Europe old and new

Here we are in Monchau, Germany, with our Maastricht friends from Minneapolis. (That's Kai with Ellie, and in the next shot Gretchen is holding Emerson.) It's a gorgeous village set in a valley that drops suddenly from the middle of a flat forest. Gretchen and I took the kids there just for a change of pace last week. European tourists--many on motorcycles--flock there, but we seemed to be the only Americans. A couple things cracked me up: 1. I love the hodgepodge of old and new we find all over Europe. The mod gigantic foot just plunked down in a centuries old village square. 2. If you go inside the restaurants that surround the square, you would swear that you were in New Ulm, Minnesota. Everything from the smell of what was cooking (meat and potatoes), the faces of the folks sitting down for lunch and the decorative kitsch of wooden dolls and figurines of girls pushing wheelbarrows full of flowers was shockingly reminiscent of German small-town Minnesota. To be more correct, German small-town Minnesota is shockingly reminiscent of village Germany. I didn't know people could duplicate the externalities of culture that precisely. Perhaps this is because Monchau tries to retain a certain centuries-old feel for the tourists (pure speculation here) and is stuck about the time that all those folks brought their culture from their German homes to their new American homes. 3. Germany felt quite different from Holland. I need to go back to figure this out more, but my impression was that it was a bit more serious and less quirky than Holland and, well, more like a stoic small town in Minnesota. More on this when I can get back and see non-tourist Germany.
It's late--nearly midnight here--and Ellie's finally well again and sleeping soundly. In a few minutes it'll be August 10th, Ryan and my fourth anniversary. Thinking of that day a few years back, of all the good eggs surrounding us in Lanesboro. We feel so grateful for you all, and for all the new good eggs that are now in our lives. And we remember those sweet ones who aren't with us now. Thank you all for your accompaniment. Much love to you.