25 May - Engen, Germany

Waldemar and I went for a walk up the hill from his place for a panoramic view of Engen which was beautiful. Later Christoph and his girlfriend, Simone, took us, with Nick to Lake Constance and we got the ferry across to Meersburg. From there we could see the Alps as the weather improved. We looked at the town, markets and then an even older Meersburg Castle, built in the Eighth century. A family still lives in part of it and they maintain the building through tourism. It was awful to see some parts of it and see how people were treated in the Middle Ages. It had its own torture room and a very gruesome means of killing people, that really freaked me out!

When we returned home, we had another delicious dinner prepared by Roma. Then Waldemar's brother, Mirek and his wife Edeltraut, came to see us. The family resemblance with me, Waldemar and Mirek is very striking and it was wonderful to meet another cousin. We stayed up late talking.