The Birthday Bash

Cousin Werner celebrated his 60th birthday with a big party at his flat on Friday night.  It was the best party that I have attended in a long time!

The event was catered by a Madrid cooking school called "Kitchen Club".  (I will write more about "Kitchen Club" in an upcoming post.)  The servers were constantly bringing out trays of all sorts of tapas.

One especially decadent creation that they served was strawberries dipped in mixture of champagne and gold.

For entertainment, Werner hired three musicians... a vocalist, a violinist and a guitarist... who during the course of the evening performed some very intense flamenco music.

 

There were more than forty guests at the party.  Occasionally I feel like a wallflower at parties, but that definitely was not the case here.  I have already met many of Werner's friends and family members...  at times the party seemed like a reunion for me.

Among the people that I already knew...

 

Werner's cousin (and hence my cousin too) Hans Peter... shown here with his children, Sophia and Alexander, and me.  I met Hans Peter two years ago when Werner took me to Switzerland.  He is a great guy, and we immediately hit it off.  He is a doctor, and is currently living in Bergen, Norway, where he is teaching at the medical school.  Unfortunately, his lovely wife Larissa was unable to come to Madrid for the celebration.  

I met Eva, shown here with Werner, four years ago when I first met my cousin.  She is a good friend of Werner's.  Eva comes from Germany, but she now lives in Madrid where, like Werner, she works as a translator.  She is a very classy and delightful lady.

 Four years ago, I also met Mónica, a good friend and neighbor of Werner's.  Mónica is Spanish, also works as a translator, and lives in the flat above Werner. 

                                          Another very elegant and sweet lady.

I also met a lot of new people... including more cousins to add to my list of Swiss relatives!

This lovely, young lady is my cousin, Anatina.  She lives in Zurich and is the daughter of Werner's other sister, Brigitta.  Anatina has begun a career in social work.

Here I am with my cousin, Vera.  Vera is the daughter of Werner's cousin Walter and his wife Helen.  I met Walter and Helen two years ago in Switzerland.  They are very nice people, and I was disappointed that they were unable to come to the party.  But I was happy to have the opportunity to meet their daughter.   Vera is studying history and philosophy, and speaks flawless English.

 More cousins... here I am with another cousin by the name of Walter, his wife, Ulli, and their son Florian.

 A couple more friends of Werner.  Monique, to the left, has known Werner since their days as university students in Lausanne, Switzerland.  Griselda, to the right, is a teacher in Barcelona.

The photo book which  I had made as a gift for Werner proved to be quite popular with the guests.  Here Ruth is showing the book to Florian.

Several people wanted to know the story of how Werner and I met.  If you have not read my blog from the beginning, you should click HERE to read the earlier post, "How I Met My Cousins - Part 2".  The story truly is like something out of a movie script.

Werner and his spouse Manuel

Most of Manuel's family was also present at the party.  I had a chance to meet a few of them, and I had a very nice conversation with Manuel's brother, Angel.  During the course of the weekend, I want to meet more of his family, and I must take some photos of them.

The birthday celebration is still not over!!!