The MacDonalds stop by en route to France

The MacDonald family stopped in Grand Rapids for a couple of days last month. They left Hawaii and are making their way to Lille, France where they'll spend the next couple of years or so. And, after a couple of nights here the four of them headed off for stops in Virginia, Connecticut and Maine to see more family and friends before flying to Paris and then a train to Lille where they expect to arrive, well, right about now I suppose.

The kids were all in fine form and it was grand to see them all. It's been far too long since we've all been together let along spending quality time hanging out. And given this was Michigan with winter and all, hanging out is pretty much what we did. But it was really important for those kids to see gram and great-gram -- and for her to spend time with them, too, of course. Mission accomplished.

Oh, and no need to ask -- we are planning on a stop in Lille later this fall when the two of us head back to France. More about that later.

Christina holding Liam, Kiera,  Great-Gram and Glen

Susie joins in the fun

Christina and her gram

Germany quick and easy

On Friday, September 29, Susan and I repeated our previous Friday’s trip routine: we walked to the Denfert-Rochereau metro station, took the Orlybus shuttle to Orly airport where we caught the shuttle bus to the Thrifty/ADA car rental kiosk at the nearby Holiday Inn. A few minutes later we were on our way on the A4 heading east toward Germany to see our niece Christina and her new baby daughter Kiera in Giessen. (photo: Kiera Joy, the reason we came to Germany.)

It was a pleasant day for a drive and it was great to see more of rural France for a change – much of eastern France reminded us both of (variously) Virginia, Illinois and Michigan, the topography was so varied. Anyway we stopped just once for gas (OK diesel) and traffic moved well along the superhighway until we got to Frankfurt (motto: “we make confusion a reality”). 

As we skirted the city on the A5 we ran into a huge traffic jam, crawling along at about 5 kms an hour along with a bazillion other drivers for over 20 kms. (An accident apparently had caused such a huge backup; although we were told that enormous traffic jams in Germany were not uncommon.)

After about 7-and-a-half hours on the road we finally reached Giessen, and promptly got lost trying to find the entrance to the US army post. But we soon found our way and a few minutes later met Christina who signed us onto post.

We chatted for a bit – during which time of course we had to have one of Glen’s German beers after the long drive – before the four of us went into Giessen for dinner. We ate at the “Alt Giessen”, a restaurant we had visited last December when we were here and enjoyed the food so much we had to come back. It also turns out to be one of Christina’s favorites as well. She had the Cordon Bleu (possibly in honor of Susan's baking program in Paris) while Susan had the "filet frische champi mit spaetzle" (beef with mushroom sauce apparently) and I had the “Braumeistertopf" ("Brewmaster’s Skillet”), three different grilled meats on a bed of potatoes all in a mushroom gravy. Pretty tasty – and just right for an Illinois boy – lest you think we fell for the typical German meal we did break tradition here and had wine (white wine/weiss wein!) instead of beer.

Susan and I turned in pretty early – Christina ended up spending much of the evening trying to get Kiera to sleep. The next morning three of us had croissants with our coffee – Kiera of course had other plans for breakfast. (Susan and I had picked up some pastries as we headed out of Paris on Friday; we wanted to share the wealth with the unfortunates living in Germany. Yeah, right. Those folks know how to make pastries and bread!)

Later in the morning the four of us piled into Christina’s car/van thing and drove into downtown Giessen. We spent some time cruising the local farmer’s market. On our way to the market I had spied a pair of shoes in a shop near the open air market and a little while later we stopped back there and I bought them: a pair of Eccos just right for the upcoming rainy fall season. The cobblestones of Florence and streets of Paris are playing havoc with my footwear let me tell you.

The four of us stopped for a bite of lunch in downtown Giessen, off of a pedestrian-only plaza. Nearly all of the buildings in Giessen are postwar – the city had been the home of a nearby Luftwaffe base and consequently heavily bombed during the war. The upside is that there was ample time to completely makeover the entire community.

That night Christina fixed a wonderful meal of fresh tortellini (which she picked up at the market earlier in the day) with sausage, fresh basil and parsley and a delicious salad with goat cheese and a cool crunchy topping of caramelized almonds. We provided the wine. After dinner we watched four or five episodes of season 6 of “Seinfeld”, one of our favorite programs back when we lived in Michigan eons ago. And since Christina had just the disks she said “go ahead and take them”. We just have to send them on to Glen after we’re done watching them. No problem.

We lingered over coffee the next morning, stretching out our goodbyes. The day was overcast with occasional spurts of sun and promised rain. As we headed out of Giessen and Germany we couldn’t help but wonder when we would see those kids again – and where. Paris, or maybe Texas, or maybe Paris, Texas? Wherever it is, Christina we’ll be there – and yes even Texas.

Wish you were here,

Steve