The auspicious Queen of Lalaland has asked me to give a brief report about my 6 weeks in Germany this summer. Though I have never been praised for my brevity, I will try my best.
I left for Germany in chipper spirits, happy to escape the rather repetitive routine that my summer on Long Island had become. My trip was supposed to last 5 weeks - 1 with Miriam's family in the comely village of Owen unter Teck and 4 in the university city of Tübingen.
The flight from JFK to Berlin was unremarkable except for the extraordinary lack of leg room. I suppose that is how AirBerlin gets away with being a budget airline. However, as I leisurely walked to my next flight's gate, a booming voice called "Herr Hart, Herr Hart...sind Sie Herr Hart?" I nodded and produced a sound resembling "ja." The rather tense man to whom this voice belonged then started speaking wildly in German. I didn't understand most of it but enough that he wanted my boarding pass. So I gave it to him as we began to sprint towards the gate.
Finally, we walked up to the plane and and he, no longer tense, asked in German how I liked New York, but at this point the game was over. I responded "well actually I live there." All of a sudden he proceeded to give me a high five while exclaiming something like "oh yeah cool, an American." It was all a bit bewildering to my sleep deprived self.
I arrived in Stuttgart an hour later to the greetings of Miriam and her brother Jan. Miriam's family lives in Owen unter Teck, the village where my Great Grandma grew up. It is quite picturesque, but a little too small for my liking. Her brother and grandpa make their living distilling liqueur and whiskey...though I only ever sampled a very little amount.
The view across from the Gruel's house. The half timbered building is the City Archives of Owen and was built in the 15th century.
This is the Gruel's house. A very fine dwelling, I you ask me.
Ok, so my first day in Germany was spent...in France. Strasbourg (or as I like to call it Straßburg). It is right across the Rhine river and is part of Alsace, the region of France that has flipped between Germany and France more times than I care to count. The city is actually amazingly gorgeous!
Miriam, Jan, Thomas and I in Strasbourg
No explanation needed.
The streets signs are actually very interesting in the Old City. You can see the older German sign and the newer French sign.
Well now this is getting quite long and I haven't really even scratched the surface. That's why there will be parts two and three!!!
Marvellous, I await part two with bated breath.
ReplyDelete(Apparently marvelous can also be spelled with two l's. I never knew!)