Christian was about to get married! Couldn't miss that one, of course, and hence planned a trip to Germany for the occasion as well as visiting family and friends I hadn't seen in far too long along the way. Michaela took care of our aging furry friends and hence sadly couldn't join me.
I took the British Airways red-eye from Portland to London with the hope of getting a few hours of sleep in, which I did. After a few hours of layover I continued to arrive Munich in the early evening. That plane was on time as well, alas my luggage was not...again! Just as during my last visit to Munich in 2019! And I had trouble using the British Airways app & website on my phone to report my missing luggage. Thankfully Michaela came to the rescue and handled it from afar 💗.
Chris took me straight from the airport to a Biergarten and a surprise: both Rene and Lucia joined us for a traditional Bavarian dinner, before I crashed at Chris' place. (Somehow I missed taking a picture of Lucia!)
On Thursday, after a brief visit to a local bakery to get some breakfast rolls (one of the things I am dearly missing in the US: a distinct lack of bakeries at every street corner), we visited the 'Deutsches Museum' - in all my visits to Munich in the past ~dozen years I had never gotten around to it. Chris' background knowledge in turbine technology from his days at GE Global Research added some fun extra details.
After a tasty lunch at a Lebanese stand on the Viktualienmarkt we went to Hirmer to order a new wardrobe for me including a suit adequate for Saturday's wedding as there was still no news of my missing suitcase. (It turned out I was not the only one getting a new wardrobe at Hirmer due to losing my luggage on that flight - at least one other passenger of the London-Munich flight had the very same idea! According to the staff this was not at all unusual...) We spent the later afternoon at Chris' place catching up on all that had happened since my last visit 5 years ago before picking up my new clothes at Hirmer's and then - on a hunch - swinging by the airport just before the 'luggage lost and found' would close at 8 pm, despite no news on their website regarding my suitcase. As luck would have it, just as the office was about to close my suitcase was delivered to the office together with a few others.
On Friday morning I boarded an ICE train to Mannheim, rented a car (I got 'upgraded' to a Lync&Co car from Geely - the first Chinese car I have ever driven, not sure that was an upgrade though 😜) and made my way to my parents in Gruenstadt, whom I hadn't seen in person since their visit
last summer, in the early afternoon.
More catching up during some coffee (tea) & cake and the subsequent dinner at the 'Bienenbrunnen', before crashing and getting to bed rather early.
Saturday was the big day of course, the main reason of the trip: the wedding of Christian and Christine! I hadn't seen Christian in ... a decade? And had never met his better half (whom he first met 2 years ago) - so there was a clear need to talk to them and some of the other guests to get a first picture of this Christine who is marrying one of my oldest and dearest friends. They are indeed a good match!
After the formal ceremony in a church in Eisingen and the obligatory photos afterwards, we made our way to the 'Alte Brauerei' in Weingarten to celebrate. I was seated across from Timo (now living in London) who I hadn't seen since probably the late nineties when we were both studying in Heidelberg and I got to meet his Singaporean wife Michaela and their son Benny. His brothers with spouses/kids and father (also a physicist!) had made their way here as well from as far as Japan! We had lost sight of each other after our time in Heidelberg, so there was a lot to talk about.
After a long party - the discussions got more interesting as the evening progressed - it was time to drive back to my parents. Even though I had been concerned about driving on the famous Autobahn this trip for the first time in a very long time it ended up to be a non-issue: turns out German drivers drive a lot more disciplined than US ones (on balance).
After a brief Sunday morning walk in Altleiningen and lunch with my parents (my dad cooked 👍), it was time to revisit the old stomping grounds in Heidelberg and reconnect with two more dear old friends: Jan & Markus.
Last time I had seen Markus was when Michaela & I had lunch with him and his family in LA back in
2018! Jan was even longer ago, well over a decade. Time just keeps moving forward relentlessly (and the pandemic certainly didn't help).
After a nice dinner with my parents at the Akropolis it was time to say goodbye on Monday morning and make my way to my sister's family in Berlin. I had originally planned to switch trains on the way from Mannheim to Berlin to briefly stop by my mother-in-law Anita in Bebra, but a critical doctor's appointment of hers thwarted our plans - that'll have to wait until next time.
It was only a brief pit-stop at my sister's unlike
last time. But good times were had, of course, (short & sweet!) and it was great seeing Jule, Juri, Zoe, & Phryne all well and happy. My sister dropped me off at the BER airport the next morning (Tuesday) and after a brief flight I touched down in London City Airport in the early afternoon.
From there I made my way to King's Cross and took a direct train to Morpeth, arriving in the early evening. Christine, whom I hadn't seen since 2001(!) picked me up at the train station and after introducing me to her chickens and briefly settling in, we made our way to Whitley Bay for some very traditional 'Fish & Chips' and a nice walk along the coast while catching each other up on what had happened in the last two decades.
Mark, Lewis, and Heather were unfortunately all out and about, so I have yet to meet them. After a good nights sleep, Christine's rooster let me know that the sun would come up soon - I couldn't suppress a smile as it sounded exactly as you'd expect it to. We spent the morning walking through Morpeth (very pretty!) before it was time to say goodbye and jump on a train back to King's Cross.
Back in King's Cross Helen - whom I hadn't seen since she visited Michaela & me in New York City back in ~2004(!) - picked me up with her two sons Kieran and Lawrence and took me on a tour on the Thames to Greenwich. I don't think I have ever been to London proper, so it was all new and very interesting while also catching up on the last two decades.
We walked past the Royal Naval College and had dinner at Trafalgar Tavern (I had a traditional 'Banger & Mash'), where Helen's husband Kirill soon joined us.
After making our way to Helen's home in Epping, we went through Helen's photo-albums from our time in Oklahoma. Some serious reminiscing happened - good times!
And then it was Thursday morning already! After a stroll through 'downtown' Epping and a classic English breakfast at Poppy's cafe, it was time to pack up and prepare to travel back home. Helen and Lawrence dropped me off at Heathrow, where British Airways made up for the lost luggage grief of my last flight: the flight was overbooked and they bumped me up to seat 1A!
9.5 hours later Mt. Hood came into view (you'll have to squint a bit to see it in the distance), my shoes crossed the famous PDX carpet, and I was finally reunited with Michaela: home again!
