On a very rainy Tuesday morning, Sandor Vajna (sounds like Shawn-door Vie-nah) picked us up from our hotel in Heidelberg in his van. He and Tom met 25 years ago through business connections (the company he worked for was buying software from the company Tom worked for) and the friendship just kept growing. Tom visited him and his wife, Susanne, and their children, Christina, Felicitas, and Michael at their home, once, in Weinheim, Germany, when he was in Europe on business in the early 90's. Eventually, I met them all when the whole family came to visit the US in 1995. They stayed in San Diego for several days and we thoroughly enjoyed showing them around and hanging out with them, a bit. Rachel was home, that summer, from college, and it happened that the Vajnas graciously offered her a place to stay at their home in Weinheim, Germany, the following summer. Sandor even found her a job nearby. It all worked out quite nicely!! They have, since, invited us many times to come for a visit. This was the year we finally managed it!
So, Heidelberg is only about 10-12 miles from Weinheim, and Sandor had planned to show us around that lovely and very historic town before driving us back to his house, but the rain made that option less attractive. There has been settlement in that place for at least 2500 years. There's a very cool castle(15th century, though there were others before) and Heidelberg University (14th century) along the beautiful Neckar River. Rachel and Tom had visited them, before, and Rachel and I had hiked up to the castle grounds on the hill behind the hotel the afternoon, before. So, most of us got the gist, anyway. The castle lights up so pretty in the evening, I think you'll agree.
We drove on to Weinheim, where Sandor got us settled into their beautiful home! Lovely and spacious! The Amazing Susanne came home from work a bit later. She teaches German, English and French.
Sandor, quite the overachiever, himself, speaks about 6 languages and, among other endeavors, is a professor of engineering at the university in Magdeburg. Their youngest, the delightful Michael, 22, is a professional musician and lives at home, though he travels from time to time. The Vajnas proceeded to stuff us full of wonderful food, provide us with laundry facilities and haul us around to interesting places nearby. Weinheim, itself, is a perfectly charming town! The Altstadt (Old Town) is full of 600-year-old buildings, old city walls, churches, crooked, cobbled streets, half-timbered houses, outdoor cafes, fascinating history, and dense forests with a castle on top! Picture perfect! We traveled across the Rhein, into the Palatinate region through vineyards to a castle that has been somewhat restored to show how a medieval fortress really looked. Schloss Trifels is from the 11th and 12 centuries (and forward) and it's known that Richard 1 (Lionheart) was imprisoned there for a time in 1193. Fascinating place! And there are countless other castles and palaces we didn't see, of course. So old and so interesting!
We had walks through misty, enchanted forests and trips to the supermarket and local mall!
Fabulous home-cooked meals and terrific restaurants! Sandor assisted Dylan and Rachel to set up their next set of travel plans, and, when it was time, they were so helpful to put us all on the right trains/buses (from Mannheim) to our respective airports to meet our respective flights. We all had to say goodbye to each other at nearly the same time! A gut-wrencher! We're so grateful for the Vajna's grand hospitality and hope it's a much shorter interval to our seeing them next time, than there was before this visit!