The Esch's have always been Catholic, as Wolfgang constantly reminds me. So, being the good Catholic family that we are, we went to Mass this morning to celebrate Pentecost. We went to Mass at the Koelner Dom where Mass was celebrated by the Archbishop.
Little known fact: the Koelner Dom is it's own separate community and so the Archbishop isn't allowed to enter on his own. At the beginning he is escorted into the Mass by a large procession, and at the end he is escorted out. He is only allowed to be in there on special conditions. Second fun fact: In one of the windows over the alter is a crest with a black cross on a white background. This crest belongs to the Deutsche Herrenhof, that one of the Esch's was a director of. I am not sure how it all fits together, but by this time I am fairly certain that Wolfgang is capable of connecting just about everything to Esch in some way. Third Random Fact: We got to hear the biggest bell at the Dom ring. It is called the "der Dicker Pitter" in Koelnisch, the dielect spoken in Koeln, which translates to the thick/fat Peter. This bell is so massive taht it only rings seven times a year on High Feast Days because if it was to sound more often the vibrations it would cause would cause serious structural damage to the Dom.
Pentecost is a day that people like to get together and celebrate, actually that just sounds like a typical day in Germany. The people that Wolfgang likes the most are members of his family, and it doesn't seem to matter how distantly you are related.
After Mass we went to visit his son, Frank, and his wife, Elizabeth, and their son, Oscar. Oscar is not yet a year old. We got along great playing with a ball for a really long time and sharing cookies. And by sharing I mean that he kept stealing the cookies that were given to me.
After Frank's we went to Duesseldorf to visit Stephanie, Wolfgang's daughter, and her family. She has three kids, all older than Oscar, but still not all that old. Again, we got along great. I had taken some juggling balls with me and they loved that. The oldest of the three also had some stilts that I helped her to learn how to walk on.
Stephanie, Wolfgang, and I drove into Duesseldorf to do a small tour of the city so that I could see it. There is a large jazz festival going on right now, so things were hopping. We ate a potato pancake with applesauce that was pretty doggone tasty.
After seeing Duesseldorf we went back to Stephanie's house and her husband, Olliver, grilled for everyone. It was great. It was a lot of fun to get to hang out with these families, and they really did seem to accept me as such. Funny how a common last name can do that.
No comments:
Post a Comment