21December1996

Saturday 21 December
My dear folks,

Our first full day in Germany has vanished the way that good days do. We woke with the dawn which at this time of year is around 0800 & lay awhile fiddling with the radio to try to find an English station to bring us up to date on the news. We came across several, On something called Talk Radio, a woman was asking a caller if she had found “lurve”; Virgin Radio sounded equally silly & finally & thankfully we found the World Service with its reassuring litany of international evils. All the signals were on a.m. & of indifferent quality. We’d listened earlier to an American station but not for long. Its two announcers were too determinedly cheerful & intent on small town USA. I’m grateful to have the Americans lead the world but I’m also grateful that they live on the far side of the Atlantic Ocean, most of them at least.

Then we went down to breakfast - bread & rolls with meat slices, cheese & jam in a breakfast room we had to ourselves - at least until a German couple joined us. One of Jones’s pet hates in life is breakfast conversation with strangers. Both parties were content however with the bare essentials of politeness & enjoyed their breakfast all the more. We have had one or two British B&B breakfasts around large tables where it proved impossible to avoid conversations that strained all concerned. There’s much to be said for the anonymity of foreign languages - although I’m pretty certain that our breakfast neighbours understood English.

It’s a 40 minutes stroll along the edge of the vineyards across to Hambach. Or at least it would have been had some mite not got into Jones’s eye & irritated her contact lens, prompting streams of tears to run down her cheeks. We made two stops for running repairs until she eventually wrapped the offending lens in a tissue & put it in her pocket. The day was cold in the wind, with temps hovering around zero. Against the extremities, Jones wraps herself in several inner layers before donning her fur & finally a long coat over the fur. It’s difficult to imagine anything making Jones look baggy but she comes close to it.

No sign of the sun so far this trip. I took the brolly with me this a.m. to ward off the grey skies, only to leave the blessed thing standing against a wall while tending to Jones’s troublesome eye. Jones was for turning back when I remembered it close to our destination. I declined. Cathy assured us that no-one would steal it & indeed it was still standing there when we drove around an hour later to look for it.

We went on to town for a browse & some minor purchases. Rolf was absent, having taken himself to a sports centre, & so were Erica & Micaela who had gone up with friends to the fair at Mannheim. Anita had put forward a vigorous argument the previous evening as to why she ought to be allowed to go too, but in vain. I like Neustadt. It combines the best of most worlds, the old & the new, town & country, easy access & a good range of goods & services. There were lots of Christmas trees parked along the main pedestrian mall & a little fair in the central square. Older folk stood around eating rolls stuffed with wurst & drinking gluhwein while the tots sat solemnly in the carriages of a miniature railway that chugged around in a fenced off area. Anita & I bought half a dozen Red Cross lucky draw tickets at a mark a time except in our case they proved unlucky as we opened each to find that we’d won “nicht” for our troubles.

We stopped twice to purchase wines, once at a Hambach establishment which sells only the wines produced in the immediate area & once at the smart shop in a newly restored timber framed building in Neustadt. Outside the latter, plaques bore dates going back to the 13th century. Mind you, both establishments were laid out with the precision once comes to take for granted in Germany. The only thing lacking at the local winery was the firewater Jones likes - call it eau-de-vie or acquavit or whatever. The Germans have another word for it although it’s as close as damnit to schnapps. However, we found a range of the stuff in Neustadt where, for one mark, you could taste a glass of whatever you fancied before making your purchase. It’s a fine idea.

The older girls arrived back from Mannheim in good time. They said they’d enjoyed themselves but it was really too cold to spend hours out of doors. Micaela was feeling out of sorts, with a sore throat that Cathy dosed. But after a kip, the patient joined the rest of us upstairs for a session of Faulty Towers featuring 3 episodes that were new to me. I thought I’d seen them all. No matter that we all knew we were watching comic drama, there wasn’t one of us that didn’t absolutely wince at the situations that Basil Faulty got himself into. Talk about digging holes for yourself & digging them ever deeper. In spite of this, our pleasure was universal & we outdid one another afterwards with memorable quotes as well as practising Sybil’s special way of saying Basil’s name before she tore into him.....a little bit like the rattlesnake’s warning.

Rolf got out his fancy laptop to fax my last letter across to you. I’d taken it across on a floppy disk, having carefully saved the file in half a dozen different formats to be sure of finding a matching one at the Gohdeses. He has two modems which plug into the computer. One links up with an ordinary telephone line & the other with his mobile phone (enabling him to fax or email while on the road). His first few efforts to despatch the letter ended in failure, until he figured that he had switched the modems without switching the software accordingly. After that, the fax slid off effortless down the line to Canada & SA, miracles of modern technology. This pleased me because I had gone to some trouble to write the letter & it pleased Rolf because he had the very latest & zootiest technology spread around him & it looked naff when the stuff refused to work.

Thank you Mum for your letter which came rattling in moments later. You sounded in excellent form. We reflected on your 3 kilometre walk when a year ago it would have been closer to 3 metres & we gave thanks, like you do, for many blessings. We plan to join up lunchtimish with the family on Sunday & then to go to a fair in one of the nearby villages. We keep fingers crossed that you’re able to get away in spite of the weather. Mind you, I’ve only had one real experience of travelling in a blizzard - also on the Whitefish run - & I didn’t enjoy it at all. Here, it’s promising to get a little colder with a hint of pale sunshine. Suits me fine.

Blessings ever.
T