Moments of Nostalgia

On Sat. May 12th we drove more into the Swartzwald area. WE had a nice short hike around the fish ponds for exercise. Helmut wanted to buy some smoked Forellen ( a local fish) so that gave me the opportunity to go inside and use the WC. Always on the lookout for those places.

We stopped in another village to buy buns, drinking water and two apples to complete out supplies for lunch.

The scenery is beautiful in this area and we enjoyed the drive. Frequently we got mixed up or completely off the right course. We were so glad that the Opel was so maneuverable as there were frequent occasions when we needed to turn around. ( I often had this feeling that we would slide back into some one or some thing when we had to back up or down hill. - this is partly due to the use of the standard transmission.) As per course we stopped in Spielberg to get ourselves oriented again with the maps because we were off course to Wuernersberg.

Finally after driving around some very steep winding roads we arrived at the village Wuernersberg. You can see Helmut looking at one of the farmhouses/barns of the old style in the village. Also the church has a fairly central location in the village. This village is where the Beckers were evacuated to during the war and they remained there until 1949. Helmut and his siblings spent about six weeks with them in 1947. So this was one of the places that he had a wish to see. He couldn't remember where the family had lived but he did remember attending the church.

We ate lunch in the car again beside the road at the end of the village.

In the afternoon we drove to Freuenstadt a good sized town. We went to the Marktplatz (main market area with a large square) The whole square was parked up with cars in areas that were not for parking = we discovered that they were using it for a Used Car Sale that day. Helmut enjoyed himself looking around at all the cars and taking numerous pictures especially for Andrew. I went looking for postcards and window shopping. This was one place that was crowded with people. I couldn't find any of the usual racks of pcs. so when H. was finished browsing the car sale we took a walk a few street away from the main platz. At the area of the main bus station there were dozens of police vehicles parked and more arriving - we wondered what on earth was going on. Helmut enquired of a passer-by and was told that the neo-natzi were going to rally there. In this part of the town we found a Baekerei or Konditerei (a bakery that specializes in fancy cakes and sweet pastry. So we purchased 2 Schillerlocks - a pastry that is shaped like a big horn and is covered with powdered sugar, it is hollow and can be filled with whipping cream but Helmut thought that might be too messy for eating out of hand so we had ours as is.

Still we hadn't found any postcards so we went back to the main platz and looked around a little more. At a photo shop we were finally able to get a few cards. When we paid for them I asked the man if he knew of a place where one could use the internet? First he told me about two places where there were hot point connections but when I explained that I needed an internet cafe he said there wasn't such a place. Then he offered us the use of his computer that was set up in the display room. In the end he had to help a little because I had trouble getting going on a German set up. He was very kind and did some of the steps for us. Then I rushed to write a couple of messages before store closing time.

We took these two pictures at the other side of the main platz. I've forgotten what this big building with the two towers is but the real point of interest is the fountain that you can barely see - the water spouts straight up and the kids run between to see how close they can get without getting totally soaked. I guess on a really hot day they might be trying to get totally soaked. This other picture is to show off the beautiful flower beds. It was near this area that we found a public WC and I was very glad to pay E.50 to use it.

We returned to Birkenfeld to our hotel and had another very tasty supper. Since I gave about one third of my main course to Helmut to eat I was able to go for a walk after supper.