Hays Family in Iceland: Day 152-visiting Amrei in Amberg

The kids play with Julia at the Zinks'.

June 4-We slept in again today and then headed over to Hape and Martina’s for breakfast. We bought various bread products on the way over and ate them and drank some juice and espresso at the Zinks’. Since Hape was
“working” at home, we did not stick around very long. Alex, Spencer, and I walked back into the city center so Alex could buy a charm to replace one that she had lost while sliding on the plastic in the English Gardens the day before. Meanwhile, Sally and Joslyn checked us out of the hotel and packed out the bags so we were ready to leave Munich when we got back to the hotel.
We drove to Regensburg, arriving at Ruth and Rudi Schneiders around 1:30. The Schneiders were my host family when I studied at the University of Regensburg in 1992 and 1993 and we have remained in contact ever since. They visited Sally and me in Oregon in 1996 a few weeks before we got married, but we had not seen them since, so it was great to see them again. The kids were immediately impressed by the house. It is narrow, but four stories tall (counting the easily accessible attic) with a basement as well, so the kids, who think a three-story house is amazing, were completely blown away. The Schneiders built the house to their specifications the year after I was in Regensburg and it is a beautiful and well-laid out house. Their two kids were around Spencer’s age when I studied in Regensburg, so both are adults now. Ferdinand is in medical school in Regensburg and still lives at home. Amrei is a physicist at a hospital in Amberg, dealing with the use of radiation to treat cancer.

Amrei, Ruth, Rudi, Shan, Joslyn, Alex, and Spencer enjoy a
late afternoon snack at Amrei's apartment in Amberg.

We had dinner with Ruth, Rudi, and Ferdinand and then we all (minus Ferdinand) drove to Amberg to see Amrei. She had been at a large rock festival in Nürnberg over the weekend and had just gotten back, so she had taken the day off. We got to see her new apartment and had coffee and cake with her. Alex was quite impressed by her apartment and announced that she wants her apartment to look like this when she grows up. So, I told Amrei that she would need to come to the States in a decade and help Alex set up her place.

The medieval city walls of Amberg.

Then, Amrei took us downtown for a tour of Amberg. It is a cute, relatively small town of 10,000 people. A highlight was a hotel that consists of a single room. Traditionally, newlyweds spend their first night in this hotel. We had supper at a Bierstube and the kids and the Schneiders had an uproarious time doing finger tricks and other odd body tricks. It was a blast. We drove back to Regensburg and got the kids to bed late. We then sat down with Schneiders and talked for a while before going to bed ourselves.