September 20-24 Amberg, Immenstadt

BLOG ENTRY: Sunday-Wednesday, September 20-24 – Amberg and Immenstadt

Peine to Amberg

Monday morning Marcel delivered us to the local open air train station in Peine. We boarded the empty double decker on time at 9:44, arrived in Hannover 22 minutes later at 10:06. We found the platform for our 10:26 train to Nurnberg and confirmed with other passengers that the train sitting there was ours. We boarded but on finding what we thought was our car we found some people in our seats, so we sat in some empty seats. When a porter finally came along we learned that another train had been attached to ours and we were supposed to be on that train. We hurried down the platform and finally boarded the right car and found the right seats, just as the train began its 3 hour trip from Hannover to Nurnberg.

The terrain is very hilly, you might even call it mildly mountainous, with many tunnels and pretty little towns nestled in and somewhat up the hillside valleys between the mountains. They are like large furry (the trees) sugar loaves sprinkled by God along a rolling plain. Now I realize that the fairy tale towns of our children’s books when I grew up were descriptions of actual towns. Houses along the way were becoming alpine looking, with anywhere from 2-6 stories. The windows are layered in each level until there is just one in the crux of the steeply sloped roofs.

We arrived in Nurnberg HBF at 1:30. My research showed that the next regional train to Amberg was leaving in 10 minutes and another was leaving an hour later so we decided to take that one. We explored the Nurnberg station, and then caught the 2:42 train to Amberg arriving at 3:30pm. Our friend Maria Dinklemeyer was there to meet us. We had visited her with Mike and Lillian in 2003 after my assignment in Warsaw. She had taken us to meet several of Rose’s Stanicki cousins: Natalia, Oksana, Monica, and Sylvia all sisters who also lived in the area. None of the sisters speak English. Back in 2000 Natalia, and Maria, had visited us to attend Mike’s daughter, Janice’s wedding in Edmonton. So we had contacted Maria and asked to stay with her and asked for her help to see the cousins again.

Things change. Most of the sisters are no longer talking to each other. Oksana’s young son died in 2005 and she has been in deep depression ever since. Sylvia and her husband split up and Sylvia went into depression. Monica had two handicapped children from her husband Heinze. He could not handle the situation and left. Rather than supporting each other the sisters relationships deteriorated and they find life easier by not talking to or visiting each other. Perhaps the lack of a stable family heritage had something to do with the situation; who knows. But at this time we would visit Maria and not see any cousins in the area.

Blown away in Amberg

Maria was at the station to meet us in Amberg, apologizing for not being able to arrange to visit with Rose’s cousins. We explained that we understood the situation. She said that on arrival at the station she saw Roland, Natalia’s 35? year old son. She thought he had come to meet us, and maybe he had, but he was clearly drunk and he slipped away.

We were immediately ‘blown away’ in Amberg. Maria’s son-in-law, Christoff, picked us up in what can only be described as the most advanced Audi 4x4 I have ever seen. GPS, DVDs, warning signals, automatic doors and windows etc etc. They took us to Christoff and Maria’s daughter, Cindy’s place, where a birthday party for their 7 year old daughter was in progress. Harold, Maria’s son, his wife and new 4 week old baby, and a few other friends and children were in attendance.

We were ‘blown away’ again. They live in a former convent which has been redesigned by an architect and remodelled for family living. It must surely have won an award. Maria promised to send us a WEB site about it. The convent/home must be about 6,000 sq ft – 568 sq m on each of the two floors, with covered parking for about 8 cars. Part of the top floor is rented out. Part of the ground floor is Christoff’s office for his management consulting company. The party was taking place on a deck about 60’x60 ft leading out from a large glassed wall door to the dinning/kitchen/living open area. Kids were wizzing around on their little plastic motor bikes and cars, and a ping pong table was getting a workout further back. In the middle of large dining/kitchen/living open area a massive modern fireplace with openings to the living and dining rooms, is the feature. Outside beside the deck is a swimming pool fed by natural spring water. A little further up the mountain, via a nicely landscaped path, is a garden building, complete with toilet, heating, and crafts for children and adults. On the way up a set of swings is nestled into the hillside, and slightly below the pool is a basket ball hoop, trampoline and sandbox. Even further up the hill is a soccer field cut into a level area on the mountainside. This remarkable 10 acre place is sitting ¾ of the way up the forested sugar loaf, and overlooking the ancient town square of Amberg. We were privileged to be invited by Christoff to see his wine cellar, a classic cellar with several rooms of brick rounded walls and ceilings winding through the cellar. Christoff says it will hold 2500 bottles, but he only has 1100. The rooms are temperature controlled and have a dehumidifier connected to the sewer system (Teresa, you know what it means to empty dehumidifiers). Thinking of our friends Ken and Alex, we took several photos of the wine cellar. However, we are having trouble uploading photos to our Picasa WEB album so I’m not sure when they will be available to see.

Christoff’s family and another family had owned a large business which found and developed kaolin and feldspar resources for the making of china ware, and ceramics. After disagreements over management, Christoff’s family sold out to the other family. Christoff and other members of his family were left with substantial financial resources. Christoff and Cindy purchased the convent located on the highest sugar loaf mountain in the area, and hired an architect to remodel the place, all work completed in 13 months.

Later we returned to Maria’s home. We had stayed with her in 2003, in her very modern 3 level home (photos on the blog). At that time she was separated from her Doctor husband who had a drinking problem. Now she is divorced. She got the house and he kept his money/pension. She lives on the bottom floor and rents the other 2 floors to a young couple in the US military for 1200 Euro/month. They are currently on assignment in Iraq so the upper floors are empty.

A CRUISE ON THE DANUBE

Monday, Maria took us to Regensburg and Kelheim, both on the Danube. In Kelheim we went on a 45 minute cruise up the Danube, to the Benedictine abbey called Weltenburg, where we had lunch. Rose and I had never in our lives imagined that we might cruise on the Danube, so we were delighted with the trip. It was a beautiful sunny day and the scenery was spectacular. We could have been on a cruise in the Rockie mountains, if the rivers flowed slow enough and the mountains were not so high. There were high cliffs on each side of the river. It was a perfect day with sunshine and little wind.

Returning home we took Maria walked us through the beautiful ancient city centre of Regensburg. All the streets for many blocks have been closed to traffic, finished in paving old and new paving stones, and are filled with shops, sidewalk restaurants and bars, ice cream parlours, and a massive old church, which was being repaired. On returning to Amberg we went took Maria to dinner at a local Italian restaurant.

IMMENSTADT

Tuesday morning we had breakfast and left for Immenstadt. The regional train from Amberg to Nurnberg came as expected. However, in Nurnberg, we learned that the train for the next leg of our trip, Nurnbeg to Augsberg, was delayed 20 minutes, which meant we would miss our next train from Augsberg to Immenstadt with the seats we had paid $12 each to reserve, on top of our Eurail pass. Sure enough we missed our next train. The conductor directed us to a regional train, and with the help of other passengers we were able to negotiate our way to Immenstadt one hour late, where Rose’s cousins Kaudyja, and Jergen, Heike and family (Simona 12, Kevin 11, Lucas 7, Alex 5, and Jessica 3 today) were waiting for us.

Klaudyja 56 is Jergen’s 41 sister and has no children of her own. After many years of illness and cancer she, Jergen and Heike and family decided to pool their meagre resources and live together. They found two flats beside each other. Jergen works as a computer TV technician to support the group. Klaudyja gets some disability, and the government also supports the family through child benefits, medical and dental services. Klaudyja was sporting a beautiful set of teeth provided by the health care system because of her low income. (Rose and I paid $7,000 in 2007 for dental work that failed and we are now looking at another $7,000 for corrective work) The familiy now hqw one flat for sleeping and the other for daytime activity. They carved out of this compact living arrangement, a private room for Rose and I with our own bathroom, stocked from wall to wall, with the personal necessities of three adults and 5 children in the same small living accomodation.

We did not stay in the apartment for long. Klaudyja was anxious to show us the 'see', lake Constance, near their home. We all walked about 4km to the lake and there we saw the reason for her enthusiasm. The lake is nestled in the mountains, with a small port for boats and sailboats, around which is a few shops, a dock leading out into the water, and a path leading around the lake. We continued another km along the path. By the time we returned we had out daily exercise and were ready for dinner. Jergen, Heike, Jessica and I went to a local grocery store for food and refreshments. I bought a few beer and

Wednesday Jurgen had arranged the day off and at Klaudyja’s suggestion we took the whole family by train to the tourist resort of Lindau at lake Bodensee, 1 hour away by train (cost 56 Euro). Wikipedia has a article on the place at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lindau

Before leaving on the train we visited Klaudyja’s brother (Rose’s cousin) who has been in hospital in a coma for three years. He has no control over his limbs, but seemed to understand the activity around him as he blinked or huffed at various things or comments. We were impressed with his good condition, despite being bedridden. There were no bed shores, and his complexion was very good.

Returning home Klaudyja showed Rose how she makes schnitzel. Rose heard her say that she has to be careful not to buy sheep eggs because they make the schnitzel taste like fish. Rose carefully repeated the phrase and Klaugyja responded, 'yes, never use sheep eggs'. Rose said 'sheep, bah bah sheep'. And Klaugyja said, 'not expensive eggs, sheep eggs'. Rose said, 'you mean cheap eggs'. Klaudyja and Rose both realized at the same time that Klaudyja's pronounciation of 'cheap eggs' sounded to Rose like 'sheep eggs', and they were hooting about it for the rest of the day.

LINDAU and LAKE BODENSEE

At 3pm we travelled one hour by train to Lindau and one hour back, plus 2 hours exploring the Lake Bodensee resort at Lindau, and returned one hour by train at 7pm. We enjoyed climbing up the lighthouse tower with the lion statue at the entrance to the harbour. Alex, who wanted to go up the lighthouse, became terrified at the small, narrow, steep winding stairs around the inside of the round lighthouse. His father to picked him up half way up and he screamed blue murder the rest of the way. His younger sister, Jessica would have walked the railing at the top of the lighthouse if her mother had let her. The quiet lake with sailboats moored and sailing, cruise boats taking people to nearby islands, plus the several sidewalk restaurants and bars with many people, made a truly pastoral scene. After the lighthouse we walked along the lake shore walk. It reminded me of walking along the ocean around Stanley Park in Vancouver. As we walked we came upon a small playground with concrete play structures. The children were entertained there for 30 minutes while the adults, except the parents. There were no toilets there but the children just visited the bushes whenever necessary. The 5 young children do no often ride on the train so it was a real adventure for them.

On returning home Rose and I hid in our bedroom while the children were fed and put to bed. Later we had a bite to eat with Klaudyja before packing for our trip to Paris on Thursday. We convinced Klaudyja to accept 50 Euro for the children and adults as small gifts since we were not able to carry gifts with us.

Thursday morning we leave for Paris, catching the 8:30 train for one hour to Ulm, then a train from Ulm to Stuttgart for one hour, then another train to Paris for 4 hours. We have many good memories of our visit with this large family of meagre resources. Kevin played his accordion for us. He and Lucas both have Skype on computers so we will be talking to them from our hotel in Paris. It is Jessica’s birthday today, Thursday. She is three but says she is four. I suggested she is correct since she is in her fourth year.

Once again we see proof that family size and income need not be conditions for happiness. This is a happy family living surely under financial stress but with the benefit of mutual love and support.