Dear Emma, dear Rachel: I don't know what happened. At the moment I cannot open the post on my "Day out". Thank you for your comments - I was glad to read them. And yes: I will talk about the city Fürth (I only saw a little part of it - so it will be a very personal description).
... missed a train!
"My" Bavarian village owns a luxury item: a little red train which comes every half hour with a loud "Tooooot!" Here you see the station one village further - with two tracks and two platforms - while we have only one track and one platform - and the Flying Dutchman's standard joke is "Remember: departure from Track 1!"
From Bavaria to Berlin, from Berlin to the Netherlands, then back to Berlin, and now Bavaria again.
After wearing "The Mask" from Schiphol to Berlin (and then in the public transport the S-Bahn) - meaning 7 !!! hours without a break, my head felt like the photo above - muddy, even the next day I wasn't completely "there".
But am now: here.
Bathing in nature and calm. Wide view.
Though I enjoyed the Big City too.
A few months ago, during the height of Covid-19-time, I bought a wonderful edition of the fairy-tales of Die Gebrüder Grimm. Might have been the same longing that brought many people to start examining their family history - fairy tales are a bit the family lore of a nation.
The Gebrüder Grimm started to collect those tales from 1819 on - writing down what till then was only told verbatim - and thus endangered to get lost. They didn't add anything, and we are so thankful for their great work.
Fairy tales are for children, one often thinks - especially when you know only the sweet Disney movies. But a long long time ago, when mankind told these stories around open hearths or at the spinning wheel on long winter evenings, they were cultural transmission.
Some fairy tales are outright cruel. Some are not easy to understand. As a child I only loved those with a happy end, those which made me laugh. But now I see that a lot more of the wisdom of the not so nice tales is stored inside me too.
What I esteem: the fairytales taught children - different from nowadays overprotective helicopter parents (no chance to become that with triplets!) - that the world is a colourful but not always a peaceful place, that not all people are interested in that proud parents' Unique Sweet Child, as lovely and pure as it might be, and that the world sometimes is not fair, although fairy tales also often tell you that virtue is rewarded.
One of my favourite fairy tales are "The Bremer Stadtmusikanten" (The Town Musicians of Bremen, where I come from) - its mantra for living-on is :
"Something better than Death you will always be able to find."
I'll drink to that - and cling to the antiquated syntax!
Now to my adventure of getting lost:
"In the Olden Days when wishing still has helped..." (fairy tales often start like that) - so, in my modern language: the day before yesterday, I went to the next town by train to buy some bread, and, as the weather was hot and beautiful, decided to walk back to the little village where I (part-time) live now.
That would make about 3 km, and I thought I knew the way.
So Our Heroine started - with lovely fresh bread and no stones in her knapsack.
Two times she asked Friendly Strangers if she was still walking into the right direction - and got somehow muddled advice about being quicker on another route. She walked on confident.
When suddenly the road went uphill, she started to wonder. (Having a good sense of locality, why did she go further up, knowing that the little village nestled into a valley?)
After a while she saw an ugly Old Woman, accompanied by three barking dogs, coming out of the woods, and she asked her: "Is this the way to Arcadevillage?"
"Yes, my dear! Just go through that wood and you will be right there!"
Our Heroine overlooked the strange glint in those eyes, didn't notice the cackling and was afraid of those Cerberous dogs.
WELL... This was what followed:
After about seven miles through the wood and then many more miles through oven-hot dry fields she finally reached home.
"And if she hasn't died she is still alive". (Oh yes, she is!)
After a few deep breaths she looked up the name of that wood and that little river (and I swear it is the truth and nothing but the truth). It is:
Devil's Ditch.
Phew!
Another very hot day will unfold - the last two days we had temperatures of 34° C, which make you feel as being clad into hot blankets.
In the early morning mist rises from the meadows on the low ground near the little river. It is always a stunning sight.
So: No walk with the triplets' electro mobile - but I brought two watering cans, thus we spent a very vivid and wet afternoon in the garden - little hands slided into the cans, discovered how to splash fountains - and the sun dried the clothes at once.
I wonder how I shall name the triplets here - to respect their privacy. They have very beautiful names (and each of them has three - fortunately we only use one, otherwise they would be up and away while we stand around and call them :-)
Elizabeth von Arnim called hers fictional "April, May and June". Might bring confusion to the readers, especially in months with the same name?
Maybe I call them by the name of the Three Graces: Euphrosyne, Thalia and Aglaia - but Euphrosyne is a bit long - and my son detests abbreviations...
So: I will call the unidentical triplet "Igel", which she choose very early to name herself, meaning hedgehog - in the beginning her abundant hair stood away from the head in little spikes; so she heard it very often. Now the spikes changed into a sort of long curls.The uniovular call her "Igel" too.
The first uniovular triplet calls herself "Ada" (which I adore!).
The second uniovular, who is very determined and fearless, has the name of a strong Nordic goddess - the name is short so she can pronounce it almost correct. She is the third of the Three Graces, Aglaia- so I will call her Glaia.
Igel, Ada and Glaia -time will show if that fits.
Dear You,
just a sign of life: this is the view from my new domicile in Bavaria - isn't it ravishing?
At the moment I am back in Berlin: I got the offer for my first Biontec shot two days ago, and thought that so important that I entered the ICE and will stay here for a few day. Hustle and bustle - but also
Joie de vivre!