Friday, 30 June. Kirchheim Unter Teck

The rain came today but it didn’t dampen anyone’s spirits and held off during the important moments. Angela, Theo, Daniel and Jack kindly drove me to Neidlingen. We all met at the town hall at 11.45 and then followed the bride and groom up many flights of stairs to the top of the building, which is where the ceremony was to be held.

No sooner were we all seated than a marvellous old clock struck 12 and a couple of little wooden (I think) figures moved in their window. Lott had timed the wedding specially so that we could see the clock in action.

This was the legal wedding and there was quite a lot of official stuff which was read by the town hall official and translated by someone they hired. I thought it would be a few bits of paperwork and that’s it but the town hall official gave us the whole story of their relationship and the difficulties they went through to get the marriage officially approved. She had really done her homework and made it personal and meaningful. It was a lovely ceremony and naturally there was not a dry eye to be seen when they were finally declared man and wife.

Then it was downstairs for bubbly and photos before we headed to Alex and Lott’s apartment for a long barbecue lunch. It was a very happy day.

Back in Kirchheim, thanks to my chauffeurs, I decided to see if I could find a typical German meal. I was seated at an outside table at the restaurant I chose. I was offered Maultaschen but said no as we had them the other day and instead had beef with a rich onion gravy and spätzle, a local noodle specialty.

While I was eating a rather bizarre thing happened. Two young men came up to me and one of them asked me if he could sing a song and see if it would earn him the price of a drink. Or at least in hindsight I think that’s what he said. I said I didn’t speak much German but he said he’d sing in English so I let him go ahead and he sang a religious song. Afterwards he asked me what I thought and I rambled on about not being religious. “But how much was my song worth?” he asked. I found a two euro coin in my purse and gave him that, hoping he would go away, which he did. A few minutes later back he came and told me he was getting married soon and his mates had given him a list of tasks to complete. It must have been his bachelor party. He thanked me, gave me back my two euros and we had a good laugh. I told him that I had come to Germany to attend a wedding tomorrow, wished him all the best and away he went again. What an amazing end to an amazing day!