Siblings

This is Walter and his 2 sisters.  Gisela and Ursula have come over from South Africa to Germany to sort out their aunt's estate.

Walter travelled to Germany to meet them and help, and it seemed silly not to make the effort to meet them myself.  They have to pay for a visa for Germany, and then again for a different visa to visit the UK, so it was cheaper and more sensible for me to go over there.

But a long way to go for a weekend.  Having worked 5 to midnight on call the night before, I set off at 0800 to catch the 0945 flight (or that was the theory - the plane was delayed), from Norwich to Schiphol, then to Frankfurt, then a train to Mannheim, where they met me with a hire car.  A rather stressful trip - every leg was slightly delayed.

Walter had ordered a hire car over the internet - a nice, modest, not too expensive 4 door (Audi, I think), but when they went to pick it up, they had been "upgraded" to a BMW "tank" - huge beast - more about this tomorrow.

We drove from Mannheim to Buchen and got to know each other a little over a relaxed meal of pasta and wine.

No internet access in the flat we were borrowing from a friend, so no blips, no facebook.