on empty (and very full) invitations

One of the many things I adore about Stefan is that he can make friends anywhere we go.  On our honeymoon alone, he exchanged emails and phone numbers and invitations to come visit with no less than 30 people (from Colorado to Canada to Buenos Aires to Germany to India).  While I loved meeting every single one of them, I assumed we'd likely never see them again - they'd each be a face in a photo book, a name scribbled on a paper tucked away, a lovely memory in our romantic first trip as husband and wife, 
but nothing more than that.

Whiskey on the rocks (of the glacier)

with some new friends from Germany

on our honeymoon in Argentina

But Stefan had it in his mind differently.
You see, often times us Americans dish out empty invitations we know will never happen:
"Let's do lunch sometime!"
"You should come over for a coffee!"
"Come visit us at our home in Hawaii!"
A lot of times (though not ALL), we'll give or receive an invitation knowing full well it will likely never happen: we're only saying it to be nice.

But Europeans (like Stefan) aren't like this at all.  
Europeans only extend offers when they are serious.  Unlike Americans, when they invite you to do something and you accept ("We should grab a drink one of these days!" "Sounds great!"), they expect you to follow through.  When you don't, they're not relieved, they're offended.  

So when we were on our honeymoon, and some Germans (the very ones in the picture above) invited us to come visit them at their house in the Mosel wine region of Germany and we accepted, Stefan knew we were going to go.  And go we did - visiting them post Karlsruhe in Germany last week.

In addition to being super nice in extending such a generous offer to a couple they had met just hours before, they are a total power couple.  He runs his own software company while she is one of the top wine merchants in the region (exporting copious amounts of Germany's sweet nectar to Asia and the Middle East).  Knowing that Stefan and I are wine aficionados, she hooked us up with appointments with all of the Mosel's top winemakers.

learning about Dr. Loosen's wonderful wines

(in the living room of his personal home)

She also treated us to a top-notch tour of the very vineyards where those top winemakers' wines are produced.

the "spice garden" vineyards - 

one of the most coveted in the valley

the extreme incline of the terrain makes the grapes 

work extra hard resulting in an extra delicious wine

But their generosity didn't stop there.
After a night of homemade wiener schnitzel, pumpkin seed potato salad, local cheese, and incredible wine, they gave us a first-class tour around Trier, a nearby historic town - the very one where they had first met.

The tour included seeing the city's historic churches and monuments as well as a four course alfresco lunch.

With wine.

(Obviously.)

Amazing.

Their invitation was clearly not an American one - it was FULL to brim with genuine kindness and generosity.  Before we left, we were sure to extend them many a non-American invitation to come visit us so we could return the favor.

xoxo

KK