WILLKOMMEN TO LEIPZIG

Our German Daughter!

And Our Baby Girl!

Together Again!

Seeing Luise again - and meeting her family - was the best part about our trip!
We took the train early in the morning for 7 hours in order to get to Leipzig, Germany in time for Luise's graduation.  It was so good to watch her cross the stage with a big smile!  She was the prettiest girl there!  And we were so proud of her.  The German graduation is very similar to American graduations without the cap and gowns.  There were lots of speeches (all in German) and music.  The music was my favorite part.  They even sang "The Rhythm of Life."  It's a song I sang in high school over 25 years ago.  It brought back a lot of memories and made me smile.

Astra, Luise and Christian

Isn't she stunning!

We are so proud of her!

After the graduation, we had cake with the Findiesens (Astra, Christian and her grandparents: Ingrid and Dieter).  We loved all of them!  They are the best people ever!  I wish they lived close so we could do more things with them.  But we knew they were awesome... because their daughter (Luise) is so wonderful!
After visiting for a bit, we went to a huge party for Luise's graduating class.  There was a delicious buffet (with lots of traditional, German food).  There was also dancing.  We danced to many great American songs (with a couple of German songs thrown in too).  The dance started with "Que Sara Sara" which was fun.

Dinner and Dancing

So excited we were able to share this with the Findiesens!

At midnight we got home and fell into bed....
The following day, Oma, Ingrid, took us to tour Leipzig. 
Leipzig is BEAUTIFUL!  And I remembered it was a popular place for famous musicians in the 1700-1800s. 

We got to see the Church Bach worked in for 25 years.  And his home was turned into an amazing museum.  He was also buried in Leipzig.  It was a dream come true to be there... and to realize I'd studied this man and now I get to be where he was.

(His Church is behind - the huge tower building)

We drank hot chocolate at the very first coffee shop in Leipzig.
We also went to Oma's old church... which is incredibly beautiful!
Ingrid, Oma, has lived in Leipzig for her entire life.  She taught us so much and told us wonderful stories about her family during WWII and during the Soviet occupation of East Germany.  I learned so much.  She is an amazing lady!

Simply elegant!

Looking up....

We finished the day by purchasing German shirts so that we could watch theGermany vs. Sweden soccer match for the World Cup.  The Findiesens invited some friends for us to meet and we BBQed brats and schnitzel while watching the game.  Germany won at the VERY LAST second.  It was exciting!

Opa = Dieter, Scott, Me, Oma = Ingrid and Katia

We won!

The entire family (minus Kiara)!