Der Strohwitwer

Last weekend, I was a Strohwitwer, a "Grass widower", which apparently is an archaic term in both German and English for the husband whose wife went on a trip and left him all alone, poor chap. I guess it refers to when beds were stuffed with grass and the husband slept alone in the grass bed while his wife was away. Kina was back in San Diego for a week dealing with work stuff (ugh) and Aidan and I were all by ourselves. But not for long! I think everyone took pity on me and invited me to do things with them. So Aidan and I were really busy the whole weekend. First, we were invited for dinner and play time on Friday with Maxim's family (see Maxim below), then we went to die Hirschen (deer) forest (see above) on Saturday.

This is Aidan goofing around with his good friend Maxim. Maxim is a giant! He's bigger than Aidan but six months younger. But his dad is like 6'6'' so the genetics are there.
We were invited to the Hirschen Wald by Georg and Ulrike who were babysitting Maxim and Lily (his sister in the pram). This is the gang walking back from the Wald (forest). See all the cute A-frame houses in the neighborhood. Very nice place to live except for the nearby airport...
OK, back to Maxim's house for what else: Fussball! And of course, it is HSV playing against....

St. Pauli!

Then on Saturday afternoon we went with Susanne Dobler and her two girls to a big restaurant/cafe that specializes in telling you all about the ships travelling down the Elbe river. Each time a big container ship goes by, they play the national anthem of the ship's origins and then tell you all about the ship and what it is carrying. They have some old sea salts on hand who know everything (probably retired captains). It was a beautiful day. We played tag (ticken!) and hide-n-seek (verstecken) with the girls and Susanne. But we only got to see one boat go by the whole hour. A sign of the global financial meltdown?

Aidan, Anna (left) and Carolina climbing a tree by the water. Wonderful kids!

Then on Sunday, we were invited over to Aidan's best friend Domenik's house to play, what else but, Fussball! I've created a monster. But at least he is in good shape. You can see Aidan taking a turn as Torwart (goalie). Domenik is in red of course. Mom, Nicole, played on my side and dad, Ralph, played with Domenik and Aidan. The three boys crushed us but our goal was as big as the side of a semi-truck. Nicole and Ralph were raised in East Germany and come from Mecklenburg. Funny, because I grew up near a town of the same name (near Ithaca NY). Domenik is even more of a nut about soccer than Aidan. Aidan played Petric, the HSV Torjaeger (goal-hunter) and Domenik played Oliver Kahn. If you don't know who Oliver Kahn is, then you are not German. (One of the best goalies ever to play the game of soccer.)