Another Kind of St. Martin's Day

November 11/10....11:21 a.m.

This really had been a scream! Now, friends, to learn something about the proper procedure, you have to trouble yourselves to look into my  p o s t  of a previous year. otherwise the following makes little sense.
The other day we had a phonecall from a cousin, whom we had not been seeing for quite some time. They live on the other side of the Rhein (rhine) so we do not run across each other so often. We decided to have a panacake feast in a restraurant in an old part of Düsseldorf, our (left) rhineside and since parking space is very rare in that district, we took my small car, so I could drop off Herr Husband,who is not able to walk distances any more. We were quite surprised that at 6 p.m. the streets were parked tight already, lots of traffic too, cars circling to find parking space, anyway, dropped Herr Husband off at the restaurant, not after a little quibble from Herr Husband's side, that it was the wrong place (it was not) and circling around to find a lot. After surrounding the block about 3 times I was lucky, could squeeze my car into a little spot and when I got out it dawned on me seeing out of the dark three guys leading a white horse without saddle and St. Martin - there had been the parade just finished and now the kids were swarming out to get their treats, and there they were dozens and dozens, all equipped with their little lanterns and singing. Pretty nice to see. I had quite a ways to walk to the restaurant, and from afar I spotted Herr H., cousin and wife, standing in front of the place. Of course, on account of the festivity in the quarter all restaurants had been  booked out for private parties and us four were in a jam. So, while walking to cousin's car, the nearest one, we passed a little place a bit off the side and I had the brilliant idea to walk in and ask if they would happen to have a table for us. It is an italien place and had opened up new fairly recently. And imagine, we were lucky and had excellent food and good wine. But we felt so sorry for the poor owner , sporadically the door opened and crowds of kids with their lanterns walked in and started singing and obviously no one had told the man that there was this custom of handing out treats. He had been so embarrassed, first he gave them money, but then he must have run out of change so he obviously wanted to sink into the ground. We then informed him about this kind of festivity and at least now he knows for the next year. He had been so grateful he filled us up with grappa and limocello after the meal for free. So I told HerrH. that I could not drive any more on accout of my alcohol level.  He drove home  (actually he hates driving my car, always claiming it is for midgets) . Being safely in the house, we reconstructed, that he had been drinking just as much as Landfrau, and he normally never drinks, except for a beer once a while. 
Ouch...and it had been my car - but his driver's licence!