Today is the day of family. We started by going to see Nicholas Winter and the house of Johann Winter and Gertrude Divo, Marks great-great-great grandparents. After two years of seeing the picture it was incredible to walk into the house. It is has some of the same things that were there always the bread table and huge oven for baking. Mark was very touched to see Winter over every door. The valley is very beautiful and I was struck by how hard it must have been to leave and head to the states. I think that it must have helped to not know what Kansas and the prairie looked like.

After we left Diersdorf we headed home for a wonderful lunch at Stephan's. He had ordered dinner from the pub and it was great. Here lunch is the big meal and typically has something hot served.

We then headed to the next village for a parade. The village was celebrating that it is 900 years old and they had a history parade to show all of the people and groups that had lived in the village. The floats were wonderful and they gave out hard cider, schnapps, bread and even soup.

In the afternoon we went to meet Michael Winter of Fisch. (This is name everyone used to identify him and all we could figure out was that there are so many Michael Winter's that they come to be known by the village they live in. We loved the way his title rolled off our tongues.) He has a large farm in Fisch. This family is really wonderful and Michael was very happy to meet his American cousin. We were served supper, which is very light wonderful little open faced sandwiches and a desert. Michael brought in his best bottle of Riesling wine which is made in the area and we had great conversation. He was a prisoner of war and had been held in the states for three years so has a pretty good command of English. He is a collector of artifacts and has an incredible collection of old flint knives and stones from before Christ.

The Saarland and the areas around it grow a lot of apples. The apples are then taken to the distiller that makes a very potent schnapps. Then everyone uses this to make their own liquor. Michael gave us a bottle of choke cherry schnapps that he sells. He is well know in Fisch for his ciders and schnapps. Mrs. Schmit had given us a bottle of her special Blackberry without prickles schnapps so by the end of the day we had three bottles of booze.

When we left Stephan and Gizzla we went to the pub and had a beer. It was everything I had imagined everyone was having a great time and singing songs. It was a very good day.

I think that it means a great deal for us to have come. This family can not remember a Winter coming back since Michael and Kasper left in the 1880's. So we are being treated very well and have met many cousins.