Uncle Rudolf, Hannah's Cottage and a Duck Story

Ate picked up Uncle Rudolf at the train station and he spent the day with us.  Over the years I've had the pleasure of attending a few of his birthday parties.  He used to throw himself  huge parties with 100+ people, even renting out a room in a local hotel for a birthday buffet.  He is engaging, exuberant and always impeccably dressed. He is 93 years old now, still well groomed, but walks a little crooked and is thin and seems very fragile.  His kids made him give up his driver's license earlier this year which he is not happy about.  But he was still lively and optimistic when he wasn't dozing off in his chair.  We took him with us to

Hannah's vacation house in Denmark.  Christine had told me it was the most beautiful beach house ever and I had to agree.  It is a rose covered cottage with a thatch roof perched right above a beach on the Baltic Sea.  She has a beautiful front lawn with  numerous flowers and shrubs and a little wooden gate in the hedges which leads to the beach.  Inside, the house was cozy with big picture windows looking out onto the sea which was constantly moving from left to right, making me  a little dizzy.  The table in her living room was laden with homemade chocolate cake, fresh rolls with Danish butter and a strawberry torte from a local bakery.  I sat facing the window and couldn't take my eyes off the ocean, this huge body of water in constant motion, left to right, left to right.  I was hypnotized.  And dizzy.  We were served coffee and tea and all the above scrumptious pastries, and then a bottle of champagne was opened and we sat and talked all afternoon.  Hannah told me she had met me a long time ago when I was visiting Ate and Annette in Heidelburg.  We were checking into a hotel and there was Hannah and her husband and their big German Shepherd dog in the lobby.  As soon as she told the story I remembered because I was so astounded at the time that the hotel would allow such a big dog, but that's just how it is in Germany.  I remember Ate being surprised to see her there and them hugging and then introducing me, and they were very nice, and now here I was all these years later sitting in her house.  A Dutch door led out onto a courtyard with a picnic table where Hannah entertains when the weather's nice.  This is where the story of the ducks comes in.  It's cute, a little tragic, but has a happy ending - sort of.  A duck had its babies on top of her straw roof.  She didn’t know they were there until one came sliding down  the roof during a birthday celebration and fell right by and almost into a glass of champagne.  Then the baby ducklings wandered out to swim in the sea and were promptly gobbled up by seagulls.  The neighbors were able to save one injured duckling and kept it for years as a pet.  What do you think?  Does that warm your heart?  Or are you still gasping at that nasty seagull part?  Me too.