See pictures here:
First, it was a little stressful, right out of the gate because both our planes were delayed - Clara's more-so than mine since her plane was diverted because of tornado warnings going on in Denver. So rather than us arriving in Frankfurt within 30 minutes of each other, Clara arrived 4 hours after me - but arrive she did!
And what miracle, but the author of the Soedel Familenbuch had agreed to come meet us, and there he was with smiles and hugs for us both! It was something. So off we go, traveling part of the way on the Autobahn at 140 mph, and Herr Meyer laughing 'you can't do this in America' while we agreed with our eyes closed! But then we got off the main drag and headed toward Woelfersheim, getting the most wonderful descriptions of the landscape as we went. Woelfersheim is in the county (kreig?) of Wetterau, so named because of its lushness - some of the most fertile land in all Germany is here. It reminded me a lot of Iowa, except there are low mountains on every horizon, and not a single of these lush farms is irrigated. We also found out that this area is well known for its production of roses. In fact, later in June will be the annual Rosenfest, and indeed we passed a field completely filled with many colors of roses. Beautiful!
Herr Meyer then took us for a driving tour of the area, which was wonderful, but then he started to realize that none of the restaurants he wanted to recommend were open because we have arrived on on a big holiday in Germany called Pfingsten (Pentacost) - and of course this is something we had no idea about! So Herr Meyer took us home to meet his surprised wife, and after being served strawberries and ice cream, we all went first to the church to get our pictures taken with the representative from the mayor's office who presented me with a gift of a beautiful ceramic jug for Apfelwein (apple wine) - it's just beautiful. Then we went to the White Tower in Soedel which Herr Meyer has the key to because he is the local tour guide. Something I never imagined about Soedel is that it has the remnants of a wall and 4 towers that were used in the town's defense. When I asked who they were defending themselves from, he said "the neighbors". Apparently neighboring villages would come to steal each other's riches, although it doesn't sound like there was any killing going on. So the wall was, I guess, the first fence between neighbors !?
We did manage to find a local pizzeria and we all enjoyed dinner together before they dropped us at our hotel, and we were asleep probably even before our heads hit the pillow. End of Day 1!
Day 2 starts by having a very lovely continental breakfast in the hotel, and then meeting Herr Riess, who is the other author of local history books who has taken over for showing us around since Herr Meyer was leaving for a vacation in Bavaria and Greece! So Herr Riess made arrangements with the caretaker of the Soedel church to let us in. This church, built in 1450 (?), has been so painstakingly cared for and the parts of it that have failed along the way have been completely restored. They have even saved some of the wall paintngs, one being a depiction of tulips, which held high monetary value in early Europe. We got to see every nook and cranny, including climbing up the inside of the bell tower - it was awesome!
We then spent some time at the residence of the pastor who is the keeper of all the original church books. Herr Riess and I looked them over for several hours, and then we needed some walking, so he dropped us at the Jewish cemetery, which was small but interesting.
After a little afternoon rest, we visited Herr Riess at his home and had watermelon in his lovely garden. He then took us for a tour of the Evangelisch church in Woelfersheim, which had to be "bigger and better" because of the competition between the two villages. Nevertheless, Herr Riess says that he today attends the church in Soedel because of all the friendly people there.
So we ended our day having dinner in the hotel - but we had a local specialty - Spragel or white asparagus. It was incredibly good served wrapped in ham, a potato on the side, and hollandaise sauce poured over all. Now we are falling asleep at the table, and headed to bed before the next day of travels.
Internet has not been great - hopefully it will be better at our next destination. More soon!
MM,
ReplyDeleteYour post was great. Sounds like you have had a wonderful trip so far. Can't wait for the full report and the pictures! Oh to see those records!! Glad Clara got there alright. I had heard about the tornado problem up there!! sj