Monday, July 8, 2013
Contributed by Margaret Zampini
After arriving in Linz on Sunday, Great Uncle Florian confirmed our visit for 9:00 AM Monday morning. After a quick breakfast at a cafe, we headed off with our two rental cars to his home in Wels.
We were warmly greeted by Florian and his son Bernd, and joined by Florian's granddaughter Claudia and 18 month old great-grandson Florian. Uncle Florian toasted our visit with Mimosa's and served us apricot cake in his lovely patio complete with apricot trees. We got to meet the rabbits and guinea pigs Bernd keeps there in two hutches. Shirley and Florian hit it off and shared some longevity secrets known only to the "over 90 club."
Next visit was to Allhaming and St. George church where Mom was baptized and where Rosa and Josef were married. We also visited the graves of Rosa's brother Franz and Florian's wife Julia and son Kurt. We also took advantage of a chocolate stop in the factory above the church to buy chocolates to sample and for our next two visits!
On the way to our next visit to Maria, also known as Mitzi (Franz's widow), Uncle Florian pointed out the the fields where Resi and Mom played as children. They are only 2 months apart in age and were raised as sisters.
Maria's daughters, Elfreda and Hilda made us a wonderful lunch of chicken dumpling and pancake soup, salad with butter lettuce and cucumber from their garden, and sauerbraten, gravy, potatoes and dumplings. Everything was delicious!
We were graciously served by Elfreda's son's Hannis and Florian. We got to meet Elfreda's partner Josef, Hilda's partner Helmut and were later joined by Hilda's daughter Christina and daughter Eva. We enjoyed two lovely cakes and coffee and were introduced to delicious homemade walnut schnapps and apricot drinks on the patio overlooking the corn fields.
We had to leave Maria's home as Resi and her family were awaiting us at 4:00 for our next visit. We left with hugs and kisses until we meet again on Friday with three bottles of walnut schnapps as a gift. We will have to toast our Austrian family when we return to the US.
We arrived to another warm welcome at the home of Anton, Margit and Resi. We were greeted by Sabine, husband Juergen, son Elias and new baby Oliver. Daniela came by after work with husband Manuel and seven year-old son Michael and daughter Andrea also arrived after work on her scooter.
We were introduced to Resi's son Hermann Reder, with wife Manuela and son Georg and daughter Katharina. Resi's son Peter Lindhart and wife Monika arrived with daughter Tanja and two year old Laura Michelle. Resi's son Franz with his wife Franziska came with daughter Sandra and new baby daughter Elena Sophia. Resi's son Andreas Lindhart and his wife Claudia arrived with sons Marcel and Simon.
We enjoyed great conversation, food, drinks and laughs aided by translations from Andrea and Daniela - and help from our German phrase book and dictionary and help from everyone! We shared a wonderful meal of ham, pork, cheeses, breads, pickles and potato salad followed by desserts of apricot cake, tiramisu cake from Sabina and Juergan and apple strudel made by Resi. Different Schnapps, including the walnut (nicknamed liquid nuts) was shared with all of us by Anton and Margit as we prepared to say goodbye until Friday with more hugs and kisses for all.
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