Marburg: Ancient Ancestry, and much Chocolate!

Friday, July 27^th-Sunday, July 29^th

            We had a short, but very pleasant stay in Marburg (about three hours north of Frankfurt) with our cousin Margreth and her husband Guido.  The afternoon we arrived we were treated to some great gluten-free cake, and helped prepare an array of vegetable kebabs and potatoes with lactose-free quark/green sauce, followed with Italian Eis from the ice cream truck, and an array of chocolate!  Then we watched the opening of the Olympic Games, which was very exciting--we especially liked the opening act about England through the ages.  

             On Saturday Margreth took us on a tour of Marburg.  Marburg was lucky enough not to be of much interest to American bombers during World War II, so many of the old shops, houses, cathedrals, and the old castle, are still there, and more or less untouched by time.   We visited the Marburg Castle, the UniversitatsKirche, admired statues from stories by the Brothers Grimm (who lived in the city for a while), and visited the ElisabethKirche, dedicated to St. Elizabeth, a noble woman and strong Christian who personally ministered to the poor and dying against the wishes of her in-laws, and lived a harshly pious life before her death at age 24.  On a more personal note, we also saw the engraving of Conrad Klos, a nobleman said to be a distant ancestor of the Depenthal family on my mother’s side! 





              
Sunday we took a drive around the countryside to Amöneburg, a Catholic city/stronghold/church and monastery/fort on top of a little hill, and afterwards drove into the little village of Beltershausen, where we saw the farmstead that some of my mother’s family originated from.  (Anneliese now) We also went into a lovely little village Margreth is fond of, and even (at Johanna’s insistence) did a little singing in the local church.  Thankfully we were the only people there!  That night we took a lovely walk through the countryside with Guido and got some Eis from the Eis man.  

          



       The next morning, Monday, we got up early and headed to the trainstation to catch the 8:06 train to Darmstadt, to visit our cousin Irene. 

 
        Until soon!  Johanna, Anneliese, (and, in spirit, Isabella)

Ulm: In Ulm, Um Ulm, and Um Ulm Herum!

Saturday, July 21^st – Thursday, July 26^th

            After a rather sleepless and seat less ride to Ulm, we arrived at the station at about 11 o’clock, and were met by our cousins Anneliese und Hans.  No rest for the weary, however, as we were immediately rushed off to a birthday/anniversary party for friends of theirs on top of a hill out in the middle of nowhere.  There we spent the rest of the day in 9 degree Celsius, raining, windy weather, in a stone floor hut which was even colder than it was outside.  It also didn’t have a restroom.  Isabella and I (Anneliese) spent a fair amount of time talking to a slightly tipsy, elderly French man, “This [holding up empty glass]!  Uh… Champagne is like the…. ummmm…. Sun!   But now the sun is gone….”.  He also tried to tell me why he kept on calling me Isabella (the only one of our three names he could remember) in English, German, and French, with the help of many hand signals and me filling in the blanks.  It was, he claimed, because he couldn’t see since he had had a surgery on his eyes which involved 39 - 40 shots in the eyes!  Ah!  Anyway, that was interesting. 

             Our stay at Hans und Anneliese’s consisted of enjoying Anneliese’s wonderful cooking (lots—lots of it), and a strict schedule of foot baths and tea to get rid of my cold!  Again, some of our most interesting and notable things we did during our stay:

•  Expressing ourselves in paint at Cousin Anneliese's art studio.  First we learned about applying colors and about different scraping and layering tools, and then we went wild! The first drafts were on paper, and the second round on white-painted cardboard rectangles. (Back to Anneliese) I don’t think Anneliese liked my painting much, as she complimented everyone else on their beautiful paintings, but never said a word about mine until I asked. I think it was too neat and orderly for her. That is where Anneliese and I differ. I like all my ducks to be in a row, you might say, but cousin Anneliese thinks differently, and will happily let them all run wild. After painting, we hopped back in the car, only to find it dead, and so after asking a third Anneliese for help in jumping the car, we were on our way back home. 
• Walking through the countryside with Hans (we had thought was going to be short, that is until Hans said (in German) “Can you walk in those?” talking about my “high heels”, which I was wearing since my shoes were still wet.  “Ja,” I replied, dread filling my heart as I watched him pull on hiking boots.  “Ja, ok” he said, and out we went, only to return an hour or so later after a “short” walk.)

(Johanna writing now: Anneliese shall refer to my sister Anneliese, Cousin Anneliese to our cousin):

Climbing up the Ulmer Münster, the world’s tallest steeple.  It was 768 steps, but hey, for Gimmelwald-hikers, Strasbourg-finders, and Himmelsleiter-ascenders, that’s nothing!  Isabella was feeling under the weather, but was an excellent sport, as was Anneliese, who despite having just rediscovered her mild fear of heights, was determined to make it to the top!  My favorite section was where the staircases on the side towers opened to a platform leading to one final staircase that led to the top of the steeple—the lighting there was amazing!  Actually, it reminded me more of “The Hunchback of Notre Dame” than of anything German.  The final staircase was very, very tight—if I touched my fingertips against each other, my elbows would scrape the walls.  Getting past people coming down was quite tricky!  The view from the top was fantastic, of course, but to me the best part was seeing the cathedral roof, the flying buttresses, and the gargoyles from above!

Speaking of facing fears, we also went berry picking, where Isabella bravely fought through swarms of raspberry-loving bees to secure the best fruit for our table.   (We also got a few baskets of Johannesberries, and some excellent Gooseberries, which none of us three had ever really had before.)  My fear?  Escalators.  I’m a lot better now than I used to be, thank goodness, but going down still makes me hesitate for a second!  And of course, all three of us now have a terror of sitting in reserved train seats.    

• Other highlight of the week: visiting the Ritter Sport Chocolate Art Gallery, Museum, and discount store!  Below I contemplate the most enigmatic of the works on display, attempting to discern a philosophical interpretation, and below right, Anneliese showcases the massive amount of chocolate we were about to buy...

 

           Later that evening we went out and spend the evening with some old friends of ours, the Gruenthalers.  What a fun evening we had wandering about Ulm with Herr und Frau Gruenthaler, and their daughter!  Frau Gruenthaler, a former tour guide, showed us about Ulm, and told us the stories behind some of the things we saw.  Then we wandered about some stores before heading out to a fabulous Italian Pizza place for dinner. 

On Friday we headed to Marburg, which we will post more about soon!

Liebe Grüße!  Anneliese and Johanna (and Isabella!)

Heidelberg:  "Ich stehe auf dem Brucke, und spuck in dem Kann..."

July 14th – 20th

            Ah, Heidelberg: the city in Germany at which we feel most at home, and also which we associate most with ice cream and gelato (maybe there’s a correlation?).  My Oma was born and raised in Heidelberg, and my great uncle, her younger brother, and his children live in town and surrounding areas, so we spent a lot of time hanging out with our cousins-once-removed and walking around the city.  We also had a lot of downtime, being what Anneliese calls “completely lazy and boring,” as the weather was coldish and wet, Anneliese came down with a cold, and Isabella wasn’t feeling great for a day or two.  I had no such excuse, but was feeling incredibly lazy, and actually suggested we watch a movie the first morning (“Shopaholic”), instead of going out immediately.  Bad, I know, but sometimes when you’re doing hectic traveling you need time to reboot.

            That’s not to suggest we didn’t do anything in Heidelberg, however!  After walking 7 ½ miles in and out of Strasbourg earlier in the day, by the time we arrived in Heidelberg, we were ready to crash.  Our cousins Sonja and Irene, however, had other plans.  Through a lucky turn of events, we’d managed to arrive on one of the three nights in the year when there is a Schlossbeleuchtung, or Castle Illumination, a fireworks display in remembrance of when a French army blew up the castle during a retreat in the 1680’s.  So, after a fantastic lasagna dinner, we walked about a mile down along the Neckar River, and then climbed over a chain onto a small dock (chains are there to be climbed over, right?) to get a better look at the fireworks against the Old Bridge and the Castle.  It was beautiful, but afterwards we were quite ready for bed! 

            Our four “big things” in Heidelberg were as follows:

·         An evening outing to the ruins of St. Michael’s Monastery and the Nazi amphitheater on the Heiligenberg Mountain.  St. Michael’s Monastery was founded in the 800’s, and has been in ruins since the

      1500’s, when a steeple collapsed in the

       night and killed the last three remaining monks in their beds!  Nearby, and much more recent (and more sobering) than the castle, is a large amphitheater built during

     the Third Reich to host German-Nationalism promoting plays, speeches, and celebrations.  The amphitheater can hold up to 8,000 people, and is still used for performances.   

 ·  Our visit to the old Heidelberg Schloss.  A mandatory outing for any visitor to Heidelberg, the castle is the crown of Heidelberg, making it one of the most romantic cities in all of Germany, and inspiring the pens of writers from Goethe to Mark Twain.  As far as castles go, it is fairly modern (the current structure dates from the 1600’s), but is also largely in ruins from the said explosion set off by the French army, several lightening strikes, and a bad fire.  Today, it is also known for having the second-largest wine barrel in the world, which was used to collect liquid taxes from farmers! 

 

        ·  Back to Anneliese now: Our visit to an old Burg, or Knight’s Castle, just up the Neckar, was also very neat.  On the Berg (Mountain) to the right it has an old town which is still completely walled in, and on the Berg to the left, it has four Burgs (Knight’s castles) from the 11^th and 12^th century, two of which are still lived in.  Climbing up to one of the Burg’s, we wandered about the ruins, walking into the rooms and trying to guess what they might have been used for.  A very cool thing about German ruins is that they are usually not fenced in, and so oftentimes one can just wander about in them.  Johanna, Isabella, and I even climbed the tower, which was completely black inside (who knows what was really lurking in there!), and looked out from the top onto the valley below.  So cool was it that Johanna had to break into song with pieces from the musical “Camelot”!

        

    ·  But our greatest achievement, by far, was climbing up to the Königstuhle, the 1860ft, 3 inch high hill/mountain behind the Heidelberg Schloss on Friday afternoon.  It had been suggested to us by our cousin that while in Heidelberg, we ought to at least take the Funicular up the Mountain, and then walk down on the Himmelsleiter, or “Heaven’s Ladder,” an old stone stairway leading down from the top of the mountain.  However, who on earth wants to pay €9 each to ride to the Königstuhle with the funicular?  Not tight-pursed us!  So, we started to walk up.  At first we took a road, until we found a small path, which looked like it lead up to the Königstuhl.  As soon as we stepped onto our new, slightly steeper, path, it began to rain.  However, we kept a good pace, until we saw found Himmelsleiter.  Not only is the Himmelsleiter long, but the steps going up are uneven and have a wide range of size, from 6 inches, to a good foot and a half high!  But a solid hour of climbing later, we were at the top.  After walking about at the top for a while, it began to cloud over, and a cold wind came up, so we decided to turn about, and head back down, practically hopping off the larger steps (yes, we could feel it on our bones the next day!).  On the way down, I counted every step, and guess how many steps there are in the Himmelsleiter?  One Thousand, One Hundred and Sixty!  AAHHH!!!!     

       After our long day of hiking, we returned to Sonja’s, and left Isabella to make dinner while Johanna and I ran over to Onkel Ludwig’s to show him some photos of the family.  He had something else in mind first, however, and so we spent a lovely hour watching videos of his family from the 60’s, which included clips from when my Oma, one of my aunts, and twin uncles visited Heidelberg.  Unfortunately, due to the hour, we had to stop watching, and instead moved onto showing our own family photos.  By 11 o’clock however, it was time to go, and so rushing home, we quickly ate a late dinner, packed, and went to bed, or attempted to.  Due to a racking cough I had had for the last week or so, Sonja and I didn’t go to bed till the wee hours of the morning, which was tough, since by 6:53 a.m. we were on a train, again.  Rushing through the Heidelberg train station with only two minutes before our train was to leave, I called out “What Gleis (“platform”) is it?” to which Johanna replied “Gleis 11!” Isabella and I rushed past Gleis 9a, 9b, 10a….  Where did Gleis 11 go??? “There is no Gleis 11!” I yelled back to Johanna.  “Wait, it’s not 11, it’s 8!” she said, pulling out a sheet of paper.  So back we rushed, and managed to hop onto the train just before it pulled out of Gleis 8.

             Will post more soon!

Anneliese and Johanna (and Isabella, who, in real time, is now back home in the States preparing for college.  But at this point in the trip, she was still with us!)

Eis!

Strasbourg:

Isabella, post here!



Buhl: Where we drank beer--with Nuns!

Wednesday, July 11^th – Friday the 13^th

            Our trip out of Switzerland deserves recognition as our most disastrous train trip so far.  I ran over the foot of a man with crutches with our 40 lb suitcase (why would you stick an injured food in the aisle??), sat us in what turned out to be reserved seats, and got the suitcase jammed under the table while trying to vacate said reserved seats.  Then we had to stand up for nearly an hour before the next stop (Isabella was only slightly luckier; she managed to find a seat, but it was across from a very weird guy…), where we jumped off the train, ran down the platform, and re-boarded in a car where no one knew us!

Kloster Maria Hilf

            After all that hectic travel, it was time for some rest.  We headed to Buhl (in western Germany, near the French border) to visit Schwester Aeterna, a friend of my Oma’s (“grandmother,” in German) at her convent, Kloster Maria Hilf.  Try staying in a convent for three days without humming “How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria” at some point--it’s very difficult!  We spent Wednesday evening relaxing, food shopping, and hiding from nuns who might recognize us before we chose to reveal our identity (Anneliese and I visited with our Oma in 2007).  On Thursday morning Anneliese and I went to breakfast (the array of foods was so amazing that we had to study it all for a while before choosing!), and then all three of us wrote furiously in our journals until about 14:00, when we decided to go and ask after Schwester Aeterna. 

(Now over to Anneliese:)  After a few minutes on the inter-Kloster phone, the Schwester (“Sister”) helping got Schwester Aeterna on the line, and after telling her there were three pretty young French girls (because we look very French…  Johanna jumped in very quickly with “Amerikanishe”!) at the front desk, the Schwester informed us that Schwester Aeterna would be coming shortly.  And boy did she come, in fact, she practically flew down the driveway on her walker, face beaming, so eager was she to see her dear friend’s grandchildren.  After she asked after our whole family, and told us how happy she was to see us, Schwester Aeterna led us up to the visitor’s room.  There we were quickly joined by two or three other friendly Schwesters who immediately began to set out Kaffee und Eis and cookies (coffee and ice cream, generally coffee is served with cake, the German equivalent of British Tea).  After waiting a while for Schwester Etelka (the Oberin, or Mother Superior) to arrive, one of the Schwesters remarked that the Oberin’s Eis, which was melting on the plate, was “running away from her,” which set all the Schwesters off giggling.  It is really sweet to watch the Schwesters together: they have found their calling, they all appear to be happy with their life, and not only that, but they live with their best friends!  So after eating Kaffee und Eis, and after being invited to that night’s Gottesdienste (which was a special service that night, celebrating the arrival of their newly ordained priest) and dinner with the Schwesters, we went off to find Schwester Reinharda, a very sweet nun that had provided meals for us when we were last at the Kloster.  While walking down the hall trying to remember which room was hers, a door opened, and out she came.  “Schwester Reinharda?” Johanna asked, “Yah?” she replied slightly confused, then her face brightened, and she exclaimed “Oh, Johanna!” and excitedly came up and hugged us both.  Then talking a mile a minute, she asked us about our trip, how long we were staying, and realized, with a shock, that the girls’ laughter she’d heard the night before while ironing was us, in our room across the small courtyard!  Eventually we returned to our room and crashed for a few minutes before preparing to go to Gottesdienste.  At 18:25 we arrived in the Kirche, and after Schwester Etelka showed us where to sit and gave us her own prayer book, in which she’d already marked the hymns for the night’s service for us so we wouldn’t get lost, the service began.  It was very nice; the young priest seemed sincere and exited to serve, and after the service he individually blessed everyone in the congregation, first asking their name, and then integrating their patron saint (or saints!) into the prayer.  After the service the Schwesters hurried us down into the dining room below the Kirche, where we sang prayers and ate the dinner held especially in celebration of the new priest (Isabella brought her own food, but still had to fend off several well meaning nuns).  It was here that Johanna and I had our first taste of beer (beer is allowed if you are over 16 in Germany)!  “We don’t always drink beer, but tonight is special” one of the Schwesters cheerily assured us.  After dinner we went back upstairs to a room where we could practice our music for Tour, and where I might practice my Piano, which we did for a good hour and a half.  Never try and sing Brahms Ave Maria with only 2^nd Alto and 2^nd Soprano.  It was so discordant, even though the notes were right (we checked on the piano just to be sure!) and the Oberin was listening to us practice!  We assured her it sounded better with the other parts, but I am not sure if she believed us.

The Hall leading to our practice room

            Throughout our planning for this trip, Isabella had mentioned several times wanting to go into France, even if it was only for a day, and so, since Buhl is so close to France, we thought that maybe we would one day take a train into Strasbourg.  Therefore, we decided to go on Friday (July 13^th), only to wake up and find that Friday was cold, cloudy, gray, and raining off and on.  Johanna and I got up and went to our amazing breakfast, only to be met there by Schwester Etelka, who had come to advise us against going into Strasbourg that day, but also to tell us that if we decided to go anyway, Schwester Dorothea would be happy to drive us to the station.  Eventually we decided against it in favor of going on Saturday, and so Johanna and I headed to the piano room, where we attempted to rehearse, but it is rather hard to sing when you have a cold).  The rest of the day we spent in St. Josephs Lounge Room, where we contacted family, and Johanna picked out her college classes (B-O-R-I-N-G) and painstakingly emailed all the info to Mom, who had to fill out the forms by hand since you couldn’t save anything in the pdf format!  That night Schwester Etelka came and gave me a box full of medicine which she had bought for my cold, and we introduced her and some other Schwesters to Mom, Katharina, and a friend of ours over Skype!

                                                

Tchuss!  Anneliese, Johanna, and Isabella