Intermission I - Daniel's Thirtieth Birthday
Friday, June 21
One of the reasons why this trip had been scheduled for the end of June was to coincide with Miriam's brother's 30th birthday celebrations. Since we were travelling with Asmir and Miriam, and since we'd become friends with the Roemer family in general, we were invited to the festivities.
After completing the drive up from Friedrichshafen (where we had just dropped off Brian) to Niederstotzingen, we met up with Miriam at her family's house. There we dropped off our gear, then headed off towards "the factory" (for lack of a better term). By this I mean the factory of Tesro - the sport-firearm company owned and run by Miriam's family. They often held parties and barbeques on the premises, and this event was no exception.
Miriam's family had set up for the barbeque by placing a large tarp between a couple of rows of storage containers. It may sound at first a little too industrial for a party, but it offered a lot of nice enclosed space, and worked quite well. Not everyone had arrived yet, so we sat around and re-acquainted ourselves with each other.
The catered food soon arrived in many large steel heating dishes, and all of it looked and smelled delicious. All manner of delicious food - some German and some not - was on hand. We held back until the majority of partygoers had arrived, and then had at it. Several plates, in fact.
After dinner, it was on to several hours of drinks, chatting, and general birthday party fun. Daniel's girlfriend had planned a Star-wars themed cake, complete with little candy Star Wars characters.
The fun continued for most of the evening. People began to leave with the setting of the sun, around 9:30pm or so. Many thank-yous to the Roemer family for inviting us to the festivities!