The German public holiday Christi Himmelfahrt (Ascension Day) is celebrated on the 40th day after Easter Monday.

This has been a holiday since 1936, although it was not celebrated in the GDR between 1967 and 1989.

The same day is also known as Vatertag (Father’s Day) and many clubs and organizations hold their annual parties, mostly for drinking. This is a day when some fathers, do not spend any time with their families, but with other men (drinking buddies) instead.

We went to the Schützenhof again as we do every year. The fest itself seems to get smaller and so does the menu selection – they only had steaks and Bratwurst available, but it was good as always.

Bollerwagen on Father's Day in Germany

This year, we only saw guys with a Bollerwagen, a hand-drawn cart for drinking supplies. Wonder what happened to the guys coming up on tractors and wagons on Father’s Day, such as in previous years.

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With record highs recorded for late April, most Germans are out and about. And we were one of them.

Bundesstrasse Germany

The Greens, represented here in this post, have been nominated by me.

The green route we take to get to our forest garden does look and feel like a ski jump at times.

Heading towards Schlossborn

The lilies of the valley are winding their way around the edge of the terrace. Nature will always find its way.

Lilies of the valley

cloverleaf

The effects of Planetary Warming have not made an impact on natural greens yet, ostensibly.

Last-minute preparations for the trip to Korea and Japan are keeping me very busy.

There is another batch of Kinder Überraschung Eier to be bought, and I have just asked the neighbor for more empty egg boxes for transporting them to Japan (via Korea).

Kinder Überraschung Schokoeier

Earlier this week, I had ordered some Swiss knives VICTORINOX Offiziersmesser, Hiker, rot  (priced at 15 euro a piece) via Amazon. de to hand out to our male Japanese friends.

Our suitcases are also filled with Haribo, The little German Cookbook (also from Amazon.de), Baumkuchen from the local supermarket (requested by a Japanese friend), and many other things.

Visiting Japan is a real schlepping trip as giving gifts is so customary, more so than in western countries.

So, we are soon off, so さよなら(sayonara).

Sometime soon we will be off to see our friends and get another taste of hanami (cherry blossom viewing) activities in Japan.

Almost daily, I get updates on the weather there. The spring rains have not stopped yet, but we are not going there for the weather. We expect to see a lot of friends, more than we can handle at times, but there are also quiet times planned. Everyone hopes for the rain to stop by the time the cherry blossoms are in full bloom (early April).

One of my friends had put this very nicely in her e-mail: See, everyone, even cherry blossom, is waiting for you.

Then I looked at our own cherry blossoms right here in Germany.

Cherry blossoms in Germany

This would also make a good picnic spot… But for some reason, it just doesn’t compare to spring time in Japan.