We had some great little walks with Kirsten and the
kids. Kaiserslautern is in the region of
the Pfälzerwald (Palatinate Forest—is a weird translation, I think). It is part of a protected Biosphere that also
includes the Vosges mountain range in France.
There are many trails for hiking and cycling. We enjoyed our walks through “the donkey
valley” (Eselstal) and to the
Humbergturm. It was fun to play “I spy”
with the girls. And I especially enjoyed
singing some of the German songs I grew up learning as we headed back
down. It seemed to have been a good
strategy to keep whining and boredom at bay and in no time we were back at the
car. It was a little like we were in
Fairytale Land.
One evening, we went on
a Lantern walk in the woods for St Martin’s Day with Antonia’s kindergarten
class. It was magical and you could
imagine the fairies and sprites dancing, singing and playing alongside. Especially in the time of dusk when the light
is changing and you suddenly feel like anything could happen.
Now we have arrived in Stade, near Hamburg and are visiting
Silke, Christian and Ole. The weather
hasn’t quite cooperated yet. Today it is
very foggy, cold and damp. It is nicer
to stay indoors. Yesterday we had a
quick little tour of the beautiful medieval downtown Stade, before it started
raining. And there we met a chimney
sweep. A real one, still in old-style uniform.
Very cool! He looked very proud
and pleased of his vocation.
To add to all of the fairy tales, Larry and I have
been sight-seeing beautiful towns along the way. Many of the old parts of towns look like they
come out of a fairy tale. Makes sense
really, since many of the fairy tales (I’m thinking Brothers Grimm, for
example) would have been originally set in such towns, kind of when they were
originally built. It’s so cool to see
houses that have been around since the 1400s, 1500s, 1600s. Who lived in them? What did they do? What joys and sorrows and fears and loves did
all those generations of people experience just in that one home? Some of the
towns that we’ve seen of particular note would be Witzenhausen, Lüneburg,
Stade, Bremen, Weinheim. And now that
each town is opening their Christmas markets, you get that extra “je ne sais
quoi” added.
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| Witzenhausen |
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| Stade |
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| Bremen |
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| Weinheim |
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