Visit with family

Saturday G and I took the train an hour away to visit with family members in Hagen. These were first and second cousins of Gerhards and, as always, it is amazing to finally meet new family members and see how much alike they look to members of your own family.
They live in, what we would call, a smaller city of 200 000. It is in a mountainous area similiar to living in Halifax. I found the similarities striking. As we travelled in the train, we could see land differences with every 5 kms. Hagen is a clean, beautiful little place even though we visited it in winter when trees are bare and grey and the weather never wants to bring out the sun.
Gerhard's dad had a brother named Wilhem and he had two sons - Willi and Armin. We met Willi and his wife Ursula, their children Heike and Sylvie with her husband Axel and daughter Lara. Also, there was Armin with his wife Waltraut. Heike met us at the train station as we must have looked like children on their first day of school. We had been described and we were assuming someone would recognize us. Sure enough, Heike was right there on the platform and she is amazing.
She drove us first to her house where we got to know each other. She has a beautiful apartment a bit bigger than our home. We spent some time together to get to know each other and then her parents, G's cousin, came, followed by the rest. We all walked to a local restaurant and had a lovely meal. After our meal, we then drove into the country and up a mountain to have coffee and treats at Willi's house. They live at the top of a one-lane roadway where it is necessary to pull into a driveway every now and then in order for anyone to be able to get up or down the mountain. At the top is a beautiful view.
Willi bought the house when it was a shack and spent a very long time tearing it apart and fixing it up (does this sound familiar?) It is now a grand place in a perfect spot with an amazing view over the world. We spent more important time sharing stories and lives. It was punctuated with the shouts of glee and girlishness of Lara the 4 year old. Gerhard had a wonderful time getting to know parts of his family.
For any of you who speak another language, are learning or have learned another language, you know how difficult it is to keep up with a new way of thinking and talking. Gerhard has done his parents and his family proud in his abilities to speak with his new-found family members and to carry on throughout Europe getting himself understood and learning a new dialect. He was even great understanding Dutch.
All in all, his second meeting with middle Germany relatives, was a blast and wonderful for him.