Roth am der Our 3

Heinrich found an old border crossing on the border between Germany and Luxemburg. Many years ago every country had a border that they would defend and would check everyone who wanted to come into their country. Now many of the countries in Europe have joined the European Union and they let people come and go without being so suspicious or protective. The sign into Germany now has a sign with a happy family saying "welcome, come in".

In the background you can still see the big bar that would come down across the road to keep people out. Next to the gate is the old German guardhouse. Now there is a sign on it showing when the borders were opened and the guards away.

Across the bridge is the old Luxemburg guardhouse. It has been converted into a visitor Information Booth. The signs in this area are in both German and French.

 

 

Roth am der Our 2

Just along the ridge line there are a couple of German bunkers just like they were during the war.

 

Heinrich was able to see the sleeping area, some of the equipment and place the soldiers would live.

 

He also saw some of the gun ports that the soldiers could shoot through if someone was attacking them.

 

Some of the cement bunkers have been damaged or collapsed. In one of them there are a bunch of little stalactites. They had to have formed over the last 70 years because the bunkers were occupied before that. So when people tell you that it takes thousands of years for a stalactite to grow an inch they clearly don't know what they are talking about.

Roth am der Our 1

Heinrich went over to a little village called Roth am der Our that has a celebration every year to remember that America liberated Germany from the Nazis in World War 2. They have a cool car show where all of the cars are trucks and jeeps and motorcycles from the war.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

They also have one of the few sections of the German defensive wall left in Germany. Almost all of the others were destroyed to keep Germany from being able to be a threat to its neighbors. There was a kind of long and steep climb up the hill to where the bunkers are located. Along the way there were some wild berries that were just coming ripe. They were delicious. On top you can see across the Our River to the border of Luxemburg. Today it has beautiful pastures with peaceful cows. A long time ago it was a battlefield. If you look in the middle you can see one of the local hunters deer blinds.

 

 

 

 

 

Heinrich loves these berries and has found that they make a delicious berry syrup.  We have not found out the name of the berry - they call them wilde fruchte (wild fruit).  We know they aren't poison because we have eaten them and we were served them at an ice cream shop.

Schneeballen

One day Heinrich was strolling along the road when he passed a store window full of some very tasty German desserts. There was all different kinds with different coatings.

The name of these treats is called Schneeballen. There are most popular in a town called Rothenburg. They are made out a pastry that is kind of like pie crust. They looked pretty good in the display window, so Heinrich went into the shop to investigate.

Of all the different kinds, he chose to try a schneeballen that was filled with marzipan and coated with a milk chocolate coating. On top of the schneeballen were shreds of pistachios that gave it a pretty color and a nice taste.

After he bought his schneeballen Heinrich took it out to a nearby park and found a quiet bench with green plants and nice shade. The schneeballen wasn't bad but was the crust was a little heavy. A lighter crust with a more even filling and good coating would actually be pretty tasty.

 

Goldennes Lamm

When Heinrich went to Rothenburg he stayed at a very nice hotel in the center of the old town. It was kind of tricky to get there. Even though Heinrich goes in a very small car, one of the roads to get to the hotel was very skinny. It was kind of narrow even to walk on. Needless to say Heinrich had to find a different road to get to the hotel.

 

 

The name of the hotel was the Goldennes Lamm. It was built in the 1600s but has had several renovations since then. It had in room bathrooms and a nice TV. On the bed was a Haribo pack, which was a nice surprise.   The owner was very nice and let Heinrich park in his place (can you see his white car) and then he parked behind him.  That saved Heinrich from having to pay for parking.

 

The view from the window was over a courtyard behind the hotel. It was very cool to be right in the downtown of such a nice town. The front of the hotel faces the main square with the town hall and the famous old tavern. There is pretty posture in the base clinic that shows the front of the hotel and the European street scene.

Germany is nice but has some odd parts as well. Along a lot of the streets in every town are street side cigarette vending machines. The nicer ones require ID to use them to keep kids from using them but a lot of them can be used by anyone. In the hallway of the hotel was one of these dispenser machines.

In the morning Heinrich had a really nice buffet breakfast. There were lots of cured meats and cheeses with rolls. There were also juices and yogurts and fruit. They also had boiled eggs with a fancy egg holder. It was a really nice breakfast. It's lots of fun being able to do all these cool things in Germany.

 

Bears

Heinrich had the chance to go to Rothenburg. It is a beautiful city with a lot of Christmas themes. In the winter there is a beautiful Christmas market they set up on the platz. When there is a light snowfall they say that it is just like a snow globe scene. While he was walking around he met some of the town's nutcracker soldiers. The soldier was nice enough but he had a pretty stiff personality.

 

 

Heinrich liked it a lot more when he got to the bear section of town. One of the first bears he met was up in a window. It's kind of hard to see in the picture but the bear was blowing real bubbles that would then float down the street.

Just around the corner Heinrich met one of the biggest bears he had ever seen. Heinrich got to climb up on his shoulder for a picture but the whole time he was a little scared that the bear would gobble him up. No worries - the bear had spatzel for lunch and wasn't hungry at all.

 

The best part of the visit was when Heinrich found a family of bears that were just his size. There was a mama and a papa bear and down in the corner they even had a little baby bear. They were very nice and looked pretty fancy in their German clothes.

 

Nattenheim

Heinrich finally got to move out of the Hotel on the base. He found a really nice house in a town called Nattenheim. The village was founded in 750 A.D. That means it is more than 1250 years old. And before that a Roman road ran just above the site on the hill. In the town is the mandatory church. Nattenheim has a nice cozy little chapel.

There are cows all around the town and even some that live right inside the village. There are roosters that crow and several stray cats. At the end of Heinrich's road is a small pasture. But it doesn't have sheep or cows (or even nasty goats). It has a herd of miniature deer.

 

There is a nice soccer pitch just across the street but the basketball court is a little more rustic. The net is actually made out of chain.

Dachau

Heinrich went to Dachau, which is an old Nazi Concentration Camp. This was a place where they put people they didn't like and treated them very badly. Heinrich saw the cellblock where they kept important political prisoners and he also saw the barracks where lots of prisoners all had to stay in very cramped quarters.

 

 

The sign at the front of the prison yard had a sign that made fun of the prisoners. It says Arbeit macht frei, which means working makes you free. But no matter how hard they worked they didn't have any chance to be free.

There is a monument in front of the offices with a statue that shows the suffering of the prisoners.

There is also a wall with the different symbols that prisoners had to wear. The symbols showed what kind of prisoner each person was. Whether he was a criminal, a Pole, a Jew, a Priest. Since someone could be a Polish Jew or a criminal priest, the symbols would be combined in different patterns and made into patches that the prisoners had to wear on their clothes. It was a bleak drizzly day when Heinrich visited. Seemed appropriate for such a sad place to have a day where even the sky cried.

Bathrooms

Heinrich had to go to the bathroom and got into a little bit of trouble. When he found the bathrooms the signs on the doors were in German. One said Herren and the other said Damen.

 

 

Since he can read he knew that one sounded like “Hers” and the other sounded like “the men”. So he went in the one named Damen. But a bunch of ladies started to yell at him. It seems that the word for mister is Herr and in German the plural is made by adding "en" instead of an “s” like in English. The formal word for woman is Dame so the plural is Damen. Made sense when he made the choice but boy was that embarrassing. He should have paid more attention to the pictures than to the words.

 

Elementary Schools

While Heinrich was in Luxemburg, he noticed that a lot of the signs were in French. Luxemburg is a country that shares a lot of things with Germany and a lot of things with France. While he was there he went past a building that said Ecole Primaire on the wall.

That means Elementary school. On one of the walls was a big sundial. I guess that is to help the kids know when recess is almost over.

Even though there wasn't any green grass for the kids to play on, it was pretty clear that they really liked to play soccer. Or at least they used to. I guess it depends on how many soccer balls they started with whether they still get to play. It seems that they can kick pretty high since these balls were all the way up by the roof.