, whom I met on my first trip to Berlin, several years ago. 

Maria Hiller Ortlieb

There is a lunch.  We begin with a watercress soup with lox, followed by beef fillet with spargel and hollandaise, and something else, which escapes me.  There is a dessert of mint chocolate ice cream, and wonderful wines that Günter has chosen.  We go for a walk, and when we come back, four (count them) cakes await us: cheese, strawberry, Blackforest cake, and a Waldbeeren cake.

The grandchildren make a presentation of gifts accompanied by a poem that lauds all the things that they wanted to buy but couldn’t, and finally offer a teacup from which she might drink – and they name numerous things.

Maria and her family

In the evening, the close family watches the Munich, Barcelona football game.  Leia, Tobias’ girlfriend is from Barcelona, so there’s a mixed crowd watching the game.  Maria unselfishly roots for Barcelona.  At the end of the game, we are all tired beyond belief – bed harkens.  One final photograph that seems to sum up the day, and that is the huge bowl of schlagsahne that greeted us when we returned with our pieces of cake.  There's always room for more...