Friday, June 26, 2009

German Wedding, Here We Come!

As the curving asphalt carved its way through a dense verdant forest, my 3-year old proudly exclaimed, "I think this is the Black Forest!"

Black Forest it was not, but still I was impressed that he put two and two together. We were in Germany, and we were in a forest, so why shouldn't it be Germany's famous Black Forest?

Our path was through the Spessart Forest, near Aschaffenburg, and we were on it thanks to a "Vollsperrung" - or full road closure - on the A3 (one of Germany's infamous Autobahns).

After a few gorgeous minutes of winding forest roads, the thick canopy of trees gave way to the beautiful green rolling hills so typical of the German countryside, and I longed to stop for a photo. Really, it required a great amount of self-restraint to not stop. But I had a bachlorette party to get to - my first ever in Germany - and was a woman on a mission.

The bachlorette party was nice. Pretty much the same anywhere in the world I suppose. Drinks, laughter, silly tasks for the bride-to-be, and lots of photos.

Yesterday marked the "Standesamt" wedding, or state wedding, which took place in the incredible old half-timber building that houses Nuenkirchen am Brand's Town Hall, and tomorrow we'll join them in celebrating their church wedding. The party goes well into the night, so we've organized a room at the reception venue where we'll (hopefully) be able to get the kids to sleep.

And as for me, I'm looking forward to participating (in a very small way... since Lukas will be carrying the rings) in my very first German wedding!

No comments: