As a small child I knew that my wonderful Papa was from Germany. I also knew that at birthdays and Christmas packages full of wonderful gifts and delicious baking would arrive curtesy of my Tante Friedel and Oma. Then, when I was seven years old, aunt Friedel and her good friend Itza came for a visit to Canada. They laughed, sang, spoke with charming accents and, on occasion, dressed in their beautiful dirndls. We were living in southern Alberta at the time. Shortly after their arrival my father loaded up the car and we all headed off; camping our way through to the west coast. When we were in Banff National park we delighted in hearing aunt Friedel role the "r" as she admired Mount Rundel. That vacation and many others established my love of camping and of Vancouver Island.
It was several years later that my father was offered a transfer to head up the office of tThe Bank of Montreal for all of german speaking Europe. With that tremendous opportunity house hold possessions were packaged up and placed into storage and our life in Germany began.
Although my father was German by birth and breeding, he had never spoken german at home. As a result, I arrived in Germany unable to tell where one word started and another ended. I was, therefore enrolled in the American International School of Dusseldorf where the tutorial was in English. I also started learning german in school. Fortunately, we started visiting family in Germany now that we were this side of the Atlantic. At was also nice that all were quite fluent in English. It was fun to start visiting and getting to know family I never knew I had. Suddenly I was part of something bigger than just our family. It was wonderful to meet second cousins and great aunts. We also got to spend more time with the ever gracious and welcoming Aunt Friedel.
One of the thing I enjoyed most about our visits with Aunt Friedel was watching how she and my father interacted. He was her little brother and she adored him. Laughter and stories were a significant part of every visit. It was also very impressive that Aunt Friedel and Uncle Willie lived just down the street from an imposing berg or fortress. We would go on lovely walks to the berg and then down through the surrounding vineyards into the old part of Esslingen am Neckar. Once back at the house, Aunt Friedel would treat us to traditional German cooking. To this day I believe that her red current torte is the best cake I have ever had.
As my german developed I enjoyed venturing out with friends first into the altstadt in Dusseldorf and then into Frankfurt and the picturesque towns of the Taunus area north of Frankfurt. I was enthralled by the magic of the German Weinachts Markets and started my own collection of ornaments. Peering into old churches, exploring Roman ruins and visiting local bakeries added to my enjoyment of living in Germany. Shops were full of a vast variety of items of very good quality. To this day my children tease me when I say something is made in Germany because they know what usually comes next is "you can't beat the quality, it will last forever"!
By the time I returned to Canada to attend university, my german was quite fluent. I also had lived in Germany long enough to start taking much of what it offered for granted. It wasn't all perfect. I also remember having old ladies on the tram hit me with their umbrella if I didn't get up fast enough to offer my seat. I also never really got use to the flavour of carbonated mineral water, the only choice at that time if you just wanted water to drink. It proved to be cheeper to have beer than to have water or even pop.
Fortunately, as my parents remained in Germany, I was able return for Christmas and holidays until I got married. I was then treated to a trip over to introduce my first daughter, Katie, to my father and German relatives. What fun it was to show off my beautiful, bright and smiley baby. With big blue eyes, a peach fuzz of red hair and a bright and responsive nature she was a hit everywhere we went. Thereby proving once again how intelligent the German people were. It was particularly amusing to watch the faces of people as my brown eyed, and then, brunet father told everyone we met that she looked just like him! At the time I did not realize that it would be years before I would be in Germany again.
Three years ago I was able to return to Germany with Marvin in tow. My brother had stayed in Germany, met a wonderful German woman and establish a great family. Watching Marvin discover the german people and culture made everything seem fresh and fascinating. Peter and Astrid gave us the royal treatment and instilled in us a strong desire to return. So.... Here we are, exploring the Neckar Radweg and discovering more and more things to enjoy in the tremendous country.
After spending some very enjoyable days with Peter's family, Tuesday morning started with Astrid driving us down to Treiich to pick up our rental bikes. Due to bad knees, a fused ankle and a variety of other reasons, we opted to rent ebikes. They would give us the ability to cycle with minimal-no assistance or to crank up the power for hills. Most of the trails we will be on follow rivers so are fairly flat but this is also wine country so the moment we might choose to leave the Radweg we would be faced with some very steep hills. Ebikes ensured that we could do them without either dying or killing each other.
We were very pleased with the service at the shop we rented from. The bikes were both in excellent condition and adjusted to fit us. Once they were loaded up it was off to a Chinese restaurant for lunch (yes, you read that correctly but my little niece, Victoria, really wanted Chinese food), followed by numerous errands and prep.
Tuesday morning after a wonderful breakfast at our hotel, Peter picked us up and we headed down the highway to the city of Esslingen am Neckar and a long anticipated visit with my Aunt Friedel. We were very lucky that Peter's business took him that direction that day or it would have been a train ride for us. As it was, we made good time, unloaded our bikes at Friedel's home and waved off Peter as he headed off for meetings.
It was lovely to see Friedel. She is now 88 years of age, somewhat bent over and in need of a walker for distance. But, give her her walker and she still manages a good pace on the street. Her apartment is quite small so She had arranged for accommodation for us for that evening. She cheerfully informed us that we would walk over there. We grabbed what bags we would need for the night and off we went. We walked a little over a kilometre and then arrived. The room, though modest, was very clean and comfortable. We then walked back to Friedel's apartment. Earlier we received a call from my cousin Gerhart to say he would come by between 2 - 3 pm for a visit. Friedel went inside to get ready for Gerhart's visit and Marvin and I strolled on into the old part of town to explore and find something to complete the "cafe und kuchen" afternoon tradition. Not far from Friedel's we discovered a lovely bakery with some very tempting mohn kuchen, or poppyseed cake. We cheerfully bought four slices. We did a bit more exploring through town befor returning to Friedel's. We were not in the room more than a couple of minutes when Gerhart arrived.
Gerhart is one of Friedel's step sons. I had met him as a little girl and then had gotten reacquainted in my teens. I had not, however, seen him since then. We had a nice visit and very good mohn kuchen. It was then decided that Gerhart would give us a walking tour of Esslingen. What an informative and enjoyable experience that was. Gerhart was born and raised in Esslingen. He also is well versed in the history of the area. Many of the lovely, picturesque buildings in the area date back to the time of Fredrick the second. Gerhart knew the history and architectural significance of each building (Marvin will be posting pictures soon). He also showed us to the Neckar River so we would know our way to the Neckar Radweg the next morning.
After saying our goodbyes to Gerhart, we continued our exploration of the area. Since we started planning this trip Marvin has been saying that he would like to get a "European looking hat" while we are in Germany. We no soon said our good byes to Gerhart and walked up the street when we came across a hat store. In Canada, stores that specialize in hats are few and far between so it was fun to go in and see the variety on offer. Marvin tried on several hats before we spotted a Tyrollean style hat. On it went and we quickly agreed that it was very traditional. A few minutes later Marvin walked out of the store with the hat on his head.
At this point I want to mention how approachable, helpful and kind the people are who we have dealt with. Marvin's german is pretty non existent and mine is awful. While I can understand most of what is said, my grammar is deplorable and I struggle to find the words I want to use. All Germans take English in school and everyone we have met has tried very hard to communicate with us. Many conversations involve them speaking german and me speaking English. When they see me getting confused, people try to use what English they have to move the conversation forward. The clerk in the hat store was no different. He was most helpful, cheerful and willingly posed for a picture with Marvin's in front of the cash register his grandfather bought in 1903! Yes, that hat shop was a family business that had been in operation for over 100 years!
I will continue tomorrow. Now it is time for a couple of tired cyclists to sleep. But first I must acknowledge our wonderful Katie on this her birthday. We love you Katie and wish you every joy!
