Letter 3
Saturday 23.07.11
I catch up on writing my diary, news, Tour de France a.s.o. during the
morning.
Later Angela shows me around town. She also have some erinds. Alpirsbach
shows its prettiest face under a sunny sky. It's a very cosy town, and
looks very much like I imagined from Google Earth. It's hard to get an
impression of the heights, when you just see it all from above. The
valley is a bit more narrow than I'd expected. The most spectacular is
no doubt the visit to the cinema. Angela's a substitute as technician,
ticket seller, sweet seller a.s.o. in a small cinema which is
established in part of the abbey, which is obviously the pride of the
town, due to this she has a key. There are around 60 seats. The prize is
6€. That's cheap.
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| The cinema in the Abbey... | ...And the Abbey itself |
We meet Johannes on our way back. He's busy making everything
ready for the workmen, who are supposed to come and work on the house
while he and Angela is gone. They're going on vacation tomorrow night.
It's actually some coincidence that we managed to meet. It was just
because I only could get a ticket for the bicycle this wednesday. My
plan was to leave next monday.
Her mother is quite occupied. It's the home of her childhood and she's
inherited not only the house, but also different tasks following: the
production of applejuice, which partly is made into normal juice, partly
is fermented into a 6% "Most". The container from which she taps when
the customers arrive, is 800 l, so it's quite some volume. Besides she/they
are making hay from the various meadows. Hay which is stacked in bales
up the attic in the barn and later packed in smaller volumes for rabbits
and horses. It's COMPLETELY full for the moment. And then there's the
woods. She has woods on both sides of the valley. It also supply the
house with heating. She can't do all this by her own, so the father and
Angela and her brother helps her. So it is even more than a full time
job.
In the afternoon I do a bike tour to the other side of the valley
compared to yesterday. It's REALLY steep. Arlberg Pass will be nothing
against this. It takes about three quaters of an hour of hard work to
reach a village called Schömberg that should be the most beautiful in
all of the "Bundesland". It's very dissapointing. I don't see anything
special by it, but the down hill, which takes almost 14 km through
something called Rheinerstal is pretty. A steep climb followed by a
gentle and slow down hill: Perfect! This is how I imagine my two pass
crossings to be in Austria. Only there I have to go down hill for 100
km!
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| On my way up to Schramberg | Rheinerstal |
I have done my laundry and later I put up the tent. The longest stick
has to be in the middle it shows - must remember. Besides from this it's
a piece of cake. Her mother is dying to show me, what she finds to be
the prettiest view in Alpirsbach - or rather: in the whole world. And
she has to deliver a cake she's made for someone who's going to
celebrate a christening tomorrow, so I go with her. Normally we would
have walked up the mountain just behind but there's no time for that so
we go by car. High up there she owns both wood and meadows and at the
meadow there's a small house her grandfather built. It's been renovated
since then surely. And from one end of the meadow there's a view over a
part of Alpirsbach. I can see the beauty. She's entertaining about the
woods. Which trees that are finished and have to be cut. About attacks
from beetles and dears. Which different types of spruces there are. "Fichte"
is the "red" spuce I know now. Luckily there's been an attack from
beetles in the wood back home in
Birkerød and they are going to plant Douglas spruces in stead in a large
area around a lake, so I'm not totally ignorant in this field.
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| The house in Hinterer Weg... | ...and the old and the new barn |
She talks and talks. It comes from the depths of her heart. But we do
get down again where Angela and Johannes is preparing the dinner. Just
bread and so. In the end her father arrives, "der Walter". They have
three houses in all. One in Willingen that's rented, but they have some
rooms in the basement. The one they live in in Donaueschingen and
finally this, where Hanna, the mother, is quite often. So they've got
work to do. Der Walter is head of an agricultural school, but seems to
have a parttime job with the rest.
We end up sharing a bottle of Spätburgunder, a german redwine, I know
from ealier. My german friend Burghard brought me a bottle when he
visited me on Bornholm.
It's good. Not so tasty as many french wines. More like danish? I don't
have many experiences but it's comparable to the one from Lille Gadegård
on Bornholm.
Tomorrow I'll be moving on. It'll be nice with a little loneliness. It's
tirering to be a guest for so long.
35,32 km
14.1 km/h
48.0 km/h
2:29:18 h