We left Amsterdam at noon on Saturday, expecting to arrive in Alsdorf, Annicka's city, at 4:30. After a train change, several delays and detours (one caused by a death on the track ahead of us), we were warmly welcomed by Annicka and her family three hours late! Apparently this is typical of the German train system and sadly, it is common for people to jump in front of the train, as it is an easy way to commit suicide.
We had a wonderful supper, prepared by Nellie, Annicka's mom and spent the evening visiting. Cornie is doing his best with German, and Nellie with English. Siegfried knows a bit of low German, so combined with some translating, we are making it work!
Sunday morning we attended their church. The youth were leading the service and it was lovely! We enjoyed the worship singing- Voice of Truth and one other one in English and Majesty in German, along with others. The message's object lesson involved chocolate- memorable! :)
We had a delicious lunch at Der Goldene Schwann, where we also got to know Annicka's brother, Julian and his girlfriend, Sara. We spent a fun afternoon wandering around Aachen's downtown, touring the city hall, cathedral, a museum, and wandering through a used goods market (very tempted to buy kids books-they were so cheap, but our luggage is already so overweight!)
They seem like a really nice family, how nice of them to show you around, I really like the statue pictures, esp the one where the guy's crying on Cornie's shoulder - too funny. Darlene
ReplyDeleteAwesome! What an adventure. You will have to scrapbook this trip!
ReplyDeleteRose