Buchbrunn - 18 March (Wed)

We had met Mary and Charley Schleyer in Auburn when they visited their son Marc. We had them both over to our house for dinner in Spring 2008. Last Fall, Mary and her daughter, Gabi, visited Marc again. We had them for dinner again. Mary had invited us to come to Buchbrunn both times we met her. We knew we would have a great time in their company.

They met us on the train platform in Kitzingen and we felt at home right away. They had brought two cars to the train station to meet us. We loaded all of our bags into one of the cars and rode the 3 kilometers to Buchbrunn. We had already heard so much about the area from them that they were able to point out some of the things that they had told us about. They don't speak any English that I know of - only a few words, so this would be a fun test for all of us.

Mary said that we would be having dinner in about an hour and a half. Gabi and her husband Marcus would be coming over for dinner (they both speak English very well). In the meantime, Mary had made a very wonderful cake that we had discussed in Auburn - Bienenstich ("Bee sting"). This cake is like a layered, light poundcake with vanilla pastry cream in the middle. The top has honey and layers of almonds. It is great! We had a coffee too. What a nice treat!



Gabi and Marcus live around the corner from Mary and Charley. Charley built both houses! We saw some construction picture from the building of Gabi's house.

Dinner was another work of love. Sauerbraten and Knodel with sauerkraut and wine. The Sauerbraten is a roast beef that marinates for 3-5 days in wine, vinegar and spices. It was incredibly tender. Knodel are large, poached bread or potato dumplings. Mary's were potato with bread in the center!



Gabi works for the second largest Wine Distributor in Germany - GWF - Winzergemeinschaft Franken - it is HUGE! But, we had some very nice wines when we stayed with them.



Finn finally remembered to take a picture of us eating!



(Shannon, Penny, Charley, Mary, Gabi, Finn)



(Marcus, Penny, Shannon, Charley, Mary, Gabi)

Mary and Charley have two empty bedrooms (from Gabi and Marc). Penny and I slept in Gabi's room. Finn and Keane had beds in Marc's room. We set up a movie for them in the bedroom (on my laptop). The rest of us stayed up talking. We switched between English (for Penny) and German (for Mary and Charley). It was a great evening. Gabi and Marcus should be coming over for dinner again tomorrow.

We made plans to get up and go to Würzburg tomorrow morning. We will also visit Gabi at her work.