September 2017 – Page 2

Superpowers – and Torgau

September 11, 2017

5:56 am

**On the Elbe Radweg between Pretzsch and Torgau**

“Tomorrow, we’re going to have a team meeting,” Dwayne said sternly to me. “You’ve broken the team rules.”

Linda was more sympathetic. “I think it’s great that you can go so fast on your electric bike,” she observed. “But from now on, I think you shouldn’t go out in front.”

“Stay at the back – where you belong,” added Dwayne.

I had mistakenly taken the wrong road to Torgau and Davey had had to pursue me for nearly a kilometre, crying “Rosi” and eventually “Coo-ee!”

It’s tough being an elite athlete. My electric bike gives me superpowers. It has four options: eco, sport, power and ultra. Even climbing a hill presents no difficulties. The only problem is, sometimes I forget that I’m a mere mortal. Yesterday, for instance, I raced on ahead at one stage because I wanted to take some photos of the others riding towards me. It was a good idea, but as I tried to climb off my bike, I got my foot caught and fell heavily on the bitumen. A kind old German woman who was cycling past asked me if I was okay and I assured her that, apart from being a klutz, I was right as rain. We stood talking for ten minutes and I would have liked to go home to her village with her to continue the conversation and have a soothing cup of tea.

After we arrived in Torgau, my wrist stiffened up and began to throb. Yet more proof of my mortality.

Torgau is a lovely city with many tourist attractions: the bears who live in the castle moat, a 500-year tradition; the castle itself with its displays of Nazi, Soviet and East German injustices; the town square with its imposing and well maintained buildings; and the shuttered windows, often with window boxes and flowers.

I enjoyed wandering around the city in the autumn sunshine, despite my throbbing wrist and the rueful recognition that this was presumably my punishment for breaking team rules.


Linda admires the window boxes in Torgau	Another flowery window

Out for dinner	View from our restaurant window

Final Notes

Hotel: Hotel-Pension zum Market – charming, has its own courtyard and flowery balcony
Dinner: Herr Käthe
Most worthwhile tourist option: The Castle with its bears in the moat (who seemed happy and well looked after) and its detailed accounts of past prisons and atrocities
Another thing the Germans do well: Window boxes

Lycra – and Pretzsch

by Roslyn Green

September 9, 2017

4:38 pm

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Cycling, Travelling

bicycles, bikes, cycling, e-bike, Elbe Radweg, gardens, lycra, Pretzsch, sheep, vouchers, Wittenberg

When I knocked on the Sleeps’ door this morning, it was opened by Dwayne, resplendent in his lycra cycling knicks. “Oh Gawd,” I muttered.

“It’s like packing ten pounds of sausages into a five-pound bag,” he said, prancing around the room.

I averted my eyes.

Linda had sent me a warning message, but I had had my phone on aeroplane mode.

Despite this distressing start to the day, we were all happy at the prospect of our first proper cycling stage, for want of a better word.


Starting out in Wittenberg…	…with lycra	…and my superbike

It was distinctly damp as we set off, but our rain protection served us well and the landscapes, the villages and the beautiful gardens made up for the discomfort. That is, except for our bottoms, which felt decidedly tender as we bumped over the cobblestones.


An inviting pension along the way	A garden in Elster

Yet another garden	Sheep – completely unfazed by our presence

Nevertheless, we arrived in Pretzsch intact, with only one oversight: we had accidentally left our accommodation and luggage transfer vouchers in Wittenberg.

Solving this problem could be even more difficult than looking at Dwayne in lycra.

Final Notes:

Positive aspects of Germany continued: The Elbe Radweg – This bike path runs for hundreds of kilometres along the Elbe River.

Hotel in Pretzsch: Parkhotel – large and adequate without being charming. Trabis parked out the back. The kind, overworked woman at reception dealt with our voucher problem with patience and aplomb.

Pretzsch itself: Disturbingly like a ghost town, but our hotel was hopping with two functions.

Problem solved: The kind people at the Parkhotel organised a taxi to bring over all our documents and vouchers from Wittenberg. Thank goodness.

One more disturbing issue: Upon our arrival, Dwayne realised that he hadn’t packed any jocks in his pannier. Since our luggage hadn’t arrived at that stage, he had to don his shorts and let his 5 pounds of sausages (sorry, 10) swing in the breeze. Aagh.

Wittenberg: Varying Dreams

by Roslyn Green

September 8, 2017

3:23 pm

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Cycling, Travelling

Augustus Tours, bicycles, Cranach, David, Dwayne, Geelong Cats, Hundertwasserschule, Linda, Luther, Lutherhaus, Wittenberg

We came to Wittenberg with different ambitions.

Davey hoped that his meticulous organisation of our bike tour would turn out exactly as he had planned.

I wanted to encounter some history firsthand and hear it, if possible, in German.

Linda’s aim was to watch the Cats versus the Tigers.

Dwayne mainly wanted to drink German beer, eat a lot of meat and tease me mercilessly.

We all fulfilled our aims. but there were a few twists along the way.

Davey’s Aim: Although Augustus Tours, our bicycle provider, had managed every aspect of the tour with the utmost care, the hotel staff didn’t entirely understand our requests in English. We realised that we needed to find out if the bikes had been delivered and enquire after the materials that we had been promised by our tour operators. For once, my attempts at communication in German turned out to be quite useful, because after I had explained the situation, the young man at reception located both our bikes and, later in the day, the posted packet of information that was missing. Relieved and excited by our new freedom of movement, we went for a short ride to the Hundertwasserschule, during which I discovered that the extra electric oomph of my bike makes me feel like a superwoman.

My Aim: The Lutherhaus Museum was interesting without being inspiring. While I enjoyed the German audio tour on the whole, I was disappointed by the lack of imagination shown in the Museum Shop. On the other hand, judging from some of the kitsch souvenirs available in the town, perhaps it was just as well that the Museum’s offerings were rather sparse. One magnet in a particularly unattractive shop, instead of providing the standard translation of Luther’s words, “A mighty fortress is our God”, displayed the sentence: “A firm castle is our God”. I pictured God doing pushups or showing off his six-pack.

Linda’s Aim: Although Linda did indeed get to see the football game, the Tigers outplayed the Cats in the last quarter and she was sufficiently cast down to seek retail therapy immediately afterwards.

Dwayne’s Aims: Dwayne fulfilled all his hopes, which, as he would say, is the main thing.

Final Notes

Our hotel: Best Western, perfectly adequate but somehow not as homely and pleasant as the Concorde in Frankfurt. No brothels in the neighbourhood though, which is a plus.

Additions to our list of Germany’s most impressive aspects: Widespread bike infrastructure; courtesy of drivers towards cyclists

Heard around the traps: Dwayne to Davey: “I have some good news. The shops are shutting.”

Converging on Frankfurt

by Roslyn Green

September 6, 2017

2:44 pm

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Travelling

Dwayne, Frankfurt, Linda

We travelled from two far distant worlds, Davey and I from relatively close by in Düsseldorf, and Linda and Dwayne from faraway Melbourne. It was like completing a pilgrimage, finding each other thousands of kilometres from home. At the labyrinth-like Frankfurt Airport, Davey and I finally located the right flight and received Linda and Dwayne with rapture. Now at last there was another pair of Australians in Europe, two new conspirators, ready to share our adventure. They looked a little pale and wan after that gruesome 24-hour ordeal, but remarkably chirpy for all that. On the way back to the hotel, I talked Linda’s ear off. Dwayne was more polite to me than usual, but only because he was worn out and weary.

I love how other people notice completely different aspects of a foreign city. Yesterday, on my arrival, I only had eyes for books, bookshops, signs and posters – anything through which I could indulge my fascination with the German language. Linda perceives everything differently. She notices the dogs, the flowers, the plants that need watering and the shelves in cafes where diners can stack their plates and cups. “Just what Kate needs in Etto,” she remarked. And it goes without saying that she focuses on the fashion and the shopping options. Seeing Europe with her is like having another pair of eyes and, what’s more, a pair of ears into which I can pour all my thoughts, stories and impressions.

Dwayne will keep me honest with his caustic comments, once he gets over his jet lag – but Linda, with her warmth, her humour and her bright-eyed interest in everything, will keep me happy.


Two different pairs of eyes	The view from the top of the Galeria Kaufhof

Bread, glorious bread	Which pair of shoes should I wear to the Joanne Concert?

Final Notes:

Linda’s favourite shop: Massimo Dutti (elegant clothing)
My favourite shop: Hugendubel (three floors of books, with mezzanine floors thrown in, a café in the basement and reading nooks dotted everywhere)
Our hotel: Concorde – lovely breakfast, close to main station, seedy part of town
Dinner: Paulaner-am-Dom
Important shopping find: René Lezard – beautiful German-made clothing

Lippstadt

by Roslyn Green

September 2, 2017

8:01 pm

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Travelling

Astrid, Brunnen, fountain, Julia, Klangwald, Lippstadt

Julia in the “Stangenwald” of the Möhnesee “Klangweg”, where, with the help of instruments created in the forest, one can make all sorts of mystical and musical sounds…

After Julia returned to Germany, I assumed that she would be like many young people who visit us in Australia and then tend to forget that we ever existed. I was wrong. She stayed in contact with us, wrote us messages on WhatsApp, asked how Sophie was progressing with her studies and wanted to know when we might be able to visit her in Germany. Initially, I thought that she was simply polite and well brought up, which indeed she is; but she was so sincere in her invitation to visit her and her mother Astrid that in the end we gratefully accepted.

Julia and Astrid had taken care of Sophie during her exchange last year. Now, on this special weekend, they took care of us, introducing us to parts of Nordrhein-Westfalen that we could never have hoped to discover on our own.

Astrid let me speak German with her and I was thrilled. Every time she used a word that I would like to be able to use, I added it to my set of “Tiny Cards”. I love listening to native speakers speak German. As if that wasn’t enough, she gave us her bed to sleep in. We tried to talk her out of it, but she insisted in her gentle, resolute way.

Astrid had planned our first day in Lippstadt with the utmost care and attention to detail. Our first activity was a visit to the Möhnesee Klangwald. Determined to take a scenic route rather than the autobahn, Astrid ignored the rather cross and insistent voice of her navigator and took us through winding roads and tiny villages. The landscape was quiet and picturesque until several wild boars leapt out in front of us. Despite braking hard, Astrid hit one of them and we were all aghast. To our amazement, the creature rolled over a couple of times, then leapt up and ran off into the next field. Upon inspection, we discovered that the car was virtually unaffected – some extra dirt on the front bumper bar. What had seemed like a potentially serious accident became just another part of the adventure.

The “Klangweg” is a walk through the forest on the shore of the Möhnesee that includes several innovative musical “instruments” made out of wood and steel to be played as you walk along. The forest itself was, as Astrid said, a “Märchenwald”, a fairytale forest. It was beautiful and magical.

Afterwards we ate in the Torhaus Restaurant and wandered through the gardens, admiring the sculptures and the nooks with seats, books and views of the beautiful surroundings.


A fairytale forest	Davey makes forest music

Julia in the sculpture garden	A quiet nook

“Verdurous glooms and winding mossy ways”	A lifelike sculpture

In the Torhaus Restaurant	Davey and Astrid look out over the Möhnesee

The Torhaus Restaurant	Even the bathroom was a thing of beauty…

Astrid had even organised an English-speaking guide to provide a tour of Lippstadt for us. We walked all over the town in the evening light, admiring the old houses with their exposed beams and hearing about the power struggles of the Middle Ages. By the end of the day, we were all footsore and weary, but utterly content. Returning home, we ate a meal of tasty German specialties, including home-grown tomatoes, sausages, potato salad and a variety of meats, spreads, cheeses and breads.

We felt that, in one solitary day, Astrid and Julia had provided an insight into this part of Germany, made us feel at home and given us more memories and experiences than we could ever have expected.