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Anna and Martin visited Germany from July 25th - August 10th 2008 for Oma Renate's 75th B-day and to redeem Martin's 50th B-Day gift, a family vacation at our old vacation hot spot, the Lago Maggiore in Italy.
Dieter was gracious enough to pick us up at the Airport and Oma Renate greeted us in the kitchen as usual.
The next day Barbara, Anna, Lilly, Oma Renate, Peter, Rio, Amelie and Martin wished Oma a happy B-Day.
It was a hot day ....
and we all enjoyed a ride on the cool water slide....
Anna had so much fun....
at least until the heat got a little to my brother Peter and my sister Barbara, but they got "normal" again soon.
On the next day, we went to Boftsche (Bofsheim), Oma Renate's home village to celebrate with family and friends at her old home, the "Ross"
before we embarked with Barbara on a wonderful 2 day trip to Berlin....
(Martin and Anna in the ice cold ICE high speed train)
(Martin in front of the historic and now remodeled Reichstag which houses the German Parliament)
(Anna and Barbara in the Stelenfeld, the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. The final design, approved on 25 June 1999 (»Eisenman II«), envisages around 2,700 concrete slabs (stelae), arranged in a grid pattern. They are 0.95 cm deep and 2.38 m wide and vary only in height. The stelae stand on gently and unevenly sloping ground covering 19,000 square meters. The public is able to enter and walk through the field from all four sides. They experience the wave-like form differently from each different position.
(Click here for a public website with more photos and here for more information about the Stelenfeld)
This is where "The Berlin Wall" used to be... now just a shadow of the past....
Martin and Barbara on the "New Berlin Wall" ... much more fun!
In the second week of our vacation we went camping to Italy ...
where we stayed in two small mobile homes next to each other ....
at Camping Isolino right at Mouth of the Toce River.
Every day we went swimming in the lake
(Lilly, Anna and Rio)
and also made a day trip by train to "Milan"
(Anna in front of the Milan Domme/Cathedral)
At the local markets
Oma Renate learned to eat italian ice cream (oh it is so yummy and drippy)
Before we parted and went back to California, we visited Oma Mina one more time in Öhringen.
Now 96 years old, she is still enjoying her days and likes to wave at people .... bye bye Omina, we love you!
Bye bye Germany .... we will be back!
Thank you to our wonderful family for making this memorable family vacation possible!
We all love you!
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