Family Time

After two years, finally get to meet up with my cousin Katrin, her partner Kimo and for the first time ever, their lovely daughter Leni who was born on 20 Aug 2020 - a Corona child but with some simple arithmetic, I don't think Corona was known about when the "process' started!

Katrin & Kimo were last with us in October 2019, on their way back from what is becoming a regular event - a week at the lovely Alpine village of Bad Hindelang, about 40 minutes from us. The year before they had brought her father, my uncle Jochen to stay for a few days when my children & grandchildren were here for a big family reunion.

Cousin Katrin is younger than both my children - Uncle Jochen was only 14 years older than me and a late starter himself as father.

As I know Bad Hindelang & they hadn't seen much of the surrounding countryside, we agreed to meet at the Hopfensee lake, near Füssen on the Austrian border and overlooked by the 'Disney' Neuschwanstein Castle, the most visited tourist place in Germany. The weather, for the last day of September, was lovely. Very cool when we met at 10.30 and set off for a walk around the lake that took almost exactly 4 hours for the 8 km walk! Well we had lots to catch up on, the scenery was stunning, and we were in no hurry.

We had set off from the village centre and hoped to have lunch outside in the sunshine. I think at that time, one wasn't allowed to eat indoors. However, every table in the numerous restaurants the length of the long lake promenade were packed full. We decided to drive 3 km to the larger man-made lake, the Forgensee which one sees on the postcards of Neuschwanstein. The lake is interesting in that it has large passenger ships plying a timetable, but only in summer. In autumn, the lake is drained and only filled again in spring with the melting snow water, which also reduces any risk of flooding.

We found a quiet Italian restaurant at a campsite, overlooking the lake, and could all enjoy a well-earned Pizza. We then made our departures, but I drove home via Neuschwanstein castle to get some video material, for old times sake.

Lovely day...loads of Extra photos. They are in time order, starting with arrival at 10:30 when the last clouds were being burnt off.
The last photo is of something that got me when saw these wooden boxes along the promenade. They were empty. No idea what they were, perhaps to put out copies of a town tourist aimed newspaper. When we got back in the afternoon, it was clear. Pizza takeaway box rubbish bins. What a great idea.