Today we continued our cruise on the Rhine River and this morning we had a very entertaining demonstration by one of the leading glass blowers of the region. Family Ittig has been on the glad blowing business for generations. Hans has learnt the trade from his Grandfather and Father as well as graduating from glass blowing college. He has made a lot of money from making sparrows from glass that represent the sparrow of the Ulm Church. The legend goes that the people of Ulm were building a church but they could not get the wagon load of wood through the gate in the city wall as it was too narrow until they watched a sparrow with a piece of straw turn the straw sideways to fit it through a small gap to where it was building it’s nest. The people of Ulm turned their load of wood sideways and were able to get it through the gate. Pretty dumb people if you ask me! Anyway the glass blowing was interesting and they also make a lot of money at Christmas time selling glass decorations in the Christmas markets. Every little town in Germany seems to have a Christmas shop all year round and then they have a Christmas market.
In the afternoon we travelled to Miltenburg and boarded a bus which took us in small groups of 10 to the homes of local German families. A very wealthy area of town as the houses were quite new and well looked after. We were taken to the home of Katia, Kristof, Felix and Emilie Breunig. Katia works 12 hours per week for an accountant, 8-12 three days per week. Kristof works for a pressure gauge company about 15kms from home and the two children are at school. Felix is 15 and rides a small motorbike to school and school is from 8am to 1pm, then the children go home for lunch and do their homework. Felix also goes back to school one afternoon per week to learn the pan pipes. He is a very good player and is releasing his first CD in the next few weeks. He played for us while we were here.
Emilie is at junior school and she does gymnastics and competes in the wheel event. She showed us a video and she too, is very talented. Katia made us wine cake and tea and coffee. The wine cake was nice but a bit dry. Their home was very clean and nicely furnished in light beech wood and heir small yard had a shed, quail house and a trampoline. They also have a pet gerbil. A km away they also have bantams kept in a communal garden as you are not allowed to keep bantams in your yard as they are too noisy. The house was small and on three levels but very nice. Katia and Kristof had bought their kitchen from their previous home to the new one as kitchens are so expensive and they built the new house around the old kitchen. Even the old kitchen fittings were very nice and functional. We really enjoyed meeting the family.
We returned to the boat for another 4 course meal of beautiful food.
