Germany and The Nicolays

On the 19th of May 2011...at about 6.30am we took the Terravison bus from Roma Termini to Ciampino Airport to catch our flight to Frankfurt , Germany. Check in was good and had a walk around the duty free before we had to board our flight. Ryan Air is a budget airlines and you have to get your own seats and David always made sure he got us the exit seats...and they are so comfortable with so much legroom. The flight took about 2 hours and the plane landed at Frankfurt Hahn airport. We got our bags and once again no one even checked our passports...I feel these European countries are  going to suffer allowing people to come into their countries so easily. Well we could see it from France and Italy where we saw so many immigrants in their countries who were not at all contributing to the economy but lazily living on the dole. So our expectations of Germany were very high.

We stepped out to the arrival hall and we were met by Harald Nicolay...a friend of David's from 35 years ago...and David and he were just so glad to see each other...and of course it was the first time we were meeting him although I have heard so much about him and his sisters. David said he was the same guy from before and it was so great to see them together and David reminded me that it was an AJS British bike that brought them together. We walked out and well they saw a bike and they went to see it and talked about it evern before we could put our luggage into his Nissan Patrol. So we seated ourselves and Harald explained to us that we were actually 120km from Frankfurt so naming the airport Frankfurt Hahn was so wrong. And he also said we were about 300km from Kassel the city where he and his family and the senior Nicolays lived. So this poor guy drove about 4 hours to come get us and was going to drive back all the way.  And our journey started...he gave us a choice of a straight route or a scenic route and we just wanted the fastest way to get to Weimar where our hosts the senior Nicolays lived. and were waiting for us....and we were on our way on German roads.

Harald and David meeting after 35 years.

Frankfurt Hahn Airport

My first impression of Germany...very beautiful...very clean....very organised...and all roads were so well sign posted. We went through many  towns Mainz  and Bingen to name a couple. We passed the beautiful Rhein River and Valley. We also saw the skyline of Frankfurt City from afar. We got into the highway that pointed towards Kassel a city in the heartland and middle of Germany. And ever so often Harald will with us ladies whether we were okay and if we needed to stop.

Skyline of Frankfurt City.

Signposts showing way to Kassel

German heartland

After about 4 hours on the road we arrived at The Nicolays home at No 3 Hangarsteinweg , Ahnatal Weimar...another address I have only written on Christmas cards and letters. And we were welcomed by the ever loving Gudrun Nicolay , the mother of Harald and the lady of the house. I last met her in 2007 when she and her husband visited Malaysia. She was over excited to see us and quickly took us in and showed us our rooms and made everything so comfortable.

Arriving at the Nicolay home

The excited Mrs Gudrun Nicolay welcoming us into her home

As we sat down for coffee and cake....I heard so many stories about how The Nicolays met David and the good times they had...it was going down memory lane...and for Mel and me it was awesome to hear about David's teenage years and all his biking trails with Harald. After awhile Mr Helmut Nicolay the 78 year old dad of Harald walks in and there was excitement all over again...and lots of chatting about old times. The Nicolay home is filled with momentos and paintings and wall hangings of all the places they travelled to which spoke so much of them...they have lived their life well.

Their home name

The Nicolay living room

Around dinner time which was 7pm Harald's wife Gabriella came to meet us...what a lovely person. So all of us sat down to dinner and Mrs Nicolay cooked up a feast for us and it was great. After dinner Susanah , Harald's youngest sister came to visit us and there was another reunion for David who had not seen her for 35 years. More stories were shared about their life in Malaysia and it was just so good. Then the whole family got together to plan for the next few days for us and after debating awhile plans were set and we had to bid them goodnight. Going to bed that night felt we were home to visit parents in the persons of Helmut and Gudrun Nicolay...after visiting all the big cities...we could unwind...and for Mel it was like being with grandparents she never knew she had.

Mr Helmut Nicolay