Pawellek Family

Transportation: a 3 hour train from Rotenberg.  Long ride, bad seats on the switch in Frankfurt, but great

 payoff when we arrived in Mainz.

 

Favorite Beverage: The Rose’ wine that was locally made in 

Oppenheim, the home town of the Pawellek family that hosted me for the day.  I don’t remember the name, but it was nice to have a couple glasses and attempt to communicate with some of the sweetest people you will ever meet.

 

Favorite food:  Toss-up.  While the Chinese buffet that Kurt took us to was

 very nice and filling, I think the elaborate ice cream that we enjoyed within the first 15 minutes of arriving in Mainz was the best.  My ice cream was banana with chocolate and orange syrup drizzled

 over it (secretly I wished that I ordered the caramelized walnut ice cream that Kurt and Colin ordered).

 

Accommodations:  A near by bed and Breakfast in Oppenheim.  I thought that I would be sleeping on the Pawellek’s floor, but they had reserved a very nice B&B for us, and told us just before bedtime.

 

Favorite Sights:

1.)   Kurt as I got off the train.  He walked right by us and we shared a look of “are you who I think you are?….I will wait 

until you acknowledge me first. “

2.)   The town of Mainz and the Rhine river.

3.)   The old castle ruins atop the hill in Oppenheim overlooking the city, river, and great church.

A few comments:

For those of you who don’t know what I was doing on my last day in Germany, I was visiting a 

German family that my mother befriended in the states about a year (or less) before she went to study abroad in Germany- the Pawellek’s.  They are a sweet family: Kurt (Father), Maria (mother), Juta (daughter), Clause (son-in-law), and Kurt’s great American friend Kit.  They were kind 

enough to pick Colin and I up at the train station, show us around, buy us ice cream, 

buy us dinner, provide a B&

B for us, and give us a ride to the airport about 1 hour and 30 minutes away the next morning.  That is a lot for a humble German family to do for some punk kid that they don’t even know.  Though language barriers provided quick communication, it did not stop us from getting the main point of our conversations across.  I understood enough to know that they are good people and the type of people that can and should be appreciated for their warmth, honesty, and kindness.  It was great to spend a day with a very authentic German family to finish our trip.  Danke Kurt and Maria!