Friday 20 June 2014 Bochum

Cool Cloudy 18C

This morning we drove into town and found a pleasant bakery for breakfast. Today is Christof and Nadine's wedding and we know it’s going to be a big day.

We arrived at the church in Bochum Gerthe just before 2:00 p.m. (kick-off time), got through the groom/bride side seating decision by sitting with Christof's parents, brother and very pregnant wife.

The church was large and quite modern inside although it was a bell-free day due to damage sustained in the storm a couple of weeks ago.

Nadine and Christof both looked radiant.

The entire service was in German although we did manage to recognise a few english-sounding words - Christof, Nadine, Nicole (?)(twice) (oops, that's his sister-in-law), Australia, Africa (?) and Vodafone.....

Unusually, Christof's Best Man (his brother) and Nadine's Matron of Honour (her twin sister) sat in the congregation and only came forward when needed to witness when the signing of the marriage certificate.

The service lasted just under an hour. Afterwards, outside the church, we enjoyed a glass of sparkling red and congratulated the couple, and there was lots of coloured rose petals being thrown.

The reception was at a Lunen, it began with the cutting of the cakes, 3 different types, chocolate, cheese cake and strawberry cream cake and the proverbial (another) glass of bubbly.

After the opening food skirmish, we retired outside for an extended photo session with the bride groom and some super hero t-shirts.

Once it started to rain again, we went inside where the buffet was being set for a feast and the band and lead comedian was beginning to warm up.

The buffet stretched the width of the room (probably about 15 metres) with a huge selection of hot and cold food, appetizers, entrees, mains, salads, cold meats, cheeses, desserts and much more.

Shots of vodka and kirsch were passed around for the toasts and proceedings got underway very rapidly with the main singer in the band also undertaking MC duties.

Through the early part of the evening, (i.e. before midnight) he kept us entertained with dancing games and various other wedding-related activities (traditional german music for weddings) and everyone was really getting into the spirit of the evening with Christof and Nadine.

After midnight, rock and roll arrived and we started to really get moving!, but by one o'clock, jet lag once again was taking its toll and long goodbyes and sentiments were passed in a number of languages (Polish, German and English) and we crawled off to sleep around 2:00 a.m.