I felt incredible after that huge first day and then a very long night of sleep. Marget and Burkhard had hoped that we could go to church with them on Sunday, but we only woke up after the final church bells were ringing. We had Brotzeit for breakfast. Yogurt was common for morning Brotzeit (along with the regular bread, cold cuts and spreads). After breakfast, we bundled up a little better than yesterday and went for a walk. Marget and Burkhard have some property on the edge of town where they grow trees. They cut the trees for firewood, building projects (home building and also woodworking) and also for selling. We took a nice walk through snowy lanes to their property. There were some beautiful views of the town. We learned more about their lifestyle and the town as we walked.
When we got into the woods, the trees were very tall. The ground was mossy and very soft. It was so quiet that we couldn’t hear anything but the wind and the birds….and the kids of course. The air felt clean and cold. We wandered around for awhile. They actually had two plots of land. There was also some community property. Firewood cut by city employees on this property was distributed to the community.
We also saw a hunting stand.
We took the long way back and stopped by the local outdoor hockey rink. For safety, they spray water onto a grassy field. It freezes and stays frozen all summer. It was starting to melt when we were there. The boys found a nearby slope covered in snow and started to slide down it. They climbed up and slid back down for 20 minutes or more.
We were cold by now, so we headed home. Back at the house, we had coffee and cake again. Paula and Hans came over for conversation. It was a wonderful, lazy afternoon.
We had brought the game Apples to Apples (Junior Edition) for Dominik and Jakob. It's a great game for kids and good for vocabulary building. We opened it up and showed them how to play it. Everyone was laughing by the end.
Finn had mentioned to Marget that we brought our swimsuits for swimming in Stuttgart. Marget said that they also swim during the winter months in Schongau. We all decided to go swimming for a couple of hours. The Plantsch Schwimmhalle is mostly indoors. The outdoor pool is very warm with a variety of jets in different places underwater for fun. Inside, there is a slide in a tube that runs out of the building and then back inside. It was a lot of fun for the kids!
Since we had basically left to go swimming at dinnertime, Marget and Burkhard knew it would be tough to get home and get dinner ready. They had arranged with Paula and Hans to have dinner ready for us. We went into Paula and Hans' house for the first time. It was spectacular. Hans had made the house custom. He made the furniture and Paula said that even on section of the bench around the table was made so that Paula could sit with her feet up on the bench and her feet would be right against the wood burning oven.
Dinner was Schweinebraten made by Marget, salad, red sauerkraut and cheese Spaetzle (which is a dish that Marget had made for us in the US before). The food was fantastic AGAIN! After clearing the table, Marget and Burkhard and Penny took the kids back to go to bed. I stayed for awhile and talked to Paula and Hans. They showed me some very old pictures of the property (from the 1950's) and talked about the improvements that had made. We also talked about books and politics. I had heard that Germans (in general) would talk about these things, and it seems to be pretty true. Paula had read a book called "Alabama Moon" - which I had never heard of. She had bought it (in German) for Dominik, but loved it so much herself that she read it and also told me (in German) all about it...without giving away too much of the story.
We sat up late with Marget and Burkhard trying different beers and talking. They are really a wonderful couple and such interesting people!
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