8 June 2013
Today we left Munich early in the morning around 8:30 and drove west to Swabia. My cousin who planned the gathering spent a few weeks exploring the Swabian alps (which are hills) where my uncle used to live and found the small hotel where we had our family gathering. My family is wonderful, but family politics between my uncle and two of his sons meant that my uncle chose not to come to his own party, so I will never meet him, and I'm not sure if that is a bad thing. I had a wonderful time talking with my wonderful cousins about our lives, playing with the younger cousins and having wonderful food. There was one young cousin who is less then a year old who was always happy when she saw me and my presence calmed her down. I went for a car ride around town in a convertible my cousin rented (because the rental company made a mistake, so he got an upgrade for free). Two of my Finnish cousins are entrepreneurs, one is hoping to start a bed and breakfast and one is getting close to starting a dance studio in Helsinki. It was interesting comparing starting businesses in the us and Northern Europe which is really similar. I got more information on our heritage and had a wonderful day.
9 June 2013
In the morning the remaining members of the family had breakfast together, consisting of those of us who live outside Germany, two of my uncle's sons, my cousin and fiancé who live in Switzerland, and the family with the five year old. We drove to Roetlingen and the Finns, Americans, one of my uncle's sons and I had a delicious lunch at a nice restaurant owned by family friends of my uncle. We then drove back to Munich and spent three hours with my aunt talking and having dinner. I was exhausted. My 2nd cousin I am staying with and I are plotting to get the family back together since the German side all lives so close to one another.
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