Life: Idiotropic

It's sad, really, how fast time goes by. Just next to the base is a lovely forest that almost entirely surrounds the base and spreads into nearby villages. It's full of maples and oaks, birches and evergreens, and all sorts of mosses and wildflowers. When I first walked through it I thought that I might go there every week just to take a walk and enjoy the beauty of it. Sadly, after living here almost a year, I've only been there 4 times.

But, on this day, needing to get out and not feeling like a full-day excursion, I took the girls on a nature hunt through the woods. Each was equipped with a bucket or bag with the stipulation that they could only collect what would fit in said bucket or bag. We collected birch bark, pinecones, acorns, leaves, and many flowers and plant leaves to press. The girls saw all sorts of beautiful mushrooms and saw the tunnels that the bugs built inside a decaying log. We talked about birds and dragonflies and spiders. It was wonderful and they got excited looking for natures little treasures.

Arianna picked all those puffy seeded dandelion heads, made her wishes and blew. Luci picked grass and found a very nice stick in the shape of an L. Elise toddled along, happy to be there, but not yet caught up in the spirit of collecting, and Tiara, unenthused at first, ended up having a wonderful time finding pretty little things to get crafty with later.


The highlight came at the very end when Tiara let out a scream worthy of even the scariest horror film and ran 6 feet from where she's been walking before. She pointed to the place where that terrifying beast sat lurking, and there, peacefully sunning himself on the path, was the sweetest honey-colored baby salamander that I've ever seen. The little girls were quiet and still, mesmorized by the little guy. I picked him up and let him walk around on my hand before letting him go.

When we got home the girls got shoeboxes and sorted their treasures between woody things and the fresh things. All the fresh flowers and leaves were pressed in my old medical dictionary and all the pinecones and other woody things were put in their boxes for a craft day to come. Then we went outside and collected some leaves from our yard to do rubbings. I put my little nature collection into a nice old flowerpot that I wasn't using and it looks very nice.

Sometimes the simple things are best.

... because I'm never in it.

I knew as the kids grew that I would get progressively busier. I knew that this year with Arianna in school would be a little more chaotic. But, I also thought that having two kids in school full days and only one at home with me in the morning each day, that may be I would have a little more time. No. May be I'm overcompensating by filling my time. May be I've volunteered just a little. But, somehow, the days are absolutely filling up to the point where weeks like this I am literally never home. Sometimes I'll run home for 30 minutes to grab something and run out again, but most mornings now I have something going on while Luci is in school. And 4/5 afternoons we have dance after school. That one day I try to keep free, but that will end when we start swimming. Weeks like this make me long for winter when it's too cold outside to go anywhere - those nice cozy days of hot tea and cocoa when I'm forced to stay inside and work on my own projects.

The good thing is that all the activity is good, healthy, and productive with no major quirks.

Yearbook is going great. For may be forever, there has been one person doing the yearbook, cut and pasted, by herself. This year myself and two friends have found an online program where EVERYTHING can be done digitally (quicker and with less mess), AND we've decided to have a staff of students to do it, meaning a learning opportunity for them and less work for us. The yearbook with be better than ever because it will be created by students for students and will reflect their personalities a lot more. No clipart allowed. Only student submissions of art and prose will enter the book. I'm so excited to be a part of this. It will be wonderful and my own sweet Tiara will be on the staff. She's thrilled!

Kirk was gone this week in Denmark where he got a nasty cold. In spite of that he got some flying in which is always good and he fell in love with Denmark. It was quite unexpected, but now he's excited to plan a trip up there for all of us. He said it is an absolutely beautiful country. He also fell in love with saunas since that is how he got over his cold so quickly. He had a sauna in his hotel room. They are standard there and apparently are great for just about everything that ales you and can help you lose weight as well, so that is now on his wish list and he's desperately trying to figure out just how to get a Canadian sauna over to Germany.

Denmark doesn't use the Euro. They have beautiful Danish Kroners with fleur de lis and hearts on them. Many coins have holes in the centers like old Chinese money. He brought some back. I think I'll try to make a bracelet from them. They really are beautiful.

Kirk said that he knows now why we have to separate our trash here with such care. Denmark buys German trash. Odd, I know, but it's true. Denmark has power plants that use various "trash items" to burn for fuel and they are the sole buyer for Germany's trash. I guess that's better than burying it!










The chestnuts are literally raining off the trees here. On and around Tiara's school are several HUGE chestnut trees that apparently have really tasty nuts. The Spanish and Italian ladies pick them up to cook with them. The burrs are croquet ball sized and covered in amazingly sharp spines that hurt tremendously if you even slightly tough it. Inside each burr are three beautiful chestnuts. The color is so perfect. I would love to bottle it somehow. It is the perfect color for wood... that deep reddish brown. As they ripen they fall, sometimes with the burr and sometimes on their own as the burrs open on the tree. Standing under the tree is dangerous. More than once I've been pelted by falling nuts. If the faintest of winds happens by, you're done for. Those chestnuts can hurt, especially within the spiny burrs. I collected roughly 200 of them one afternoon while the kids played at the playground. It was amazing. A friend collected some for herself at the same time. We'd clear out an area and then minutes later there would be more covering the ground. They are beautiful and I'd hoped to preserve them. Unfortunately, I've found that they are a nut that you can't preserve. The shell is thin and a bit leathery covering the meat inside like a glove. If left, even well aired, they mold with the moisture from the meat. So, mine will be a temporary decoration. Already they're too old to roast, so I'll get some nice photos and that will be that. May be I'll cook some up next year.

On Wednesday I spent my morning in Tiara's class grading notebooks, filing, and binding books the kids wrote. It was interesting to see the vast differences in the kids styles as far as neatness and organization were concerned. The kids had earned a party and left to go play capture the flag, so when I was done with my work I went out to get some pictures for the yearbook. When I got there Tiara was sitting on the picnic table with her leg up and a tiny wet folded paper towel on her shin. She was sitting stoically telling the teacher she was fine. She'd been running and tripped, then fell and hit her shin on the bench. Mrs. Vasko-Kingma wanted to know if she should call for a car or not, so I helped Tiara up to see if she could walk with help. Her eyes immediately welled up with tears and she bit her lip to stop from crying.

So, the car came with the school nurse who told us to go to the emergency room downtown. Since the U.S. clinic was 2 minutes away, we went there instead, saw the doctor, got an x-ray, and found out that she was fine. By that time the swelling that had put pressure on her tendon and hadn't allowed her foot to move much had gone down and she was a little better. The crutches the doctor had given her helped though. By the evening, Tiara was back to normal except for the large green goose-egg on her right shin.

The photo on the left is of Tiara and her friend, Aislann. Aislann fell the week before in kickball and broke her wrist. Another boy fell that same week and broke his leg. I don't think the teacher can take anymore. She was really worried about Tiara.

My most favorite part of the morning is when I get to creep into the girl's room, open up their curtains, and slowly cuddle them awake. They are so sweet when they sleep. It almost makes up for all the noise they make when they're awake. Both Arianna and Luci moan, pull their blankets up over themselves and roll over when it's time to get up. Elise, most days, wakes up with a smile on her face and immediately launches into a game of peek-a-boo with her blanket. This is Luci with her "funny blanket" trying to ignore the morning's light.

Octoberfest pretty much insinuates that it might take place in October, and I think in "real Germany" that it does. Munich is supposed to be where the biggest parties are.
Here the NATO base, probably trying not to interfere with people's potential travel plans to attend the real Octoberfest parties, schedules theirs for September. It was two days long. The crazy "drink until you drop and dance to German folk music until the sun rises the next morning" day was Saturday, but we already had plans to attend the Flamenco party and I really preferred that type of outing anyway, so we didn't go then. Sunday was family day which is a little more my speed, so we went to that in the afternoon after a slow relaxing morning at home.
It was held in a hanger by the flightline. Although a certain amount of atmosphere is lost when an event is held in an ugly army green hanger, I've grown accustomed to events like this. In the center was a small dance floor and a stage. The perifery was lined with all the activities and inbetween were row after row of picnic tables.

We bought tokens since the venders did not take real money. The kids immediately found their corner where they played most of the time. There was an inflatable jumping thing, face painting, lots of little games, and a large area with very interesting moving "toys." Some were like scooters or low-ride bicycles, but most were the pedals without the rest of the contraption. Just pedals like on a piano mounted on large wheels. You stand on them and work your feet back and forth and it pushes along. Tiara got pretty good at it by the end, but it was harder than it looked taking quite a bit of strength and a lot of balance.

While the kids played, Kirk and I walked around. There were two big beer/beverage tents - the busiest areas of the place - one carnival style game giving away traditionally tacky oversized stuffed critters of all kinds, a wonderful candy booth selling hot candy roasted nuts. We bought a baggy of almonds, but they were consumed so quickly we had to go buy some more. The candy booths are at all German events I've been to so far and there will be several at all the Christmas markets. They always have the hot candied nuts and all things gummy, licorice, chocolates, and the large frosted lebkuchen hearts that hang from above. The food was traditional... bratwurst in brotchen, hex (a large chunk of pork on a bone), a half roasted chicken, etc. They also had big radishes that people were eating raw like an apple. Towards the end of our time when the booths begun to pack up, we got some food to go.

The German band were dressed for the party. Most wore lederhosen. Some wore wigs and aprons. They all looked very silly, but were having a great time. They played around the picnic tables standing on them with their instruments and interacting with the crowd. It was fun to watch the people all enjoying themselves and having a genuinely good time.
The rest of the time was spent socializing. There weren't a lot of Americans there, but almost all of the Spanish attended, so I talked to my friends there. There's a little girl in Arianna's class at school that is an American, but she doesn't speak any English yet, but Arianna really likes her and wanted to talk to her. She asked me how to say a few phrases and then she practiced them, and in Spanish, went to ask Katerina if she's dance with her. It was very sweet. Katerina had a big smile on her face and the two girls danced together for a while. Kirk danced with Luci and Elise for a while too.

This last week at Tiara's ballet school was International Dance Week where all regular classes were cancelled and for only 14Euros per class, the kids had the opportunity to take ballet, jazz, tap, and flamenco with world class dancers. Tiara took three 90 minute classes with Stephanie Saland. It was an amazing opportunity for her. I had expected the dancers to be, well, a bit artsy and aloof. Instead, they were all very warm and fun to talk to. I think they were surprised to fly to The Netherlands to teach at a Dutch dance school for a week and run into an American. Stephanie was particularly animated talking about Seattle where she lives now and I once lived in college. She is beautiful and holds herself with quiet elegance. Tiara was a little uneasy at first with a teacher that "touches more," but quickly got used to that and learned a lot with Stephanie. By Friday Tiara had relaxed significantly and was smiling in class. At the end of the week she told me that she just really enjoyed being taught in English again. While Tiara danced with Stephanie, I talked with Kay Anderson, the modern Fred Astaire, and an absolutely amazing tap dancer who lives in Utah now, and Ricardo Cossio, a jazz dancer from Mexico City who only speaks Spanish. Both were very friendly. All the dancers want to come back next year and I really do hope that Zaira does the International week again. Next year I might even take a class.

To cap off a great week and celebrate Zaira's 5th year of her new school, Zaira had a big party at Tapas in Sittard where Lolo Raul (a Latino Dutch flamenco dancer living in Germany) performed some beautiful flamenco dances for everybody.

Tapas is a great Spanish Tapas (little appetizers) restaurant in the markt in Sittard. The night was perfect. The weather was not cold nor warm, but that perfect summer night with just enough breeze to keep the air alive. It was almost dark at 8 when we arrived, but the market was full of people sitting at the tables that spilled out from the restaurants all along the edge. The church tower was illuminated from below with lights and the moon shone behind it. Tapas was the busiest restaurant there and it wasn't just our party. We were given tokens for drinks there to use throughout the night and the waitresses came through all evening carrying trays of chicken skewars, bruschetta, olives, and other Spanish tidbits. It was all delicious. Lolo danced first, then throughout the night other flamenco dancers took the floor in groups to perform. There was not a sleepy person there. The colors, music, and dancing were all invigorating and so full of life, it was impossible to think about how late it was.

We ended up meeting a very nice couple that night. The wife is Dutch, but her husband is Canadian. They met over the internet. He misses Cheerios, so I have his email, so I can get a box to him. They don't sell Cheerios in the Netherlands. It's the little things that we all miss.

30 Aug 06 -- The last of the wheat has been harvested with only a few small patches of miscolored wheat remaining. Last week I drove to Schinnen as the final bales were loaded up and carried off. Now I see the potato harvesters sitting in the middle of muddy fields with kids sorting through them as they come up the conveyer belt and spill into the big bin. And the corn should be next. I'm waiting to see it in the market. I've heard that corn is only grown for the livestock here which would be sad. There are fields of it everywhere. Makes me want to grill.
Fields where wheat once grew are now growing something green. It's amazing how quickly the ground can turn up something new. I guess I shoudn't be amazed. The weeds in my garden once had a contest to see which could reach the top of the fence the fastest and it ended in an all-around tie. In my limited agricultural experience, weeds have been the only thing to grow quickly and reliably, but here, it seems these farmer folks know a thing or two and literally overnight it seems a plot of earth will go from a rich chocolatey brown to an almost chartreuse green.

So, there is no trace of the bright yellow flowers that grew here in May nor of the wheat that seemed to be everywhere. The corn is even disappearing now, to my dismay, without even the slightest trace except may be a few more fattened pigs somewhere around here. We were surrounded everywhere we drove by fields upon fields of bright beautiful corn. Now, one by one, the corn is disappearing leaving only stubby 2" stalks behind. Big trucks haul off the remains, completely chopped up into bits, stalks, leaves, corn, and all, to be fed to the livestock around here. There is no corn in the market or the grocery stores. Germans don't eat corn. They think it's bizaare that we do. Corn is pig food.

International Women dinners have started up again. The first night was hosted by Germany and the Netherlands. It started out fairly mellow - no crazy costumes, no noisy music - just a simple night. Lori Bozzi set up her treasures from all over Italy and India - beautiful jewlery, shoes, and purses. The turn-out was fantastic - way more than was expected that first night. I was especially proud that I was able to encourage the Spanish to mix a bit more. They ended up sitting right in the middle of the American crowd and we had a very nice French woman sitting with us also. She explained to me, ironically enough, how to make really good french fries, though they are a Belgian specialty.
For dinner, they served currywurst and pommes frites. While that meal is typical for carnival and street fairs, it is truly German fast food, so I was a little disappointed. They are capable of so much more, but, we they only have a certain amount of money to spend on food and they have to rely on the abilities of the Frisbee Club cooks, so, may it was for the best. It's hard to ruin currywurst. For dessert they served an apple kuchen from Germany and a rice cake from The Netherlands. Both were good, but I won't go begging for the recipes.
The real "joy" of the night came between dinner and dessert when they played "games." I was a participant in a traditional German wedding game (so I was told - though I can't imagine a bride putting herself through this). I went to the front of the room and sat down at a table there. The ladies put a poncho of sorts over me with holes on the sides and holes at the bottom. The poncho was "embellished" with a rather large stuffed brasierre up top and a little black lace thong towards the bottom. That, is where my hands went, through the holes on the bottom and into my shoes on the table so that I looked like a very tiny person in that chair. My Italian friend stood behind me stooped down so that noone could see her and she became my arms feeding me pickles and green olives, then really nasty vanilla pudding, then a very large chocolate covered marshmellow. That was a particular joy. The sweet old German lady beside me kept instructing, "a little on the nose, a little on the nose." So, I got marshmellow smeared over half my face. Then came the teeth brushing and the grand finale, dark burgundy lipstick. Ah... I was a beauty. Then the tables were turned and I was next to be her arms and hear the instructions, "a little on the nose, oh, yes, that looks good."

I went and sat at the German table afterwards because one of them had taken pictures and I wanted to see just how horrific I looked. She thought I looked cute. Not. I casually commented, "...and people think that German's don't have a sense of humor..." Looks of shock came from my friends there. Germans? No sense of humor? They were honestly surprised that they would have such a stoic reputation. Though, from experience now, it is unfounded. Germans have quirky humor, but it is definitely there. I think they just know how to work hard when it's time and play hard later.
The photos are all of bellydancing. The first two of the Germans and the last two of the Turks. After the game a troupe of German dancers came out all with brass canes and traditional belly dancing costume. After several tries the music cued to the correct place and the dancing began. I sat with the Dutch who helped out with the night asking if belly dancing had anything to do with German or Dutch culture. The looks on their faces said it all. No. The Germans were in charge of entertainment and my Dutch friends were just as puzzled as I was.

Last year the Germans put on a very nice Carnival party, but when it was time for entertainment we got a Whoopi Goldburg "Sister Act" skit and some dancing with cowboys and Indians. This year they entertained us with belly dancing.

Though there are no rules on what a country must do, the countries generally put on their night with food and entertainment that reflects/teaches something about their culture. Though there is a German culture here that is special and unique, that is not something that is displayed. It seems that they are trying to be as international as possible and I believe that has a lot to do with the past 60 years history. The country has not healed yet and nationalism is kept very quiet so that it isn't mistaken for something else.

I am not normally afraid of spiders unless they are, of course, threatening me with bodily harm or invading my personal space i.e. climbing on me, lurking above me, or propelling off the wall towards me. I do not run screaming at the sight of a spider, nor do I freeze in fright and stutter out a desperate cry for help. After all, I was a farm girl once, a long, long time ago, when I was much smaller. So, when, upon entering my living room this fine day, I caught sight of an unusually large arachnid, it took me a bit off guard that I should have a slight tinge of anxiety at the sight of it. I took a couple pictures, but would not get close enough to catch it and take it outside. There was an irrational fear that it would maliciously jump out at me and wrap me up for dinner. After a reasurring internet search I found that he was just a common house spider, but who wouldn't be intimidated by his 3" span?

I guess, in Korea, they bundle hay like this too, all wrapped up in plastic. So, Kirk and the girls have been calling these plastic covered bales of hay, "Korean Marshmellows." It's pretty silly, but all year around you can find them and the kids all get excited pointing them out to us. Elise especially likes the green ones. I think that's Jabeek in the background in the photo below. I took this photo from the side of the road on the way home from Schinnen (in the Netherlands).

Driving here in Germany is always relatively easy especially with the super-quick autobahns. The scenery is beautiful too which is almost irritating to me since I can rarely photograph it. But, may be that's a good thing. Sometimes I get caught behind the camera and miss a few things. The autobahns go by so fast and have no place to stop for a photo-op no matter how beautiful the area is, so it forces you to stare intently out the windows absorbing it all in. The photo above is one that I was able to catch driving along a country road near our gasthaus. The plateau above the Mosel expands with rolling hills and quaint villages tucked here and there. Many you don't see until you come right up on them. Like our gasthaus... it is completely hidden among trees behind a hill as you drive below the Burg Pyrmont.

On the 10th, we drove down to Burg Pyrmont with Ken and Sarah to the little Gasthaus, the Pyrmonter Muhle, where we'd stayed in May. When we'd moved here I had the notion that Europe was so big and since we had a fixed amount of time here that we should never stay in the same place twice, but this place is special and still serves the best German food that I've had living here. The half-timbered inn sits just below Burg Pyrmont and next to a beautiful little waterfall that spills into a pond and a little stream that winds around the area all the way to Burg Eltz and beyond. There's a nice walking trail there. The sign at it's entrance said "Burg Eltz 2.5 Std". Kirk had guessed that meant 2.5 stunde or hours, but we double checked to make sure. Yep - he was right... not a hike that the little ones could accomplish, but Ken and Sarah, Kirk and Tiara took off for the long walk and I met them there 2.5 hours later. While they walked, the girls and I had a little rest time in our tiny room, then we went out to the terrace overlooking the waterfall and relaxed. The girls played at the little playground there and I sat with a German couple talking and drinking cappuccino. They were from the area and were having a pint of beer and some coffee after completing the hike from the other side.

After some quiet time with the little girls, we wound throught the rolling hills to Burg Eltz. There are no highways or main roads to get there. I drove along a narrow farm road between fields of corn through a little village where I saw a tiny weather-worn wooden sign with the white painted letters, "Burg Eltz." So I followed that until the road sloped down and the trees got thicker and suddenly I was at the parking lot. We walked down the steep path to get there. The weather was perfect and though I'd been to this castle before, the view is nonetheless breathtaking. That castle is right out of a fairy tale. The hikers had just arrived almost exactly 2.5 hours since they left and had settled in at the cafe with coffee and chocolate cake.
Before we left there the girls had a chance to walk down to the little stream that runs past the castle. I told them not to walk in the water. All four of them did... not completely intentionally. I think they were honestly trying just to stay on the big rocks, but those little feet managed to get wet anyway. But, for them, a rocky stream is more exciting than an old castle any day of the week, especially if you get to play in it.
The hikers and kids had worked up an appetite, so after some clean up back at Pyrmonter Muhle, we went down for dinner. I don't remember what we all ate, but I remember all fighting a bit over the soup and that the salad was phenomenal. The kids all ate their schnitzel and fries and though I didn't ever really know what I ordered, it was delicious. My meat came with "gratinated" potatoes on the side. The potatoes are done differently here. They are sliced thin like our scalloped potatoes, but the cheese is lighter and the sauce is very buttery. It's one of those sinful melt-in-your-mouth dishes that brings you back for more. Those are the kind of meals where you just forget about calories and take on more of a "carpe dium" attitude.
One thing that both irritates and delights Americans sometimes about dining in Europe is that the pace is a bit different here... a bit, meaning, horrendously different and painfully slow. Most times, that is annoying. For us, we try to savor each moment here. There is so much to see and do. Relaxing is nice, but if you're only spending a weekend or a day at some place, then you don't have time to enjoy a leisurely 3 hour lunch and a numbifying 4 hour dinner. This particular night, relaxing with friends, the relaxed pace was just what we needed. After dinner I got the girls up to bed, then came back down to join Ken, Sarah, and Kirk. We sat out on the terrace talking and enjoying some nice German Dornfelder wine until midnight. The kitchen was closed, the lights were all off, but our waitress said that she would stay until we left, so we sat in the candlelight with no reason to hurry talking, laughing, and enjoying a beautiful German night with friends.

Breakfast is wonderful here in Germany and it hasn't lost its appeal even after living here for 10 months. Fresh brotchen, meats, cheeses, jams, and liverwurst. Hard boiled eggs, musli, orange juice and coffee. We all stuffed ourselves before checking out. Then, on the way to the river, we stopped at Burg Pyrmont. This was the second time we'd stayed at the Inn, so I had really hoped to see the castle above it. But, the photos are about it. We saw it from below. We saw it from behind. We didn't get to go inside because it was closed on Mondays. The German couple I'd talked to the day before said that there is a restaurant there that serves a very nice dinner and serves beer in terracotta pots. I guess that means I'll have to go back again - for the dinner, not the beer.



In May I'd been awed by the steep hills covered in sticks, but now... sticks don't hold a candle to the grape filled greenery that grows up and around each hill up and down the Mosel River. We drove from Burg Pyrmont to Bernkastel-Kues, a very nice town with a large number of wine-tasting shops nestled among 16th century half-timbered houses. Boat tours are common all along the Mosel, so we took one for about an hour. The kids loved it and I enjoyed taking pictures. All the green on the hills are grape vines with the exception of the trees. All that flat green space - it's all grapes. Even as we walked later through the town, the grape vines ran down the hill and came right up to the back of the buildings and into peoples little yards.
After the boatride, we met Ken and Sarah and wandered into the town to have some lunch and try some wine. The Louer wine shop was one that Ken and Sarah had been to before, so we sampled some nice white wines and bought a few to take home. I was particularly excited because they had a large bin of corks that were free for the taking... I got a small bagfull to take with me for some "crafty endeavors". I'd really wanted to take the entire bucket of them, but Kirk didn't think that was necessary. :( Winetasting was followed by a nice lunch (I had "gratinated vegetables") and a walk through the town. The half-timbered buildings are all 16th and 17th century, but the new paint walks a fine line between quaint and tacky. It is nice when you see a couple, but they were overabundant and very bright with color. Tourists were antlike throughout the streets and there was no end to the tacky German souvenier shop. That is a disappointment here. Where there is something to see, there are tourists, and where there are tourists, there are tacky gift shops.
What I did love were the clusters of grapes dangling like jewlery from vines that climbed up and over doorways and the large cascades of bright flowers spilling out from most windows. Those touches of beauty are commonplace here, but still very nice to see.
As we walked back down one street toward our car we passed a fire station. It was a modern building sitting among the old ones. You could see old buildings and grape vines in the background. There was nothing especially notable about the station itself, but we all came to a stop to look up at the flag that flew there. Until then, I'd forgotten the date. It was September 11th, and there, in that little German town, was an U.S. flag flying at their fire station.

Burg Landshut sits on a hill overlooking Bernkastel-Kues and the Mosel valley. We drove up to it and had a snack there. There are no words for the view. You just have to see it. The castle itself was surrounded by grapes on their vines. Inside was a small cafe where we had coffee and dessert. The castle was a ruin, but still looked very nice from the outside.


From this Burg, we started for home, sad that the day had run out and wishing we could take more time. I know I should see as much of Europe as possible, but with such a beautiful place only 90 minutes away, it is very tempting to do frequent return visits there.

On the weekend of 9 and 10 September our little village of Gillrath celebrated it's 200th year of the Schutzenfete with a huge party. The Wednesday prior the trucks were out with crews putting up strings of green pennants across the roads and people began to put out their bicolored flags with just two thick stripes of color.

The little parking lot across from the obst and gemuse stand (fruit and veggies) was set up with a large building, carnival games, a little ride, and a beer stand. The temporary buildings here are quite substantial with nice wooden floors and sturdy walls. They don't look temporary, but they go up and come down with remarkable speed for any special event from concerts to retail sales.

On Friday morning Tante Tinny rang my doorbell to ask if she could decorate my plants with flowers. She'd already put pretty white and yellow crepe paper flowers in the two bushes in front of my house. The two colors of crepe paper are rolled together, tied with wire, then the ends are rolled down. They are really pretty. I asked her where I could buy some. She laughed. You can't. They make them. Next year I'll see if she'll teach me.

Friday night I noticed a lot of dressed up people heading towards the party tent. Tinny told us that they were people who were born in Gillrath, but have gone to other places. They were invited back to celebrate and, on that night, the town makes a dinner for them. They come from all over to attend. I love the cohesiveness of these towns. It's very heartwarming.

On Saturday evening after a BBQ with friends at the house, we walked down to the festival area to attend the big concert: Black Foose. Seeing Black Foose is like going to a Duran Duran concert now. The band is great, but they are OLD. One guitarist was horrifically thin with a short, snow white bob. The music is typical German carnival music - not quite the Oom Pa Pa music that is stereotypical, but it is almost like that - may be OomPaPa meets rock and roll. Everyone was there - every generation from older people in their 60's and beyond to young people probably only 10 - and they all talked and danced together into the next day.

We paid for tickets with which we could buy beer, wine, fanta, and other drinks. I think we were the only American's there, but we had a great time dancing and laughing. One song played had a tune from Dirty Dancing in it ("I Had The Time of My Life"). During that song a couple of the young girls were lifted up and carried around "surfing the crowd" just like Jennifer Grey did in the movie. At 11:30 when we left, the tent was still full of people dancing including our landlord's granddaughter who's only 14.

The next day we left which I think bothered Tante Tinny a bit. She really wanted us to be at her party. She baked 5 cakes and had about 20 people over to her house. Sunday was the day of the big parade - only this big every 10 years - with over 70 different groups marching in it. My American friends who saw it said that "it went on forever."