Weekend in Germany

This Monday was Whit Monday (the day after Pentecost, a Christian holiday), and we had the day off. So on Friday evening I flew off to see my aunt Gisela in Germany for the weekend. This is a luxury I was previously never able to do, but now I’m on the same side of the ocean, so it’s very easy to just jump on a plane for a quick flight.

I went to a region east of Cologne and Bonn called Bergisches Land. Now, “Berg” means mountain, and the area is in fact composed of rolling hills, so you might think “Bergisches Land” means “mountainous land”. But you’d be wrong: in fact, the area was named after the dukes of Berg. And if this was not linguistically silly enough, one von Berg built a castle which in the 15th century was given the name Schloss Burg. Linguistically, this would translate into “castle castle” or at best into “castle fortification”.

SO: the Bergs of Bergland lived in the Castle castle…!?

Anyways…

My visit with my aunt and uncle was wonderful. First of all, it turns out that the sun that never seems to be in Vienna has been hiding in Bergisches Land. The weather was perfect: 25oC, full sun and a light wind. We spent our days outside and chatted until midnight each evening.

On Saturday, we drove to the Eifel region for a gathering of my uncle’s family. When we started off, we noticed a little rumble coming from the car, but disregarded it. About 25 km later we got off the Autobahn and took to secondary roads to enjoy the scenery along the Rhine river. Another 50 km went by, and by then the little noise had turned into a loud rattle and the back of the car was shaking. So we drove into a tiny village where my uncle knew there was an auto mechanic. Turns out the noise was coming from one of the rear wheels, which was missing 3 of the 5 bolts that held it in place. The bolts did not seem to have broken off, nor was there damage to the wheel. But the mechanic said that had we stayed on the Autobahn and driven at high speeds (which is a given with my uncle’s lead foot), the remaining 2 bolts would have broken very quickly, the wheel would have fallen off and we’d have had a major accident. Thankfully, the repair was excessively simple: put in 3 new bolts, tighten all the others, and off you go!

We got to the party about an hour late, but had a great time anyways. I spent some time talking to Marita, a nice lady in her eighties. She had Alzheimer’s, though not too bad yet so while she did tell me the same story twice, she still recognised most people. We ended up speaking in French, which she had learned during and after the 2nd World War, and she was still very proficient. The funny thing is that 80% of her family had no clue she knew any French at all, and when they first heard her speak their jaws collectively dropped and they just stared. Just like in the movies! It was hilarious, and Marita was so proud of surprising them all!

On Sunday, we lounged around, played with the horses, read a bit, and also visited an open-air museum and nature park in the vicinity. Again with the wonderful weather, just a perfect day. On Monday, we visited Schloss Burg and also a watermill that used to produce very hard steel.



And then, sadly, it was time to hop back on the plane and go home to Vienna… where of course it was raining!