Europe 2010 - The Wedding

A little background info... Ben was a German foreign exchange student in Alaska when we were in high school. In that short year, he quickly became one of our best friends and we've kept in contact with him and his family throughout the years and have had the opportunity to meet up with them while they've travelled around the United States on several occassions.


Ben and Nadine
On one of Ben's visits to Southern California, he brought his then girlfriend, Nadine with him and they stayed with us for a few days. We've always told them that we wanted to come visit them so when we got their wedding announcement we decided that this has to be the time. It was one of our primary motivations to go to Europe and was an amazing highlight on our trip!

We spent several days with them in St. Peter Ording, Germany so there are several journal entries and tons of pictures. So today's post will be a big one. Enjoy...

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8-27-2010
St Peter Ording (wedding)


The view from our hotel room
We woke up and went to breakfast then went back to our room to get dressed up for the wedding. The drive up to the Westerhever Lighthouse (where the wedding took place) took about 15 minutes. The country side up this way is mostly farmland and pastures for sheep, cattle, and horses. There are dikes to protect the land from the ocean. There are also a lot of wind turbines in this area due to the strong winds that come off the North Sea. Many of the houses had interesting thatched roofs (that we were told they are really only found in this region of Germany and are quite expensive as well as flammable). I’m not sure what the advantages are to the roof for this region other than the signature look.


The Westerhever Lighthouse
The lighthouse is about a 20-30 minute walk from the parking lot, so Ben and the ladies all rode in a horse drawn carriage and the rest of the boys rode rented bicycles. It was quite a unique and fun experience. The weather was very cold and windy.


Ben's and the ladies' carriage

The rest of the guys riding bicycles to the lighthouse (Nadine's brother, Ben's Dad, Alan, and Ben's brother in the back)

The lighthouse upclose
The actual ceremony was in the lighthouse and only 9 family members were allowed in because of the size. So, we waited outside in the nearby information center (the lighthouse in on a national preserve) which sheltered us from the wind.
We greeted Ben/Nadine when they came out of the lighthouse and made our way back to the park entrance where we had some champagne.


Ben and Nadine
We ate lunch at a restaurant near the lighthouse. Alan did his best to order lunch in German. Everyone seemed to get a kick out of it (probably because of his poor pronunciation). We were served Nordseekrabben (Crangon crangon in English) which is a regional shrimp from the North Sea and is a delicacy in this area of Germany. They are much smaller than typical shrimp and have a stronger flavor. They tasted more like crab than shrimp. We also enjoyed a DELICIOUS regional desert called friesentorte. It is a plum marmalade cake. YUM!


From left to right: Ben's Mom, Nadine, Ben, Nadine's Mom, Ben's Dad
Later, we spent a good portion of the afternoon blowing up balloons in order to fill Ben and Nadine’s bathroom as a surprise/prank. The original idea was to fill the entire room, but their room was huge, then the idea was to fill the bathroom to the ceiling, but their bathroom was quite large as well... so in the end, we were only able to fill the bathroom to just over knee level and that was A LOT of balloons.

The balloons we had were crappy and often would have a hole in it or would just pop once you started blowing it up. If you were lucky it would pop instantly. A few of us (including Tracy) had one pop on us when it was nearly full. This was quite painful as it whipped your face and even left welts.


The happy couple!
The wedding reception was at 6 in the evening at the hotel we were staying at. We spent most of the time with Ben’s friend Martin (pronounced Martine) because he was a friend from university and he didn’t know very many people either and he spoke English very well. He was our personal translator for the evening (boy did we need it!). He even introduced Alan to German beer.

The reception had events planned from 6pm-1am including cutting the cake at midnight!! These Germans are party animals. Most of the music was recognizable American songs with a few german songs.

We were very tired and left the party early (11pm).
　

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8-28-2010
St Peter Ording

We woke up early this morning and waited for everyone else to get up then we had breakfast. Everyone else was tired from a long night of partying. They said they were “jet lagged”. ;-)


Tracy's "cold and windy" face
The weather was improved over yesterday (still cold and windy, but the sun was out). We walked to the beach down a long boardwalk/pier. The beach was very large and flat as far as the eye could see (it's the largest beach in Germany). There were a lot of people flying kites and riding wind powered karts (little vehicles with sails that rode on sand). It was so windy that they were going quite fast.


St. Peter Ording Beach
We found shelter from the wind (and a brief bit of rain) in “beach baskets” ("strandkorb" in German) which are two person padded benches with an adjustable hard canopy that blocks the wind on three sides (plus a roof) and they have pull out foot stools. The look a bit silly, but really do a great job and are very confortable. Normally you rent them for your trip to the beach but because it’s a slow season they were just out and not used, so we just used them briefly.


Enjoying the shelter from the wind provided by the strandkorb
Then we drove to another beach from which you could see the lighthouse that Ben/Nadine were married at in the distance. We took a bunch of photos and just walked around.


The view of the lighthouse from St. Peter Ording Beach's north side

One of the only photos of us together on the trip :-)
Then we went back to town for lunch. We ate some schneitzel weiner art. It was pretty tasty. After lunch Tracy and I took a brief nap and then did a little shopping while most of the other people went to the pool or spa.


A snapshot of the town
We all met up for dinner and then went out for a bit of ice cream before calling it a night and going to bed.

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Tracy at Westhever Lighthouse


St. Peter Ording Beach


Martin, Ben, and Helge (Ben's brother) in the North Sea


Tracy testing the strandkorb for the first time


The beach was lined with these things


Tracy looking out at the North Sea


You know it.