The Queen of Germany

Let me introduce you to John's sister, Anke.
She's how old? Why don't you guess?
She's 91/2 years older than her brother.
We have had so much fun together over the past three weeks.
She is the mother to Ursula and the grandmother to little Deniz.
She and me both strongly admit that those grandchildren are the
"Love of our Lives"

She loves Deniz and spends every Monday and Tuesday looking after him.
I think that most of us that are grandparents will well agree,
that we have the time now, to be more sensitive and reflective to
what a small child is thinking.
She is amazing at giving this little child all the support
and love that comes from a Grandmother's heart.

Here we are standing in front of the Schonbrunn Palace in Vienna.
Our friendship goes far and deep.
We both love to read similar books and
always talk about what we are learning.
Our favorite quote is, "The book says..."
Anke has been an inspiration to me and is
constantly reminding me to think positively.

To my right is Anke's partner, Mannfred.
He is an amazing historian and tour guide.
That's what made our trip so special.
He took us to so many famous towns in Austria like
Hallstadt and St. Wolfgang, which are places where
many movies have been filmed because of their unique locations.

Visiting the Opera House in Vienna was his claim to fame.
His son is a famous musician in Europe and has spent many years
studying music and theatre and therefore you could always count on
Mannfred humming a famous opera melody.

Every day around 3:00pm Anke would stop our tour guide,
and invite us all to enjoy a nice
dessert or Ice-Cafe' in a sidewalk cafe.
Usually by this time, most of us were on information overload
and we all enjoyed taking a break from the historian.

The dessert menus are out of this world.
They are to die for and so are the calories.

At the end of the day when we were all tired,
there was still energy left by little Deniz,
and who but the Queen, would enjoy playing with the little prince.

Shaking hands with Europe's history was valuable,
but more valuable was building relationships with our family.

"To talk to a child, to fascinate him, is much more difficult than to win an electoral victory. But it is more rewarding."
Colette