However, the town itself, when open, and even when empty, has plenty of charm. It's a sweet little german village. And it sure makes for some lovely pictures.
Unfortunately we no longer stay in the charming little hotel, we stay in the new Ramada, set in the middle of a cow field outside of town. More on that in another post, I promise. On thursday my boss (who just moved back to Germany for a few years) invited me to dinner at their house. They love close to the old hotel we used to stay in, so I went a little early with the intention of walking around to take some photos. The path in the photo above leads from the little area of houses where she lives to downtown, it's about a 5 minute walk, and it's a heavily used biking and walking path.
This is also just about a 2 minute walk from where they live, actually it's situated between the path above and their house, and this is the "Bier Garten" which is alive an hopping at Oktoberfest. I've never been in Herzo for Oktober fest, but I would definitely believe "alive & hopping" is an accurate way to describe it!
And, if you are going to have a Biergarten in Germany, you ought to also have a Schnapsbar! This is what I love about German words- the way we would say "cocktail Bar" or "Schnaaps Bar"- they save the space & just jam all the words together to end up with some rather extraordinarily long words. So I wonder if you could have a word like "bigbottleofforstyheffeweizen"?
I always find children's playgrounds amusing in other countries. We become so familiar with the "standard" playground equipment that we see in every park in the states, I wonder if we really lose out on creativity because of what we expect it to look like? I've walked by this playground structure many many times over the years, I really love it! It even has the safety slide so kids can practice a quick escape. How do you say "Brace! Brace!" and "Assume the Emergency Landing Position!" in German? And I wonder if the kids would get it?
After walking along the treelined path which follows a little river (see? I told you- it really does have charm...), I walked into the downtown area. See the 2nd window to the right of the statue on the bridge? There was a woman watching me take photos- both this one and the next one (and all 20 in betwen)- I think she was amused that I was taking photos of a statue that she sees out her window every day. Hmm...that or annoyed. I'll go with amused.
This is the statue of the woman on the bridge. I don't know her significance, if she is someone in particular or if she is simply a pretty statue someone built for the bridge- regardless, she stands quite regal atop the bridge and seems to keep a pretty tight lookout over the town.
There are two towers in town that I know of- It seems like I knew at one time that one of them was a prision, or perhaps a gate. One of those. I'll try to find out. They are both still there, although I'm not sure if you are allowed to go up in them, as again, I'm working every day that I'm here- except Saturdays, where I understand the shop hours are 10-12 or something incredibly short like that also!
One of the things that is amazing about Germany is you just see the beautiful houses everywhere. they do a pretty good job of keeping the newer architecture looking like the older architecture, so even the new houses tend to blend in. Unfortunately a majority of the houses (old and new) are rather homogenous, but sometimes you see some really lovely ones that stick out & make much more of an impression. I'm not sure if this was a restaurant, but it appeared to be. Apparently, it's not one of the ones that is open for dinner!
This is another thing that I find just astounding. Europe in general is quite good at recognizing the importance of older things, and recognizing it in a very public way. I've noticed that this is also quite common on the east coast as well (I saw a lot of it growing up in Vermont), but you just don't see it on the west coast. This restaurant (again, not a "dinner hours" one, or perhaps it was a butcher) was either built or started business in 1859. I think that's a few years before Oregon even became a state.
Truthfully, I do like traveling to asia better. I enjoy Europe- the food is good, the people are nice, the scenery is beautiful, but it doesn't fill my senses the way Asia does. In Asia I am constantly on my toes- even when I wander into a temple where I feel just transported into a relaxed zen state, I still see and experience things that shock and surprise me. I think those are the things that let you know you are alive- and that is what I appreciate about Asia. In Europe- it IS beautiful. Small towns ARE charming. So- the next week of photos will be photos of beautiful things, but perhaps not mind boggling things-but certainly beautiful things. And sometimes, that is okay too. Variety is the spice of life after all.
Amazingly, just 2 months ago the girls were at a bbq together and barely played together. Not because they did not get along, simply because at the developmental stage they were at, the toddlers did not play "together" so much as "in the vicinity of each other." By the beach weekend they must have moved past that stage because they kept each other giggling constantly on that Saturday! One would start, then the other would start...and it would go back & forth...too funny!
Heidi & Phill (and honorary member of the Village!) warmed the kids up after dinner for some dessert: "If you're ready for dessert put your hands over your ears!"
"If you're ready for dessert clap your hands!"
The "official" handover- Truck on flatbed (approximately 4 1/2 hrs after first starting to try to get it on the flatbed), on it's way to be fixed up and used by another few generations.
